Guiding Light - MESSAGE BOARDS

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD:

As much as I have loved this show (until it jumped the shark), I have to admit that I hated the finale for the most part. On paper, they had some great ideas with regard to reuniting couples and wrapping up storylines. Unfortunately, it was so badly written and directed that it ruined most of the potential sentiment and drama. Among the major problems were . . .

Philip & Beth do not get re-married on-screen. Really ? Fans have waited 15 years and don't get the payoff ? He's been back for months, finally proposed to her, she accepts and the show can't do the obvious and have the show end with their wedding ? Inexcusable.

Where the hell is Jeffrey ? Is he still chasing Edmund a year later and Reva doesn't know he's even alive ? Jonathan keeps the secret ? At least Jeffrey & Reva deserved some kind of ending.

The Alex & Fletcher reunion was a nice surprise. However, they got no time at all to actually talk. They were simply gone a few minutes into the next episode. They needed at least an extra scene or two. Long-time fans deserved to see them re-connect. Newer fans would have no idea who he was.

Mel comes back out of the woodwork but does not seem to speak to Rick at all. Where is their child ?

Where has Beth & Alan's daughter Peyton been ? She was in a brief scene after Alan's death. Supposedly she's living in the Spaulding mansion. So why do we never see or hear about her ? Who takes care of her when Beth is wandering around ? Philip has been back for months but has he even had a scene with Beth's daughter ?

Matt is given an awkward scene where he's set up with a woman we've never seen before. Why not pair him with a woman already on the canvas ?

Where was Vanessa ? She's just re-married Billy & then disappears. Would the show not pay for her to be on the finale ? Or was Maeve not available ?

Daisy/Susan is accepted into college and then spends several scenes telling everyone and preparing to leave. There doesn't seem to be any mention of her mother, Harley. Not even a one-sided phone call between them.

Shayne becomes a coach. *snore*

Dinah & Mallet appear in pre-taped scenes that are forced into the show and seem to lack any real passion.

Rick & a returning Mindy are finally together after 25 years. All of this takes place at the end of the show almost as an afterthought and is played out through a few stiff lines of dialogue. They announce their upcoming marriage but if you blinked you missed it.

A major plot point that didn't seem to get wrapped up is that of Harley having moved away with Rick & Philip's sons, Jude & Zach. This could easily have been handled at any point by having Philip & Rick visit them off-screen.

The one-year time jump was so badly directed that it's not even obvious at first what's happening. The entire last segment should have been given over to this so there would be more time to map out everyone's future.

Blake & Frank are stuck in a cliched online dating plot. This instead of reuniting him with Eleni and revealing that Ross is not really dead - even if that had to take place by having Blake receive a phone call that he was still alive.

Alan's death was a great plot twist but too little time was given to how this affected the town. His "funeral" was as low-rent as any in soap history. None of his relatives seemed to even have anything to say. Major family members such as Alan-Michael, Amanda & Nick are not even mentioned. Alan is not seen again, even as a ghost or a comforting spirit.

Ed & Holly are finally reunited but only in one quick scene where she impulsively leaves with him. An extra scene or two with them would have reminded the audience of their backstory. There's no mention of whether Holly has been living in Springfield all this time but hasn't been seen. Also no mention of where Holly & Fletcher's daughter is or how she is doing.

One of the most glaring problems with the finale and the episodes leading up to it was the complete lack of flashbacks. Was the show too cheap or too lazy to bother including flashbacks of each of the major characters as they made their exit ? A long montage of clips from the show's storied history should have closed out the finale. It would have been a reminder of this once-great show, the legendary characters and talented actors. Most of all, it would have pleased longtime fans who have stuck with the show long after so many others had abandoned it. Several classic scenes were put together for the Daytime Emmys tribute. Why couldn't a much longer version have been created for the finale ? Or even reuse old clip packages. This was a real slap in the face to fans who tuned in to honor the show.

As damaged as the show became after budget cuts, the real problem was not the miniscule sets or the overuse of outdoor scenes. The real problem was the horrible writing that eventually strangled the show to death. Dialogue became boring or even awkward, leading to some strange performances from obviously talented actors. The pacing was spasmodic with some plots taking forever to happen and others being over with before they'd even begun. There were no longer any actual storylines, just randomly thrown together scenes that often made no sense or were devoid of actual drama. Major plot holes were never filled. Why did the writing bottom out so badly ? Was the budget so low that they could no longer afford good writers ? Not enough writers to handle the workload ? Did the writers simply give up because they knew the show was doomed ? Did they stop caring once everyone's salaries got cut ? Regardless, there's no excuse for how bad the writing got. No excuse.

The most obvious recent example of the show's problems was the much-hyped return of Philip. The show had a potential goldmine of a story with Grant's return & Philip coming back to redeem himself after terrible past behavior and a stint in a mental ward. Was he still crazy ? Was he cured ? Where exactly had be been ? We'll never know because the show didn't truly address any of this. They merely had scenes where characters claimed to be nervous around him yet continued to interact with him anyway. He was never "forgiven" for anything, his family and friends simply stopped mentioning it. He never officially reunited with Beth or best friend Rick. No actual storyline came out of any of it. Easily one of the worst-handled comebacks in soap history. It showed complete incompetence on the part of the people running the show.

Perhaps Kim Zimmer was right that the show, the way that it had become, was better off leaving the air. It was never going to come close to what it had once been. In fact, even if the recent changes had never happened the show would have still likely been cancelled due to low ratings. The worst part is that the attempt to save the show simply helped to kill it. I find the whole situation overwhelmingly sad. To a lot of people, these characters were not just fiction. Springfield was not just a location of a TV show - it was home.

I'm hoping that Procter & Gamble will find a way to put the classic GL online for everyone to rediscover. I'd like to go home again.

deltablues2:Well said.I wondered why the writers waited until the last episode to begin wrapping up the SL's.They had six months notice.And why all the useless inane scenes in the convenience store?Everyday we seemed to see the characters in there buying a soda or hotdog or something and carrying on meaningless "Hi.How ya doing?"dialogue.You would think that instead of that they could have been completing SL's and giving explanations of SL's.

Harley Cooper did not appear in the finale because of contractual conflicts.The actress is on a rival networks soap(All My Children).I missed her but I understood.She was an intregal part of the Cooper storyline for a long,long time.It is sad that Beth Ehlers missed out.

Why make such a big deal out of Daisy and Ashley leaving for college and barely mention Rick and Mindy's marriage?Why indeed.Same with Phillip and Beth.We had all these days of nothing.Why not show their marriage?

The Jeffrey/Edmund storyline ended clumsily as if they just didn't know what to do with it.I kept waiting for a resolution but it never came.

I know they had some problems, but I think they did the best they could with the time they had. The reason why they put time in with the newer characters was probably to give the viewers who are either young or have only been watching the show a few years something to see. After watching 35 years, there was enough of the older characters and their storylines wrapped up. If they didn't spend time with Daisy and Ashley and other stories, then we wouldn't see the future as well. I can't be harsh about this. I feel satisfied.

You really hit on a lot of good points. Thanks for writing such a detailed post!

I had mentioned this in a few other threads, but thought I'd bring it up again since you had mentioned it here in your thread. I, too, was surprised and disappointed that they didn't do something in regards to some of the characters from "back in the day"...I thought a nice touch would have been showing pictures/portraits of folks like Roger Thorpe, Henry Chamberlain, HB Lewis, Bert Bauer.....they were the core of GL at one time and so important to many of the storylines. Maybe with some beautiful music playing, they could have slowly scanned across those characters pics, and maybe fading to black while focused on Bert Bauer's portrait.

I also thought that maybe the spirit of Alan Spaulding would have appeared one last time at the end to comfort Philip.

I agree with most of your points. The finale was interesting, but it could have been so much better. My biggest beef (aside from the Jeffrey lose end) is that we didn't get to see Philip and Beth remary. They at least could have thrown us a double wedding with Mindy and Rick.

I, too, wanted some closure with Jeffrey.

There are a lot of plots and story lines I would have liked to have seen done better, but we got what we got. What I liked I will go with. I do like how it was left so that in my little head can think that it could come back. For now, off screen, everyone is safe and happy. It was left, so that us fans can feel that it can be picked back up and resumed from where they ended it at. Do I think that will happen, no, but it is left off as if it could be picked up. I think it was Capitol that had just gone black and not a happy ending. I do not think there is a perfect way to say good bye to the best darn show, GL!

ITA with the first posts!! You are spot on in my opinion.

deltablues you have raised some very substantiated points in your summary. I believe the writers could have utilized by structuring the final week much better.

deltablues2 it would have taken a movie or two to do all you ask for! I'm not saying you're wrong or that I wasn't slightly disappointed, but I give them the benefit of the doubt. They worked in everything they could and tried to tie up as many loose ends as possible. Look at it this way, if someone ever decides to bring the show back they have lots of things to work with. I enjoyed your comment though. It had a lot of what I was thinking myself.

I think the writers really dropped the ball on the ending. They could have sone soooo much more than what they did. I can understand wanting a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending, but it was so sloppy and not only a disrespect to the fans, but a disrespect to the show and all the fabulous writers in the past who made GL the wonderful show it was.

As a fan of over 35 years I must say I was satisfied with the ending. The writers did the best they could with the little time they had. I was pleased with the endings everyone had. I felt that Josh and Reva have loved each other for many more years than Jeffrey and Reva have so I wanted them to end up together. As for Jeffrey, why are people trying to blame Jonathan for not telling Reva the truth? It was Jeffrey who made the decision to leave and to let Reva believe he was dead and to chase after Edmund until who knows when. Surely he would not expect Reva to be alone forever. After a year of thinking he was dead and raising their son alone it seems only fitting that she would choose to be with the man she has loved most of her life. Who knows maybe he was dead? Was Jonathan still in touch with him? Why couldn't he at least call and let Reva know that he was still alive? He didn't have to tell her where he was if he feared for her and Colin's safety, just let her know there was some hope for them, but no he didn't so in my opinion Reva ended up with the right man.

deltablues2 you hit the nail on the head.
I can not believe after a whole year knowing Jeffery is alive Jonathan did not say aword to his mother? Come on....bad writing at its best. Not to mantion no mention of Harley or Alan Michael. The ending really shows how lazy and awful this writing team was. RIP GL!