Cast Talks 'Guiding Light' at Wrap Party

By RACHAEL SHAPIRO

"Most people hate their jobs, but this has been so much fun," said Grant Aleksander (left, in 1999), who until Sept. 18 plays Phillip Spaulding on "Guiding Light," (he has had the role on and off for 27 years) at the final wrap party for the longest running show in history. While buckets of tears were shed on Wednesday night at the Paley Center for Media, there were also plenty of laughs.

Running from 1937 on radio and hitting TV in 1952, "GL" is the only show to live long enough to have multigenerational characters and viewers, and only 200 fans were lucky enough to score tickets. The rest packed into a room and wept via closed circuit.

When asked about his least favorite story line, Michael O'Leary (Dr. Rick Bauer for 26 years) joked with real-life best pal Aleksander about a time long ago Rick was to give Phillip a stuffed lamb to remember him by since he was leaving town. Written into the script was a scene where Rick would throw the stuffed lamb at the wall in frustration that his best friend was leaving him, fall to the ground on his knees crying, and then proceed to surgically sew up the lamb (He is a doctor, after all.) "I was like, 'Seriously, what's with the lamb?'" he said. Laughing hysterically and patting his leg, Aleksander replied, "Reginald! The lamb! I wish he were here now!"

Kim Zimmer (right in 1987, Reva for 26 years) talked about what it was like doing the show in the '80s: "It was fantastic! They had money to burn, baby! They'd spend $750 on a blouse. We had big everything -- big hair, big shoulder pads..."

"And then there were the men," chuckled Aleksander.