TV Junkie

I could hardly believe it when I heard the news today… Nicole Forester (Cassie) is leaving Guiding Light. “Say it ain’t so!” was my first reaction.  Nicole has been one of the bright lights on this 71-year-old show that sometimes seems to be dimming. Don’t get me wrong. GL is “my show.” It’s the show I grew up watching with my mother, grandmother and favorite aunt. It’s the show that I identified with as a teenager because it showcased a “curvy” girl named Beth I could identify with (I was the first girl in my class to, how shall I say, “develop”). Having someone who looked like me on TV made me feel better when the boys were lovingly (okay, not really lovingly) referring to me as ”Dolly.” They never confirmed it but I’m pretty sure they meant “Dolly” as in Dolly Parton. They sang “Islands in the Stream” when I walked by and even called my boyfriend “Kenny,” as in Kenny Rogers. Can you believe that? Wow, guess someone hasn’t quite confronted all of their childhood issues…

Now back to the real issue at hand.  GL has always been a solid show, not always a great show, but it was solid because it stuck to its roots — stories about family, friendship, love. Nobody became possessed by the devil. There were no alien landings, no time travel… oops, yes there was. Remember when Josh and Reva traveled through time in that freaky painting? Okay, so they have gone  a little off-the-beaten path now and then, but the heart of the show has always been relationships – Josh and Reva, Beth and Phillip, Beth and Mindy, Phillip and Rick, Josh and Billy, Frank and Harley – relationships between friends, lovers, brothers, sisters. And one of the best relationships on GL has been between sisters Reva and Cassie. But now that Nicole Forester is leaving the role of Cassie to get married and have a baby (she’s due in February), things may never be the same. The Reva/Cassie relationship has been one of great complexity over the years, one of the few sister relationships on soaps that actually made sense on nearly every level. When Nicole joined the show three years ago replacing the ultra-popular Laura Wright (who left to be General Hospital’s Carly), I admit I had serious doubts she could fill her shoes. After only a few weeks, I was saying, “Laura who?” Even my mother and favorite aunt, who loved Laura and even met her in person, fell for Nicole’s spot-on performances. 

Lately I have been completely disinterested in several of the storylines on GL. First, there’s the “nomance” between Bill and Lizzie…. Zzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, I must have dozed off. Then, there is the Daisy/G storyline that is just a lame version of Tammy/Jonathan. And where, oh, where in the name of Gus is Harley??!! Someone told me she got sick of remodeling that house of hers and moved to Pine Valley. I can’t blame her. Have you seen that house? Someone is a serious candidate for Extreme Home Makeover.  So without Harley, Cassie has been the go-to heroine of the show. I couldn’t have been happier with that. The powers-that-be recently put a final nail in the Cassie/Josh marriage, which always annoyed me. Josh belongs with Reva… period. I have to say it was fun watching Reva and Cassie fight over Josh. I was really starting to enjoy the chemistry between Cassie and Cyrus. Did you see the first time they had sex? Mamma Mia! My TV screen practically melted. I was looking forward to seeing a romance play out between these two, especially since Nicole and Murray Bartlett (Cyrus) are such good actors. I actually found myself fast-forwarding through the show just to get to their scenes. 

Unfortunately, it looks like we devoted GL fans will have to carry on without Nicole and Cassie, at least for now. So here’s to you Nicole. Thanks for three years of amazing work. I’m still going to hold out hope that Cassie will go find Harley and they will both come home one day.  I have an idea! Cassie should run over to ABC and warn Harley that Pine Valley is going to be hit by a series of tornadoes starting October 13 (barring any network pre-emptions, that is). Maybe she just needs a reminder that, no matter where she goes, Springfield will always be the light in the storm. 

By Beth E. Cochran

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