NOTE: I have fixed the "home" link at the bottom of this page.
NOTE: I am now putting links to video clips of the show that I found on YouTube. They show up in scattered spots on this page in chronological order of when they were aired. The videos were submitted by other people, not me. Please be advised, in case you're concerned about such things: as decent as this show was all-in-all back then, there were still quite a few of the proverbial "D's & H's" spoken, and they do show up on these clips.
First, an episode of the radio show.
In May, 2008, I obtained a 16" transcription record of the
"Guiding Light" radio show, and a player to play
transcription records on. I'd like to present this show now.
"The
Guiding Light" - Jan. 4, 1939 (13:56, 3.2MB) I was disappointed that the
show on the record didn't end with the NBC chimes, but by seeing
"12:45 - 1:00 PM, PST" on the label, I guess that this
is a recording of the show for later airing to the west coast,
and that the network ID was done live after the show was over.
This episode concerns the legendary Mary Ruthledge - Ned Holden
relationship. After Torchy and Ned were divorced, he and Mary
were married in 1940. You can read more about these developments
by clicking
here. One thing of note is that soap operas didn't adapt the
Hammond organ as the instrument of choice yet, but instead used a
pipe organ, giving a sound more suited (to me, anyway) to old
horror movies than to soap operas! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!
And now, to the obsession I once had with this show.
It was April Fools' Day, 1985. We were out of school, I guess for Spring break, and I decided to do something I haven't done before. I sat down and watched soap operas to see if there were any that I would like. This one show in particular caught my eye. This poor guy was in a hospital bed while these 2 women were in the same room arguing with each other over which one was responsible for him being in the hospital. I thought all this was just funny! Well, the guy's name was Phillip, the two women were India and Beth, and this marked the beginning of my being a "Guiding Light" fan.
I developed a crush on India, and there were all these other interesting characters - Roxie & Kurt, Rick & Mindy, and how many people remember when H.B. & Reva were married to each other?!? There were Lujack and Alexandra and Loch Walls (Who?). Billy, Kyle Sampson, Maeve, Simon & Jessie, Hawk Shayne, heck, I'll even put Warren Andrews in the mix. And why not? The producers of "Guiding Light" did. They had a lot of different, diverse characters and the show was interesting.
In November, 1985 I stopped watching for a while, but I came back with a vengeance in the Summer of '86. My old crush, India, was being eclipsed by a new crush - Dinah.
I had this binder notebook of looseleaf paper, and I wrote down all the details that interested me about every episode. Then in December, I started making a casette tape where I told about the goings-on of each episode. I stopped doing that in Feb., 1987 when I started to videotape the shows. Unfortunately, I no longer have any video I recorded. But I did have the casette tape, which I dubbed onto my CD recorder, and just recently my mom found one sheet from the notebook where I wrote details of "Guiding Light" episodes of Sept. 29 & 30.
Here I will present that notebook page, and put up my "Guiding Light Plot of the Day" casette tape.
"Guiding Light" synopses, Sept. 29-30, 1986
From Sept.-Dec., 1986, I wrote the details of "Guiding Light" episodes in a binder notebook. I would record an episode on video, then watch it back to get all the details and quotes written down. (I didn't keep the episodes on tape yet, I guess because of how expensive blank tape was. I recorded over the last episode with the next one.) This sheet of paper that my mom found is all I know that exists from that notebook. I was 17 years old at the time - more than half my life ago! Mind you, I didn't know about that word "synopses" yet, but I guess that is what you call it. Here are the links to each side of the sheet.
YouTube clips
This is a 3-part series of clips involving a scheme Alan was
behind where he convinced just about all of Springfield that Beth
was dead.
Pt. 1
Pt. 2
Pt. 3
My personal favorite of these is part 2 after Phillip's
crying, because it touches a little on Dinah & Dorie's
business of painting shirts. I'd love to see
something of their attempt to make "tie-dye" designs by
putting paint in a dryer!
YouTube clips, Nov.,
1986 Here's a series of clips including Reva & Kyle's
near-marriage, Kurt's death, the start of Kyle & Maeve's
custody battle, and Josh's return to the show after a couple of
years.
Pt. 1
Pt. 2
Pt. 3
Pt. 4
Pt. 5
Pt. 6
Pt. 7
Pt. 8
Pt. 9
Pt. 10 Pt. 11 Pt. 12 Pt. 13 Pt. 14 Pt. 15 Pt. 16 Pt. 17 Pt. 18 Pt. 19
Pt. 20 Pt. 21 Pt. 22 Pt. 23
"Guiding Light Plot of the Day"
Back then, I didn't call them "synopses", I call them "plots". So I went about making the casette tape of the "plot" of the day. I will post the entries here on the 20th anniversary of when they were recorded.
On December 29, I read the last several pages of my binder notebook, going from Dec. 15-26, as the first entry on the tape. Then I recorded the later entries later on in the evening after the show was over. I have been reluctant to put this tape on here because of the embarrassing statements I made sometimes (like when I thought Phillip & Chelsea were "together" - You're gonna love that.). So I will put some comments here to let you know when I'm gonna make those embarrasing statements so you-all will be sure to listen. Anyway, here goes. Click on the dates to hear the entries.
Dec.
15-26, 1986 My
first entry on the tape, where I recap the goings-on of the last
half of the month.
Dec. 29,
1986 I know this is
very brief, but just bear with me.
Dec. 30, 1986 Dang, I sounded different then!
Dec. 31, 1986 The end of Simon & Jessie, and
the end of Billy - at least, until his 1989 comeback. These were
among the earliest events which would add up and become more and
more events, until I eventually didn't care as much for "Guiding
Light" after a while.
Jan. 2, 1987 See, I told you there was
no show on New Year's Day.
Jan. 5, 1987 There must've been more enthusiasm
in my voice when this many neat things happened on an episode.
Jan. 6, 1987 Someone tells us Simon is
moving to North Carolina to be near Jessie, but we don't see
him anymore.
The next entry on the tape was for Jan. 8. I wish I said what
happened on the 7th. I can only guess the show was pre-empted.
Jan. 8, 1987 I like how I announced the first
appearance of a "new character", even though they wound
up only being there for an episode or so. One thing to keep in
mind is that usually on soap operas, they go over things that
already happened. So I only wanted to mention things that didn't
happen yet, to avoid repetition. That's why I only talked about a
few things sometimes.
Jan. 9, 1987 Let the fun begin - Now I started
to give my "personal predictions" for the show. The
first, and most infamous one for me, was that Phillip &
Chelsea would be together. And I thought they should have been.
But as I will discuss later, things didn't quite pan out
that way. ...and one more thing: Josh called the bodyguards off.
Jan. 12, 1987 Just one event, but a pretty
significant one. I think "appointed" would've been a
better word.
Jan. 13, 1987 ...and one more thing: They had us
fooled, didn't they? Just who, or what, the heck was this
"opposition", anyway? I'm guessing maybe Sampson Oil.
Jan. 14, 1987 "I think anyone watching soap
operas would know what's meant by 'together'" - Yeah, like
"together" is some kind of soap-fan-only code word, for
gosh sake! Anyway, they did continue to lead us on about Phillip
& Chelsea. And I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot from Faith
& Forbes Wolcott - uhh, yeah. I thought I was a pretty good
judge of when they were gonna keep characters around, apparently.
Jan. 15, 1987 This is it, guys - the day that
will live in infamy. First of all, because of Phillip &
Chelsea having what turned out to be one night of stupidity that
meant nothing, and they had no real relationship with each other.
Secondly, because of what a naive kid I was then. I didn't really
think they were having sex, but were just, uhh, smooching heavily
- that's it. When I think of it, up until this point "Guiding
Light" was pretty much a sex-free show. A pretty decent show
all around, really, except for some d- and h-words. I was
watching a soap opera sex scene for the 1st time, and was too
stupid to know what was happening. I know I sounded like I was
cheerleading for Phillip & Chelsea to have sex, but I assure
you I wasn't doing that at all. Unfortunately, they didn't
stop themselves before it was too late. Now I wish they had. One
bit of good news here was Mom's prediction that was "proved
right", 11 years later: During India's 1998 comeback, she
did finally go with Ross!
Jan. 16, 1987 After the fiasco yesterday, I guess
"Did Rusty hear Mindy say he was sexy?" is supposed to
be prime "big question" material. Note that they made this
the weekend cliffhanger!
Jan. 19, 1987 I said Tuesday, but I meant Monday.
Anyway, unlike what happened on the 15th, I'm glad they kept
things G-rated here.
Jan. 20, 1987 The start of that convoluted idea
of sending Reva off to France. In my opinion, there was no use
for that in the story. They would've done just as well to keep
her in Springfield. All this did for me was make me not like Josh
as much. It looked like he was sending Reva off doing nothing for
- I'm guessing a month - for his own benefit, and what "benefit"
there was wasn't even made clear. A waste of time.
Jan. 21, 1987 I guess I'd better explain myself
over that prediction. At that time, I considered "Guiding
Light" to be the crazy kind of show that, if someone was
"not 18 yet", they could have a custody battle
involving that person. I didn't put it past them to do something
like that. They didn't wind up doing that, fortunately, but I
still contend that at that time, "Guiding Light" was
a crazy kind of show - sometimes for the better, sometimes for
the worst, but overall still crazy enough that I enjoyed it!
Jan. 22, 1987
Oh, yeah - Tracy. She was a long-blonde-haired gal that I had a
thing for. They didn't put her on very much anyway.
Jan. 28, 1987 Let's see if I have this straight -
Roxie got beat up and put in the hospital, probably during one of
the above days, and I didn't talk about it because I didn't think
it was important?! Whatever, Sammy.
Jan. 29, 1987 I also thought they'd put H.B.
& Alexandra together. They did go on one date - to a saloon,
if I'm not mistaken - but that was about it.
Jan. 30, 1987 Whenever Marah starts kicking, you
hear about it here on "Guiding Light Plot of the
Day"!
That is all I recorded until Feb. 25 because I started recording "Guiding Light" on a videotape. I'm sorry, if there are any tape traders out there, but I don't have that tape anymore. I accidently recorded a basketball game on some of it, and the rest I watched so much that I had to repair breaks in the tape in 3 different places. Whenever the picture wasn't messed up, the sound was out of sync. I sadly decided to throw the tape away in 1991.
Feb.
25, 1987 My
videotape ran out, and there was one plot moment that the tape
couldn't get, so I put it here. It had been a while since I
recorded on my casette tape, and as you can tell, I was a little
rusty at it. Also, this is a relic from the days when you couldn't
just pick out another blank videotape for 99¢ each.
Feb. 26 & 27,
1987 Now you get a
taste of what I called "sucker plotlines". This mostly
happened just before a commercial break. They made you think
something either happened or was going to happen, and when they
came back from the break, you soon found out it didn't. Well,
this was a "sucker" Friday cliffhanger. I notice how
nonchalant I was when I said "Is he dead or something?",
probably because I sensed another "sucker" moment
coming on.
Mar. 2, 1987
YouTube clips of this
episode!
Pt. 1
Pt. 2
Pt. 3
Mar.
3, 1987
Mar. 4,
1987
Mar. 5,
1987 I know I haven't
made any comments lately, and I'm sorry about that. Anyway, I
said 4th, but I meant 5th. And the misadventures of Phillip's art-scam
articles are getting crazy now.
Mar. 6, 1987 It may seem like we got a
little bit of a break from the art-scam articles, but of course I
only mentioned new developments, so a lot of the episode probably
still focused on the things.
Mar. 11, 1987
I'm gonna see if it looks as funny reading it as it sounded
hearing me say it - "Art-icles".
Mar. 12, 1987 I know what you're thinking -
"Gosh, finally an episode where something happened."
Mar. 13, 1987 What can I say. if Phillip &
Chelsea were "back together again", I guess that means
they were together after all! For some reason, I don't
remember them being together. I just remember Chelsea working
for Phillip, with him saying she was going to be his "girl
Friday". 20 years of memories can get a little fuzzy. But
here they are, preserved forever. This was the last entry in my
"Guiding Light Plot of the Day" cassette tape.
Things happened during the next few months. One
thing seemed to happen after the other. India adopted Dorie, and
she was leaving the show. That meant no more India as well as no
more Dorie. Then, it happened...
Hills department store had "Guiding Light" playing on
their TV's during this time. While I was playing with a Commodore
128 computer they had, I heard these words:
"The role of Dinah is now being played by Paige Turco."
I thought it was just a substitute, but after a month or 2, I finally
had to face up to the fact that someone else was playing Dinah
instead of Jennifer Gatti. Gosh, now there were no more gals on
the show that I could have a crush on.
Then what I call "The Sonni & Will Comedy Hour"
happened, where we had to suffer through months of nonsense about
who the father of Reva's baby was. This gave the soap opera world
its first-ever "test-switching", which has been a
source of consternation on soap operas in general ever since.
When they started saying that Josh was married to Sonni, this is
probably what did it as far as my interest in "Guiding Light"
"going dim", as it were.
Oh, I watched the show off-and-on for the next few years. There
was the 2nd Alan, Daniel Pilon. When he took over the role on
"Guiding Light", he was on "Ryan's Hope" at
the same time, so they made something happen to his "Ryan's
Hope" character (his face got burned or something) that
required him to wear a mask on that show until his contract was
up.. I also watched the first Alan, Chris Bernau, during his last
short-lived comeback in 1989. He seemed to me at that time to be
ill, and his speech seemed a little slowed. He left the show
again, then died shortly thereafter. I got to witness Billy's
comeback, where Roger Thorpe was unmasked in the same scene. I
had another crush for a while in Samantha Marler. I watched India's
1990 comeback. Hey, I figured if we couldn't get Jennifer Gatti
back, I could at least be pleased-as-punch to see India again.
Along with my "Dinah preference", I also liked that
first blonde "Christina" of 1988 more than the other
"Blakes" they've had.
The last time I was a regular "Guiding Light" watcher
was in 1992, but I caught a few glimpses of it since then. I
checked out the 3rd Dinah in '95, and I got to see the 4th Dinah
on an online video clip recently. My thoughts are still "No
Gatti, no Dinah".
We went through the shock of the first Alexandra leaving, and the
treatment of Michael Zaslow after he came down with Lou Gehrig's.
I saw a little of the show recently and was pleased to see Billy
back again, but I'm just not crazy enough about soap operas in
general nowadays to have any interest in sitting through whole
episodes of them anymore.