Guiding Light - The Brent Lawrence/Marian Crane Story

[TMC]

http://popcultureaddictlifeguide.blo...ncemarian.html

First a question for you. How many of you remember the 1960 film, "Psycho"? It was the classic Alfred Hitchcock film that starred Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. It's the movie infamous for Leigh's character Marion Crane tragically meeting her end in a shower by way of stabbing. The stabber is Perkins' character of Norman Bates, who kept his mother's deceased corpse hidden away while pretending to be her. It's a movie that is really screwed up, but brilliant at the same time, and thanks to "Bates Motel", a new generation is being introduced to the macabre mind of Norman Bates.

Well, in 1995, the now cancelled soap opera "Guiding Light" decided to borrow some elements of "Psycho" to tell a story that lasted almost a whole year. These days, soaps wrap up storylines in less than three months, so this was mighty impressive. In fact, some may say that the storyline completely ripped off the film right down to character names. But I think what saved this storyline from being completely farcical was the extreme talent of all the actors who were on the show at that time. They helped viewers believe that something like that could happen.

This is the story of Brent Lawrence - and by the end of it all, three people would die, three more would almost die, and he would end up in a mental institution for dual identity disorder. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. By the way, keep an eye out for links...clicking on them will let you watch part of the story!

Brent Lawrence moved to Springfield in February 1995 to work for Spaulding Enterprises. His main job was to be an accountant for the company, but really he was hired by Alan Spaulding to do some rather unethical things. Nothing really major, though.

During the first few weeks of his job, he started to attract the attention of Lucy Cooper, who was working as the secretary of Alan's son, Alan-Michael Spaulding. Lucy also has developed some feelings towards Alan-Michael, but Alan-Michael didn't seem interested. As a result, Lucy started to go out with Brent, thinking that it would make Alan-Michael jealous. But to Lucy's surprise, she found herself developing feelings for Brent, and both of them had some good dates together - including one where both of them were arrested for skinny dipping at the pool in the country club!

Unfortunately, the romance between Brent and Lucy would permanently end just a few weeks later when Brent drugged Lucy's drink and raped her. And for weeks, Lucy refused to talk to anybody about it because she felt ashamed. She shut everybody out of her life, including a concerned Alan-Michael. But Alan-Michael wasn't about ready to give up on Lucy, and he made the decision to visit Lucy at the Springfield Boarding House to find out what was going on.