Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Mitch64]

I always felt they should have killed off Alan YEARS before.. I would have had Annie's last rampage..real CW version..be that Alan gets shot by accident...(kind of like they did with Dinah/Hart) or better..Annie IS married to Alan, Alex comes back to keep watch, Alan begins to see the light and Annie slowly poisons' Alan,  to manipulate him into signing things over , goes to far and kills him and that sets the manhunt final days of Annie is SF.) Alan was boring and doing the same crap over and over and it was time to Phillip/Amanda/AM to duke it out over Spaulding.  Seeing Phillip who railed against his father for years, be put in the position of making tough choices would have been more interesting then mooning over Harley or Beth. 

 

It was a great era.

[P.J.]

Speaking of everyone seeming to be 30ish, how old is Hope supposed to be when she's married to Alan? From what I've seen, Mike seems overly involved in his adult daughter's marriage. I know Alan's bad news, but....

[DRW50]

Was Hope meant to be in college when she dated Ben? 

[Soaplovers]

The only time I thought Reva was finally growing up and acting like an adult was during the 1989-1990 period where she had somewhat settled down with Josh, had Shayne, and dealt with a very real issue of post-partum depression.

I always figured that she never really dealt with her mental illness, and that would have been a better story to explore in the 90s/early 00s instead of the San Cristobel BS.

[P.J.]

i thought i read somewhere that she had an affair with a college professor....

[vetsoapfan]

Don Stewart said in a magazine interview, when Hope was pregnant with Alan Michael, that she was supposed to be about 24. That was in 1981.

[Paul Raven]

When Hope was aged up and played by Robin Mattson, her intro story was the affair with the college professor Alex McDaniel,played by Keith Charles. Mike put a stop to it which set up a Hope v Mike conflict. That was 1976.

[P.J.]

LOL...Keith Charles sure got around. 

Obviously, viewers at the time would've known about how old Hope was supposed to be, but 40 yrs later, and missing a significant amount of episodes, the waters are muddy. 

Thanks everyone!

[Mitch64]

That would have been good and you know Kimmer would have loved it. It was always weird...she washes up on San Crud (from the Keyes??) and has amnesia, then gets a bump on the head and has amnesia again but somehow is able to function enough to get to Goshen....why was Reva constantly wiping out her memory?  

[Mona Kane Croft]

When Josh was created by Douglas Marland, I believe he came to Springfield alone.  Did Marland create Josh's back story of being the son of an wealthy Oklahoma oil family?  Or was that part created by Pam Long?  How soon after Josh's arrival were HB and Billy mentioned by name?  Were they mentioned by name while Marland was still writing? I believe Trish actually appeared while Marland was at GL, but please correct me if I'm wrong.  

The reason I ask is -- Pam Long always gets the blame for the prominence of the Lewis clan, but if Marland had already created the characters (even if off camera), then Long was really just bringing some of Marland's work forward.  Frankly, other than Josh and Trish, the Lewis family (with all their hippin' and hollerin") never seemed like characters Marland would have created, but it would be interesting to know.   

[P.J.]

 

Trish came to town first, around June 1981. But she had been mentioned long before that. Vanessa was telling Sarah in therapy that Trish was married to Andy Norris, and that Andy had abused her. (Andy was dating Katie in Springfield, who was Sarah's assistant/nurse which nowadays would be putting Sarah in an awkward position) 

The Lewises as a family started getting mentioned around this time, HB and Billy by name, and they are supposedly coming to town during this time. A deal with Lewis Oil is also the focal point of Diane Ballard's machinations, as she blackmails Henry (with the knowledge he fathered Quinton) into pressing HB into terms more favorable to Spaulding before she's killed.

Josh came to town in October 1981. The backstory of Josh being hustled by Andy and Leslie Ann (aka Candy) for half a million was written by Marland. He created Josh as the black sheep of the family, where Long turned it around and made Billy into the screwup and Josh as more of the romantic loner.

The Lewises as a family aren't considered "loud" or "invasive" until Billy and Mindy show up in May 1983. Granted, I get the "loud" part. I think the invasive critcism is mostly a reaction to other vets getting written out and Reva's arrival when the show pushes her front and center.

Edited October 20, 2024 by P.J.

[Soaplovers]

The Lewis Family under Marland probably would have been boring and devoid of any sort of life or personality.  It's a credit to Long that she managed to make the Lewis family distinctive and different then the Spauldings... and lord knows, she had a better handle on the Reardon's then Marland did.

[kalbir]

1981 GL introduced the Lewis family from Oklahoma that owns an oil company and that was clearly Dallas influence. Douglas Marland created the Lewis family but Pamela Long expanded and elevated them to a core family.

[DRW50]

I do wonder what Marland's plans for the family would have been. Neither Josh nor Trish give any Dallas vibes for me. Josh gives much more disaffected Californian vibes. I also don't remember Josh and Trish being nearly as close in what I've seen of that era (admittedly not a ton) as the Lewises became after Long arrived.

Edited October 21, 2024 by DRW50

[Mona Kane Croft]

Long had a better handle on the Reardon family, even though she was the person who wrote most of them off the show?   I realize Long wrote the entry of Jim Reardon. But otherwise, didn't Long write-off the Reardon family one-by-one until only Maureen remained in Springfield?