Last one out - Turn off the Light

So I watched it. I taped the final four episodes (having missed Monday's) of Guiding Light and watched two of them last night. I watched Thursday's episode earlier and will watched the final episode a little while ago. Earlier, as Mrs. BA bravely watched alongside me, she made a snarky comment or two about this being unwatchable dreck (but isn't that the point?). I was able to fall back into the groove of knowing what was going on - although I have not watched the soap with any regularity for nearly twenty years. I previously posted about the end of Guiding Light back in April, when I heard that CBS would be shutting down the longest-running soap opera.

I said then that it was my mother who got me started watching the show. She watched religiously, always the CBS lineup. One of the best days she had in the latter years of her life was when she got to go to a fan luncheon and got to have lunch with "Alan Spaulding." Alan is the primary villain of the show, head of Spaulding Enterprises and patriarch of the Spaulding clan. Alan had "died" several times on the show, showing up again when his reports of his death were exaggerated. So it was with some shock that I watched Tuesday's episode and saw Alan Spaulding, dead of a heart attack, sitting on a bench, discovered by his son, Phillip (who is not really his biological son, but I digress - if you really need a family tree lesson on the family trees of Springfield, which I did, you can find them here).

A note about the family trees, I used them while watching the final episodes to become current with both old and new characters. It was extremely helpful to track the younger characters on the show, who are all prone to SORAS, or Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. I mean, really, Alan (who is reported to be 72) is Philip's (reported born 1969, revised twice to 1965, and then to 1961) father, and Phillip is Lizzie's (born "on screen" in 1990, revised to 1986, to deal with the aging of her own daughter) father. Ron Raines, the actor who plays Alan was born in 1949 (making him 60), Grant Aleksander, who plays Phillip was born in 1959 (50), and Marcy Rylan (playing Lizzie, a role that at one time featured Hayden Panettiere) is 29, instead of the 23-year old she is portraying. But again, I digress.

The family trees also featured a legend:

KEY

• m. Married
• c. Child
• a. Affair
• r. Rape

Now there's a key that you shouldn't have in most family trees.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. I really wonder what my mother would make of all of this. When Search for Tomorrow ended its run, they tried a last bit effort to pull in ratings by flooding the town in a Johnstown-type flood, leaving only the major character's, Joanne, house and business standing. The final episode featuring Joanne and Stu thinking about "Tomorrow." I really believe that my mother watched the final episodes with Charita Bauer and other GL alums who have gone on to their great rewards. I'm pretty sure she cried. My mother cried easily. I'm thinking about her a lot today.

So in the end, many things came back full circle - Phillip got back with Beth (although evidently she married Alan and had his child at one point - ICK!) and they are getting married. Billy Lewis married Vanessa (his longtime love), Ed Bauer and Holly Norris left on a round the world cruise (possibly one of the best couples on the show), Fletcher Reade came home to take Alexandra (Alan's sister) away from Springfield, many others "left" Springfield, while some others came home to stay. We find out (one year later) that Rick Bauer and Mindy Lewis get married and the starcrossed lovers of all time, Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne rode off into the sunset together.

It's OK if you don't know who those people are I talked about in the last paragraph. I'll still like you anyway.

From an archival standpoint, there's a lot out there to be concerned about. Guiding Light was the longest running soap opera (having gotten its start on radio). There have been clips of the radio shows and the early television episodes on TV of late, let's make sure we hold on to those, shall we? And what of the countless web presences, some of which I linked to above? Only time will tell, but unfortunately, we will have to do it without the Guiding Light. (sorry I couldn't resist)