Today's episode was beautiful. Y&R's Christian LeBlanc was there at the wedding. I loved seeing Bridget and Nola. Nice surprise. I loved Nola's reference with Vanessa about calling ahead to make sure she didn't wear the same dress, as was the case years ago between the two characters.
Doug Marland will forever be the best head writer in the history of soaps. One storyline that you left out was the revelation that Jane Marie Stafford (the wonderful Geraldine Court) was Amanda's real mother.
The brilliant Rita Lloyd played Lucille Wexler to perfection. I remember her trying to kill Ben (Stephen Yates) on many occasions because Lucille thought he was trying to lure Amanda away from her. When Lucille tried to stab Jane Marie with the letter opener and ended up dying as a result, it was GL at its best. Court's performance on the witness stand was one of the best acted moments on soaps. Kathleen Cullen as Amanda was brilliant, as well.
And who could forget Roger kidnapping Rita (one of my all time favorite GL actresses, Lenore Kasdorf) and chasing her thru a wall of mirrors as Donna Summer's "Enough Is Enough" was playing in the background.
Janet Grey as Rita's blind sister Eve was another one of the show's underrated actresses, as was Sophia Landon's Diane Ballard, Alan's slutty secretary.
And another one of GL's top couples you left out, Kelly and Morgan....played by John Wesley Shipp and Kristen Vigard.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...so many memories. I will miss that show.
RIP GL...and thanks for being such a huge part of my youth!
Originally posted by leecappella: Today's episode was beautiful. Y&R's Christian LeBlanc was there at the wedding. I loved seeing Bridget and Nola. Nice surprise. I loved Nola's reference with Vanessa about calling ahead to make sure she didn't wear the same dress, as was the case years ago between the two characters.
......I watched and enjoyed it and didnt see Christian LeBlanc at the wedding....Where was he? I am wondering where they will sneak in Jeanne Cooper? The show didn't give Lisa Brown's Nola much to do, but I liked when she referenced the dress and blew the kiss to Company.....It's going to be a sad week. Nice touch with Lillian visiting Maureen's grave.....I am off on Friday and it will be hard to watch this show depart the airwaves once and for all.
By Michael Logan TVGuideMagazine.com | Sept. 15, 2009
Guiding Light’s Justin Deas is one of only three stars in soaps to have won six Daytime Emmys. General Hospital’s Tony Geary and One Life to Live’s Erika Slezak are also in this exclusive club, but in a way the Deas wins are even more extraordinary because they were earned via three different roles. His first trophy came playing Tom Hughes on As the World Turns (1984), he won two more as Keith Timmons on Santa Barbara (1988, 1989), and three as Buzz Cooper on GL (1994, 1995, 1997). Through it all, Deas—who is married to actress Margaret Colin and the father of two teen boys—has stayed ultra-reclusive, rarely speaking to the press, avoiding Emmy ceremonies like crazy and basically coming off like a cantankerous s.o.b. But I know for a fact that it’s all an act. Beneath that crusty exterior lies a sweet, warm, extremely mushy guy (who will probably hunt me down and kill me for revealing that). I spoke with Deas on the GL set during filming of the show’s final week.
OK, Mister Curmudgeon, can you relate in any way to how people feel about the cancellation of Guiding Light? First of all, I have to thank you again for doing me a really solid turn. You once wrote this article about what an a-----e I am, but it was really well written and it was so true that it made my dying mother laugh and she had a really good day, a really good weekend, because of that. So I’ve always been, "Whatever Michael Logan wants to do, I’ll do."
And I have always appreciated that, Justin. You are the rare actor in soaps who has maintained his mystique. So let’s ruin that right now! Give me your thoughts on the end of GL. I don’t watch soaps but I can see why people do. My wife, Margaret, watches them. People like them because they’re comforting, they like having these characters come into their homes. Me, I don’t want any of that. But I can certainly understand the appeal. If the soaps all go off the air, some smart person is going to figure out the right way to do it and bring ’em back. But they’ll have to rethink the form and make it bolder. I mean, we in America still haven’t gotten over our sex hang-ups! The lesbians on our show can’t kiss? What’s wrong with us? There’s a greater chance that GL would have brought in a donkey for Buzz to have sex with. Come to think of it, maybe it would have saved my career.
For some in the cast, GL is their entire life, their reason for being. For you it’s just another gig? I don’t let the cancellation get to me. It’s just a job. Granted, a f---ing $9,000-year job, but just a job. Actors get fired. That’s what we do. But the friends I’ve made here are very good people, and there is a sense of heritage around here. People’s hearts are in this show. Still, you wouldn’t believe the drama and the crying on the set! I don’t get it. We’re actors, we are by nature unappreciated. What acting school did these people go to that told them they’d put in 20 or 30 years on a job? Keeping an acting job this long isn’t even natural. I used to get ****ed off at the ones who got fired after two years. They’d be like “My life is over! Can you believe this?” I’m like “Whaaat?“ Of course, just look at the headlines today. Everybody’s in the same boat with the rotten economy and the job loss. It’s like everybody is an actor, man, living the life of insecurity. All the paradigms are wildly shifting.
Well, aren’t you a bundle of joy, today! Oh, the whole world’s going to s--t. You pick up the New York Times nowadays and find articles that are so poorly written, they sound like something my kids would say on the way home from school. It’s not good reading. It’s not intelligent. It’s not succinct. It’s not good English. It’s not a million things! It’s just jabber. Before I knew you, I spent 20 years doing plays by dead playwrights in strange cities, and I remember being a kid in school and sitting down and talking with the great Tyrone Guthrie. He said: “You’re out of your mind if you think about acting as mass entertainment. The whole world is not going to stand up and cheer. Only a very, very small percentage of people will ever see what you do. That’s not what’s important. What’s important is the pride you take in your work.”
Back in your younger days, you were the most daring actor in soaps—the guy who always acted from the ledge. You were our Pacino, our De Niro of daytime. Then a funny thing happened. Pacino and DeNiro got old and sold out, turning into unwatchable, over-the-top hams, but you settled down and got much more subtle, much more real. Why didn’t you have that same mid-life freak-out? My attitude was entirely different when you knew me back in my Santa Barbara days, or even my early years on GL. I was always looking to shake it up. Now, I don’t do that anymore.
Because? Because I’d rather get along. I have also found that there’s a real challenge in being truthful. I’m so lacking in so many areas of my chosen profession, that I could spend the rest of my life trying to explore being honest. It’s hard to do. Maybe in one out of 80 scenes do I accomplish it. Hey, who’s that crazy gay guy soap writer with the very Irish name? He’s really brilliant.
Um, Patrick Mulcahey? Right, Patrick Mulcahey! A f---ing genius! Mulcahey…yeah…now, why did I bring that up? Jesus. I can’t remember where I was going with this. Help me out.
Being truthful in your acting. Patrick Mulcahey. F---ing genius. Oh, yeah, so Mulcahey comes to GL and writes my character as this wild and crazy patriarch leading the show and I said, “You have to make me a boring type. That’s my meat and potatoes—getting something boring to do and trying to do something interesting with it.” Because if your character is all-crazy-all-the-time, how do you pull it back? I kept trying to explore the arch-villain kind of thing for a while, but I don’t think it worked.
Yet somehow through all this you won three Emmys. Go figure. I remember a time I was doing a scene with a really lovely actor and our director, Bruce Barry, said to me, “Pull it back 10 percent.” And I got so ****ed off that I didn’t give a real performance for two years after that. I just came in and would say the lines right off the page. I went through about two or three years of serious sulking—at 50 goddamn something years of age, I’m sulking! Now, I look back on that and think, aww Jesus.
So what’s next for you? My hip hurts today but, if I can get my body working again, I want to do a few plays before I drop dead. And of course we’ve got the kids—when you’re a parent it’s all about the kids. I’m not sure how this dad thing happened. When I got together with Margaret, I said, “All I want to do is have sex and act.” What happened? I didn’t have a plan for fatherhood. But now I’m 61, that time in life when you start to realize you don’t get another life.
Were you surprised to end your GL run by getting married? I think [executive producer] Ellen Wheeler is out of her f---ing mind to give Buzz another wedding. But I adore working with Tina Sloan [Buzz’s new wife Lillian]. That lady is connected! Just name anybody, a famous anything, pick a NASA astronaut, and she just had dinner with him. You talk to her about a great book you’re reading? She’ll say, “Would you like to meet the author?” You’re going to Sweden? She knows the king! I just mentioned to her that I might get a hip replacement—I think the hip will probably be arriving on the set here sometime this afternoon.
So you’re marrying the right woman! I think Margaret would think so, too. Yep, Buzz gets married. It’s so stupid having a character named Buzz. How can you ever take that seriously? We do a plot: Buzz is dying! Who gives a s--t? Who calls themselves Buzz? I’d love to know how Buzz Aldrin got around that stuff. How does he have serious moments in his life?
Speaking of serious moments, did you ever take any of your Emmys seriously? No.
Some people don’t have any at all. Right, and they’re probably much better actors than I’ll ever be. Please tell ’em that! It kills me that actors go nuts to win Emmys and Tonys and Oscars. Who gets nominated and who doesn’t becomes such a big deal in this business. I go watch a lot of small, independent films at the Claridge Theatre in Montclair [New Jersey] and there is so much fantastic work done that’s never going to be seen by people.
Where do you keep your Emmys? I don’t know. In the attic someplace? I wish I had the balls, like Kim Zimmer [Reva], to say, “Here I am with my Emmys. Look at me, I’m great!” But I wouldn’t have the courage. And winning doesn’t get you any more money. I think my agent tried that. And sometimes you even lose your job. It’s like “Take your Emmy and go!”
But you made your mama proud. Yeah, I did but, more important, you made my mama laugh. I was 45 and she was still asking me when I was going to get a good job. She thought I should become a professional golfer and get on the PGA Tour.
And if you’d taken her advice? I’d now be a caddy, making more money than I am on Guiding Light. I’d be a really big deal in Hollywood… carrying De Niro’s bag!
Hey Nelson, thanks for the GL feature... it was great to reminisce. I agree with most of your pics, although I have to say I was surprised -- shocked actually -- that you named Jill Farren Phelps the #5 top Exec Producer. I will never forgive her for killing off Maureen, which had to be one of the top five biggest mistakes in daytime history. I would have rather included Paul Rauch, who oversaw a brief but memorable renaissance in the mid- to late-nineties with some of my favorite GL stories ever (Annie Dutton's reign of terror, Abby's rape, Harley and Phillip's romance), the introduction of great new characters such as Cassie, Ben Warren, Drew, Susan/Daisy and Selena (all played by sensational actors), and bringing back old faves such as Harley, Beth, Meta and Jenna (although she was killed off quickly after). Granted, the show then deteriorated once it started to focus too much on the Santos family and San Cristobal, but I though Rauch's early work on GL (when Barbara Esenstein and James Harmon Brown were headwriters) was truly excellent and I remember I loved GL during that time.
Other than that, I don't disagree with any of your pics, but I also would've included the fabulous Wendy Moniz (Dinah) among your Top Actresses, Michael O'Leary (Rick) in Top Actors, Ross-Blake-Ben in the Top Triangles, Harley and Phillip, Harley and Gus, Jenna and Buzz, and Rick and Abby among the Top Love Stories, and in Greatest Storylines/Moments... well I won't even get into that... too many to mention.
I love Wendy! She's actually a friend. It killed me not to have her on and Hayden P.
JFP produced one of my fave GL periods. I didn't mind Maureen's death (good people die — it's life)... also, the head writer also needs the blame. And Mickey.
Thanks for responding Nelson! I guess I do kinda agree with you on the JFP years. There was some great stuff going on in GL that time, but I guess most of time that's overshadowed by the losses of Ellen Parker and Beverlee McKinsey.
Anyway... what did you think of those early Rauch years on GL? I remember how much I loved Amy Ecklund as Abby, Hunt Block's Ben, Harley and Phillip were so much fun, Annie, Selena, Drew... and I remember the town felt like an integrated town again at some point, with several umbrella stories (Abby's rape and the introduction of Ben Warren), memorable friendships, great couples (Matt and Vanessa!). What did you think of those years? And what were your thoughts on the clone story? I know I'm in the minority but once I ignored the crappy science, I found the story to be very human and acted to PERFECTION by Zimmer, Newman, and especially Joie Lenz as a teenage Reva. The scenes with Newman and Lenz were so creepy in a good way! Anyone with me on this?
The Justin Deas interview caused me to reflect on something not mentioned: After the Coopers were established in 1987 (thank you, Pam Long!), Guiding Light decided, in 1992, that the patriarch, Frank Achilles "Buzz" Cooper, was not killed in Vietnam.
I recall it being very easy and exciting, when Deas was cast [by the late Betty Rae] in 1992 (and began airing in February 1993), to envision him playing ex-husband to Jean Carol's Nadine, father to Beth Ehlers's Harley (who discovered Buzz's name not on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall during a January 1993 trip to Washington, D.C.). But I really digged Deas's chemistry with Frank Dicopoulos's Frank, the big brother and real man of the Cooper family. (Dicopoulous, 22 years with the series, was contractually its longest tenured cast member at the time GL signed off Sept. 18.)
Here are two scenes with Deas and Dicopoulos, who look nothing alike, are only 9 years apart in age, but they're completely believable as father and son. The first is when Buzz reveals himself to Frank (in 1993, just after Frank's wife Eleni gave birth to their daughter after their wedding); the second is when Frank confirms that the missing Nadine has been discovered and recovered (in 1996).
Nelson, how many good people do you know who die in real life to pay for the salary of someone else? I hold grudges, and I never warmed up to Buzz because of that. I would fast forward his scenes when he came on. Killing off Maureen was the end of JFP's golden tenure on GL. It was a mistake of gigantic proportions, and a mistake that many GL fans have never and will never forgive her for. She herself now admits that. There are some mistakes so damn stupid that you can't believe they actually happened. This is one of those. IT's been 16 1/2 half years since Maureen died, and it still feels like yesterday. If I were proficient in voodoo, JFP would not be a well woman.
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