Benefit of the Doubt

Almost two years ago, when I first began this blog, I posted a set of clips called Outstanding Citizen. Since then, I've been literally deluged with requests to continue where that set left off, so anxious were people to learn what happened after Roger coerced Gilly into humiliating H.B. Lewis at the banquet in his honor. Today, I'm able to honor those requests and present Benefit of the Doubt. As with Outstanding Citizen, the primary players are Roger, Gilly, and H.B. as they spin out from the confrontation at the banquet that leaves most of Springfield thunderstruck. Another prominent throughline is the crumbling of Buzz Cooper's "Rex Mancini" identity as Mallet begins to put the pieces together (and try not to be creeped out by the fact that the baby in Eleni's womb will eventually become Mallet's lover!)

I've said quite a bit about what a strong show GUIDING LIGHT was during this period. This was the height (or nearly so) of all the enthusiastic press the GL was receiving around this time. The show was a critical darling at this time and it's easy to see why: seemlessly interconnected plots, a mind-blowingly agile cast, and deft, spakling dialogue that made you think (I nearly swooned with pleasure when Holly makes a snarky comment about Jenna's move to the Spaulding mansion-- in Latin!! LOL!) This was not a show for dummies or for quick-fix junkies waiting for an evil twin to return from the dead and bury someone alive. This was a beautifully written, tenderly (but pasionately) acted example of the height of the soap opera form.

I absolutely can't go without mentioning that this is also a textbook display of how to incorporate black characters into a daytime drama (which, not for nothing, shouldn't be the mind-boggler that it apparently is!). Absent is the self-consciously "urban" dialogue and passionless, islanded love stories. These characters matter to the canvas as a whole. Their actions have consequences and they are affected by the lives of those around them. Remember around 2000 when David, Vicky, and Ruth all disappeared? No goodbye, no exit storyline, no explanation (at least not until much, much later-- and none at all in Ruth's case). That couldn't happen during the period covered here because Gilly, Hamp, David, and Kat mattered to GUIDING LIGHT in an organic way as opposed to being inserted in some vulgar, incompetant gesture of tokenism. I see the show trying to accomplish the same thing now with the Boudreau family (an attempt to correct the many, many mistakes made during their awful 2001 introduction), but while the effort has been somewhat successful, they have a long way to go before they reach the mojo of the Grant/Speakes family.

This is a truly satisfying clipset and it features big moments and luxurious looks at just about every cast member from mid-1993, not the least of which is the charismatic and underrated Jean Carol as Nadine (one of my all-time favorites). Here, Nadine must cope with her deadbeat ex-husband (Buzz, played by Justin Deas sporting a bafflingly laughable "New Yawk" accent that Michael Zaslow openly mocks in one scene! LOL!) whose return has resulted in her in her being indirectly resposible for the shame of her beloved father-in-law, H.B.

There are so many plots swirling around in these clips, I can't possibly describe them all, so I will just say that you will not be sorry you watched this clipset. It's GUIDING LIGHT at one of the very best periods in its history (with the exception of the painfully lifeless Ann Hamilton as Mindy).

Enjoy, Benefit of the Doubt--

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Full Circle

I decided to put this entry's set up because I was (and remain) a huge champion of Lloyd "Lucky" Gold's time as headwriter of GUIDING LIGHT. Full Circle is taken from early June of 2002 and focuses on the third wedding of Josh and Reva. It features a flood of returning characters (Trish, Mindy, Rusty, Dylan, Vanessa, Hawk) and an event that showcases the entire cast (with the exception of Lillian and the Bauers who are all dealing with Rick's failing heart, as can be seen in the clipset entitled The Heart of the Matter). This large event features criss-crossing storylines and all the cast interaction you could possibly want-- and which we modern-day viewers of the current cash-strapped show so miss.

This was a time when Tory Granger was making life hell for Blake and Ross, Bill returned to town for the wedding and realized the Beth looked mighty familiar to him, Harley was fighting Phillip to be with Gus, Marah was embracing a life with Tony, and poor doomed Richard was inching ever closer to his fatal car accident. All of these stories are featured here, but the focus is obviously Reva and Josh (which, if you've ever watched GUIDING LIGHT, you know means "a whole lotta Reva with snippets of Josh") and their elaborate, yet somehow simple and warm, wedding ceremony.

This is a wonderful, strong, vital GUIDING LIGHT-- one which I really adored and which I pray that Gold is able to hearken back to now that he is part of the current headwriting team.

It's interesting to note though that this wonderful, diverse event would not have taken place if Kim Zimmer had been in charge.

From Soap Opera Weekly:

Zimmer confides she "was very nervous. Robert and I had

gone in awhile ago and pitched to have it just be family and a

justice of the peace at Cross Creek. Of course, when the

scripts started coming in and it turned into [something bigger],

I was a little... It didn't fit well."

Obviously, I disagree completely. I think this is a beautiful example of a soap wedding and it's a testament to that fact that I can enjoy this event even though I'm not a fan of this couple or the Reva character. Since this was contract time, Zimmer followed this (in the same article) with a threat to leave if her coming story wasn't adequately beefy, so I guess viewers were given a wedding event that the entire viewership could enjoy and Zimmer got her beefy story with killing Richard without Cassie's consent.

Enjoy Full Circle--

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If you like, you can take a look at Vanessa's visit with Ed right before the party that opens Full Circle. It's a mini-set that I posted a couple of years ago called Long Lost.

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Love and Anger

1960's GUIDING LIGHT is a tough nut to crack-- not because it isn't good. It's actually quite good. It's just that it's so far removed from everything most of us have experienced as GL viewers, that (with exception of Bert, Ed, and a few others) it seems like a completely different show.

I'm lucky in that I've been immersed in the history of the show for several years now. Even before I started this video preservation project, I voraciously consumed all the printed material I could find about the history of GUIDING LIGHT. Consequently, I know that when we see Robin (Meta's step granddaughter, played by Gillian Spencer, best known as ALL MY CHILDREN's Daisy) falling further apart over her miscarriage, that she is on a slippery slope toward her eventual suicide. (Bizarrely, Bauer girls were killing themselves left and right in the 1960's. Julie Bauer had committed suicide just a few years prior.) I know that the tumultuous marriage of Maggie and Ben and its effects on Peggy are especially resonant since both parents would also be dead within a couple of years.

Luckily, this clipset is very enjoyable even without an encyclopedic, obsessive knowledge of GL lore. That's due to the exqusite writing of soap legend Agnes Nixon (at the tail end of her GL tenure) and the amazing cast. The set is called Love and Anger and it comes from mid-1966. It actually falls squarely in the middle of a previous set, Shadows of the Past.

As of this set, I've added a new favorite to my stable of preferred GL characters: Maggie Scott. Played by Broadway veteran June Graham, Peggy's mother Maggie is a real force to be reckoned with and absolutely fascinating to watch. I find myself extremely interested in the story of independant, fiery Maggie recovering from her disastrous affair with Bill Bauer and coping with her forced bond with emotionally abusive, controlling husband Ben. Maggie delivers a hilariously classic line when, in response to Ben asking "Where are you going?," she snipes, "The only place where I don't have to see you. My room!"

Of course, the Bauers are front and center in these clips. Prominent stories include Bert and Papa attempting to clean up Bill's many, many messes (Wow, I do not like Bill Bauer!) and Ed navigating hospital politics and struggling to return Leslie Jackson's affections. Speaking of Leslie, Lynne Adams is just wonderful in these clips and now I really understand why the character became such an important part of GL and why Adams became soap royalty. Less effective is the teen romance of Peggy and Johnny, but that's mostly because of Don Scardino's grating munchkin voice. It's easy to see why he was replaced a year later.

Also of note here is the appearance of Mr. Billy Dee Williams as the first Jim Frazier. It's neat to see him so young and especially ironic, considering his recent return to soaps in GH: NIGHT SHIFT.

I urge readers of this blog who may be put off by "old time-y" black-and-white television or the grainy images to give this a try. It's wonderful soap opera and hugely entertaining. For a little context, this set falls between clips 24 and 25 of Shadows of the Past

Enjoy Love and Anger--

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The Cost of Silence

As I struggled to come up with an "angle" for this blog entry, I thought about the reasons why I love the 1979-82 time period of GUIDING LIGHT so much. I wasn't a viewer during that time, having only discovered my great love for it in the (nearly) two and a half years of managing this Project.

I remember the day I actually got this GL. I was watching the scenes of the party that Jennifer threw the night before Kelly and Morgan's wedding (which can be seen in the You Needed Me blog entry). I remarked in that entry that I finally understood the simplicity and sincerity of this era while viewing those clips. And "sincerity" is the perfect word to describe the soap opera form of this time period. These people mean it-- the actors, the characters, the writers. They mean what they're saying and there's a genuine attempt to really give these characters life.

Completely absent is the wry cynicism of modern day soap opera. Would the soap form have survived to 2008 had it retained this unapologetic sincerity? Was GENERAL HOSPITAL's Gloria Monty right to take the form and wrap it in adventure and lipstick? History would seem to answer "no" to the first question and "yes" to the second, but I'm not so sure the answers are that easy.

Daytime is in trouble now as 2008 winds down to it's final months. The top rated show, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, has a rating of of 3.7-- and that's for a strong week where that show posted gains. Everyone has their own pet reasons why soap opera is in freefall (and the entire genre most certainly is in freefall!), but I can't help but wonder-- Did daytime carve out its own heart long before we commonly think it did? Did we trade in a soap opera form with genuine value for Luke and Laura on the cover of Newsweek?

In general, GUIDING LIGHT has not fallen quite as far (or as continuously) down this rabbit hole, the first half of the 1990's being a notable hearkening to a more sincere style, but even GL has been irrevocably affected by what occurred in daytime in the 1980's. It's a different game now and I'm just not sure it's a game that can be won.

Today's clipset is called The Cost of Silence and it comes from April of 1979, as Springfield prepares for Roger's trial for the rape of Holly. A focal character is Rita Bauer (the always luminous Lenore Kasdorf), who struggles with the knowledge that her own rape by Roger is information that would help Holly's case immeasurably. Her anguish over whether or not to come forward is part of what drives this sequence, as is Roger's blackmail of Alan Spaulding.

This set of clips is filled to bursting with stellar performances by each and every actor-- not just the "leads," but also Charita Bauer as Bert, powerhouse Barbara Berjer as Barbara, and Marsha Clark as Hillary, among others. The writing by Jerome and Bridget Dobson is pitch perfect. It's exciting, heart-tugging, natural, and of course, it is sincere.

It should be noted that this set falls in the middle of Certain Rights (which can be viewed in the blog entry for The Usual Suspects). These episodes come between clips 13 and 14 of Certain Rights, so if you want to know what happens next after The Cost of Silence, then jump to clip 14 of Certain Rights.

Enjoy The Cost of Silence--

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