Actress Beth Chamberlin said getting through her final scene on CBS’ soon-to-end soap “Guiding Light” was heartwrenching.
“There were a lot of different emotions going on for all of us,” Chamberlin told the Daily News. “I think those emotions sort of surprised us at times.”
Those emotions are sure to run high Friday, when at 10 a.m. CBS airs the final episode of “Guiding Light” after a 72-year run that spans radio and TV.
“I would feel fine, and then, when I shot my last scene, I just broke down and cried so hard,” says Chamberlin, who plays Elizabeth (Beth) Ann Raines Spaulding. “It was like the death of a friend for me at that moment. As much as I was prepared, I was surprised at the death.”
She’s not alone.
Even though it has suffered audience declines like all daytime programs – and changes in story lines and casts along the way – “Guiding Light” means something to its 1.2 million daily viewers.
“Anytime we lose one of our shows, it’s really a tragedy and it sobers everyone,” said co-head writer Jill Lorie Hurst. “I remember when ‘Port Charles’ and even ‘Passions’ went off the air, we were all very sad.”
There’s talk of other daytime dramas going away, and CBS executives admit they’re keeping an eye on “As the World Turns.” The medium has changed, and audiences have fractured.
Still, Hurst believes there’s a future in the format as long as producers adapt. “Guiding Light” tried changing over a year ago, when the show began shooting with hand-held cameras and went outdoors.
“I don’t know the audience has time to invest in hour-long shows,” she said. “The existing shows could go to a half-hour. I think the storytelling will exist, but I think we’re going through a change.”
For now, though, there will be some mourning.
Once the producers got word that the show was going to end, the plan was to tell stories that didn’t wrap up the characters’ stories, but rather suggested a transition.
“We didn’t want to leave it open to speculation,” she said. “We were a little more conventional. We didn’t want to have a car crash or a bus crash, or anything like that. We wanted you to have an idea of where people were going.”
The final days of shooting last month brought the cast together, said Chamberlin. She had her last scene with Grant Aleksander, who plays Phillip Spaulding, and got there earlier than usual. During the final days, the cast members were invited to watch others go through their last scenes, too.
“[Aleksander] remarked I was very quiet,” Chamberlin said of the filming in mid-August. “And I said, I have to be quiet, I’m afraid once I start crying, I won’t stop. I need to do my work. I had to go off in a corner, by myself.”
She admitted the loss hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
“When we finished the writing, we were kind of numb and exhausted,” said Hurst, who was there for the final filming days.
“There was, strangely enough, a lot of joy along with the sorrow,” Hurst said.
She also doesn’t think there will be another show to span so many generations because the business has changed so much.
“It was a unique show about relationships that reflected the times as it was being shown,” Chamberlin said. “This is a unique show in its relationships, not just in longevity, but with the fans and its characters.”
(source)
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