Guiding Light - Origins, Plot Development, and Cast - 1990s

1990s

With the new decade, the show's storytelling transitioned from Long's homespun, earthy style to a more realistic style with a new group of head writers. The Bauers, Spauldings, Lewises, and the Coopers had been established as core families, and most major plot developments circled around them.

The show suffered major character losses mid-decade, including the car accident death of Maureen Bauer and the exit of Alexandra Spaulding from the story. As the decade progressed, the show began a series of outlandish plot twists seemingly to compete with the serials Passions and Days of our Lives.

In an attempt to revive the show, the character Reva Shayne was brought back to Springfield in April 1995. She'd been presumed dead for the previous five years, after having driven her car off of a bridge and into the water off the Florida Keys and later that July, Marcy Walker, was axed after nearly two years with the show, playing the anti-hero, Tangie Hill in favor of the full-time return of fan favorite, Nola Chamberlain, portrayed by Lisa Brown. Brown return on-screen as Nola Chamberlain in late-July 1995, with Walker appearing on-screen as Tangie Hill a month later, in August 1995.

In January 1996, soap veteran Mary Stuart joined the cast as Meta Bauer (though referred to many times over the years, the long-running character originally played by Ellen Demming had not been seen onscreen since 1974); the character would remain on the show until Stuart's death in 2002.