Barbara Esensten passed away

[Gray Bunny]

1997 is what sucked me in to Guiding Light full-time and forever a fan. Before then, I had only sampled it. It became so intriguing, exciting, and well-balanced. 1998 is when it became a 2-storyline soap (Clone and PHarley, then Clone and Ben/Blake/Ross), but even then I tuned in religiously until 2000. I'm guessing lots of interference from the higher-ups is what led to so many wacky over-the-top stories they did (Reva clone, Teri-is-Annie, Annie's truth serum, Nursery Rhyme Stalker, etc.)

[EnglishTea]

The Loving murders were also well done. Stacey's death by powder puff was a great soapy twist, and yet also so damn creepy!

[SFK]

I thought Cabot and Isabelle in each other's arms dying in their sleep inhaling the fumes of poisonous scented candles was so sad, lovely, poignant... my "favorite" of the bizarre murders.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I must be the only one who hated the hell out of that storyline and thought Christine Tudor was terrible during the reveal.

[Eric83]

1997 was one of my favorite years of GL. RIP.

[juppiter]

I loved Brown & Esensten's GL. It just had this unique quality about it and I think it was their best work. RIP.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

1997 was probably the last entertaining year for GL (and B&E's only decent period), it was plot-driven as hell and probably carried mostly on Cynthia Watros' back, but it was the last time the show had some semblance of heart, but a new "fire" as well.

[EricMontreal22]

You must be I'm late to this, but RIP. And that We Love Soaps link to a documentary the BBC did on Guiding Light in 1999 is GREAT, with her interviews. I've never seen it before.It's nice to hear some good things about their time at GL, as I didn't really watch. I did love their work at Loving, and while The City started off pretty rough, I still think the last 6 months in particular had a lot of great stuff and somehow managed to find a balance of traditional soap elements with some sense of new stuff. I even liked their AMC to an extent--the main fault when they wrote it was that it was often *dull* and repetitive, but I find it hard to judge AMC writing at that stage when Frons had so much control.

[Khan]

In the end, I feel like Barbara Esensten and James Harmon Brown loved writing for soaps and loved writing for ALL MY CHILDREN and GUIDING LIGHT, but that love was hampered often by network execs and sponsors who had their own concepts of what made compelling drama. They weren't visionaries like Nixon and Marland, but they tried, and it's just a shame that they had to be HW's in an era when TPTB in general do not support writers anymore.

[EricMontreal22]

Absolutely agreed. Of course nobody has brought up their PC work, but again it seemed to be the networks that encouraged them to go in the supernatural direction, after some initial success experimenting with that, which is when it imploded on itself. With AMC, Frons seemed to just be waiting to bring in Pratt and his vastly different style of storytelling. They also seemed to do above average scripting work.

[Khan]

I've been told -- although I can't verify, so if anyone knows otherwise, please correct me -- but I've been told that B&E's scripts in particular won Nancy Curlee and her team at GUIDING LIGHT the Best Writing Team Emmy that year.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Nope, it was Patrick Mulcahey's, they submitted Maureen's funeral the year they won.

[Khan]

Ah! I knew someone would know better! Thanks, Y&RWorldTurner!