"Old Flames Ignite ... And Who Will Get
Burned on Guiding Light?"
By Caelie M. Haines
Soap Opera Weekly
November 20, 1990
Twenty years of animosity (Springfield time) came to a head last week in Acapulco for Guiding Light’s Roger and Holly (Michael Zaslow and Maureen Garrett) when they finally confronted their past, worked through the anger that had built up between them and discovered feeling they’d kept dormant for years.
However, that accomplishment was negated when Roger discovered Holly was plotting with his wife Alexandra (Beverlee McKinsey) to test his loyalty to their marriage.
“But I think there’s a part of Roger that kind of understands the twisted thinking that brought [them] to do this,” concedes the show’s head writer, Pam Long.
Does this mean Holly and Roger will soon make the mover from anger to amour? “With things happening back in Springfield with Phillip’s (Grant Aleksander) case, which Blake (Sherry Stringfield) is privy to, it becomes a potentially explosive situation for Blake,” says Long. “And Roger and Holly are forced—as her parents—to establish some kind of uneasy truce. If he were honest with himself he would remember that there were moments in Acapulco where he actually felt love for Holly. We [the audience] felt it was real and Holly knows it was, but now we have to wonder when Roger will realize it and what he’ll do then.”
Garrett adds about the two of them. “She is so confused right now I don’t think she knows what she’s feeling. I don’t think he knows what he’s feeling (either). But we acknowledged that we did have something and that we blew it.”
The thing about soap operas is that even relationships that appear to be blown to bits can find themselves resuming at the most unexpected (and usually inopportune) times. If such is the case with Roger and Holly, the ramifications will go far beyond just the two of them.
First, there’s Ross (Jerry ver Dorn), Holly’s fine, upstanding fiancé, who did not react well to finding her in Acapulco with her ex, even though she had very good reason for being there. The problems with Blake will only put more of a strain on that relationship. “It’s the kind of situation where Holly would love to have some support, personal and even legal, from Ross, who can’t cross that line and help Blake when his nephew’s life is hanging in the balance,” says Long. “So that puts an even wider breach between Ross and Holly, and Ross hopelessly watches Roger become the man of the hour for Holly.”
Roger’s wife Alexandra (Beverlee McKinsey) was the one who came up with the idea to test Roger’s loyalty. “Alexandra feels Roger has passed the test and she’s happy about that . . . But when it comes to his daughter, that’s the one real sacred love he has,” Long explains. “And when Roger is desperate to help with his daughter, and Alex, not being a mean person, but just from experience, doesn’t believe Blake, that forces Roger to really assess whether he can live with Alexandra in a marriage.”
The secret woman in Roger’s life is his much-younger mistress, Mindy Lewis (Kimberly Simms), who’s tired of playing second fiddle. “Mindy is expecting some kind of movement, some kind of commitment from Roger when he gets back from Acapulco and I think the audience will be very surprised at what he ends up deciding,” Long hints.
As for whether there can ever be a happily ever after for Roger and Holly, Long comments: “I can’t imagine that, but you can always hope. It’s like sticking an iron in the fire. You know, they’re always trying to pull it out and they always get burned, but they’re still drawn to the flame.”
“No matter under what guise—it can be love or hate—what Roger and Holly can never do is ignore each other. I think they are under each other’s skin in a big way, and I don’t think either one of them is aware of how much they love each other, deep inside. They were each other’s first love and they have never really gotten over it.”
The show’s fans will have to wait to see if Roger and Holly come full circle.
Copyright ©
1999 by Michael Zaslow's ZazAngels. All rights reserved.
01/04/06 05:14:53 PM