I mailed Amy Ecklund a letter explaining how I was blind and that I wore contacts growing up how I got special glasses that could help me see.
On Sunday, February 9, 2003 at 7:55:14 AM UTC-5, Peter J. wrote:
> >Golden...@webtv.net wrote:
> >
> >Here's my premise...You have to choose the 10 best storylines OR the 100
> >best episodes of GUIDING LIGHT to be forever preserved for future
> >viewers. What would you pick??? Here's my list: 1) ROGER THORPE-HOLLY
> >storyline from 1979-1980, 2) death of Diane Ballard/ Carrie split
> >personality/Ross Marler storyline 1981, 3) Nola Reardon and Quentin
> >(1981- whenever), 4) Reva as "slut of Springfield", 5) return of Roger
> >Thorpe in 1989, 6) Brent as Marion Crane in 1995, 7) Annie Dutton
> >storyline, 8) Reva's clone, 9) Holly as the Springfield Stalker, 10)
> >Santos storyline. Feel free to agree, disagree, and
> >create your own TOP TEN storyline list. Have fun!
> I have no idea what order I would put them in or what 10 I would choose, but
> picking a few off the top of my head:
> The whole Blake/Ross seduction storyline during the summer of '92, culminating
> in their very, very, VERY hot sex scene during the legendary blackout. That
> story added so many intricate layers to the characters of Ross and Blake, both
> of whom had been growing somewhat stale, and Sherry Stringfield/Jerry ver Dorn
> had a shocking amount of chemistry. You see Jerry and Liz Keifer and they are
> very believable and funny together, they have carried the "Bloss" tradition
> through many mediocre-to-poor plots and years of inactivity, but they have
> never quite matched SS and JvD. The feelings for her that Ross kept trying to
> repress finally just BLEW UP and I thought they were going to burn a hole in my
> tv set during that first sex scene. That scene was the ending and beginning of
> so much for both characters. Never has a parent/child love triangle worked as
> well as this one did. The scene where poor Holly walked in with coffee or
> breakfast food to surprise Ross and got the biggest surprise she ever could
> have imagined...classic, a triumph on every level.
> Reva's "death" would be another, not because of Josh as much as the perfection
> of her final episodes. The picturesque Florida locations (perhaps my favorite
> soap location sequence of all time), Harley wisecracking her way through the
> vacation and not realizing how much her own life was going to change within
> days, Ashley Peldon's Marah, who was so naturally adorable and never seemed to
> be playing up to the camera, and the last scenes, which were a true nail-biter.
> Samantha jumping out of the car, Reva driving further and further across the
> bridge until she yelled "I'm comin' Bud" and crashed into the water. Many soap
> deaths are hyped as being momentous and making permanent changes, but this was
> one soap death that had big, big, long-term reprecussions for a laundry list of
> people - Harley, Vanessa, Josh, Billy, Nadine, etc. I was actually disappointed
> when I found out Zimmer was returning to GL, not because I hated Reva, but
> because she had the dream soap exit and nothing she could do after returning
> would ever be able to top it. As a result, most of Reva's stories have seemed
> anticlimactic.
> As I've mentioned before, Maureen's death is another crucial story point,
> because that is when GL started the slow decay which has continued unabated
> ever since. Oh, that drab housewife Maureen, she isn't flashy, she isn't 18,
> she isn't a size 2, no one will miss her. Well, they did, and many of us still
> do. I remember when Ed found out she was gone, and I started crying, and I
> cried during episode all the way up to Roger's graveside visit, and it was
> because I loved Maureen, but also because inside I could sense what had been
> taken. When JFP murdered Maureen she did not kill a character, she murdered
> Springfield's heart, conscience, soul, and GL has never even come close to
> getting that back. I always hoped Michelle could fill that role, but the way
> that GL has casually butchered her beyond repair over the past year is a good
> example of how far off track this show and it's moral barometer has gotten.
> Jenna's farewell episode was, in many ways, exquisite. If someone has Nadine's
> brutal murder and funeral and Jenna's final appearance on tape they should
> watch them back to back to show how a soap death should and should NOT be
> handled. Jenna appeared to all of her loved ones, her husband (possibly the
> only reminder for fans in the past 5-6 years that Justin Deas can act when he's
> given material), her friends, helped them grieve, and as a result helped the
> fans grieve. Daytime loves to cheat fans out of their sorrow, or manipulate
> them ("oh, Arlene, Jim would WANT you to drop your drawers with another man a
> month after his funeral...I know he would" "Thank you Grandma, now go hide in
> the broom closet again until the holiday episode"), but Jenna's last episode
> wasn't about that. GL really did want us to have the chance to say goodbye. I
> wasn't a big fan of Jenna's, but after she came back to town she had a maturity
> and a glow about her that she carried with her all the way to the end. I will
> never forget that episode because it was such a complete antithesis to most of
> the plot-driven, overacted, overwritten horse manure which was being shoveled
> in our faces during that era of GL.
> Harley and Mallet leaving the show and Lucy appearing mere moments later in
> that AWFUL, AWFUL beret I always wanted to smack off her head. Everything about
> that character should be a lesson for future soap PTB that you cannot duplicate
> the success of a character (Harley) simply by bringing in a younger version of
> her, having her take over Harley's role in the family, and doing your best to
> show how adorable/sassy/spunky she is 3-4 days out of every week.
> A lot of the Drew stuff, mainly in her last 2 years on the show. I felt like I
> was watching a star-in-training, and apparently that turned out to be true.
> It's always a pleasure seeing green actors with a spark grow into strong,
> formidable talents, and she certainly did, unlike many newbies who start out
> green and end up gangrene. Drew's first meeting with her biological father (Ben
> Warren) and the moment when she realized Jesse actually loved her were
> particularly beautiful performances.
> Blake/Ross/Ben Warren, not for quality, for sheer camp value. This was the
> CAMPIEST story I have ever seen, and I howled my way through those months. My
> favorite parts were when Vanessa held a meeting of her support group, Second
> Chances, at Blake's house, and Blake, who was paralyzed at that time and hiding
> the fact that she had consensual sex with Ben, suddenly yelled out, "I don't
> need a second chance! I've hard second, third, fourth, fifth chances, and I've
> blown them all!" Then there was the *outrageous* story point where Holly's
> unbalanced brother Ken Norris came back to town, around the time Blake was
> trying to recover a compromising video of her and Ben. Inexplicably, she shoved
> this in a video rental box and then in the closet so Ross wouldn't find it.
> Ross did, and took the video back to the store. Blake started getting blackmail
> calls from the next person who rented the video (Wait Until Dark), and was
> supposed to go down to the docks. She was still in her wheelchair, and Meta
> Bauer drove her there. Meta wasn't in on any of this and after they got there
> Blake told her to drive back home. Meta was rightfully shocked and asked what
> Blake was going to do to get home. Blake said, "I'll call a cab, just go on,
> go!" And Meta, giving her a look which said, "you are a crazy woman", left.
> Then Blake was pushed towards the water and went rollllllling down the pier in
> a scene I would never be able to forget even if I wanted to. The best part was
> when Ken showed up at the Bloss home soon after with the incriminating video in
> his hand. Blake didn't understand how he got the tape, and he just said he had
> his ways or did what he had to do. Then they showed the blackmailer - a muscled
> young man in his early 20's (Mick Santos, actually) - covered in bruises and
> black eyes. And Mick was in the mob. So not only did a portly, middle-aged man
> manage to kick a young, fit man's ass, Mick never paid Ken or Blake a visit
> with a gun or bodyguards to rough them up or anything. Apparently you can beat
> the crap out of mafiosos for fun and suffer no consequences! This whole story
> was almost a bad parody of soaps, with the perfect finish - Ben had drank
> drugged champagne and passed out in his bathtub, about to drown. Blake wheeled
> into his hotel room, saw what was going on, and, sure enough, walked for the
> first time in months to HOIST him out of the tub and onto the floor. And that
> was it...no physical therapy, no relapse, she was able to walk again
> afterwards.
> Various tales during Abby's tenure on the show. Amy Ecklund was a very powerful
> actress who suffered the misfortune of being stuck in the Rick Bauer vortex,
> which means you exist only to be his wife and then sit around twiddling your
> thumbs until you're fired or quit at contract time. There were so many
> beautiful Abby scenes; a few I will list are -
> Abby standing up to her Amish mother when she came to town to scold her
> Abby quitting her job at Spaulding after realizing Alan was using her to get to
> Reva
> Abby's near-rape scene with the gang member, Roy Meachum, and her hospital
> scenes with Holly and Reva where she talked about how violated she felt even if
> she hadn't actually been raped
> Abby shooting Roy in open court
> Abby hearing tissues and car keys for the first time after getting her cochlear
> implant
> Abby deciding to leave Rick because of his attitude and his demands that they
> have children. One night Claire had climbed into bed with him to make Abby
> think they had slept together. Abby saw them, and when Rick begged her to
> believe him, she said she knew how evil Claire was and that Rick hadn't been
> with her. She went on to say that they were just too different and loving each
> other wasn't enough to make the marriage work. She then left for good and after
> she was gone, Rick sank to his knees against the kitchen counter and began
> sobbing - one of the only times in recent years I've really felt sorry for Rick
> instead of muttering some sort of profanity at him
> Richard's funeral episode (the drums, Cassie's poem) and Cassie's understated
> grieving - exquisite work from Laura Wright, who always makes Cassie's feelings
> clear without trying to hog the scene. She was also fantastic while Hart was
> dying. I remember back then that some people said Cassie wanted Hart to die,
> she was encouraging him to die, but that's BS. She knew he was almost gone and
> she was mature enough to put aside her own pain and desires to help him on his
> passage. Cassie may be the most believable widow or widower I have ever seen on
> daytime television. She takes the viewer through every step and there is never
> an overnight recovery period - the ache lingers inside her and slowly
> dissipates.
> I have to mention Bridget and RealDavid's friendship, and Bridget/Kat's
> friendship, the talks they would have on Kat's fire escape, the growing pains,
> the anguish, making them all viable and interesting characters without having
> to sacrifice the integrity of the adults around them to prop them up
> When Harley visited in 1/97 for some ball or party, she ran into Reva and
> started in about Reva dumping Buzz. They stormed into the bathroom and every
> time a woman would try to come in to use the facilities, they would yell
> "occupied!" or "get out!" or "people are busy in here, go somewhere else!" Reva
> eventually realized that Harley was still ticked off, rightfully, over Josh
> dumping her 6 years earlier to go track down Reva in Europe. They managed to
> resolve their differences in a very seriocomic way. Beth Ehlers has had a whole
> lotta garbage thrown at her since she came back (the worst probably being the
> Harley/Beth/Phillip triangle, which had shitty writing from start to finish),
> and I honestly consider that bathroom conversation, and a later freezer
> confrontation with Jenna when Beth returned for good in summer '97, to be the
> last instances of the real Harley, the Harley with such a strong sparkle in her
> eye and heartbreak in her voice that I fell in love with way back when, not the
> dour, depressed woman who was broken by emperor of the pigs Phillip and has
> never fully recovered.
> There are many honorable mentions, like any of Nadine's stories, or the initial
> Vanessa/Matt romance (pre-Dinah), or Beverlee McKinsey's reign as Alex and her
> delicious takedown of Roger/degradation and shaming of Mindy (I will never
> forget how betrayed Billy felt by his princess sleeping with the prince of
> darkness, and how his reaction cut Mindy to the bone).
> I hope other people respond to this, because it's very good for catharsis.