After 72 years on radio and television, Guiding Light is going dim.
Veteran cast member Tina Sloan sympathizes with viewers she expects to be devastated by the show's airing of its final episode Friday. But she thinks fans will share her thrill about how the show told its final stories.
Check out photos of the Guiding Light cast
"I think the fans are going to be ecstatic," Sloan tells TVGuide.com. Sloan uses the same word to describe her feelings about the marriage of her character, Lillian Raines, who somehow remained single for nearly all of her 26 years on the show.
"She fell in love with Buzz (Justin Deas) two years ago and started having fun," Sloan says. "It was a different note for her; she's always been the caregiver, the generous nurse, the loving mother and grandmother. When she met Buzz, he just made her laugh, and there was a different note in her personality. And she embraced it, and I think they celebrated that in the wedding.
"These marriages were just lovely," she continues. "We're all having these happily-ever-after, Cinderella endings, which is a real treat for everybody, including the actors. We're all going off happy to be happy, and I would hate to go off not happy."
Head writer Jill Lorie Hurst says the writing staff's major goal was to wrap up the show's immense history in a way that gave closure, but not too much...
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In this special video made available to TVGuide.com, Guiding Light vet Ron Raines, who plays Alan Spaulding, shares his thoughts on Grant Aleksander's Feb. 9 return to the show as Phillip Spaulding. Phillip, Alan's son, died in November 2004, only to have it be revealed not long after that he was, in fact, alive ... somewhere.
"I am absolutely thrilled to have my friend Grant Aleksander back in Springfield," Raines says. "I think the story is going to be terrific and very exciting for the fans. There are a lot of surprises — even some that I don't know!"
But will Alan share his portrayer's enthusiasm? "Is Alan to happy to have Phillip back? That's another story," Raines teases. "He doesn't know if his son is going to be an ally ... or an obstacle."
Watch the whole video after the jump.
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