Full-length GL tribute released
by Dan J Kroll
Posted Tuesday, August 11, 2009 2:51:59 PM


A tribute that was to have helped fans say goodbye to Guiding Light has inadvertently had the opposite effect. Now, the producer of the segment that aired during this year's Daytime Emmys has issued a statement about the tribute -- and posted the full-length version.


It was to have been a big sendoff for Guiding Light. This year's Daytime Emmy ceremony touted a special tribute that would honor the CBS soap's 72 years of history, 57 of which have been on television. But since Emmy Night, Guiding Light fans have been contacting soapcentral.com to express their disappointment with the tribute. While fans expressed their gratitude that Guiding Light was honored, most felt that a 90-second tribute wasn't long enough to show the long-running soap the respect it deserved.


Michael Fairman, a long-time soap opera journalist and producer, was asked to spearhead the tribute project. Fairman pored through hours and hours of footage, seeking out the best moments to highlight. When it came time for the memorial tribute to air, Fairman's four-minute tribute had to be whittled down to just a minute-and-a-half.


"Initially, I presented [the show's producers] a four-minute version encompassing many more of the actors, characters and memorable moments from the longest running show in broadcast history, that I felt did justice to its legacy," Fairman said in a statement. "In the end, the executive producer wanted to air a very short tribute, due to time constraints, and I needed to respect that, and in addition, the powers-that be preferred a change of the direction of the package, which is what what aired last night. But if it were up to me, a longer package would have aired, but ultimately it was not my call to make."


Fairman has also released the original, uncut version of his tribute so that fans can see what he had planned to air during the Emmy telecast.

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Related Information
Who's Who: Read bios of Guiding Light characters. About The Actor: Learn more about the stars of Guiding Light Family Trees: Scan the many branches of Springfield family tree. More Archived News: Review more past GL news headlines. News and More: Return to soapcentral.com's GL FrontPage.