Guiding Light

The Review

In 1968, my firefighter father spent four months recovering from back surgery after an explosion blew him out of a building. Stuck at home, he switched on the TV and soon found himself addicted to The Young and the Restless, especially the love triangle of Laurie, Leslie, and Lance. When he returned to the NYFD and could no longer watch the program [alas, VHS recorders did not yet exist], he sidled up to Aunt Marie to inquire about new events in Genoa City.

Dad was a typical viewer, for soap operas entertain the powerless: the stay-at-home mom who has removed herself from the potent world of a paycheck, the unemployed worker who waits for the phone to ring, the latch-key kid who doesn't have the skill or initiative to play football or make the cheerleading squad, or the worker, like my father, who is recovering from an injury.

Circumstances may have sidelined the viewers, but the stories they are watching are ancient and powerful. Soap operas have such a tight grip on their audience because they are replete with archetypes: the hero, mentor, sidekick, scoundrel, and mysterious stranger, to name a few. We recognize these archetypes, says Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, because they have populated our collective unconscious since birth. Soap operas thus immerse their audiences in primal plots that spin like a yin-yang wheel: the powerful rise, as Oedipus did in Thebes, only to fall, blind to their oncoming demise; the exploited and downtrodden finally get their revenge; prizes won with great difficulty are stolen or lose their value.

These weekday stories are also accessible. They are set in present-day, recognizable locales. The characters—yes, a disproportionate number of doctors, lawyers, and police officers—answer phone calls, drink coffee, brush their hair. The audience can imagine participating in those same powerful lives once the children are old enough—or the job offer arrives, graduation occurs, or the back has recovered.

In the late 1980s, in the fictional Midwestern town of Springfield, such a story unfolded on the soap opera Guiding Light. Josh Lewis [Robert Newman], CEO of Lewis Oil, visits Venezuela, where he meets and marries Sonni Welles y Carerra [Michelle Forbes], a dark Latin beauty in stark contrast to the homogeneous, golden haired residents of Springfield, all of whom blow dry until they are as bushy as squirrels. In a typical soap opera tangle, Sonni "dies" during a hiking accident on the honeymoon but then mysteriously reappears in the States, ready to resume her and Josh's relationship.

This mysterious stranger quickly assimilates: Like the other women in Springfield, Sonni is 80s chic. She wears the big shirts with padded shoulders cinched at a small waist. She too dons earrings the size of Christmas tree ornaments that dance around her head like undisciplined dogs on long leashes. Her credentials as a psychiatrist allow her to insinuate herself in Springfield's professional circle. But she is foreign and for that reason suspect, especially for Reva Shayne [Kim Zimmer], the resident female whom the audience is championing as the best choice for Josh.

This plot is ancient and powerful; these are the same circumstances that spawned the Trojan War, a story that has entertained audiences for millennia. In Greek mythology, King Menelaus refuses to settle for a good Spartan wife and so vies for the hand of Helen, foreign in her legendary beauty. Why does Menelaus overlook someone the caliber of Penelope or Alcestis, a loyal spouse who would willingly accept subordination to her husband? The same reason Josh chooses Sonni over Reva—Sonni offers a more interesting flavor than the vanilla majority who populate town. And like Menelaus, Josh believes that he has acquired an exquisite possession; he doesn't realize that this beautiful trophy is as intelligent as he, with her own agenda and the confidence to act.

And act she does. Like Helen who betrays Menelaus and accompanies Prince Paris home to Troy [starting a 10-year war for her return], Sonni believes that a similar disloyalty will improve her own circumstances. She takes Will Jeffries [Joseph Breen] as lover, and the two plot to kill Josh and take control of Lewis Oil. Her handsome though clueless husband, convinced of his own magnetism and distracted by work, is slow to realize Sonni's independence and danger. Thankfully, Reva is there to protect him, all the while justifying her own moral lapses, like taping a church confessional, as unfortunate sacrifices for a greater good.

Newman and Zimmer spent much of their professional lives playing Josh and Reva; they both came to the show in the early 80s and remained [with small breaks] until Guiding Light ended its run in 2009. For Forbes, whose stint ran just over two years [October 1987 - November 1989], Sonni provided the opportunity to germinate the more prestigious characters who come later in her career. As her Guiding Light co-star Breen said in an interview, "I’m grateful to soaps. You’re paid to learn."

For example, Sonni was good practice for portraying aggression and authority. Unlike many of the sad or silly females in Springfield, Sonni is a serious character who seldom forgets her objectives. She commands the present, avoiding temptations like alcohol or drugs, a problem for Rose McLaren. She does not let minutia, like a spoiled wedding dress or a dead parakeet, ruin her day, as does Harley Davidson Cooper. While Blake Thorpe derails her relationship with Phillip Spaulding by admitting a fling with his father, Sonni usually beds men only if the sex will advance her goals. As a result of her foresight and control, Springfield residents—both male and female—take her seriously, just as the Pegasus and Galactica crews will take Admiral Cain in Battlestar Galactica.

Guiding Light is, however, a soap opera, so the audience can expect the characters to oscillate between extremes. Common practice is that the writers weaken the strong and make the sinister sympathetic. And so Sonni eventually develops real feelings for Josh, and viewers learn that Sonni's bad behavior is the result of childhood abuse and psychological trauma, causing a split personality. When Sonni is bad, she is channeling Solita, her identical twin sister who committed suicide—or perhaps the reverse is true: Solita is channeling Sonni when the character is good. The jury is still out on which sister really survived. Their father believes that rebellious Solita lives, but can we trust a man who takes a bull whip to his teenage daughter when he discovers her normal sexual exploration? The real confusion more likely comes from the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike that benched Guiding Light's head writer Pam Long and allowed less talented scabs to muck up the plot.

We can dismiss the Sonni/Solita split as typical, absurd daytime TV, but that dual role gave Forbes experience depicting psychopathology, an art at its height with Forbes' most chilling character, forensic psychiatrist Pen Verrity of Durham County. Like Sonni, Dr. Verrity can be polished and professional one moment, an asset to the homicide detectives who consult her, but then have her competence erode so completely that she provides the razor blade a suicidal patient needs to kill herself. Like Sonni, Dr. Verrity's disintegration is the result of childhood trauma compounded by a father's abuse.

Despite her strength, Sonni [or Solita, take your pick] is no role model. She is scary not only to watch but also to emulate. The character operates far outside normal behavior, which makes her a good precursor for True Blood's Maryann Forrester. No, the eyes of Springfield residents never turn black, but like Maryann, Sonni transcends the conventions that rein in the behavior of most women. She is physical, pushing Reva into an open grave with the same dismissal as Maryann decking Karl in the kitchen. Sonni also has an uncanny insight into the motivations of others, just as an ancient maenad would. Springfield residents might think they have the upper hand only to discover that Sonni has been manipulating the conversation all along. When Reva hopes to sublimate the Solita persona and get Sonni to reemerge, she digs a hole to represent Solita's resting place. Poor Reva believes she is making real headway curing Sonni's mental illness, but Sonni just scoffs, "That hole over there looks more like a bad landscaping job than it does a grave." There are no orgies [that we get to see] in Springfield, but Sonni makes others aware of their desires. Her presence, for example, inspires Josh and Reva to find their way into each other's arms once again.

The Josh/Reva/Sonni triangle is a delight to watch. Reva, who can fight dirty, really only wants to be a good wife and mother. Sonni sometimes considers convention but usually finds fault with the established roles for women. And poor Josh is so easily manipulated by them both that we conclude either Reva or Sonni would make a better CEO of Lewis Oil.

To View Michelle Forbes on Guiding Light

Before you view any Guiding Light episodes, I recommend reading Sonni's character biography at Soap Central or Nancy M. Reichardt's syndicated soap opera summaries.

Next, watch this episode which explains Josh's feelings for Sonni: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Then watch this clip, which includes Sonni's first appearance on the show.

For insight into Sonni's life after her "murder" of lover Will Jeffries, try the 28-part "Woman in Mind" series, which features Sonni prominently [though not exclusively and not in the first part]: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28.

And for the height of the Sonni/Solita split, you have several full episodes:

December 30, 1988: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7; February 3, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7; February 6, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7; February 7, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7; February 9, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7; February 10, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5; February 13, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4; February 14, 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

You can see Sonni's last appearance here.