In this entry, I am going to write about my thoughts on the second disc of soapclassics.com Guiding Light release.
Episode One: July 27, 1981
Kelly (John Wesley Shipp) confronted Nola (Lisa Brown) for lying to him about her pregnancy. While Kelly had no idea who the father of her fetus was, he knew that he was not the father. (And since this was 1981, there was no DNA testing available.) The scenes where he got in her face, while she continued to lie occurred on the patio outside Ed’s house. This background was used for many Bauer BBQs. The first fifteen minutes had only these two characters on screen.
After the confrontation, Kelly went looking for Morgan (Kristin Vigard), while Nola went home. Kelly stopped by the hospital and spoke with Trudy (Amy Steel), who told him that she was at Laurel Falls. Morgan had been staying with Trudy. Hillary (Marsha Clark), Katie (Denise Pence) and Floyd (Tom Nielsen) all were also at the hospital at different points in the episode. Overhearing what was going on Hillary put it all together that Floyd was the one that was sleeping with Nola.
Kelly reached Morgan at a set of Laurel Falls and not the real thing. You could see the chroma key behind them. Morgan and Tim (Chris Marcantel) were talking about what was going on, but when Kelly appeared Tim left. Morgan shared her plans with Tim to go to Toronto for the summer if not for good. Kelly told Morgan about what happened with Nola and how she had been lying. Morgan and Kelly reunited.
At home at the Boarding House, Bea (Lee Lawson) and Tony (Greg Beecroft) are talking about how Nola got into trouble, and Tony swears the guy who is responsible will take care of her. Nola comes to her mother crying, and tells Tony to beat Kelly up, but Bea tells her Hillary told her everything. Nola got into it with her mother Bea and as Tony watched. Bea admits that she told Kelly the truth. Once Nola started threatening their mother, Tony got between them. It was an ugly situation, and eventually she retired to her room. Tony tried to comfort their mother. Bea knocked on her door and gave her flowers that were from Floyd. Nola vowed that this was not the end of it with Kelly.
The other material in this episode had to do with Spaulding Enterprises. In this episode, a new character came to Springfield named Carrie (Jane Elliot). She was the new hire for the art department. Ben (Stephen Yates), Diane (Sophia Landon Geier, who worked as a soap writer for years), Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), and Ross (Jerry verDorn) were all chatting with her. Vanessa mentioned how she could temporarily live in a hotel called the Springfield Towers. Carrie spoke how she couldn’t live like that for long as she likes to garden. Later that evening, Vanessa met her father Henry (William Roerick). They were talking about how she was being blackmailed, and how a private investigator was looking into Diane. I couldn’t tell where Vanessa and Henry were chatting, but it was a different place then where the others were. After work, Ben, Diane, Carrie and Ross met at what looked to be The Copper Lantern. Ben spoke about how his wife Amanda had a nervous breakdown and barely wanted to see him. Then Ross appeared apologizing for being late as he had just been talking with Amanda as he had been out of town. This was awkward. At another table, Hillary was talking about the situation with Kelly.
Episode Two: July 12, 1982
Everyone in Springfield was finding out and coping with the death of Jackie Marler (Carrie Mowery). She perished in a plane crash, in which no bodies were found, but the fuselage was located in Lake Michigan. Thankfully, she left baby Samantha at her sister-in-law’s Lainie’s house, or else the baby would have also been gone. Justin (Tom O’Rourke) was devastated over the loss of his wife. She was rushing home after finding out that Carrie had not slept with Justin. Carrie had more than one personality and had been lying about the whole situation.
Off camera, Alan (Chris Bernau) went to see Phillip to tell him about Jackie. At this point, Phillip was at Boarding school, though Jackie and Justin had custody since Elizabeth left Springfield. She now lives in Zurich. This of course was ironic, as Justin and Jackie are also his biological parents. Alan and Hope (Elvera Rousell) were in the process of moving out of their house into somewhere new with baby Alan-Michael. Bert (Charita Bauer) and Mike (Don Stewart) were there when they found out about Jackie. It sounded like Floyd was moving into their place, but I cannot be certain as I wasn’t watching in those days.
Morgan (Jennifer Cooke) found out about Jackie’s death. Off camera, she shared the news with her husband Kelly. She was on her way to the east coast for a photo shoot, and ran into Josh (Robert Newman). He wanted something more, but she wanted to avoid him. When Sara (Millette Alexander) saw him at the hospital, she asked again what happened between him and Carrie before Ross entered his place. He wouldn’t tell her anything and wore dark glasses inside the hospital.
Eve (Janet Grey), Maureen (Ellen Dolan), Ross and Ed (Peter Simon) were at Justin’s house, but Ed and Maureen had to go to work, while Ross needed leave and tell Carrie what had happened. Ross was concerned this would hurt Carrie’s emotional progress. Eve assured Ross she would stay behind and look after Justin. At the hospital, Ross ran into Vanessa as she was supposed to meet with Sara. This got postponed due to Jackie’s death. Vanessa and Ross admitted that they were not as close as they once were, but at times like this it didn’t matter. He clasped her hand, before he went to see Carrie. This rocked Carrie emotionally like everyone feared. While in session with Dr. Ryder (not sure if it was Rider or Ryder), a third personality appeared Carrie Mackenzie to join the other two Carrie Marler and Carrie Anderson.
Once Ed got to the hospital, he told Katie she could go see Justin. Mike also stopped by the house. By nightfall, only Katie remained as Ross had yet to return and she wasn’t going to leave Justin alone. The phone ran and it was Phillip. Justin had a one-sided conversation with Phillip, and broke down crying. He handed the phone to Katie, who explained to Phillip that he did that as he was crying also.
Vanessa spent the night at Tony’s apartment. He was surprised she stayed, but she admitted that he locked her clothes in his room. Vanessa was wearing a robe, and Tony quipped how she was wearing more clothing now than when he had gotten home. In those days, Vanessa liked to flash the men she was interested in, but unlike others Tony didn’t bite. In the kitchen there was a Matisse print, which surprised me for Tony’s apartment. After Vanessa left, Tony went to see his mother to check up on her because of Nola being out of the country with Quint (Michael Tylo).
At the Boarding House, Bea and Tony talked about love. She admitted that a man had wanted to marry her after her husband had abandoned them. Tony was surprised by this, and wondered why she said no. Bea said it was because she didn’t love him enough. Tony heeded his mother’s advice and was glad to hear from Hillary. She came over to his apartment after the misunderstanding with Vanessa. Basically Vanessa made Hillary believe something was going on, but Tony wasn’t even home. On top of that, Tony thought Hillary had gotten back together with Derek. Hillary and Tony were glad to clear up their differences. After the long hard day, Maureen and Ed had, Maureen went to the Boarding House to be with her Mom. They flirted, kissed and he didn’t care what any of the boarders would have to say about their relationship, as they would be right.
On Quint’s boat, Quint, Nola and Gunther (George Kappaz) were making their way to the temple of gold. This was the St. Croix remote. Nola was a bit scared over the dire warning they had received. Nola told Quint she had never imagined anything like this, and he was surprised.
Episode Three: August 29, 1983
It is the end of Mindy’s (Krista Teserau) 18th birthday party. What started as a celebration turned into a nightmare. Everyone at the party started singing Happy Birthday and the cake was presented, but it went ugly quickly. Phillip (Grant Aleksander) was freaking out after finding out that he wasn’t Alan’s biological child. There were quick cameos in this episode of Rick (Michael O’Leary), Ross, Ed and Helena (Rose Alaio), who were at the party, but once Phillip freaked out where not in the rest of the show.
Phillip asked who knew about him not being Alan’s son. He knew that Justin and Alan had told other people. Phillip felt like everyone in town was aware except for him, as Hope, Ross, Ed and Maureen knew. That said, Alan would have told Hope as his wife, and Justin wouldn’t lie to his brother Ross, so of course they would know this secret. Initially, Phillip believed that Justin was his father and Elizabeth was his mother. He was horrified to find out that Jackie was his mom, and he missed her funeral. Phillip knew how much Jackie loved him as sometimes she would just look at him and cry. This was sad and in context of the episode before even more poignantly striking.
Beth (Judi Evans) took a bus home from the country club. Bradley (James Rebhorn) was upset with her and grounded her. Lillian (Tina Sloan) and Bradley got into it about their lives. Lillian admitted that she could support them financially. What is sad about this situation is that Lillian could leave, but was put down so fully by Bradley that she was unable to walk away from the toxic marriage.
Elsewhere we saw Billy (Jordan Clarke) and H.B. (Larry Gates) talk about LTA (Los Tres Amigos). The company, which was founded by Josh, Amanda and Ross was now in trouble. Amanda had left town and wanted to sell her shares, while Ross had already divested himself of the company to work in public service. Billy wanted his father’s help to get more money to keep LTA going. H.B. told Billy he would give him the money if Josh would humble himself and ask. Billy also gave his darling Mindy another birthday gift: a necklace of a horse after Boss. She loved it, but she continued to worry about Phillip. Meanwhile Trish (Rebecca Hollen) and Josh spoke about Josh’s issues with their father. Trish felt their father wasn’t so bad, but Josh felt like H.B. was too hard on him. There was talk about how he wished that he was adopted and even created his own imaginary father to cope.
We also saw a bit of life with Quint and Nola. Vanessa had just returned from the hospital after visiting with Henry who had a heart attack. We heard that he can now have visitors. Nola was glad for that, as she wanted to ask him more about the photograph. Henry had been looking at a picture when Annabelle walked in the room and fell ill. Nola believed all of it was connected and it was: Lake Elizabeth story.
Episode 4: January 11, 1993
This episode of Guiding Light had the full ending credits with the cast pictures and list of performers, which I counted to be 29. GL won the best writing Daytime Emmy award that year, for two scripts written by Patrick Mulcahey surrounding Maureen's death, but the credits for this episode state Roger Newman (who played Ken Norris) as the writer. This episode was on Ellen Parker's winning Daytime Emmy reel for Best Supporting Actress. She may have lost her job, when Maureen died, but she ended up with a nice golden girl for her trophy cabinet.
Ed went to the Bauer cabin to see Maureen, who had left him due to his liaison with Lillian. Maureen was obviously heartbroken as her husband cheated on her a second time. (Actually it was the third, but only his affair with Holly was mentioned, as what happened with Claire only occurred when Ed believed Maureen was dead.) She felt like she had been a fool to trust him again, and couldn't handle that he destroyed their family. Ed mentioned what it would do to Michelle, but obviously he wasn't thinking about their daughter as Maureen called the house and he was outside with Lillian. Maureen became fed up and left Ed alone wearing his wet trench coat standing in the cabin. Unfortunately she got into a single car accident going over the railing in her blue 1990 car.
At the Country Club, Roger (Michael Zaslow) was talking with his lawyer Leo Flynn (Robert Lupone, who has a very long list of credits, the last show I saw him on was Smash as an attorney. This made me squeal Leo at the television, but I digress.) They were speaking about Jenna (Fiona Hutchison) and how she could get control of Spaulding Enterprises from the Spauldings. Since Alex is out of town and nowhere to be found, Vanessa was in charge and Roger saw her as weaker. Nick (Vincent Irizarry) and Eve (Hilary Edson) are together and committed to each other. Roger decided to send them a bottle, which backfired. Nick became physical with Roger after hearing how he helped Mindy leave town. Meanwhile back at Roger's apartment with the awesome doorbell, Jenna has a visitor Henry Chamberlain. He has come with flowers and an apology for making her believe she was his daughter. Henry was worried about how Spaulding had no paperwork about her father's Clyde invention and figured if he made Jenna family there would be no fight. Jenna was torn as she grew to care and love Henry in a way she didn't think was possible, as that Christmas was the first she ever had with a family. Henry admitted that he loved her regardless, and there was a tortured hug. Henry made the wrong move, when he offered her a check. Jenna turned on him, ripped up the check and wanted him to go. As he was walking out, Roger was at the door coming in; if Roger and Jenna hadn't been involved things would have gone very differently. Jenna felt like Henry was using and manipulating her, but Roger was doing the same in his quest for Spaulding Enterprises.
Billy, Dylan (Morgan Englund) and Julie (Jocelyn Seagrave) visit Mindy (Ann Hamilton, who lasted only weeks in the part) in New York City. Billy wants to bring Mindy back to Springfield and played both good cop and bad cop mentioning people missing her like HB. Dylan and Julie are happy to be visiting NY though Julie sees herself as a Springfield girl now even if she is a Native New Yorker. Billy wasn't able to convince Mindy to come home with them, but she does change her mind.
Harley (Beth Ehlers) and Mallet (Mark Derwin) were in Washington D.C. to see the Vietnam War Memorial. They started at a restaurant that was a set, but the rest of their scenes were taped at The Mall. There are some nice shots of the sites, but the main reason they came was to see a particular name on the wall. Harley didn't remember her father, and all the stories she knew about him came from her older brother Frank. Harley had a white rose to live in memory, which she held as Mallet left her alone to look at the wall. He brought back a guidebook and Harley was horrified that her father's name was not listed. (Note: I've been to the Vietnam War Memorial, which is a very moving structure, but in the real world no civilian would ever get that much privacy to look at it. This took me a bit out of the moment, but reminded me of my visit.)
Episode 5: October 18, 2002
This episode had the "lifesavers" opening. It focused upon two stories, the upheaval in the Spaulding family and Reva, Josh and their kids coping with Reva's sentencing.
At the Beacon, Bill (Daniel Cosgrove) and Olivia (Crystal Chappell) chat, about how he won't be doing the cabin for her at Mystic Lake as she doesn't need it now that she is with Alan (Ron Raines) and not Phillip. Lizzie (Allison Hirschlag) watches this trying to avoid going home to the Spaulding Mansion. She and Olivia bond with some fancy chocolate. To score points with Lizzie and Alan, she asks Lizzie to be her maid of honor.
At Spaulding Enterprises, Alex (Joan Collins) has been interim CEO. She wants to have the job full time, and got the votes to do it, by giving additional stock to Phillip's former wives. Mindy (again played by Krista Teserau) and India (Mary Kay Adams) visit Springfield for this occasion. Mindy because Alex is blackmailing her with photographs, while India needs the money. Beth (Beth Chamberlin) and Harley also vote for Alex due to what is going on with Lizzie and Zach. Blake (Liz Keifer) votes with the other women as Harley's best friend, though she had less issues with Phillip even though she has a rocky past with Alex, Alan and Phillip. Once the vote has been decided Alex invites all of the ladies to the Beacon for a toast. The women all go, and talk until Alex leaves. Mindy admits in frustration why she did what she did, and later how she doubts this will be good for the family as Alex is vindictive too. Mindy then leaves the scene. India snarks to Blake about how she didn't get a ring on her finger. Beth goes to talk to Lizzie and Lizzie tells her mom about agreeing to be Olivia's maid of honor. India, Blake and Harley start chatting. All three agree that Beth was the reason their marriages to Phillip did not last. The ladies are shocked see Beth with Bill as they are kissing.
Phillip tries to comfort Alan that at least in six months, they can get Alex out of the job. Alan also has Olivia as a fiancé. After going home, Alan freaks out breaking his glass, throwing his wheelchair and knocking things off a desk. Phillip comforts his father. Alex wants to speak to Alan alone, so Phillip leaves.
Reva and Josh are alone in bed, with Josh sans shirt, the morning of Reva's sentencing for the mercy killing of her brother-in-law Richard. The night before there was a huge party at the house for everyone to say goodbye to her. They talk about what is going on, and become intimate. When Reva and Josh went downstairs, she was surprised to see the house look like it would on Christmas morning. Josh admitted that it was either this or another birthday, and both agreed she didn't want to get even older. Their children Marah (Lindsey McKeon) and Shayne (Billy Kay) were the only guests. Marah gives Reva a Bible with letters from each of them included, Shayne gives a boom box that is allowed by the prison, and Josh gives Reva a ring made of hair from Hawk's palomino. This way Reva would be able to wear a ring in prison. She takes the gifts except the ring as she hopes that she won't be incarcerated. Reva doesn't have gifts for the kids, but decides to give Shayne her SUV, and Marah her mother's opal ring. They have a family group hug, and leave for the courthouse.
That’s my summary of the five episodes on the secrets and scandals disc, which is part of the 20 classic episodes Guiding Light set.
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