Not only is Lisa Brown one of the greatest stars in Guiding Light history, she was also muse to the show’s greatest head writer, the late Douglas Marland. The duo’s first magnificent teaming came in 1980 when Brown joined GL as social-climbing, movie-mad Nola Reardon who’d go on to make supercouple magic with the dashing Quint (Michael Tylo). When Marland moved to As the World Turns five years later, he brought along Brown to play the long-lost Iva Snyder, whose secret past would electrify Oakdale. I spoke with Brown when she returned to GL for the September 14-15 wedding of Billy and Vanessa. Don’t get too worked up, Nola fans! The cameo GL gave Brown is the equivalent of chump change. Still, it’s good to have her back under any circumstances. And, boy, does she have a thing or two to say about the “new” Springfield!

GL was never better than during the famous Marland-Brown years.
We do represent a time that doesn’t exist anymore, a time where we had a freedom to create, and the work was all-important. It was a time when we really had fun, and that came across to the audience. There was a great sense of innovation on the set. The directors, the set people, the costume people, everyone felt it.

What do you think when you watch GL today?
It just seems so… thin. One of the great shocks is that there’s no more rehearsal, and it shows. I understand the need to save money, but you can save it in many other ways—it shouldn’t be by cutting out rehearsal. Soaps need to find that time again. It needn’t cost anything. The actors can set time aside to work on their scenes with each other. Maybe they can get some time with the director. Do something! Even if it’s short shrift compared to the preparation we used to have, it would still give the material something of a soul. Michael Tylo and I stay I touch and we talk about how the soul is missing these days.

It would have been nice to see Nola return with Quint.
Certainly what they gave me to do was unfulfilling. I do know that Michael wanted to be there and was not asked. He and I are still recognized to this day when we go places. How is that possible?

Because you guys mattered. You touched people deeply.
My point exactly. What we did affected people. The wonderful Bill Roerick [the late actor who played GL’s Henry] used to say to me: “We are in people’s living rooms five days a week and that is a very different relationship than when you’re a movie star. It’s an intimate relationship that is incomparable and must be cherished.” And that’s why familiar faces have always been so important in daytime.

Imagine if Doug Marland was still around and working in the soap business today. How would he handle all this insanity?
By staying on top of what audiences want! Doug had young nieces and nephews and he constantly asked them what they thought about Kelly and Morgan and Nola. He wanted to know what young people cared about. He got great ideas from them. Doug knew soaps were important and influential because they mirrored society. When he did the gay storyline at ATWT he was so ahead of his time. People don’t really acknowledge that anymore, but it’s true.

And he was able to tell that story because he trusted the audience could handle it, unlike the current folks who’ve tippy-toed their way around “Nuke” and “Otalia.”
Doug built the audience’s trust, and he did that by telling his stories carefully, with the proper time and depth. It’s not brain surgery. It’s common sense. I mean, look at the breast cancer story they did on ATWT a while back with Liz Hubbard [Lucinda]. It had such potential, and they gave it so little time.

I can’t help but think that GL’s cancellation would have been avoided—or at least postponed—had Mickey Dwyer-Dobbin still been P&G’s programming chief. Say what you will about her, she always fought the good fight. She would have been on CBS’s ass big time.
And nobody’s fighting that fight anymore! Everybody’s afraid. And that’s too bad. I still believe there’s a market for soaps. I still believe they can make money. GL [in the 1980s] was up against General Hospital and still getting a 34 share, and those people are still out there. They didn’t all die. They’re the ones who still recognize me in the grocery store. What happened to all those former viewers? Just bringing back some of that audience could have meant something. It might have saved the show, or at least bought it more time. [Long period of silence, followed by a deep sigh.] Nobody should be shocked at the current state of soaps, but they are shocked. They’ve had their heads in the sand.

Talk about your time on GL as an acting coach.
[After ATWT] I came back to GL for a brief period of time while Michael Laibson was executive producer. Then Paul Rauch took over and fired me—then he hired me as a coach for the young ones. I coached Tammy Blanchard [who played Drew Jacobs] and what a great talent she was! Crazy as can be, but brilliant. Quite honestly, she was hair-pulling to work with. I stayed up with her many nights just talking and talking about the scenes, but it was worth every minute.

Each generation learns from the next.
When I started on GL I couldn’t take my eyes off of Rita Lloyd who played Lucille Wexler. I learned so much from that woman! Robert Newman [Josh] says he learned from me. And I’m sure so many of today’s young ones learned from Robert. And we all learned our stuff from Charita Bauer [Bert]. Now it’s all so thin. Thin, very thin. And I’m not talking about the quality of the writers, I’m talking about what the writers are writing about. What happened to the human stories? Who in Springfield or Oakdale is losing their jobs because of the economy? Is anybody becoming homeless? Where are soaps mirroring people’s real lives and their problems anymore? That’s where they’re missing the mark today. Soaps have become too separated from recognizable life.

You showed up at the wedding looking old-time movie-star glam—like Lana Turner in a 1950s Douglas Sirk picture.
They make you bring your own clothes now. They called and told me the wedding was not glamorous but I ignored it.

That’s our Nola! And I couldn’t help but notice that you were the only one in the cast who would hunt down the makeup people to recheck your lipstick between scenes. Or you’d go find the costumer and have him re-adjust your hat. Everybody else had long ago given up on that stuff. It was, like, “Oh, screw it, nobody cares what we look like.” But you still cared.
[Laughs] Well, some things never die, I guess! That great actress Kathleen Widdoes [ATWT’s Emma] always used to say to me: “You want to act good, Lisa, but you always want to look pretty, too.” It’s all about escape. When the actors escape, so does the audience. Our attitude, our passion, our love for what we did—it’s all gone. I want to kick somebody I get so mad thinking about it. I was not sad when I came back to shoot my scenes for the final week of GL. I was angry. I don’t want these shows to go away.