Guiding Light discussion thread

[DRW50]

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[kalbir]

@DRW50 That episode is November 14, 1989.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I'll let them know.

[P.J.]

the May 84 episodes from Jim Muneco are Mindy's miscarriage (the 14th has cute Billy/Vanessa scenes! heaven!) and the 22nd is Nola's Wizard of Oz fantasy.

I hope this means someone has Josh's accident. In English.

Edited August 10, 2024 by P.J.

[Soaplovers]

Based on these statements.. Mary Stuart should have been Trudy... a tell like it is individual 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

You're actually very right now that I think about it. Mary Stuart's portrayal of Meta was more Trudy-like than Meta-like. 

[NothinButAttitude]

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[DRW50]

From one of the commenters that date may be wrong - might be the 23rd.

A shorter version is available on Youtube but this one has the commercials.

[P.J.]

I had been avoiding the second half of '93, as it crushes my Billy/Vanessa heart, but I ventured into '94 to try and find the custody battle over Peter. HOLY SH#T. It gets intense between Ross and Vanessa, with both of them dragging Ed into the middle. (Or at the very least Vanessa, who goes there at one point and threatens to drag up Ed's affair with Lillian if Ross crucifies her on the stand) 

That's a little before this, which is Ross brutally questioning her at the hearing.  Oddly, the episode before this has that fake Vanessa again stepping in for Maeve (in what I swear is the same suit she wore in '92, when she single-handedly kills the momentum of Bill's running away). I suppose it was all a set up for bringing Dinah back, but damn.  

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[DRW50]

I didn't even remember a temp Vanessa recast. Probably for the best as I was still sour over the Billy recast...

This story and Julie plotting to steal Frank had me hooked around this point - once they ended I began drifting again which is why I only just have half-memories of what happens through late '94 up to summer '95. 

Everything about the custody battle was riveting and involved such rich character dynamics. Probably the only custody battle I felt invested in on a soap.

If you get to the episodes where Vanessa has flashbacks of herself when she was pregnant with Dinah, I'd be interested to see that again, as I'm not entirely sure how much was real and how much I've made up in my head.

Edited August 11, 2024 by DRW50

[P.J.]

The temp was just for one day, which is just odd. The scenes you're looking for are here at the end. Vanessa spends the 5/30 episode in Billy and Nadine's attic, reading Bridget's depostion about the last months of her pregnancy. Then Vanessa flashes back to after she gave birth to Dinah during Bridget's testimony on the stand. Honestly, Maeve was robbed of an emmy. I watched from about mid-April to mid-June, and it's devastatingly good. 

It made me mad all over again that they then end up throwing her at himbo Matt.

It's rich and character driven. That's what happens when you put a good story in the hands of actors who've been in those role for 15+ years. 'Cause it's not only Ross, Vanessa and Ed, it's got a good dose of Roger, Holly and Josh (who is a hell of a lot more interesting away from Reva) and Henry, who ends up reaming Ross after Vanessa's turn on the stand. Vanessa confirms she had Dinah at 17, the summer before she went to college.

 

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Edited August 11, 2024 by P.J.

[DRW50]

Thanks!

Much as I dislike the idea of Vanessa being cast aside for Lucy, the older woman just good for a forbidden fling, in the long run that relationship and Dinah's return hurt her a great deal. All the sharpness you see in that outburst at the end, the precision in Maeve's acting that made her so special, was blunted. It took so many years - all the way into the late '00s - to finally see that again.

An interesting choice to make the flashbacks look like something from the '30s, but that only adds to the disturbing feeling of the scenes. 

[P.J.]

*sigh* It seems to be (at the time) the go to move for "older" characters to hook up with someone almost inappropriately young (Ross/Blake, Ed/Eve) lovers. Maybe it was a hot topic in the mid-90's? (my apologies to Kurt McKinney fans, but this is less about him than the infuriating writing where Vanessa is only "liberated" by this horse's ass after years of running her own damn life...but I digress.)

I'm split on Dinah---dramatically, I get it. But she is usually so f***ing horrible to Vanessa I want her to just go away. I'm annoyed that Vanessa is roasted over a spit for nearly 15 years (off and on) for putting her up for adoption, while other "long lost" children spend about six months being mad and get over it. 

I think Maeve gets overlooked for being understated. It's just so opposite of what most actresses would've been tempted to do. Maeve is never cartoon-ish, now matter how outrageous the material.

Oh, and back to the hearing, just when I'm saying to myself "hey, where's Nadine, who's really responsible for this mess?"....Ross throws her up on the stand, and she apologizes to Bridget. If she ever managed to apologize to Vanessa, I hope Van threw it back in her face. 

And Morgan Englund impressed me. I'd forgotten how much he improved from his days in wife-beaters mooning over Sam.

[kalbir]

 

 

 

Nancy Curlee was gone from the writing team in March 1994, maybe some of her material was still being used up until OJ.

 

[BetterForgotten]

The custody battle was a story Curlee set-up, but didn’t stay to finish it.