|
The Guiding Light (TGL) (known since 1975 as ''Guiding Light'') was a long-running American television soap opera.〔(About the show "Guiding Light" ) at CBS.Com〕 ==Show development== In the 1970s, unlike in the 1960s after Agnes Nixon left to begin writing for ''Another World'' in 1966, there was less of a revolving doors of head writers and story line seemed to stabilize in only two directions, first what was aired from January 1, 1970 to near the end of October 1975 and then what was aired from near the beginning of November 1975 to the end of the decade on December 31, 1979. The first half of the decade was mainly dominated by the story lines that were written by the head writing married couple of Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer who wrote for the show from near the end of 1969 to the spring of 1973 and were long time and reliable soap scribes. And then the head writing team that replaced Soderberg and Sommer, James Gentile, Robert Cenedella and former ''The Guiding Light'' cast member James Lipton continued most of the stories in the same direction as started by Soderberg and Sommer from the spring of 1973 to near the end of October 1975. Under Soderberg and Sommer, several memorable story lines either concluded in big ways or kept many viewers very riveted to the action in ''Springfield'', which continued to remain the main locale for the show for this decade. They also created several memorable characters, two in particular one that would last until the show ended in September 2009 and another that would be one of the most talked about characters on all of daytime. In 1970, Soderberg and Sommer concluded the story line of Dr. Sara McIntyre being gaslighted by her first husband Lee Gantry and his housekeeper Miss Mildred Foss, with Foss meeting a gruesome end in January 1970 and Gantry one in August 1970. Soderberg and Sommer then moved on to setting up the killing of Stanley Norris, in November 1971, and great mystery for several months and a trial where heroine, Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris, who had married Stanley earlier that year, was accused of the crime and Soderberg and Sommer presented a very memorable last minute confession of the crime by another woman, who was the mother of one of the young women that Stanley was having an affair with, who would end up dying in the court from heart attack. Soderberg and Sommer also wrote most of the set-up to how both the characters of Katherine "Kit" Vestid and Charlotte Waring Bauer would become one of the most interesting pair of villainess seen on television up to that point, that would be concluded by the next writing regime. On April 1, 1971, a new character was introduced, by Soderberg and Sommer, who would become one of the most major and remembered characters in daytime, Roger Thorpe, played by Michael Zaslow, originally a junior executive employee of Stanley Norris', off-an-on until the spring of 1997. (Thorpe would stay on the canvas until the spring of 1998, but at that time from the spring of 1997 with an unpopular recast. Roger Thorpe would die off-screen in the fall of 2004.) During the 1970s, into April 1, 1980, the character of Roger Thorpe became more and more of a villain, but a complicated, multi-faceted one. It seemed the more bad Roger became, the more the audience grew and wanted more of him. And Roger's on-and-off again tortured romance with another character started under Soderberg and Sommer, Holly Norris Bauer Thorpe, Stanley Norris' daughter (played by Lynn Deerfield and then more memorably by Maureen Garrett), who was supposedly the "love of Roger's life". became one of the most popular and riveting romances on television period. (Holly was the character that was created by Soderberg and Sommer who would last, on-and-off until the show's end in September 2009.) Shortly before Soderberg and Somer's exit as head writers, long time cast member (on 24 years at the time, both on radio and television), Theo Goetz who played Papa Bauer, the patriarch of the Bauers, as well as most of the rest of the citizens of both ''Selby Flats'' and later ''Springfield'', died on December 29, 1972 at the age of 78 years. Goetz had been considering retirement at age 75 in 1969, but was persuaded by then Executive Producer of ''The Guiding Light'', Luci Ferri Rittenberg to stay on at the show as Papa Bauer. Soderberg and Somer wrote a fitting tribute episode, after having Papa die in his sleep, to both Goetz and Papa that aired on February 27, 1973, with a memorial service, with Mart Hulswit playing Dr. Ed Bauer, Papa's grandson, giving a very memorable eulogy and Don Stewart, playing Michael "Mike" Bauer, Papa's other grandson, singing one of Papa's favorite songs, ''I'll Walk With God''. Not that the writing of Soderberg and Sommer didn't have its critics, one being long time cast member, Charita Bauer. Under Soderberg and Sommer, to spice things up just a bit, the already airing romantic triangle between the two Bauer sons, Mike and Ed, and the character of Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris heated up, with Charita Bauer's character of Bert, who was the mother of both of the men, finding out about the romance (finally) in a most shocking way—during Leslie's trial, via a nosy television news reporter, for supposedly murdering Stanley Norris! This story line was criticized by Charita Bauer, whose role moved in time from Bauer matriarch to the beacon of support for the entire town. Bauer was quoted as saying, "Now (show's producers ) don't really care about the idea of the family anymore. That used to be the main theme of the show, but now it's gone." Feeling pressure from newer, more youth-oriented serials such as ''The Young and the Restless'' and ''All My Children'', ''Procter & Gamble'' hired head writers Bridget and Jerome Dobson in 1975. The Dobsons first started writing in November 1975 taking over from Gentile, Cenedella and Lipton. The married duo focused on core characters, giving Bert her first real story line in years when her husband Bill came back from the dead. The Dobsons also gave a last name to a character introduced near the end of the last writing regime, in September 1975. Under The Dobsons this character became one of the most sexiest and most complicated "vixens" (The Dobsons are credited with making her a complicated "vixen") in the show's history when nurse Rita Stapleton arrived in ''Springfield'' and later was joined, in the summer of 1976, by her sweet sister Eve and mother Viola. The Dobsons also created two families that were to become prominent in story lines all the way to the show's end in September 2009, the Spauldings and the Marlers. A matter of fact, Ross Marler (introduced by The Dobsons on March 23, 1979) would remain part of the show's canvas, until later writers killed him off, in 2006 (the actor who played Ross, Jerry verDorn would stay with the show until the fall of 2005 which made him the longest running cast member, at that time, of all time 26 years and which only became second for all-time only eclipsed by Charita Bauer's record of 34 years that she set in the fall of 1984), and the character of Alan Spaulding (introduced by The Dobsons on November 7, 1977) would remain part of the show's canvas off-and-on until September 2009, although with two major recasts. Also the longest running recurring character began under The Dobsons, Cedars Hospital's OB-GYN Dr. Margaret Sedwick. Dr. Sedwick first made her appearance in September 1979 during Jackie Scott Marler Spaulding's difficult pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. Dr. Sedwick and the actress who played her from the beginning, Margaret Gwenver (Sedwick was Gwenver's married name) would help many women characters through pregnancies and miscarriages through the years and would last be seen in 2009 a few months before the show ended. The Dobsons also are credited with writing, and then the producers presenting, the first ever marital rape story line in daytime, when by then married couple Roger Thorpe raped his wife, Holly Norris Bauer Thorpe on the March 5, 1979 episode of ''Guiding Light''. And the rape was considered one of the most realistic looking rapes in daytime (a few months earlier, in October 1978, Roger had raped Rita Stapleton, with actor Michael Zaslow and actress Lenore Kasdorf both complaining that that rape was made to look like to the audience as though it was very romantic, instead of an act of violence.) This story line was considered one of the most controversial and most thought provoking story lines in daytime history (on ABC's ''General Hospital'', the character of Luke had already raped the character of Laura, but those two characters were not yet married at that time, so ''Guiding Lights Roger raping Holly still holds as the first ever marital rape on a soap opera), with a very interesting follow-up of a major trial (where the then new character of attorney Ross Marler defended Roger), and then in June 1979 Holly would shoot Roger (with his gun), three times in the chest, when it looked like he was going to be acquitted, he threatened to take their daughter Chrissy out of the country and got into a fight with Holly's former husband (and Rita's current husband, Dr. Ed Bauer) and Ed was losing the fight. (This shooting would be one of the two events on the videotape presented to the Daytime Emmy Award voting panel in 1980 for the ''Guiding Light'' to win its first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Drama in May 1980.) Roger was secretly taken out of the country with the help of his boss Alan Spaulding and declared dead and Holly would become the first major female soap opera character to spend an appreciative amount of time (6 months) in a woman's prison for supposedly murdering her husband (until Mike Bauer had the body exhumed and it turned out not to be Roger's.) The Dobsons though were criticized for two major story line moves. The first of those was their killing off of Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris Bauer, in June 1976 (by then part of what appeared to be a stable couple that could have made Leslie a tent pole character for many years later.) There is disagreements over what made The Dobsons kill off Leslie via a drunk driver, but many in the audience considered this move of killing off of a well-liked heroine the beginning of the end for the show. Another unpopular and to some of the audience odd move, and the direction the story took, by The Dobsons was the bringing back of Bill Bauer from the "dead" in the fall of 1977. This move was met with an unpopular backlash and thought of as odd, because much of the long time audience had remembered in September 1968, before Bill Bauer was supposedly killed off in an Alaskan plane crash in July 1969, that he was given only nine years to live post a heart transplant. Also it appeared to much of the audience that The Dobsons themselves seemed to lose interest in the coming back from the dead of Bill Bauer, when by May 1978, the character was gone out of story line, only to return for brief appearances in November 1978, April 1980, August 1983 (when the character was killed off) and November 1983 (in flashbacks of another character.) In early 1974, the theme of the show and its background music was changed from acoustic organ-based to orchestra-based. The version of the opening and closing themes, "La Lumière," by Charles Paul, first used in 1968 (and scored for piano and organ), was re-scored by Mr. Paul in an orchestral version, and the billboards and titles, were changed as well. See http://www.youtube.com/soapluvva#play/all/uploads-all/0/3es3Yk2O4Zc for some recordings of the piano-organ version and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2LlUzOH4fE&feature=PlayList&p=06A2C2BD4A35CCDF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31 for a recording of the orchestral version. On November 5, 1975, the name was changed in the show's opening and closing visuals from ''The Guiding Light'' to ''Guiding Light'' in an attempt to modernize the show's image, and, at the same time, the show adopted the harp-and-string-laced "Ritournelle," by Charles Paul, as its theme song, accompanied by a somewhat abstracted visual of sunlight filtering through leaves on a tree. The serial was still called ''The Guiding Light'' by CBS (and the show's staff announcers, most notably Alan Berns who began his tenure with the program in 1969 and would last as show announcer until the spring of 1997) until fall 1981, when the "The" was completely dropped from references and a more upbeat musical theme was adopted. On November 7, 1977, the show expanded to a full hour. Although there had been one remote location shooting on ''The Guiding Light'' both in the summer of 1969 and the summer of 1970 in the English countryside of Great Britain, remote location shooting picked up speed in the last two years of the 1970s on ''Guiding Light'' starting with shooting of a pair of story lines, one that took place in Nassau, Bahamas in June 1978 and then Santo Domingo in July to September 1978. This was also another pressure that CBS and ''Proctor & Gamble'' put the ''Guiding Light'' under in the last two years of the 1970s due to the other more popular soaps doing the same. (Prior to 1975, when the last two soaps, ''As the World Turns'' and ''The Edge of Night'' went from airing live to tape, remote location shooting was considered rare in soaps and also too expensive for their budgets.) In the fall of 1978, the show would have some of the cast shoot outside the studios in New York City and also shoot in upstate New York at the same time. (Ed Bauer's mansion house and the Spaulding mansion house, had some of the location shooting done in upstate New York at the time, and that would be seen, again, in the 1980s and 1990s.) In 1979, there would be further remote location shooting for the show done in Saint Lucia, Puerto Rico, Florida and other parts of the Caribbean. The pioneering new wave band Television paid tribute to the show in 1977 by including a song entitled "Guiding Light" on their debut album ''Marquee Moon''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guiding Light (1970–79)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|