I have been watching Guiding Light for 26 years.
Now, I know that I'm a guy, but you really have to blame my mother for all this. When I was around 14 or 15, I would come home from school and want to watch television. My mom would be watching her "stories," which were All My Children, One Life To Live, and Guiding Light (it used to be on in the afternoon). She wouldn't let me watch anything, so I was stuck watching Guiding Light when I got out of school...and I became hooked. I became addicted to the show, and watched it all for years, through the Philip/Beth/Rick/Mindy saga, the devious schemes of Alan Spaulding and Roger Thorpe, that bizarre story with the infected mouse that killed a bunch of characters off, Quint and Nola, Ross and Josh turning from bad to heroes, and the more recent storylines like that whole Richard and Jeffrey island kingdom stuff and Harley and Gus and Jonathan.
I don't watch the show half as much as I used to (from 1980 to around 1991 I hardly ever missed an episode), but I watch it a couple of times a week and I know what's going on. I've been increasingly unhappy with the direction the show has taken the past several years, and...oh, that's a whole other rant I could get into. CBS, if you're reading this, hire me as a writer for the show and I'll tell you exactly how to get ratings up and the buzz back.
Today GL (as we used to call it) aired it's 15,000th episode. The show has been on television since 1952, and was on the radio for around 15 years before that! That's gotta be some kind of record. The episode today had long-suffering heroine Reva getting into an accident at the lighthouse (funny: they never really said where Springfield was, but it seems to have a lighthouse and also happens to be in the midwest and also seems to be just an hour plane ride to anywhere in the world, heh) and imagines what her life in the town would be like if things were different.
Anyone see the show today and able to fill us in on what happened?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-07-2006 @ 4:33PM
James said...
I've been watching GL almost as long as you have. My excuse is I work evenings and daytime TV is my primetime. Anyway,today's show was a laugh, and not in a good way. What a waste of a special occasion! The rich were poor, the poor were rich, the good evil, the evil.... you get the picture. Looked like a fifth grade production at best. Josh ends up saving the light house from being wrecked by the Coopers, and Reva realises that no matter ift she is dying she can't just stand by and watch as the world turns. Josh wakes her up at the end and asks her what's wrong.... Don't get me wrong, I love the show, after all my dog's name is Gus.
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9-08-2006 @ 9:19AM
Hollie said...
OK, but when can I buy these episodes on 1500 DVDs?
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9-08-2006 @ 3:44PM
Jane said...
What a pleasure that show must have been for the actors! They probably loved playing characters that were the complete opposite of what they usually play. It was alot of fun for us too! Having Olivia be a nun was great..not to mention Lizzie a nurse and Jonathan a doctor...the writers did a real turnaround!
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9-20-2006 @ 7:01PM
Bernard said...
Just for the record, Springfield has been idenitfied as being in Illinois for many, many years. It's been mentioned as a suburb of Chicago, but during the Ellen Weston headwriting era the show was briefly identified as the capitol of the state.
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10-04-2006 @ 7:38AM
Vivian Smith said...
Just wanting the writers and producers to know that after the break-up of Reva and Josh I will no longer watch the show. I am so disappointed in your show. I have been a fan for lots of years, but this is the worst thing that I think you could have thought up. I know it is only a soap opera, but we take the people serious, so until you unite Josh and Reva, count me out.
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10-05-2006 @ 9:22AM
Angie Keifer said...
I have been watching Guiding Light since I was 11 years old. I love the show!!!
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11-10-2006 @ 1:03PM
Louella Benden said...
I have watched Guiding Light for about 42 years. Our family moved all over the country, because of my former husband's job. The characters on Guiding Light became the only friends I could take with me. The characters were the only familiar faces,(other than my own family) in a sea of strangers. I can't believe that the writers and/or Kim Zimmer, decided to write her out of the show!!! I have been a faithful fan long enough, to witness a lot of the "characters" die or just leave the show. Reva has been the "heart" of Guiding Light. I've watched throughout the illness, but expected her to get better. Even when Harley had the "super" powers, I was hoping she would visit Reva, and perform a "miracle." I know that would be fiction in its most rediculous form, but after all, isn't that what entertainment is all about??? In "real" life, most everyone has to live through tragedy. Why did we have to witness the pain and sorrow of Cancer, without a cure? Has Management given a thought to how this might affect fans, who are currently battling this dreadful disease, and praying for a cure? I've missed some episodes because of the program time change. Now,today, I guess I watched Reva die. I believe you have relieved my, of my addiction to the show!!! This is the worst "separation" you have planned for Reva & Josh. If you can't bring Reva back, you have lost a "life long" fan. Sincerely, Louella Benden
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11-15-2006 @ 1:02AM
tammy gordon said...
I have been watching guiding light since I was 5 years old, thanks to my mom. I am now 34. I loved seeing all the flashbacks of Josh and Reva and Billy when they first started the show. I want to watch these episodes again, but I don't know if this is possible. If it is could someone please let me know. I also like to say that they need some new hook-ups on the show. I hate Cassie now. I want Josh and Reva together again. I turn the channel everytime I think Josh and Cassie are going to kiss. I was hoping that they would reveal that H.B. is Cassie's father, and Josh and Billy's half-sister so there would be no Josh and Cassie, but I thought they might do this before they had them sleeping together, now I don't know what to think. I would like to see Frank and Blake get together, and Billy fall in love with someone other than Reva, maybe Lillian. I also hope that Coop is the real father of Lizzie's baby. I liked them together.
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