‘Light’ guides soap opera fan from Hermon

Roger had just raped Holly when Wendy Madore started watching “Guiding Light” with her grandmother in the summer of 1979. Every afternoon, the 14-year-old would take a lunch break from her job working in a Woodland, Calif., park and walk the block to Goldie Moore’s house.

The two would have lunch and watch the CBS soap opera together that then aired at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. When the teen-ager returned to school that fall, her grandmother took notes during the show and briefed the girl each afternoon in the days before VCRs were a common household item.

Now 37, Madore has followed the triumphs and tragedies of the Bauer, Spaulding and Reardon families for almost half the 50 years “Guiding Light” has aired on television. Her grandmother started listening to the program on the radio. Today, Madore watches “Guiding Light” with her own 14-year-old daughter, Heather.

“People have so much going on in their lives that they just want a good hour of fantasy drama and somebody to root for,” said Madore in explaining soap operas’ continued appeal. “‘Guiding Light’ is an hour that takes you away.”

The soap opera, created by Irna Phillips, premiered as a 15-minute radio series on Jan. 25, 1937. It celebrated 50 years on television with the broadcast of its 13,941st episode on June 30. The show still is produced by Proctor & Gamble Productions, the company that put the “soap” in soap opera.

People like Madore are part of the reason “Guiding Light” has been on the air so long. More than just another loyal viewer, Madore qualifies as a bonafide fan. She travels once a year to a fan gathering in New York City, where show is taped. She also edits an online fan newsletter for the Official Elizabeth Keifer and Jerry verDorn Fan Club with fellow fan Robin Lyster of Indianapolis.

Keifer and verDorn play on-again, off-again husband and wife Blake and Ross Marler. Fans of the soap opera couple refer to the sultry duo as “Bloss” and themselves as “Blossies.” The site includes behind-the-scenes photos provided by the actors, tidbits about their personal lives and “spoilers” or hints of upcoming plot twists.

It also includes a few things the editors and subscribers add for grins and giggles. For the July edition, Madore wrote a poem in anticipation of the soap’s annual Fourth of July Bauer barbecue. WABI-TV, which airs the show locally, pre-empted that episode for a Red Sox baseball game. The Bangor CBS affiliate aired the episode, which included a fantasy sequence, at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 6.

These days, Madore rarely watches her favorite soap when it airs. Because of her fan network, she can almost always find someone who taped any episode she missed like the barbecue. The soap opera fan works nights at the Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Facility of the U.S. Postal Service in Hampden. Madore usually tapes “Guiding Light” while she’s sleeping, then watches it when she gets up.

“It’s usually how I start my day,” she said recently. “Sometimes, I watch it with my daughter. She’s into the teen characters, who are on the front burner this summer.”

Madore enjoys her sojourners to fan events and work for the on-line newsletter, but said she is not a soap opera fanatic who can’t tell the difference between the actors and the characters they play.

“I was at an event where a woman with a baby in her arms came up to an actress on the show and told her, she named her baby after the character she plays on the soap,” said Madore. “That’s going overboard.”

The Hermon woman does plan, however, to be around for the 75th anniversary of her favorite soap surrounded by grandchildren.

“Guiding Light” airs at 3 p.m. weekdays on Channel 5. The soap opera’s Web site is at www.guidinglighttv.com.