Guiding Light: 1937-2009...Part Eight

A couple of days ago, September 18 to be specific, fans of the long-running daytime drama Guiding Light watched the final episode. The end of the show, which ran 72 years as noted in the blogs title, has left a void in the lives of millions. I for one thought that the show could possibly go on forever and the reason why I say that is because the show was on for 72 years...so I assumed that it would just coast along and hit 75, then 80...etc.

The soap as you can tell has obtained several milestones in longevity. As far as soap operas are concerned...American soap operas...Guiding Light is hands down the longest running daily entertainment program. It's origins go back to 1937 where it debuted on radio. It moved to TV in 1952 and ran on both TV and radio until 1956...and then TV exclusively from that point forward. It's television run, 1952-2009, gives it a 57 year life-span. The only other soap to come close to matching or beating that longevity is As The World Turns, which debuted on TV in 1956 and it received a contract extension through 2010 which will bring that soap to 54 years guaranteed. So, that soap may in fact tie or beat Guiding Light but that's looking too far ahead...and that brings me to this...

The daytime drama climate as far as ratings go isn't exactly what it used to be and the highest rated show among the daytime dramas is pulling in an average of 1.5 to 2 million viewers where as in the mid 1990's and earlier the top rated soap was grabbing close to 3.5 million. In the 1960's and 1970's the top rated soap was grabbing over 5 million and close to 10 million viewers easily.

A lot of the morning news programs did their farewell segments on the soap and you can find those farewells on You Tube. One of the things that I wasn't too happy about was learning that the Soap Opera world, during their annual awards show, did a tribute of sorts that was terribly short. That salute to the longest running drama in broadcast history is also on You Tube. I would've expected that kind of rushed recognition from a national news outlet or something but not at a show promoting daytime television. On September 16, two days before the last episode, one of my favorite characters from the show died. Alan Spaulding died unexpectedly...while sitting on a park bench.

The character had been a part of the show since 1977 and had just two breaks: 1984-1986 and 1989-1994. The character was presumed dead from the latter half of 1984 through early 1986 when news started to surface that Alan could still be alive. The character was sent to prison in 1989...for shooting Roger Thorpe...at Phillip and Blake's wedding. Roger survived the shot...Phillip had been shot as well...and he, too, survived. Alan on the other hand was convicted of attempted murder in 1989 and remained off the show until 1994. The character returned in 1994 and remained an integral part of the show for the next 15 years.

Chris Bernau portrayed the Alan Spaulding character originally. He remains the definitive Alan Spaulding for a lot of people even though Ron Raines, the last actor to portray the character, played the role the longest. In between these two stints, Daniel Pilon played the character.

Chris Bernau: 1977-1984; 1986-1988
Daniel Pilon: 1988-1989
Ron Raines: 1994-2009

Here's a very brief look at the Josh and Reva factor during 1983-1990...

The final scene of the last episode involved the shows super-couple, Josh and Reva. The two characters had a wild on-again/off-again relationship that led to many attempts of marriage and several marriages and divorces. Their story was always portrayed as a kind of tragic melodrama where the man and woman are always this close to being happy and something comes along to drive them apart. The couple, in the final scene, drove down the road together with a lighthouse in the background and the words "The End" came up on the screen. I was a bit surprised that there was no cast farewell...usually you'd expect some sort of "thanks" or "thank you for tuning in all these years" on a final episode and see the cast hug and cry but there wasn't anything like that.

Josh and Reva were played by the same people from start to finish. Robert Newman originated the role of Josh Lewis in 1981 and was a completely different character from what most viewers would recognize. The character of Reva came along in 1983, played by Kim Zimmer, and originally the viewers only knew that she was Billy's ex-wife who Alan Spaulding paid to come to town in an attempt to break up Billy's relationship with Vanessa Chamberlain. Billy was Josh's brother...and Billy was prone to calling Josh "little brother". The viewers then learn that Reva and Josh were childhood lovers...that the two dated as teenagers and it was Josh's choice of putting college above Reva that drove her into his brother's arms. So now the back-story of Josh and Reva was playing out amidst Billy's war against both Reva and Alan. Josh left town when he learned the real reason Reva arrived...and afterward Reva found herself the object of H.B's affections. This is important because H.B was the father of Billy and Josh...when Josh returned and learned that Reva had married his father he drove off wildly and slammed into a tree and was paralyzed. Reva later became pregnant with H.B.'s child but she miscarried. H.B and Reva divorced...but just as Josh and Reva were growing closer again she started having feelings for Kyle Sampson who at the time was believed to be H.B.'s son with another woman and therefore Josh and Billy's half-brother.

During Josh's hiatus in Venezuela the Reva and Kyle relationship was underway. Kyle then learned that H.B. was not his father but he was still a brother to Billy. How? Well, Kyle and Billy shared the same mother: Sally Gleason. Josh and Trish's mother was Martha. Kyle and Reva grew apart.

Josh returned but then left again...but then returned...all in the span of several months. When he returned he brought with him a man named Will Jeffries...and what nobody knew was that when Josh was in Venezuela he had married a woman named Sonni Carrera who died after falling off of a suspension bridge. He kept this a secret...even from Reva...until Sonni turned up alive and he had to reveal the truth and play her husband even though he wanted to be with Reva.

The plot that unfolded started when Will tampered with the birth results of Reva's baby. Will made it appear that the father of Reva's baby was Kyle Sampson instead of Josh. In addition to that sub-plot, the main plot centered around Will and Sonni's plan to kill Josh and steal the Lewis fortune. Those story lines took up all of late 1987 through early 1989. Josh found himself pushed off of a bridge...Reva found herself in a coma, too. While Reva was semi-conscious Alan married her...she thought that she was marrying Josh. The marriage was annulled after Reva regained her right state of mind. Josh then learns that he's the father of Marah, the baby that most thought belonged to Kyle. It's revealed that Alan had paid Will to tamper with the birth certificate.

After the mayhem with Sonni, Will, and Alan climaxed in early 1989 Reva and Billy grew closer when it was revealed that years ago Reva gave up a baby she had with Billy for adoption and she became obsessed with locating her son. The son turned out to be a newcomer to town named Dylan. Josh and Reva grew closer once again and she became pregnant and later gave birth to Shayne. Josh was the father.

Josh and Reva finally marry...and it wasn't long afterward that Reva's grasp on reality started to suffer and in a memorable scene in 1990 she drove her car off an unfinished bridge in Florida with Josh watching in horror. She was presumed dead for the next five years.



What was to become known as Reva's missing years, 1990-1995, were spotlighted throughout mid to late 1999. It was revealed that Reva survived her car crash into the ocean but suffered from amnesia and took on the name of Katherine and was married to a prince...Richard Winslow...on the island of San Cristobel. Katherine's disappearance sent Richard into alcoholism...but it would be revealed that Katherine's disappearance was as a result of Edmund's treachery. Edmund was Richard's evil brother. On the sideline was Olivia, Richard's soon to be wife, who was annoyed by the re-appearance of Katherine. As the plot thickened and Reva's missing years were explored and explained, Josh and Reva grew apart...divorcing not long after Reva learned that she and Richard shared a son, Jonathan. Josh and Olivia were married...but later divorced when her affair with Alan Spaulding was revealed. Olivia and Alan then married...but she began having an affair with his son, Phillip, which led to a divorce. All of the drama between Josh, Reva, Olivia, and Alan played out during 1999-2002. Edmund rivaled Alan in the bad-guy department...but strangely enough Edmund, to me at least, didn't seem likable or sympathetic compared to Alan. Olivia would go on and become half of the couple known on-line as Otalia. Olivia and Natalia became an item...two females...and the couple was nicknamed Otalia. This couple became the main focal point during the show's final months on the air. So, for those who caught the show very late in it's run, Olivia had a 9 and a half year history on the show prior to her pairing up with Natalia.

Thanks to You Tube videos the memories of the show will, I think, live on forever on-line. In my collection I have a couple of books about GL...one is the 50th Anniversary book published in 1987 and the other is the 60th Anniversary book published ten years later. I have some other items as well.

Guiding Light: 1937-2009

Looney Tunes...crazy...100% nuts...

Posing with a book that I bought several years ago at a book store in a shopping mall, this blog entry is really about my salute to the Looney Tunes characters and those of the Merrie Melodies. Originally, there was a distinct separation between the two series from Warner Brothers. However, as time went on, the characters started to appear interchangeably to the point where there wasn't much of a distinction anymore other than the differing titles for both sets of cartoons. Originally the Merrie Melodies series featured serious, Disney-like cartoons with heavy use of songs from the Warner Brothers music catalog. The Looney Tunes series featured the wild and crazy cartoons that were funny in comparison. It's these cartoons and that style which pushed the more serious cartoons off to the side as time went on.

The series had it's share of top directors, animators, writers, etc etc and one of the most interesting things about the Warner Brothers cartoon directors and writers is that their names are more widely known than the directors and writers at Disney and MGM, the two chief rivals in the theatrical cartoon business to Warner Brothers. I suppose if I looked it up, the cartoon directors at Disney would be easy to find in this internet age but would they be names that I'm familiar with? I admit that this feeling comes from being raised on the Warner Brothers cartoons. I know of the Disney characters...who doesn't know of Mickey Mouse? Donald Duck? Goofy? Winnie the Pooh? I couldn't tell you who the cartoon directors were. A lot of it has to do with, as I mentioned, not being raised on Disney cartoons. When I was younger the Disney cartoons were exclusive to the Disney channel...a premium channel...that my parent's didn't spend extra money for. This was several years before the local FOX stations started airing Disney cartoons in the afternoons in the late '80s.

As I mentioned, when I was growing up, it was the Warner Brothers cartoons I was most familiar with. Popeye was another...and Tom and Jerry, along with MGM's cast of characters. As I got older I discovered the made-for-TV cartoons of Hanna-Barbera and liked those cartoons as well.

The most talked about, or celebrated, directors at Warner Brothers during their golden age were:

1. Friz Freleng
2. Chuck Jones
3. Tex Avery
4. Bob Clampett
5. Robert McKimson

After those five, you then usually hear about...

6. Frank Tashlin
7. Art Davis
8. Norm McCabe

Ironically, #3 and #4 were with the studio a short number of years, instead of decades like Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson...but even today, among Warner Brothers cartoon fans, both Bob Clampett and Tex Avery have just as much discussion as the others.

Who you don't hear much about are #6 through #8. This is just my opinion but the big reason for this is because they didn't make any cartoons that have stood the test of time. Art Davis was more of an animator turned director for a few cartoons. Frank Tashlin made just as many cartoons as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery but his cartoons seldom got much attention due to their lack of exposure to various generations. The Bugs Bunny Show helped expose the characters to 4 generations of audiences starting in 1960. The cartoons from Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson were heavily favored.

It was on the air on ABC, then CBS, and then back to ABC during it's 40 year run. The show during it's final ABC run was titled The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and it left the air in 2000 after a 40 year run on the air, in various time slots and under various titles.

The book that you see me holding is a companion book, of sorts. It details the history of Sylvester and Tweety and it gives a year by year break down of the cartoons. It gives writer, director, producer, and animation credits along with voice credits for each cartoon listed and if it was nominated or if it won an Oscar then it was noted.

A cartoon winning an Oscar?? Yes...for those who aren't too well studied about theatrical cartoons...there was once a category called "Best Short Subject". There still may be a category called that?? Anyway...that category was usually reserved for the animated cartoon that would air in movie theaters prior to the showing of the movie. The Academy would then nominate which cartoons, or "short subjects", they felt were Oscar worthy. The cartoons were dubbed short subjects because, obviously, the running time was short compared to a feature length movie. Most cartoons ran no longer than 8 minutes...9 minutes was a rare occasion...6 minutes or 6 and a half was the norm for most cartoons.

When the winner was announced, the Oscar was awarded to the producer...the writers or director or anyone else weren't given any Oscar's for their participation. The producer of the cartoons, originally, was Leon Schlesinger. He was the producer until the mid 1940's...around 1944/1945. He sold his company to Warner Brothers and Eddie Selzer became the new producer. From the things I've read and from the commentary made by those who worked on the cartoons, Selzer wasn't too popular among the directors. Friz Freleng recounts an incident where Selzer insisted that Sylvester team up with a woodpecker for a series of cartoons. Sylvester and the woodpecker had appeared in just one cartoon together, prior to the cat officially being called "Sylvester".

Friz had gotten the idea to team Sylvester up with the Tweety character that Bob Clampett created. Selzer didn't like the idea and Friz threatened to walk away from the studio...and then Selzer contacted Friz and gave in and told Friz to go ahead and team Sylvester up with Tweety. Their first cartoon together as a team won an Oscar, 1947's "Tweetie Pie".

Some things the average cartoon watcher may not know is Robert McKimson created the character, Speedy Gonzales, but it was Friz Freleng who had his unit re-design the character into what people recognize today and Friz directed several Speedy cartoons and Robert McKimson later began directing his own Speedy cartoons based on the Hawley Pratt design. Pratt was Friz's layout artist. McKimson is also responsible for Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester Jr, and the Tazmanian Devil. Henery Hawk was a character created by Chuck Jones but McKimson borrowed the character and used him extensively in the Foghorn Leghorn series of cartoons.

Out of all the directors at the studio, Friz won the most Oscars.

Chuck Jones is often more celebrated and hyped given that his approach to cartoons mirrors the collegiate and intellectual approach to animation. His cartoons, while hilarious, tended to be slightly Avant-garde in comparison to the belly-laugh style of Friz and McKimson. Tex Avery on the other hand went beyond belly-laughs and could have a viewer laughing without anything hilarious going on...a simple facial expression or some other timed gag in one of his cartoons was as funny as dialogue and out of all the directors, Avery could get laughs with sight gags because of how well-timed they were. He would become even more legendary at MGM...the studio he left Warner Brothers for. Bob Clampett, who adopted a Tex Avery style, would also depart the studio. Frank Tashlin left cartoons for live action movies. So, for a bulk of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies throughout the 1940s, 1950's, and into the early 1960's you had three directors: Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson. Mel Blanc was the main voice artist for the studio from the late 1930s through the 1960's. He had co-stars, though. Arthur Q Bryan voiced Elmer Fudd for years. Bea Benaderet voiced Granny and many female characters up through the mid 1950's prior to June Foray coming aboard to voice Bea's characters and others that came along. Daws Butler was often heard doing celebrity impressions. Stan Freberg gave voice to quite a few characters that played off against characters Mel provided the voice to.

For those who want to see hilarious Warner Brothers cartoons seek out the Golden Collection DVD series. Not only will you get the cartoons but you'll also get a boat load of extra's that feature interview clips with the directors and animators involved in the cartoons. All of the major players, speaking about directors and writers and animators, are all gone. A few of the voice actors are still around. Here's a life-line of the heavy hitters at the studio and the lesser-known's...

Leon Schlesinger: May 20, 1884-December 25, 1949 {65; producer}

Eddie Selzer: January 12, 1893-February 22, 1970 {77; producer}

Mel Blanc: May 30, 1908–July 10, 1989 {81; voice artist}

Friz Freleng: August 21, 1906–May 26, 1995 {88; director}

Chuck Jones: September 21, 1912–February 22, 2002 {89; director}

Tex Avery: February 26, 1908-August 26, 1980 {72; animator/director}

Robert McKimson: October 13, 1910-September 29, 1977 {66; animator/director}

Bob Clampett: May 8, 1913-May 4, 1984 {70; animator/director}

Arthur Q Bryan: May 8, 1899–November 18, 1959 {60; voice artist}

**Stan Freberg: August 7, 1926- {currently 83; voice artist}

Bea Benadaret: April 4, 1906–October 13, 1968 {62; voice artist}

**June Foray: September 18, 1917- {curently 91; voice artist}

Daws Butler: November 16, 1916–May 18, 1988 {71; voice artist}

Frank Tashlin: February 19, 1913-May 5, 1972 {59; director}

Art Davis: June 14, 1905-May 9, 2000 {94; animator/director}

Norm McCabe: February 10, 1911-January 17, 2006 {94; animator/director}

Mike Maltese: February 6, 1908—February 22, 1981 {73; writer}

Warren Foster: October 24, 1904-December, 1971 {67; writer}

Tedd Pierce: August 12, 1906—February 19, 1972 {65; writer}

Carl Stalling: November 10, 1891–November 29, 1972 {81; music conductor}

Milt Franklyn: September 16, 1897–April 24, 1962 {64; music conductor}

=======================

**- both June Foray and Stan Freberg are the only surviving members of the Golden Age of Warner Brothers cartoons.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

This 1988 film, built around classic cartoons from the Warner Brothers library and new footage, is a broad spoof of the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise. The obvious title of "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" will tell you what this clip-fest film will be about. The film features two contemporary cartoon shorts, 1987's "The Duxorcist" and 1988's "Night of the Living Duck". These two cartoons, combined with specific clips edited from classic cartoons, were blended together to showcase a full-length animated feature poking fun at the GHOSTBUSTERS popularity and the language used in the movie. Daffy inherits a fortune because he was able to make a dying millionaire laugh. In a scenario from an earlier cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", Daffy plays a salesman who gets word that a dying millionaire will leave a fortune to whoever can make him laugh. The millionaire was offering a fortune to anyone who was able to give him one good laugh before he died. After arriving at the mansion and out-witting the butler, Daffy did a broad range of stunts that received no laughs but when he accidentally trips and a series of cakes fall on him, the dying millionaire {a dog named Cubish} starts to chuckle and soon breaks out into a fit of laughter.

Next we see Cubish in a pie throwing frenzy...hurling one pie after the other in Daffy's face. All through this he's laughing uncontrollably and that's when the original cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", ended. In the continuation, we see that Cubish dies laughing...and his estate goes to Daffy. The only catch is he has to use the money for good purposes or it'll cost him. Also, if Daffy even has the idea to use the money for greedy purposes, it'll cost him. Throughout the film each time Daffy gripes and complains about Cubish we hear thunder and see a stack of money in the vault vanish into thin air. Cubish often appears in ghost form throughout the cartoon. As a side business, Daffy goes into ghost hunting as a public service.

Daffy, Porky, and Bugs are billed as "Paranormalists at Large". Throughout the film a spoof commercial pops up promoting their ghost hunting business. Part of the commercial includes a now-popular phrase among Looney Tunes fans where Daffy explains the objectives of their business and tells potential clients something like: "spooks spooked, goblins gobbled, ufo's k.o'd, aliens alienated, and monsters remonstrated.". One of the memorable aspects of the film was how effortlessly the classic clips blended together. This wasn't the first time clip-filled animated films had been released by Warner Brothers but it was the first, to my knowledge, where two relatively new theatrical cartoons had been responsible for the commission of a full-length movie release.

And so...in between the classic clips we see new animation of Bugs, Daffy, and Porky bridging the clips along. We'll see the hilarious "but I did see an elephant in my bird bath" clip and pieces of Porky and Sylvester's adventures when Sylvester was cast as a cowardly feline and Porky was his annoyed owner. The 1987 clip of "The Duxorcist" is hilarious...particularly for those familiar with what it's spoofing, The Exorcist. In it, Daffy investigates a strange case of a female duck who's possessed and it's in this cartoon where the female utters all sorts of rubbish, but plainly enunciating in a sweet voice "Mary had a little lamb..." and then shouting in her possessed voice: "BUT I ATE IT!!!!".

Sharp eared listeners will note the differences in Daffy's voice when it segues from contemporary to classic footage. I believe they didn't speed up Daffy's voice enough in the new animation and so it sounds like Sylvester, more than it should. The difference between those two character's voices had always been that Sylvester had Mel Blanc's own voice with a lisp added to it while Daffy was actually the same voice only sped up a few octaves in the playback process to get a little higher tone.

The cartoon as a whole is 5 star material. It's funny, cute in places, satirical in places, and who can resist the Mel Torme contribution of "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" that Daffy sings in a monsters club after spraying his throat with Torme liquid. This scene happens near the start of the movie, within "Night of the Living Duck". The bonus features include the cult favorite "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th and 1/2 Century" along with "Superior Duck" and "Little Go Beep".

This is the first time this 1988 Daffy Duck movie has been released on DVD.