Guiding Light discussion thread

[DRW50]

Thanks. I had never heard of this woman, and she was getting meaningful closeups watching a suffering Rick. 

I don't know if GL even in its last years, even without Ross, was as barren as the canvas felt at this time.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Yeah, I think she was meant to be a love interest for Rick but it never really took off. 

[DRW50]

Thanks. I suppose this is down to Pam Long's material nearly being done? 

I wonder if that's also why Louie left. Did he have an exit?

[Alan]

Thanks for the summary. By the Cooper era, the restaurant seemed completely separate from the boarding house and it was difficult to figure out how everything was supposed to fit together. I found a clip of Bridget opening the "new" Company:

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In my dream GL, the Reardons would take Company back from Buzz and redecorate it in the style of an Irish/British style pub, with vintage beer taps, optics over the bar, a darts board, old photographs/movie posters, and different nick-knacks on the wall collected by Reardons and Chamberlains throughout the course of their adventures.

[DRW50]

@Alan Geez! I could not get through more than a few minutes as I was wincing so much I was afraid I would literally curl up into a ball. IIRC Bridget had set all this up with Roger so I can justify the bad acting from Melissa Hayden here, but everything is terrible. That Battle Chess setup is probably the least of the problems. 

I remember now why I had stopped watching around this point. The show truly had the mark of death. If not for B&B not expanding to an hour, it would have not lasted past early '97.

[Contessa Donatella]

We've talked about Mae the cigarette girl. In this interview Claire doesn't mention her at all. And, she does talk about a whole lot of other things. Maybe what we've heard about Mae wasn't even true.

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_07.html
We Love Soaps: And GUIDING LIGHT?
Claire Labine: I’m not good at network politics. I’m terrible at it. There was a lot going on that I had no idea of. We were just trying to do it the best we could. And having to fight the good fight and then they fired us. Then they couldn’t get anybody to replace us and were they embarrassed! They had announced it. Mickey called me and said, “We are in a real mess. The people that we had lined up aren’t going to work. Would you consider extending?” I said, “Sure, I’m not going to leave you in the lurch, for heaven’s sake.” So we stuck around and they left us absolutely alone for a cycle. And on the last day of our stuff the ratings were the highest they had been in three or four years. By that time we were really invested in it because they left us alone and were having such a great time. We made it work. I loved it. I was really surprised [when we were fired again] because they hadn’t let on that they were looking or training or anything. I should have realized that if they were leaving us alone that they were really pursuing it. And that was the deal. We were only supposed to be holding on until they could find somebody.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Press here for Part Six in which Claire Labine reflects on the highs and lows of writing for GUIDING LIGHT, the stories she loved, her experience with Paul Rauch, her feelings about Crystal Chappell, and the battles against focus groups.
https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_09.html
In Part Six, Claire Labine shares more about her struggles with GUIDING LIGHT and Paul Rauch, plus the absurdities of focus groups.
We Love Soaps: What were your favorite stories from writing GUIDING LIGHT?
Claire Labine: What I totally loved was giving some dimension to the bad prince, who was a wonderful actor [Edmund, played by David Andrew MacDonald]. And getting him connected to the little girl [Susan], the one whose father got crisped saving the baby [Jim], Edmund had totally understood her bouts of teenage rebellion, and totally won her over. She settled down under his influence. Then his wooing of Beth was so much fun. And I adored Harley. We kept trying to do a story between Justin [Deas], Maureen [Garrett], and the actor who played the brother...tall guy with dark hair who had a troubled history with the show.
We Love Soaps: Jordan Clarke?
Claire Labine: Yes. And they didn’t want to do it. The screen just came alive when we had Jordan and Justin facing off over Maureen. It was terrific! And nobody wanted to touch it.
We Love Soaps: Why not?
Claire Labine: I don’t know! Because they were nuts! Because it was gangbusters. We couldn’t resist, we would just throw these scenes in to fill because we just wanted to see them all together because the chemistry was marvelous. And we had the profound satisfaction of sitting in on a focus session. I hate focus sessions. I said to Mickey [Dwyer-Dobbin], “Okay - one ear, that’s all.” It had one of those scenes at the tail end of another scene. It was one of those [focus] sessions where the audience has a button at the end of the arm of their seat. And they would press it and we could see whether they were interested. If the little line went up gradually, that meant there was growing interest in what was going on. If it went up dramatically, that meant there was a lot of interest in what was going on. We had pretty good averages for this show. Maureen was in the bar but not the focus. Justin was there. Jordan walked in and Justin gave him a look and this little graph shot straight to the top! It was the highest recognition of interest we had all day. But that “didn’t count.” The tester knew what she was supposed to say. She was smart enough to read where the network’s interests were and she was reinforcing them. It just made me kind of ill.
We Love Soaps: So even when they use focus groups, and those focus groups convey that they want to see an actor of a certain age, they’ll spin it...
Claire Labine: If the network is against it, forget about it. If the network has something in their head in the other direction, they’re going to do the other direction. I was tired of beating my head against a wall by that time.
We Love Soaps: What was it like to work with Justin Deas after so many years [Justin left RYAN'S HOPE in 1978].
Claire Labine: Oh, it was wonderful. I adore him. He’s just one of the best actors in the whole world. You could give him the phone book and he would make it work. If he decided it was going to be funny, it would be funny. And if he decided it was going to be a tragic phone book, then it would be a tragic phone book.
We Love Soaps: You were also reunited working with Maureen Garrett, who had been on RYAN'S HOPE [1981-82].
Claire Labine: She’s one of my all time favorites. I think she is a great human being and a wonderful actress. I would love to write for Maureen again. She has a farm in Central America! Somewhere. She’s spent a lot of time down there. I really would love to talk with her about that.
We Love Soaps: Your disputes with Paul Rauch were well discussed at that time.
Claire Labine: Were they? I didn’t know that. I was trying to be so discrete!
We Love Soaps: This was also when the internet community started discussing these things. What were the points of contention between you and Paul Rauch?
Claire Labine: Well, they weren’t fights. Paul is enormously charming. It was just disparate points of view. That’s really what it was. It was all about the material. It wasn’t personal at all.
We Love Soaps: Do you remember a specific example?
Claire Labine: Yes, the two princes, Jeffrey and Edmund. That was a bone of contention. But they had played that story for so long, there were no new beats in it, and I couldn’t figure out where to go with it without staying on that island [San Cristobel] forever. The whole thing baffled me. When there are too many cooks I get addled. If I can stay straight with an idea that has touched me and made sense to me... where I get in trouble is when people start changing it and I lose my direction. We go back to [the point made in Part Three] you have to write for yourself. You have to believe in what you’re writing if it’s going to have any resonance with the audience at all. That’s basically it for the Paul Rauch business.
We Love Soaps: You wrote for Crystal Chappell on ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GUIDING LIGHT.
Claire Labine: What a peach. What a peach! I think we succeeded in making that character [Olivia] more complex instead of just a bad girl with fangs. I loved her, and I loved the way Crystal played her. What an actress.
We Love Soaps: She is. In its last year, GUIDING LIGHT actually told a wonderful story of Olivia falling in love with another woman.
Claire Labine: Really? That’s neat.
We Love Soaps: And they actually ended up living happily ever after at the end.
Claire Labine: That’s lovely!
We Love Soaps: How about working with Kim Zimmer?
Claire Labine: She was a peach. She was a real trooper. She’s awfully nice, and she played to the hilt everything that came her way.
We Love Soaps: As you know GUIDING LIGHT went off the air a little over a month ago.
Claire Labine: Yes, that’s very sad. You hate it when a show is canceled. It really is a tremendous loss. I was totally detached from GUIDING LIGHT by that point but I really felt a pang and felt so sorry for them. It’s such a bunch of troopers. It’s sort of tragic. The idea of Irna’s first brilliant beautiful baby coming to an end, that’s tough.
 

[Mitch64]

It think the actress was just a bump for Rick and Roxie (who I didnt like together..) and wasnt meant to stick around. Rick was getting addicted to pills, that character was in his class and knew about it and helped him and as in typical soap character's mind set he kept it all from Roxie and his family.  I think the last scene was him throwing the pills out for "Grandma" (ooohkay GL, Bert's death is a plot point in a C tier storyline) and Roxie finds him hugging that character....I think she goes on to sleep with that weird Jackson Freemont (Roxie does, not the other girl.) I think this was way past Long's material as the were floundering with the Cain stuff trying to decide what to do with him..(I would have loved to see what Long planned, all I know was that it was supposed to be a Tarzan/Jane story which made no sense but that was GL at the time.)

Louie stuck around for a year or two more, he played a key role in covering up that Ben was Kyle's kid..and then he just disappeared I think.

Yea..GL was hitting a real low..which was sad as it had all the elements and actors they needed to make it work (even the Quint actor was back but he had nothing to do, as did Nola) but they buckled down on Roger being EVIL, Bridget being pathetic trying to catch Hart, even going as far as letting Roger ruin her grand opening and maybe buring down the place, and then Blake being knocked up with Rick and Ross'g kid, Lonatrat, Holly lost in Fletcherville with the baby, and Dinah being the heroine and Hart outsmarting Roger.  Its too bad that Hayden, Brown, Tylo got bumped when Rauch came back.

 

If only...I always wanted it to be shown more of a pub to contrast with the diner, which they could have kept (and let Buzz stink up the joint over there.) They could have just had Nola at the bar, nosing into everyone's life, handing out bad advice and being the eccentric Lisa ATWT character getting in everyone's business. Though I do think at this time, it should have been Nola opening up a club instead of changing Company.

 

I wonder what she had wanted to do..I know to get out of the island, but didnt she stay there and it was Gold who got them out?

[Contessa Donatella]

When it comes to San Cristoblah, I am confused more than not. If Lucky Gold got us out of there, I never knew that in fact he was a hero! So I certainly never gave him his due. At this late date, I'd like to formally nominate him for some unknown honor. I suggest we make something up. Perhaps something like "The Guard at the Gate Which Lucky Gold Locked Forever". Other suggestions welcome.

[kalbir]

GL became CBS's lowest-rated daytime drama in 1989 but it did not enter cancel territory until 1995. During 1996 it looked like Bradley was preparing for a B&B expansion which I thought would line up with the 10th anniversary in March 1997 but for whatever reason that didn't happen.

[SoapDope]

1976 Guiding Light opening at the 59:43 mark

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[Khan]

Oh, wow, a brief glimpse of Robin Mattson as Hope!!

Not GL related, but Peter White (ex-Linc, AMC) was the husband in the Sure deodorant commercial that followed the "dead leaves" opening.

[Alan]

From the interview it seems obvious that Labine was not willing to learn a new show. I believe it was Gold who introduced the Alonzo character as the real heir to the San Cristobel throne and finally ended the island story. IIRC the transition from Labine to Gold was marked by Philip, Richard, and Noah in matching camo tanktops rescuing Beth from the castle.

[P.J.]

I never really realized how much Elvera and Robin look alike.

Do we know which writers turned down the GL job, necessitating more Labine? I'm not impressed by Labine's work, and the stories she liked having written aren't an argument in her favor. I realize she had to work with the actors who were there, but the entire San Cristohell gang were duds, imo. 

I will never understand why execs don't understand that the audience has invested a lot of time in a show's vets, and build on that. No, I wouldn't have wanted to see a Billy/Holly/Buzz triangle, but if the audience is reacting to actors who know how to freakin' act, as opposed to a bunch of wooden mannequins not even in Springfield.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Damn! Why couldn't they have kept the tape going?!

[Contessa Donatella]

You, too, huh? I literally screamed NOOO.