TV Time with Tim: Goodbye “Guiding Light”
By Tim Wilkins
It’s the end of an era. Daytime’s longest running drama; “Guiding Light” has aired its last episode. CBS cancelled the drama this spring and the last episode aired on September 18, 2009. This show started out on radio in 1937 and moved to television in the 1952. CBS has been quoted as saying, “the show achieved a piece of television history that will never be duplicated.” That’s almost an understatement, isn’t it?
Ratings killed the daytime drama. That’s what we, as fans, are always told. Daytime dramas were created for the housewife who stayed home. People aren’t home as much and if they are, there are more choices.
I find myself emotional while even typing this column up. “Guiding Light” reminds me of family. I even called my Mother today to check on her because I knew she watched this show and that she was going to be upset at saying good bye. She told me she had saved the last two episodes and was going to re-watch them until she couldn’t anymore.
Like me, my Mother watched “Guiding Light” with her Grandmother. This show has touched four generations of my own family. I would visit my Grandmother on hot summer days and we’d watch her stories together and just have conversations. I watched CBS’s line up so we could talk about what was going on our shows.
My Mother tells me a similar story. She watched with her Grandmother and then they would play cards or Chinese checkers together. These were the good times of our youth.
I would later abandon the CBS line up and watch other soaps. In fact, I got so busy with life as an adult, that I stopped watching for years. Soaps were something I watched while sick. I could always go back ‘home’ even while sick out on my own as an adult.
The shows might have changed, but the same characters could still be found waiting for me. Soaps are like comfort food for me. I love a good daytime drama. I like to ‘keep the drama on TV’-not in my life. I watch CBS’s “The Young and the Restless” now. I also watch ABC’s “One Life to Live.”
So, upon hearing the news of “Guiding Light” being cancelled, I came back to watch it again on a more regular basis. My all time favorite character, Reva, played by Emmy-winning Kim Zimmer is still there. Reva is the reason I got hooked on “GL” as a teenager. The show has a different look now with the digital cameras and all the outdoor scenes. It’s different to see your characters walk around in a real town or stand outside a real house and front yard.
I can still remember the scene where Reva tries to commits suicide and jumps off a bridge. I was blown away with the acting and the subject matter. No one talked about depression or mental illness. This was a ‘different’ time and I got valuable knowledge that would later help me in real life. “GL” touched my life in so many different ways.
Seeing the last four episodes of their last week has been emotional for me. I can not watch and know this is it without thinking of my Grandmother and picturing her, in my mind, at my side and together, watching the show. I can hear her cussing CBS for cancelling her show and telling me she’s not happy. This show was a part of her life.
The show has been wrapping up story lines and giving us fans a ‘sense of hope.’ There’s a sense of ‘finality’ in every scene and a sense of ‘life goes on.’ I was happy to watch the double wedding of Vanessa and Billy with Buzz and Lillian. I was shocked at the death of Alan Spaulding. I was moved by the funeral. I got goose bumps when Fletcher Reade showed up at Alex Spaulding’s and she finally let loose her buried emotions for her brother to her old lover and friend. I could always relate to the emotions even if I didn’t understand their motives.
Kim Zimmer is a perfect example of this. This woman acts with her whole body and you can see it in her eyes. Every emotion she’s feeling as the character and as the actress who’s saying good bye to a ‘part’ she’s played for over 20 years. All Kim has to do is tear up and I’m trying to look away. This woman moves me plain and simple.
At the end of Thursday’s episode, Jonathon, Reva’s son, is talking to his deceased girl friend aloud and Reva catches him. Their moment outside on a sidewalk made me cry. She tried to joke off the heavy subject, but her eyes told differently. Her eyes watered up and they hugged and had a moment. I cried with them.
Suddenly, I feel bad that I abandoned “Guiding Light.” Yet, I guess I always assumed that show would be there. I could always go back to it, but not this time. It’s over. It’s definitely the end of an era for me.
I’ve yet to watch the last episode. I find myself avoiding it for fear of saying good bye. I just know I’m going to cry. So in saying good bye to “Guiding Light,” I’m also saying good bye to family. This show will be missed.
After “GL’s” exit, there will only be 7 daytime dramas on. Soaps are dying. The tradition of passing down soaps is not done as much now. I guess that’s the ‘bottom line.’
Posted by Adam Wright
on September 19, 2009. Filed under Features.
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