Desert Sun, Number 120, 22 December 1983โGuiding Lightโ writer looks for fresh ideas
By TOM JORY Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - โGuiding Lightโ has been a daytime companion for millions since 1937, starting on radio and switching to TV after 15 years. Can anything new, really new, ever happen to the Bauers or the Reardons or any of the other folks in Springfield? โI get really upset,โ says Pamela Long Hammer, principal writer for the CBS soap opera since March, โbecause Iโll come up with this neat scenario and someone will say, โThatโs like โStrangers on a Train.โโ โI think, โThey keep stealing my material.โ โThe way I figure it,โ she says, โthere are only so many stories in the world. Itโs the characters who keep the show new and exciting. All of our stories come from them: I donโt come up with a plot, and then work a character into it.โ Continuity is important. Someone out there surely knows all thatโs happened, to everyone on the show, in 46 years. How about Miss Long Hammer? "Nope. I care about what our core families have been doing,โ she says. โIโm always interested in what happened to Bert Bauer (played since 1950 by Charita Bauer) 20 years ago, but as far as going back and reading scripts, no. โOthers on the show keep track,โ she says. โIโll suggest something, and be told, โYou donโt remember, but fiveyears ago, they had this terrible fight. They would never speak to one another now.โโ
Miss Long Hammer, a former Miss Alabama who came to New York as an aspiring actress in 1980, began writing for daytime television while playing Ashley on NBCโs โTexas.โ She eventually wrote herself out of the story. Her staff for โGuiding Lightโ includes nine writers, among them her husband, Charles Jay Hammer, whom she met while both worked on โTexas.โ NBC dropped โTexasโ after two seasons, and episodes from the serial currently are being rerun on the Turner Broadcasting Systemโs cable-TV SuperStation, WTBS. Gail Kobe, who was executive producer of โTexas,โ now has the same job on โGuiding Light.โ And Beverlee McKinsey, who played Iris Carrington in โAnother Worldโ on NBC, and later in "Texas,โ will join the Lightโ cast of the CBS soap in February. Miss Long Hammer is reponsible for the long-term story, which can mean looking ahead 18 months or more. Staff writers deal with specifics, including the scripts for individual episodes. She says she draws on โimagination and instinctโ for the โGuiding Lightโ story. Often, that involves inventing new characters. โโI look at Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), one of our leading ladies,โ Miss Long Hammer says. "What could make theaudience care more about her? โThen I think, โWhy canโt she find a man she can love, who will also love her?โ Voila, here comes Billy Lewis (Jordan Clarke).
โAnother example,โ she says, โis Alan Spaulding (Christopher Bernau). All of a sudden, heโs got a sister no one ever knew about. โThey come complete,โ says Miss Long Hammer of the serialโs characters, including the new ones. โWe know who they are and where they came from long before the viewer gets all that information. Thatโs one of the most interesting things about daytime, the complexities of the characters.โ
The writers make a big effort to keep the show contemporary, and four of the leading players are in their lateteens or early 20s Judi Evans, who plays Beth Raines, Kristi Tasreau (Mindy Lewis), Grant Alcksander (Philip Spaulding) and Michael OโLeary (Rick Bauer). โGuiding Light,โ longevity notwithstanding, is a moderate success by that ultimate yardstick of the industry; ratings. The show is behind only โGeneral Hospital,โ โAll My Childrenโ and โOne Life to Live,โ all on ABC, and CBSโ โThe Young and the Restless,โ among soaps. And Miss Long Hammer says sheโs convinced writing is the key to even greater achievement. โWhen I say I love the characters, itโs not a light thing,โ she says. โI think what the audience senses is an enthusiasm and an energy among the people who do the show.โ
By
Paul Raven ·
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