Here are my thoughts on the episodes included in "The Phillip Spaulding Collection" from soapclassics.com SoapCentral.com has recaps of the last two episodes. I am linking to their recap page if someone wants more details.
Episode One: November 23, 1977
This was an early one hour episode of Guiding Light. The show begins with the opening credits announcing that it is one hour. What is interesting is that the director of this episode also directed the one included on the set from 1983. Much of the discussion in this episode had to do with Thanksgiving as it was tomorrow, and plans were being made. This episode had full cast closing credits, but the order was curious. It wasn't seemingly alphabetical or based on seniority, from the sources I have, so I am uncertain how they came up with that particular sequence.
Alan (Chris Bernau), Elizabeth (Lezlie Dalton) and Phillip (Jarrod Ross) are new to Springfield and are staying with Jackie Marler (Cindy Pickett) temporarily. She invites Mike Bauer (Don Stewart) who she is interested in to spend a little time with them for breakfast. Alan and Mike knew each other, as Mike beat Alan's lawyers. Alan offered Mike a job, but he was not interested as he has enough clients. Mike calls his secretary, who seems jealous. Jackie gives Phillip an arrowhead as a present, while Elizabeth reads U.S. News and World Report. Jackie makes a comment about flying kites with Phillip over Thanksgiving. There is a joke about how she may say it was part of the holiday, but that would upset the tutor. Elizabeth is into photography, and offers to give Jackie one of her photos of him.
Bert (Charita Bauer) was doing her job at the hospital and spent some time there, with both Justin (Tom O'Rourke) and later Holly. Justin and Bert talked about the man of the year award that Mike had won and how proud Bert was of her son. Late in the episode, Bert and Holly speak and of course she wants Christina, the youngest Bauer to be at Thanksgiving. The fact that Peggy and Billy would be there, didn't matter. Holly told Bert how Chrissy is starting to put sentences together, and even mentioned how a particular sweater with a duck came from Bert.
Adam (Robert Milli) came to see Holly (Maureen Garrett) about Roger's whereabouts and to ask about little Christina. Adam will be all alone due to Roger being missing and how he cannot claim Christina as his granddaughter. Barbara (Barbara Berjer) feels uncomfortable over the idea of Adam spending the holiday with them. Adam leaves, as Barbara implores Holly to see about bringing Christina to the Bauers after dinner.
Sara (Millette Alexander) invites Justin to spend Thanksgiving with her and TJ. It was TJ's idea that he would spend the holiday with them. Justin was having a rough day as the last surgery he planned to do, didn't happen, though thankfully the patient did not die. Later that evening, Sara and Justin are together making pies for the holiday. He mentions how he loves her and wants to marry her. There is no ring, so it was spur of the moment. The two seem happy together, but she seems a bit apprehensive.
On this episode Sara also got a new patient, Alan Spaulding. He never had a female internist before, but Emmet Scott (Frank Latimore) his cardiac doctor suggested it. Alan didn't want to stay, but since the next day was Thanksgiving he couldn't convince her to move the appointment.
Episode Two: December 19, 1983
This episode had two main thrusts. Phillip (Grant Aleksander) and Beth (Judi Evans) running away from Springfield University as Bradley (James Rebhorn) wants her to appear in court, and Reva (Kim Zimmer) causing issues for her former husband Billy (Jordan Clarke) who wants to marry Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead).
Phillip, Beth, Mindy (Krista Teserau) and Rick (Michael O'Leary) were sitting in Annabelle's (Harley Jane Kozak) English class, as Bradley and Lillian (Tina Sloan) interrupted with a policeman. Beth was scheduled to appear at 4:30, but didn't want to go. Rick tripped the cop, as Phillip broke the window and lead Beth outside. Annabelle ended class early to talk to Lillian, no one wanted this to be reported, so it wasn't. A flashback was shown explaining how Beth came to be living at the Boarding House, and since she is underage even though she is in college, she may not be able to stay. Bradley got a job in Canada and wanted to force Beth to go with him and Lillian until she turned 18. Annabelle said that if the Reardons heard from Beth, that she would let Lillian know.
Rick told Mindy how proud he was of Phillip for taking Beth away, though Mindy was unhappy. She went to the country club to seek out Alan. In the bar area, Alan was sitting by himself. Trish (Rebecca Hollen), Josh (Robert Newman) and Ross (Jerry verDorn) sat nearby. At one point, Alan seeing Ross's campaign posters, poured wine over them. Once Mindy came in and explained what happened with Phillip and Beth describing Phillip in Levi's and Beth's awful clothing, Alan and Ross argued. Alan blamed Phillip's bad behavior because of moving into Ross's home. They both want to help Beth and Phillip, but go about it in different ways.
Henry (William Roerick) and Vanessa was waiting for Billy to finish his conversation with Reva, as she spouted her frustrations to her father. They shared a table in the bar area of the country club. Reva told Billy, how their divorce wasn't legal, as her signature was forged. She said to end it he would have to give her 5 million. He said he didn't have that kind of money, but his father did. If she wanted that, she would have to go to HB, which was a foreshadowing alert. Reva felt that since Vanessa came from money, that she could hand it over to get her man. Josh came in telling Billy about Mindy being hysterical, and Billy left the room. Reva and Josh argued, and she called him Bud. This perhaps was the first time she used that term of endearment, when in Springfield. Josh got upset and said never call me that again.
Meanwhile on the road, Beth and Phillip end up in a diner in Verona. They have less than 100 dollars between them as Phillip tossed his credit cards once he moved out of the Spaulding Mansion. He decides to trade his car, on their way to New York City. If there is anywhere it would be easy for them to blend in it would be the Big Apple.
This episode had full cast credits, but the "My Guiding Light" opening wasn't the typical one I've usually seen with that theme. This variation started with pictures of the prom at the beginning instead of Nola and Vanessa.
Episode Three: February 14, 1991
The main story in this was Phillip and Beth (now played by Beth Chamberlin) get married. They wed in the entryway/living room of the Spaulding Mansion. Michelle (Rachel Miner) was the flower girl, while Phillip's sister Samantha (Suzy Cote) was her attendant. Alan-Michael (Rick Hearst) was the best man at this event and TJ came back to officiate. Baby Lizzie freaked out during the wedding, when it was time for objections, she wailed. Perhaps she was annoyed her parents didn't get married until after she was born or she wasn't at the altar.
Elsewhere in Springfield, Billy and Nadine (Jean Carol) had just gotten married, when he was on a bender. There is awkwardness between Nadine, Billy and Vanessa over Bill (Bryan Buffington). Vanessa was invited to Phillip and Beth's wedding, and she went with Ross just as friends. While Nadine was jealous, that her children Harley (Beth Ehlers) and Frank (Frank Dicopolous) got to attend. Nadine, Billy and Bill played a board game, and Bill soundly beat Nadine. (It sounded like Monopoly, but they didn't mention it by name.)
Alexandra (Beverlee McKinsey) was glad that her nephew was getting married to Beth. She and her husband Roger (Michael Zaslow) had planned on spending the summer away in Europe. What she didn't know was that Roger was romancing Mindy (now Kim Simms) behind her back, and he promised to be divorced from Alex by then. Mindy nearly told Alex what was going on, but kept her mouth shut. She saw Roger watching her, and used Mallet (Mark Derwin) to make her married and older lover jealous.
Harley and Alan-Michael were now divorced, but it seemed like they were becoming closer again. They ended up spending some time in the greenhouse alone celebrating. Sam and Dylan (Morgan Englund) shared a moment as her surgery was the next day. Sam's doctor Daniel (David Bishins) was also in attendance.
Fletcher (Jay Hammer) also came and went from the ceremony after speaking with Maureen (Ellen Parker) for a minute. Maureen and Ed (Peter Simon) went together, but Ed didn't really have anything to do. One humorous moment was when Maureen mentioned Michelle having a wedding someday, and she said how she was only ten. Maureen then quipped about how she recently had just been two. Oh the joys of SORAS.
Justin (Christopher Pennock), Ross and Alan-Michael all gave speeches to the happy couple. Justin mentioned how Beth was already a part of the family, Ross talked about watching Phillip grow up into the man he was today, and Alan-Michael talked about his feelings for his older brother. After Phillip and Beth shared their first dance as spouses, Justin danced with Beth, Phillip with Lillian and Alexandra with Ross.
This episode had the first variation of the "Hold on to Love" Guiding Light theme. In 1992, they finally updated that opening to include additional cast members. Unfortunately I had a slight glitch on this episode. I may have to contact soapclassics to see about getting a replacement disc. The disc cover states this episode was from 1988, but the year listing was off by three years.
Episode Four: June 1, 1998
This episode had Phillip married to Harley, which was weird considering the 1991 episode. One scene had Harley mention how it was about time that Phillip and Beth were wed. Anyway, Phillip, Harley and Beth had to deal with something very serious. Lizzie (Hayden Panettierie) was now a little girl and she had killed Carl. Carl was abusing her mother Beth, and she killed him to protect her.
The second story had to do with Reva being cloned. Reva switched places with Dolly and came back to her husband Josh, who believed she was dead. They reunited as Marah (Kimberly J. Brown) and Shayne (Garrett Stevens) had to deal with the impostor. Marah knew something was up, but had no idea that her mother was cloned.
The third plot of this day had to do with Dinah (Wendy Moniz) coming to tell Hart (Frank Grillo) that she was pregnant with his child. This was a lie as she was really pregnant with Rob's (Johnny Messner) baby. They show a flashback to the conception, so even people who weren't watching then would know the score. Tammy (Katie Sagona) also appears in these scenes.
Episode Five: September 15, 2009
This episode was the last Tuesday episode of Guiding Light. In it, Phillip proposed marriage to Beth again and she said yes. Alan (Ron Raines) also died while sitting next to his son. Also in this episode, Jonathan (Tom Pelphrey) agreed that the Spauldings should be able to see Sarah, (Phillip and Beth's granddaughter). Buzz (Justin Deas) and Alan talked about how finally things are good. Buzz was happily married to Lillian, while Billy and Vanessa remarried again. Frank and Josh gave speeches to each couple respectively. Natalia (Jessica Leccia) and Olivia (Crystal Chappell) were happy and together, and Frank flirted with Blake (Liz Keifer), whose character was last mentioned in the 1977 episode as little Christina. Dylan was on as were the returning Reardons.
For more details and information on this episode visit http://soapcentral.com/gl/archives.php Due to time, and the fact that there is a clear and precise summary, I felt that it would be better served to direct people to that location. This episode was primarily filmed in Sparta, New Jersey (Lake Mohawk) instead of the regular location of Peapack.
The 1977 was fascinating as I've seen very little from that period as most of it was wiped. The 1983 was fun due to the unexpected surprises as I had no idea what would be on that particular episode outside of Phillip, Beth, Mindy and Rick. The 1991 episode felt like they were closing the door on Phillip giving him his happy ending, which was understandable. The 1998 was intense with the child-killing element. The 2009 had Phillip and Beth coming full circle as they are now engaged again.
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