Guiding Light discussion thread

[vetsoapfan]

I agree. JvD had become the beloved spokesperson of the show and should have been retained at all costs. Watching the final months of the series, there were so many miscast actors and totally irrelevant, useless characters in the mix, they all could have and should have been let go before our Ross Marler.

 

While there are mixed opinions on TGL's Ritournelle/light-through-the trees opening and the "lifesavers"/floating breast implants opening, I am relieved to see universal disdain for TGL's dreadful 2003/power-point mess and ATWT's hard-to-stomach "gold" disaster.

Even I did not love the "hairy-arm" opening, despite being touched by hearing the iconic Destiny poem every day. I would have preferred having a recording of Rev. Ruthledge narrating the piece (the audio exists), with vintage stills of the show's 70-year history playing on screen. The hairy arms and the kids' narration were off-putting, to say the least.

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by vetsoapfan

[TVFAN1144]

Not sure what one is the Lifesavors theme.   Is that the one with all sorts of explosions?

[Paul Raven]

Jon Michael Reed in an Afternoon TV review of GL criticized the 75-81 theme as looking and sounding like a Tampax commercial.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Paul Raven

[DeliaIrisFan]

The Rauch version seemed abruptly truncated in comparison to the full one—like the video and audio weren't actually edited at all for that, they just deleted a whole portion—but with a little money put in upfront to it could have worked.  So many memorable scenes in the early '90s had included that theme as background and/or picked up the next day and segued into that opening...even the brief hint of that music evokes memories for me.  Not to mention, they would have saved money in the long run without having to update cast photos or keep paying for new openings.

I doubt you could prove a connection with ratings, but I actually think it's interesting that Y&R has remained the highest rated for so long and DAYS is (was?) one of the last soaps, while both stuck with their original theme songs.  And each theme became part of broader pop culture in some unexpected ways over the years: Mary J Blige, Close Encounters, etc.  Who's to say that kind of free publicity didn't help keep those shows on casual viewers' minds at some point?  But it's also a case of the chicken and the egg - a mainstream entertainment project would probably not give that kind of shout-out to a soap or its theme music if both weren't so familiar to people.

[Vee]

I always liked Harley dancing in the opening and the crescendo at the end but I think I'm considerably more partial to the '80s GL theme (does it have a name? idk if it was Jack Urbont but it came after the disco mess) vs. Hold On To Love today.

This is the one I mean (timestamped). They kept it til '90, I guess (the later one is faster and more synth, and I liked it too).

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I also always really liked the haunting light through the trees/Ritournelle. It was mysterious and kept the tone for me with the Dobsons/Marland's stuff.

I knew AMC (still overbudget, having moved to California) was in real trouble when they dumped the masterful scrapbook opening and basically xeroxed GL's horrible PowerPoint slide, BTW:

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Vee

[j swift]

To me, the thing that's so remarkable about Harley dancing in the Hold on to Love opening is that they could have never planned it.  It is an edit from an episode that works perfectly with the rhythm, movement, and visuals of the opening.  We later saw other soaps try to capture the same idea, but it was truly like magic in a bottle.

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Edited January 29, 2023 by j swift

[Vee]

I've worked in post-production. You can absolutely plan it when cutting together a montage or sequence like that (and I'm betting they deliberately chose it to match the music - having her turn just as the slice of the screen scrolls by and 'turns' as well is too perfect) I but having that footage to work with at all was a happy accident based on something Beth Ehlers did in a scene.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Vee

[j swift]

Yeah, that's what I meant, but also think about that this was before digital archives, so editors would have had to pour through tons of material to find that moment, which is equally remarkable

[soapfan770]

@Vee The name of the 83-90 theme is “My Guiding Light” by Rob Mounsey, who  of course went on to compose Hold on To Love. A little history from Daytime Themes & Openings:

 

In the fall of 1981, Procter and Gamble decided to change the openings on most of its soaps to make them more competitive with the dominant ABC soaps and to update their visual look. As part of the change, Guiding Light briefly went disco.

A new splashy disco-style theme by Jack Urbont now accompanied a main title that started with a burst of light from the middle of some round, amber-colored abstract glass sculpture. What followed was a parade of clips from the show featuring action-packed scenes and close-ups and two-shots of all the main characters. The sequence ended with a return to that abstract light sculpture as the title of the show came up in gold and white metallic wedge-like italic letters.

The end credits, which were now set against a revolving abstract glass sculpture with twinkling lights, remained in the same gold and white Helvetica Bold setup as before. However, except for three main cast members (Charita Bauer, Millette Alexander and Don Stewart), the cast was now billed in alphabetical order. The strict ABC order setup for the cast credits remains in effect to this day.

The short-lived Urbont theme and its accompanying opening and closing visuals debuted by no later than January 4, 1982.

When Gail Kobe took over as Guiding Light's executive producer in March of 1983, she quickly instituted a more sweeping overhaul that included new cue music by Elliot Lawrence Productions and a new theme song.

The new theme, "My Guiding Light" by Rob Mounsey, was originally done in a full-orchestral Eb major arrangement. This new theme debuted on August 22, 1983, after a run of only about 400 episodes for the Urbont theme!

While the basic look of the opening montage and closing end credit visuals remained the same, there were changes such as slower transitions from one clip to another in the opening cast montage and a thinner form of Helvetica type for the end credits.

From the fall of 1985 to the October 1986, a synthesized C Major arrangement of "My Guiding Light" was used over the opening, and different arrangements of the theme were used over an end credit "beauty shot." (The end credit beauty shot lasted until the spring of 1986, when Joseph Willmore took over as executive producer.)

In October 1986, a high tech dance arrangement of "My Guiding Light" debuted over a new opening visual, which had the by-then familiar cast montage and the title of the show, in the same lettering design as that introduced in 1981/82, now set in a clear transparent glasslike sculpture against a blue sky background. The dance arrangement of "My Guiding Light" lasted until the summer of 1989, when it was replaced by a musical setting similar to 1985/86.

From October 1986 to the summer of 1989, the end credits were set against a white background, but they were now in black and gold Korinna semibold lettering. Then the format changed to gold and white Korinna semibold letters against the same blue-sky background as the main logo.

[Vee]

Thanks!

[Soaplovers]

Harley...back when she was fun and spirited.  I always remembered thinking something was missing once Beth E left the show and her portion was removed.

I loved the bouncy 1986 to 1989 arrangement best of the 3 mixes... because it seem hopeful and energetic (and GL always had a playful spirit in the 80s in contrast to the more earnest ATWT).

Though the 1983 to 1985 version was sweeping and powerful.

[kalbir]

It was so wrong yet so right to root for Roger and Holly. They may not have been together for most of that early 1990s golden era, but there was always something brewing between them. Someone here once described them as the anti-supercouple and that fits them perfectly.

Whenever episodes from 1979 and 1980 that feature their storylines turn up, they are such a treat because those episodes set in motion so much of what we saw a decade later.

[Liberty City]

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Pretty sure it's this one they're referring to.

[Vee]

Doing a bit of a Dobsons deep dive this lazy, hazy weekend, as their incredibly intricate and labyrinthine plotting - especially on GL with the Spaulding/Marler quad and saga - and the overall haunting mood of their era and Marland's (heavily inflected by the Ritournelle/light through trees opening setting the tone IMO) has always stayed with me since the days of WOST.

I see the Spauldings came on en masse in late '77 and am enjoying looking in on that. I've said this before but I always found Elizabeth Spaulding in particular to be a spooky, ethereal character they should've brought back when Phillip went dark in the 2000s (along with Cindy Pickett as Jackie, who I've always liked whenever I saw her in an old episode). What I am curious about is this: Jackie and Justin allegedly both came on in spring-summer '76. What were they doing for most of the year and a half before the Spauldings, the central axis of their future story, finally arrived?

Edited January 29, 2023 by Vee

[Vee]

Meanwhile: It's time for the return of this immortal sequence.  @DRW50 It can't be embedded so I had to link.

@Darnhas probably never seen this and must, it is hilarious and ridiculous. Marj Dusay and many others at their less than best. It is up there with the scene on DAYS where John and Brady fight the entire town while Brady is dressed as Gay Zorro. The capper is still when the maid comes in with the baby and everyone is like "no, no!" As I said when I first saw it all that was left to add was their bringing in some sort of circus animal act.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Vee