Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Reverend Ruthledge]

That's seeming younger and younger each year. 

[MichaelGL]

Yeah i'm shocked that's how old she passed. I thought she was older. 

[Mitch64]

I'm getting close to that age..so it seems very young. Charita was playing Mama Bear to the whole town for so long we all thought she was older (and she always looked the same, from the early 70s to right before her surgery...I can imagine if she hadnt gotten sick she would have been one of the people who was unlucky to look older when they were young, but lucky to never age as they got older.

[Contessa Donatella]

If you recall she was in very poor heatlh. 

[wonderwoman1951]

this really is a topic worthy of its own thread — maybe even a doctoral dissertation — or at least a masters thesis. 

so many factors at play. so many of the people inside the industry who never really understood why fans watch, and how they enjoy soaps. a while back, i was discussing focus groups (ro as eileen fulton liked to call them, fuckus groups), with a former exec at nbc and abc daytime, and he said that it was a plus if the person running the group actually watched soaps. a plus?! how about a prerequisite? how could someone who didn’t even watch soaps asked the right questions, or properly interpret the responses.

and that’s just one example. when i have a few minutes, i’ll share my thoughts on jill farren phelpes interview with alan locher a while back. 

 

Edited August 23, 2024 by wonderwoman1951

[Mitch64]

But Charita always looked "older" then her age. 

All this discussion made me look up Bert's memorial and what a piece of crap that is. First the lethargy in the whole thing, no one is really seeming to experience any actual sadness. You have Faux Ed, and Rick..who is just sitting and moping by the fireplace (and in a following episode which is supposed to be the exact same day, he is at Company and seeming fine..) You have comments about her but they don't reference anything beyond Long and Kobe as that was the only cast that was there. They made no effort to bring anyone back...no Mike, no Hope, no Meta, no Rick's grandad who was Bert's friend for years. They could have brought in Bea to at least have a reassuring motherly presence, (but no we have Sarah Shayne coming in a short while) and they just have Mike call on the phone, "He was sorry he had to leave after the service, but he couldnt get his court date postponed.." at least say he is in the kitchen with Hope or something...) The pacing in lethargic and there is no warmth or like I said emotion...and they cut away to go to Kyle's house with boring Maeve in her bedroom and Kyle gritting his teeth at Hawk( I really don't like Malloy in this role, he is so stilted and effected and flairs his nostrils constantly)  and over at Company with Flock of Segalls boy and Jesse getting into trouble with a stupid bus of tourists (they could have save the extras and maybe payed for Mike to come back...) It really exemplified to me that this was the worst period of GL, bar none...Henry and H.B. had better memorial services and at least Wheeler's dumb experiment..had some warmth and emotion to it.

Poor Charita and Bert, they deserved so much better!

 

 

[MichaelGL]

Who was the writer at the time? Long and Ryder? 

[robbwolff]

Jeff Ryder was head writer when Bert died.

[VelekaCarruthers]

Sheri Anderson and Joe Manetta

[Sapounopera]

That's how women in their 60s used to look back in the day. Like older ladies.

These days soap opera stars in their 60s look like Real Housewives.

[P.J.]

I never really realized she was that young when she died. 

Honestly, I don't understand why Vincent Ir-- was unrecastable. Simon was an attempt to recapture Lujack's essence in Alex's life, and it went nowhere really. I mean, they recast Grant (arguably badly, but still...). At least try.

I adore MKA. I hate that most of her time was wasted.

[DRW50]

I thought John Bolger had good chemistry with India so I am not sure why they didn't keep them together. Putting him in the direction of a Beth Bolger had no history with wasn't worth the time. 

They clearly wanted India to stay because they kept finding reasons for her to still be in when she really could have been written out in '84 or '85, but they never seemed to know what to do with her. 

I still don't know what went on that led them to drop her 1999 return, which had some solid moments. 

[Khan]

To me, it was pretty remarkable how MKA could return as India in 1990 or so, play out scenes with Grant Aleksander's Phillip, and share a certain chemistry with him as if she'd always played opposite his Phillip.  In fact, I'd venture to say that their chemistry was miles ahead of the chemistry she had shared previously with John Bolger.

[P.J.]

I have died and gone to heaven---from 1981, slinky, sexy Vanessa and Ross being all cozy! 

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[DRW50]

I wonder if this is one of the reasons a lot of fans didn't come back even when GL did improve. This is probably a moment a number of longtime fans would struggle to forgive. 

ATWT and GL rejected their roots around the same time (egged on by P&G), but ATWT managed to reclaim some of them around the mid-80s. I remember a Daytime TV article from the early '70s where Eileen Fulton and Don Stewart had a "date" set up for them due to winning a popularity poll. And then they left ATWT and GL around the same time (maybe a year apart). ATWT welcomed Eileen back with open arms, while Don only returned for a few days almost 15 years later. 

ATWT did make some firing mistakes but did keep many core vets to the end, even some that were "difficult," like Liz Hubbard, whereas GL often seemed happy to just cut or take for granted (like not getting Jerry ver Dorn could find a better offer after being put on recurring).

The irony is GL did so much more to bring back and respect vets for its final year, where Goutman barely gave a [!@#$%^&*].

I should try to watch some of her early scenes with Grant. This period of GL isn't one I tend to rush into watching. I do remember how great their 1990 scenes were - so tender on her part.