4 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

Interestingly enough I think the only regime to try and challenge Josh as a character was Conboy/Weston with the Josh/Shayne car accident storyline. Though the execution was wonky with the baseball obsession (which I feel came out of nowhere), I think it allowed RN to sink his teeth into some meaty material and he was able step to the forefront and be in the spotlight for once (plus he and Reva were together at the time).

Honestly the only way I see GL could have challenged Josh as character is his relationships with his children, Marah and Shayne, and him seeing how in some instances he might mirror HB as a father.

Now you've gone & done it. Reminded me of the worst of the worst. I have NOTHING but bad to say about the ConWest regime but worst of all is when I remember all that damned money he spent on that ..... full-siize baseball  diamond, when Shayne had played hockey, maybe other sports, but never baseball. It came out of nowhere & except for costing money the show did not have to spend it was one big bust. 

7 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

Honestly the only way I see GL could have challenged Josh as character is his relationships with his children, Marah and Shayne, and him seeing how in some instances he might mirror HB as a father.

I like that idea, but I think there are a lot of interesting directions the show could have taken Josh if they just gave him more storylines that broke the "Josh has to choose between Reva and another woman" mold. For instance, when Josh was exploring his spirituality and becoming a reverend, maybe he could have reflected on the fact that all of his wealth and power came from being heir to a freaking oil company! Or to use your idea, they could have had either Marah or Shayne become an environmental activist and call him out on the ways Lewis Oil was destroying the planet. But despite the show's move towards UK-style drab realism in its later years, this was one real-world issue it seemed afraid to touch. 

I wouldn't have minded seeing Josh becoming a "bad boy" again. Divorced from Reva, having lost most of his fortune, back in the Spaulding Enterprises group.

To this day, I RME at the idea of Josh Lewis becoming a minister.  Again, a tremendous leap for your average GL fan to have to make in order for it to make sense, lol.

4 minutes ago, Khan said:

To this day, I RME at the idea of Josh Lewis becoming a minister.  Again, a tremendous leap for your average GL fan to have to make in order for it to make sense, lol.

I really really enjoyed that. And, it made so much sense to me. And, another thing, I really liked the fact that he & Olivia remained friends who never got past being attracted to each other, even though they weren't going to act on it. I felt like he was the only guy in Olivia's life who understood Otalia.

7 minutes ago, Khan said:

To this day, I RME at the idea of Josh Lewis becoming a minister.  Again, a tremendous leap for your average GL fan to have to make in order for it to make sense, lol.

Josh had been holier-than-thou for years, so making him a minister seemed like a logical next step in certain ways. But I can't remember the show getting any actual juicy stories out of it, unless you count that campy story where Cassie's son Will (played by the actual kid from The Omen) pushed another kid offstage to get the lead role in the church Christmas play. 

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I'd also argue that Reva was never really the worst part of those eras - some of her stories don't work or can be boring (like Maeve/Kyle/Reva), but compared to Infinity or Claire has a psycho tumor or Simon/Jessie or Calla's VD shame or whatever else was going on...

However, I can see why people see her as a figurehead of the show's decline.

Lord..you have to bring back the memory of Calla and her VD! (to add insult to injury they had the nerve to foreshadow it on the same day Ed tells Mo that Bert died!)  But original recipe Reva, while having some real clunkers of storylines (uh, parachuting out of a plane in a fur coat and crashing through the roof of an Amish barn?) did fit into GL..she her her issues, but was basically a good person who was insecure and kept screwing up. The saving grace of the Kyle years was her actually going out on her own and getting a job (first at Cedars then as a photographer) fixing up RevaBend, and mixing it up with other men as just friends (Fletcher, Phillip, Johnny) Zimmer had chemistry with everyone back then, and she was indeed, sexy as hell, but not a goddess on a throne. You could see her doing shots and playing pool with the guys. They forgot all that and in her second incarnation, though she had hit middle age..hard, and  became the sex goddess no man could resist and she became very self involved (did we ever hear her listen to anyone else's problems besides Cassie?) 

And with hitting middle age hard, getting rejected by Hollywood, did something to Zimmer and made her crazy to be the face of GL and to be on..every damn day, the hell with the other actors. Rauch supporting her and TPTB listening to her nut bag fans (one of who still posts on FB constantly that Zimmer and Newman are like family to her..) combined with the terrible writing, and all the other fan bases needing to be appeased, is what destroyed GL...not the character of Reva.

2 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Honestly the only way I see GL could have challenged Josh as character is his relationships with his children, Marah and Shayne, and him seeing how in some instances he might mirror HB as

And RN had great chemistry with the younger actors...like JD, he changed his style and slowed down and took his time and listened to them..and got away with his "REVA...we have to save her..GRRRR" 

A good storyline would be Shayne having psycological issues with seeing Annie and his mom and not Reva.  Annie can still pull her crap but could have actually cared about Shayne and worked with Josh to help him...later on, I think Teen Marah should have been very aggressive towards Reva for constantly disrupting their lives.

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

TPTB listening to her nut bag fans (one of who still posts on FB constantly that Zimmer and Newman are like family to her..)

I am amazed to see someone here post about that truly awful deluded person! My God, she must be known by every GL fan everywhere.

27 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I am amazed to see someone here post about that truly awful deluded person! My God, she must be known by every GL fan everywhere.

Okay, I brought it up, but I don't think she is "awful" though yes deluded. At first I thought she was one of those oddballs like Candace who went to all the fan stuff and was totally enamored with LW (and Cassie, only because she was played by LW) and then did not like the replacement until she started playing up to her...it was weird, these people who identify with the actors so much.  However, I don't think this person has ever even met the two of them and it just seems..sad. And if there is one, there are more out there.

2 hours ago, prefab1 said:

unless you count that campy story where Cassie's son Will (played by the actual kid from The Omen) pushed another kid offstage to get the lead role in the church Christmas play. 

And electrocuted his father. I'll never get over them going out and hiring the literal Omen kid. But because the budget at that point was about a buck fifty that story went absolutely nowhere.

I just wanted to say that I'm really glad I found this discussion board. The conversations about Guiding Light are informative and fascinating. From the sets, to the storylines, to the characters - I really enjoy reading everyone's thoughts on things.

I wish that when I was watching the show in realtime the 90s, I had a place like this to go. I started watching Guiding Light when I was in middle school, but the friends of mine that watched soaps were all ABC fans. I had no one to talk to about Guiding Light! It sucked!

Thank you all for welcoming me.

Annette

3 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Okay, I brought it up, but I don't think she is "awful" though yes deluded. At first I thought she was one of those oddballs like Candace who went to all the fan stuff and was totally enamored with LW (and Cassie, only because she was played by LW) and then did not like the replacement until she started playing up to her...it was weird, these people who identify with the actors so much.  However, I don't think this person has ever even met the two of them and it just seems..sad. And if there is one, there are more out there.

I agree that there is an essence of pathos about her. I just know at one point I think I saw her say those same phrases every day, multiple times a day & I really got so sick of it. 

27 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I agree that there is an essence of pathos about her. I just know at one point I think I saw her say those same phrases every day, multiple times a day & I really got so sick of it. 

Are you kidding, if someone posts a picture that Zimmer is even in the background...(well, okay, those are few and far between where she didn't push herself in the front and in the middle, speaking of, she would have made a great Desperate Housewives, big boozy new gal on the block..Zimmer would have given them a run for their money on getting press) she automatically says, "I love Kim and Robert..they are family and always will be..." on all the FB GL pages. 

And Zimmer had a whole group of these...

20 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

Are you kidding, if someone posts a picture that Zimmer is even in the background...(well, okay, those are few and far between where she didn't push herself in the front and in the middle, speaking of, she would have made a great Desperate Housewives, big boozy new gal on the block..Zimmer would have given them a run for their money on getting press) she automatically says, "I love Kim and Robert..they are family and always will be..." on all the FB GL pages. 

And Zimmer had a whole group of these...

ARGH. Now you've said the phrase!!! I hate it. 

3 hours ago, GL Oldtimer said:

I wish that when I was watching the show in realtime the 90s, I had a place like this to go. I started watching Guiding Light when I was in middle school, but the friends of mine that watched soaps were all ABC fans. I had no one to talk to about Guiding Light! It sucked!

I can so relate! I was the only CBS fan among the soap fans in my friend group/classmates. They were mostly Days fans and some General Hospital/All My Children fans.