Dates in Springfield

These are important dates in the fictional home of Guiding Light, Springfield. They especially focus on the Bauer family, but reach out to other couples that I like or that are closely connected with the Bauer family. There are few Manny dates yet, but they will be added as I add to the episode guide. Other dates involve real life milestones for the show. As the execution of soap operas continues, I’ve gone back and added in start and end dates for other soaps. I hope it will help answer your questions about when something happened on Guiding Light.

Update June 2010 – Peter Bradfield sent me some additions for the date list from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s soap summaries that they had that time, called “Soap Digest” by Lynda Hirsch. They were recaps presented at the time the episodes originally aired from 1977 to 1982. I appreciate the help and added them to the list.

Update October 2010 – I’m going to add just a handful of Oakdale dates. Mostly from the special tribute issue put out in Fall 2010 for the finale by Soap Opera Weekly and Soap Opera Digest.

1719 – The first lighthouse in America was lit. It marked the entrance to Boston Harbor. It’s still located on Little Brewster Island, it continues to guide ships safely on the Atlantic, beaming 27 miles out into the ocean.

1892 – Fredrich Bauer aka Papa Bauer is born. [March 14]

1901 – Irna Phillips is born.

1918 – Rev. John Ruthledge moves to Five Points (original setting of Guiding Light), established during the radio show.

1930 – Irna Phillips invents a new drama genre with the first soap opera called Painted Dreams. The show was 15 minutes long and the story moved slowly enough that even if you missed a day you could still pick it up again easily. http://tinyurl.com/birthofsoap

1933 – Proctor and Gamble enters soap opera production with Oxydol’s Own Ma Perkins.

1937 –The Guiding Light starts to air under creator and first head writer Irna Phillips. GL begins life as a fifteen minute radio drama on NBC Radio in Chicago. Phillips also introduced organ music scene transitions (organ players were cheaper than a live band, but more expressive and versital than a pre-recording) and concluding each episode with a cliffhanger. [Jan. 25]

1938 – The character of Dr. John Ruthledge writes a real book about the history of Five Points, the real setting of Guiding Light. It’s simply called The Guiding Light. It includes photos of the cast, transcripts of some of Dr. Ruthledge’s sermons, outtakes from Ned Holden’s journal, etc. This must have been a large production run because used copies of the book are readily available through online used bookstores.
– A writer in Christian Century helped develop the term. “These fifteen-minute tragedies… I call the ‘soap tragedies’.” The term horse opera had been around since the 1920s and the two quickly went together to form soap opera.

1939 – The term “soap opera” had come to be accepted into common usage.
– Rose Kransky becomes first soap character  to give birth to an illegitimate baby. She is spun off of Guiding Light on to her own soap Right to Happiness.

1940s – Irna Phillips sells her rights in Guiding Light to Proctor and Gamble for $50,000.

1941 – Ned Holden and his adopted sister, and long time star-crossed love, Mary Rutledge marry. [June]
– The first TV commercial aired during a baseball game. [July 1]
– Guiding Light is cancelled, airing its final episode on December 26th.

1942 – Guiding Light resumes production. [March 17]

1943 – First recorded use of the term soap as short for soap opera.

1945 – Rev. Rutledge dies and the “friendship lamp” that gives the Guiding Light its name is sent to a friend and fellow minister and the setting of the show shifts to Selby Flats, California.

1946 – Guiding Light‘s setting is changed from Five Points, IL to Selby Flats, CA. The broadcast is moved  from Chicago to originate out of LA. As part of that story, Rev. Rutledge dies after sending the Friendship Lamp to his friend and fellow minister in Selby Flats.
– “FARAWAY HILL debuted on the DuMont Network. It was the very first television soap opera broadcast on a network. It lasted until December 18. The show’s plot revolved around a widowed New Yorker, Karen St. John (played by Flora Campbell), who moved to a small town to be near relatives. NBC and DuMont were the only two networks in operation at that point.” – We Love Soaps [Oct. 2]
– Guiding Light is canceled again. [November 29]

1947 – Guiding Light begins again, this time on CBS radio. [June 2]

1948 – The Bauer Family is introduced to Guiding Light.

1949 -“Irna Phillips’ THESE ARE MY CHILDREN, the first television soap opera to appear on a major television network, premiered on NBC on Jan. 21st. It ran weekdays at 5 p.m. until it went off the air just over a month later, on February 25.” – We Love Soaps
– Bert Miller and Bill Bauer are married and Mama Bauer dies shortly thereafter. (In fact, Mama Bauer’s time with the show is so short she didn’t even get a first name.) [Dec. 9]
– Production moves from LA to New York.

1950 – Meta Bauer marries Ted White. [Feb. 6]
– Meta’s son Chuckie dies after an accident in the boxing ring. She blames her ex-husband Ted. [Sept. 20]
– Meta shoots and kills Ted White. [Sept. 22]
– Charita Bauer takes over the role of Bert Bauer from Ann Shepherd.

1951 – Meta is found not guilty of murder.  Radio listeners are asked to vote as the jury. More than 75,000 voeters participated. Meta was declared innocent by reason of insanity. [April]
– Meta Bauer marries true love Joe Roberts. [Sept. 7]
– Search for Tomorrow premiered on TV. [Sept. 3]
– Between 1951 and 1959 there were 35 soap operas created, most based in New York City.
– Love of Life debuts on CBS. [Sept. 24]

1952 – Mike Bauer is born to Bill and Bert. [March]
– First television episode aired. [June 30]
http://www.paleycenter.org/p-70-tv-countdown
– Between 1952 and 1956 the exact same scripts were preformed by the actors twice, once to be recorded for the radio and then they raced over to another studio to preform it live for the television cameras.

1953 – Robin Lang is born. [May]
– Guiding Light does an experimental episode in color. Irna Phillips was against making the experiment and so selected an episode set entirely in a white hospital room.
– Full 15 minute episode from this year.
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/guiding-light-1953/

1954 – Ed Bauer is born to Bill and Bert on New Year’s Eve.
– The Secret Storm premiered on CBSTV. [ Feb. 1]
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/02/historyfebruary1.html

1955 – Joe Roberts, Meta’s husband, dies on Christmas Eve.

1956 – Last Guiding Light radio episode aired. [August]
– As the World Turns premiered as the first half hour long TV soap. [April 2]
– Edge of Night premiered on CBS. [April 2]
– Agnes Nixon is hired on Guiding Light  and becomes a leading writer. Nixon focuses on making storylines more relevant, mixing in social issues and education.

1957 – Papa Bauer celebrated his 65th birthday and received 40,000 letters and cards.
– William J. Bell is hired by Irna Phillips to write dialogue on Guiding Light.

1958 -Irna Phillips resigns as head writer to be replaced by Agnes Nixon. Phillips wants to concentrate on  As the World Turns.
– Love of Life expands to 30 minutes.

1959 – As the World Turns became the top-rated daytime drama.

1960 – Meta Bauer marries Dr. Bruce Banning. [Feb.]
– Mike Bauer and Robin Lang are married. [July]
– Bert Bauer’s uterine cancer story is considered the first social issue storyline.

1962 – Bert Bauer has successful surgery for uterine cancer. It was found by a Pap smear test and it educated many women about the importance of getting this test in real life. [Jan.]

1963 – Mike Bauer and Julie Conrad are married. [May]
– Hope Bauer is born to Mike and Julie. [Sept. 20]
– Walter Cronkite interrupted the As the World Turns broadcast to report President Kennedy had been assassinated. This clip will frequently be re-broadcast in Kennedy specials. It also is a moment burned into the memory of an entire generation of fans.
– General Hospital and The Doctors premiere. [April 1]

1964 – Another World of Bay City IL fame premieres. [May 4]

1965 – The Bauer family and the Guiding Light move to Springfield, USA.
– Mike Bauer graduates from Law School.
– Ed Bauer follows his family to Springfield to study surgery. Ed finds a mentor in Dr. Stephen Jackson, a prominent surgeon at Cedars. Ed comes to see him as a father figure and it’s this close relationship that encourages his relationship  and eventual marriage with Stephen’s daughter, Leslie.
– As the World Turns spins off a primetime soap Our Private World.
– Days of Our Lives debuts on NBC. [Nov. 8]

1966 – Julie Bauer commits suicide, leaving Mike a widower. Mike and his daughter Hope move to Bay City and Another World. [Feb.]
– Bill Bauer falls of the wagon and begins to drink heavily again.
– Agnes Nixon resigns as head writer.
– Martha Frazier, the first major black character in any soap opera, is introduced.
– The setting of Guiding Light changes its setting from Selby Flats, CA to Springfield, USA.

1967 – The character of Hope Bauer, who crossed over from The Guiding Light, appeared on Another World for the final time. Elissa Leeds played the role on both shows. [Jan. 12]
As the World Turns begins broadcasting in color. [Feb. 20]
–Guiding Light begins broadcasting in color. [March 13]
– Peggy Scott and Johnny Fletcher marry. [April]
– Leslie Jackson and Ed Bauer wed. Leslie will be Rick’s mother. [Sept.]
– Robin Lang Bowden Fletcher dies in a car accident. [Oct.]
– Irna Phillips’ soap Love is a Many Splendored Thing premiered on CBS.

1968 – Mike and his daughter Hope return to Springfield and the Guiding Light. Mike soon falls in love with Ed’s wife Leslie. [April]
– Bill Bauer has a successful heart transplant operation on a  soap. [Sept.]
– Guiding Light expands from fifteen minutes to half an hour. It also stops broadcasting live, in favor of taped. [Sept. 9]
– One Live to Live debuts on ABC. [July 15]

1969 – Ed Bauer is arrested for drunk driving. [April]
– Bill Bauer (Bert’s husband) is assumed dead in a plane crash. [July 14]

1970 – All My Children debuts on ABC. [Jan. 5]
– Mike Bauer marries Charlotte Waring. [April]
– Frederick (then Little Freddie, now Rick) Bauer is born to Ed and Leslie. [Aug.]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre’s first husband, Lee Gantry is accidentally killed after he tries to murder Sara in their attic after getting into a struggle with Sara’s longterm love interest (and later second husband), Dr. Joe Werner.  Lee is pushed during the struggle out of the third floor bay window during the struggle.  Joe’s response as Lee yells while falling, “Oh, no.”  (Note:  For more than a year before this, Lee was trying to gaslight Sara, and for much of 1969 had the assistant of their housekeeper, Miss Mildred Foss — who had been accidentally killed by Sara in the winter of 1969/1970 in the same third floor attic when Miss Mildred Foss tried to spook Sara into think Miss Foss was a burglar). [Aug.]
– “La Lumiere” starts as the Guiding Light theme song.
– Somerset first airs. [March 30]

1971 – Michael Zaslow starts as Roger Thorpe. [April 1]
– Leslie Jackson (Rick Bauer’s mother) and Stanley Norris (Holly Thorpe Reade’s father) marry. [July 2]
– Stanley Norris (Holly Thorpe Reade’s father) is killed. [Sept.]
– As the World Turns becomes first soap to make the cover of TV Guide on the 8/7/1971 issue.

1972 – Papa Bauer dies. (Theo Goetz who had played Papa Bauer passed away in real life and the show honored him by also allowing the character to pass. It’s at this point that Bert Bauer became the heart of the show as its guiding voice.) [Dec. 29]
– Bright Promise airs its final episode. [March 31]

1973 – Ed Bauer marries Holly Norris while drunk in Las Vegas. [May]
– Mike Bauer marries Leslie, Ed’s ex-wife. [June]
– Irna Phillips dies at age 72. [Dec. 22]
– Where the Heart Is canceled on February 12, it will air final episode 6 weeks later when The Young and the Restless took its place. [March 26]
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/10/wheretheheartis.html
– Love Is A Many Splendored Thing airs its final episode. [March 23]

1974 – Nurse Katherine ‘Kit’ Vestid is shot and killed during a fight over a gun with Dr. Joe Werner.   (NOTE:  Kit had gotten into Sara’s house and tried to poison her coffee and started to leave Sara for dead, but then remembered she left incriminating evidence of her scarf.   After she got back into the house she found out her misguided interest in a romance — really an obsession — Sara’s husband, Joe, was there after Joe had called her and Sara had somehow managed to answer the phone in her drugged out state.   Before Kit left the first time, Sara was able to find out that Kit had also poisoned then Cedars Hospital Administrator Charlotte Waring Bauer (another rival for Joe in Kit’s twisted mind) in the same way the previous October — meaning that Charlotte didn’t die of a heart attack on the operating table the way Joe thought she did.   Unfortunately, Joe himself was also shot during the struggle with Kit and would find himself with a reminder of the encounter that would eventually kill him in July 1976, a bullet to the heart wall. [April 24]
– John Dixon forced himself on his then wife Kim on As the World Turns at that time Kim had no legal recourse. Five years later Holly and Roger’s storyline had a very different ending.
– The Secret Storm airs its final episode. [Feb. 8]
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/02/historyfebruary1.html
– How to Survive a Marriage first airs. [Jan. 7]

1975 – Ken Norris goes nuts and shoots his sister’s husband, Ed Bauer. [April]
– Christina (then Chrissy, now Blake) Thorpe is born to Holly while married to Ed. [July]
– Actress Lenore Kasdorf first airs as Cedars nurse Rita Stapleton.  [September 29]   Rita was at first not given a last name as she was the nurse helping Dr. Steve Jackson on the Chad Richards’ (brain tumor) case.  Rita will be given a last name by November 1975, though.
– The Guiding Light drops the “The” from its name. It’s officially known as Guiding Light from this point.
– Bridget and Jerome Dobson, daughter and son-in-law of GH’s creators, take on head writing duties at Guiding Light. They will hold those positions at Guiding Light until December 31, 1979.  The Dobsons time as the head writing team for Guiding Light will be considered one of the more memorable time periods on the show as they give Rita her last name of Stapleton, and introduce both the Marler family and the Spaulding family to the Springfield landscape, are the first head writers to write for the show when it is expanded to an hour in November 1977 and also write the marital rape of Holly Norris Bauer Thorpe by Roger Thorpe in March 1979 and the subsequent trial and Holly shooting Roger and her ending up going to prison (another first for a daytime drama of a major woman character ending up being seen in prison for several months.)   Much of the Dobsons writings from June to December 1979 will help the show win its first Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Drama in May 1980.   [November]
– Another World is the first soap to expand to an hour.
– Katherine “Kay” Chancellor caught Jill Foster in bed with Kay’s husband Phillip kicking off a decades long feud on The Young and the Restless.
– Ryan’s Hope premieres. [July 7]
– Edge of Night switched networks from CBS to ABC. [November-December]
– Soap Opera Digest published its first issue. [November]
– As the World Turns was the last soap to air live. It both went to a full hour and switched to taping on the same day, December 1, 1975.

1976 – Leslie Bauer (Rick Bauer’s mother) is struck and killed by a car. [June]
– Holly and Ed Bauer are divorced. [July]
– Jackie and Justin Marler come to Springfield separately as a divorced couple.

1977 – Rita Stapleton tells the Bauers about her connection to the Grangers, but not that she knew Roger Thorpe in Waco, Texas.   (At this time Rita was about to go on trial for murdering Cyrus Granger, while she was his live-in nurse due to the fact the previous fall Cyrus’s son, Malcolm had come to Springfield to tell everyone that Rita had murdered his dad and then died suspiciously in Cedars after suffering a heart attack). [Jan. 21]
-Talkative nurse Katie Parker arrives in Springfield and starts working at Cedars Hospital. (NOTE: Katie becomes best friends with my all time favorite Springfield nurse Hillary Bauer.) [Feb.]
– Rita Stapleton is exonerated when Roger Thorpe testifies about the one-night stand she had with her the night Cyrus Granger was murdered.   (Unfortunately Rita’s relationship with Ed Bauer will suffer, as well as Roger’s marriage to Peggy Fletcher, when both Ed and Peggy show up in the courtroom when Roger admits all). Roger should get credit for doing the right thing, although it never was on level of his relationship with Holly, Roger truly cared for Peggy and was hurt deeply when their marriage busted up. [April 29]
– Even though she is exonerated, Cedars refuses to hire Rita Stapleton back. [May 2]
– Barbara Norris Thorpe is Adam Thorpe’s (Roger’s father) second wife, Roger’s stepmother,  and Holly and Ken’s mother. When Barbara learns of Roger’s testimony about his affair she tries to get him thrown out of their house, Adam refuses, putting a strain on their marriage. [May 9]
– Peggy Fletcher divorces Roger Thorpe, and moves her and her son, Billy Fletcher to an Idaho ranch. [May 20]
– Holly Norris Bauer is hospitalized with pneumonia. [June 14 – July 6]
– Philip Spaulding’s biological maternal grandfather (not yet known at this time), Dr. Emmet Scott suffers a major heart attack.  (Emmet survives heart surgery). [July 15]
– In a flashback, to the summer of 1969, Jacqueline “Jackie” Scott Marler admits to her husband, Dr. Justin Marler that she had aborted their son (she was lying). [July 22]
– Roger Thorpe tells Holly he lied to Rita Stapleton that Ed was the father of their child, Christina (later Blake). [July 25]
– At Jackie Scott Marler’s house, Hope Bauer tells her one-time fiance, Ben McFarren that she’s leaving Springfield.  During the goodbye, they kiss, Ben’s current love interest Evie Stapleton, the younger sister of Rita sees this and misconstrues what is happening and runs out during a heavy thunderstorm without letting Hope and Ben know she was there.   Eve will be found the next day knocked unconscious behind Jackie’s house and will be submitted to Cedars with a severe concussion. [July 29]
– Evie Stapleton is released from Cedars, but there is concern about her problems with sight. [August 15]
– Roger Thorpe tells his father Adam he is sterile after having a vasectomy shortly after Chrissy (later Blake) was born. [August 16]
– In an odd attempt to help Rita Stapleton in her relationship with Ed Bauer (to get Ed away from Holly), Roger tells Rita that he’s Christina’s father and then tells her to tell Ed that she knows the truth. [August 17]
– Rita Stapleton is stalked.  In August, it starts out as mysterious phone calls and newspaper clips sent from Sweetwater, Texas about her murder trial. [August 18, 1977 – March 10, 1978]
– Jackie Scott Marler tells her father Emmet Scott she had an abortion back in 1969, after she found out her then husband Justin Marler had cheated on her with student journalist, Brandy Shelloe. (She’s lying.) [August 19]
– Bill Bauer returns from the “dead”. He was thought killed in a plane  crash. [Sept. 3]
– Roger Thorpe tells Ed Bauer that Rita Stapleton knows Christina (later Blake) is Roger’s biological daughter, which once again confuses Ed’s feelings for Rita. [Sept. 6]
– Before signing divorce papers from Peggy Fletcher, Roger Thorpe decides to leave for Idaho to see Peggy and her son Billy. Roger will never arrive there, but does leave town (later in the 1990s, it is explained that it is during this time that Roger supposedly started working for the government agency that saved him after he fell off the cliff and met and became involved with Hart Jessup’s mother). [Sept. 8]
– Eve Stapleton, Rita and their mother Viola learn that Evie is going blind. Ben McFarren tells Evie he loves her, not knowing what the doctors just told her. [Sept. 13]
– Mike Bauer and Rita Stapleton Bauer go to Waco, Texas to get a huge settlement check from the estate/will of Cyrus Granger.  Rita refuses the money, but Mike urges her to donate the money anonymously to Cedars, which Rita does. [Sept. 15]
– Malcolm Granger’s widow, Georgene Belmont Granger, a Registered Nurse (and last seen in town during Rita’s trial) arrives in Springfield and takes a nursing job at Cedars. [Sept. 16]
– Student nurse Hillary Kinkaid moves to Springfield from Vancouver, Canada. We soon find out she has a stepfather (really biological father) by the name of Bill, who is none other than a back from the dead Bill Bauer! (Hillary is my favorite Cedars Nurse ever which is why she is frequently resurrected in my Manny fanfic.) [Sept.]
– Shortly after Evie Stapleton and Ben McFarren become engaged, Dr. Feldman tells Eve that her blindness might be permanent and there is no known operation to prevent it. [Sept. 30]
– Cedars holds a Charity Cotillion. Rita Stapleton finally finds out that Georgene Granger is in town. Rita dates new in town and to Cedars, Dr. Peter Chapman. Ed Bauer suspects that Rita made anonymous monetary gift for Cedars. Ed escorts Holly to the Cotillion.  Many guests are concerned that Roger is not in town, but are worried when he might return.  Dr. Sara McIntyre  starts dating Justin.  Hillary Kinkaid falls ill with appendicitis during the Cotillion and has to consult Ed. After seeing Georgene, Rita makes a hasty exist leaving Peter all by himself, until he starts making nice with Ed’s now left alone date, Holly Norris Bauer. [Oct. 21]
– Roger Thorpe supposedly calls from Boise, Idaho to speak to his daughter Chrissy, but Ed won’t let him. [Oct. 28]
– Worried about his daughter Hillary Kinkaid, Bill Bauer comes to Springfield but continues to hide from family and friends who still think him dead from a plane crash. [Oct. 31]
– Roger Thorpe tells Ed Bauer that Rita Stapleton knows Christina is his biological daughter, leaving Ed confused about his feeling for Rita. [Nov. 6]
– The Spauldings (Alan, Elizabeth and their son, Philip, and Philip’s nanny, Diane Ballard) arrive in Springfield.  Roger Thorpe returns to Springfield, angry and determined to get Chrissy for himself.  [Nov. 7]
– Guiding Light is expanded to a full hour and dropped the The from its name. [Nov. 7]
– Mike Bauer is named Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year.  His thought dead father Bill Bauer sneaks into see him accept the award with Mike’s brother Ed and mother Bert also in attendance.  Rita Stapleton spots Bill, in the back of the awards banquet, and realizes that Bill is Hillary’s stepfather.  Justin Marler tells Dr. Sara McIntyre he loves her.  Bill drops a picture of Bert and himself, that Rita picks up and then Rita confronts Bill at his hotel room, where Bill admits that he is indeed the long thought dead, Bill Bauer! [Nov. 10]
– Peggy Fletcher pays a surprise visit to Adam Thorpe telling him that she and Adam’s son Roger Thorpe are indeed divorced and that he never arrived in Boise as he told everyone.   A frustrated, Roger again leaves town without telling anyone where he went. [Nov. 15]
– Jackie Scott Marler is thrilled that Spauldings, including Philip are staying in her apartment building. [Nov. 18]
– Evie Stapleton and Ben McFerrin postpone their wedding. [Nov. 21]
– Rita Stapleton discovers Georgene Granger is working at Cedars. [Nov. 22]
– Mike Bauer meets Elizabeth Spaulding and instantly falls in love with her. [Nov. 23]
– Emmet Scott tells Alan Spaulding that he is heading for a heart attack. (22 years later he will die from the latest in the series of heart attacks.) Justin Marler asks Dr. Sara McIntyre to marry him, but she refuses because she can’t get over her feelings for Joe Werner. [Nov. 28]
– Mike Bauer finds out that Georgene Granger is back in town and decided to go to Texas to investigate her past. [Dec. 2]
– Ed Bauer discovers that Georgene Granger spent time in a mental hospital. [Dec. 3]
– After returning to town, and going to Hillary Kinkaid’s apartment warming party, Mike Bauer is shocked when he sees a photo of Bill Bauer, his presumed dead father, on the coffee table! [Dec. 7]
– After telling Dr. Sara McIntyre about his past with Brandy Shelloe, Justin Marler is shocked to discover the woman in his bed! [Dec. 8]
– Rita Stapleton’s stalking begins anew in this month when her apartment is ransacked,  she nearly falls down a flight of stairs at Cedars and feels someone pushed her, and then her brakes of her car her cut and go out while she is driving in a blizzard!   (Rita briefly blames Roger Thorpe, but Holly gloats that it can’t be Roger since he hasn’t been in town for a little more than a month [like that ever stopped Roger]; Rita then starts to suspect Georgene Granger, but Mike Bauer informs her she has no proof). [Dec.]
– Holly’s mother, Barbara Norris is dating Springfield Journal managing editor, Max Chapman, the father of Dr. Peter Chapman. [Dec.]
– Bill Bauer, growing nervous as his son Mike gets closer to the truth, leaves Springfield and returns to Vancouver, Canada, but Mike follows him there.  Mike confronts Bill  and Bill admits that he has been living the last 10 years with Hillary’s mother, Simone Kinkaid.  Bill asks Mike to let him tell Bert he is alive. [Dec. 20]
– Adam Thorpe is hired at Spaulding Enterprises. [Dec.]
– Mike Bauer agrees to be Alan’s attorney after Alan decides not to build a heavy industrial plant in Springfield. [Dec.]
– Evie Stapleton is increasingly finding it hard to adjust to being blind, and refused the cheering up of Viola — but Ben McFarren refused to accept the engagement ring back from Evie. [Dec. 20]
– On New Year’s Eve, Rita Stapleton tells Mike Bauer how she learned Bill Bauer was still alive. [Dec.30]
– Guiding Light expanded from 30 minutes to an hour. They celebrated its 40th anniversary and dropped the THE to appear hipper.
– All My Children expanded from 30 minutes to an hour.
– As the World Turns was number one in the Nielsen ratings.

1978 – Brandy Shelloe is hired by Alan Spaulding as a corporate interviewer/reporter for Spaulding Enterprises. [Jan.]
– Dr. Peter Chapman and Holly Norris Bauer become an item. [Jan.]
– Ed Bauer tries to get closer to Rita Stapleton, again. Ed and Rita renew their friendship by the end of the month. [Jan.]
– Max Chapman suffers a heart attack after a verbal argument over Mike Bauer over Max not keeping Bill Bauer’s return from the dead off out of the Springfield Journal long enough for Mike to tell Ed and Bert. [Jan. 5]
– Bill Bauer and his secret second wife Simone Kinkaid tell Mike Bauer that Hillary Kinkaid is their biological daughter, making Hillary half-sister of Ed and Mike. [Jan. 9]
– Georgene Granger breaks into Rita Stapleton’s apartment and scares the blind Eve when Georgene doesn’t respond to Eve’s questions about who is there. [Jan. 11]
– Bert Bauer finds out that Bill Bauer is still alive. [Jan. 15]
– Jackie Scott Marler is shocked to find Brandy in Alan Spaulding’s office. Alan tells his wife Elizabeth that she’s foolish to want a job as a photographer and a professional career. [Jan. 16]
– Ben McFarren sends Evie Stapleton an audio tape expressing his love for her. [Jan. 17]
– Hillary Kinkaid learns that Mike and Ed are her beloved stepfather Bill’s sons (at this point she still thinks that Victor Kinkaid is her biological father). [Jan. 18]
– Justin Marler proposes to a reluctant Dr. Sara McIntyre. [Jan. 19]
– Bert Bauer is incredulous when she learns that her previously assumed dead husband Bill and Simone Kinkaid have been for 10 years functioning as man and wife. [Jan. 22]
– Roger Thorpe returns to Springfield, again, and informs Holly and Barbara that he will see Chrissy whenever he wants.  Holly contemplates moving out of Springfield to keep Chrissy and herself Roger. [Jan. 26]
– While Evie Stapleton is sleeping in her sister Rita’s bed, Georgene Granger sets fire to the draperies in Rita’s apartment setting the place on fire as part of her vendetta against Rita. Ben McFarren will save Eve’s life, as Georgene escapes. [Jan. 29]
– Ed Bauer learns that Bill Bauer is still alive and goes to a  hotel room on a drunken bender. [Jan. 31]
– Realizing that Holly and Barbara will still refuse him to see Chrissy, Roger Thorpe leaves Springfield, yet again. [Feb. 1]
– To humor his wife, but still keep her under his control, Alan Spaulding  ‘helps’ his wife Elizabeth get a job as photographer for an ecology society (based on the Sierra Club). [Feb. 1]
– Max Chapman tells Holly Norris Bauer that his son Dr. Peter Chapman is reluctant to continue in a relationship due to a scuba-diving accident a few years back.  Peter is also reluctant to tell Holly any details. [Feb. 2]
– Evie Stapleton agrees to get engaged to Ben McFarren again after he saved her life. [Feb. 7]
– Dr. Peter Chapman tells Holly Norris Bauer about another woman in Santo Domingo he met while he was in the Peace Corps, but refuses to say anything else. [Feb. 8]
– Brandy Shelloe tells a livid Alan Spaulding that she knows that he bought Elizabeth’s photography job at the ecological society. [Feb. 9]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre assumes all is over with Justin Marler when he doesn’t “return her intimacy.” Quote from the time, I’m not entirely clear what that means happened.  [Feb. 10]
– Rita Stapleton is correctly convinced Georgene Granger set fire to her apartment, but the police can’t do anything since there is no proof because Georgene wore gloves when she set fire to the drapes. [Feb. 11]
– Springfield Journal headline (approved by then editor-in-chief Max Chapman from his Cedars Hospital room):   BILL BAUER IS ALIVE AND WELL IN SPRINGFIELD AND IS ACCUSED OF MURDER IN VANCOUVER. [Feb. 15]
– Rita Stapleton finds proof that Ed Bauer is in a hotel room and follows him there to find him drunk; Bill Bauer soon follows the next day. [Feb. 16]
– A drunk Ed Bauer tells his father Bill Bauer that Bill is weak and refuses to forgive him for faking his death (despite the fact he told Rita earlier he had mixed emotions of joy). [Feb. 20]
– Simone’s son by Victor Kinkaid, Paul, is introduced, when Simone, in Victoria, tells him everything about Bill and the Bauers. [Feb. 21]
– While Dr. Justin Marler is performing open-heart surgery on a member of the Cedars Hospital Board, he dies. Jackie’s father Emmet Scott argues that Justin should be brought up on charges by the review board and axed as the head of the cardiac department. [Feb. 23]
– Ed Bauer decides to forgive his father Bill (on Rita’s advice) and decides to get off the bottle and go back to AA. [Feb. 24]
– Bert Bauer decides to give her long presumed dead husband Bill a divorce, but only if he comes clean about his years with Simone Kinkaid. [Feb. 27]
– Bill and Bert Bauer divorce. [March]
– Georgene Granger leaves her position at Cedars Hospital as others become suspicious about her role in stalking Rita Stapleton. Georgene decides her next step is to implicate Rita implicated in the apartment fire that nearly killed Evie.  Georgene relives smothering Cyrus Granger in his sleep while Rita was having her one-night stand with Roger Thorpe. [March 2-3]
– Dr. Emmet Scott is named head of Cedars Cardiac Unit, as Justin Marler is forced to step down. [March 3]
– Mike & Ed Bauer get into a heated verbal argument over their father Bill’s responsibilities.  Bert does her best to calm things between her sons. [March 3]
– Ed Bauer admits he still loves Rita Stapleton and asks her to marry him again. [March 6]
– Bill Bauer is losing money to repay his insurance company and is losing customers in the Vancouver lumber company because people are not happy to learn about his double life. [March 6-10]
– Roger Thorpe sends his biological daughter Chrissy a $1000 savings bond. [March 7]
– Jackie Scott Marler tells Mike Bauer that she would like to have children as their relationship heats up. (That’s too bad. She doesn’t get to raise oldest son biological son Phillip and dies when daughter Samantha is still a baby.) [March 8]
– After Dr. Peter Chapman saves the life of a girl who fell through the ice over a pond, he is reminded of how a young girl at one time also died during a scuba accident in Santo Domingo. [March 10]
– Simone Kinkaid tells Bill Bauer that they will have to sell the Vancouver lumber company. [March 13]
– Police Lieutenant Larry Wyatt is introduced to the audience as Ed Bauer and Ben McFerrin finally convince a member of the SFPD that Rita Stapleton is in danger from an increasingly unstable Georgene Granger. [March 14]
– After Rita and Evie Stapleton go down in to the basement laundry room in Rita’s apartment building, Georgene Granger, with a gun, traps them both and holds them hostage threatening at various points to kill either Rita or Evie.  Georgene informs Rita that she murdered Cyrus Granger and was responsible for her husband Malcolm’s second fatal stroke back in November 1976, at Cedars, because she berated him about an affair he supposedly had with Rita (which wasn’t true). The standoff ends when Rita having enough gets into a tussle with Georgene for control of the gun (just as Ben, Ed, Mike and Lt. Larry Wyatt are approaching).   The last couple of minutes of the March 17, 1978 episode end with the screen going black as Rita and Georgene are struggling for the gun and a shot clearly heard and then Evie scream. [March 14-17]
– Jackie Scott Marler leaves Dr. Sara McIntyre with the belief that Brandy Shelloe and Justin Marler are having an affair, and that’s why Justin screwed up in the operating room. [March 14]
– After Alan had taken Diane Ballard’s side in a dispute with Elizabeth, Elizabeth fires Diane as Phillip’s nanny.   Diane tells Alan if she isn’t allowed to stay on she’ll get even. [March 15]
– The Boston Pops Orchestra pays a visit to Springfield. [March 16]
– Elizabeth Spaulding gets a job from Max Chapman as a photographer at the Springfield Journal. [March 17]
– Bill Bauer confesses to the Springfield PD that he killed Victor Kinkaid 10-years earlier. [March 20]
– After Ben, Ed, Mike and Lt. Wyatt get into the basement laundry room they find that Rita Stapleton has subdued Georgene Granger and in control of the gun.  Evie Stapleton is frightened out of her wits because the bullet that was fired ended up going into the wall next to where Evie was standing.  Lt. Wyatt carts Georgene off in handcuffs as she admits to all her role in both Cyrus and Malcolm’s deaths.  Later in the week, on March 24, 1978, Cedars finally exonerates Rita of all the charges in Malcolm’s death and grants her the return of full nursing privileges. [March 20]
– A concerned Holly Norris Bauer realizes that Rita Stapleton may soon become Chrissy’s stepmother. [March 24]
– As Bill Bauer is booked for the murder of Victor Kinkaid, he asks his son Mike Bauer not to let Hillary know that Bill, not Victor, is her biological father. [March 27]
– Alan Spaulding  is very unhappy with Elizabeth’s new job at the Springfield Journal, and Mike Bauer is very unhappy about Alan’s around- the-clock work schedule for his attorney, Mike. [March 29]
– In self-fulfilling prophecy of Jackie Marler’s, Justin Marler and Brandy become intimate as Brandy is the only woman that will accept Justin post his operating room screw-up. [March 30]
– Elizabeth Spaulding and Mike Bauer start becoming good friends. [April]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre is on vacation in Hawaii and becomes smitten with fellow vacationer and attorney Dean Blackford. [April 3-7]
– Fearing that Hillary Kinkaid will find out in a way they can’t explain, Bill Bauer and Simone Kinkaid tell Hillary and Paul that Hillary is their biological daughter, therefore Mike and Ed’s half-sister.  At first Hillary is reluctant to forgive either one of them, and Simone leaves town, with Paul, permanently.  But then Hillary decides she needs to help her father, Bill, anyway she can through the murder trial. [April 3-7]
– Ed Bauer very livid, nearly ill about Bill’s legal problems, starts hitting the bottle, again, and not going to his AA meetings or meeting with his sponsor. [April 3-7]
– Dr. Feldman tells Evie Stapleton there  may be a risky surgery to cure her blindness. [April 7]
– Hillary Kinkaid Bauer gives to Mike letters Victor wrote to Bill. [April 11]
– Elizabeth Spaulding is livid when Alan asks Diane Ballard to accompany him, Jackie Marler and Philip on a ski weekend.  Elizabeth finally gets Diane fired as Phillip’s nanny.  Alan has to hire Diane, the very next day, as his main office assistant at Spaulding Enterprises. [April 12]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre extends her stay in Hawaii so she can get to know Dean Blackford better. [April 13]
– With Dr. Feldman’s news of a possible cure for her blindness, Evie Stapleton tells Ben McFerrin she’ll set a wedding date. [April 14]
– Bert Bauer is distressed to find a half-filled gin bottle in her son Ed’s apartment. [April 14]
– Saying his drinking is for relaxation, Ed Bauer leaves Springfield for parts unknown. [April 17]
– Evie Stapleton and Ben McFerrin set a wedding date of May 22, 1978. [April 18]
– Jackie Marler tells her father Emmet Scott she’s in love with Mike Bauer. [April 18]
– Mike Bauer worried he is going into his father Bill’s murder trial with very little hope of acquittal. [April 19]
– Alan Spaulding accuses his wife Elizabeth of coming on to Mike Bauer. [April 20]
– Overhearing his parents arguing, Philip Spaulding runs out during a thunderstorm and slips and his hurt his leg. [April 21]
– Bill Bauer’s confession is admitted as evidence in the murder trial. [April 24]
– When Alan Spaulding claims he told Elizabeth he was going out, therefore shifting the blame for Phillip’s accident on her, Elizabeth knows he’s lying. Elizabeth then demands a legal separation. [April 25]
– Peggy Fletcher calls Barbara Norris Bauer saying she knows Roger Thorpe has been sending Holly money for Chrissy. [April 26]
– Jackie Marler agrees to hold Evie Stapleton and Ben McFarren’s wedding ceremony at her house. [April 26]
– Dr. Peter Chapman almost tells Holly Norris Bauer about the mysterious tragedy that occurred while he was in the Peace Corps, but pulls back at last moment. [April 27]
– Ed Bauer calls Rita Stapleton to tell her to forget about him. [April 28]
– After Mike Bauer recreates site where Victor Kinkaid was killed, Bill realizes he didn’t murder Victor, but instead Bill was fighting him off — therefore it was self-defense at worst.  The jury finds Bill not guilty, although Bill is still unhappy that Ed won’t come home despite Ed’s awareness of the verdict. [May 1]
– Elizabeth Spaulding is shocked when her estranged husband Alan spirits Philip away from Cedars to go on an African safari with Alan and Diane Ballard. [May 3]
– Roger Thorpe calls his father Adam to tell him he is coming back to Springfield. [May 4]
– Ben McFarren and Evie Stapleton asks Hillary Bauer to be a bridesmaid. [May 5]
– Rita Stapleton finds a drunk Ed Bauer in another hotel room, this time in nearby Clayton. [May 5]
– Cleared of Victor Kinkaid’s murder, Bill Bauer finds Ed and tries to persuade him, with Rita Stapleton’s help, to stop drinking and come home. [May 8]
– Leaving hotel room, Bill Bauer is struck by a car.  A distraught Ed, witnesses the accident realizes again he loves his father and decides to give up the booze.  Rita and Ed work to save Bill, whose injuries turn out to be minor. [May 10]
– Alan Spaulding fires Mike Bauer as his attorney, after Mike had let Alan’s business affairs lapse during Bill’s trial.  Alan looks for a new attorney. (That doesn’t really sound like Mike, usually he’s more on the ball than that Bill being alive must really have shook him up.) [May 11]
– Elizabeth Spaulding refuses Jackie’s offer to move in with her, with Philip when he returns from Africa. Dr. Peter Chapman is irritated by his girlfriend Holly Norris Bauer’s continuing questions about his girlfriend in Santo Domingo. [May 12]
– Elizabeth Spaulding hires Mike Bauer to handle divorce proceedings against Alan. [May 15]
– Roger Thorpe returns and pays off his debt to Holly and Adam and then looks for a new job. Roger moves in next door to Hillary and Katie’s apartment, and Hillary takes an instant liking to Roger. [May 16]
– Everyone is shocked when Dr. Sara McIntyre returns to Springfield and is now the wife of Dean Blackford. [May 17]
– Ed and Bill Bauer reconcile, yet again. [May 18]
– Jackie Marler gives Evie Stapleton and Ben McFarren a week in the Bahamas as a wedding present. [May 19]
– Evie Stapleton marries Ben McFarren.  In attendance is Ben’s brother, Jerry, despite some past problems between the two, and a returned to town Hope Bauer. [May 22]
– Alan Spaulding is convinced that Mike Bauer is the reason why Elizabeth wants to divorce him. [May 23]
– Roger Thorpe tells Holly Norris Bauer it’s time everyone knows that he, not Ed Bauer, is Chrissy’s biological father. [May 24]
– Roger Thorpe warns Rita Stapleton that she and Ed Bauer will never get married. [May 25]
– After winning a court case out of town, Dean Blackford arrives in Springfield. [May 26]
– Ed Bauer is shell shocked when five years after the fact, Holly finally tells Ed the truth that she got him drunk the night they wed, and made up the story about the marriage being consummated so he couldn’t get an annulment. [May 29]
– Hope Bauer and Jerry McFarren are attracted to each other, despite concern from her father Mike and his brother Ben. [May 30]
– Ed Bauer balks at Roger Thorpe’s suggestion that everyone but Chrissy know that Roger is her biological daughter.   But on June 6, 1978  Ed reluctantly agrees to go along with this plan after the realization that Holly telling him what happened the night of their marriage made him not take a drink. [June 2]
– Jerry McFarren informs Hope  Bauer that it was he, and not Ben, who stole the money from the delicatessen back in 1976 and Ben covered for him. [June 8]
– Alan Spaulding hires Dean Blackford as his attorney with Dean saying he’d do anything to help his client. Dr. Sara McIntyre and her new husband Dean move into their new house.  Later in the day, Alan is persuaded by Roger Thorpe to hire him for one month without pay as a new executive at Spaulding Enterprises.  Alan also resents Brandy Shelloe’s magazine article about him. [June 9]
– Despite Ben McFarren’s assurances to the contrary, Evie Stapleton McFarren still concerned that new husband Ben still has feelings for his old girlfriend Hope Bauer. [June 13]
– Jerry McFarren learns he will not go to prison for robbing delicatessen since restitution was made (by Ben). [June 14]
– Alan Spaulding tells Dean Blackford he wants total custody of Philip. [June 15]
– Holly Norris Bauer tells her shocked boyfriend Dr. Peter Chapman how she conceived Chrissy by Roger Thorpe while she was still married to Ed Bauer. [June 16]
– Evie Stapleton McFarren agrees to risky surgery to restore her eyesight, ahead of her and Ben’s honeymoon in the Bahamas. [June 19]
– Mike Bauer breaks Jackie Marler’s heart when after Jackie tells him she loves him, he tells her he only considers a special friend.  (Mike secretly thought that Jackie was a bit too wild for him – I agree with Mike – they weren’t a good match.) [June 20]
– Dean Blackford orders Justin Marler to stay away from Blackford’s wife Dr. Sara McIntyre outside of Cedars. [June 21]
– During a blackout, Mike Bauer and Elizabeth Spaulding give into passion and share an intimate embrace. [June 23]
– Roger Thorpe tells everyone in Springfield that he finds an unmarried woman (that would be Hillary Bauer) attractive. [June 26]
– Evie Stapleton McFarren has surgery to restore her eyesight. [June 27]
– Justin Marler tells Dr. Sara McIntyre he was wrong to give her marital advice and will stay away (despite Sara having some secret feelings for Justin).  Alan hires Roger Thorpe with pay. [June 28]
– Dr. Peter Chapman FINALLY reveals his secret to his girlfriend Holly:  His former fiancé’s sister died while he was teaching her how to scuba dive. [June 29]
– At Roger Thorpe’s suggestion, Hillary changes her last name from Kinkaid to Bauer. [June 30]
– Evie Stapleton McFarren’s eye surgery is successful. Two days later, Evie and Ben leave for their Bahamas honeymoon. [July 3]
– Dr. Peter Chapman tells Holly the name of the woman who was his fiancé in Santo Domingo, Maya, and both decide to go to Santo Domingo so Peter can confront his past. [July 5]
– Alan Spaulding tells Jackie Marler that the reason why Mike rejected her was because of his feelings for his ex-wife Elizabeth. [July 6]
– Hillary Bauer bristles when her best friend and roommate  Katie Parker suggests Hillary stay away from Roger Thorpe because he is bad news. (Good advice if anybody ever heard it.) [July 7]
– Dr. Mark Hamilton is introduced as another neighbor of Hillary and Katie, and as the new chief of Cedars oncology unit. [July 7]
– While taking photos in a slum area, Elizabeth Spaulding is mugged and seriously injured. [July 11]
– Holly Norris Thorpe is upset when Dr. Peter Chapman takes her advice to go see his ex-fiancée Maya. [July 13]
– Despite the restitution  his brother Ben paid, Jerry McFarren gets three years probation. [July 15]
– While visiting Elizabeth Spaulding at Cedars, Jackie Marler finds Mike Bauer there and begins to think Alan’s accusations against Elizabeth and Mike are correct. [July 17]
– Elizabeth Spaulding is released from Cedars, but is still recovering.   Elizabeth is not very happy when Alan states he will take care of Philip while Elizabeth is in recovery.  Elizabeth is concerned that Alan will want Philip forever. [July 18]
– Maya Waterman is introduced as, in Santo Domingo, Dr. Peter Chapman confronts his ex-fiancée Maya. [July 19]
– Roger Thorpe informs Diane Ballard he intends to become the President of Spaulding Enterprises. This is one of the competing and incompatible goals which will plague and guide Roger for the rest of his life. [July 19]
– Returning from their Bahamas’ honeymoon, Evie Stapleton and Ben McFarren buy the cottage at the Wexler Estate, the grandest mansion in Springfield. [July 20]
– Lucille Wexler is introduced.  Dr. Steve Jackson writes Bert, from Switzerland, unsure if he’ll return to Springfield.  Bert throws a part to celebrate Hillary changing her last name to Bauer. [July 21]
– Roger Thorpe and Hillary Bauer become lovers. (NO HILLARY NO!) [July 24]
– Ed Bauer is once again angry at Holly Norris Thorpe when he learns that the one-time anonymous blood transfusion donor, for Chrissy back in 1975 when she had hepatitis, was none other than Roger and that Holly kept that information from him. [July 25]
– Roger Thorpe tells Rita Stapleton he wants Ed Bauer out of his and Chrissy’s life. [July 26]
– Alan Spaulding tells Dean Blackford, now handling Phillip’s custody for Alan, that he has proof that Elizabeth had an affair with a Spanish playboy named Ramon de Vilar. [July 27]
– Dean Blackford and his wife Dr. Sara McIntyre have a verbal confrontation when Sara is livid that Dean would take the word of a private investigator about Elizabeth’s Madrid affair with de Vilar. [July 31]
– Alan Spaulding reveals to Brandy Shelloe that he once was sued and had to give money back to the Wexler family because his grandfather had taken unethical advantage of them during the Great Depression. [Aug. 2]
– Amanda Wexler Middleton is introduced, as Evie McFarren tells her husband Ben that she believes their landlady, Lucille Wexler, is hiding someone in her home and we see Amanda peeking through her second floor bedroom curtains dressed up as a little girl. [Aug. 4]
– After learning that he didn’t cause the scuba-diving accident that claimed Maya’s younger sister, Linette’s death, Dr. Peter Chapman rediscovers his love for Maya, much to the chagrin of Holly leaves Santo Domingo to return to Springfield without her boyfriend Peter. [Aug. 7]
– While Jackie Marler is taking care of Philip for a still recovering Elizabeth Spaulding, Philip suffers chest pains.  After Jackie takes Philip to Cedars, she learns that Philip has the same hereditary heart ailment as her father Dr. Emmet Scott. [Aug. 8]
– Learning that the court appointed social worker who is working on the custody case of Philip Spaulding, Mrs. Wilson, is coming to Springfield to see Elizabeth, Elizabeth takes painkillers to soothe her nerves.  This is the start of Elizabeth’s addiction to pain medication. [Aug. 10]
– Hillary Bauer asks Roger Thorpe to Evie and Ben McFarren’s housewarming party intending to tell all that she and Roger are an item. Roger also has another excuse to attend, as Alan sets up a rivalry between Dean Blackford and Roger Thorpe over who can woo Lucile Wexler to agree to sell some property Alan Spaulding is interested in. [Aug. 11]
– Justin Marler and Elizabeth Spaulding that tests reveal Phillip Spaulding’s heart condition may never be serious. [Aug. 14]
– Evie and Ben McFarren’s housewarming party. Amanda Wexler Middleton finally emerges from her bedroom, but her mother Lucille treats her as nothing more than a child or a servant. We also learn that Amanda was married at one time to Gordon Middleton, but left him on their honeymoon when she couldn’t or wouldn’t consummate their marriage. Lucile is shocked at the more modern ways of Evie’s female friends and her sister, Rita, and tries to shield Amanda from them. Hillary Bauer introduces Roger Thorpe as her lover, which angers not only Hillary’s half-brother Ed, but Rita. [Aug. 15-16]
– Dr. Peter Chapman tells a hurt Holly Norris Bauer over the phone that he intends to stay in Santo Domingo with his ex-fiancee Maya and hopes that some day soon to convince Maya to come to Springfield. Seeing the writing on the wall, Holly decides to start living her life without Peter. [Aug.16]
– The first of Roger Thorpe’s warnings to Rita Stapleton. Roger tells Rita that if she and the Bauers don’t stay out of his relationship with Hillary Bauer, Rita will be sorry. [Aug. 17]
– Mike Bauer and Elizabeth Spaulding finally admit they are in love, but out of fear that Elizabeth will lose custody of Phillip agree to keep it between themselves. [Aug. 18]
– When Dean Blackford expresses concern for Elizabeth Spaulding if she was to lose custody of her son Phillip, Alan thinks that Dean is getting soft to express sympathy for Alan’s soon-to-be ex-wife. [Aug. 22]
– Mike Bauer and Elizabeth Spaulding make love. [Aug. 23]
– Amanda Wexler Middleton fears the return of her estranged husband Gordon Middleton  to Springfield, since they never divorced or annulled their marriage. [Aug. 25]
– Jackie Marler sets her sights on marrying Alan Spaulding so she can become Phillip’s “step-mother.” [Aug. 28]
– After Holly Norris Bauer expresses the thought of leaving Springfield for good, Roger Thorpe persuades her otherwise and Holly thinks of pursuing a relationship with him. [Aug. 29]
– When Hillary Bauer expresses to Rita Stapleton’s estrangement from her future sister-in-law due to Rita’s opinion of Roger Thorpe, Roger warns Rita again to stay out of her relationship with Hillary this time expressing she might get hurt if she doesn’t. [Aug. 30]
– Philip Spaulding his staying with his unbeknownst to all, but Jackie, his biological mother Jackie because thugs are intimidating his adoptive mother Elizabeth from testifying at the trial of the guys who mugged Elizabeth while she was on the job for the Journal. [Aug. 31]
– Hope Bauer works briefly with Alan Spaulding, for the first time, but not in paid capacity when as a budding interior designer Hope gives Alan advice on how to decorate his new industrial complex.  Alan becomes smitten with Hope. [Sept. 1]
– On her son Phillip’s birthday,  Elizabeth is upset by two gifts Philip gets from her ex-husband Alan and Jackie:   1.   A model train set too big for Elizabeth’s apartment.   And   2.   A tree house set up on the grounds of the Spaulding mansion. [Sept. 4]
– Upset about the reports that Elizabeth Spaulding had an affair with Ramon de Vilar, Mike Bauer sets out for Madrid to prove that Alan’s lawyer Dean Blackford got a hold of the information and the affidavit from de Vilar proving as much via a bogus private investigator. [Sept. 8]
– When Roger Thorpe comes to Rita Stapleton’s apartment and makes innuendos about her wanting him as a lover, she turns on him with a knife. She puts down the knife only after Ed Bauer calls her.  Roger quickly exists during the phone call. [Sept. 12]
– Realizing she is still in love with her ex-husband Ed Bauer, Holly Norris plans to fight Rita Stapleton for him. [Sept. 18]
– Ed Bauer is shocked when his ex-wife Holly Norris Bauer says for the first time she loves him and then realizes that the phone messages she left him back in 1976 asking for a delay in the divorce proceedings and suggesting a reconciliation where never delivered by Rita Stapleton, who wanted Ed for herself.  [Sept. 19]
– Returning from Madrid, Spain after meeting with de Vilar and getting him to agree to come to Springfield to testify that he and Elizabeth Spaulding never had an affair at the Spaulding divorce proceedings, Mike Bauer is shocked and disconcerted when Alan reveals to him, that unbeknownst to Elizabeth, Philip is an adopted child, Elizabeth’s baby was stillborn and Philip was a substitute that Alan paid for. [Sept. 20]
– After hearing from Mike Bauer about de Vilar coming to Springfield (unlike Mike to tip his hand like this, Elizabeth must not have been good for him), Alan Spaulding warns Dean Blackford that if he loses custody of Philip, Dean’s law career is over.  Dean decides the only way to save his career and win the custody case is to make sure he steals the affidavit Mike had de Vilar sign saying that he didn’t have an affair with Elizabeth (which is in de Vilar’s hotel room at the Springfield Arms Hotel) and to kill de Vilar to silence him forever. [Sept. 21]
– Maya tells her ex-fiancée Dr. Peter Chapman she can’t marry him and move to Springfield because of her father and life in Santo Domingo. [Sept. 21]
– Amanda Wexler’s husband Gordon Middleton wants a reconciliation and blames her mother Lucille Wexler for their split. On a Friday cliffhanger episode, Dean Blackford kills Ramon de Vilar [Sept. 22]
– Worried that Ed Bauer might change his mind about her joining him in New York City while he is on business there, Rita Stapleton join him a day early than planned. [Sept. 25]
– Ramon de Vilar’s dead body is discovered by a hotel staff member, but the police find no proof as to who shot him.  Mike Bauer discovers the affidavit is missing. [Sept. 25]
– Roger Thorpe and Holly Norris Bauer renew their friendship. [Sept. 26]
– Mike Bauer is convinced that Dean Blackford was involved in the death of Ramon de Vilar, but can’t convince his friend Lt. Wyatt of the same since there is no proof. [Sept. 27]
– Roger Thorpe overhears a conversation at Spaulding Enterprises about Phillip’s custody suit (that Phillip was adopted)  and about the death of Ramon de Vilar. [Sept. 29]
-Suspecting dirty dealings in Phllip’s custody case, Roger Thorpe steals the two affidavits from Alan Spaulding’s locked files. [Oct. 3]
– Elizabeth Spaulding loses custody of  her son Philip.[Oct. 4]
– In New York City,  Rita Stapleton accepts Ed Bauer’s marriage proposal and is given a very special bracelet by Ed.  Hillary Bauer is pleased Holly Norris Bauerlikes Roger as everyone else seems down on him and against their dating.  When Holly refuses to reconcile after he dumped her for his ex-fiancee who later said she didn’t want him, Dr. Peter Chapman becomes smitten with Brandy Shelloe. [Oct. 5]
– Justin Marler expresses concern about Elizabeth Spaulding’s addiction to pain medication.  Dean and Sara Blackford realize their marriage is in trouble. [Oct. 6]
– Alan Spaulding tells Roger Thorpe and Dean Blackford they are in the running for the Vice-Presidency of Spaulding Enterprises. [Oct. 9]
– Lucille Wexler spotting Amanda Wexler Middleton’s obsessing over Ben McFarren, starts to think that Amanda and Ben might make a good couple (which is the start of a whole lot of trouble). [Oct. 10]
– Justin Marler helps Elizabeth Spaulding check into Cedars to overcome her addiction to pain medication. [Oct. 11]
– After having dinner with Ed Bauer, and starting to make plans with Evie Stapleton and Bert Bauer for their wedding in November (with Hillary in attendance; which angers Roger especially when he overhears a phone conversation Rita putting Roger down again), Rita is surprised when Roger comes over to her apartment, overpowers her and then rapes her. Roger also steals the engagement bracelet Ed gave Rita as a token of his ‘conquest.’ [Oct. 12-13]
– As Roger Thorpe is leaving Rita Stapleton’s apartment after raping her,  Hillary Bauer is telling her disgusted half-brother Ed she loves Roger. [Oct. 16]
– Brandy Shelloe fears Justin Marler too attached to Elizabeth Spaulding. The next morning after Roger Thorpe raped her, Rita Stapleton reads a story about a woman who killed her rapist, Rita contemplates killing Roger with a gun. Rita fears no one will believe her about the rape since she took a shower right after it happened. [Oct. 17]
– A beautiful fashion model from Dr. Mark Hamilton’s past comes to Springfield and immediately raises Katie Parker’s insecurities and jealousies. [Oct. 18]
– Mike Bauer learns Dean Blackford could have left law library unseen the night Ramon de Vilar was murdered. [Oct. 20]
– Lucille Wexler schemes to have Ben McFarren paint Amanda Wexler Middleton’s picture in order to get the two of them together. [Oct. 23]
– Ben McFarren suggests that his wife Evie return to school to get her teaching degree. [Oct. 23]
– After Roger Thorpe refuses to return the bracelet, Rita flies to New York City to buy a duplicate of the bracelet (which Rita gave her as an engagement present) so Ed Bauer won’t suspect what happened;  Evie Stapleton immediately gets suspicious about the trip upon her sister Rita’s return. [Oct. 24]
– Roger Thorpe seems to be falling in love with Holly Norris Bauer, despite is continuing relationship with Hillary Bauer. [Oct. 24]
– Diane Ballard bristles at Roger Thorpe’s suggestion that all was not legal with Alan Spaulding’s evidence in the custody case for Philip. [Oct. 25]
– Alan Spaulding lets Diane Ballard know that someone else besides Roger Thorpe and Dean Blackford are in the running for the Spaulding Vice-Presidency. [Oct. 26]
– Having gotten over her addiction to pain medication, Elizabeth Spaulding is released from Cedars.  Mike Bauer asks Elizabeth to marry him, but she isn’t sure of her feelings. [Oct. 27]
– After Hillary Bauer makes a trip out of town;  Holly Norris Bauer is taken by surprise when Roger Thorpe asks him to marry her. [Oct. 30]
– Realizing that Justin Marler has fallen in love with Elizabeth Spaulding, and seeing no future with Dr. Peter Chapman, Brandy Shelloe makes plans to depart Springfield forever. [Oct. 31]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre Blackford frightened of her husband Dean Blackford. [Nov. 1]
– As Ed Bauer and fiancée Rita Stapleton house-hunt, they take a look at the large house next to the Spaulding mansion which Rita really falls in love with and starts pressuring Ed to buy. [Nov. 1]
– Learning that Ben McFarren was once in prison, Lucille Wexler tells her daughter Amanda to stay away from Ben; but Amanda having become smitten pleads to let the portrait sessions continue which makes Lucille change her mind. [Nov. 2]
– On the last few days she is in Springfield, Justin Marler unexpectedly comes by Brandy Shelloe’s apartment after finding out that Elizabeth Spaulding is considering Mike Bauer’s marriage proposal and takes Brandy to bed. [Nov. 2]
– When Roger Thorpe hints that Ramon de Vilar was murdered so he wouldn’t testify in Phillip’s custody case, Diane Ballard warns him to be quiet or he’ll be sorry. [Nov. 3]
– After a rather frustrating day at Spaulding Enterprises, Alan Spaulding pays Brandy Shelloe a visit at her apartment and Brandy informs Alan that she will leave Springfield; which prompts Alan to take Brandy the night after Justin did. [Nov. 3]
– When Hillary Bauer returns to Springfield, Roger Thorpe feels he has to tell her that he wants to marry Holly Norris Bauer but does not do so, yet. [Nov. 6]
– After Jackie Marler sees Alan Spaulding exiting Brandy Shelloe’s apartment in a similar manner as he did in 1969 in Paris, France (after Phillip’s birth),  Jackie warns Brandy that she better get out of Springfield.  Which quickly prompts Brandy to leave Springfield for New York City.  Brandy Shelloe leaves Springfield permanently. [Nov. 7]
– Dean Blackford is trying to make it look as though Mike Bauer murdered Ramon de Vilar by manipulating evidence in Mike’s locker next to Dean’s at the Springfield Athletic Club (this will later become the basis for the Country Club seen later in storyline in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s — and is the first mention of an Athletic Club in Springfield).  But Dean is having to deal with Roger Thorpe’s suspicions.  [Nov. 8]
– Feeling guilty because she never gave her late husband who was an artist support, Lucille Wexler plans to give Ben McFarren an one-man art show.  His wife Evie is pleased, but Ben thinks it is a mistake to accept because now they will always feel obliged to Lucille. [Nov. 9]
– Horrified when Roger Thorpe reveals his love for Holly Norris Bauer, Hillary Bauer packs her belongings and leaves Springfield. [Nov. 13]
– In the Spaulding Enterprises garage on his way to an important meeting at Spaulding Enterprises, Roger Thorpe is purposely run down by a car. By happenstance, his arch rival Ed Bauer who is there for some Cedars Hospital business saves Roger’s life. [Nov. 14]
– Roger Thorpe remains in critical condition at Cedars with doctors holding out little chance of his survival.(Obviously they don’t know their man.) [Nov. 16]
– Hillary Bauer calls her half-brother Ed to let him know she is all right, but refuses to say where she is and does not let Ed tell her of Roger Thorpe’s ‘accident’. [Nov. 17]
– During the Thanksgiving Holidays, Roger Thorpe remains in critical condition at Cedars  with Holly Norris Bauer by his bedside almost constantly which flabbergasts her mother Barbara.  Near the end of the week, Roger is lucid enough to try his hand at his own form of investigation of the ‘accident’. [Nov. 20-24]
– Ed Bauer and Rita Stapleton marry at Bert’s house, with Bert and Evie talking about how Rita looks like she’s walking on eggshells despite the happy day.   Near the end of the ceremony, word comes from Mike that Roger has awaken from his coma and is about to announce who ran him down. [Nov. 20-24] (Rita is known around town as being a woman of easy virtue. A spoof created by the actors and crew of Guiding Light about this time contains a running gag where people use various euphemisms for sex and when someone in each scene doesn’t get it, everyone else yells “Ask Rita!”)
– Nurse Peggy Fletcher Thorpe returns for Ed and Rita Bauer’s wedding and agrees to stand in for Rita at Cedars while they are away on their honeymoon.  Peggy returns without her son Billy Fletcher (who is away at Boarding School; first mention of Lincoln Prep which will be an important part of storyline in the 1980s)  and tells Adam that she has restraining order against Roger coming close to her. [Nov. 20-24]
– In a mood for marriage, after attending Ed and Rita Bauer’s wedding, Alan Spaulding asks Jackie Marler to marry him. [Nov. 22]
– Dean Blackford frightens his wife Dr. Sara McIntyre, again, when he has a nightmare where he dreams about running over Roger Thorpe with his car. [Nov. 24]
– Roger Thorpe fingers Rita Stapleton Bauer as the person who ran him down. [Nov. 27]
– Ed Bauer is convinced that Roger Thorpe’s accusation is because of his intense dislike for Rita and his somewhat confused mental state. [Nov. 28]
– In her continuing concern for Roger Thorpe, Holly Norris Bauer tells him she will marry him. [Nov. 29]
– Realizing that her husband Dean Blackford knew Elizabeth Spaulding was getting addicted to pain medication, Dr. Sara McIntyre takes the information to Mike.  Sara is appalled to realize that Dean would allow Elizabeth’s addiction to worsen without telling anyone and wonders if she can make her marriage work. [Nov. 30]
– Ed Bauer makes down payment on his wife Rita’s dream house. [Dec. 1] This is the Bauer house that you will see on the show until its end. Rita wanted this house because it is near the Spaulding Mansion on the same road, Skyline Drive.
– With Roger Thorpe on the mend, his step-mother Barbara Norris Thorpe tells her daughter Holly Norris Bauer that she doesn’t have to go through with her promise to marry him — but she says she wants to. [Dec. 4]
– Roger Thorpe learns from Katie Parker that Hillary Bauer left town the night he was run down. [Dec. 5]
– Hillary Bauer returns to town but is threatened with being dropped from nursing school because she missed so many crucial days. [Dec. 6]
– Mike Bauer plans to marry Elizabeth Spaulding after the first of the year. [Dec. 7]
– After the model he was dating leaves town, Katie Parker wonders if she should date Dr. Mark Hamilton. [Dec. 7]
– Nurse Peggy Fletcher Thorpe is dating a Dr. Doug Shilling, despite Shilling working on helping her ex-husband Roger Thorpe, and Peggy agrees to stay on at Cedars for indefinite amount of time. [Dec. 8]
– Alan Spaulding gives Jackie Marler a deadline of Christmas Eve to answer his marriage proposal. [Dec. 8]
– Fearing that Hillary Bauer will tell Holly Norris Bauer he made love to her after he asked Holly to marry him, Roger Thorpe leaves Cedars without being discharged.  [Dec. 11]
– Two days later, Roger Thorpe visits Hillary Bauer and Katie Parker’s apartment and he tells Hillary that he doesn’t love Holly Norris Bauer, but Christina (later Blake) is his child and he wants to give her a stable home, so Hillary decides not to tell Holly that they made love after his proposal to Holly. [Dec. 13]
– Barbara Norris Thorpe and Holly Norris Bauer are away in California, where they have taken Holly’s brother Ken Norris out of the mental institution and moves him to live with Ken’s younger brother and Holly’s older brother, and author Andy (Andrew was the middle child and a terrible playboy and sometime con man, not a very stable environment for the unstable Ken). [Dec. 15]
– When they return to Springfield, Barbara Norris Thorpe refuses to attend Holly and Roger’s wedding and vows she will do anything to stop the nuptials. [Dec. 18] (Big mistake, Roger and Holly were two oppositely charged magnets. They are always drawn back to each other.)
– Barbara Norris Thorpe asks Hillary Bauer about her relationship with Roger Thorpe, but Hillary refuses to tell her anything. [Dec. 19]
– Roger Thorpe, still believing Rita Stapleton Bauer ran him down, swears he will make her life a living hell. [Dec. 19]
– Amanda Wexler Middleton cuts her hair, changes her fashion style, and realizes how attractive she is.  While talking to her estranged husband Gordon Middleton, Amanda envisions Ben McFarren.[Dec. 20]
– Plotting to get even with Ben and Evie McFarren for knowing too much about her, Lucille Wexler offers Evie job managing the Wexler property.  [Dec. 20]
– Jackie Marler agrees to marry Alan Spaulding who considers her attractive, the perfect hostess and intelligent just what he needs in a wife. He doesn’t know her secret motivation for marrying him. [Dec. 21]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre is frightened when her husband Dean Blackford buys her an expensive gift. [Dec. 21]
– Going to his apartment to tell him off, Barbara Norris Thorpe looks on as her stricken step-son Roger Thorpe pleads for medical help. [Dec. 22]
– Rita Stapleton Bauer is confused when Hillary Bauer defends Roger Thorpe’s motive for marrying Holly Norris Bauer. Rita is beginning to feel that Hillary still cares for Roger. [Dec. 26]
– Dean Blackford traps his wife Sara McIntyre into giving false information to Mike Bauer about the deceased Roman de Vilar.  Feeling Sara is disloyal, Dean plans to take her to her favorite mountain retreat and have a fatal ‘accident’ occur at a nearby cliff. [Dec. 27]
–  Alan Spaulding fumes when he learns that his ex-wife Elizabeth Spaulding is putting up divorce settlement money as a reward for the apprehension of Roman de Vilar’s murderer. [Dec. 28]
– Roger Thorpe suggests to Ed Bauer he start backing away from Chrissy (later Blake) so she won’t be confused as to who her father is. [Dec. 28]
– On New Year’s Eve, Amanda Wexler Middleton has a premonition concerning a tragedy befalling Ben McFarren. [Dec. 29]
– Lucille Wexler (having gotten over her earlier generous impulse to help Ben McFerrin in memory of her late husband who also aspired to be an artist) becomes concerned that if Ben’s art showing is a success she will lose control of both her daughter and Evie, plots to destroy the showing before it happens.  Near the end of the episode we see a woman’s gloved hand cut the electrical wiring at the art gallery. [Dec. 29]
– On New Year’s Eve, Alan Spaulding assures Diane Ballard that after he marries Jackie Marler, he’ll still have time for her.  (This is the kind of garbage Brandon taught Alan was how a man acts.) [Dec. 29]
– The primetime soap opera Dallas premieres. [April 2]

1979 –Sensing his step-mother Barbara Norris Thorpe is trying to stop his marriage to Holly Norris Bauer, Roger Thorpe warns her to stay out of it or risk not seeing Chrissy any longer. [Jan. 1]
–Ben McFarren goes to the art gallery on New Year’s Day to discover that there was a huge electrical fire and all of his art work was destroyed.  He tells his wife Evie he has no more money to send her to school for her to get her teaching degree and Evie sees no other way but to accept Lucille’s offer to become the manager of the Wexler property. [Jan. 2]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre becomes intrigued by a locked safe that her husband Dean Blackford brings home from work, sure it contains information about Roman de Vilar that Mike Bauer will need in his investigation; but after dangling the keys to the safe in front of Sara, Dean hides them and then informs her of their second ‘honeymoon’ at her favorite mountain retreat. [Jan. 4]
– Released from Cedars after severe anemia, Roger Thorpe fears that whoever tried to run him down will try to kill him, again. [Jan. 5]
– Dr. Sara McIntyre discovers her husband Dean Blackford’s keys to his locker at the Springfield Athletic Club and gives them to Mike Bauer.[Jan. 5]
– With Evie MacFarren and Lucille Wexler in Chicago leaving them alone on the estate, Amanda Wexler Middleton offers herself to Ben MacFarren. [Jan. 8]
– Alan Spaulding marries Jackie Marler, Phillip’s biological mother. [Feb.]
– Roger commits martial rape against Holly. [March 6]
– Still traumatized by her rape, Holly shoots Roger. [June]
– Ross Marler, Justin Marler’s brother, comes to town and opens his law practice by brutally defending Roger against Holly’s martial rape charges. He shows just as much ambition and ruthlessness as his half-brother Ben Warren would later show when he later came to Springfield.
– Justin Marler, Phillip’s biological father, marries Elizabeth Spaulding, Phillip’s adoptive mother. [Aug.]
– Alan and Alex’s father Brandon Spaulding dies in a nursing home on camera. (Brandon doesn’t let a little thing like that stop him and goes on to have a second family when he returns from the “dead.”) [Sept.]
– Hope Bauer and Alan Spaulding are trapped together on a jungle island.
– Jerry verDorn debuts as Ross Marler.
– There are 12 soap operas on American network broadcast TV.

1980 – Bea Reardon (Maureen Bauer’s mother) and Nola Reardon are introduced. [Feb.]
– Dr. Kelly Nelson is introduced. [Feb.]
– Roger Thorpe kidnaps Blake and Holly. [March]
– Ed Bauer shoots Roger Thorpe while rescuing Holly from him. The shot makes Roger lose his footing and he fell over a cliff to his presumed death. [April 1]
– Hope Bauer and Alan Spaulding marry. [May]
– Jackie and Justin Marler remarry.
– Vanessa and Henry Chamberlain arrive in Springfield.
– Michelle Bauer’s SORASed birthdate.
– Douglas Marland named head writer of Guiding Light.
– Guiding Light wins its first Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama.
– The Young and the Restless expanded to a full hour.
– Love of Life airs its last episode on CBS. [Feb. 1]

1981 -Amanda Wexler learns she is really a Spaulding, but for many years will erroneously believe Alan Spaulding is her father when it was actually his father Brandon.
– Kelly Nelson and Morgan Richards marry. [Aug. 18]
– Alan-Michael Spaulding is born to Alan and Hope Bauer Spaulding. [Sept.]
– Quint Chamberlain comes to Springfield.
– Josh Lewis comes to Springfield. [Oct.]
– Jackie and Justin Marler take custody of Phillip Spaulding when his adoptive mother Elizabeth leaves for Europe, but he won’t learn that he’s adopted and that the Marlers are his biological parents for 2 more years.
– Luke and Laura’s marriage on General Hospital drew over 30 million viewers.
– Guiding Light won Best Writing Daytime Emmy.

1982 – Nola Reardon gives birth to Kelly Louise Reardon (Then Kelly Louise, Now Stacy Reardon Chamberlain – Nola renamed her after she matured and realized it was stupid to name her daughter Kelly just to stick it to Kelly Nelson’s wife, Morgan). [Jan.]
– Maureen Reardon returns to her hometown of Springfield (and comes on our screens for the first time) after a nasty divorce. She gets a job working as Ed Bauer’s secretary who was also recovering from a divorce. [Jan. 25]
– Carrie Todd and Ross Marler marry. [March]
– Jackie Marler (Phillip’s biological mother) is presumed dead in a plane crash. (In one of the most never say die descriptions I’ve ever seen, I saw listed on a website in 2009 that they hadn’t found the body, YET.) [July]
– Quint Chamberlian and Nola Reardon share a first kiss after almost a year of close misses.
– Guiding Light wins second Best Show Emmy.
– Search for Tomorrow canceled by CBS and moves to NBC.

1983 – Ed Bauer and Maureen Reardon are married. [Feb. 14]
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/ed-and-maureen-valentine-wedding
– Billy Lewis and his daughter Mindy (Melinda Sue) Lewis arrive in Springfield. [May-June]
– Nola Reardon is married to Quint Chamberlain. [June 24]
– Former GL head writer Agnes Nixon starts off a new soap with a 2 hour Sunday night movie, Loving. [June 26]
– Phillip Spaulding and Beth Raines meet. [June]
– Rick Bauer and the rest of the Four Musketeers attend prom and graduate from high school.
– Eli Sims (Annabelle Sims Reardon’s father) murders Bill Bauer. [Aug. 8]
– Maureen Reardon and Ed Bauer find out they are pregnant. [Aug. 9].
– Phillip Spaulding learns that Justin and Jackie Marler are his biological parents. [Aug. 26]
– Bert Bauer experiences pain in her leg which eventually has to be amputated and she is given an artificial leg, reflecting the actress’ real life position. Bert volunteers as a patient advocate at Cedars. [Fall]
– Maureen Reardon Bauer has a miscarriage. [Aug. 15th]
-Alan Spaulding finds Billy Lewis’ ex-wife Reva Shayne Lewis and pays her to come to Springfield in an effort to break up the then engaged Billy Lewis and Vanessa Chamberlain.
– A primetime TV movie The Cradle Will Fall based on a book of the same name, but rewritten to use Guiding Light characters as the supporting cast airs.

1984 – Vanessa Chamberlain and Billy Lewis are married. [Feb.]
– The Four Musketeers run away to New York.
– Phillip Spaulding marries Mindy Lewis. Unfortunately it was only because she was pregnant with his child and had already moved on and fallen in love with Rick. [March]
– Alexandra Spaulding, then Baroness van Halkien (by marriage) returns to Springfield and first appears on the Guiding Light. Other new residents include Fletcher Reade, Kyle Sampson, India van Halkien, and Roxie Shayne.
– Annabelle Sims and Tony Reardon are married. [May]
– Anthony James, [then Anthony James, now J.] named for two of Nola’s brothers after a fan call in vote, is born to Quint and Nola Chamberlain. [May]
– H. B. Lewis and Reva Shayne marry. [May]
– Hope Bauer left town.
– Hillary Bauer is killed by an exploding music box. It also destroyed Tony and Annabelle Reardon’s beloved cottage. Susan Piper had sent it to the Reardons to keep them from discovering the secret of the cottage. [Sept. 24]
– Mike Bauer was written off the show and the actor playing Ed was replaced. [October]
– Claire Ramsey deflowers one of her medical students, Rick Bauer.
– Ed and Maureen Bauer have troubles when Maureen becomes the hospital administrator at Cedars and therefore Ed’s boss. He’d always been the one with money and power before and didn’t take the change well.
– Beth Raines is blinded when Phillip hires someone to sabotage Lujack’s club and he goes too far, planting a bomb.
– India von Halkein blackmails Phillip Spaulding into marrying her. Their constant fighting eventually turns to love. [Dec.]
– This is the year of the infamous fountain scene where Reva Shayne baptizes herself the “Slut of Springfield.” It’s often shown out of context. Reva and H.B. are married at the time. Josh gets in a drunken crash after hearing the news and is paralyzed. They move him into H.B.’s house and Reva takes care of him. Josh is exposed to their normal chemistry and in his current state (jealous and physically frustrated) sees it as Reva trying to sexually torture him and he treats her accordingly until this outburst makes him realize what he’s doing to her. Frankly I prefer the scene in the hot tub that moved the story along further about this same time, but this is the one they run over and over again. It is later heavily referenced in two future remakes, one with Josh and Reva’s clone and one with Reva and her long abandoned son Jonathan.
– Bert Bauer’s leg is removed after Charita Bauer’s real-life surgery.
– Bert Bauer last aired before Charita Bauer’s real life death. [Dec. 10]
– Alan Spaulding is assumed dead after he disappears in San Rios after the Dreaming Dead fiasco comes to a head, after Lesly Ann’s death.
– The Edge of Night airs final episode.
– Catch Spauldingfield’s summary of the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xCNsgq7f3k

1985 – Ed and Maureen Bauer, Fletcher Reade and Claire Ramsey travel to Beruit. They are separated and when Ed and Claire think Maureen and Fletcher are dead, they share grief sex conceiving Michelle. [Feb.]
– Warren Andrews opens the Blue Orchid nightclub.
– Michelle is born to Claire Ramsey and Ed Bauer. [Oct.]
– Harlan Billy Lewis III (then Little Billy, now Bill) is born to Billy and Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis.  When the show ended, he and his wife Lizzie were expecting H.B. IV.  [Nov.]
– Lujack dies. [Dec.]
– Charita Bauer dies in real life.

1986 – Bert Bauer passed away after her portrayer, Charita Bauer,  also passed. [Feb. 28]
– Ben Stoddard, later Ben Reade, is born to Maeve Stoddard and Kyle Sampson. [May]
– Rick develops his drug problem.
– Dr. Claire Ramsey tries to smother her daughter Michelle Bauer with a pillow, but she is saved when Michelle’s father Ed Bauer walks in.
– During Christmas the Bauers learn Cedars will be building a new wing of the hospital named after Bert. [Dec.]
– Search for Tomorrow airs its last episode. [Friday, Dec. 26] (It’s replacement, the game show Word Play initially beat SFT ratings, but then they dropped like a stone and it too was cancelled before the end of 1987.)
– Guiding Light won its third Emmy for writing.
– Guiding Light celebrated its 10,000th episode [Sept. 18]

1987 – Marah Lewis is born to Josh and Reva, although circumstances made it look like maybe Kyle Sampson was her father for awhile. They created the name of Marah by combing their mothers’ names, Martha and Sarah.
– The Bold and the Beautiful debuts on CBS. [March 23]
– The Guiding Light celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a week of special shows with a climax on July 3rd.
– Parental Guidance Ratings are enacted for all TV shows including soaps. [Feb.]
– The Lincoln Center hosts a black tie event in honor of Guiding Light‘s 50th Anniversary [June 29]

1988 – Fletcher Reade and Maeve Stoddard are married at the Bauer BBQ. Fletcher adopts Mauve’s son with Kyle Sampson and gives him his last name, Ben Reade. Very shortly after the marriage Maeve is killed in a helicopter crash while covering a news story. [July 4]
– Rick Bauer marries Fletcher Reade’s sister Meredith, knowing she’s pregnant, but not knowing it’s Phillip’s child off a one-night stand. He will not find out until after the baby is aborted to save Meredith’s life. They go to live at the lighthouse.
-Writers Strike of the Writers Guild of America, had soaps written by scabs for 5 months.

1989 – A plane carrying Fletcher Reade and Alexandra Spaulding crash lands and they are assumed killed. In reality they are on a desert island and bond. They make it back to Springfield courtesy of a mysterious stranger Adam Malik.
– Alan-Michael Spaulding and Harley Cooper were married. [Feb. 22]
– Alan Spaulding tried to shoot his ex-lover Blake Thorpe at the altar to prevent her from marrying his son Phillip. Adam Malik arrived to save the day, but unfortunately the wild shot wounded Phillip instead. Adam Malik was injured in the rescue attempt and revealed to really be Roger Thorpe, Blake’s father.
-Alan-Michael Spaulding and Harley Cooper marry. Although they claim it is only to get his inheritance there are real feelings there, but they have both been hurt so much in the past, it’s very hard for them to admit them or fight for the kind of marriage they both want.
-Beth Raines is revealed to be alive, but lost her memory and not knowing her identity. Alan Spaulding had faked the proof of her death at the time of her disappearance, assuming she was dead and thinking he was helping Phillip let go.
– Josh Lewis and Reva Shayne have their first wedding to each other at Cross Creek. This is the best soap wedding ever. (That’s not favoritism, they also hold the honor of the worst – when she wore the blue dress at the Beacon.) [July 18]
– Roger Thorpe began to purchase property for an urban renewal project that would eventually be known as Towers. He called it Blakewood Towers after Blake, but it was later renamed it Waterview Towers.
– Billy Lewis’s old friend Hampton Speakes retires from the NFL and comes to Springfield where he will open a nightclub with Billy.
– A year in review video the narrative part starts roughly 4:30 in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oRIsHnS9eo

– Ryan’s Hope airs its final episode. [Jan. 13]

1990 – After a separation that saw Maureen kiss Fletcher and Ed renew an affair with Holly, the Bauers renewed their vows. [Jan.]
-5th Street burns in a fire.
-Reva Shayne Lewis, crazed by postpartum depression, drives off an incomplete bridge, thinking she is getting to Josh. Sam Marler (Justin and Jackie’s daughter, Phillip Spaulding’s biological sister) barely jumps out of the speeding car in time to avoid dying with her.
– Guiding Light wins its third Emmy for writing.

1991 – Beth Raines marries Phillip Spaulding on Valentine’s Day. [Feb. 14]
– Harley Cooper attends the police academy.
– Guiding Light changes its theme song.
– Generations airs final episode. [January 15]

1992 – Bridget Reardon (then in hiding in Nadine and Billy’s attic) causes a blackout across Springfield when she turns on every electrical appliance she owns during a brown out. (The straw that broke the camel’s back was her hairdryer.) Across town jewel thief Jenna Bradshaw realizes her jig is up and tries to get back the jewels she hid in Mindy Lewis’s suitcase and escape her wedding reception. She makes it into the elevator just as the power goes out. She is not alone. Michelle Bauer was in the elevator and Jenna’s efforts to stay and comfort Michelle when she could have been making her escape led to a strong bond between the two until Jenna’s untimely death. The Bloss relationship begins as Ross Marler and Blake Thorpe make love in the dark.
– Lillian Raines is diagnosed with breast cancer. Ed Bauer supports her during her recovery and they have an affair, although Maureen thinks Lillian is one of her best friends.
– CBS honors Guiding Light’s 40th Anniversary on Television with a prime time special. [June 12]

– This series of commercials hits many of the story high points of 1992.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Spauldingfield#p/u/33/_t4ZgkbtOpk

1993 – Maureen Bauer dies in a tragic car accident. She donated her organs with her heart being transplanted into Jesse Blue. [Jan. 11]
– Harley Cooper goes with A.C. Mallet to find her father’s name on the Vietnam Memorial. She’s shocked when it isn’t there. Eventually it is revealed that Buzz Cooper is still alive and he returns to Springfield.
– Harley Cooper married A.C. Mallet and they leave Springfield for Florida.
– Guiding Light wins an Emmy for best writing.
– Santa Barbara airs its last episode. [Jan. 15]
– Spauldingfield has created an 18 minute summary of the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1pXAIyXUxw

1994 – Ross Marler marries Blake Thorpe. [June 13]
– After Billy Lewis is arrested for shooting Roger (he thought he was a threat to Peter, Billy’s adopted son and Roger’s grandson), Vanessa Chamberlain goes on vacation and meets Matt Reardon and begins a May-December romance.
– Frank and Eleni Cooper marry.
– Spauldingfield has created a 15 minute summary of the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEOxBGeQiBg

1995 – Ed Bauer marries Eve Guthrie and she is diagnosed with a possibly fatal condition. Eve dies and Michelle and Ed leave for Europe. Ed returns, but leaves Michelle there at a boarding school in Switzerland. She returned later that same year as a SORAS-ed teenager in the form of Rebecca Budig.
– Josh Lewis rescues Marina Cooper from a fire on 5th street.
– Vanessa Chamberlain marries Matt Reardon, Maureen’s nephew.
– Alan Spaulding discovers Reva Shayne alive and well and living as an Amish woman in Goshen, IN with no memories of her prior life. One of her best friends there soon follows her to Springfield, Abby Blume.
– Loving airs final episode. [November 10]

1996 – Brent Lawrence holds Lucy Cooper and Alan-Michael Spaulding hostage at the light house. The Bauer family had rented it out previously, but no one wants to live there after that.
– Alan-Michael Spaulding and Lucy Cooper marry at Universal Studios Theme Park in Florida.
– Ed Bauer resigns as Chief of Staff at Cedars and goes to Africa to do research. He leaves a teenaged Michelle behind in Rick’s care.
– Meta Bauer returns to Springfield and moves in with her great-niece and great-nephew, Michelle and Rick.
– Michelle briefly dated her adopted first cousin J. Chamberlain and then Zachary (Angel Boy) Smith.
– Larry Gates who played H. B. Lewis died at age 81 on Dec. 12th.

1997 – Guiding Light celebrates its 60th anniversary with a ball celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of Cedars Hospital and the new hospital wing named in honor of Vanessa Chamberlain Reardon (who was faking her death at the time). The entire town gathered together to get the lighthouse going to save some people lost on the lake.
– CBS Soaps in Depth comes out with their first issue on March 11th. It has a cover date of March 25th (the pull date).
– Nearly 4.8 million people watch Guiding Light between Sept. 22, 1997 to Sept. 20, 1998.
– The City airs its final episode. [March 28]
– Ben Warren, Ross Marler’s half-brother, comes to Springfield. [Nov. 5]
– Spauldingfield’s take on 1997 in Springfield. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ag4a0lNOo

1998 -Rick Bauer marries Abigail (Abby) Blume. [Feb. 20]
– Mick Santos first appears on Guiding Light. His first appearance is as a ringer Drew Jacobs hired to take Jesse Blue’s money in a poker game and keep Jesse dependent on Drew. [Aug. 20]
– Mick Santos first beats Jesse at poker, then he loan sharks Jesse some money, and is revealed to be Blen’s blackmailer all on one day and a Tuesday to boot. [Sept. 1]
– Millennium grand opening. [Oct. 15-16]
– Michelle Bauer accidentally kills Mick Santos while he is attacking her. [Nov. 4]
– Joie Lenz’s first day airing as Michelle. [Nov. 5]
– Danny Santos first appears on Guiding Light. He was only played by Paul Anthony Stewart. He intimidates the replacement bartender into quitting and takes his place after giving a great speech of his prowess behind the bar. [Nov. 13]
– Danny Santos and Michelle Bauer have their first private conversation. (Water Glasses Scene) [Nov. 16]
– Mick Santos’s funeral is held off screen. [Between Nov. 16th and 24th]
– Michelle Bauer hosts Thanksgiving for most of the bar at Millennium after an incident with Marina Cooper and Lizzie Spaulding brings everyone there. Danny Santos is accused of kidnapping them, but instead saves their lives. [Nov. 24-25]
– As part of his campaign to push Jesse Blue into admitting he killed Mick, Danny comes up to Michelle outside the 5th Street Diner and they share their first kiss. (Diner Kiss) [Dec. 3]
– After Jenna Bradshaw Cooper realized Holly Thorpe Reade is the Nursery Rhyme Stalker, her ramblings let Jeffery Morgan know that Jenna’s youngest child is his. Jenna kills him and herself in a car accident to prevent him from getting her children. [Dec. 7]
– Danny audits the psychology class that Michelle is taking and they have an argument over Inkblots. They meet at the Mall to hash it out. [Dec. 15]
– Alan Spaulding presents his granddaughter Lizzie with an engraved briefcase, promising her that some day she will run Spaulding Enterprises. [Dec. 24]
– Manny share the “Morning Sexy” kiss and Jesse schemes (in what hereafter will be known as the dumbest plan ever) to leave town for good thinking that will keep Danny away from Michelle. [Dec. 29]
– Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announces a large TV studio to be opened in downtown New York City. The proposal was to be called Hollywood on the Hudson, officially Hudson River Studios A big advantage is supposed to be that Guiding Light and As the World Turns will film there along with primetime shows. It will be cancelled in November 1999.
– Proctor and Gamble and Michael Zaslow reach a “mutually acceptable settlement” in a wrongful termination lawsuit. Zaslow will die of Lou Gehrig’s disease later that year.

1999 – After Drew Jacobs tells Danny that Michelle killed Mick, Danny confronts Michelle in the alley behind Millenium. [Jan. 5]
– Danny Santos marries Michelle Bauer in a civil service, designed to save her life. [Jan. 8]
– Amy Ecklund who played Abby Blume Bauer got a Cochlear Implant in real life. Her character followed suit a few months later. [Jan.]
– The Bauer and Santos families meet for the first time a luncheon Carmen arranges at the Lakeland Country Club. [Jan. 14-15]
– Michelle and Danny set up Jesse to discover them together in bed at the lighthouse. [Feb. 1]
– Danny and Michelle renew their vows in a Catholic service. (Date approximate as the wedding airs over 3 days) [Feb. 17]
– Michelle makes her first contact with the FBI when they raid Casa Santos on their wedding night.
– Michelle overhears Danny tell Abuela he loves Michelle. She is then determined to save him for the trap she set with the FBI and plays blind to keep him away from the docks. [March 5]
– Michelle can no longer take lying to Danny after he takes such good care of her and she confesses the truth about faking her blindness and calling the FBI. [March 18]
– Danny reacts to Michelle’s betrayal by getting drunk and sleeping with Drew Jacobs. [March 19]
– Danny and Michelle agree to separate which is the start of the annulment separation. [March 23]
– Even though the marriage is over Danny blackmails Carmen to keep Michelle safe. [March 24]

– Intending to leave for California, when Danny learns Carmen intends to kill Michelle, he races back to save her and is hurt in a car crash on the way. [May 3]
– Danny and Michelle reunite when they both realize the pain of being without each other is worse than the pain they’ve caused each other. They forgive each other, but Michelle tells Danny she can’t live with his being in the mob long term and he promises to either leave his family business or legitimize it. [May 13]
– Carmen Santos and Ben Warren’s plan to draw Danny back to the family with a fake hit on Casa Santos almost takes a deadly turn as Pilar Santos and Bill Lewis find themselves in the paths of the bullets. Danny swears he will find out who did this and make sure his family is safe before he leaves. Michelle already smells something fishy about the whole thing. [May 14]
– Abby Blume Bauer’s cochlear implant surgery is a success (with one minor technology glitch) and she can now hear. [Early June]
– After staying apart to keep Michelle safe, Danny now feels the situation is under control and makes plans with Michelle to renew their vows after his cousin Father Ray Santos performs his first Mass for the family on Friday. [June 10]
– Danny and Michelle renewing their vows is disrupted by a bomb in the church (planted by Dietz and Nino), but Michelle refuses to be separated from Danny again and vows to stand by his side no matter what the danger, but first reveals that Carmen herself set up the attack on the house. [June 14]
– Danny tries to send Michelle to San Cristobel for her own safety until things calm down, but she refuses to go. “1000 Guns” speech. [June 17]
– After failing to convince Michelle to leave Danny for her own safety, Rick arranges to have Michelle kidnapped and placed on a 72 hour psychiatric hold. [June 21]
– Danny and Michelle freak out when they are kept from seeing each other and when reasoning with Rick fails, Danny plots with Abby to make Rick think Danny kidnapped Abby to force Rick’s hand. Notice that despite what Rick thinks about him, Danny doesn’t really attempt to use any real “muscle” in the situation when he easily could have. [June 29]
– Rick finally confesses everything, after Danny refusing to let Michelle stay in there the 10 days Dr. Bradford wants her to after Carmen set her off in a fury breaks her out. [June 30]

– Danny and Michelle renew their vows at Laurel Falls because they are now together for real with Father Ray officiating. Immediately afterward they FINALLY consummate the marriage. [July 4]
– Coming back ecstatic from their overnight sojourn in the woods, Danny and Michelle quickly pack for an impromptu honeymoon in San Cristobel and Carmen (still thinking 6 moves ahead on the chess board) presents them the family summer home there as a wedding present. [July 5]
– Danny and Michelle arrive in San Cristobel and while they are distracted with Jeva getting in trouble, meeting Prince Edmund, and Carmen’s plan of getting Michelle used to taking in chocolates, mostly they just constantly make love and have a terrific time together. [July 8-19]
– Danny agrees to fly Josh Lewis into San Cristobel illegally to try to rescue Reva who is currently being held at the palace. At first Danny agrees to Josh’s terms not to tell Michelle, after they have a tiff about it, Danny tells her everything. They also have a two-part discussion on how much things have changed between them and how much that means to them. [July 22-29]
– The Reva Rescue Ranger storyline takes off as half the cast, including Danny and Michelle, plot on how to get Reva Shayne Lewis out of San Cristobel and away from Prince Richard Winslow. [July 30]
– Michelle and Danny have their first all out married fight, when Michelle insists on risking her safety to help Reva and Danny refuses to agree to letting her involve herself further in the Lewis’s troubles. [Aug. 6]
– Danny is talked into helping and finally agrees to let Michelle help after they both spend a miserable night in separate beds. [Aug. 10]
– After Carmen talks Danny into including smuggling some bonds into the Rescue Reva plan, Danny talks to his father’s memory and wonders if he’ll ever be able to free himself and Michelle like he promised her. “Pocket Watch Soliloquy” [Aug. 17]
– Reva Rescue Rangers leave on the Santos Yacht for San Cristobel. [Aug. 19]
– Ben Warren is murdered. [Nov. 16]
– Another World airs final episode. [June 25]
– Sunset Beach airs final episode. [Dec. 31]
– Passions debuts on NBC. [July 5]

2000 – Danny and Michelle divorce after various martial stresses when Michelle decides Danny can never free himself of the web of violence that holds him and she can’t endanger their unborn child by remaining with him. [Oct. 4]
-Joie Lenz’s last day as Michelle. [Oct. 4]
-Nancy St. Alban’s first day as Michele. [Oct. 27]
– Guiding Light starts selling replicas of jewelry worn on the show.

In the end, Michelle and Danny were married 6 times and only to each other. In order they were off screen civil ceremony (legal ceremony), Big Santos Family Wedding (vow renewal, but church service and official wedding date in Catholic Church), Private Ceremony with Ray officiating at Laurel Falls (vow renewal), rushed family wedding during various crises and fallout surrounding Robbie’s birth at Laurel Falls at night in March (legal ceremony), Bauer BBQ surprise wedding thrown by Tony and Marah (legal ceremony – and the 2nd time they married on the 4th of July), and wedding in Bauer Kitchen (legal ceremony). This made a grand total of 6 weddings with 4 being legal ceremonies and two vow renewals. As no further action was mentioned at the BBQ the time between Nov. 2005 and Sept. 2009 marks the longest time they’ve ever gone without having some kind of wedding. Although there were multiple marriages, they were only ever married to each other which I think is some kind of soap opera record because I can’t think of another couple who were on a soap that long that can make a similar claim.

2001 -Michelle and Danny remarry in a rushed family wedding during various crises and fallout surrounding Robbie’s birth at Laurel Falls at night (legal ceremony). [March 26]
– The Bold and the Beautiful became the first US soap to simulcast in Spanish.

2002 – A collection of clips showing the highlights of 2002.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y5WPprAoy4&feature=grec
– A second collection of clips of highlights of 2002, it includes footage of the wonderful 4th of July fantasy sequences and Olivia and Cassie rolling around in the mud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QNceUy0JYI

2003 – In the aftermath of Danny deciding he must remove himself from Michelle and Robbie to protect them until he can find a final solution for Carmen and Danny faking his own death and without telling Michelle he was alive, Manny divorce. [Feb. 17]
– Danny and Michelle remarry at the Bauer BBQ in a surprise wedding thrown by Danny’s cousin Tony Santos and Tony’s girlfriend Marah Lewis  (legal ceremony – and the 2nd time they married on the 4th of July). [July 4]
– Ross Marler and Blake Thorpe remarry in Christmas themed wedding at the Beacon. [Dec. 24]
– A collection of clips from 2003, includes a lot of GusH and Marony, some Manny, Marah’s fashion show, Shayne’s baseball dreams, and Tony trying to get rid of a bomb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YpY0-9cwc
– Port Charles airs final episode. [October 3]

2004 – Ellen Wheeler, who will oversee Guiding Light’s demise, takes over as executive producer.
– There are 8 network broadcast TV soap operas. Ad spending was $1.15 billion.
– Spauldingfield’s excellent summary of 2004. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMA6EAmckuY&feature=related
– Another set of clips of 2004 highlights, in the running for one of the worst years of Guiding Light ever, it wasn’t without some highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW7NHSH9Xyc

2005 – CBS starts offering podcasts of Guiding Light episodes. A podcast of an entire episode was just 30 minutes. Producer Janet Morrison spent 4 hours converting a TV episode to a podcast. A voiceover is recorded telling listeners where they are in the story. Sound effects, like footsteps  and kisses, are amplified. Morrison watches without the video to pull out moments of silence and pare it down to 30 minutes. Listeners could also just follow certain stories.
– Danny and Michelle get a quickie Las Vegas divorce that Tony pushed for while she is still suffering the after effects of major brain trauma. [April 21]
– Danny and Michelle remarry in the Bauer kitchen after regaining both her memory and their daughter Hope. [Nov. 21]
– Danny and Michelle Santos leave Springfield with their two children, Robbie and Hope. Their plans are to go help Ed with his efforts to help in the Hurricane Katrina fallout and then return with him to California where Michelle will work in Ed’s clinic and Danny will open some kind of unspecified new business. Their plans were all confirmed as to have happened on screen in July 2009. [Nov. 22]
– Harley Cooper is named Spaulding Enterprise’s new CEO.

2006 – Guiding Light begins a new feature called “Inside the Light” with every Wednesday episode being a special standalone episode. For more information, see its listing on the Soap Opera Jargon page. [Jan. 4]
– Guiding Light airs a special Mother’s Day special. It features ghostly returns of Nadine Cooper, Jenna Bradshaw Cooper, and Sarah Shayne. [May 10]
– In honor of the 15,000th episode of Guiding Light they aired an alternative universe episode. [Sept. 7]
– Ad spending on the 8 network soaps fell to $1.15 billion.
– CBS introduces a program calling Daytime Dollars which offered cash prizes for watching soaps.

2007 – About 2.6 million watched Guiding Light either live or on the same day between Sept. 24, 2007 and Jan. 13, 2008.
– Guiding Light airs a special episode that honors the history of the show by having the current actors recreate what the show was like at that point in time. Beth Ehlers did an outstanding job portraying Guiding Light creator Irna Phillips. [Jan. 25]
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/70th-anniversary-history-recreated-episode
– Guiding Light kicked off a year of service to celebrate the show’s anniversary with the Inside the Light: Hurricane Katrina episode. [Feb. 14]
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/hands-on-katrina-inside-the-light
– Using the excuse of a gas leak, the Bauer BBQ is held on the Main Street set. Rick Bauer marries his high school crush Beth Raines. [July 4]
– Guiding Light wins Best Show Emmy (tie with The Young and the Restless) and Best Writing Emmy.

2008 – Guiding Light unveils a “new format” that involves permanent sets constructed both in the studio in New York (where they made use of every odd cranny they could find – Ellen Wheeler’s office is even used as a set), a “show house” in Peapack, New Jersey, and real locations shot outdoors around Peapack. Production quality dropped as dollied cameras were replaced with hand held models with the camera men jammed in. Sound quality was one of the biggest concerns of this new model because actors weren’t properly mic-ed or given rehearsal time to check levels. Most post-production hallmarks of the legendary soap from flashbacks, to voice overs, to musical montages were dropped at this point. [Feb. 29]
– Having just been dumped by his wife Beth right before the 4th, Rick tries to bail on the BBQ. Josh and Cassie decide to host it at the Jessup Farm instead, and despite having decided this the morning of July 4th are somehow able to get several inflatables rented and set up. Bill shows up and despite all his own problems (with his stupid decision to marry Ava that week even though he now knows she’s been lying to him and the baby she’s carrying isn’t his and that he really loves Lizzie Spaulding) says he was talking by Michelle by phone and if Rick didn’t at least come to the BBQ, Bill was under Michelle’s orders to track him down and drag him there. So glad they mentioned her and showed they were talking off screen, but Michelle would have been on the next plane. [July 4]

2009 -Phillip Spaulding returns to Springfield after an absence of 4 years on the run. [Feb. 2] Grant Aleksander’s return sparks a renaissance of storyline in the show.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7O2fMVNn4s&feature=grec
– The Four Musketeers reunite at their 25th High School reunion.
– CBS cancels the Guiding Light. [April 1]
– At the time of cancellation Guiding Light was attracting 2.1 million viewers per episode which was only slightly less than General Hospital, but roughly half that (4.95 million viewers) of the CBS game show The Price is Right.
– Bizzie and much of the cast return to the site of LAM wedding, Universal Studios.
– Danny and Michelle return with Robbie and Hope for the annual Bauer BBQ. [July 2-4]
– Bill Lewis and Lizzie Spaulding are married now and forever.  Michelle attends, but Danny stayed back in California with the kids who both came down with something. [July 13]
– Danny Santos returns to Springfield to meet with some former business associates he knew when he was running the bar. His two scenes are with Marina Cooper at Company. He expresses how happy he and Michelle are and what a great life they have now.  [July 23]
– The last day of shooting in the studio. [Aug. 7]
– The last day of shooting on location. [Aug. 11]
– The first Farewell Springfield event is held at the Paley Center in New York City. [Aug. 19]
– Billy Lewis and Vanessa Chamberlain reunite and remarry. [Sept. 14]
– Alan Spaulding really, truly dies. [Sept. 15]
– Danny, Michelle, Robbie, and Hope Santos move back to Springfield permanently. [Sept. 17]
– Last television episode aired. [Sept. 18]
-So Long Springfield farewell events for Guiding Light cast with dates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [Oct. 24 & 25], Atlanta, Georgia [Nov. 7] and Las Vegas, Neveda. [Dec. 5]
– Guiding Light‘s sister soap As the World Turns is canceled by CBS. [Dec.]

2010 – So Long Springfield farewell event for Guiding Light in Connecticut. [March 7]
– Goodbye Guiding Light event held in Tampa, Florida. [March 27]
– Castners Auction & Appraisal Service held an auction for Guiding Light props in Brooklyn, NY, but P&G refused to let them use the GL name in advertising the auction. [May 1]
– Guiding Light‘s sister soap As the World Turns‘s sets go dark. [June 23]
– So Long Springfield cruise. [July 31 – Aug. 5]
– As the World Turns airs final episode. [Sept. 17]
-Mindy Lewis and Rick Bauer got married, according to the final episode’s fast forward. [Sept. 19]

2011 – Prospect Park announces plans to revive both All My Children and One Life to Live as part of a streaming package. [July 7]
– All My Children airs its last episode on ABC. [Sept. 23]
– As the World Turns Sampler DVD set – the first DVD set of a modern era soap -is announced and released. [Oct. 13]
– As the World Turns Christmas DVD set released. [Nov. 22]

2012 – One Life to Live airs its last episode on ABC. [Jan. 13]
– First Guiding Light Sampler Set released. [Jan. 18]
– Single disc Reva Shayne themed Guiding Light DVD released. [Feb. 10]
– Soap Classics starts limited streaming of As the World Turns episodes. [Feb. 26]
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/02/soapclassics-begins-streaming-as-world.html
– Couple Theme DVD set featuring CarJack: Carly Tenney and Jack Snyder from As the World Turns is released. [March 3]
– Guiding Light stops airing in Italy after 30 years on Wed., March 7, 2012. The last episode shown is a random one from 2007.
– Single disc Phillip Spaulding themed Guiding Light DVD released. [March 23]
– Couple Theme DVD set featuring Lily Walsh and Holden Snyder from As the World Turns is released. [March 30]
– The Bauer Family DVD set featuring 10 episodes centered around the Bauer family from 1973 through 2009 is released. [April 17]
– Farewell to Oakdale, last 10 episodes of As the World Turns is released on DVD. [May 4]
– Farewell to Springfield, last 10 episodes of Guiding Light is released on DVD. [May 15]
– The James Stenbeck Story featuring 10 iconic As the World Turns episodes from Stenbeck’s life from 1980 to 1989.
– Bob and Kim’s Wedding, the 10 episodes surrounding Bob and Kim Hughes’ 1985 wedding on As the World Turns. [August 15]
– Trial of Jennifer Richards, 10 episodes surrounding the second murder trial of Jennifer Richards on Guiding Light. [October 11]

2013 -The online versions of both All My Children and One Life to Live are both officially announced to be on long term hiatus and most likely not returning to production anytime soon. [September]
– Prospect Park announces final shutdown and declares bankruptcy. [December]
– SoapNet completely shuts down. [December 31]

2022 – NBC announces that Days of Our Lives will move to its streaming system Peacock. [August]
– The last scheduled network broadcast of Days of Our Lives is pre-empted for a speech by King Charles talking about Queen Elizabeth and his becoming king. [September 9]
– Days of Our Lives starts to air exclusively on the paid part of the Peacock streaming service. [September 12]
– The online soap The Bay created and acted in by former and present soap stars is picked up by the Peacock network. [September]

Sources

Bodovitz, Sandra. “At 50, ‘Guiding Light’ Recalls Its Past.” New York Times 30 June 1987: B6.

Chozick, Amy. “Television: The Longest-Running Drama Ends” Wall Street Journal 5 September 2009: W7.

Cox, Jim. The A to Z of American Radio Soap Operas. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009. Print.

Francis, Judy. “Historical Treaure: Do You Have ‘Washday Blues’?” Terre Haute Tribune Star 19 September 2009.

Grant, Jeremy. “P&G Reaches Milestone of Soap Production with Ratings for its 50-year-old TV soap in decline.” Financial Times (London) 1 April 2006: 9.

Itzkoff, Dave. “Its light extinguished, a canceled soap opera sells its scenery.” New York Times 27 April 2010.

“Light Bright” Soap Opera Digest 31 January 2012. pp. 66-69

News Reports of Guiding Light Cancellation

Poll, Julie. Guiding Light: The Complete Family Album. Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1997.

“Reel to Real.” Soap Opera Digest. 11 August 2009: 79.

Schemering, Christopher. Guiding Light: A 50th Anniversary Celebration. New York: Ballentine Books, 1987.

Scott, Walter. “Personality.” Parade. 26 June 2011: 2.

Sherman, Shantgella. “Longest Running Soap Opera Ends Friday.” Washington Informer 17 September 2009: 26.

Stuart, Elliott. “To Bolster Audience, Soaps Turn to the Web.” New York Times 2 March 2006: C3.

“Television drama.” (2000) In The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cupthea/television_drama

Traister, Rebecca. “The Soap Opera is Dead! Long Live the Soap Opera!” New York Times 23 September 2011.

Vara, Vauhini. “Podcasting ‘Guiding Light.'” Wall Street Journal 19 October 2005: D16.

Various Webpages of SoapCentral.com

Waldman, Allison J. “GL Through the Years” Television Week 26.4 22 January 2007: 36-37.

Mannyland Website

http://www.angelfire.com/ar/Rabby

http://www.kimzimmer.net

http://www.celebrityeventsgroup.com/so-long-springfield.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/Blossees

http://www.soap-news.com/gl/gldates.htm

http://www.youtube.com/user/soaploversuniversity

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/08/flashback-search-canceled-replaced-by.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/10/historyoctober2.html

Last Updated: September 17, 2022

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