Guiding Light... done

Watched the last week of Guiding Light, mainly for sentimental reasons - not for some potboiler payoff.

Guiding Light was the soap I migrated to after Santa Barbara was canceled. Actually, I went to Guiding Light before the cancelation because I couldn't stand the infiltration of new characters who didn't add anything to the Santa Barbara landscape. My memories are getting pretty muddled, but I do remember Maureen nearly catching Ed and Lillian screwing around... a steamy shower comes to mind. Unfortunately, my GL watching was pretty sporadic, therefore I missed Maureen finding out and ultimately dying in the car crash; but I did see some of the fallout and noted how fantastically Peter Brown's Ed grappled with his guilt. The subsequent years with Ed picking up the pieces and handling Michelle's grief and anger towards Maureen's loss and the reasons why were worth watching.

David and Kat - on the run.

Harley and Mallet.

Nadine faking a pregnancy and planning to pass Bridget and Hart's baby off as her and Billy's baby was memorable.

Blake (the Sherry Stringfield version) and Ross trysting in the elevator during the blackout comes to mind.

Holly and Ed's talks and Holly helping Michelle out when she started her period.

Billy and Hamp's friendship. Actually, I think I jumped onboard during the friendship era, because I remember a lot of heart to heart conversations that were much more compelling than the usual action sequences.

The Frank- Eleni (the Melina Kanakouredis (sp) version) and Alan-Michael triangle.

Bridget and Vanessa fighting for baby Peter.

Roger Thorpe aka Michael Zaslow.

Fcuking Roger Thorpe. I loved Roger Thorpe. I wanted him to, finally, get his $h*t together so he and Holly could get back together permanently. But dude was easily distracted by ambition and jealousy. Then he fcuked it up by tangling with Alexandra Spaulding, who had no problem lying to Holly about she and Roger hooking up, resulting in Holly's desk top tryst with Fletcher Reade. Holly's pregnancy and her relationship with Fletcher killed any chance of she and Roger making it work.

Technically, there may have been a chance for a Holly and Roger reunion, if not for Jill Warren Phelps. In a previous post, I blamed Kim Zimmer for assisting in the ruination of Santa Barbara, but I gotta note that this SB alum c*cked up the works on GL. As many know, Michael Zaslow noticed that he was having speech problems. Not only did Phelps fire him, she added insult to injury, saying that she doesn't want a 'wizened old man' playing the role. Turns out that Zaslow was suffering from Lou Gehring's disease, which is fatal. Promptly, Phelps checked into an alcoholic rehab, although no level of detox could rid anyone of that level of c*ntiness.

Maybe Zaslow would've retired if he was greeted with concern and compassion, but that lit a fire under him, which resulted in him revisiting his old stomping grounds at One Life to Live. He was wheelchair-bound and unable to speak, but that desire to act was still there. Can you imagine if GL allow somewhat superhuman Roger Thorpe to grapple with an incurable, fatal disease, with the help of Holly, Blake and Hart? And the denizens of Springfield would've risen to the occasion and given Roger/Michael Zaslow the goodbye he richly deserved. Instead, we got Sebastian. But back to the better times.

Bridget, Hart, Julie and Dylan.

Buzz, Nadine and Jenna Bradshaw.

Nadine meeting her end at the hands of Brent Lawrence, dressed as 'Marion Crane'. That storyline was hard to take because I loved Nadine so much. And the fact that it took months for her weighed down, shower curtain wrapped body to float to the surface and that Frank ID-ed her accidentally based on some pieces of jewerly was pretty sad.

A 'pregnant' Annie Dutton throwing herself down the stairs and framing Reva for it. I remember having a debate with a coworker about this. She was firmly on Reva's side, since she was a longtime viewer, but this storyline made me angry because I thought Annie got the short end of the stick. I mean, what woman wouldn't take it hard finding out the only reason why your husband married you was because his daughter told him to do it? Again, Reva's fingerprints weren't on this, but I just didn't buy the self-sacrificing Reva bit at all, especially when it was so clear that she and Josh wanted each other. I think story ploys like this made me feel the way I do towards, say, Brad and Angelina. If you want to be together, just fcuking be together; it's not worth hurting innocent people, although the GL writers went through great pains to paint Annie as not so innocent. Still, I really hoped that Annie's plan would've worked, just so it would teach Josh and Reva not to be so disingenuous.

Now for the reason why I stopped watching regularly - the Santos. I could give a damn about the Santos. Who the fcuk were they to the rest of the Springfield crowd? They were merely off shoots of Danny, which I could take, but it was a colossal mistake to allow this family to eat up a lot of the screentime.

And the San Cristobel storyline. I always hate when monarchies/royalty are brought into a soap; I especially hated it that Reva was hooked into it, although the result, hot-ass Jonathan, made it somewhat digestable. And Olivia too. I liked Olivia's rage a lot - she was scrappy as h*ll. But I got back into it because of Jonathan, but promptly left when he did.

I checked in every once in a while, though. I did see that Olivia and Natalia had some pretty hot chemistry long before the writers finally brought them together. In fact, this storyline very nearly got me hooked back into Guiding Light, but nothing kills viewer investment than a cancelation announcement, especially for a show that's been on air for 72 years.

So the final week of Guiding Light -- it felt very rushed. However, the seemingly small moments really got to me. For example - Alan's death. On paper, Alan Spaulding's death is not a small thing, but the fact that he, somewhat, made up for some past misdeeds and was able to see the great-grandchild he tried to wrestle away from Jonathan before dying in such a peaceful, tranquil manner, seemed kinda ironic. And Phillip finding him like that - Grant Alexander broke my heart. And Alexandra's response was pretty expected and heartbreaking; however, Fletcher returning to comfort her and eventually, take her away, was well-appreciated. Like Roger, Alex had a hard time letting sleeping dogs lie and lost Fletcher as a result of the same lie that broke up Roger and Holly. Speaking of Holly, it was good to see that she and Ed finally got together. Again, their friendship in the wake of Maureen's death was one of the things that sold me on GL.

It's absolutely painful that the brass in charge of daytime programming continue to underestimate what soaps mean to the viewers. Yes, viewership continues to fall off, but something should be said about the loyalty of the remaining soap viewers. Admittedly, I'm not one of them anymore because of Santa Barbara and Another World's cancelations. I'm a soap hopper, unapologetically so, because why should I, as a fan, be loyal to something when the brass can't muster up the patience, enthusiasm or willingness to examine what's behind the shift in viewership?

And no, reality shows aren't the cause or solution to this problem, either. Personally, I'd rather had reruns of SB on than Starting Over.

Here's a brief clip of Ed and Maureen's confrontation after she learned of his affair with Lillian.