After 72 years, Guiding Light is going off the air Friday and I am sad. Sad that a TV show is ending? Yes. I'm sad because I have literally been watching that show all of my life. Ever since I was a baby, it has been a part of my family. I watched it with my mama and my Maw all of my childhood and teenage years religiously, never missing a day of it during my summers out of school and I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I was when VCRs were invented!! I taped that show every day!!
Since it's been around so long, Guiding Light was the stepping stone for a lot of actors. Some I didn't even realize until I did a little research. Christopher Walken, Billy Dee Williams, Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones and Calista Flockhart all got their starts on GL. The biggest star that I watched rise to the top is Kevin Bacon. He played Tim Werner in the early 80's and to me, that's when GL was at its best. Maybe because I was young and impressionable (ha!) but the storylines were so great back then.
GL had so many super couples. My all-time favorite is Josh and Reva and if they let that show end without getting them back together for the umpteenth time, I'm gonna quit watching it!! :)
I'm watching this week and seeing it to the end. They are tying up a lot of loose ends and I'm glad about that. I cannot stand to be left hanging! It's sad. It feels like a member of my family is dying.
What's even sadder about this is the reasoning behind the cancellation. Money. Women don't sit home and watch soap operas anymore. Most women these days work outside the home and ratings for daytime TV have plummeted. I think the rest of them will follow suit. Instead of canceling them, they should move them to prime time and get rid of some of those stupid reality shows. That's just my opinion. Didn't they ask me for it? :)
What's even sadder about this is the reasoning behind the cancellation. Money. Women don't sit home and watch soap operas anymore. Most women these days work outside the home and ratings for daytime TV have plummeted. I think the rest of them will follow suit. Instead of canceling them, they should move them to prime time and get rid of some of those stupid reality shows. That's just my opinion. Didn't they ask me for it? :)
Maw got all of us saying "story" when we talk about the soaps. We don't say "soaps" in my family, we say "stories". "Don't call me between 12:30 and 4:00 'cause I'm watchin' my stories!"
I'm sure gonna miss that story.
I'm sure gonna miss that story.
**Update** Friday 09/18/09 I LOVED the ending!! Josh and Reva back together and hopefully gettin' it right this time!!
We will be lost . Wonder what they will come up with to replace the time slot?Maw would be so sad if she still watched the stories. Love, Mama
ReplyDeleteI watched it in the eighties! My granny was a dedicated CBS soap person and passed the 12:30 to 4:00 addiction to me for almost a decade when I finally tore myself away. haha
ReplyDeleteAlways loved the Reva and Josh storylines. Also, I was obsessed with Roxie, Mindy, Phillip, and I think Rick?
The last new characters I remember being on when I phased out of it was Harley and Rusty?
Anyway, it was still a comfort knowing it was there whether I watched or not.
Fitting is the saying---
"The only constant in life... is change."