Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

Oh, I agree there's no reason to write in every real life passing. There was no reason to kill Roger off. But it would've been awkward for Henry to just disappear from Vanessa's life and be continually off on "a trip".

I can't believe they considered recasting Bert. Then again....

[P.J.]

It is odd to think that at that point, Bert didn't have those connections across the canvas--thanks to the cast turnover. 

[Dion]

I meant to reply weeks ago but somehow I forgot. I think Mike/Robin were kind of GL's version of Penny and Jeff, they even had similar storylines with slight changes (e.g imagine if Jeff had killed Tom Pope instead of Al James and you get Mike killing Karl Jannings). In the end though Robin and Mike never found there way back to each other after their teen marriage was annulled. Robin went off with the much older Alex Bowden and later Paul Fletcher while Mike eventually got Julie pregnant, which resulted in Hope then moved to Another World for a year after Julie died and didn't come back to GL until after Robin had died.

[Mitch64]

Yes, Mike wasn't even at his own sister's funeral....there is mention from Lillian that he is in Washington.....(what they don't have planes? I am sure he is big shot enough to get the time off...lazy...)

 

Yes, they showed the clip and they had Reva talk about it..I don't remember a scene between the two of them...("Nice red dress dear..") but it actually held more weight then FauxEd and after seeing interviews with Zimmer I can see that while she wasnt on the show for long before Charita died, she respected her and said that she was a "force of nature" on that set that everyone loved and listened to.

[P.J.]

Thanks for the perspective.

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[robbwolff]

Did they explain why Katie wasn't at Hillary's funeral? 

[cassadine1991]

We’re any of the ages of Meta, Bert, Trudy and Bill ever mentioned??

[Reverend Ruthledge]

When they first appeared on the show, in 1948, Meta was 24 and Trudy was 19. I can't remember what Bill was but he was in between Meta and Trudy. I can't remember if it was mentioned how old Bert was when she joined the show in December of 1949, but I don't think so. I would guess her at Bill's age which I guess was about 22. Of course, that was when they started. Even adult soap characters can be the victims of SORAS so Meta, Bill and Bert were aged considerably based on how fast Kathy, Mike and Ed grew. 

Edited December 6, 2024 by Reverend Ruthledge

[heffos]

This may sound weird but with the recent death of Wayne Northrop, I was thinking how he could have made a decent Alan Spaulding recast. He showed he could also play a non-heroic character, but even bring the same soul to the role that Chris Bernau brought to the role (unlike the other two Alans).

[cassadine1991]

So just add 12-24 years. They really SORASed them so early on even Kathy’s daughter was aged. How was Kathy originally?

Edited December 7, 2024 by cassadine1991

[P.J.]

The only actor I can think of that might've worked as a recast is Anthony Herrera. I think he and Bernau had a similar kind of lurking, ruthless vibe. And before anyone rolls their eyes, go and find some of Herrera's early work as James. 

But I'm not sure viewers would've liked it. And i wouldn't have wanted to lose James on ATWT.

[DRW50]

Anthony played a somewhat similar character on Loving (the only difference is that character was always an outsider). He did fine, he had the same grounded qualities as Bernau but lacked the spark.

He was never really suited to anti-hero roles, but he certainly would have been better than the Alan recasts.

Speaking of Loving, he probably would have been too young, but James Horan could have worked.

Dennis Parlato also could have worked, although he was still at Loving when they brought Alan back.

Neither of them would have been as good as Bernau of course.

I wonder how old they are meant to be when GL starts on TV. Lyle Sudrow and Charita Bauer were both around 30.

[vetsoapfan]

That's interesting, because when Meta was on the witness stand during her trial in 1950, she was asked her age and she replied that she was 31, making her year of birth 1919. She went from 24 in 1948 to 31 in 1950...an early case of slight SORASing, I guess! 

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(Actually, I know there were changes in factual information in Irna's scripts at the time, like the Baum family being renamed the Bauers, Bert's original surname later being changed to Miller, etc. Nobody would even know or remember the inconsistencies today if vintage scripts and radio episodes had not resurfaced.)

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Kathy was 14 when she first appeared in 1951. By 1952, she had already moved out of the house, started working, married a guy and gotten pregnant. A very precocious 15-year-old. LOL. 

Meta, even though she was only a few years older than Bill and Bert, really got SORASed even more than that when she became a step-grandmother in 1953. They even put gray streaks in the actress's hair to make her look older. Even though they didn't do the same for Lyle Sudrow and Charita Bauer. They weren't the victims of SORAS until Michael suddenly became an adult 9 years after he was born. So, I guess Bill and Bert eventually caught up with Meta. Irna actually messed quite a bit with the timeline. Chuckie was SORASed. Even in the womb. He was conceived around October of 1948, born December of 1948, talking by 1949 and was 7 years old in 1950 when he died. And the characters would talk about an event happening years ago when it had really only happened a few months ago. Irna may have actually started this trend of "speeding things along" for the sake of plot. It was also much easier and less jarring to do this on radio where nobody could SEE that the actors had changed or how quickly the characters had matured. As great of a writer as Irna was, I don't think she was that big of a stickler for details. 

Edited December 7, 2024 by Reverend Ruthledge

[Mitch64]

They should have just recast DP as Alan instead of Roger.  I thought he would be good, and he and Watros would be sexy together.