...And Now, The Guiding Light

Well, the soap opera I grew up watching with my Mom and also my best friend, and my best friend's Mom, was canceled a few months back and this week the final episodes aired. It was sad for me to watch, not just because the show was ending, but because it had seriously been destroyed over the last probably 10 years. Soaps for a lot of women are kind of like comfort food--the characters are like family members who, even though you may lose touch with them for a while, you figure will always be around. You go to them when you are home sick, or when you need to escape from your own life for whatever reason. You can turn the show on one day after not seeing it for years at a time, and still pretty quickly be able to figure out what is happening because you know its history, you know the families, the great romances, the great friendships, and the GREAT villains!

GL had one of the scariest, most complex, most watchable daytime villains on its canvas for about 25 years--Roger Thorpe! When the actor who portrayed him became sick with ALS, he was let go from the show and the role was recast. Such a betrayal. Michael Zaslow died a few months later, and a lot of people never forgave the show for his shabby treatment. The years that Roger spent torturing his enemies AND his loved ones with his manipulations and corporate takeovers and deaths, and (gulp) that time he raped Holly, those were the peak years of GL. The show really lacked a focus after he was no longer around to set people spinning.

Anyway, the show ended some things nicely for longtime, older viewers this week. Phillip and Beth reunited, Mindy (original Mindy, Krista Tesreau) and Rick got together, Billy and Vanessa married for the third time, and the show ended on a shot of Josh and Reva telling eah other "Always," while driving away from Springfield's iconic lighthouse. I liked that Alan Spaulding passed away in what was essentially him sacrificing himself for Phillip, his favorite son (sorry, Alan-Michael, but it's true). It was always so sweet to me that, even though Phillip was adopted, Alan clearly loved and cherished him--in his dastardly, manipulative Alan Spaulding way. I liked seeing Philip and Beth taking up the Spaulding mantle with Alan's passing and Alexandra departing with Fletcher (another old favorite). Beth gave Phillip a journal and told him he should write down everything that's happened, and how he felt about everything. I liked that--it kind of made me feel like Guiding Light could have been the story that Phillip wrote. The story of Springfield and his friends, the Bauers; his family, the Marlers and the Spauldings; and all of the other families who came and went throughout their lives--the Lewises, the Coopers, the Thorpes, etc. Maybe I'm just biased because Phillip was always a favorite in my house! Grant Aleksander, that cutie with the killer cheekbones.

There was some simply ridiculous stuff as well, OF COURSE. Wouldn't be Guiding Light without some Epic Bullshit. Buzz and Lillian? FAIL. Sorry, but just because you have two unattached actors who are around the same age doesn't mean there is any romantic chemistry between them. It really felt like something the writers did out of desperation to give everyone a "happy" ending. The same exact sentiment goes for Frank and Blake. I mean, as if FRANK COOPER, the most bland character in history, would hold any interest for a woman like Blake?! Roger's daughter?! Ross's wife?! A schemer who held her own for over 20 years against the best of them?! And now she is reduced to working at Company and slumming it with the Coopers? Don't get me wrong, I love the Coopers, but just No.

The production value of the show was also so bad. I know they changed the way it was shot in an effort to reduce costs and try to save the show--a real Hail Mary pass. But it just diminished it in so many ways. It was like watching a different show with some sort of familiar characters--just felt really out of place. And it also highlighted the moments when the acting wasn't so great--it made it harder for the actors to hide their weaknesses and use their typical daytime acting "tricks."

Anyway, four generations of women in my family sat down and watched that show on a daily basis at one time or another, and it is kind of sad to me that if I ever have a daughter, I won't be able to share these beloved characters and their whacked out histories with her. I suppose the world is always changing, progressing, and that is a good thing. But it doesn't make it any easier to say good-bye to the institutions you grew up with, and let's be honest, took for granted. Because I didn't watch it for the last ten years, and I didn't think they would ever cancel the longest-running story ever on radio and television. Seventy-two years is something to be proud of, a mirror of the 20th century in many ways, and I am thankful to the people for whom it was a labor of love to bring us this show every day.

Now my Personal Best and Worst!

Best Love Stories:
Phillip Spaulding and Beth Raines
Alan-Michael Spaulding and Lucy Cooper
Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne
Dylan Lewis and Bridget Reardon
Lujack (don't remember his last name) and Beth Raines
Frank Cooper and Eleni Andros
David and Kat (don't remember either of their last names, but loved their story)
Buzz Cooper and Jenna Brashaw

Most Effed Up Love Stories:
Josh and Clone!Reva
HB Lewis and Reva
Ross and Blake (I ended up really liking them together, but you just don't sleep with someone your Mom already slept with)
Roger Thorpe and Holly Norris
Ed Bauer and Lillian Raines
Alan Spaulding and Annie Dutton

Best Villains:
Roger Thorpe
Alan Spaulding
Annie Dutton
Brent Lawrence/Marian Crane/Brarian/BIRD (all one person)
Sonny/Solita

Worst Storylines:
Cloning Reva
San Cristobel
Rick and Ross both fathering Blake's twins
Amish Reva
Time traveling Reva
Jenna stealing Eleni's skin cream recipe
Vanessa thinking she should have custody of Peter
Santos/Mafia family
Dinah in the circus family

Storylines I Loved/Loved to Hate:
Annie frames Reva for killing her already dead baby.
Brent Lawrence rapes Lucy, becomes the world's ugliest transvestite, goes on a killing spree, dresses up like a BIRD.
Josh recovering from paralysis with Bert Bauer's help.
Any and all corporate takeovers, especially Jenna and Roger's Spaulding takeover.
People tricking/blackmailing each other into marriage--Mindy and Phillip, Blake and Phillip, Roger and Everyone Ever.
Billy gets drunk and shoots Roger.
That Infinity story where Alan kidnapped Beth for all those years.
I think there was something about a haunted house or someone was getting gaslighted? Maybe Chelsea Reardon? I remember really liking that story at the time.
Sonny/Solita split personality.
Sleeping Sickness.
Harley giving up Daisy for adoption.
Dinah shoots Hart.
The Hart/Julie/Dylan/Bridget love rectangle.

Best Friendship:
Phillip Spaulding and Rick Bauer/ The Four Musketeers


Goodbye, Springfield. And thanks again!