We are mere days away from the end of Guiding Light, the longest running soap opera in history. Seventy-two years of soap legacy will be laid to rest this Friday and, for the first time, I am not looking forward to the weekend, knowing that come Monday morning at 10am ET, there will be a game show in the place of my beloved sudser. How odd will it be to watch the Light dim and know that it will never be turned on again? I will never see Emma Spencer Spaulding grow into the heroine that she is destined to be or what will become of Dinah Marler in old age, or even what a supercouple Bill Lewis and Lizzie Spaulding could have been in soap history.
All that remains is this feeling of loss, as if the stories are incomplete. The cancellation in April stunted the storyline potentials for the show, such as the romance of Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera and an epic reunion fitting of supercouple Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne. What remained was the hurried knotting of loose ends and character exits that left me feeling a little flat, rather than moved.
I have read many articles stating that the death knell for the show was the now infamous change in their production model, which focused on outdoor shooting, scaled down sets and handheld cameras. I tend to disagree. Instead of looking at the rich filmmaking that the soap produced this year, many tend to fall back on weak excuses for the show’s demise that may have been correct had the show been cancelled last year. However, 2009 brought with it a greater understanding by the cast and crew of the potential the new production model could have. Let me remind you of the expert filmmaking during the week of April 13, 2009.
The graveyard confession by Olivia to Natalia, the framing of the anguish experienced by the two women during Natalia’s wedding vows to Frank Cooper and the exquisite gazebo love confession by Natalia under a blanket of snow perfectly showcased the upswing for this production model. You cannot discount how intimate and powerful these scenes were, mainly due to the camera work and location shooting that complimented and accentuated the powerhouse performances put in by Crystal Chappell and Jessica Leccia.
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