Guiding Light | IMDB v2.1

Guiding Light Apr 21, 2017 16:34:13 GMT

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Post by jarrodmcdonald on Apr 21, 2017 16:34:13 GMT

Apr 21, 2017 4:03:04 GMT MiketheMechanic said:

Apr 19, 2017 15:55:49 GMT jarrodmcdonald said:

I think this is definitely the WRONG reason for a soap to stay on the air. And we're seeing that with Days right now. It's kind of like expecting a dog to live 100 years. These things have certain, limited life cycles. A show should not stay on the air because of history. It should stay on the air because a lot of people are still watching and it is good television. I loved Guiding Light and watched it from 1979 till it went off in 2009. But it was dreadful during most of Ellen Wheeler's reign as executive producer and really should have been cancelled in 2007. Switching to a new production model after its 70th anniversary killed it. It was not allowed to go out with dignity.

A friend of mine worked on GL from 1990 to 2002 and he's biased and thinks those years are the best. Even during those years, there were several regime changes and basically every three years it was reinventing itself. The Guiding Light of 1990 is several versions removed from what it was at the end in 2009. A show shouldn't have to change so much just to keep up. Personally I think 1997 to 2002 under producer Paul Rauch was the last renaissance period. It goes downhill quickly from 2002 to 2005, then with Wheeler for those last few years it was nearly unwatchable.

Y&R and GH are still on the air because a lot of viewers are still (by habit) watching but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're good television. Not every show on television has to be good to survive many, many years.

I too have watched GL since the late 1970's and it's been one heck of a roller-coaster ride. They took a chance with Ellen Wheeler and she deserves props for trying but it was too little, too late. By the time she became EP soaps as a whole were becoming a dying breed.

But even with that said I still would have taken Pam Long over Ellen Wheeler!

Pam Long was an actress turned headwriter. She never was a director or a producer like Ellen Wheeler. Pam's work on GL in the 80s is probably what helped the show last as long as it did-- because she introduced many iconic characters and her core families were still on the canvas during the program's final year. But there was a lot of mismanagement leading up to the end of the show, and Ellen Wheeler was responsible for a lot of those missteps.

From 1979 to 2009 (the years I watched), I would say these were the best writers and producers:

1. Pam Long (headwriter, two tenures in the 80s)
2. Gail Kobe (producer in the 80s)
3. Paul Rauch (producer in the late 90s/early 2000s)
4. Doug Marland (headwriter, late 70s/early 80s)
5. Millee Taggart (headwriter in the early 2000s)
6. James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esenstein (coheadwriters during the Rauch era)
7. Jill Farren Phelps (producer, mid 90s)
8. Megan McTavish (headwriter, mid 90s)
9. Jeff Ryder (headwriter, mid-80s)
10. Claire Labine (headwriter early 2000s-- not as good as her work on other shows, but still solid)