Guiding Light - MESSAGE BOARDS

Whew, every day is a killer! I just know I'm personally glad I get to see Ron again in 3 weeks to hug his neck and tell him how great his last scenes were. He is a fabulous actor and a really good guy. This took me by surprise but then again after what the writers have thrown at us, why should we be surprised? They probably thought we would just LOVE IT for the drama. I don't think they ever understood the GL fan!

Obviously Not

I think TPTB actually did well by ALAN SPAULDING because it actually will help PHILLIP'S relationship with JAMES. A couple of scenes prior to Alan's demise we saw James still struggling with Phillip's choice of Alan for the bone marrow transplant. Now James will understand the risk and that he might be the one who would have died instead. ALAN SPAULDING was a many things(evil, cruel, a villian, self-righteous, a bully, conceited, power-hungry, etc.) but in the end he was just a man who loved his son enough to risk his own life so that his son could live. TPTB let ALAN SPAULDING go out with grace, love, and dignity. BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This Alan was a hero and RON RAINES did a fine job all these years and good luck to him when he returns to his beloved theater work. Again, BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well they were oh so wrong....that is just entirely too much drama for most of us. Have not always liked Alan and the way he did things but he did a grand job making us love to hate him..............we are not all so lucky as to get to hug his neck as you are pp, so happy that someone can still have friendships with all the cast, there sure are a lot of heartbroken fans out here that will only have our memories to get us thru this yucky time!! Would have been nice if you would have had a magic wand to wave some of those times when you were with them....guess this is real life and magic wands don't count, right?? Great show even tho it made us all cry, I just hate that we will no longer have it to watch, now there is some drama!!

Ok here we go again with another stupid move, So they are ending the show with Phillip now going to feel guilty he killed his dad and with James still not getting along with his dad now because of Alan dieing because he thought Phillip should not have risked Alans life anyway not that James really matters bc he is a brat but you know. Wow how much worse can this ending get!!

This was a very hard day to watch! I think part of what is difficult for me is that Alan finally got it and then dies. Not really enjoying his new found outlook on life. For the first time Alan did something because it was right. He received accolades for being a hero---being a father. In the past, he would have been rewarded or honored for the money he donated, not for his b.m.(that is short for bone marrow).:) I think I would have like to imagine him enjoying his new life and being a person. Maybe slipping up a little bit too. Somehow I always thought Alan and Alex would end up in a rich nursing home racing wheelchairs down the hall and fighting over who ran over the nurse aide first.

don't you know soaps by now they like to keep you guessing and that's what guiding light did they kept you guessing in true soap fashion and that what guiding light did kept everyone guessing you think what will happen then out of nowhere something else happen instead

Bizzie when I get back from NYC next month, I'm going to try to figure out how to do a photo album with lots of pictures of the weekend and post it where you can go and take a look. I'm not real good at that kind of thing, but my daughter is so maybe I can get her to help me. I plan on telling a lot of them how all of you feel about them personally and the show itself. They know that they are loved but not really how much.

PP, Thank you so much for doing this for us. Please do tell them that we love them, we will miss them so very much, and thank them from our hearts for the many, many warm loving memories that they have given us. I have watched GL for 42 years and it is like losing a part of my family. I grew up watching it with my Granny and my aunt. And I honestly believe that those two did not think of GL as a soap. They thought of it as part of the family. My aunt is in her seventies now and everytime I see her, we always and will continue to always talk about GL.

Losing Alan today was shocking, sad, upsetting and actually appropriate.
1 ) As soon as I saw Phillip talking to the back of Alan's head on the bench, I said to my friends "somethings wrong here...I think he died!" I couldn't believe it.
2 ) Its almost surreal that someone that we have grown to love is snatched from us like that.
3 ) The Spaulding patriarch is dead...there will never be another Alan...just what P&G want. How can you bring back a show like GL w/o Alan Spaulding...and we thought it'd be Rick.
4 ) From my standpoint (I'm a funeral director believe it or not), they nailed Alan's whole purpose in life on the head! He always tried to bring his family together, have as much control as possible and thats what kept him here on earth. He knew most of Springfield didn't like him and it ate away at him.
Now, he does the most heroic thing a person can do and saves his son's life. Once he realized that he could do good and not have to control it, his spirit could let go. He accepted Otalia and the family. He was proud of Rafe. He was happy to be there for his son. He was celebratory at the weddings of people he was not fond of (Lewis' and Coopers).
He found peace with himself--which is what he needed. He sat a quiet place to take in the beauty of the Earth and GL and peacefully passed. Alan didn't have to control like he did--he just had to be there for others. He learned the meaning of life.

Well while I agree that it might have been done well, it still didn't have to HAPPEN AT ALL. We're losing the show, the writers didn't have to go the extra mile and make us lose a character also. If this was their only idea of how to write they should have given up a long time ago, or WAIT, maybe they did. In all of our sadness of losing our show, how could anyone think that the fans would want to see this? It's so unbelievably cruel to us that words just don't come. The sheer stupidity of it all just amazes me.

I guess I'm just mad because they killed off a friend. I have known Ron for more than 15 years. I was introduced by Rick Hearst who played Alan Michael and we began writing back and forth. In 2007 I was lucky enough to have Ron come to Nashville and do a Find Your Light at a school just 5 miles from my house. I got to go out and paint with Ron and spend a wonderful day with him and Michael O'Leary and Jessica Leccia. I will always have those memories and others of Ron. He is a special guy and for those of you lucky enough to hear him sing, he's so talented. I know some will say he got a beautiful storyline to leave but I would much rather think of him enjoying his family that he worked so hard to belong to. Now they have taken that away from me too. It just isn't fair!

PelphreyPosse, I do agree. Ron Raines is my favorite on GL. You mention that he does theatre. I can see him in anything from Tennessee Williams to Shakespeare, or musicals from Franz Lehar's "The Merry Widow" to "Kiss Me Kate". I picture him as having a wonderful baritone voice like the late Howard Keel. I wish I had a chance to hear and see him.

Live long and prosper, Mr. Raines.