I think all of us at one time or another has been hooked on daytime soaps. Whether you were stuck at home sick or in college or just were home during the day, almost everyone who watches can get hooked on them for at least a short time. When I first started watching soaps I was a CBS guy. Most of my friends would alternate between NBC and ABC depending on the soap which was on then, but I was a lover of CBS. When Capitol went off the air I found myself starting to watch more ABC, but originally I was CBS. So, I was sad today to hear that Guiding Light is going off the air. It has been on for 72 years. It was airing before there even was television. It used to be a radio soap and made the transition to television back in 1952. It is the longest running television drama and I can't imagine it ever being surpassed.
The show will air its last episode in September. Now, what I would hope they would do is do something most soaps have never done and which is why they end up making us nuts and that is to actually end a story line. I would love if they did that or if they could figure out a way to write in roles for every featured actor that has been on the show and is still alive and willing to do it.
I went through IMDB to find some of the more well known people who have appeared on the show and I found Peter Gallagher, Christopher Walken who was on for three years, Mira Sorvino, Taye Diggs, Allison Janney, Calista Flockhart, Ian Ziering, JoBeth Williams, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, James Lipton who was on one episode in 1953, Brittany Snow, and Hayden Panettiere.
I once joked to my mom that the reason why I have such trouble with romantic relationships was that I learned about them by watching soap operas.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, she didn't think it was funny.
lol Kelly!
ReplyDeletei never watched GL, I'm more a Y&R fan...is GL a Jesus soap? the name always suggested it.
I watched Guiding Light for years along with the other CBS shows, then they lost me in the late 90's.
ReplyDeleteThe only one that I still follow is YnR(I tape it every day).
The only daytime soap I used to watch was Dark Shadows.
ReplyDeletejax, no GL isn't religious LOL!
ReplyDeleteSylvia, I also used to watch DS.
I am not a Guiding Light fan but it's sad that most of the Soap Operas are canceled.
What are they going to put in it's place, the news or an infomercial?
That's just sad.
Don't forget Kevin Bacon!
ReplyDeleteI remember my sister was a GL fan when we were kids, and she and I would fight over THE television, because I wanted to watch General Hospital. Good times...
High five for a fellow CBSer!
ReplyDeleteKevin Bacon played a drunken kid After the Madoff Mess, he can play a drunken middle-aged man. Deniec Pence, Thomas O'Rourke, JoBeth Williams was hot as Brandy Shalou. What about Kim Zimmer?
ReplyDeleteMy Mom, now 91 grew up with the show and has outlasted most of the characters.
GL is not completely dead just yet. P&G owns the rights and seems to be willing to shop it around. and while i agree that GL is not a "jesus" soap, it has always been grounded more in faith than any of the others. in fact, when it was created all those years ago, it was a show about faith. a serialized non-preachy show about faith. imagine that...
ReplyDeleteI never watched GL, it was on against General Hospital, but is Kim Zimmer still on it?
ReplyDeleteI loved this show when Michael Zaslow (RIP) and Sherry Stringfield were on it. That was a LONG time ago.
ReplyDeleteI.HAVE.NEVER.WATCHED.A.SOAP.
ReplyDeleteBORING...
How could I forget Carrie(Mrs. Dick Cavett)Nye, Melinka Kanaktonguetwisterredes, Harley Jane Kozaak, Cindy(Matthew Broderick's mama in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) Pickett, James Rebhorn,Nia Long
ReplyDeleteJohn Wesley(The Flash and oh-so hot,hot gay)Shipp, Sherry Stringfield,
This makes me sad. I have always been an ABC girl and thinking of losing one of my soaps brings tears to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best series enders ever was Six Feet Under where it showed how every character died. It was sweet to see into their futures. It would be a nice way for a soap to go out as well.
And yet that POS called Days of Our Lives continues. No way is GL is worse than DOOL. Not possible.
ReplyDeleteThe prevailing theory among the DOOL fans is that the producers and writers are trying to drive all the viewers away so they can cancel it without a big uproar. There's no other rational explanation for how shitty it is now. As soon as Thaao's storyline wraps up, I'm out of there.
ReplyDeleteI was always a General Hospital girl myself. During the original Luke & Laura days, of course. Laura getting raped to Herb Alpert music will be embedded in my mind forever.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother died last week and she watched GL every day. I'm glad she won't know it's going off the air.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your grandma equinox. :(
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss, equinox. Yeah, it would have broken her heart. I know soaps are dumb, but when you spend literally decades with these people, it's hard not to care what happens to them.
ReplyDeleteIt's cheaper for the networks to add another judge smartass show.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Days will be far behind GL.
I'm sorry, equinox. Am sending a toast to you and yours.
ReplyDeleteWeren't Julianne Moore and Meg Ryan on GL??
ReplyDeleteEquinox .. my Grandma is a GL view too. Very, Very sorry for your loss.
I think Days will be next, Califblondy. Look for more high profile names to be axed in the coming months. They are looking to be ready to put the show in the ground when the next extension is up .. think Sept of 2010??
There I go .. showing my NBC in public!! Julianne and Meg were on "As The World Turns" .. my bad. But .. I know NBC .. not CBS. : /
ReplyDeleteWAHHH! I remember watching GL when I was tiny because my mom watched it. Then I started watching it in college in the early '80s, then off and on since then. Work gets in the way 'ya know. How sad. Despite what many think, many of the actors on those soaps are fairly decent actors--heck, to play one character for umpteen years, you'd have to be!
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