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[Soap opera] . . . as we know it is costume drama in a time-capsule, whose only time is the suspended time of idyll and erotic day dreams. That does not mean conflict is absent and love is simple, since even in Arcadia the existence of stories presupposes 'the crooked path.' It does mean that neither work nor history intervene to distract soap opera's characters from the endless pursuit
of personal emotional satisfaction. (Porter 1979: 92)
Initially a fifteen-minute radio program when it was first broadcast in 1937, Guiding Light of the past would strike us as extremely cliched and melodramatic. [7]
Originally, the Guiding Light was about the life of Dr. Rutledge, pastor of a church in the city of Five Points (Anywhere, U.S.A.) and the lives of the members of his family and parish. The show had a rather religious tone, with a theme that faith brings happiness. Whole episodes were frequently devoted to a single sermon by Dr. Rutledge. (La Guardia 1977:34)
The setting of the program changed to increasingly larger urban settings, paralleling the changes of the program's production sites. In the mid-1940s the Bauers replaced the Rutledges as the central continuing characters.
The old inspirational theme persisted . . . but Reverend Rutledge's spiritual lessons were woven into the fabric of family life.
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Instead of challenges to religious faith, the story told of threats to the stability and perserverance of family and home. Romance, insanity' disease, and even murder tested the strength of the Bauers. Each time they triumphed, it proved the family of good will could stay together. (Gilbert 1979:24)
The original Bauer clan was headed by Papa Bauer, a carpenter, and Mama Bauer, both German immigrants. Their son Bill married Bert, who is still a continuing character on the program. Bert's children Mike, a lawyer, and Ed, a doctor, are now both successful upper-middle class professionals, with all traces of their German heritage gone from the program. The current programming now also includes their children and grandchildren.
Basing their generalizations on a recent study of Guiding Light scripts from 1948, 1958, and 1968 and videotapes of the March 1982 programming by Mies (1982), Cantor and Pingree note a number of changes. The world of Guiding Light 1982 differed from earlier years in that business settings were more common, more was discussed in business settings, and women and men discussed business in business settings (1983:97-112). Earlier programming tended to present women almost exclusively in the home.
The Guiding Light moved from an introspective and inwardly oriented world in 1948, one focusing on feelings and personalities, to a sex-segregated world of business and home in 1958, to a world where both sexes were concerned with romantic relationships in their separate settings in 1968, to one where women and men both focus on business in a much more open social environment. (Cantor and Pingree 1983:112)
The nature of the world that Guiding Light invites viewers to participate in was changing when I carried out my research. How and why that world was changing is explored in virtually every chapter. In this chapter, I describe the performances as creating the potential for participation in an alternative community. What that community or world was like from the spring of 1981 to the summer of 1982 is sketched broadly in the following pages.
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SETTINGS
Guiding Light takes place in the present in the fictional city of Springfield, U.S.A. Springfield is located in middle-America, a short plane ride away from New York and Chicago. According to members of the production staff, the name is ideal because there is a Springfield in every state.
The city is not small. Spaulding Enterprises, one of the world's largest corporations, is headquartered there. Cedars Hospital, a large, wealthy, technically sophisticated organization, is a major setting for much of the drama. But even though those are the two major work settings, the viewer is given little sense of what each looks like. There are no concrete images, no panoramic views, to place the organizations in a larger visual context.
Almost all the action in Springfield occurs indoors. This indoor world consists of domestic settings--living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens; business settings, particularly offices; and public settings--nurses' station, cafeteria, restaurant, disco. The wealthy are seen in their libraries, dens, and studios; the working-class Reardons socialize in their kitchen or on their porch. In the domestic milieu, much of the action takes place in bedrooms and living rooms, whereas the world of work occurs primarily in the offices of doctors, lawyers, and businessmen.
The interiors of homes are clearly distinguishable. Most interiors are upper-middle class. The homes of both the upper-class and working-class families are clearly differentiated from the dominant upper-middle pattern. But there is a sense of order in almost all settings. Orderliness, cleanliness, neatness are the normal state of affairs.
The material culture of each setting is also distinguishable, again in a clearly representative way. The homes of the rich are spacious, wood panelled (particularly the den and studio), the walls are hung with ornately framed portraits and, in general filled with expensive objects. The homes and rooms of the working class are smaller, commonplace, and often give the impression that they are not planned or decorated in a coherent way. There is an overall sense of order in all the homes, appearances of disorder signalling a dramatic rupture or a pathological state. (Disorder even seems orderly, partially because too much disorder creates problems for prop people responsible for continuity.)
Horace Newcomb's characterization of the interior world still remains apt, despite today's larger production budgets.
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Any departure from the norm of upper-middle class stability results in . . . blatant representation in which richness is defined exclusively by their extravagant homes, so is the addict's room defined by its squalor. (1974:167)
The greater production values of recent soaps have gone in part toward making the homes of the rich more glamorous and spectacular. At the other end of the class hierarchy, the homes of the working class are functional, practical, simple but adequate. In the working-class Reardon home, the setting is clearly designed to embody a sense of home--of warmth, caring, and closeness.
Recent storylines emphasizing gothic mystery and romance are set in the homes of the wealthy. Houses become mansions; studies and dens take on a mysterious air as strange and frightening things occur. In one storyline, Amanda, hurt by her love, retreats to her bedroom, regressing and becoming a child in a large, dark mansion. Similarly, another character, Quint, a mysterious archaeologistanthropologist, makes his laboratory a forbidden place in his mansion. Calling attention to the conventions of gothic mysteries and films, the stories and settings contribute to a fantastic and tongue-in-cheek quality to the programming, a quality only recently introduced.
Work settings tend to be the corporate offices of the upper class or offices of upper-middle class doctors and lawyers. Doctors' and lawyers' offices are very functional in design, orderly, and unobtrusive, whereas corporate board rooms or executive offices are more elaborate. Doctors' offices, many located in Cedars Hospital, tend to have an impersonal air. They are aptly characterized by Newcomb's description of place as
designed by function. A doctor's office is so designated by the "whiteness" of tables and pans, by diplomas on the walls, and by the medical books on the shelves. . . . In many ways the office is indistinguishable from that of the lawyer, which also displays books and diplomas. The lawyer's office is likely to be more clearly adaptable to use by clients. There are more chairs; there is a
richer look of mahogany and leather rather than steel and plastic.(1974:164)
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Depictions of public settings include restaurants, the nurses' station on the fourth floor of Cedars Hospital, and a hospital cafeteria. People continually meet or see each other in such settings. These seemingly public places are settings in which familiar characters interact in personal ways so that the settings lose their public nature. Strangers (extras) come and go fleetingly, but by no means dominate such settings as might be true in the real world.
When the action occurs outdoors, it is primarily for high romance and adventure. Examples include Jamaica, the Canary Islands, St. Croix, and Paris. Laurel Falls, an important setting for the romance and trials of Morgan and Kelly, even though close to Springfield, takes on the quality of an exotic and romantic setting. On other occasions, business, intrigue, or travel will take people to important business or financial centers such as San Francisco, New York, or London. The big city is also a place where anything can happen, as it does when Morgan is nearly raped in New York City.
Scenes shot on location (out of the studio), typically in romantic or spectacular settings, are combined with scenes shot in the studio, although they are contextualized as occurring on location. Romantic scenes of the beaches of Jamaica are combined with a studio interior of a villa bedroom. Similarly, a chase across mountains and deserts includes studio interiors of mountain caves. While a great deal is invested in creating relatively realistic studio sets, it is generally clear when a scene has been shot in a studio.
The world of Guiding Light is frequently an indoor world. It is largely an upper-middle-class domestic world, which is differentiated from the working-class and, to a lesser degree, upper-class domestic world. The exterior world is primarily romantic, spectacular, or starkly representative. Public and private realms, however, merge because they are filled with familiar faces.
PARTICIPANTS
The continuing inhabitants of the world of Springfield number between 30 and 35. They are largely in their twenties, thirties, or forties, with an increase in the number of young (new) characters during the last two years. The largest percentage is upper-middle class, with both the upper class and lower-middle/working class represented in smaller numbers. All are white, seemingly Protestant, with no ethnic or religious differences represented, other than the
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Reardon family, which was Irish in name only. They were more working class than Irish. The Bauer family, the central family on the program, was originally of German immigrant extraction, but it has lost any trace of its ethnic origin.
Occasionally minority group members appear on soaps, but their place in a storytelling strategy that involves romance and intertwined intimate relationships is problematic. On the one hand, it is difficult to "get as much mileage" out of a character. On the other hand, placing minority group members in intimate and/or romantic relationships with whites might offend the audience and affect ratings.
The characters can be grouped together by class and as family groups, although class lines are blurred by marriage, and rapid changes in social position can occur. One can get a good sense of the density and complexity of the relationships from a brief description of the characters and their relationships. The various family groups are connected to other groups through ties of marriage and friendship. Overlapping these, of course, are the ties of past marriages and friendships and business. In the circumscribed world of Springfield, people continually meet, overhear each other, or hear of each other's behavior and intentions. The following descriptions of the characters are based on descriptions prepared by the production office of Guiding Light.
UPPER CLASS
Alan Spaulding: Old-monied industrialist with unsavory past that he came to regret through his love for current wife, Hope. Sent to jail after confessing to conspiracies of past in order to make clean start in life. Was married to Elizabeth Marler and Jackie Marler. Is "father" of Philip Spaulding, who is actually Jackie and Justin Marler's biological son. Fathered Amanda in teenage affair with Jennifer Richard. Past affairs include Rita Stapleton Bauer. In his thirties, dashing.
Philip Spaulding: Son of Jackie and Justin, but thinks he is son of Alan and Elizabeth. Troubled and confused about where he belongs, with his "dad" or with his "Aunt Jackie and Uncle Justin." Teenager.
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Hope Bauer Spaulding: Beautiful, charming, sweet, trusting. Talented interior decorator. Very in love with Alan Spaulding and their child Alan Michael. Daughter of Mike Bauer who was once Alan's sworn enemy. Granddaughter of Bert. Very supportive of Alan and intolerant of those who aren't. (Part of upper group by recent marriage.) In her twenties.
Henry Chamberlain: Corporate-wise, wealthy father of Vanessa. Once very unscrupulous, recent health problems and his search for his illegitimate son, Sean Ryan, have made him reexamine his values. He regrets the values he's instilled in Vanessa and devotes much of his thoughts and energies to her. In his sixties.
Vanessa Chamberlain: Dark, passionate, and old-money wealthy. Henry Chamberlain's daughter. Amoral and excellent businesswoman. Once in love with Ross Marler but married another to save father's business. Conniving and manipulative, with a sarcastic wit. Will cheat, lie, whatever to succeed in business or romance. Once involved with Ed Bauer and recently involved with Mark Evans. In her thirties.
Trish Lewis: In her mid-twenties, pretty sister to Josh. Once very insecure because of sheltered, unloving upbringing of her father, oil magnate H. B. Lewis. Once married to Andy Norris and now divorced. Coowns Hideout and Wired for Sound with Vanessa Chamberlain. Trying to gain self-assurance and prove herself self-sufficient. Adores Josh and does not see his darker side.
Josh Lewis: Early twenties playboy, brother of Trish. Spoiled and egotistical. Eager to step out of his father's shadow and establish business on his own; he shows a dark side willing to do anything to accomplish this. Presently liaison for Lewis Oil at Spaulding, and helps Trish with Hideout/Wired for Sound. Manages Floyd Parker. Has designs on Morgan Nelson.
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Quint McCord: Gothic, grim, and mysterious anthropologist-archaeologist. Nola's employer. Regrets not having family life during his childhood and shows much concern for Nola and her baby. Involved in quest for Golden Temple. Becomes romantically involved with Nola Reardon. In his twenties.
The upper-class groups include both old money and new money, equally concerned to retain power and wealth. Quint McCord (old money with English origins) is free largely to dedicate himself to a quest for a mysterious and valuable archaeological goal--the Golden Temple. Power and wealth are personalized and related to the psychological motivations of individual characters. Vanessa, for example, has been spoiled by her father's wealth, but Josh is motivated to escape from his father's domination. Corporate power is presented largely as an arena in which individuals compete with each other. The elite are also seen as mixing freely with individuals lower in the class hierarchy, linking all the participants in the same symbolic community.
UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS
Bauer Family - Historically the central family of Guiding Light.
Bert Bauer: Wise and strong leader of the Bauer family. Always helpful in personal crises and insightful. Mother of Mike and Ed Bauer. Grandmother of Hope Bauer Spaulding. In her fifties.
Ed Bauer: Honest, diligent, caring chief of staff at Cedars. Son of Bert and brother of Mike. Disillusioned by failed relationships with wives Holly and Rita and later romance with Vanessa. Father of Freddy (teenage son by first wife Leslie). Upstanding, godfather to Kelly. In his thirties.
Mike Bauer: Strong, masculine, honest lawyer. Moral to the point of self-righteousness in past. Once out to get Alan Spaulding; his opinion has changed since Alan's confession and an incident in which Alan saved Mike's life. Ed's brother. Bert's son. Hope's
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father. Frequently helps police in criminal cases. Presently single. "Mr. Right" type. In his forties.
Rita Bauer: Separated wife of Ed; sister of Eve Stapleton. Left Springfield after love affair with Alan Spaulding. Disappears in San Francisco. Mike tries to find her to get divorce for Ed. In her early thirties.
Hillary Bauer: Sensitive, witty young nurse.
She was "illegitimate." Fights her love for Kelly Nelson to avoid jeopardizing friendship with Kelly and Morgan and her relationship with Derek Colby. In her twenties.
Kelly Nelson: Young, dedicated clerk at Cedars. Morgan's husband. Honest and upright, old-fashioned, and a tough male chauvinist.
Creeping jealousy for wife, Morgan. Once a target for Nola's wiles, his caution caused him to hesitate when Nola called for help during her delivery. He feels guilty but still distrusts Nola. In his mid-twenties.
Richards/Wexler Group
Jennifer Richards Evans: Warm, loving mother of Morgan and Amanda. Very protective; risked jail for murder rather than reveal Amanda was her daughter and shatter Amanda's then unstable sense of security with her "mother" Lucille Wexler. Marries Mark Evans in summer of 1982. In her early forties.
Morgan Richards Nelson: Eighteen-year-old, pretty daughter of Jennifer Richards and half-sister to Amanda. Married to Kelly Nelson and a fashion model. Highly emotional but gaining maturity after marrying Kelly.
Mark Evans: Successful young mid-thirties businessman having affair with Vanessa Chamberlain and Amanda. Marries Amanda's mother Jennifer. Behind plot placing Alan in jeopardy.
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Amanda Wexler McFarren: Daughter of Jennifer Richards and Alan Spaulding. Wealthy from stocks in Spaulding left her by Alan's father before her true origin was publicly known. Once frigid and insecure because of overprotective mother Lucille Wexler, she still suffers residual unstableness. Professes distrust of men because of past failed relationships, particularly her marriage to Ben McFarren, and her trust in Alan shattered by revelation of his admitted crimes. Talented pianist and potentially warm but is distant and cold for fear of being hurt again. Becomes head of Spaulding Enterprises when father, Alan Spaulding, gives her his stock in company. In her late twenties/early thirties.
Lucille Wexler: (now dead) "Mother" of Amanda, rearing her from childhood at request of Brandon Spaulding, Alan's father (see Jennifer).
Ben McFarren: Mid-twenties, talented artist. Presently being divorced from Amanda. Still has strong feelings for first wife, Eve. Has gone to Europe to continue work.
Eve McFarren: Young, quiet, moral. Rita's younger, shyer sister. Once married to Ben and still in love with him.
Chet Stafford: (now dead) Jennifer's brother. Killed trying to get revenge on Eve for breaking up Amanda and Ben's marriage.
Marler Family
Dr. Justin Marler: Good, strong, masculine. Head of cardiology department at Cedars Hospital. Divorced from Elizabeth and remarried to Jackie. Biological father of Philip (see Philip Spaulding in upper-class group). Ross and Lainie's brother. In his late thirties.
Jackie Marler: Justin's wife. Ex-wife of Alan Spaulding. Biological mother of Philip.
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Beautiful, sophisticated and warm (see Elizabeth Marler). Owns gift shop where Eve presently works. Died summer of 1982. In her early thirties.
Lainie Marler: Bright, pretty sister to Ross and Justin. Now married and living in Chicago. Was Mike's secretary, Eve's roommate. Doesn't appear on show.
Ross Marler: Bright, ambitious lawyer. Once was manipulative and willing to do anything to succeed. His love for Carrie now takes precedence and he regrets the deceptions and connivances of his past, though he never did anything strictly illegal. Justin and Lainie's brother. In his mid-thirties.
Carrie Todd Marler: Warm, honest, talented artist with a past history of psychological disorders caused by past traumas. Carrie Anderson MacKenzie took the name of her husband, Todd, after he killed himself because of a scandal engineered by Diane Ballard. Carrie later killed Diane accidentally in a blind rage when Diane threatened Ross and others with blackmail. Carrie confessed and was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. Married to Ross. Revealed to have a multiple personality. Leaves for treatment in England, summer of 1982.
Elizabeth Marler: (character now in Europe) Beautiful, frail ex-wife of Justin Marler and Alan Spaulding. Became "mother of Philip when her unborn child died and Alan switched the dead infant with another child (not knowing it was Jackie's). This occurred at the break-up of Jackie and Justin's first marriage.
Thorpe Family
Adam Thorpe: Businessman husband to Sara McIntyre and adoptive father to Tim Werner. Character is unseen on show. In his fifties.
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Barbara Thorpe: Mother of Holly and Andy Norris. Moved to Switzerland to be with Holly after Andy went to jail for blackmail. In her fifties.
Dr. Sara McIntyre: Attractive, intelligent, sensitive, mature internist and psychiatric counselor specializing in sex therapy, relationshiP counseling. Assistant to Dr. Ed Bauer. Married to Adam Thorpe and adoptive mother of Tim Werner. In her late forties.
Tim Werner: College student. Adopted son of Sara. Alcoholic. Once in love with Morgan Richards and petulantly jealous of Kelly. Currently resolving his overly emotional nature and selfish tendencies. A good student and athletic scholar.
Andy Norris: Son of Barbara; now in jail for blackmail.
Holly Norris: (now in Switzerland) Ex-wife of Ed. Mother of Freddy. Andy's sister.
Individuals
Dr. Steve Jackson: Energetic elderly doctor on Cedars staff. Good friend of Bert's and mentor to Ed Bauer. (Character unseen on show.) In his late sixties.
Diane Ballard: (now dead) Very bright, sexy, strong. Alan Spaulding's unscrupulous assistant who was in love with him. Killed by Carrie Todd while attempting to blackmail Ross, Jackie, and others. In her late twenties.
Joe Bradley: Private investigator, unscrupulous. Killed by Carrie Todd in self defense after trying to blackmail Alan, others. In his twenties.
Derek Colby: Young, dedicated, honest lawyer. Was reserved but has opened up since becoming romantically involved with Hillary Bauer. Works with Mike Bauer. In his twenties.
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MIDDLE CLASS/WORKING CLASS
Reardon Family
Bea Reardon: Strong, loving mother of Nola, Tony, Maureen, and four other Reardon children. Reared her children alone after father left family. Runs boarding house.
Maureen Reardon: Vibrant, straightforward sister of Nola, Tony. Bea's daughter. In her thirties.
Nola Reardon: Bouncy early twenties daughter of Bea, sister of Tony. Grew up fascinated with old romantic movies and fantasizes a better life based on them. Gutsy, ambitious, and manipulative. Bitter about her poor upbringing. Wants a better life and will do almost anything to get it. Became pregnant by Floyd Parker hoping to convince Kelly Nelson that the baby (Kelly Louise Reardon) was his. Works for Quint McCord, who is teaching her to become more sophisticated. She becomes romantically involved with him.
Tony Reardon: Macho brother of Nola Reardon. Son of Bea. Former truck driver now developing ambitions as manager of Wired for South. Rough-edged but with underlying sensitivity. Expert in karate and once a neighborhood bully. Secretly in love with Hillary Bauer. In his twenties.
Parker Family
Katie Parker: Bubbly young nurse with a history of soured romances (Mark Hamilton, Andy Norris). Floyd's sister. In her twenties.
Floyd Parker: Talented, naive, loving brother of Katie. Good, honest, warm. Once exceedingly in love with Nola and is father of her baby, Kelly Louise. Did not know for over a year that she used him to try to trap Kelly. Performed at Hideout/Wired for Sound and has become very successful musical performer--able to move into former Spaulding
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home because of rapid success. Worked as Cedars assistant maintenance head. Currently getting over his feelings for Nola by falling in love with Lesley Ann.
Mrs. Renfield: Housekeeper and confidant of Quint McCord. Dour and reserved, mysterious. In her fifties.
Characters at the upper and lower ends of the social hierarchy tend to be most distinctive in their life styles. At the upper end, the Chamberlains and Quint McCord are distinguished by their wealth and styles of dress and patterns of speech. Individuals from the working class, particularly Nola, Floyd, and Tony, dress and speak in ways that make their class position clear to viewers. Most of the characters are upper-middle class. Each individual in this group is unique but each displays the common characteristics of a homogeneous upper-middle class. One such characteristic is the sameness of their speech--although members of other classes can sound the same.
The boundaries between classes are blurred, as I mentioned, by a number of factors. Class positions are changed through marriage, as in Hope's marriage to Alan Spaulding. There can be a very rapid change in status because of social and financial success. Floyd Parker, originally a maintenance man at Cedars Hospital, earnest, sincere, hard-working in his efforts at self-improvement, becomes a successful musical star within a year. He is so successful that he is able to buy the former Spaulding mansion. (Floyd lost his fortune just as quickly as he made it after a new writer joined the show in the fall of 1982.) Nola and Quint are linked in a Pygmalion relationship, as he literally transforms her behavior. Also, members of various classes interact constantly and are tied together by kinship, friendship, or romance. For example, Bea Reardon, Nola's mother, was portrayed as a simple, honest, down-to-earth working-class person who dated Henry Chamberlain, clearly a member of the upper class.
Other participants appear less frequently and are less central to the on-going relationships. Some characters, such as a Detective Wyatt, may be involved in a series of criminal cases. But they do not become involved in the ongoing relationships. Orderlies, nurses, and patients appear only in the setting of the hospital, particularly at the nurses' station (4-East) or in the cafeteria. Other typical settings for strangers are the various restaurants and dance
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places frequented (The Hideout and Wired for Sound, a disco). Minority members, particularly racial minorities, appear among these background figures.
There are few infants in the community, and they appear infrequently. Hope and Alan's child, Alan Michael, and Nola's baby, Kelly Louise, were the only infants. There were no children who were not infants or teenagers. Philip Spaulding, a teenager, appeared only occasionally. As part of the change in the look of the show, older and long-lived characters such as Barbara Norris and Dr. Steve Jackson no longer appeared on the program. Henry Chamberlain and Bert Bauer were perhaps the oldest major characters. Bert Bauer, as the matriarch of the Bauer family, plays a key role in aiding various family members and friends through times of trouble and in celebrating their times of joy and success. Henry Chamberlain was progresively limited by his heart conditions and eventually turned much of his wealth over to his daughter, Vanessa. (However, he suddenly became very active in a proxy fight in the fall of 1982, again after the new writer took over.)
The characterizations of sex roles are interesting in that women occupy important roles in business or the professions, but with less stability or continuity than the male professionals, with the exception of Dr. Sara McIntyre. Quests for power, wealth, and revenge occur largely in the business arena. Doctors and lawyers are characterized in largely positive terms. Some men, such as Josh Lewis or Mark Evans, or women, such as Diane Ballard or Amanda Richards, are shown to be manipulative and greedy for power and wealth for personal, often vindictive ends. At the other extreme, doctors and most lawyers are shown to be selfless and professional in the best senses of the word.
The main inhabitants of Springfield, U.S.A., are primarily white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants who are wealthy, talented, and/or ambitious. There are also working-class characters appropriately or inappropriately aspiring to the life-styles of the successful and wealthy. Most individuals introduced into the community are ultimately integrated into family or friendship networks, usually through romantic couplings and marriage. Isolated characters not essential to the long-term dynamic of the story (Joe Bradley, Wyatt) are killed off or fade away.
THE ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY
[Realism] in popular art is less likely to be an explicit engagement with the
boundaries of
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conventional forms of knowledge, than an exploration of romantic or exciting or spectacular or intriguing or sentimental, and so on, alternatives to everyday experience. Such utopias have to be comprehensible and possible, that is, they need a realism of detail to sustain the narrative but they usually lack a realism of structure--set in the terms of genre forms which stereotype narrative resolution. Popular art tends to be naturalistic except that its narratives are alternatives; they postulate a world other than the everyday,
which has been carefully constructed and which is inherently extraordinary. The performance invites our wonder and admiration because it spectacularly shows up the arbitrary basis of distinctions between the real and the surreal. (Chaney 1979:77)
The alternative world of Guiding Light is centered on the problematic fit between romance, sex, marriage, family and friendship. It is a world of domestic romance made more dramatic by elements of mystery, adventure, and intrigue. More recently, it is a world changed and lightened by elements of fantasy, humor, and action. This alternative world, whether viewed as resource and/or escape, seems ideally crafted to connect with the working day or isolation in the home and the frustrations and tensions of domestic life.
Guiding Light embodies society where home is no longer a world of work and where the world of work is no longer routine or threatening, largely because it does not exist. Home as a place of work disappears, and the world outside the home becomes an extension of domestic and personal relationships and conflicts. The line typically drawn between private and public realms is erased with the entire community sharing one implicit or explicit set of values and beliefs. Phrased differently, the world of the program is a domesticated world. While the program stimulates and resolves familiar tensions, frustrations, and expectations, it simultaneously provides an alternative handling of those conflicts in a more spectacular, glamorous, romanticized, controlled environment.
As a never-ending realistic melodrama set in the present that mirrors the everyday reality of supposedly ordinary people, Guiding Light presents itself as a parallel world that resonates with the life of a viewer.
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Soap opera derives . . . from the tradition of realism in the theatre and cinema, but more than any other . . . genre, its interest resides in an implicit claim to portray a parallel life. It offers itself to its audience as the representation of lives that are separate from but continuous with their own. (Porter 1979:88)
The program partakes of the reality outside the frame by articulating with the cycle of holidays and seasons of the year in real life. Contemporary public events, many of which are themselves mediated constructions, are drawn upon or alluded to. Nola Reardon has a dream of meeting Prince Charles and Lady Diana about the same time the couple is actually married. The characters of the program refer to "these difficult times" as they, too, find themselves without income, as are people in the real world. Characters change and grow older.
The realism of Guiding Light is often attributed to its focus on ordinary people. One producer spoke directly to the issue:
[These] people could be your neighbors down the street that you know, and in many instances audiences react to these characters as if they are indeed people that they recognize. As anybody watching a drama knows, it is a hyper world, a created compacted environment --therefore, dramatic. But the essence of what is going on is, for the most part, with the exception of on our show, the archaeological dig, is all in the context of "this could happen to me." It has happened to people I know--divorce, babies, jealous lovers, infidelity.
The "archaeological dig" referred to the story and relationships revolving around wealthy archaeologist Quint McCord, a mysterious figure in search of a mysterious golden temple, a quest filled with romance, danger, and adventure. Making Guiding Light more entertaining and successfully competitive with General Hospital led to the telling of more overtly fantastic stories not rooted in the same reality of daily life. General Hospital's story of a quest for an Ice Princess, part of a plot to freeze the world, combined adventure, romance, mystery, and comedy in the context of a sci-fi
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story. The McCord figure was also partially patterned after Indiana Jones, a mysterious, daring archaeologist in the highly successful film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. This storyline represented a breaking away from the conventional limits of realism in the program, as the producer noted, in part because it called attention to other media and performances.
Harding LeMay insightfully identifies some of the sources of the realism of soaps:
The immediacy of soap opera reality is magnified by its being seen in one's own livingroom, which carries it beyond the realm of mere make-believe. Written in colloquial dialogue and acted in most cases by players skilled in projecting naturalistic realism, soap operas are paced in the rhythms of everyday life rather than those of theatrical urgency. The viewer is drawn closer to what is watched until the traditional distance between actor and audience is practically eliminated. (1981:115)
The visual, writing, and acting conventions conspire to create a sense of immediacy and accessibility. A viewer is seemingly a privileged spectator catching a glimpse of the ways things really are, the transparency reinforcing the sense that what is revealed is an objective rendering. The immediacy, actuality, transparency, and intimate quality of stories dealing with everyday life also draw from or build upon the repeated and continuing experience of the performances.
The daytime serial . . . benefits from a cumulative factor. With each episode watched, the viewer invests more deeply in the undertaking. The continuing characters, expanded by the illusion of reality that accompanies the extended action, become as real as neighbors. More real, perhaps, because the viewer knows every secret--the child a mother cannot acknowledge . . . the marriage that is in name only. This detailed knowledge adds nuance to each piece of action, and it adds meaning that critics (who watch only occasionally, and clinically) cannot detect or appraise. (Stedman 1977:490)
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Repeated viewing of intimate relationships in the intimacy of one's living room contributes to the hold of the programming. Any dramatic sequence is informed by a viewer's past experiences, and since there is no sense of an ending, it is difficult to predict when resolutions to dramatic conflicts will occur. Since there are several interrelated stories, any resolution is only partial and temporary. What is in the frame takes on the problematic nature of real life.
The unpredictability of an expected resolution is an extremely important factor in the creation and uses of suspense and anticipation. A story or plot line can go through a number of stages, as happens when a mystery is partially solved and the audience is made aware of the identity of an evil character. But the audience then becomes involved in predicting and anticipating how and when the evildoer will be revealed to the characters on the show, who are unaware of his identity. Similarly, because audiences identify with characters and have access to information that characters are not privy to, viewers cannot be sure of an outcome or the well-being of any character during any particular program. An example of this dynamic was the kidnapping of Alan, in which the identity of the kidnapper was a mystery. Eventually Mark Evans was revealed as the kidnapper who was trying to destroy Alan. As the mystery is solved, a new dynamic (and probably more engrossing involvement) is created because the audience sees an evil character, who pretends to be something other than the audience knows him to be, go undetected. Mark Stevens is a good example as he marries beautiful and genuine Jennifer, as part of his plot to ruin Alan. At the same time, the viewer knows evildoers are ultimately caught. Suspense and anticipation involve not only the harm Mark can do until he is caught, but how and when he will be caught.
A key element of the storytelling is the concealment or revelation of information and its impact (Riley 1977; Rose 1979). One major piece of information creating and prolonging a story was Nola's use of Floyd to get pregnant so that she could trap Kelly into marrying her by making Kelly believe he was the father of the child. Eventually, Floyd was revealed as the father, but for several months Floyd remained unaware that Nola never loved him when he fathered the child. A series of partial revelations stimulate past experience and create opportunities to observe how characters respond to the revelation. Concealment (and revelation) "prolong the plot line, provide an intriguing kind of psychological suspense and maximize viewer involvement the way Hitchcock does" (Riley 1977:18).
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The program continually stimulates and resolves l tensions and expectations of life in an ideal community.
By community I mean something that goes far beyond mere local
community. The word, as we find it in much nineteenth and twentieth century thought encompasses all forms of relationships which are characterized by a high degree of personal intimacy, emotional depth, moral committment, social cohesion, and continuity in time. . . . Fundamental to the strength or the bond of community is the real or imagined antithesis formed in the same social setting by the noncommunal relationship of competition or conflict, utility or contractual assent. These by their relative impersonality and anonymity, highlight the close personal ties of community. (Nisbet 1966:47-48)
Guiding Light has traditionally created an ideal community that embodies these qualities. Enduring and familiar families and characters are involved in emotionally significant relationships. The few strangers or menacing characters ultimately disappear, are punished, or become familiar over time. A core of people affirm and embody the moral values of the community. While the Bauer family is involved in the conflicts and complications of life in Springfield and undergo their own problems, they are a relatively stable group whose actions create or reinforce the moral order underlying the chaos and conflict, the ambiguity and fluidity of life. The family undergoes trials and affirms the ideal values of the community.
One producer emphasized the importance of family to the nature of the program and the potential for experience it provides.
What was GL about when it started? Family. Usually the formula called for two families that are opposing each other in particular ways. What has happened, and our show is an example of this, the family grew up, the matriarch got older, the brothers became professional people, doctor and lawyer, developed families of their own. Because of the nature of the problems of society with which we deal--infidelity, divorce, etc.--the families
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experience the same kind of dissolution that sociologists tell us is, was rampant in the United States in the sixties and seventies. What are we seeing now? We are seeing a conscious move by writers, producers, so on, dealing with the question, a constant effort to deal with the question, where is the emotional substance of the show? The answer keeps coming back--the family. You think of the show in terms of core family whom you care about. You take Maureen and put her in the disco with Katie, Hillary, etc. You don't care about her, outside the family, but if you see them, as a part of that family, that chemistry is there. That sense of loyalty to the family is so strong in our concept of character and what our audience tells us they want to see. We believe society is trying to say to us, and we are therefore, mirroring it, it is so strong. When we look at the show and say where is its strength, we say the source is family. Five years ago, while that ideal was there it was dissolved . . . the problem we face is how to get back into that family feeling. The characters people care about are characters who have some emotional attachment to some central core.
Given the existence of a domesticated world, of a family core, the program is an exploration of the relationships of self to others, of individual to community. What are the appropriate responsibilities of the individual to others and to one's self? What are the limits of concern beyond which that concern becomes personally destructive? One of the ways this issue is embodied in soaps is in terms of the consequences of concealing or disclosing information about relationships.
Tension and suspense derive from the viewer's privileged knowledge of the behavior of the characters. There is a feeling of power as the viewer watches and cares about the consequences of disclosure or the concealment of information. The moral consequences become intensified as the tensions between self, others, and the ambiguity of social reality and relationships are explored. However, despite all the divorce, murder, duplicity, and conflict, the fundamental rightness of the moral order is ultimately upheld and affirmed, even if only briefly.
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Social cohesion is continually made problematic. The writer plays with the ideal of cohesion by creating relationships that bring people together only to drive them apart, frequently placing obstacles in the path of true love. The tension between the socially ideal condition of domestic and social harmony and the frustrations of reaching that ideal is at the core of the drama.
The dramatic hold of the symbolic world is also related to a sense of intimacy, which is created in a number of ways. Viewers come to feel they know the characters well-characters are continually there, and their most intimate feelings, desires, and behaviors are accessible. Continuing characters in continuing relationships with the audience creates the potential for an intense interest in, and identification with, characters. Intensity is also connected with the emotional depth derived from repeated experiencing of the performances. The personalistic, intimate focus on highly emotional themes can create an experience of considerable emotional depth and intensity. The viewers' involvement and investment of time and energy can embody a form of moral commitment as they vicariously participate in the symbolic world. There is moral commitment at issue in the symbolic world and the simultaneous moral commitment of the viewer to watching the program itself.
The character and quality of the relationships of the participants and the importance of social harmony are very evident when relationships are disrupted. On such occasions, virtually the entire community is affected as the news spreads and characters react. The well-being and appropriateness of the responses of major characters are crucial as characters express concern, proffer help, stimulate and restimulate the tension between the ideal expectations and the unpredictable outcome, and animate associations with past experience.
In one episode, aired March 29, 1982, Alan, the wealthy, powerful corporate executive who was in prison for past misdeeds, disappears. One major conjecture was that he escaped after overpowering a guard. While purportedly traveling to the capital, he was actually at the house of the prison warden. The ruse was part of a plan to determine who had been threatening his life. It was hoped that another attempt would be made on Alan's life during the trip and the victimizer would then be caught. A second conjecture was that Alan had actually been kidnapped. For Hope, Alan's wife, the occasion is a difficult one since she does not believe he would try to escape and she fears for his well-being. She is extremely indignant that people believe Alan escaped. The disappearance also has a major impact on Amanda, Alan's
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illegitimate" daughter, who feels she has been betrayed. Alan signed over his stocks in Spaulding Enterprises to Amanda and made her the major power in the corporation. The disappearance occurs just before a crucial stockholder's meeting. Amanda feels that Alan has deceived her because she feels the value of the stocks will plummet with the news of his disappearance.
It is difficult to capture how the event stimulates and restimulates associations with past events and current tensions. For example, Amanda has been continually hurt by men and has a great deal of trouble trusting them. Alan's escape reactivates that issue or tension, particularly because she had become more trusting before Alan's escape. Hope has been very supportive of her husband and feels particularly protective of him. She is protective not only because his life is in jeopardy, but because she feels he has truly become a different person through their love for each other. He is no longer the manipulative, power-hungry individual he was.
Because virtually every character knows all other characters, and typically cares about them or is involved in an emotionally significant relationship, even if a hostile one, the disruptive event disrupts the entire social world.
In an early scene in the episode, Ed Bauer brings the news of Alan's disappearance to the stockholder's meeting. The affirmation of the personal ties and nature of the community is reflected in Ed's statement that his brother, Mike, wanted me to tell you so you wouldn't find out the news from a stranger." [Emphasis mine]
Amanda reacts strongly and directly. What a fool I've been to believe my father could turn into something I could trust or respect. Amanda's mother responds, trying to soften the blow, given Amanda's fragility and suspiciousness. "Now, Amanda, we don't know what is going on. But Amanda is convinced of her interpretation of the event.
Amanda: He knew, he knew. When he called me yesterday acting concerned, he knew . . .No wonder he signed over all those stocks to me. He planned it. He knew what was going to happen, all those stocks would plummet and he knew it. Well, I'm going to prove to him just how wrong he is if it is the last thing I do . . .
Ross, a lawyer, is present, and he, in the same setting with Amanda, expresses concern for Hope.
Ross: Ed, how is Hope taking all this?
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Ed: Well, as you can imagine she refuses to accept it . . . Well, I think I'll get back to Hope.
Ross: Listen, Ed, thanks for coming over here and giving us the news. And
give my love to Hope. [Emphasis mine ]Ed: I will.
A personal and caring universe is repeatedly affirmed with expressions of concern and offerings of love, as in Ross's asking Ed to give Hope my love. Later in the same scene, Henry Chamberlain brings Ross news about Ross's wife. Ross is concerned because she is late for the meeting. Her lateness calls into play associations of her lapses of memory, finding herself in bizarre situations, and the split in her personality.
Henry: Ross, Carrie just telephoned to say she overslept,
but that she'll be over shortly.Ross: Thank heavens. I was about to go over there myself
before Ed came with the news.Henry: What news?
Ross: Henry, several hours ago, Alan broke out of prison.
Henry is visibly shaken--he has a weak heart--and Ross helps him in turn.
The expressions of concern and interest in each other occur throughout the episode. There are scenes with younger characters, who are toasting Maureen's new job at the hospital and who are clearly upbeat, receiving the news that Judy Collins, a popular singer, will be at the disco later. This serves as a counterpoint to the heaviness or the intensity of the tensions triggered by Alan's disappearance. Two of the younger characters, Kelly and Hillary, who are at Hillary's apartment, receive the news about Alan and react, making explicit connections with analogous events in their lives.
Hillary: I'm sorry this news had to come tonight and put
such a damper on the dinner party.
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Kelly: I feel so sorry for what it is doing to Hope. Bert [Hope's grandmother]
could hardly speak when she got on the phone.Hillary: Derek [Hillary's current partner, although she is more attracted to
Kelly] said Amanda was really upset when she got the news. A lot of
guests left the party. He said he wanted to stay and help out, so we
should eat anytime we feel like it.Kelly: If it's all right with you, Hillary, I'd hold off on that business. Kinda
reminded me of that morning you had to be over to the Reardon's and tell me Morgan had been kidnapped.Hillary: I can certainly remember how I felt when I brought you that news. I'm
sure it's the same way Ed felt having to tell Hope.Kelly: We've shared a lot of important times together, haven't we? Some
good . . . some not so good.Hillary: We sure have. I think that's what real friendships are all
about--sharing the bad times and good times.
Again, the conflict between romantic interest and friendship is stimulated, and past events are explicitly associated with the present. The ideal of emotional and social solidarity is repeated and reinforced with the identification of past and present concerns.
The tension between self-concern and the concern for the well-being of others also is repeatedly created or restimulated. Carrie finally arrives at the meeting.
Carrie: On the way over in the cab all I could think about was my problems.Now all I can think about is Amanda and what she must be feling, and Hope. too.
Ross: Well, Henry is the one I'm worried about. He turned white as a sheet when I told him the news about Alan. Mark and I got him into this room, got him to take his medicine. I offered to call Justin [Henry's doctor] but he wouldn't hear of it . . .
Conflicting obligations are also stimulated in other exchanges. Mark, an executive to whom Vanessa is attracted, decides he will spend time with Amanda rather than with
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Vanessa. While he wants to share Vanessa's success with the disco, Wired for Sound, he feels he should stay with Amanda.
Mark: . . . but I also realize Amanda needs people here to help her through
this much more than you need me to share your successes.Vanessa: . . . I love you all the more for being so considerate of other people's feelings.
At times concern takes the form of overt advice and reflection on past experience. At one point Amanda says she hates Alan. Carrie replies that "I can't tell you what a destructive force hatred can be," reflecting on her destructive and self-destructive past after her lover committed suicide.
The episode illustrates the melodramatic character of the viewing experience, not only in the use of sensational incident to create intensified effects, but in weaving together a number of destinies in the context of a domesticated world.
[The] melodrama shows how the complex ambiguities and tragedies of the world ultimately reveal the operation of a benevolent, humanly oriented moral order. Because of this, melodramas are usually rather complicated in plot and character; instead of identifying with a single protagonist through his line of action. The melodrama typically makes us intersect imaginatively with many lives. Sub-plots multiply, and the point of view continually
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shifts in order to involve us in a complex of destinies. (Cawelti 1976:45)
A number of factors, many of which I discuss later, combine to account for the nature of the experience the program makes available. Visually, the use of a limited range of shots, particularly close-ups and extreme close-ups, as the scene progress and emotional significance is emphazied, and the voyeuristic framing of the action and point of view all contribute to the emotional intensity. The themes of romance and quests for power and success combine with patterns of concealment and disclosure in the framework of situations of mystery, jeopardy, intrigue, and suspence to create an emotional involvement in the lives of the participants in the alternative world of the performance.
Also, the extreme concern shown, the overlapping and ontinuing relationships in the context of the emotionally barged situations, the heightened visual expressions and explicit verbalizations of motivations and feelings, the transparent and precise language, the overt moralizing and the bounded character of the community as the characters deal with the restricted range of discrepancies between the ideal moral/social order and events within the frames all create a potential form of social participation unlike any other.
Guiding Light provides an experience that can be filled intrigue, spectacle, and glamor, largely as an adjunct toromance. At the same time, theprogram is designed and oftern experienced, as mirroring the reality of everyday life. A realism of detail is created so that the programming resonates or articulates with dominant conceptions of how we accomplish social life or should accomplish it.
The social world is largely white,
Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, and upper-middle class. Social success
and dominance, wealth and power are valued and sought after, but
only if they do not destroy domestic or personal relationships.
Power and wealth are not to be used selfishly or vindictively.
The motivations (and justifications) for behavior are rooted in
familial and interpersonal experiences, particcularly romantic
engagements. The world Guiding Light invites us to participate
in is a domesticated world, with domestic romance at its core.
Proceed to Chapter 4