Guiding Light discussion thread

[kalbir]

Of course OJ didn't help matters either. 

Is it safe to say that GL limped along in its final 15 years, much like its fellow P&G show Another World limped along in its final 20 years. I don't think As the World Turns limped along in its final 15 years.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

I don’t know if I would if I compare GL’s final 15 years to AW’s final years, mainly because GL still had bursts of creative energy, publicity, and/or made some inroads on getting ratings gains  there 1997-99, 2002, 2004-06, and even fall of ‘07 when GL beat a destitute Days for weeks on end. Not to mention GL at least maintained some semblance of its past  to at least 1980ish and still kept a lot of familiar characters/faces into its final decade. I didn’t feel GL was really limping until the Conboy/Weston debacle and the drastic 2005 budget cuts. 
 

@wonderwoman1951Thank you for sharing that article I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Now I want to go back and see if I can figure out who Raul played as an longtime recurring extra. I hated that ugly green makeover they gave Cedars in 2006 it didn’t even look like a hospital set lol.

[Vee]

The other thing that didn't help about the Peapack shooting style/minicams is they kept using certain preexisting sets, like Company I believe, or some of the hotel/town square. On those handheld cameras and in that lighting the sets and their surfaces looked completely fake and plastic. When photographed by those cameras the town square was clearly not actually outside, and at times you thought you were going to catch sight of the overhead lights or rafters.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Vee

[Paul Raven]

From snippets I've seen of Peapack era everyone looked so bedraggled-crumpled ill fitting clothes, stringy hair, bad makeup (if any) 

 

[Vee]

Kim talked about them having to change in the back of cars on the side of the road.

[Liberty City]

Peapack could have worked today, but not in 2008 when it was introduced. They also missed the opportunity to go high-def with those hand-held cameras.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Liberty City

[Mitch64]

The 7-11 embarrassingly enough was a supply closet at CBS and the church was Wheeler's office...(the altar was really her desk I think..tho I am shocked she had an office and not a folding table in a hallway.) 

It could have worked given more money spent on it (the key word here) and more care (and if it happened a few years later when hand held were much better.) Peapack is a beautiful area (Reva's aborted wedding to Kyle  was filmed there) and I actually thought some of the sets looked nice...the Towers set and Company looked better than it had in years. The sets were actually more like they did the old time soap sets, which stacked next to each other and ran a camera down the middle of the sets to film, so when Lisa was being overly dramatic on one set, Nancy was waiting to film in the kitchen.  So if they had kept cameras, filmed and lit the sets better and kept the handhelds for outside..it could have worked..at least better. 

I remember the first week of filming...Reva and FauxCassie wandering around the woods, and Jeffery being filmed from across the street with weird camera angles which in the old days meant stalker was watching...and I got excited he was going to be killed off....the worst was the Spaulding press conference in the field..(CBS couldn't let GL use a real boardroom or offices) the best was that Kimmer really adjusted to it and Reva 2.0 finally became more of a real person(stories still sucked) instead of overly dramatic love goddess.

Agreed...it still had some good things occasionally happening, but it was Conboy and Westen that put the nail in the coffin and that is attributed to MADD letting it happen. 

[Khan]

I would have much rather seen GL's cast reduced to twelve and the show forced to tape using just three sets on LOVE OF LIFE's old closet of a set than be made to endure even thirty seconds of Peapack.  And you can quote me on that, terrible syntax and all.

And most of the cast looked exactly like that, too, whenever they were on camera.

I'll never forget Ellen Wheeler's pitiful attempt at hyping the production changes by saying things like, "We'll finally get to see Cassie plant real flowers in a real garden!".  Bitch, I don't CARE about some damn flowers.  I watch GL for the characters and their stories.  And you don't need to sweat your balls off in NJ to provide them either.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Khan

[soapfan770]

Ellen Wheeler becoming emotionally unmoored and going off the rails at the time of the transition to Peapack occurred at the worst possible time for the show. 

[DRW50]

I think all of the P&G shows simultaneously lost their core yet maintained some of what was best about them to the end...although I do think that for all her many flaws, Wheeler brought back some of GL's best with decisions like having Vanessa as a recurring character after she was pretty much gone for good in the early '00s, minus a guest appearance. 

I think there were various points where GL bordered on completely barren, then would somewhat regroup. I'd say patches of 1994, and a lot of 2000-2001, and one of the main points of no return for me - Ben Reade's grotesque assassination. And going back to earlier years before I began watching, I'd also say a ton of 85-86 - honestly they were very lucky to still be on the air.

Not even getting into Tom Pelphrey shouting all over my screen, which is the point where I stopped until I heard the show was likely to be canceled.

Edited December 4, 2023 by DRW50

[TEdgeofNight]

Hiring Ellen Wheeler as EP was the end of GL. She was inept to say the least. Pairing her up with the god awful Jill Lorie Hurst and Kreizman was trouble from the beginning. A recipe for cancellation. 

[Mitch64]

Ha...that was Wheeler also talking about Harley opening her kitchen cabinets and you can see real pots...huh..they did that on sets too (not to mention Harley's crap house with the walls not drywalled.) And she compared it to Desperate Houswives and you can believe the show as it films outside...nothing about DH was realistic or wanted to be...that is even if you could compare the junkey backyard of Harley to the meticulous take on a fantasy upscale suburb where everything was perfect..on the outside. 

 

No one would take the HW job at that time...not work the hassle or the bad pay. I do say JLH really loved GL and "got it" and she was mostly responsible for the last week of returns, etc. Kreizman just sucked.

[TEdgeofNight]

Ok Mitch. I challenge you. Who was the headwriter job offered to during that time and who declined the offer?

JLH had nothing better to do so of course she accepted. What has she done since GL? At least Kreizman is still writing at Days.

[DRW50]

The recipe for GL's cancellation had been written around 1993, and even that is generous. That GL stayed on as long as it did is astonishing. This is like blaming a paper cut for Rasputin's death.

[TEdgeofNight]

Totally disagree. GL had many great years beyond 1993.