Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Alan was downright awful in it. All the unnecessary laughing was in bad taste.

[DRW50]

I think I mostly just tuned him out - that seems to be a default of his. 

[P.J.]

Awww....I'm verklempt. Maeve looks wonderful! I had no idea she and Bill Roerick knew each other prior to the show. 

I'm just overwhelmed. 

[bboy875]

I don't remember what was going on when the show beat GH, but I'm wondering if it was around the time Darcy held Beth and I think Alexandra hostage. One of the guys in school brought it up when school restarted and a girl brought it up a year later during my first summer job. I think they watched during that time but stopped watching sometime after 

[P.J.]

May 28-June 1--Bert's surgery, HB/Reva in Hawaii, Phillip and Mindy decide to divorce, Fletch/Claire/Jim/Hillary in San Rios to receive an award, Josh is waiting for Reva to return to tell her he still loves her and Nola brings AJ home

4-8, --this must be the week of Josh's accident/reveal that HB married Reva

11-15, the 13th Vanessa tells Billy she's pregnant, the 14th Reva convinces Billy to talk to Josh, the 15th Billy convinces Josh to have the surgery. Also this week, Lujack/Beth at the beach.

Alexandra and Beth were taken hostage in August of that year, just after Reva had a meltdown and declared herself the Slut of Springfield at Billy and Vanessa's party at the end of July.

ATWT's wedding of Steve and Betsy also occurred the week of 5/31 (and while it did not garner the rumored 20 million viewers) it's not unreasonable to think it could have positively impacted GL's numbers.

Edited June 28, 2024 by P.J.
clarification

[vetsoapfan]

Alan makes my teeth ache, LOL.

[bboy875]

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I really hate that, with each new interview that comes around from The Locher Room, I have to decide if I'm going to watch it by mentally measuring whether my interest in the guest will outweigh the annoyance of the host. 

[Mitch64]

That summer GL was on fire..and the material leading up to the summer set it all up. All the families had equal time and were mixing together...and the Bauers were still the core. Charita was just coming back from her surgery and was prominently featured and the cabin mystery started off good, with hints of the supernatural and a mystery before it went off the rails...(and Nola should have been more involved...did anyone ever hear if Brown and Long/Kobe had issues.) And yes, Reva was really interesting at that time and Zimmer was actually on fire..for real, not like her fans kept saying later on during Rauch every time she chewed the scenery. 

Then there was an abrupt change of style and focus...and I never understood why that happened as the ratings dropped. 

[kalbir]

Spring 1983 to Summer 1984 pretty much set up the final 25 years.

[P.J.]

Zimmer chewed scenery from day one. I don't know how she managed to make Reva sympathetic, because in rewatching, I find her to be one annoying loudmouth bitch. I suppose that's because I saw all the tears, justifications, and problems she "didn't mean to cause" over the next 20plus years.

Does anyone remember what started Alan's affair with Rita? As played by Chris Bernau, he disposes of his women like newspapers. 

[kalbir]

GL had two show-defining villains w/ MZ Roger (original run 1971-1980 and return 1989-1997) and CB Alan (original run 1977-1984 and return 1986-1988). To those who watched Roger vs. Alan 1977-1980, who wins that villain battle?

[Mitch64]

Sexy Rita was bored with being a doctor's wife, and was very impressed with the life her niece in law was having with sexy Alan Spaulding. Marland wrote Hope as an early privileged Karen type..not wanting to live in the cold Spaulding mansion, but wanting her rich husband to buy yet another home for her to live in (but still nice don't you know..)In what was supposed to be Hope appealing to Alan's softer side, made her look like a nag (honey, you know what you got into) So they have a house that backs up to Ed and Rita's house (which later became the Spaulding mansion) and with a nice gate in between the two yards to..come and go. Both Bauers were clueless about their spouses growing attraction or the issue a gate between the yards might cause (Ed didn't even get it when Rita spent all of Christmas staring at the crystal glass set Alan gave them  ...going on and on about the nice things that Hope has, like being a doc's wife is putting her on skid row.)

Well one thing led to the other as it does with two sexy amoral people who were constantly in each other's vicinity. What I like about soaps then, this stuff could happen and it was not like Rita was the total whore chasing Alan or Alan was the mustache twirling villain after Rita, they were both people who would destroy any relationship they were in, and well let's face it...sexy..with a gate allowing easy access.

Alan had the upper hand with his money, influence and surface respectabitly (he wasn't RR's Alan yet rubbing his hands together at his latest dumb scheme.) Roger was more feral, especially at the end. He was a loose canon who wanted all the things Alan and Ed had, money influence, and most importantly love of Holly and Christina (what Curlee and Long missed on bringing Blake back was that she was would always consider Ed her dad and be torn between him and Roger.) but he could never quite get it. Roger was more dangerous then Alan (you didn't know what the hell Roger would do at any given time) but Alan always had the upper hand.

I don't think Zimmer indulged in as many of acting ticks as she did the second time around...she always OTT but that made sense with Reva. But at that time she also had this energy and sexiness that was believable that guys would fall all over her. And she was not the CENTER of everything (I hated how Rauch turned her into Vicki from OLTL) and she had heavy hitters around her to keep her in line. Reva was the scrappy sometimes annoying outsider and it worked.  

[kalbir]

Thank you for the reply @Mitch64. Roger and Alan paved the way for the 1980s to be the decade of the villain.

[P.J.]

Thanks. I just watched more of Lenore Kasdorf's work last night (the events surrounding Roger's trial, and then Roger kidnapping Rita). She and Cindy Pickett really stand out in a sea of sexually frustrated "good girls" that populate the town at the time.