A story about the original Alexandra Spaulding, before she became Alexandra.
Beasley, Deborah. “Mama Wore Taps!: Beautiful Beverlee Stars in her Very Own Story! Motherhood! Romance! A Glamourous Career!” Afternoon TV, August 1973 Vol. 5 No. 8 pp. 54.
Beverlee‘s daytime fans, who once knew her as Martha Donnelly on Love is a Many Splendored Thing, were delighted when she returned to the daytime screen recently as the elegant Iris Carrington on Another World. Beverlee is delighted to be back, too, although she says she and Iris are as unlike as any two people could possibly be.
“Iris is up and immaculately dressed at nine in the morning,” she says with an incredulous smile. “Her make-up is always perfect, her hair is never out of place. Not long ago, the elevator man in my building said, ‘Miss McKinsey, my wife and I saw you on TV yesterday and you looked different than you look around here.’ That’s because off camera, I run around in blue jeans and an old shirt. Where Iris is always going to elegant places for lunch and dinner, I prefer to have people in and cook for them myself.”
Like Iris, Beverlee is the mother of a son, but, unlike her, she has him in her care, where she can give him all the motherly love and attention he deserves. “Scott is the best, ” she says proudly of her tall, blond, fourteen-year-old. “He has brains, patience and an even temperament. And a tremendous eagerness to know about everything. He’s interested in photography and saved his money to buy a fine camera and lenses. He’s an excellent student, excels in math and history. And, while he’s very well rounded, he doesn’t have the ego problems and ambition hangups that I had at fourteen.”
Beverlee has been divorced from Scott’s father, a successful businessman, since Scott was three. Although she admits raising her child alone hasn’t always been easy, she believes he has had a happy, well-rounded childhood, and that he is better for having had a good deal of his upbringing in New York.
“We lived in California before I came East for Splendored Thing and I adore it there. But you get drawn into a trap out there. Your home, with the swimming pool, becomes everything. There are lots of things to do in California, but most people don’t do them. In New York, your apartment becomes claustrophobic. You look for things to get you out. Scott and I got to the theater and museums here in New York. The city makes it possible for me to share his life. He likes to do the things I like to do.”
One of the most unique things they do together is attend a tap-dancing class at Carnegie Hall.
“It was entirely Scott‘s idea,” Beverlee chuckles. “It’s the first thing he’s ever wanted to do along those lines. Who knows what we’ll do with it, but we aren’t bad! We have our Ruby Keeler shoes and I wear my 1930s bell-bottom pants with a blouse tied around my waist. There are about 25 people in the class and we’re all tapping at once. The racket is fantastic! I never stop smiling, I love it so much. Scott is going away to camp this summer and I’m worried because I’m afraid he’ll fall behind in his dancing.”
Beverlee knows that her son misses the kind of outdoor life he could have in California, but, because he has had plenty of athletic outlets at school, she doesn’t worry about it. “We have a very exciting life here. New York breeds independence for a young person. In California, I would drive him everywhere. Now he gets around the city like he owns the place. I think it makes him more mature. I remember, I thought this place was the end of the world when I first came here. I didn’t have any sophistication about food, restaurants, theater…He’ll have all that by the time he graduates from high school.
“Of course, I’m afraid for him at times, but I try not to let him know how afraid I really am. He’s been mugged. It was a terrible experience for him. He had his money in a hoe, so all they got were his fur-lined gloves.”
Not long ago, Beverlee woke in the middle of the night with a traumatic thought about her son. But it didn’t have anything to do with his being in danger. “I realize he’ll be graduating in 4 years! she wails. “That’s just incredible. However, but that time, maybe I’ll have another child to raise.”
Does this mean that this gorgeous blonde is planning to get married again one of these days? “Well” she says thoughtfully, “marriage is a very tricky subject. I would marry for one reason only. That is to have another child. Other than that I would never want to marry again – unless I was over 50 and married for companionship. I have a boyfriend. We’ve been going together for five years. And we can’t figure what possible advantage there is to being married. We’ve both been married and we’re happier not being married than we were when we were married. We both love children. I have a big boy. He has a little boy. Sometimes we think it would be nice to have a little girl, but if she’s as shellfish as I’ve always been, maybe it isn’t such a good idea.”
Beverlee‘s boyfriend is also well known to daytime TV viewers, particularly to those who watched Love is a Many Splendored Thing. His name is Berekeley Harris, and he played Beverlee’s boyfriend on a show, the sinister Jim Whitman.
“Most people think we met on the show, but actually we were going together before that,” Beverlee explains. “We were in California and I was asked to come to New York to play Martha. At the time, I didn’t want to come. I was very happy in California. But Berekley had spent ten years doing TV and he was hungry for the stage. He persuaded me to give it a whirl.
“I came first – Scott was still in school – and on my first day here I had lunch with my producer. I asked about Martha … what she was like, what would be happening to her and so forth? He said, ‘Well, there will be a man in her life. We’re looking for a young Richard Widmark type, Handsome, blond, and a little sinister.”
“I said, ‘I have just the actor for you.’ Without telling him about our relationship, I suggested he get film clips on Berekeley. He did – and he flipped over him! It was only later that I told him that Berkeley was my boyfriend.”
Beverlee is amused by the fact that many people identify Berkeley with the part he played. “They think he’s sick and crazy,” she laughs. “He has that kind of bone structure that makes him look wicked. Once we were shopping in the sheet department of Bloomingdales’ and a lady came over to me and said, ‘You didn’t MARRY that beast did you?” I said, ‘No as a matter of fact, I didn’t.'”
Fortunately, Scott and Berkeley get along beautifully, so if she should marry him, there won’t be any problem along that line.
“They have the same kind of temperament, and they laugh a great deal. I’m very emotional. I run very hot and very cold. Both Scott and Berkeley have learned how to deal with that.:
Beverlee, who has worked in virtually every show-business medium, says she would like to do another Broadway play some day. But she is no longer the kind of actress who thinks of nothing but greasepaint and footlights. “I’ve fulfilled my career dreams, ” she says simply. “My goal now is to live my life to the fullest and not think about the past and the future. I used to think about the future a great deal. Now I don’t. I don’t plan. When you do that you lose sight of where you are at this very moment. I work because I support myself. I am very happy at it. But I could be happy doing other things, too. I adore interior decorating, and I’m good at it. I would love to go to school and study it. I’d like to take French lessons and tennis lessons, have the time to develop myself further. When you work, you haven’t the money, but you don’t have the time.
“Berkeley,” she adds is just the opposite. “He absolutely adores going to work. Not me. They honeymoon is over for me as far as work in concerned.”
Beverlee is currently writing a novel based on her life since she left her native McAlester, Oklahoma, and started on the road toward acting success. “If somebody publishes it and I make a million dollars, I won’t mind. But I’m really writing it for my child. I want him to have a knowledge of what my life was like in the theater, other than what I’ve told him.
“Most people think acting is so glamorous. It’s a job. That’s all it is. Of course, when I first started, everything was very exciting. I was willing to go anywhere and do anything, as long as I was working. I’m not that interested anymore. I’ve done Broadway, off-Broadway, nighttime TV, soap opera. When it’s all over you take the bus home and what you have left is yourself. And if you haven’t developed yourself, you’re left with a very empty life. I know girls, who think of nothing, but their careers, and their whole lives have gone down the drain. You shouldn’t go through life making sacrifices.”
Obviously Beveree’s whole life has NOT gone down the drain. She was a healthy, happy son who shows every sign of growing into a happy, successful man. She’s involved in interesting exciting pastimes. She has a man she loves and is loved by. These are the things that make it all worthwhile.
This is the eighty-second in an irregular feature where we will report updates on what cast members of Guiding Light are doing now. I’m playing catch up on some soap magazine news. So as a reminder you can buy back issues: https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/faq-back-issues-2014/
Bethany Joy Lenz (our dearly beloved Michelle Bauer Santos #4) stars in a new Christmas movie from the USA network. It’s called Poinsettias for Christmas and also stars John Schneider (Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard) as her father. Also read about it in the November 26, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Beth Raines and Phillip Spaulding’s 1991 wedding is featured in a married on Valentine’s Day roundup. See it and a lovely photo in the February 19, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Rebecca Budig (Michelle Bauer #3) was interviewed about her then then current role on General Hospital and her life in general in the March 6, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Jordi Vilasuso (Tony Santos #1 of Marony fame) is given a feature interview over his role on Days of Our Lives. Read it in the Jan. 9, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. He was given another interview when he left the role and talks about his work on the Lifetime movie Killer Island in the Aug. 21, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. Vilasuso then joined The Young and the Restless as part of an attempt at another core family. Read about it in the August 13, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Laura Bell Bundy (Marah Lewis #5, the one who started Marony) is part of a feature story talking about her current projects and her wedding in the Aug. 21, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Karla Mosley (Christina Boudreau) talks about her teachers in the Jan. 9, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. Mosley joined with Lawrence Saint-Victor (Remy Boudreau, one of the last great couples on the show with Christina) were interviewed in a 2 person interview about their current roles on The Bold and the Beautiful, their time on Guiding Light, and their work on their web series Wedlocked. Read it in the March 24, 2014 issue of Soap Opera Digest. See her baby bump in the August 13, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
At the 2005 Daytime Emmys Gus Aituro (Ricky Paull Goldin) and Harley Cooper (Beth Ehlers) win a special fan award for Most Irresistible Combination. Read more about it in the April 23, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
In a round up of “Which cast member showed you the ropes when you first started?”: Judi Evans (Beth Raines #1) “Six months after I joined Guiding Light, Beverlee McKinsey (Alexandra Spaulidng #1) showed me the ropes of acting, of being an actor and being a professional. Beverlee McKinsey was my personal goddess. I learned a lot from her about being a lady and being unladylike manner. I loved everything about her; She was smart and brilliant and if you wanted to learn, she was certainly willing to share your wisdom.”
Check out a “Where Are They Now?” feature for Mark Dobies (Noah Chase of Nova fame) in the December 21, 2010 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Kristen Connolly appeared on House of Cards as Christina Gallaher. She appeared on Guiding Light as Jolene the actress who played young Reva in the Hollywood movie shot in Springfield about Jeva near the end of the run. Read more about her in the March 24, 2014 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Paul Wesley (Max Nickerson #2) attended Comic Con on behalf of his show Tell Me A Story. See a photo in the August 13, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Robert Bogue (A.C. Mallet #2) and Mandy Bruno (Marina Cooper #6) were involved with starring in the movie Rock Story. Read an article all about it in the March 24, 2014 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Susan Flannery (Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful) directed several episodes of Guiding Light after she started out directing on The Bold and the Beautiful. Read a little bit about it on the November 26, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
On the March 12, 1996 episode Frank Cooper said he went to Ben Franklin Jr. High in Springfield. Dehlia’s mother was a classmate.
Joe Lando (Macualley West – who did a summer storyline involving Mindy on his summer hiatus from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) recently did a short run character as a judge Ridge pressures into giving full custody of Will Spencer on The Bold and the Beautiful. It really was a great run until the end where they had him kowtow to Dollar Bill which was pretty terrible. I didn’t want to see him grovel, it was bad enough to see him without his gorgeous hair. Read a little about it in the November 26, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
This is the eightieth in an irregular feature where we will report updates on what cast members of Guiding Light are doing now. I’m playing catch up on some soap magazine news. So as a reminder you can buy back issues: https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/faq-back-issues-2014/
The 20th Anniversary of Beautiful Women photo roundup in the June 26, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth included Cynthia Watros (Annie Dutton #1), Gina Tognoni (Dinah Marler #4), Karla Mosley (Christina Boudreau), and Crystal Chappell (Olivia Spencer).
The 20th Anniversary of Handsome Men photo roundup in the August 7, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. They included Paul Anthony Stewart (Danny Santos) – and an uncommon photo at that, sigh, Tom Pelphrey (Jonathan Randall #2) and, Matt Boomer (Ben Reade #3, who paired with Marina Cooper).
A roundup in the February 5, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest names their choice for the best story ever told on each soap. Guiding Light is represented by the Nola Reardon/Kelly Nelson/Floyd Parker/Morgan Richards storyline. As the World Turns is represented by the Kim Hughes-Douglas Cummings stalker storyline. (Both stories featured John Wesley Shipp.)
Both Lenz and Brittany Snow (Daisy Susan LeMay Cooper #2 – during Susan’s first return) were photographed at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award. Check out the photos in the March 5, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Don Stewart (Michael Bauer #6) was reported in the October 1972 issue of Daytime TV that “has been drawing hordes of fans whenever he sings (baritone) in night clubs. And after every performance, he sits in the lobby to sign autographs and greet fans personally.”
Rick Hearst (Alan-Michael Spaulding #3) announced he was going to be on the 12th episode of this season of the Dynasty reboot. Read more and see a photo in the December 4, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Ellen Dolan (Maureen Reardon Bauer #1, Michelle’s adopted mom) was the subject of a feature in the March 5, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth looking back on her roll as Margo Hughes on As the World Turns and the epic ToMargo coupling with Tom Hughes.
The March 5, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth‘s All-Star Scrapbook Marj Dusay (Alexandra Spaulding) and Crystal Hunt (Lizzie Spaulding Lewis #5 brought in Roxie the dog and romanced Coop)
The December 4, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest gives a collection of most shocking returns including Michael Zaslow (Roger Thorpe) and Anthony Herrera (James Stenbeck on As the World Turns).
In the October 1972 issue of Daytime TV they describe Zaslow playing in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof for a year. He’d been wearing himself out and losing weight so he’d left in June 1972.
This fall Kassie DePaiva (Chelsea Reardon, Maureen and Nola’s little sister) returned to Days of Our Lives character Eve Donovan after a bout with leukemia. Read more about it with the November 6, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Vincent Irizarry (Lujack Spaulding and his sudden brother Nick McHenry) returned to Days of Our Lives last fall after his character’s death for recreated flashbacks. Read about it in the November 6, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Emme Rylan (Lizzie Spaulding Lewis #6, part of the wonderful Bizzie pairing) had baby number three, a daughter, on June 26, 2017. Read more in the July 24, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
From the October 1972 issue of Daytime TV “Christopher Walken, who played Michael Bauer as a boy on the radio version of The Guiding Light, is in the new movie, The Happiness Cage.”
Laura Wright (Cassie Layne Winslow #1) talks about the problem she had playing Cassie staying with Edmund after finding out he’d artificially inseminated Dinah. Read all she said in the December 4, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Cassie and Edmund’s beautiful wedding is featured in a roundup of photos in the
Judi Evans (Beth Raines #1) is the feature about her new double role on Days of Our Lives. Read it in the August 7, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. She also was in a feature article about it in the September 11, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
The October 1972 issue of Daytime TV reported: “I’ve been trying to locate Lyle Sudrow, who played Bill Bauer on The Guiding Light until he was succeeded by Ed Bryce. And I’m told by Theo Goetz (Fredrich “Papa” Bauer on TGL) that he believes Lyle is in Hollywood, working in a helicopter factory.”
Lawrence Saint-Victor (Remy Boudreau, one of the last great couples on the show with Christina) and his real life wife Shay are pictured at the Daytime Emmys. See it in the June 26, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. Saint-Victor hasn’t been on The Bold and the Beautiful since August, but he was back filming in mid-November. http://soapcentral.com/bb/news/2017/1019-lawrence_saint_victor_back_at_bb.php#.WejbQSdLSas.twitter Saint-Victor also has a short interview about his recent storyline on The Bold and the Beautiful in the February 5, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Karla Mosley has also gotten a side job. Mosley will “headline a fashion show by Gert-Johan Coetzee, a highly regarded fashion designer from South Africa. Karla will be walking the runway for him during a special show that will take place on October 26 during South African Fashion Week….Her co-stars Jacob Young (Rick Forrester) and Heather Tom (Katie Logan).”
The October 1972 issue of Daytime TV reported that Fran Myers (Peggy Fletcher) has been dating Roger Newman (Ken Norris on the same show). It was early days, but they were married until his death in 2010.
Gina Tognoni (Dinah Marler #4) is featured in an article in the June 26, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth because of her frontburner story on The Young and the Restless where her character has just moved in with her recently ex-husband’s brother.
Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne Lewis) and Robert Newman (Josh Lewis) are reunited in a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It’s a workshop in Nantucket. Workshop’s sometimes go on to regional or Broadway runs, other times they disappear. Here’s wishing them a long run. http://www.playbill.com/article/guiding-lights-josh-and-reva-will-be-virginia-woolfs-george-and-martha The September 11, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest includes a set of photos of female imposters including Dolly aka Cleva aka Clone Reva. The shot is one of her in the replica of the Cross Creek wedding dress. Zimmer‘s Reva and Wendy Moniz (Dinah Marler #3) characters were on a list of people with their own sense of style in the July 24, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Ricky Paull Goldin (Gus Aitoro) had their second son, Rio, on June 12, 2017. Read more in the July 24, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
In November 1971, Daytime TV reported that Chris Sarandon who played Tom Halverson on The Guiding Light has been touring with the play Othello.
Reported in the November 1971 issue of Daytime TV that Barbara Rodell (Leslie Bauer Norris, Rick’s mother, Ed and Mike’s ex-wife) and her husband Cy Epstein had just had their first child, a boy named Jonathan.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
I had a long gap I had to figure out, but picking up the continued story with episodes broken into dates here we are again. I started going through and breaking Bandstand Mike’s episodes into dates. This run started on December 20, 1995. Our last post in the series ended February 16, 1996.
This is a wonderful week with some pretty terrific stuff every day. Annie is forced by the custody battle to move back to her old apartment. Some of her friends show up to throw her a “Reva will get hers” party. Rick tells Josh some hard truths about Annie including that Rick wants her back. Alex is gleeful at the news Alan and Reva broke up. Buzz is trying to cheer Reva up and Josh has an evil plan to handle Reva, but will it backfire? Between the stock he gave Amanda and the $10 million ransom that was lost Alan doesn’t have a lot left. A-M invites him back to Spaulding, but Alan is afraid that he wouldn’t be happy at Spaulding at less than the presidency and the temptation to take it back might be too much. Reva disrupts the Spaulding dinner in an effort to try and get Alan back, but no dice. We get a romantic and pretty hot LAM sequence. Nick McHenry and Susan Bates marry at the Spaulding Mansion. Everyone receives word that Henry Chamberlain has died. Michelle had a fight with J and now wants to leave town rather than see him again. David and Bridget argue over her being hung up on Hart and he confesses he loves her. Hart has decided to stay in town and expose Roger’s misdeeds towards Dinah, asking for help from Alan and Gilly. Meanwhile Roger desperately struggles to cover his embezzlement. Quint comes back to town bimbo in tow. Marah reacts badly to the custody fight and runs away. The entire 5th Street neighborhood comes together in an effort to find her. Griffin helps out and Gilly begins to think maybe she was wrong about him. (Nope. She was right on the money after her mother talked to her.) Marah shows up at Reva’s house and intends to stay there. She has brought along stuff she stole to remind her of Annie.
Monday, February 19, 1996
Ed takes Annie back to face her apartment and leaving the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams. The Spauldings are gathering and Alex is gleeful that Alan says he’s done with Reva. Buzz is trying to get Reva out of her funk. Josh has some evil plan to handle Reva.
Reva asks Buzz for a job which considering her previous jobs doesn’t make a lot of sense, but OK. Buzz agrees despite the fact that Elanie grabs him and drags him away saying they don’t have enough work for it — despite the fact they are normally short handed. Josh asks Rick to check in on Annie and Rick explodes that he can’t do that. But that just goes to show how thoughtless Josh is.
The party is a great idea. I get why Lillian would be there, but why Vanessa? Sure she’d like to complain about Reva and for some reason despite her troubles with Billy Vanessa stayed close to Josh, but Annie? During the girl talk Lillian sort of admits to having a thing for Ed and when Annie suggests wrapping herself in plastic and making a move on Josh. Vanessa says tinfoil is better because it tears easier. I kind of love that. Rick tells Josh some hard truths. Vanessa says her cook made the dinner so they must have one and Annie and Josh have Mary as a nanny. The Spauldings are enjoying a great dinner.
Alan is called from the dinner table and says he lost all $10 million dollars and with the gift he made to Amanda of Spaulding stock he doesn’t have much left. Alan says he regrets neither the gift of stock, nor using the money in an attempt to get Alan-Michael and Lucy back. Alex is shocked. Alan-Michael invites Alan back into the company. Alan refuses saying he learned he wouldn’t be happy in a supporting role and he doesn’t intend to take the presidency back, but he knows the temptation would be too much at Spaulding. Everyone is surprised. Reva bursts in.
The Spaulding family run out leaving Alan and Reva alone. Reva tells Alan the custody battle news and asks Alan to come back. Alan says no, he thinks she’s still hung up on Josh. Reva gets mad he won’t come and takes off. Rick and Josh face off over their treatment of Annie. Rick is living in the Bauer garage apartment. Abby walks in on the conflict.
Rick confesses he still has feelings for Annie to Abby. Considering the future, watching Rick explain divorce to Abby is heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.
Apparently A-M and Lucy have adopted a dog named Faith that they hid under the table at the Spaulding dinner. A-M and Lucy talk about their wedding. Lucy wants a big wedding, but A-M says it doesn’t matter because he sees them as already married from their lighthouse ceremony. It’s just lovely. Elanie tries to talk sense to Buzz about Reva which doesn’t stick. Then we have a lovely Alan and Alexandra sibling talk. “To moving forward for all of us.”
We have a pretty romantic and hot LAM love scene. Rick continues to squirm under Abby’s questions about Annie and Hawk shows up encouraging Rick to make a play for Annie tonight. Meanwhile the girls night is breaking up with Lillian leaving Vanessa to do the dishes. Annie is convinced Josh is somewhere with Reva — which against all odds he actually is.
Tues., February 20, 1996
We’re getting ready for Nick and Susan’s wedding in the Spaulding Mansion. The guys are picking out a playlist and even Alan gets roped into the set up. Susan and Lucy have a you’re like a sister talk.
Amanda is expanded to the like a sister group and helps Susan get ready. Nick gives Alex a thank you with a subtext that I’m leaving soon, but she doesn’t get it. Susan’s AIDS support group shows up.
Nick McHenry and Susan Bates get married in the Spaulding living room. It’s a simple service and the guests stand as the bride and groom meet before the fireplace. Only a handful of people attend and they have only one attendant each, Alan-Michael Spaulding (the groom’s cousin) is the Best Man and Lucy Cooper is the Maid of Honor. The head of the AIDS group gives her away.
Nick and Susan announce they aren’t going to come back after the honeymoon, but intend to take a world tour exploring the world on an open ended trip. “For as long as we have.” Susan is diagnosed with AIDS, a step worse than her previous diagnosed HIV. The last time we heard from them on the show she was still alive.
Extra Day 1 – February 1996???
We seem to have skipped at least one episode somewhere. It seems like maybe more than one. That means I can’t establish the dates for the next few episodes and we missed some kind of important scenes. Part of why I was going through these particular clips was because with a solid starting date (the very special Christmas episode) I could give an exact date for the episodes. This stops that, but I should be able to pick it up again on March 1st.
Matt has told Vanessa how he’d be tied up with an escort service Amanda Spaulding ran out in California. We must have already heard that Henry Chamberlain (Vanessa and Quint’s father, Nola’s father-in-law to whom she was quite close, Dinah, Little Billy, Anastasia and J. [Anthony James]’s grandfather, also an “adoptive” father to Jenna Bradshaw) has passed on or the audience wouldn’t already have understood he was dead when Nola starts talking to J about him in the past tense. Henry was a great guy. I’m sorry he’s gone. While I was working on my WSPR news stories, which I hope to be able to do more of sometime, I did a post that tied into the end of the series, the building of Henry Chamberlain Elementary. In the actual series they only say they are building a new elementary school, but since they didn’t name it, I did.
We’re at WSPR with Roger and Gilly (who is a reporter/producer there) and Ross arrives to gloat that Roger needs to hand over Dinah’s money (which Roger actually has embezzled). Over at the Bauer House Ed seems in a very good place, but sadly as always with this version of Michelle she is being dopey. She’s following her normal storyline procedure I describe in the linked post above – this time with her adoptive cousin Jay. I know – ICK! right? The fans at the time thought so too and the pairing was dropped.
Roger tries to divert Ross from the divorce by painting Hart as a worse threat to Dinah which Hart overhears. Michelle continues to say she wants to leave town and is teenage hysterical.
J regrets taking Henry for granted the last time he saw him which was very natural. They discuss Quint coming back. David and Bridget come in and are sorry, but in what world were they anything to do with Henry? Matt fills Vanessa in on Henry’s death.
Matt expects Vanessa to put aside the fall out from his revelation until dealing with Henry’s death is over. Vanessa needs time to process and is having none of it. Good for her especially when Matt tries to lay a guilt card on her – “I need you too. I loved him too.” I mean self-centered much? Roger uses Henry’s death as a lever to get rid of Ross and delay handing over the accounts. He still hopes he can delay long enough to win Dinah back and keep control. Bridget and David talk about fixing up the boarding house and her obsession with Hart.
Hart and Roger fight. I think Roger is right about one thing. I think he does love Hart he was just already in a bad spot with him (having unintentionally caused his grandfather who had raised him’s death) and his attempts to fix it just made things worse. Gilly and Hart have a talk about Roger. Ed told Michelle to get a ride to school with Gale’s mother. I don’t remember Gale at all and we probably won’t see her today – we don’t. They are going to meet outside. Vanessa went over to tell Nola, but Nola had already heard somehow through Michelle. Vanessa and Nola had been rivals for attention when Nola and Quint had lived in Springfield, but they both loved Henry very much.
Nola: “[Vanessa] Are you OK?”
Vanessa: “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Nola: “I’m not….I’m glad you came by.”
Vanessa: “I know how much you loved my father…”
Nola: “I keep thinking about the craziest things. This one night we had an all night poker game. He accused me of bluffing and he never folded his hand.”
Vanessa with a smile: “That’s because he wanted you to win.”
Nola: “Yea, he did want me to win. Not too many people I can say that about. You were real lucky to have him.”
Vanessa wants to talk funeral arrangements. Nola breaks down she’s not ready yet.
Nola: “You can cry in front of me. We can cry together.”
David and Bridget argue over Hart and Bridget’s reactions to him. Roger breaks back into the suite and takes the real books and information about how he drained Dinah’s accounts. He asks Leo Flynn to make a set of dummy books and when Roger offers him his yearly salary for the two weeks work he accepts. Meanwhile Hart is getting information from Gilly that Roger cooked the books.
More icky cousin on cousin action. J tells Michelle some garbage and she eats it up with a spoon. Michelle to J: “See that’s what I mean about me not doing or saying the right thing. I mean in the first place I’m NOT that young. I went to SCHOOL IN EUROPE. I’m not a stupid little kid.” Now she’s in good with J again, Michelle is all over leaving. Ross and Matt talk about Vanessa. Matt proving once again he’s a junior partner in their relationship and that doesn’t know Vanessa as well as Ross does. Ross: “Vanessa didn’t always have the qualities you admire. It takes time and it’ll take time for you.” aka you’re immature. Ross thinks that Matt helped Vanessa get through her anger at Billy and Bridget and Dylan that was taking over her life. Nola keeps at Vanessa trying to get her to face her emotions. Vanessa has a list of pall bearers – the list of names doesn’t include Matt.
Roger reassures Leo they will be safe. Hart shows up to ask Alan for his help to nail Roger. Nola keeps urging Vanessa to let go, but Vanessa is maintaining her stiff upper lip. David tells Bridget he’s in love with her. Quint shows up at the Reardon Boarding House door.
Extra Day 2 – February 1996???
Marah has run away. People are gathering with Josh and Annie at the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams, and volunteers stop by the 5th Street Diner where Reva is keeping everybody full up with coffee. Quinton and Vanessa cling to their mutual loss.
Annie is sort of right and sort of wrong about Marah running away being Reva’s fault. Josh is frustrated and says he can’t just wait there he is going to do some random looking himself. Quint and Nola make nice and find forgiveness in their grief. Quint admits Nola was even closer to his father than he was. They talk about Henry’s reaction to their breakup since Henry has been “visiting” Quint between when the actor died and when the character died on screen. Quint: “He said to me, I was always afraid you would be dissatisfied with a perfect marriage.”
Hart goes to Alan for help taking out Roger. Amanda: “Father, don’t murder Hart unless you want to be involved in another costly legal battle.”
— Alan about Hart: “You are a determined little flea, aren’t you.”
David tells Bridget he’s in love with her. Bridget and David continue to discuss his declaration. Gilly goes on air with an appeal to help find Marah. Reva won’t go on afraid it might make Marah run. Griffin shows up and Gilly thinks he’s just showing off, but when he goes looking himself Gilly thinks maybe she was wrong. Tina, the prostitute from New Years, shows up and offers her help too. Gilly wants to put Reva on camera to aid in search for Marah Lewis (who is 8). Reva thinks it would cause more problems. Tina was the prostitute who came in on New Year’s Eve and Eleni chased her out.
Holly and Fletcher are with Annie at the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams supporting Annie while Marah was gone. Annie unknowingly predicts the future that she and Josh will be together forever just like Holly and Fletcher (SPOILER: both couples will soon be toast). Josh finds Reva at the dinner (clearly something really important happened in between since we last saw them). Henry Chamberlain has died (more important stuff went down with the Reardons and Chamberlains that we didn’t see) and J walks in with Vanessa finding Quint and Nola embarrassing situation (SPOILER: do NOT get your hopes up Quola fans if they had to do this stupid affair stuff they could have gotten some decent interaction out of it. Nope not happening. Still resentful.). The grad student Quint was sleeping with shows up, everyone freaks and Quint can’t understand why.
They freak out.
J : “You almost had me going there professor for a second I was almost buying into you being my dad again. I even thought you looked good standing there hugging Mom. You know what I was saying to myself, maybe this guy has finally turned back into an adult, but you know what, NO you have to bring your Barbie doll girlfriend along from grad school.”
Quint: “I do NOT like the way you’re speaking to Jessica Do NOT use that tone of voice with your father.”
J : “Maybe if you acted like my dad, I could treat you like one all right.”
Vanessa is likewise appalled and freezing girlfriend Barbie out.
Amanda offers comfort to Alan because he’s upset about his relationship with Reva. Amanda give him advice: “If you really love someone, what good is pride anyway?”
Josh leaves and Reva feels faint from not eating.
Griffin talks Reva into eating to keep strong. Gilly is thinking Griffin is putting on a show (which I think he totally is), but the search for Marah continues. The Journal is putting out a special edition. Josh makes it home to the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams. Word came a little girl matching Marah’s description was hit by a car.
Hart finds Bridget and says he wants Peter to be part of his life and he’d taken her words to heart. David freaks. Bridget shuts him down. J tries to comfort Nola about Quint. Vanessa tears into Quint over his bringing his mistress for the funeral. Reva returns to her house and discovers Marah is there waiting for her.
Extra Day 3 February 1996
Alan pushes into Company and we’ve already lost all the goodwill from working together to save LAM. Instead Buzz and Alan snarl at each other over Reva — who really be better off if she’d tell both of them to take a long walk off a short pier. Josh and Annie arrive at Cedars rushing into the emergency room where they find it was another little girl who was hurt (no name girl isn’t badly hurt so don’t worry about her). Marah tells Reva that she’s there to move in with Reva, but only if she’ll leave Josh and Annie alone.
Actually they are both right Buzz and Alan are making fools of themselves, fighting over which man wiill second and which third in Reva’s life. Marah tells Reva that she did her chores. On a school morning she is responsible for making her bed and getting her own breakfast. Sounds like either Josh and Annie or the nanny aren’t doing their duty, she has to feed herself? Reva tries to figure out what’s going on. Marah takes this as an indication that Reva doesn’t want her living there and asked then why did Reva say she’d never stop fighting Josh. Rick and Lillian support Annie and Josh is angry Rick is taking an interest. Since Reva is back on Josh’s radar, if Josh wasn’t a jerk he’d step back, but he’s ready to set a course to crash Annie on the rocks instead.
And we get to see the Bauer House today. Yay! Michelle attempts to spread both poor body image AND poor nutritional advice to Abby. Can’t it be November 1998 in a hurry? Hold on Michelle you’re going to act stupid the next couple of years, but Danny is coming as a reward at the end. Abby has a romantic fantasy about Rick and a red dress. The wind machine in the Bauer kitchen is a nice touch. 🙂 Buzz is running off at the mouth. He has no idea what makes Alan tick. I’m not exactly who he thinks he’s describing here, but it’s not Alan. Reva tries to explain to Marah that she doesn’t understand. Marah’s misdirection tactic includes explaining that her nanny is named Mary and is from Dublin, Ireland.
Abby tells Michelle that she feels her Goshen clothes make people either laugh at her or ignore her. Rick and Michelle have an unproductive talk about dating. He tells her to let J alone (not by name) and she tells him Abby has a thing for him which Rick doesn’t believe. I think Reva should have called Josh, sent Marah upstairs for something if she doesn’t want to do it in front of her. Shayne comes down and has a nice conversation with Annie. Shayne sells Marah out telling Annie that Marah took the musicbox. Reva as always hears what she wants to when Marah talks to her.
Frank asks Buzz if he loves Reva. Frank says he knew Buzz and Nadine had something magic, but weren’t right together long term. What now? Alan showed up at Reva’s door before she could call Josh. Alan tells her he’s sorry, but already in Josh light again Reva is not interested and tells Alan to hit the road. Meanwhile Marah makes a sad little shrine to her former life. Shayne continues to spill his guts listing off what Marah took even though it was mostly “stupid girl stuff.”
Michelle tells Rick Abby has a crush on him. Rick says “Ya, right” and then Abby comes in dressed in modern clothes. Rick wants to talk Abby down. Little girl Marina is cute and fun. It’s really a shame Eleni took her to California and ruined her. I don’t know why they never gave Frank another committed relationship after this, he does them so well. Annie and Josh figure out that Marah had been collecting things to remember Annie by.
Rick tries to talk Abby down. Alan is remembering hard truths from Reva and Buzz. Reva discovers Marah has taken Annie’s things to remember her.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Picking up from the last post Brent Lawrence has Lucy. That’s the major storyline to me in this next section, but we get some great early Rabby and early Dart stuff. Also, Marcus is cleared, the Reva back from the dead custody fight is going, Matt is blackmailing Amanda into leaving Bloss alone over their experience in California with an escort service. Comment blocks below include clip description, quotes, and my comments.
Monday, January 22, 1996
Abby kisses Rick. Rick insists it’s a practice date. Abby thinks it’s more. Hart takes Dinah’s drink in face. Roger calls the station and tells him all about the Brent/Marian story. Brent hears Michelle and J and goes to investigate. Lucy hears them and yells for help.
Brent grabs Lucy to silence her. A-M waits for Brent to control. Amanda offers support. A-M says that he doesn’t want to risk including Frank in his plan to rescue Lucy. Amanda says he has to include the cops. Alan shows up at the office to find out what’s going on. Michelle heard it, but not clearly and lets J talk her into it not being real. Then J makes up a ghost story to scare her. Brent approaches with a weapon, but decides they are not a threat when they make out.
Abby apologizes for kissing Rick, but he says it’s OK. Rick says he taught Michelle to dance. Abby ran off feeling embarrassed. Hart continues talking to Dinah about Roger. I’d say that neither Dinah nor Hart give a true portrait of Roger. They are both right and wrong. They do angry banter very well. Dinah calls Marcus and asks him to come to Towers. For reasons best known only to her, Gilly has decided to date her mom’s old lover. Holly and Fletcher arrive and overhear Roger. More great banter. Michelle and J continue to make out, but break apart when he starts reaching under her clothes. Brent overhears and rushes back to a hog-tied Lucy refreshed in his belief that every girl leads guys on and then backs off.
Brent bring a knife to Lucy’s throat, but then pulls back not to ruin his plan. Brent tells Lucy how sick it made him to watch J and Michelle (who he doesn’t know). (Kind of made me a little sick too, seeing Michelle kiss someone else in her and Danny’s lighthouse). Alan offers to reach out to a top computer expert to help track Brent, but A-M doesn’t trust the offer. Brent video chats in with more threats. Frank plays an analyzed tape to see if it was Roger. Neither Holly nor Fletcher is 100% it’s Roger. I don’t know how they couldn’t be from the tape alone it’s definitely him. Holly about Roger: “He’s always using fake accents.” Roger stops by Spaulding and finds one of the packets Amanda had put together about Marian Crane. I’m really kind of surprised. Roger can be a jerk, but not when someone innocent’s life is on the line.
Rick says he and Abby need to talk about the kiss. Abby shows back up in her Amish clothes. After spending the entire day with J, Michelle came back after dark. Michelle is upset that their date didn’t go well. Griffin feels put upon that Marcus doesn’t rush over to see him. Knowing about Lucy, Marcus is horrified that Roger is about to put out the story to endanger Lucy. (Actually Griffin your description of Roger sounds more than a little like you.)
Rick starts going off after J. Michelle drags him back. They have a short argument, but then come to terms. Michelle offers to watch a movie with Rick. Rick leaves to get more popcorn. Abby asks Michelle what happens. Michelle believes J’s garbage that it was her fault for leading him on and then pulling back. Cleary finally decides that instead of just taking guesses, they could do a voice print. Hart, Holly, and Fletcher decide to tape Roger and Cleary recommends they go down to the spy store to get equipment to tape it. Marcus tells Dinah she needs to find Roger and stop him from endangering Lucy. Griffin and Gilly speculate wrongly about Roger and Dinah.
Lucy manages to free herself of restraints. However, Lucy can’t get through the door. So Roger walks into Towers and nobody runs over and tries to get him to call and stop it? Rick and Michelle run across Roger’s WSPR news story. Brent sees himself on camera, just as J spots him makes the ID and yells.
J tackles Brent, but the Mall Cop believes Brent when he accuses J of stealing his wallet and Brent slips away. Michelle said she dropped J off at Springfield Mall and the Bauers have the TV on to watch the movie. This is dovetailing really well. Alan and Amanda try to stop A-M from running off and ripping out Roger’s heart when he learns Roger’s news story might be endangering Lucy. Lucy gets the door partly open and is met by a combination lock and tries to think what the combination might be.
Abby volunteers that she saw Det. Cutter and Marian Crane the night she was in the hospital and Rick and her went for a walk. Rick insists she has to tell the police. Actually I don’t think Roger would have played the story if he’d known about Lucy. He might be telling the truth. I thought it was out of character that he did. Roger protests he didn’t know about Lucy and says he wouldn’t have done it. Nick and Susan show up and support A-M. The date of the rape was the combination. Lucy gets into the room and gets on the computer. “Faith comes into our lives on four legs…” She gives proof it’s her, but the tranmission is cut off “he’s holding me at….”
The chief demands to know who told. Cleary confesses she’s the one who told Roger. This time Frank doesn’t let her off the hook. J was dragged in and Nola showed up. J tells Nola that he’d spotted Brent Lawrence. J swears on his car that he’s telling the truth. Nick and Susan talk A-M down from despair. Brent catches Lucy and freaks out. Brent announces he has to kill her and in desperation she hugs him.
J tells Frank and the Detective Levy everything. They believe him and Nola is proud of him. Michelle and Abby show up and Michelle apologizes to J. Abby tells Frank that she was Det. Cutter and Marian Crane together at the dock which helps confirm Brent’s role. Frank forgives Cleary. Holly is set up to record Roger. Holly pulls Roger away to get her recording. Lucy tries to talk Brent into thinking he convinced her that his view on what happened was right.
Dinah goes storming into her and Roger’s apartment upset that everyone blamed Roger when all he was doing was trying to help her friend. Frank shows up and tells A-M about what happened at the mall. A-M assumes Brent caught Lucy, but he didn’t. Lucy says what Brent wants to hear that he didn’t rape her.
Frank tries to time out how far out Brent was holding Lucy from the mall. Lucy keeps repeating she’ll do whatever it takes to survive. Hart and Marcus talk about Dinah’s inability to see Roger’s crimes.
Alan returns to the house he bought Reva. Alan is upset thinking Roger might have cost Alan Alan-Michael. Reva comes in bubbling with happiness about Marah and Shayne and Josh and Alan lashes out. Roger deposits some of Dinah’s money in an account in only his name (by a guy trying to do some kind of accent I think). Holly and Fletch show up at Roger and Dinah’s apartment – Penthouse A- saying them have proof Roger set up Marcus (which he totally did).
Dinah,Holly, and Fletcher keep talking through her front door. Hart and Marcus continue to talk about Dinah. We drop in on Gilly and Griffith’s date (which considering his prior relationship with her mother is kind of gross on both their parts). Hamp is welcoming guests and since Ross is running late, Amanda and Blake end up sitting side by side at the bar. Reva understood Alan’s attack and is very supportive of him. Alan won’t let it go though accusing Reva of being more interested in Josh despite what she says. Meanwhile Josh is upset about Marah, but Annie questions whether he’s more concerned about Marah or Reva?
Reva pleas with Alan to understand that she needs to be there with her kids and claims it has nothing to do with Josh (Liar!). Josh denies that it’s Reva’s he’s concerned about. Annie and Josh are romantic together. Marah sneaks down and takes Annie’s book to add to her Annie collection. Amanda comes out straight and says that she wants Ross and will do what it takes to get him. Amanda tells Blake that Ross knows Amanda wants him and that she’d already dropped a fur coat with nothing underneath for Ross’ benefit. Holly and Fletcher shows Dinah the evidence. Dinah supports Roger until he hears the recording of Roger telling Holly he can’t get her out of his system.
Dinah spits out that Roger set up Marcus. Dinah faces up to the fact that Roger still loves Holly and calls him out on it. Hamp saw the set up evidence and says he’s dropping the theft charges. Griffin: “There are other ways than direct confrontation.” Josh makes a move on Annie who asks about the kids first and as usual Josh is wrong, they aren’t asleep. Alan comes down and finds that Reva is setting up a seduction. AND this is where Jeva turn truly evil in their actions, Reva and Josh could have walked away from Annie and Alan at this point and no harm, no foul, but no they both swear they love the one they are with severely messing them up.
Amanda calls for a toast in Ross’ honor. Roger desperately tries to drive away Dinah’s doubts, but this time Dinah has it. Sadly Roger just sounds sickening.
We start with a nice exterior shot of the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams house. Annie is feeling great because she thinks Josh was making love to her out of desire for her and not for the desire to hurt Reva. If Josh would have come clean right now, they wouldn’t have broken her. Alan is having similar feelings about Reva on their morning after. Matt and Vanessa are also waking up in bed together. Meanwhile Blake is awake and upset and angrily wakes up Ross. Note: This is a lovely bit showing Ross and Blake’s bedroom.
More bedroom at beginning. Blake tells Ross Amanda told her about the time Amanda had striped in his office. Amanda is alone at the Spaulding Mansion and not feeling too good either. Amanda has a her and Ross fantasy. Alan asks Reva to try to make peace and get shared custody. Reva agrees to try, but before she makes it to the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams Marah’s therapist calls with a sudden opening and rather than wait until next week Josh takes her in leaving Annie there to deal with Reva.
Ross is not properly contrite and gets mad when he feels Blake has unjustly accused him. Reva actually plays nice, but when she finds Marah is at a therapist (Dr. Julian) at Cedars she starts to storm off, but Annie stops her. Alan meets with lawyer who withstood Alan’s attempts to buy her off. After Ross storms off, Blake rushes to Vanessa and Matt’s interrupting them in the bedroom to beg Vanessa for advice.
Annie and Reva continue to argue about Marah. Ross goes to Amanda to find out why she wound up Blake and pushes Nettie aside to find Amanda in the Spaulding study in her skivvies while a dressmaker measured her.
Blake tells Vanessa what Amanda did, dropping her mink coat in front of Ross. Vanessa: “Well that’s not very original.” (One of the most famous Guiding Light scenes is Vanessa doing that to Ross.) Madame Elliot is the designer. Ross tears into Amanda. I really can’t believe the best way to have the session with Marah is to have Josh sitting there staring at her the whole time.
Reva bursts in and Marah leaves with the doctor while Josh and Reva tear into each other. I actually don’t think the beeper thing is a bad idea, but the fact is Reva is WAY more concerned over what she wants rather than what’s good for Marah. AND then Josh makes it about himself and loses sight of the kids himself. Ross defends his wife to Amanda and tells her to back off.
Annie and Josh bring Marah home and she’s still upset. Marah is about the only soap child they show the effects on them. This period was when Reva wore the prettiest clothes. I just don’t see Vanessa ever wearing those scruffy tennis shoes. This must have been her midlife crisis. Amanda does have a pretty big secret. Not one that fits with the character of Amanda, but it’s a pretty big one.
Friday, January 26, 1996
Blake and Vanessa discuss her issues with Amanda. Matt was also part of the secret. Really Amanda, no way Matt believes he’s going to out you and not out himself. We finally get back to fact that Lucy was kidnapped way back on January 1st. Don’t worry, Lucy isn’t stockholming, she’s scheming.
Brent does a great job describing LAM’s love, but Lucy tries to convince him it isn’t true. I still don’t understand why Lucy was ever snowed by Marion enough to think she was her BEST friend. Blake really does have a self esteem problem and I guarantee Amanda didn’t mean give Ross a child. Matt assures Amanda that she has a lot more to lose than he does, that his relationship with Vanessa wouldn’t be hurt by it.
Someone really should have taken the time to push Amanda’s bangs out of the way, it looks terrible. Alex comes in and is surprised that Amanda has the safe open. Alex couldn’t. Amanda explains she changed the combination. Oh Amanda, you don’t show somebody the original you’re blackmailing someone with. He could grab it and take off. Ross and Blake show up at the doctor’s office for their appointment with Dr. Sedwick. Lucy seems to convince Brent to leave Alan-Michael out of his plans and video chats in to tell Alan-Michael she doesn’t love him, the rape never happened and she wants to be with Brent.
Alan-Michael realizes that Lucy was lying to get Brent out of town and away from A-M. Amanda and Alex fight about control at Spaulding Enterprises. Blake and Ross both get clean bills of health for fertility. She think Blake’s stress levels is what’s causing their issues. Dr. Sedwick suggests Blake talks to Dr. Ames, a psychiatrist. Frankly I think it sounds like a good idea.
Bloss talks about other options to therapy when Blake resists therapy. He suggests taking another cruise like their honeymoon. Blake is excited, but then Ross suggests they need to stop trying to get pregnant to get Blake to a better place first. Matt returns home considering telling Vanessa who is all adjutated about Amanda and how she is going after Ross. She tells Matt that any man who would have anything to do with Amanda was dirt. (Matt, who was involved with Amanda, thinks Gulp!)
Alex calls Vanessa and tells her that Matt left his magazine there showing the house that he is going to build for Amanda. When Vanessa asks him about it Matt admits it’s a lie. Vanessa asks why was he really there. Amanda goes into Spaulding Enterprises and is being very supportive of Alan-Michael. Brent contacts Alan-Michael by chat and tells him to come alone. Brent is going to call A-M at the phone booth on 5th Street where Patrick Cutter was killed.
A-M: “Do not call the police because you’re going to be risking Lucy’s life!”
Amanda: “But what about yours?”
A-M: “My life isn’t worth anything without her.”
Matt tells Vanessa that he just told Amanda to back off and that Amanda covered for Blake. Vanessa is thrilled Matt is so wonderful. Brent comes in and tells a waiting Lucy that they have a celebration to attend before they leave town. A-M goes down to the Spaulding Enterprises parking garage and the man Frank left to keep tabs on A-M reports in when he gets into his car and leaves. A-M is wearing a cloth cap that does him no justice. He’s parked on level 5 and is driving a nondescript new sedan – I can’t tell brand.
Check back for more to the story.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
We have a short run of episodes available after the Bert Bauer Memorial Service. This should be the following Monday. Happily these are mostly important to Michelle’s history. This one is the exception. However, it continues the day of the memorial service and we learn a lot about where Rick’s life is right now just as he’s getting close to becoming a doctor. We get some great stuff today of seeing Mindy Lewis as the Sampson Girl including Dick Cavett’s second appearance on the show. If you wonder what happened to Kurt and Mindy after having the most beautiful soap wedding ever. Here you go — and see I TOLD you about their obsession with this house. There is a lot of Jessie and Simon today for people who enjoy them. In the next few episodes we’ll see the fight for custody of Michelle start to move to center stage. I’m sorry they don’t keep going longer, but really this is a nice little run.
March 10 1986
Mindy on Dick Cavett
Mindy as the Sampson Girl is being interviewed by Dick Cavett (a real TV interview star). Cavett served as Master of Ceremonies for the Sampson Girl Contest. Beth traveled with Mindy to help her. Jackson also came as part of the series of show biz stories they ran through back then. Back when talk shows were as big as judge shows are now and actually featured interesting topics and conversations, Dick Cavett was one of the best.
Simon and Jessie are still in jail. Ironically Simon was a criminal, but IS innocent this time. A count of the cash register shows it $50 short which backs Simon’s story.
Rick shows up with his study buddy friend Amber and Roxie tries to get him to tell her about what went on with Amber, but he covers not wanting her to know the part about his drug.
Not sure who these day players are taking screen time with a lame pick-up. There are a lot of slight line gaffes today. Kurt implies both that he’s going to call the police and go down there.
Simon continues to try to protect Jessie and work Alexandra.
Mindy says she spent a lot of time on H.B.’s ranch growing up and learned to “ride and shoot with the best of them.” Mindy: “Springfield is part big city and part small town.”
Jackson intercepts Kurt’s message. Jackson is currently working on breaking up Mindy and Kurt. I don’t approve of why he’s doing it, but I approve of the aim.
When Roxie had amnesia she ended up in Alaska which is what brought Kurt to town in the first place. Reva has forgiven Hawk for frequently and finally abandoning them as children. Roxie has taken a firmer stance as the younger sibling remembering less of the father and more of the hurt. Hawk does get a job there and works at Company for the next few years.
Mindy and Dick get publicity shots. Dick again encourages Mindy to be a guest again soon. Calla (Jessie’s mother, Lillian’s sister) shows up and is furious. Her whole plan for coming to town was to marry Jessie off to someone rich and socially connected (hopefully Phillip Spaulding) as Calla’s own ticket to wealth and prominence. Simon pushes the con by telling Alex she has to accept him right now or he’s leaving town.
Somehow Fletcher and Reva who is working for the newspaper have become best friends. Reva’s sick stranger violently refuses medical aid.
Rick’s “friend” takes the torn pieces of the illegal amphetamines (speed) prescription from Rick’s table and says to himself he’ll give them to Claire for a reward. They’ll be ammunition for the custody case for Michelle.
This was during the time when the continued one of the scenes under the credits. It’s my favorite credit style because it really makes you feel like life goes on in Springfield when the cameras aren’t rolling. They did it on As the World Turns also.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Mindy and Kurt were not a great couple. If you ask me, Kurt treated Mindy like dirt, always ignoring and belittling things Mindy thought were important while holding her to a strict standard of what he thought was important. I really couldn’t stand Kurt with either Mindy or her rival for his “affections” Roxie. I actually was glad when he was killed as part of an evil cartel dealing with Lewis Oil in Venezela.
Kurt from Mindy wedding
Flashback to 1985
That said, I’d have to say that while not the best soap wedding ever, Mindy and Kurt’s was the most beautiful. There are different formulas for a good soap wedding. One of those is the princess fairytale wedding. Soaps have tried it over and over, sometimes even creating real royalty for the event. None of them ever touched this one. It’s gorgeous and perfect first beat to last. Look for yourself and enjoy.
It’s important to point out that while Kurt was penniless and Mindy was an princess, they not only had a relationship they had an entire fantasy built around this plot of land they bought. It made sense to some extent for Kurt, but I didn’t think Mindy ever cared beans about the house. Anyway they had this tediously elaborate plan about getting the land and paying for it and building a house on it. It was really kind of like they only existed as a couple in terms of this house and when Mindy’s justifiable mad fit lead to it being burned to the ground they were kind of done. Kurt took a job with Lewis Oil to try to rebuild, but died soon after.
Best bit of this wedding though, where are Ed and Maureen and Claire? Michelle is being born!
Mindy Wedding with Kurt
Before the ceremony they discover that Mindy and a sound alike name bride Mandy Lewiston were both booked at the church at the same time. Phillip agrees to let Mindy use the Spaulding retreat which is nearby for her wedding. It includes establishing shots via flyover the retreat. Beth and Lujack are supposed to be part of the wedding party, but call at the last minute to say they can’t be there. As far as I can make out from what I can find supposedly this Spaulding Retreat place is near to Springfield. Vanessa had been there before, but I don’t think we ever hear about it again.
Everyone is brought to the ceremony in creative ways. Henry and Bea are in a bicycle rickshaw. A group of people are dancing. Maeve and Fletcher (the most boring, self-satisfied couple ever) are walking arm and arm. The guy on the bicycle was an orderly at the hospital. He was a great guy even though I can’t remember his name. I think the woman with him is a nurse. Apparently one of the men on horseback is a friend of Kurt’s from up where we first met him when he was working for an oil company in Alaska. Lillian, Jesse and Calla arrive in a carriage. Miss Sally, Kyle’s mother apparently not up on the latest news, asks Maeve where Kyle is. He’s coming with Reva. That lovely instrumental behind them is “Claire de Lune.” Reva who is for some unknown reason in a private garden is swept away when Kyle shows up to carry her off to the wedding on horseback.
Kurt, Rick, and Phillip (John Bolger version) get dressed throw things wildly out behind a bush and appear in outfits that could very well be Prince Charming out of the Cinderella ball scene. Even the horse is dressed for a prince. The carriage returns with Roxie, Vanessa et al all royally dressed. (It’s interesting because the people who are standing up for them are reversed instead of the bride’s friends with the bride, they’re with the groom, it’s backward. Roxie is a friend of Kurt’s and Phillip and Rick are friends of Mindy’s). Then Mindy arrives in a white carriage wearing her princess bride dress that was given to the Smithsonian.
Kurt realizes that he left Mindy’s wedding ring in his other jacket and is now in the pile of clothes Kurt, Rick, and Phillip left where they changed. After swinging up on a white charger to try to get back to where he left the ring, Kurt is cutting it too close. Jessie who apparently hasn’t met anyone in town yet, rushes forward and offers Kurt a ring he can use. The bride’s party arrives with Vanessa as a substitute mother of the bride. Lillian arrives with her sister Calla and her niece Jesse who no one knows yet. Kyle and Reva are all over each other and talking about marrying soon. We cut to where Mindy has a lovely moment with her grandfather H.B. before turning to Billy.
“What’s important darling is your marriage [not the wedding]” Great Billy speech to Mindy about the importance of marriage, but apparently he isn’t going to give her away. Kurt, Rick and Phillip go down the aisle in mass to take their positions. Then the flower girl comes down the aisle followed by the preacher. Roxie and Vanessa take their places and then after giving her a moment alone, Billy walks Mindy down the aisle.
We restart the aisle walk at the beginning of a new episode. On the way down Mindy stops and tells H.B. she loves him before Billy presents her to Kurt and the minister begins.
Big lush music cues underneath as Kurt and Mindy kneel facing each other in front of the minister and go through the traditional vows. “Until death do us part….but even that won’t separate us, Mindy, because we’ll leave our children behind us to who grow up on the land we own and live in the home we build” (See they were just nuts about building this house.) They complete their vows and go back up the aisle. Vanessa wishes Kurt welcome to the family and we firmly establish Calla and Jessie where Calla wants a marriage for Jessie to land them both on easy street and Jessie wants a great love.
Musical montage of still images from wedding. These are screen captures quite a few for parts of the wedding that weren’t clipped. Kurt and Mindy take off in a helicopter, Mindy drops her bouquet which Roxie catches. Meanwhile back at Lakeland Country Club, Lujack accuses man he thinks is running criminal cartel David Preston. Suzette (who is frequently mentioned since her actress did very well later) apparently is the key to proving Lujack’s case.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Warning the sound on this is clear but VERY low. Crank your speakers all the way up.
This year the place to celebrate New Years is Lakeland Country Club. Sadly I don’t have a lot of this, but I’ll look for more and in the meantime enjoy this clip.
Alexandra and Roger are still together. Roger is cheating with Mindy, but Alex doesn’t know. I always thought Alex being THIS concerned with Mindy rang false, but it of course was part of the build up to make the betrayal worse.
Alan-Micheal found out that Blake had lied and she wasn’t really pregnant which was the main reason he had married her when he did. He still feels rather protective to Blake and that’s why he offers to be the one to leave his family home.
Holly is mad at Alex because Alex had a plan to use Holly to check Roger’s fidelity. I can’t remember why he didn’t. I’m not sure if this was before Roger’s love turned to resentment for being constantly emasculated or if Roger was already with Mindy or if he knew it was a trap. Anyone else remember? Ross broke up with Holly when he found out. Wow! Blake sure looks awful. The turban doesn’t really suit Holly either.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
The IN place to be celebrating this New Years Eve is the Blue Orchid, managed by former hospital executive and general cad Warren Andrews. Watching this in retrospect, 90s clothes had WAY too much bright color blocking. While pretty much everybody is at the Blue Orchid the young generation is away for a ski weekend at a large rented cabin. For a good summary of where we are in the story check out my post about the week before Christmas 1986.
Josh and Reva are newly reunited and Reva is barely pregnant with Marah. Dinah is newly discovered. This is still the first Dinah – really there wasn’t a lot of difference in the first two pale shadows of the Dinah we knew later and it’s pretty clear that neither would have survived life with the carnies. Except for a reasonable resentment towards Vanessa, Dinah is still a sweet girl. She’s living with her newly discovered father Ross Marler, but he’s not really ready to face a daughter he never knew is all grown up – hence the dress. Dinah instead wants to wear the dress from Reva’s wedding. That would be the second broken up Reva-Kyle wedding. Dorrie, Dinah’s once lost foster sister and the unlikely savior of India at the camp where India was sent on community service for her last crime. Reva is working as photographer, has switched from having working for the newspaper and instead is opening a studio. Dinah is being Reva’s photographic protege and working with her boyfriend Cameron on the school paper. This has got quite a bit of Simon and Jessie who dropped so thoroughly off the Springfield radar that many people don’t remember them. Check this out if you don’t.
It’s New Year’s Eve and Rick, Simon and some of the gang have gone on a ski trip. Simon and Jessie broke up a couple months ago, but she has shown up at the cabin where they are staying, to tell Simon she is leaving to go to college at Duke University, and to say goodbye.
Rick playing doctor diagnosis Mindy with a bad sprain from trying too difficult a ski run. Christine – apparently part of Alan’s latest scheme involving art and having an eye on Johnny – is the blonde. A dark hair pageboy haircut girl shows up seeking shelter from the storm. Her name is Bambie and she catches Rick’s eye right away.
Mindy and Rusty are sharing a bedroom since everyone has to double up since they are stranded by a storm. Jessie’s car is buried in the snow. Dinah calls Lillian over for reinforcement when Ross gives her too young a dress. Vanessa is worried about Dinah and establishing a relationship with her. Dorrie is excited and wants to dance with the grown-ups.
The young part of Springfield is away at a Ski Cabin (not the Bauer) cabin. Rusty and Mindy are fighting fate which currently has them sharing a bedroom. Rusty sees someone right outside bedroom window and takes off. Simon – who is currently on the outs with Jessie – comes to check on her when she tried to drive away from the cabin in bad weather. Despite India’s recent redemption, courtesy of Dorrie her adopted daughter (the girl dancing at the Blue Orchid), she attempts to blackmail Alan with a recording of him discussing illegal business deals.
Kyle and Maeve are there and dancing having left baby Ben with a baby sitter. Billy has gone to Venezuela to straighten out troubles there. The man outside the cabin was a hunter, but we’re focusing on the fact Rusty has a handgun. Simon and Jessie are snuggling in the stuck car. Ross: “I hear myself saying things I promised myself I’d never say if I had a child.” Ross and Lillian have a really nice conversation. Alan tells India that the people they are dealing with are WAY more serious than he is and they better cut out this blackmail nonsense before THEY hear about it.
Simon and Jessie leave the car and break into a nearby cabin where no one was home. Simon: “Remind me to leave some money and a note.” – Cause you’re SO busy right now. Back at the ski cabin Johnny is talking to a blonde I don’t know and Chelsea overhears her saying bad things about her late fiancee Jean Claude who was a major jerk. Johnny finally tells Chelsea about what he knew about Jean Claude being involved with smuggling. Dinah doesn’t like Vanessa because she’s the one who gave her away without even telling Ross she existed.
HB excuses himself from business when Alexandra returns to the table not to bore the “little lady.” Alex tells him what she thinks of that. Hawk is working up courage to ask Lillian to marry him, but her independence talk puts him off. Dinah and Reva have a talk. Dinah manages to put her foot in her mouth over Reva’s recent romantic adventures, but is insistent that Jeva should be married before the baby is born to give her a family. (And good for Dinah — they really don’t do so well in that department.)
Reva ignores Dinah’s very good advice. While Dinah rejected Vanessa for a long time, she immediately bonded with her grandfather, Henry. Henry gives good advice except he totally gives Vanessa a pass on this…and everything else. He urges Dinah if she can’t really feel respect toward her mother she should ACT like she does. Dinah thinks to herself that she’s doing good not punching Vanessa out and decides it’s better to take off. Alan and Alexander have a nice conversation and Alex says she thinks she’ll find a mysterious new man in the new year.
Simon and Jessie make love for the first time. Cam and Dinah kiss at midnight. At the cabin they kiss around the group with Mindy/Rusty, Phillip/Chelsea, Roxie/Johnny, and a dark-haired pageboy haircut girl that I don’t recognize and Rick getting the long Midnight kisses. Who you kiss at Midnight on New Years is supposed to be the person you’ll spend the next year with. At the cabin Chelsea starts to sing Auld Lang Syne and it spreads throughout the room and to the Blue Orchid.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
This is the seventy-third in an irregular feature where we will report updates on what cast members of Guiding Light are doing now. I’m playing catch up on some soap magazine news. So as a reminder you can buy back issues: https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/faq-back-issues-2014/
In the May 4, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth they flashback 10 years to the beginnings of the lovely Cozzie (Lizzie Spaulding and Henry “Coop” Cooper) pairing.
Frank Cooper is featured as a Crime Stopper (top cops/PIs on soaps feature) in the May 4, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Check out a great collection of current photos of all your favorite Guiding Light stars at the Daytime Stars and Strikes fundraiser. Look especially for the photo of Nancy St. Alban (Michelle Bauer Santos #5). I especially love the shot of Beth Chamberlain (Beth Raines #2) and Grant Aleksander (Phillip Spaulding #2, the one we knew most of the time) looking like an a finally ecstatically happy Phillip and Beth. Find them in the August 10, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Aleksander is also the subject of a featured interview in the August 10, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest. He talks about what he’s doing today and Guiding Light memories. After the show went off the air, he returned to finish the college degree he interrupted when he was first cast as he promised his parents he eventually would. He completed is BA in Theater. He recently completed a run of Mary, Mary at the Cape May Stage in New Jersey and is actively auditioning.
Daniel Cosgrove (Bill Lewis #4, part of the wonderful Bizzie pairing) gives an update on his kids in the July 13, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. His three daughters are in the School of American Ballet and his son is more into “mud and rocks and baseball.”
Allison Janney (Ginger, one of Jenna’s comic relief maids while she owned the Spaulding Mansion) “appears” as a voice artist in Minions. Read more about it in the July 20, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
A round up of quotes of how real life acting pairs is featured in the August 10, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Included are: Terrell Tilford (David Grant #3, brother to Gilly, son of hospital administrator Charles, friend to Bridget, coupled with Vicky Spaulding his real life wife Victoria Platt), Crystal Chappell (Olivia Spencer), and Fiona Hutchison (Jenna Bradshaw Cooper). (FYI – if you know the background and compare Terri Conn’s quote to the others it’s kind of hilarious, check it out. 🙂
Catch a photo of Fiona Hutchison (Jenna Bradshaw Cooper) and her real life husband John Viscardi are pictured in the June 3, 2013 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Kassie DePaiva (Chelsea Reardon, Maureen and Nola’s little sister) is interviewed for a feature piece in the March 9, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. It focuses on her current role of Eve Donovan on Days of Our Lives.
Stephanie Gatschet (Tammy Winslow Randall #2) had a daughter on March 28, 2015. The daughter’s name is Velva and is also the child of her longtime boyfriend Willem Van Waay (a pro sailing racer). Find more in the May 4 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth and on Gatschet‘s social media.
Karla Mosley (Christina Boudreau) is the subject of a feature in the May 4, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. It focuses on her role as a transgender character Maya Avant on The Bold and the Beautiful. Mosley also checks in with how the transgender storyline is going. Read more in the August 10, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.
Rebecca Budig (Michelle Bauer #3, part of the Messe pairing) has returned to General Hospital after her character woke up from her coma. Read more in the August 10, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Scott Bailey (Sandy Foster, who started with the Mole puppet & then was falsely revealed to be Jonathan Randall) will be making an appearance with his wife Adrienne Frantz (Amber Moore Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful) in the Lifetime movie The Imposter He Met Online this August 2015. See more in the June 13, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. Sadly Bailey and Frantz announced they’d suffered a second miscarriage late last year. Read more about it in the December 29, 2014 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne Lewis) is featured in an article in the May 4, 2015 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth that focuses on her leaving the road company of Wicked and how she is still connected to soaps.
Zach Conroy (James Spaulding #2, part of the lovely Jaisy pairing) was featured in the Take Five questions in the June 3, 2013 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Both Crystal Hunt (Lizzie Spaulding Lewis #5 brought in Roxie the dog and romanced Coop) and Matt Bomer (Ben Reade #3) appeared in Magic Mike XXL. Read more about it in the July 20, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Joan Collins (Alexandra Spaulding #3) at 82 is still very busy. Recently she’s appeared on Queens of Drama and The Royals. Get more details in the June 1, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
When Rick Hearst returned to General Hospital in January 2015, he grew out stubble to match the backstory of being undercover and then held hostage. I think everyone is glad he’s since shaved again. Read a lot more about it in the January 26, 2015 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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