Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[SoapDope]

For Rick to have been a leading man, another actor should have been cast. It also bugged me that O'Leary looked like none of the actors who were cast as Ed who were blonde. Even the child actors that played Rick reflected Ed's looks.

I'm speaking soap blasphemy here, but I often wonder if Aleksander should have been Rick instead of Phillip. 

I never really liked Peter Simon as Ed. After Mart Hulswit was dismissed, they should have tried getting Robert Gentry (who was on AW at that time) back. 

 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Does anybody know of any website that sells GL episodes, in particular from the 1970s? It seems like there were some such sites at one time but I can't find them anymore. 

[Sapounopera]

I love the idea of Rick and Bridget! Rick adopts Peter and Hart wants to be a part of his son's life, not to mention that nosy Aunt Nola gets to remains  part of the Bauer family forever.

[Soaplovers]

Rick and Abby should have been the next tent pole couple.. but the show didn't really know how to write for tentpole characters.

Abby wasn't all perfect either.. she was a hot head and would defend a friend no matter what.  Even Reva had to calm her down a few times when Abby was in defense mode.   The show just didn't know how to write for her, and the actress had enough presence that people did grow to like her.. and with Rick too boot.

[prefab1]

And Abby's hotheadedness gave us one of GL's all-time best shocking scenes, when she shot her attacker in the middle of a crowded courtroom. (It was such a good scene that the show's timeslot rival General Hospital ripped it off a few months later when Carly shot Tony in court).

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[prefab1]

Coming out of lurking to thank you for posting those great June 1994 scenes and then to sheepishly admit that I was one of those Matt/Vanessa fans. In fact, they were the storyline that got me into watching Guiding Light that summer, a habit I'd keep off and on for 15 years.

I rewatched some of those scenes a few months ago, and I was struck by how how much they focused on Vanessa going on a voyage of self-discovery and reconnecting with her own desires, apart from her socially proscribed roles as mother and pillar of the community. It was the kind of storyline that even today you don't see very often in American TV or film; maybe you'd see it in a French film starring Juliette Binoche or Isabelle Huppert. 

It helped that they really took their time setting up the story with Matt, and he had a bit more of an edge to him in those early days. I think that subsequent writing teams just lost sight of what was interesting about Matt and his relationship with Vanessa. Matt's pride and his very different class background should have been a source of organic conflict for years, but the writers instead manufactured conflict through idiot plots like Vanessa faking her own death.

[Mitch64]

Exactly!!! You wouldn't need an Aunt Meta...(not that I didn't love MS) but you would have buttinsky Aunt Nola getting into everyone's business! 

[robbwolff]

I always thought it would have been cool if GL has cast Frank Beaty as Rick rather than bringing back O’Leary. Beaty was a powerful and charismatic actor who could have made Rick a leading man rather than the supporting character Rick was with O’Leary in the role. 

[P.J.]

God Bless Jerry!! Talk about a class act.

[Contessa Donatella]

Class act fits him so totally to a tee. Also a gifted, nuanced actor One of Ellen Wheeler's blunders was taking him off contract & putting him on recurring. 

[P.J.]

I just wish they'd found someone with some soap cred to pair with Maeve. Not someone with "himbo" as his wheelhouse. I don't know who else was available in '94-'95 (and honestly, for all I care, they could've blown up Ross/Blake and given Ross/Vanessa a real shot finally) but there had to be SOMEONE.

LOL...as I was watching the custody battle, and suddenly Josh is all intense and defending Vanessa, and pissed at Ross ...I'm like---geez, OMG, would they have gone there? They were already taking enough heat for hooking up Roger and Holly at the time, so I don't know if they would've crossed that line. As much as Reva, Blake and Harley slept through families, it's not like GL didn't know how to write it.

Vanessa always did have a blind spot when it came to her kids. She's always quick to defend Bill from any criticism, and she keeps defending WM's Dinah to the point of enabling her behavior. If there was anyone she'd really unleash on, it was a guy. Her fights with Billy could be brutal, and the best moment in the entire Vanessa/Fletch relationhip (imo) is when she rears up and tells him to never EVER make her chose between him and her son, 'cause Fletch ain't winning.

Vanessa and Mindy were always close, but as Vanessa would swing in and out of Lewis sphere when not married to Billy. I watched her giving birth to Maureen, and while Josh and Reva finally show up as she's about to die (which really seemed like mostly an excuse for Dinah to bitch at Reva about Cassie), she's got flippin' Jenna moaning in her ear about their precious friendship. I'm like bisch, step back, you're boring the woman to death.

Lonitrat? Is that when they were gaslighting Roger? 

Seriously---about the only people in town not involved were the Coopers. Even Tangie took a side (I'm not sure why, but she was on Vanessa's.) 

YES! another Ross/Vanessa fan. Maeve's smile always seemed a little more sparkly if she were smiling at Jerry or Jordan. Her face just lights up. I get a little sad thinking of GL at the end--it's like we only got Vanessa back because Ross died.

[DRW50]

Yes. I just thought it was an awful story. Given that Roger had behaved horribly I wasn't rooting for him, but I resented the choices made with the character to get him to that story, including having him rape Dinah. It felt like a major regression all for the sake of having her sleep with his son. The caliber of an actor like Zaslow being stuck in that story...and knowing it would end up being his last storyline. 

Beaty was certainly a much better actor, but to me that might have been like casting Tim Gibbs as Kevin Buchanan on OLTL - adding so much intensity to a part that didn't need it. 

The only Ed where I really noticed a blonde look was probably the weakest (Richard Van Vleet), but I do see what you mean. They cast a brunette Rick before MOL too.

The main problem with Aleksander as Rick is that Rick hadn't had the dramatic life Philip had had. Even though Jared Ross' Philip was quieter, there was a lot of story for Philip to be darker as he grew up. I think Rick worked as the lighter contrast. It's just that as he got older the show lost sight of how to write for him and they veered into pathetic. 

I remember MOL telling a story of when they went to Universal for the Lucy and Alan-Michael wedding, and I think he said the director asked him to dance with himself, while all the couples were dancing, and he thought it was [!@#$%^&*] pathetic. And it was. 

[P.J.]

There's no need to be sheepish. I'm a tad obnoxious about Billy/Vanessa, but I've rediscovered my love of them/Maeve/GL in general in the last six months or so.  I know Vanessa/Matt had their fans, and Maeve's said she got plenty of fan mail from people who connected with Vanessa picking up her life and moving on.

I'm actually glad to have found so much Billy/Vanessa online. They kind of predate VCRs, fandoms and squish names. Hell, they don't even really have a special song that's  identified with them. It is what I envy the Matt fans---that story is probably almost all online. 

[DRW50]

 

I didn't love that story but it was definitely a shocking, powerful moment, which helped keep GL's 1997 momentum going. 

Amy Ecklund was a very underrated actress. She was on paper just cast in a token part but always made Abby seem genuine. They just stopped writing for her, aside from a few moments like the cochlear implant story, because she wasn't intended as one of the leading ladies. 

I also liked her and Rick a lot as a couple until the show lost interest in them.

@Mitch64's idea of a Rick/Bridget pairing is interesting. It could have worked, especially as I think Melissa Hayden would have been a good balance to MOL.

Regarding Matt/Vanessa, I completely agree with you that the pairing made more sense when Matt was written with a personality and motivations. By 1996 or so they just stopped writing for Matt entirely as a character. 

I'm also aware many did love the pairing, and I respect that. Most of my criticism of that period is down to the writing for Vanessa, which wasn't Matt's fault.

Edited August 13, 2024 by DRW50

[P.J.]

eeee....I have read recaps about it, but I haven't watched that at all. There's a moment before the custody's resolved where he's having a court visit with Peter at Vanessa's, and he taunts her with "we could solve all of this---by getting married." and Van looks like she wants to throw up. I know it gets uglier with Ross and Vanessa once Dinah hits town. At some point, I did realize that Ross and Vanessa deal the most with Roger after his return. Everyone else capable of throwing up roadblocks, Phillip, Alex, Billy, Josh (who, let's face it, isn't a threat anyway) tap out at some point from '90 to '95-ish.