Looking back on 'Guiding Light' with writer Jill Lorie Hurst

On Peapack, Otalia and "The Gates"

On September 18, 2009, Guiding Light aired its final episode. The soap, which started as a radio show and ran from January 25, 1937–June 29, 1956 and on CBS television from June 30, 1952 until its end (for four years it aired on both the radio and television), is the longest-running soap opera of all time. Taking place in the fictional town of Springfield, Guiding Light told the story of the Bauers, Coopers, Lewises, Spauldings and Reardons, with many other families weaving in and out of the show’s tapestry over the years. 

In its final years, Guiding Light switched from a traditional soap filming model to shooting mostly on location in Peapack, NJ, a highly controversial move that was met mostly with derision from viewers. But its last few seasons also marked a return to character-driven, emotional storytelling, a far cry from the show’s excesses of the 1990s and early 200s. One of the show’s highlights was the love story of Olivia (Crystal Chapell) and Natalie (Jessica Leccia), two previously straight women who fell in love. 

On the anniversary of Guiding Light’s finale, I had a great chat with Jill Lorie Hurst — one fourth of the show’s final head writing team that included David Kreizman, Lloyd Gold and Christopher Dunn — about what it was like working on the show’s final years, how it felt having to wrap up 72 years of storytelling and stories she never got to tell.

Pivoting to Peapack

Hurst, a longtime soap writer who rose up the ranks at Guiding Light before her head writing tenure, speaks passionately about her time there to this day, and her love of classical soap writing informed her work during the Peapack era. With a reduced budget, the move was a chance for Hurst and her team, including executive producer Ellen Wheeler, to go back to basics. 

“I grew up watching in the 60s and 70s, and soap was like theater but filmed,” Hurst says. “Kitchen sink [drama], as [soap writer] Jim Brown would say. There was family, of course a love story, but it was never a big villain versus…it was very contained, and I responded to that — which doesn’t make me everyone’s cup of tea.”

Hurst admits she was apprehensive about the massive production changes, as were most of the cast and crew. But she credits a large amount of what worked during the trying time to the strong cast and the more grounded writing.

“The cast was so strong that I knew if we sat them on a curb and gave them something to think about, they’d take it and make it better,” she says while acknowledging viewers and critics’ trepidation about the reduced production values.

Hurst admits to struggling with juggling the show’s production realities and the head writers’ vision for the show, but believes that the heart and soul of the show sustained due to their collaboration — particularly with Kreizman, who had taken over as head writer a few years earlier in 2004, at the age of 29.

“He grew up with the more glamorous soap,” she says. “But he could always find the heart of a character…Nobody does everything right, but I have a lot of faith in him as a writer.”

So, with Peapack effectively ending the days of ’90s and early Aughts, stories like organized crime, time travel and earthquakes were over. What was left?

Enter ‘Otalia’

“Like everyone else, we loved Olivia and Natalia,” Hurst says. The couple — a rare same-sex romance on daytime, which is still underrepresented in the genre to this day — became the show’s tentpole in its final two years on air, with the portmanteau of “Otalia.”

“We loved having a big love story to tell at the end,” says Hurst. “Of course, we were going to play out Josh and Reva and Beth and Phillip and people who matter to the audience…but that was telling an old fashioned love story and with a slight difference.”

Despite Procter & Gamble soaps being typically conservative — something that hopefully changes when The Gates debuts next year — the show was fully invested in Olivia and Natalia. Hurst recalls meeting with the actors, as well as the parents of Jacqueline Tsirkin, who played Olivia’s daughter, Emma, to make sure they didn’t have a problem with Emma having “two mommies.”

“This is years ago now,” Hurst says. “And we [spoke to Tsirkin’s parents] and we said, ‘is there anything you want to pull her out? We felt the child was very important to the family’s development. We were very lucky. Everyone was invested in this love story.”

Lessons learned

Soap fans often talk about Guiding Light’s most infamous death, Maureen Bauer (Ellen Parker), as the first nail in the show’s coffin in 1993. The character, a witty matriarch-in-the-making, didn’t test well in focus groups and was killed in a car crash after discovering that husband Ed (Peter Simon) and best friend Lillian (Tina Sloan) had a one-night stand. But while Maureen’s death was criticized for its short-sightedness, Hurst has a different take.

“It was a tragedy and it was done for not-so-great reasons,” Hurst says. “However, had it been the springboard for the next [set of stories] — had Ed started drinking again, had they let Michelle Bauer [grieve her mother]...there are so many stories to tell and instead, often because of the network, or because the writers are done with it, they pivot. They thought because the audience was upset about Maureen, ‘let’s not talk about it.’ And I think that’s a mistake.”

But individual moments from that infamous story are critically acclaimed, from Maureen’s confrontations with Lillian and Ed to the post-funeral scenes, where various characters interacted in interesting ways, like when Holly (Maureen Garrett) bonds with young Michelle (Rachel Miner). And moments, to Hurst, are vital.

“I’m a creature of moments,” says Hurst. “I loved Frank, Rick and Matt, who were unlucky in love and would meet up. I enjoyed the opportunity to reset people and establish certain friendships, more than even stories.”

What could have been

Hurst recalls a few stories she’d like to have told during the Peapack era that never made it to air. 

One story that didn't pan out involved adding a spoiler to the popular Beth (Beth Chamberlain)/Phillip (Grant Aleksander) pairing. Phillip thought he was dying, and in pushing Beth away, she would start to fall for Matt (Kurt McKinney) while repairing a house.

“They had some chemistry, and we wanted a guy who was more [down to earth] to grow close to Beth,” she says, noting that Beth and Matt had more in common than Beth and Phillip, since Beth and Matt both came from more blue collar backgrounds. While the story would have ended with Beth and Phillip reunited, the show opted not to go through with the triangle as the show neared its end.

“We didn't have time to talk to the actors so they’d understand what we were trying to do,” Hurst recalls. “And there was a little bit of panic that viewers would worry Beth and Phillip wouldn’t end up together.”

Hurst also wanted to do a gambling addiction arc for Michelle (now played by Nancy St. Alban), continuing the Bauers’ multi-generational issues with addiction.

The future

Hurst now lives in Michigan, where she works as a freelance writer and works on various projects she hopes to shop around. She’s also excited to see Procter & Gamble return to soaps in 2025 with The Gates, which is set to start filming in Atlanta this November.

“I'm full of hope for the soap world going forward, I think The Gates is maybe just the beginning, and it shouldn't be the same as it was, necessarily,” she says. “I haven’t worked with Michele Val Jean, but I have faith in her. She certainly has the background and credibility! I know a couple of writers — they haven’t announced the whole team — but she’s gathering a good group. Storytelling is so important.”

Hurst also works with Alan Locher on The Locher Room, arranging interviews with soap stars and creatives. The latest features Frank Dicopoulos, who played Frank. Check it out here.

Thanks to Jill Lorie Hurst for sitting down for this interview. Watch Guiding Light’s final episode below.