Happy Anniversary GLMP! / Beth Through the Looking Glass

In April of 2006, I became aware of some 90's GL clips posted to a video-hosting site that I'd never heard of called YouTube. I liked what I saw and immediately began searching the site for more. There were a few that were really exciting, but about 99% of what I came across were clips of Reva & Josh, Gus & Harley, Jon & Tammy, and Michelle & Danny. I was frustrated that so few characters from GL's long history were represented on the web. I remembered that I had a few clips already on my computer that had been made available for public download by a former GL watcher sometime in 2005 and there was one Holly clip in particular that I was very anxious to share with people. And so I did... on April 30, 2006. That was the day I posted the clip to YouTube and started a thread about it on the message board that I'd considered my online home for years (this was before that board became the pit that it is today.)
I immediately went in search of more video material and it was less than a month before I made the acquaintance of raven1970a who'd begun a lower profile but more extensive project of her own. Recognizing two great tastes that taste great together when I see them, I worked out a deal with Raven whereby I obtained the exclusive rights to YouTube posting of her ever-expanding collection of clips. By June, various procedural kinks had been worked out and Raven's clips had their own specially named section in the (still not formally titled) project: "classicGL".
By November, the stormy (and often unpleasant) climate of the GL online posting community created a situation where it was no longer workable keep my project going at the rapidly declining message board where I'd been and so the GUIDING LIGHT Memory Project blog was created and later in the same month, the GLMP message board.
Today, GLMP is host to over 1000 (yes, one thousand!) GL clips, the vast majority of which come from Raven. YouTube viewership for our clips numbers in the many, many hundreds of viewers. The GLMP message board has become a safe haven to dozens of people shell shocked by the violence and decay of most of the other GL message boards on the web. The GLMP blog has been visited and complimented by no lesser person than Ms. Marj Dusay herself who sent a lovely message to me via her fan club in response to the Woman of Mystery blog entry.
What started as a defiant mission to increase the presence of Holly and Beth on YouTube became a consuming passion to document and share as much of the 70 year history of GUIDING LIGHT as I could and to make being an online fan of the show into the edifying and joyful experience that I know it should be. It's been a strange year for a lot of reasons and I've been very surprised, both positively and negatively, by many things I've experienced as this project has progressed. I wish I could say I've enjoyed every minute of it, but I will say that every minute has taught me something. And it all began with one clip called No Love.
The project is far from over and I'm just bursting with anticipation over some of the fantastic clipsets we have coming up over the course of the next several months. If the preceding paragraphs sound like I was breaking my arm patting myself on the back, so be it. I'm very proud of what I've done, but I'm also grateful for the tremendous support and encouragement I've received along the way.
But enough about everybody else and back to me: I decided that the very best way to celebrate the one year anniversary of this project would be with a really nice present for me (LOL!)-- a monster of a clipset commemorating one of my favorite GL storylines ever: Beth's time as Lorelei Hills.

And thus, I present to you Beth Through the Looking Glass, a mega-clipset detailing the entire Lorelei story in unprecedented detail with 60 clips. This 2001/2002 storyline brought Beth Chamberlin to brand new level of performance, challenging her as it did with its requirements of three completely separate characters: fun-loving, sassy Lorelei; sensitive, conflicted Beth; and (perhaps most astounding) Lorelei pretending to be Beth.

Chamberlin is magnificent in this storyline, but it also features amazing work by Grant Aleksander and especially the truly brilliant David Andrew MacDonald as Lorelei's partner in crime (the "Eddie Ivories" clips alone are a magnificent treat in and of themselves!). Watching Edmund and Lorelei slowly fall in love in the midst of this dangerous yet madcap adventure was one of the best experiences I've ever had as a GL viewer and I love being able to use this king-sized record of it to celebrate a full year of paying tribute to this very special show.

Beth Through the Looking Glass

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clip 25 , clip 25a (previously posted), clip 26 , clip 27 , clip 28 , clip 29

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To you readers and viewers and supporters, thank you for coming on this journey with me. It's not over, as I said, but this date is significant for me and it's as good a time as any to ponder the enormity of this undertaking. It only gets better from here.

GLMP: Follow the Light backward in time and forward into the future...

---ivnkplng

Shots In the Dark

As some of you may know, April 30th will mark the one year anniversary of the very beginning of this Memory Project. It was on that day in 2006 that I posted my first historical GL clip at YouTube. I've been using April of 2007 to celebrate the anniversary by making a few changes at the GLMP message board as well as by posting clipsets here at the blog that hold special significance of one sort or another for me.

This week, I'd like to take you to the GUIDING LIGHT that I stepped into-- the GL I initially fell in love with toward the end of 1993 when I started watching the show. The GL that I came to love had no Reva, no Harley, and no Phillip , yet somehow managed to be a brilliant, incredibly satisfying hour of television five days a week even without them. "Blasphemy!" Yes I know. "Such a thing is utterly impossible!" Well, not really.

Shots in the Dark is taken from a pair of episodes in December of 1993 that marked a party thrown by Billy and Vanessa to celebrate the engagement of Mindy Lewis and Nick Spaulding. A confrontation between surprise guest Alexandra (Marj Dusay in some of her first days on the show) and gatecrasher Roger (the always explosive Michael Zaslow) turns the party into a horrific barroom brawl of unrivaled proportions.

This unbelievably thrilling group event, studded with literally dozens of electrifying performances, is one of the most unforgettablly involving moments in the history of the show. Impossibly, there's more in store after the fight when Roger is shot by an (at the time) unknown assailant and Alexandra is unable (unwilling!) to mask her contempt for bride-to-be Mindy.

This clipset also boasts wonderful performances by (among many others) Melissa Hayden as Bridget and Geoffrey Scott as Billy. Also, you'll note the presence of Marcy Walker as Tangie Hill. Loyal readers of this blog are aware that the casting of Walker is is one of the reasons I started watching GL, so you can expect to see more of Tangie at some point during GLMP's second year of bringing you the best from GL's 70-year history.

Shots In the Dark--

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Be here next week for a gargantuan tribute to one of my absolute favorite storylines of all time to celebrate GLMP's milestone anniversary! :)

---ivnkplng

The Gift

Internet message boards for GUIDING LIGHT were in full swing by late 2003, during the tenure of John Conboy as Executive producer and Ellen Weston as head writer, so I remember well the general discontent that the viewership felt over the work they did on the show. I wasn't terribly happy with them either (mainly because they took a lot of my favorites off contract), but my negative feelings never quite reached the level of outright hatred that I witnessed on the boards. I bring this up because a new trend that I'm seeing lately is threads about how much more preferable that era was to what David Kreizman is doing to the show now. Oh, the irony...

Today's entry lands us toward the end of that era. The Gift takes us through about three months in the lives of Jeffrey O'Neill and Marah Lewis, from late 2003 to early 2004, as she pursues and eventually beds the randy D.A./Richard-lookalike. The hallmarks of this time are all over the place: the "swiiiisshh" between scenes, Reva's psychic powers, the overt sexuality of the love scenes, Sandy as Marah's brother/crush (eewww!). What I think this clipset tells us is that this team wasn't all bad and the show had a lot to recommend it at that time.

I remember, right before this storyline started (I was living in New York at the time), CBS' THE EARLY SHOW had several GL couples on each morning of this one particular week and Friday's pair was Lindsey McKeon and Bradley Cole. I remember thinking "Why are they on together?"

Then the spoilers started coming and it didn't sound very good to me. Surprisingly, this couple really worked-- at least from where I sat. The storyline made sense and the chemistry between the actors was absolutely electric. Lindsey McKeon is luminous here and so wonderfully believable and sympathetic as a girl with a broken spirit, too young to be so battered by life. It's Jeffrey's recognition of Marah's state that brings out the best in Bradley Cole's portrayal of Jeffrey, which up to this point had been a hard (and loud) pill to swallow.

This clipset also reminds me that poor Scott Bailey never really did have a hold on the Sandy character. You get a cookie if you can get through clip 13 of this set without laughing.

The Gift

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All She Wanted

Blake and Ross are one of the most beloved couples in the history of GUIDING LIGHT with a legion of loyal followers. For my own part, I could take them or leave them as a couple, but their historical and iconic value can't be underestimated. It's well known that Blake "stole" Ross from Holly out of spite, but that's not quite accurate for a few different reasons.

Taken from 1992, All She Wanted takes us through a tumultuous couple of weeks for Blake Thorpe as she employs every tactic under the sun to win Alan-Michael away from his wife, Eleni. This is a crucial turning point for Blake because it is at this time that her last remaining aspirations to once again become Mrs. Spaulding are crushed. It is the death of this dream and the part that Holly plays in it that causes Blake to focus on taking what her mother most values: Ross Marler. That's the point where I've chosen to end this clipset-- at the very moment that Blake makes her decision to destroy Holly's happiness. I should say "Holly's hopes for happiness" because it's worth mentioning that Holly and Ross are not actually together at this point. As big of a Holly-head as I am, even I have to acknowledge that Ross doesn't really seem to be moving back toward Holly at all, although Holly clearly wants a reconciliation.

That's one of the things I really like about this set is that it takes you step by step through the genesis of one GL's most famous storylines. Another great thing about this set is that it features fantastic performances by everyone concerned, including Sherry Stringfield (who would later achieve primetime fame on NYPD BLUE and E/R), Beverlee McKinsey, Jerry verDorn, Rick Hearst, Melina Kanakaredes (later of PROVIDENCE and CSI: NY), and of course, Maureen Garrett.

This was such a wonderful time in the history of the show. It was really clicking on all cylanders and excelling in every area. It's my pleasure to continue the one year anniversary celebration of the GUIDING LIGHT Memory Project with this set.
Enjoy!
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GL Quarterly Report: Best of January to March, 2007

So, with the first three months of 2007 out of the way, what can we say about the state of GUIDING LIGHT? In discussing this with the posters at the GLMP message board, most of us agreed that the show was in a lot better shape this time last year (Isn't that saying something?) If you ask one segment of the viewership, they'll tell you that GL is a mess without Jon and Tammy and that's pretty much true, but not for the reasons some fans might think.

It was pretty obvious that headwriter David Kreizman was deeply, deeply in love with his custom-made supercouple and he wrote very heavily for them... and he wrote and wrote and wrote for them. And when he wasn't writing for them, he wrote for Reva. There were some other plots going on in 2006, but they were sandwiched in, when time permitted, between luxurious Reva and "Jammy" featurettes and seemed very much like tacked-on afterthoughts or halfhearted, begrudging concessions. By 2007, he had given up even the pretense of writing for anyone else and devoted the show almost entirely to his chosen three characters. The worst of it came right at the beginning of the year, when the show decided that it would be a capital idea to feature three solid weeks of nothing but Jon, Reva, their stories, and their problems, with only one day set aside to celebrate the on-air history of GUIDING LIGHT for the anniversary. The anniversary must surely have been seen by Kreizman as a great inconvenience, falling as it did right at the climax of his long goodbye kiss to Jon and Tammy.

Once the young couple departed, we were left with the story of the fallout from their departure and the introduction plot for the criminally de-SORAS-ed Daisy/Susan. Aside from those two stories, everything else was just a slapped-together game of "catch up" as the Kreizman feebly flailed about trying to write for a canvas of characters that had largely been ignored to the point where decomposition had set in.

But what was good about the first quarter of 2007? That's the weird thing: plenty, actually. Not enough, mind you, to say that it was a rousing success, but there were more than few high points during the last three months, including the genuinely inspirational humanitarian efforts of the show's Find Your Light Program.

1/15/07: Oddly enough (given everything I've said so far), the first full episode that I want to single out is the very first day of the aforementioned three-week marathon of Jon and Reva. This Monday episode featured a very small cast and dealt (surpise!) with only one storyline. However, the script was filled with reveletory, lyrical dialogue and the episode maintained an eerie, gothically looming tone. Tension-filled, dramatically potent encounters between Reva and Alan, Beth and Tammy, and Tammy and Remy (yes, Remy!), and other pairs all played together to create a genuinely creepy "oncoming train" feel. Unfortunately, the story and the group of characters were, over the course of the following three weeks, pounded and overplayed to the point that they became little more than white noise, but that first day was incredibly effective.
Forboding-- clip1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4

1/24/07: The story actually did regain quite a bit of punch and relevance at the point of Tammy's death, no small feat, considering the imposing amount of damage done to the character over the last year. The death scene was enormously moving, despite the fact that Tom Pelphrey's large, emotional performance lost any uniqueness due to the fact that his character offered similar reactions, over the course of two and a half years, to everything from the death of his father to breaking a nail and everything in between.
Death In the Family

1/25/07: While I'm not at all happy that only one episode was set aside to look back at the on-air history of GUIDING LIGHT for its milestone 70th anniversary, I take comfort from the fact that the one episode we did get was nothing short of a masterpiece! The narrative device of having the current cast play the actors (and other participants) who put the show on the map was a stroke of genius. I'm just as pleased as can be that GL sent out this wonderful love letter to fans interested in the history of the show. I could go on and on with a very long list of the many, many virtues of this episode, but instead I'll sing the praises of the central performance given by Beth Ehlers as show creator, Irna Phillips. I haven't tended to be a huge fan of Ehlers' work, so you can well imagine my profound shock at her brilliant, restrained, detailed, intelligent portrayal of this woman so very different from herself and from Harley. The rich, complicated inner life that Ehlers communicated in every scene was captivating and left me wishing that we could have Ehlers play Irna from now on instead of Harley.
The episode boasted a sea of immensely entertaining and wonderful performances, but Ehlers' was the crown jewel.
Happy Anniversary-- clip 1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4 , clip 5

2/16/07: The introduction of Doris Wolfe into the Spaulding family had all the earmarks of a terrific story and should've been nigh unto impossible to screw up. Alas, Kreizman's powers of destruction and sabotage should never be underestimated. The story played out as a bad joke by reducing everyone involved to insulting, one-dimensional cartoons. (Yes, you read that right. Alan somehow became more of a cartoon.) The actual wedding of Alan and Doris however, was a truly great day of viewing, mainly because of two performance that (in a stroke of genius) were placed end-to-end in a truly jarring and riveting juxtaposition.
Caitlin Van Zandt was gut-bustingly hilarious as Ashlee serenaded the couple before the wedding with musical stylings representing the worst aspects of the THE GONG SHOW and AMERICAN IDOL. What makes Van Zandt's performance here comedy gold is that she makes sure that Ashlee is very sincere in everything she does. In this way, Ashlee is never a buffoon because her actions come from a real place. Van Zandt (who has a very lovely singing voice) plays Ashlee's very enthusiastic approach to a very bad song perfectly. This would be funny enough on it's own, but the camera makes sure to give us copious lingering shots of the stunned, vaguely nauseated reactions of the Spaulding family and the other guests. Marcy Rylan, Marj Dusay, Michael O'Leary, Beth Chamberlin, and Tina Sloan wordlessly ratchet up the comedy ante far past any level I've ever experienced watching a soap. I can't recall ever having laughed that much, for that long in my nearly two and a half decades of soap viewing.
Brilliantly, the comical mood is immediately and violently shattered as Nicole Forester's Cassie charges into the scene, breaking glass and brandishing a picture of her murdered daughter. Forester is a blood red force of nature, sending Cassie's pain, rage, sadness, and frustration out in waves and torrents of feeling as she excoriates those she holds responsible for the death. Forester's visceral, palpably wounded performance in this scene obliterates any trace of the humor that filled the room prior to her entrance, grabbing and holding the viewer by the throat as surely and tightly as she grasps the picture of Tammy. Her work in this scene is a revelation of the like that is hard to describe and it stands out as the best performance so far this year.
Oh and Alan got shot....
Til Death Do Us Part-- clip 1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4 , clip 5

2/23/07: The show has done truly rotten job of giving Lizzie's grief over the loss of her baby its due. I think this is largely because of the unwanted attention that would then be drawn to the horrific, inexcusable, utterly unjustifiable act committed by show darlings Reva and Jon in making Lizzie believe that her child was killed in a fiery car crash. As a result, we tend (and especially lately) only to see Lizzie express any sadness on this matter when she's about to do something all evil and "Spaulding-like" (The Spauldings are now all completely evil, in case you didn't get Kreizman's many, many memos.) For this reason, the Lizzie/Cassie scenes on Main Street bonding over the loss of their daughters was truly welcome and exceptionally well done.
Marcy Rylan is a tough nut to crack, artistically. Comedy is obviously a comfort zone for her, but she's repeatedly (though not consistently) demonstrated a genuine aptitude for heavier material. Her understated, natural performance here is really lovely, matching well with that of Forester, who had hit a really nice stride that was benefitted by some of the only decent writing going at this point.
A Shared Loss

3/13/07: As the first quarter wore on, there was increasingly less and less to cheer about. The Spaulding section of the "Who Shot Alan?" mystery was little more than a bad, PASSIONS-style sex joke with Beth reduced to running around town trying to get pregnant by a variety of men. This painful and unsavory turn did result in a really nice couple of scenes between Rick and Mel, whose marriage had to end so that Rick could play amoral patsy to Beth. Kreizman devoted a whopping half an episode (not the whole half, mind you. that would be overkill.) to taking down the Bauer marriage. Yvonna Wright and Michael O'Leary are terrific in these scenes. On display here is further evidence of the quantum leap in quality Wright's work took last year during the Bauer/Spaulding quadrangle story, which is actually kind of a shame since we'll undoubtedly now see even less of her than the nothing we were already seeing.

Since Those Days

3/28/07: As March dwindled away toward its end, I was quite certain that the month would be devoid of any full episodes worth presenting in a quarterly report. Then the show finally came through with a magnificent showcase for the best romance it has going when Dinah and Mallet finally (and barely) got married. Gina Tognoni and Rob Bogue just sparkled together and separately in every one of their scenes. Tognoni, especially, turned in a real tour-de-force performance, but both of them were just smashing. What I just can't get enough of with this couple is that they do all playing styles so well and the show is not afraid to run them through a wide gamut of emotions and situations in their ITL's. This episode is also remarkable for the inclusion and substantial use of Maeve Kinkead and Kurt McKinney, both of whom have had very little to do since Vanessa and Matt returned.

I love sitting through an entire episode invested in everything and being expertly taken through comedy, drama, and romance. Even though there was inadequate set-up (both in quantity and quality), the ITL itself was pure joy to watch.

A Matter Of When-- clip 1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4 , clip 5

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My final presentation in this quarterly report consists of two "mvids" spotlighting two elements of the first part of this year that I feel worked the best. The first is the "Haunting of Cassie" storyline that came out of Tammy's death. Nicole Forester's gorgeous work in the gothic psychodrama plot was consistently well presented and extremely effective.

Colorblind

The second video bears a bit of explaining. It spotlights the Daisy character, played by the amazingly charismatic Bonnie Dennison. I love Daisy, but I hate the disregard for the character of Susan more than I can say. Kreizman's trampling on that beloved historical character and her history is unforgivable on every level, but Dennison has won me over completely and I'm choosing to think of Daisy as a brand new character. Dennison is a fantastic find and this mvid showcases the infectiously energetic work she's doing as Daisy bulldozes her way through Springfield and Harley and Gus' marriage.

Little Sister

Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Our next entry will see a return to vintage GUIDING LIGHT as we spend the month of April celebrating the one year anniversary of my historical clip project!

See you next week!

---ivnkplng