Guiding Light's leading man, Phillip Spaulding makes his premiere on DVD in a five-episode collection, which highlights life-changing moments for the golden boy Spaulding. Released by Soap Classics, the DVD includes a rare 1977 episode featuring the seven-year-old Phillip Spaulding.
After releasing their Reva Shayne Collection earlier in 2012, Soap Classics has followed up with the Phillip Spaulding Collection, available for $12.95 through their website. Before buying, customers can preview a short segment of each show and stream a full, teaser episode of Phillip's high school prom that is not featured on the DVD release.
The five-episode line-up features the following episodes:
Episode 1 -- Meet the Spauldings
Original Air Date: November 23, 1977
The young Phillip arrives in Springfield.
Episode 2 -- On the Run
Original Air Date: December 19, 1983
Phillip and Beth run away to New York.
Episode 3 -- The Wedding
Original Air Date: February 14, 1991
Phillip and Beth finally marry.
Episode 4 -- The Confession
Original Air Date: June 1, 1998
Phillip's daughter Lizzie makes a devastating confession.
Episode 5 - Making Peace
Original Air Date: September 15, 2009
Phillip finds Alan on a bench by the lake.
Phillip Spaulding was most notably played by Emmy-nominated performer Grant Aleksander. Aleksander made his Guiding Light debut in December 1982.
Soap Classics is a soap opera preservation organization that believes in memorializing soaps as an important piece of broadcast history. In July 2011, the company bought the licenses for Procter & Gamble's As the World Turns and Guiding Light with the hopes of distributing them domestically and internationally. They began with a 20-episode showcase for ATWT, and as promised during a 2011 Soap Central Live interview with Dan J. Kroll, Soap Classics expanded its soap preservation project to include Guiding Light.
One episode that is surprisingly missing from Phillip's collection contains "the death" of Phillip Spaulding, which marked Aleksander's long hiatus from GL. During his visit to Soap Central Live, Mark Yates, the president of Soap Classics, shared that the hardest thing about compiling the DVDs is the fear that fans will disagree with the episode selections, chosen by Editorial Director Roger Newcomb, who Yates dubs "an encyclopedia of all things soap." Yates stated that it was an arduous labor of love to sift through thousands of hours of video reels to locate the perfect episodes. The most unfortunate part of the endeavor is the fact that many of the episodes recorded before 1979 have been deleted by their broadcasters and lost forever, making Phillip Spaulding's 1977 debut a rare gem in the catalog.
Soap Classics desires to continue releasing DVDs, but it also seeks to digitally remaster the contents for an online streaming archive that will sustain old fans and attract a new audience. Yates stated that if the projects go well for ATWT and GL, Soap Classics could obtain and release other old favorites like Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow.
DVD compilations are available for sale now at soapclassics.com.
