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Guiding Light Discussion Group
Yet another big-name star will be left behind when All My Children transitions to Los Angeles in January. The ABC soap will part ways with former Guiding Light star Beth Ehlers by the end of the year. Though her arrival in Pine Valley was highly touted, the show didn't seem to know what to do with Ehlers' character.
All My Children has released another high-profile performer as it prepares to pack up and move to Los Angeles. Five-time Daytime Emmy nominee Beth Ehlers (Taylor Thompson) will exit the show later this year.
In July 2008, Ehlers jumped from CBS's Guiding Light to All My Children in what may have been one of the worst-kept secrets in daytime history. Ehlers' Pine Valley arrival had been reported for several weeks before ABC finally confirmed the news at the Daytime Emmys. Though the addition of Ehlers to the All My Children cast was seen as a huge casting coup, the show's writers never quite seemed to figure out what to do with the actress' character.
As part of her introduction to All My Children viewers, the show's writers penned a romance between Ehlers and her former Guiding Light co-star, Ricky Paull Goldin (Jake Martin). The romance was short-lived, as Brot Monroe, Taylor's supposedly dead fiancé resurfaced.
In an on-air interview with Stardish Radio earlier this year, Ehlers was vocal about her unhappiness with the direction of her character. In her frustration, Ehlers also created rumors about her relationship with her then-on-screen love interest, JR Martinez, who plays Brot Monroe.
"As many times as I would casually try to go into my boss's office and say, 'Uh, you are going to start integrating me, right?' When you've been doing this as long as I've been doing it, you know how it's supposed to be done. But you can't tell you bosses that because it's like any other job in the world, you can't know more than your boss because they hate you for it," Ehlers said. "And so you have to be careful when you go in that you don't tell somebody how to do their job. And I wanted to scream at people. I wanted to go in and say, 'Hello, you're burying me here. You're making this really hard. First you give me somebody who, God bless him, I love JR but he's not an actor.' And so that's hard enough with somebody who... it's going to be a long time before he gets out of second gear. And I'm constantly having to hedge my performance cause I can't be doing Shakespeare while he's doing something else."
Ehlers' remarks set off a whirlwind of controversy, before she and Martinez made a joint appearance on Stardish Radio to dispel rumors that they didn't get along. Ehlers explained that she had "misspoke" and "felt terrible" for hurting her friend. Martinez accepted Ehlers' apology and also assured fans that he and Ehlers "are friends, and [...] do care for one another."
Shortly thereafter, Ehlers and Martinez's on-screen characters parted company. The show then focused on weaving Taylor into the Martin family, eventually crafting a love story between Taylor and Tad Martin. Fans had apparently been receptive to the romance, even offering suggestions to help build story for the two characters. Among the popular ideas was to have Tad and Taylor go into the private investigation business together.
Ehlers has literally grown up on daytime television. She appeared as Guiding Light's Harley Cooper for 21 years. She made her debut on the CBS soap in September 1987 before exiting in 2008 to join All My Children.
Isn't some of this negativity just sour grapes on our part, too?
I remember how we used to talk at one of my jobs. We always made cracks about us being the rats on a sinking ship. They just kept cutting hours and making us responsible for more work and every time it happened, we thought it couldn't get any worse and the company still run. (Of course, it did keep getting worse and still does.)
Anyway, some people would leave for a "better" job and we'd be kind of envious. So when that person got laid off or the business went under, we felt sort of self righteous. We wanted out just as bad but either couldn't find something better or were too afraid to look so we felt satisfied when the others' escape failed.
Harley became very hard to like in the last year and a half, although things were improving in my book towards the end. (Helped that I have always hated the last version of Marina.) harley was on too much and her character was annoying. But, as an actress, what are you going to do? Some of you are lambasting her for speaking the way she did in that Soapdish interview (granted, CLEARLY not smart!!) so was she supposed to go to the GL writers and say, "You're killing Harley! This isn't how it's supposed to be!" Was she supposed to turn down airtime/money?
Same with AMC--should she not have thought about the economy, raising her kids? Most everyone here has blasted Ellen Wheeler and David K. as well they deserved, and the show did end, so was it so terrible that she tried to jump to a more stable place?
Mind you, I felt moments of resentment when she left and also towards the end knowing that Harley wouldn't be part of the finishing storyline. But that's an emotional reaction.
Why hasn't anyone bashed Laura Wright for leaving the show a few years back?
Anyway, it's sad to me. Just one more sign that soaps are declining.
Hoep she was able to save lots of money.
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I'm having a 'senior moment' right now but please remind me........did Harley just take Zack to Greece with her or did she take Jude as well? Don't recall seeing Jude in a long time so I'm assuming he's with her. What was Rick's reaction?
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I like Beth Ehlers as Harley too...back in the day...especially when she was first introduced and they paired her with Allan-Michael, Josh and later Mallet...those were good days for Harley. Later when she came back and they paired her with Phillip, it wasn't too bad...it wasn't perfect but I could still watch her. Then came Gus and they paired her with him and I couldn't watch the show. In fact, I did stop watching when the show became all about Gus and Harley. I just couldn't stand it. Later I heard they both left and so I watched again...right before news of the cancelation came out.
It's too bad for BE that AMC didn't work out for her. It's even worse that there is no GL for her to fall back on...hopefully she'll find employment elsewhere.
Ha! No GUIDING LIGHT fall back this time where the writers can spin the show around her character like they did when Reva drove off the bridge and vanished and when Harley came back after living in Florida.
As you can tell I didn't like GL when it was being the HARLEY SHOW.
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I love Beth Ehlers but I have to agree with the grass-is-greener comments. As soon as she and RPG got to AMC there were several interviews where they said things about the production model being so much better and that All My Children cares about their actors, they care about the way the show looks, everyone looks fabulous, etc. etc. etc.
And I thought when they were saying that stuff even back then....with the way shows are cutting people....it could also be "last in, first out", or your character won't ever be meshed with other people and the first budget cuts you have, you'll be out the door.
Instead, Ehlers will basically find herself unemployed with only a few months difference between what could have been the end of her run and a real character, on Guiding Light. In the interviews done in the last couple/few months....even though it was reported the actors all hated the work conditions....the travel to NJ....those that remained sure didn't seem like they hated it. They seemed to really enjoy their last months on GL, and be a solid team of actors that wanted to continue.
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Sad. Sounds like Ehlers has been kind of losing it since at least the time she left GL. I remember she gave that bizarre interview where she tried to paint P&G as being vicious because they did not let her -- a *former* employee of P&G -- into her former workplace on a Sunday morning to collect some possessions. As if a former employer just lets their ex-employees go waltzing around their ex-workplace on a Sunday morning when nobody is there. It was absurd. And to read her quotes above, from her time on AMC, it doesn't sound like she's in a good place. The more I read, the more impressed I am by the 2009 GL cast -- they made the most of a hard situation, and went out standing tall, to a person.
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I LOVE Beth Ehlers.
I listened to her radio interview and think she had a right to say pretty much everything that she did. She was totally right about the need for more depth of her character. We all know that characters who don't have family or a strong connection to other characters rarely make it long on a soap. She was trying to find a niche on AMC and clearly the writers had no intention of her sticking around all that long.
I hope she gets hired on another show.
OK, I couldn't STAND it! I went over to the AMC board, to see what they had to say about her!
Looks like she was NOT Miss Popular over there!
http://mediadomain.com/cgi-bin/netforum/amc/a.cgi/3-97
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Are they really letting people go, or is it just that they don't want to move to LA? I thought they'd probably lose a lot of people that way.
I cannot BELIEVE the stuff she said in that interview. It was TERRIBLE! So her co stars can't act (and HER acting is Shakespeare) and she knows more than all her bosses, who aren't doing their job correctly. Brilliant, honey, keep it up! You'll never work again!
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I don't see AMC lasting very long. Maybe they can try the Peapack model in LA. They could shoot it in Cucamonga!!!! What a good idea!!!
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