Some tidbits from the book 'Taking Soaps Seriously', when Marland and Potter were at the helm.
Marland :Once we were for casting a part who shall be nameless for a sensual male character. I only judge what I see on my television screen when I look at tapes for the audition. Once I was at told, the secretaries are crazy about him. They think he is the sexiest. I let that influence me once, and I said maybe I'm missing something. Went with the actor. Total washout.
Ted Leplat as Andy?
Casting is also affected by the look of the show. One performer who was considered overweight and neither young nor dashing enough was replaced with another performer who appeared if not younger, at least thinner. The performer seemed to have become a symbol of the look that the producers were trying to change.
A major recast was, as I mentioned, for the part of Dr. Ed Bauer, which had been played by one performer for 12 years Although the recast was fought by the executive producer ,the change was made. There was a very negative reaction from the audience protesting the change, and it took several months for the mail to stop coming in complaining of the recast.
Headwriters were critical of this tendency of actors protecting their characters and of actors not liking what their character was scripted to do.
I mentioned one romantic lead who found himself a grandfather on the show.
Marland: I'm sure lead he hates it.... That's his problem. He's paid to act.
I don't think that actors are the best judges of what story is good for them them anyway. Certain actors who have been on the show a long time--you never find it with new actors- they decide their image is such and such.. They become image conscious in herms of what their character is to the audience--an image, a self-image which is very destructive.
Obviously a reference to Don Stewart
Guiding Light changed its theme during the period I carried out my research. Originally the program opened with harps and strings along with a visual of soft sunlit flowers. This image and theme were replaced by a series of- takes from the program emphasizing drama, romance, and action with light now associated with the flash of photographers' cameras and the reflection of light from the mirrored surfaces in a disco. The music, also, emphasized this different image. The religious, inspirational "guiding light" of the earliest programming had changed to a more secular light promising a more exciting way of life.
Marland: A ratings move a little up or a little down doesn't mean a lot. It means a lot if you are really expecting a story to really pull the numbers, one that is on it's peak, and the numbers don't correspond, then you know the numbers aren't working.
A good example of a story expected to pull the numbers that did not, involved the "Carrie Story" in which Carrie is shown to have a multiple personality and be capable of horrible acts.
Potter :There are two ways of judging whether a story works. One is ratings, the other is creatively. The Carrie story is very interesting. Jane Elliott is a wonderful actress, and Doug wrote a nice story. However, in terms of ratings it obviously didn't work because the numbers either held or slid a little and only went up in the last week of the storyline when it looked like Carrie might kill Ross. If people had cared it would have gone up right away as it did on General Hospital when they were doing Joe and Heather and Heather came out of the hospital with a gun.
By
Paul Raven ·
