GL Emmy Tribute

[ees43]

One of the saddest things to me about giving tribute to GL ending is that Jerry can't be a part of (or isn't allowed to be). He was on the show for 26 years straight, one of the show's biggest cheerleaders and a very supportive team player. But since he's with an ABC show now, he can't participate with GL. (This has nothing to do with knowing it's a business - it's just a sucky situation, like when he came to OLTL so quickly that there was no real "good-bye" scene for Bloss on GL.) Of course, there were other former GL actors at the Emmys who also didn't participate.

I don't think Jerry even went to the Emmys this year. I only counted about 8-10 OLTL stars there (I think I saw Hillary B. Smith seated with the OLTL group but I haven't seen a picture of her arriving on the red carpet). I recorded the show in case there was anything worth keeping, but I thought the GL tribute clip montage was too short and left out a lot. It seemed like they were trying to keep it to the history with the actors still on the show - like Reva, the Coopers, Spauldings, and some Bauers thrown in, like they were the majority of 72 years of drama. Only one brief clip of Roger/Holly, and none of Ross or Blake that I saw.

[~bl~]

The thing is they showed a Gus and Harley clip in the montage and their portrayers Goldin and Ehlers are on All My Children, so they could have included a clip of Jerry as Ross in the Emmy montage especially since he has two and was on for so long. If they had not included a Gus/Harley kiss, I would have been like okay it is an ABC thing, but it wasn't that. I wonder if the montage was cut, if not, there is no really good excuse for the slight. I agree with what Sara Bibel and others have said how there was too much focus on the present day material. There were three clips related to Roger and/or Holly, one with the marital rape, Holly with baby Meg, and Roger being unmasked--and no Blake.

ETA: I wonder if he was in LA at all. If he was and could hang with his friends at the unofficial party that happened that weekend for GL alum that's cool, if he wouldn't have been able to it may have been better to avoid the situation completely though from what I understand Vincent Irrizarry went so again it should not have been a problem. Due to the heat a good number of people skipped the outside red carpet as it wasn't tented which explains why no photo of HBS.

[~bl~]

Saw the longer version on Youtube that was incomplete, but the original proposal for the montage. In it there is no Liz, but there is a clip from the blackout with Blake and Ross in bed together. You see Sherry better than Jerry, but it is a familiar clip to me. There are other events shown in it that Bloss went to, but you don't see them in the background. In this longer version, there is another Gus/Harley clip and two with Laura Wright, so it is not an anti-ABC bias issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW8yKKn9JUM

[ees43]

Thanks for posting it. I saw it from other places too.

I felt the longer version was still very lacking. Like most of GL's history was centered around Reva, Cassie, the Coopers, and the Spauldings. There was some Bauers and Roger/Holly thrown in for history's sake.

Yep, still no Liz (and she tweeted that she didn't like that aspect), and Jerry's cheek doesn't really cut it as an appearance. That clip was really about Sherry Stringfield being a famous GL alum. For putting in 26 years, and becoming the show's patriarch figure, there really was no acknowledgment of Ross, while we saw multiple clips of others (including Harley the super hero). Actually I thought it was an odd choice to use for SS - it was the blackout so the lighting wasn't good and it was an extreme close-up, so it was hard to see who it was at first (even though I'm very familiar with the clip too).

I get the feeling Jerry didn't go - or Wendy would have posted pictures, even if they were ones he took himself. I'm guessing he would have gone if he had been part of a GL tribute.

[~bl~]

At least SOW had something, though the Bloss picture they used was from a Jerry and Liz interview from 1997, ergo I see it as a Liz and Jerry shot and not a Blake and Ross one. Glad I didn't have to send them angry e-mail for ignoring them. I just hope SID doesn't screw up or else they deserve annoyed tweets.

I don't have to send them hate e-mail and I would have if I had to, if SID mucks up they have twitter, so I will have to say something. That is one thing I won't miss with GL off the air, certain people being ignored or undervalued.

Glad Liz said something on her twitter account about it. I had to go specifically on it just to read what she said. I've been avoiding twitter.

The GL montage just wasn't something that I would make not even close. I wouldn't have it just be Bloss, but the fact there were no African-American characters (outside of Remy way in the background) was also glaring. That peeved me just as much, they should have started with a framework beyond which families have been focused on in recent years.

I can understand if Jerry didn't go, it wasn't as if OLTL was nominated for best show, and since it wasn't on ABC it may have been an issue of if you go you have to pay your own way.

Anyway, just read this from Wall Street Journal only cutting and pasting the part with Liz but there are factual errors, but hey at least they quoted her.

At a "Guiding Light" costume sale this summer, cast members could purchase the clothes they wore on the show. Elizabeth Keifer, who has played redheaded vixen Blake Marler since 1992, bought the sparkly, gun-metal silver wedding dress she married her mother's boyfriend Ross Marler in 15 years ago, before she gave birth to twins by different fathers. (The DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield, Ohio, says the condition, known as heteropaternal superfecundation, is possible. The center periodically receives calls from soap opera writers asking this question, a spokesman says.)

Ms. Keifer says she hopes the end of "Guiding Light" means the writers will reveal who poisoned her character four years ago. "I laid in a coma for six months and never knew who did it," she says.

[~bl~]

I tried to edit the post before this one, and this board was giving me errors. Am I the only one with that problem?

Anyway the reason I am posting to this thread again is that Michael Fairman talked about the montage making on some Daytime Confidential Podcast...

From TWOP


Michael Fairman is on the end of DCs #451 podcast CW insisted on short clip packages for a quick and snappy show. He thought the CW wanted to keep the show entertainment focused (e.g. Vanessa William's 2nd dance number) to bring in other viewer's rather than focussing on soap. Luke brought up that soap fans might feel it a snub for Sesame Street's tribute to be longer than GL's as GL wascancelled and MF said he felt it was and he fought hard to mark the tribute longer and different.
Regarding the tribute he said GL only gave him selected footage and selected scenes and some of the footage wasn't airable for various reasons. He mentions Blake not being in the tribute and said he was given only 1 clip of Blake mumble (unintelligible - possibly marrying?) Ross and some of the footage he was given just didn't stand out. There wasn't a lot of some actors with any material that would stand out when looking at 57 years.
He did want to have some of the star's talking about GL and have their thoughts. He pitched to the EMMYs and GL for him and a crew to come to the final show to get the emotional, heartfelt farewells for that to be included in the package and he was told another crew couldn't be accommodated and they weren't allowed to go. Finally he was told he might get some footage but then GL decided to save it because they did want it to be a farewell before the show went off the air and was saved for the 60 minute special.
He wanted to give a non-standard tribute (because GL has had so many over the years) that was heartfelt and got to the emotional core of the show but he was told a more traditional tribute was wanted. MF says he created different length versions of the tribute in case something ran over and a shorter version had to be used but he felt GL should have had a longer tribute. The 4 minute version of his tribute was his love letter to the show but he doesn't thinking anyone can be happy with the show going off the air and only a befitting tribute of 3-4 minutes.
No one from GL was supposed to speak for the show after the tribute, but it wasn't planned to get cut off to commercial so quickly. The reason so much of the current cast was in the tribute was because much of the GL cast was going to be there and there was the potential for hurt feelings. There was also the issue that when it (the tribute?) was edited down to 1:30 the executive producers came in and wanted certain things and it was tweaked. He wanted a more expansive view however he did feel BC's speech summed up Springfield which is why it was in the tribute. In response to their being a lot of Otalia clips in the tribute he said that in the 4 min version there wasn't however in the 1.30 version there were certain holes in it which once it had been reconfigured needed a quick emotionally explosive moment and he felt Olivia telling Natalia she loved her fitted. He also said there were A LOT of hands in the pot.
Blah blah claificationcakes some of the historical footage wasn't of good enough quality and some just didn't work with the vision for the tribute and the show didn't force him to use the newer footage. The show was trying to accommodate him but they were winding down production as he was creating the tribute. Again he says he would have preferred a longer tribute with the stars speaking but he just didn't have the time and it was well liked anyway. MF created versions and versions of the tribute and one of them had the individual families as part of it but it wasn't wanted. There were executive producers who didn't know the history of the show who were involved in creation of the tribute and what resonated with them is different to what would resonate with the fans and MF did argue with them.
He doesn't know if anything could do GL justice which is why he posted the 4 min version of the tribute to try and ease the pain as much as possible. The words he used in the tribute subsectioned it and express what he felt GL is about but "they" felt it was too inside.
Jamey said he was glad a fan had created the tribute but the fan in him would have liked more of certain characters. In response MF says he only had 3 clips of Roger, one was falling off the cliff which was great visually but not so good out of context, it could have been used as a shot but then he used Roger's unvailing instead and the only other scene he had was the rape of Holly which was included. MF says there just wasn't the footage for all these classic characters.