Red Room Where the Writers Are

Lights up.

 

NEWBIE and OLDTIMER are discussing the final days of Guiding Light.

NEWBIE

Okay. First question: who was that guy with the hat who came to see Alex?

OLDTIMER

That was Fletcher Reade. He used to be married to Holly.

NEWBIE

Holly? The same  Holly who went off with Dr. Ed?

OLDTIMER

Yes, they -- 

NEWBIE

And where did that come from? I had no idea they even knew each other. They barely said hello the one time that met, and then they go off together? I mean, even if they had just gone for coffee and talked for a couple of minutes to give us an idea...

OLDTIMER

I know, it was so frustrating -

NEWBIE

And confusing. I mean, all these characters just show up and no way to know how they're connected -

OLDTIMER

Okay, I'll try to fill you in. Where do you want to start?

NEWBIE

At the wedding Vanessa was talking to this older woman with a young guy - European, I think.

OLDTIMER

I don't know how the characters were, but the actors are from Young & Restless -

NEWBIE

Oh come on! They wasted time on -

OLDTIMER

No, this is actually really sweet. Jeanne Cooper is such a huge GL fan she wanted to be part of it.

NEWBIE

Are you kidding me? Y&R's in LA. You mean the show paid to fly these two -

OLDTIMER

I have it on good authority that she and Christian LeBlanc traveled on their own dime.

NEWBIE

Oh. Well, okay... It just that no one had any idea who they were, so it seemed a little incongruous. But that was really generous of them. Anyway... So who was the tall blond guy at the wedding - think his name started with a D.

OLDTIMER

That was Dylan Lewis - illegitimate son of Reva and Billy, father of Daisy, used to be involved with Bridget Reardon.

NEWBIE

I got that vibe in the two seconds he talked to Bridget -

OLDIE

Now, of course, if there had been a scene of him saying hello to his mother, congratulating his father and asking his daughter how she was doing after her abortion last year -

NEWBIE

Daisy had an abortion? Who was the father?

OLDTIMER

Rafe -

NEWBIE

Rafe - and Daisy? No idea. I thought the whole thing about soaps was reinforcing the connections between characters.

OLDTIMER

Yup, that's the way it used to be. Irna Phillips described soap opera storytelling as tying the largest number of knots in the smallest piece of string. But having enough actors to do that well is expensive, so -

NEWBIE

But they paid all those actors who came back, right? AFTRA's not going to let them work for free. Look how many they brought back and they were just on the air for a minute - Dylan - doesn't even say hello to his parents or kid. Holly - no idea of the history she and Ed must have shared, and yet they ride off into the sunset. And never mind Holly and Fletcher - what about Fletcher and Alex?

OLDTIMER

Actually, Holly and Fletcher had a daughter, Meg, who has Down's -

NEWBIE

(laying head on table)

It just seems like they wasted so much time. I mean, Remy and Christine. Hell, I could look at him all day. But it's not as though they were major characters. Why the third wedding? Couldn't she have just told him she was pregnant and they could have shown up with a baby at the end?

OLDTIMER

And why weren't those last scenes at next year's Bauer barbeque?

NEWBIE

I didn't even think of that. That would have been the perfect place for Rick and Mindy's wedding. At least we got a little hint of that at the class reunion. I just don't get why they spent so much of what little time they had left on stories that mattered so little. I mean, Cyrus as Jenna's son?

OLDTIMER

To be fair, I think the writers were trying to structure a story that could be carried on if the show got picked up.

NEWBIE

But that story was in August. They must -

OLDTIMER

Actually the official word didn't come down until late July. Shows were probably in the can.

NEWBIE

You're probably right. But the Cyrus-Mel hookup? Another disconnected character. I know she's Remy's -

OLDTIMER

Well, she used to be married to Rick -

NEWBIE

What?

OLDTIMER

And I'm pretty sure they have a child. Hold on while I look it up... Yeah, Leah.

NEWBIE

Well, having to look up the name of a legacy character's daughter really does say it all, doesn't it? I've been watching for months and I had no idea. Would have been nice for the kid to say hello to Grandpa Ed before he left with Holly.

OLDTIMER

There were just so many loose ends to tie up and so little time.

NEWBIE

I'm not buying that. Look at all the clutter. Cut the drama around Remy and Christine's third wedding. That would have freed up several minutes in the last two episodes. And don't get me started on Richard and Edmund. There was a colossal waste of time. Yeah, yeah - what if the show got picked up. But those scenes in Thursday's episode could have been cut and nothing would have been lost. There was plenty of time. They just didn't use it very well. You talked about tying knots in string. What's the point of having string if it just flutters in the wind?

OLDTIMER

You know, as I watched these last episodes, the last two in particular, I couldn't help but wonder how much more they would have been able to do with less. The "clutter." as you put it, was such a distraction - it diluted and undermined the heartbreaking beauty surrounding Alan's death, and the powerful testament to forgiveness, reconciliation, and the real meaning of love between grown-ups - Lillian and Buzz, Vanessa and Billy, Beth and Phillip, Reva and Josh...

And of course, Otalia. Can't remember if it was Ellen Wheeler or Jill Lorie Hurst who talked about wanted to leave some questions unanswered. Not sure if they were being ironic, but I don't think we'll ever know what relly happened there. Such a wasted opportunity.

Anyway, they just could have shown us so much more.

NEWBIE

But they didn't.

OLDTIMER

No, they didn't. But they could have.

Lights down...

 

 

© 2009 Lynn Liccardo

Limited Licensing: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the Creative Commons Attribution license, granting distribution of my copyrighted work without making changes, with mandatory attribution to Lynn Liccardo and for non-commercial purposes only. Lynn Liccardo