Soaps The History Part 1 Guiding Light

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]

Today is Guiding Light‘s original birthday as a 15 minute radio soap opera. I have been working on retyping this article for quite awhile and saved it for today. I should mention that the original articles DOES have quite a few black and white photos. I’m still debating whether to scan them or not. If I decide to go ahead I’ll link the post here.

Back before the internet was a thing, specialized information about long term stories was hard to get. Often people would struggle long and hard and have to be lucky to get the right sources to produce histories of how things came to be. Now, on my blog alone, you can get a good idea about Guiding Light and how it came to be, but it used to be that such resources weren’t around. However, printing presses were. Access to a printing press used to give such a power to create and even though it’s now easier to create, it’s also less special and often less specialized. One soap magazine, Afternoon TV, would periodically do a special issue. This particular issue tells the history of soap operas.

Soap history can be a tricky thing, especially pre-roughly mid 1990s when people started to record what happened each day online. So much happens that it can be an easy thing to over simplify or miss a detail that’s important to the over all story or that particular plotline whether the forgetting is either knowingly or not. For instance, both Phillip Spaulding’s adoptive mother and the love of his life are named Elizabeth. [The head writer who created Beth didn’t know that Phillip’s adoptive mother even existed much less knew her name and apparently didn’t think to ask.] Do you tell the history of how Henry Chamberlain came to town with his own company (what we saw happen) or the history that Henry Chamberlain had worked with Brandon Spaulding to build up Spaulding Enterprises and Carmen Santos envied their social position (what they told us happened later)? Do you say that Alan Spaulding moved to town and bought a house (what we saw happen) or that the family lived in the house where Alan AND Alexandra grew up (what they told us happened later)? So that being said any soap opera history is going to have issues. I do not personally stake that this one is a correct account of the first roughly 35 years of Guiding Light history, but this is what they told us the history was in 1983. The article spells the Rev. John Ruthledge’s name as Rev. Rudledge. I confirmed it in the book he “wrote” that Ruthledge was correct. I added quite a few notes correcting some things and explaining why I did others a certain way.

The Guiding Light

The Guiding Light first made its debut on the radio on January 25, 1937. The Fifteen-minute show, created by Irna Phillips, had as its central character the Reverend Ruthledge, a minister who tended his flock in a place called Five Points, USA. Reverend Ruthledge soon became a most beloved figure in homes throughout America, and a book of his Good Friday sermons is reputed to have sold over a quarter of a million copies. [See Note 1] The good minister did not survive the transition to TV and remained Five Points. [See Note 2]

The legendary Bauer family, which forms the core of the show did not make their appearances on the radio show until the late forties. [See Note 3] In those early days, the family was composed of Papa Bauer, played by Viennese actor Theo Goetz, Mama Bauer, and their three children; Bill, Meta, and Trudy. [See Note 4] Mama died soon after the Bauer clan joined the show and shortly thereafter Bill married Bertha or Bert as she was to be affectionately known by millions of devoted viewers. The role was acted at first by an actress named Ann Shepard, but she left after a year and Charita Bauer replaced her. The year was 1950. Man people believe, quiet erroneously, that the Bauer family name was inspired by Charita‘s. In reality the fact that her name and that her character are identical is strictly coincidental.

The Guiding Light was first telecast on June 30, 1952. Like all the early soaps, it had a 15-minute format and it was broadcast live and in black and white, During the many years it was presented to the public, born on radio and television. The actors and the story lines were identical. The local was changed to Selby Flats, and then to Springfield. [See Note 5]

Theo Goetz played Papa Bauer until his death. He was for many years one of the most beloved characters in daytime drama. When he died, millions mourned his passing. Of his children only Meta and Bill continued in the show. Trudy was quickly phased out of the story lines after the show went on television. Meta, who was a strong, self-motivated character, survived for many years. She began her scandalous career by running away when she was young to become a model. Soon however, she became pregnant and was forced to marry. The marriage didn’t last very long and she ended by divorcing her husband. [Note 6] The child [Chuckie] that was born of that unhappy union was tragically killed and Meta murdered her ex-husband whom she blamed for the death of her child. A newspaperman called Joe Roberts helped her get acquitted, and later on they were married. Joe had a daughter called Kathy, and she and Meta did not get along. The friction between them worsened when Joe died and both women fell in love with the same man, whose name was Mark Holden. Mark eventually married Kathy, and they had a daughter named Robin. Both Kathy and Robin were to become very important to the show’s story line and when Kathy died in 1958 audiences flooded the studio with their expressions of grief.

By 1959 the cast included the following characters and actors:

• Theo Goetz.……………………Papa Bauer
• Charita Bauer………………….Bert Bauer
• Ed Bryce…………………………..Bill Bauer
• Ellen Denning…………………Meta Bauer
• Bernard Grant…………………Dr. Paul Fletcher
• Whitfield Conor………………Mark Holden
• James Lipton……………………Dick Grant
• Lynne Rogers…………………..Marie Grant
• Abigail Kellog………………….Robin Holden
• Les Damon……………………….Bruce Banning
• Joan Gray………………………….Ann Fletcher
• Pat Collins…………………………Billy Bauer [aka Ed Bauer as an adult – ed.]
• Alice Yourman………………….Laura Grant
• Joe Campanella……………….Joe Turino

In the beginning of the show Bert was a domineering wife and an interfering mother, but she softened with the passing of the years. She and Bill had two sons, Mike, the oldest, and Ed. Mike was played as a child by a young actor named Glenn Walker, who was to become the film star Christopher Walken. The name Michael Bauer was chosen for the older Bauer boy because Charita Bauer had just had a son whom she had christened Michael. She asked the show’s producers to name her TV son after her own child, and they agreed.

In the course of the years Bill Bauer developed a drinking problem and caused a great deal of sorrow to Bert, especially when he had an affair with a woman called Maggie Scott. [Note 7] But he eventually broke up the relationship and became cured of his alcoholism. [Note 8] His son Ed, who also became an alcoholic, was helped by Bill in his struggle against alcohol. By the time Bill died, he was a model husband and father. [Note 9]

Mike and Robin Holden had a love affair which was met with much-opposition from Bert. Bill interceded on his son’s behalf which caused a great deal of friction between him and his wife. Even Meta, who had every reason to oppose the match, tried to keep Bert from interfering, but without much success. All the tensions and problems surrounding the relationship proved to be more than the young lovers could handle, and the romance eventually hit the rocks. Mike left Robin and went to Law school, and Robin married a real cad by the name of Alex Bowden. Mike also married the wrong woman, a neurotic character named Julie Conrad. [Note 10] They had a daughter whom they named Hope, but their marriage began to deteriorate due to Julie’s increasingly mental instability. She was eventually committed to an insane asylum where she later died. By this time Mike had graduated Law school and decided to leave Springfield with his daughter Hope. They somehow ended up as characters on Another World. [Note 11] The invalid lawyer who was to be Mike’s first law partner was called John Randolph and Mike found himself immediately attracted to Randolph’s wife Pat. In order to avoid creating a rupture in the Randolph’s marriage, Mike decided to return to Springfield.

By this time, Ed had become a doctor and had married the daughter of his chief at the hospital, Dr. Steve Jackson. The marriage between Leslie Jackson and Ed Bauer was never successful. Ed’s frequent bouts with alcoholism led him to abuse Leslie physically at times. Slowly she lost all her love for him. When Mike returned to Springfield, he and Leslie were thrown together and the inevitable happened, they fell in love. This created a very popular and sizzling story line which involved practically all of the characters on the show. The viewers immediately took sides and most of them favored a union between Leslie and Mike. Their wishes were eventually granted, but not right away. To begin with, Leslie became pregnant by Ed, and for the sake of her unborn child she decided to give her ailing marriage a second chance. Mike was crushed by her decision, and married on the rebound. His new wife, a nasty character by the name of Charlotte Waring, caused him a great deal of grief, not the least of which was her ill treatment of Hope. After much pain and soul searching and some very complicated story lines, Mike left Charlotte. She was later killed by a psychotic called Kit Vested, who worked as a volunteer in the hospital where Ed worked. She connived to implicate Dr. Joe Werner in Charlotte’s death. Charlotte and Joe had been having a love affair, and Kit, who was in love with Joe, sought in this manner to punish them both. Joe Werner was discharged from the hospital where he worked as Chief of Staff. He was eventually phased out of the show.

Mike and Leslie were finally able to get married and their union was celebrated with much fanfare in Bert’s home. Ed, on the other hand, sought help for his alcoholism and was eventually cured. [Note 8 AGAIN!]

New characters kept flowing in and out of the story lines. The Norris family, composed of Stanley, Holly, Ken, and, Stanley’s ex-wife, Barbara, made their appearance during this period. Holly fell in love with a character called Roger Thorpe. [Note 12] Both Ken and Roger fell in love with another character called Janet Mason. [Note 13] Barbara, on the other hand, became involved with Roger’s father Adam, who was played by Robert Mill. [Note 14] In a series of complicated twists, Stanley was murdered and Leslie was implicated in his death. Mike defended her at her trial and got her acquitted, Holly continued to pursue Roger, who continued to pursue Janet, who was really in love with Ken. In the end Ken and Janet married, but their marriage was always threatened by his excessive jealousy.

By 1981 the cast had more than doubled, even though many of the original characters had been phased out of the show. New names mad their presence be felt in Springfield, names like Alan Spaulding, Tony Reardon, Carrie Todd, Ross Marler, Vanessa Chamberlain, Amanda McFarren, and an archvillainess called Diane Ballard. [Note 15] Also, added to the cast was a mysterious archeologist called Quinton McCord who soon took the show by storm.

The plots and subplots continued to multiply, romances continued to be ill-starred, marriages broke and then mended, people were murdered and innocents were accused of the murder, all very much in keeping with soap opera style.

Around this time the multiple plots went something like this. Ross Marler, a sneaky, conniving schemer, falls madly in love with super sweet Carrie Todd, whose gentle ways transform Ross into a decent, sensitive human being. [Note 16] All looks peaches and cream for the pair until the spiteful and vicious Diane Ballard gets into the picture. It seems that Diane, who makes it her business to know all the skeletons hidden in Springfield’s closets, also knows enough about Ross’ unsavory past to try to blackmail him. Carrie finds out about Diane’s plans and goes to her house to try and dissuade her from her Machiavellic plans. Diane laughs at Carrie’s pleas to spare Ross and mocks her anguish. Carrie jumps at Diane and the two women begin to struggle violently. In the midst of the fight, Diane slips and falls down and hit her head on the stone fireplace. She dies instantly. Carrie is terrified at the accident and flees the scene, but not without taking with her a briefcase full of tapes incrimination Alan Spaulding, someone Carrie is very fond of. Of course, Diane had many enemies, and a lot of people become suspects in her death, including Ross and Alan. But in the end Carrie confesses the truth to Ross and then tries to commit suicide. She survives the suicide attempt and later on Ross marries her.

In the meantime Alan Spaulding is having big troubles of his own. The head of wealthy Spaulding Enterprises, Alan has climbed all the way to the top the same as Ross did, by lying and cheating. Like Ross, Alan meets a woman who changes him into a new man. this woman is Hope Bauer. Very much against Mike Bauer’s wishes, who hates and distrusts Alan, he marries Hope. But his unsavory past caught up with Alan and when Hope finds out the truth, she decides to leave him, even though by now they have a small son, Alan-Michael. After a complicated storyline, where an assassin tries to kill Alan in the desert, he escapes and is finally caught by the police and sentenced to two years in jail. Hope, who by now realizes she loves her husband above all things, decides to stick with him. Even Mike Bauer begins to soften towards his son-in-law, who has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that he has turned over a new leaf.

In other subplots, Nola Reardon gives birth to Floyd Parker’s baby with the reluctant help of Dr. Kelly Nelson, with whom Nola is really in love.  But Kelly is married and although he and his wife Morgan are having martial problems, it doesn’t look like Nola is about to see her dreams of a marriage with Kelly come true. [Note 17] Besides, the mysterious Quint McCord seems to have rather sinister plans to change Nola’s life. If he succeeds in his intentions Nola may never be the same again. In any case, after her baby’s birth, Nola becomes the snoopy household supervisor for Quint McCord. Quint and his foreboding housekeeper, Mrs. Reinfield share secrets involving his profession and some women in his past.

By 1983, some of these plots had been more than entangled than ever. The cast of characters which had almost quadrupled since the soap’s debut, now looked like this [Ed. note: I published this list as a separate post.]

As the Quint/Nola story line unfolded, it soon became obvious that Quint was in love with Nola and meant to make her his wife. This however doesn’t happen so fast in soap operas. Love has to be tried and tested. This proved true also of Quint’s love for Nola. To begin with, there is a mentally unstable woman called Rebecca Cartwright with whom Quint was involved at one time. He doesn’t want her anymore, but Rebecca refuses to buy that. She’s out to get Quint one way or another. Her scheming leads to a car crash where Quint nearly loses his life. While he’s still at the hospital Nola learns that he’s really Henry Chamberlain’s son. This doesn’t please Quint at all.

When Quint and Nola reveal their plans to marry, the furious Rebecca tells Nola that Quint had once thrown Rebecca off a cliff causing her to have a miscarriage and be disfigured. She proposes re-enacting the scene at the same cliff, but while she’s there she changes her mind and reveals that it was her husband, Mark Evans, who tried to kill her. She further reveals that Mark’s real name is Samuel Pasquin while hers is Mona Enright. Rebecca/Mona then goes completely crazy and tried to push Amanda Spaulding off the cliff. Mark/Samuel is able to save Amanda, but is shot by Rebecca and falls to his death. [Note 19] Rebecca jumps over the cliff after him, all of which suit Quint and Nola just fine, even if they are too noble to admit it to themselves. After some other minor complications, they finally get married and take off for a romantic honeymoon in Ireland.

Meanwhile, Kelly Nelson and Morgan continue to have marital problems and even a marriage counselor can’t help. To make things worse, Morgan becomes deeply infatuated with Josh Lewis and finally decides she wants a divorce.

Hope and Alan Spaulding are also having marital woes. He’s now out of jail and back in business. He begins relying more and more on Trish Lewis’ advice and even consults with her on the redecoration of his house. Hope reacts to the situation by immersing herself in alcohol. [Note 18]

A mysterious woman called Annabelle Sims shows up around this time. She becomes romantically involved with Tony Reardon. They both become obsessed by a photograph depicts four men and a girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to Annabelle. As this interesting story line unfolds we learn that the woman in the picture was Anne, Annabelle’s mother, who was killed by someone during a boating trip. Annabelle, who was a witness to the tragedy, had blocked the whole thing from her conscious mind, but now begins to having a series of blackouts. To make the situation more perplexing, someone begins to murder the men in the photograph. One of the first victims is Bill Bauer, whose murder is made to look like a suicide. Then several attempts are made on other people’s lives, including H.B. Lewis. Finally, Annabelle begins to remember begins to remember and the murderer, who turns out to be Eli Simms, takes her back to the river where he killed Anne, and once there tries to kill Annabelle also. Luckily Tony happens to be in the vicinity and saves her life. Very convenient and very lucky for Annabelle. In the meantime, Eli falls from the boat and is shot dead, presumably by H.B. Lewis.

All the untimely demises and cancelled story lines that shook Guiding Light in 1983 were the result of Allen M. Potter, the show’s Executive Producer, being replaced by Gail Kobe. As soon as she was installed in the Producer’s chair, Ms. Kobe grabbed the proverbial axe and proceeded to decimate the show’s plots and cast. [Note 20] This caused a great deal of confusion and demoralization among the actors who managed to survive the devastation. Also, part of the show’s brush with disaster was the prolonged illness that befell Charita Bauer, the beloved matriarch of the Bauer clan. She was away from the show from summer through fall, first with pneumonia, and then with blood clots and diabetes. It is still uncertain whether or not she still will return to the show. If she doesn’t, Ms. Kobe will have to make some further and even more sweeping changes. Whatever happens, we hope that the fans of Guiding Light, some of whom have been faithful followers of the show for more than three decades, will continue watching.

NOTES

As I mentioned in the introduction I’m not sure what material was used in piecing together these histories. The memory doesn’t always pull up a complete story especially if you started watching after a certain event. I’m adding these notes below to correct information from the magazine as I know it.

1. Ruthledge’s book, published under the title The Guiding Light, appeared in 1938 as a promotion for the show. It purports to be a history of Five Points written by the character of Dr. John Ruthledge. A good part of the text is a collection of his sermons presumably those used on the radio show. He was fairly isolationist in 1937 which is a bit of a shock for people on this side of World War II history. I don’t know how many copies the book sold or if it was offered as some kind of premium, but I CAN tell you that you fairly trip over used copies in second hand book sellers.
2. The loss of the actor who played Rev. Ruthledge and the fact that his story and his family’s had been thoroughly explored, actually caused the move to Los Angeles. The Guiding Light only came TV after it had already been set in Five Points and Selby Flats before it moved to Springfield. The TV version has always been set in Springfield.
3. The radio show started in 1937 and the Bauer family was introduced in 1948.
4. Mama Bauer died soon after they joined the show and they either never said her first name, or nobody remembers it. She is only known as Mama Bauer.
5. The article mistakenly calls Selby Flats, Silkly Flats. I fixed it.
6. They hit all the major parts of Meta’s story, but they put them in the wrong order. Meta had an affair with Ted White, got pregnant, gave the boy, Chuckie, up for adoption, regained custody, married Ted, decided to get a divorce, Chuckie is fatally hurt taking a boxing lesson that Ted insisted he take, Ted realizes his mistakes, Meta kills him, and Meta is cleared of murder.
7. The text has it Maffie Scott, which would have been a more interesting name, but sadly which is incorrect. I fixed it. It should be Maggie Scott.
8. You cannot be “cured” of alcoholism, not even in Springfield. It means Bill entered recovery.
9. Except Bill was presumed killed in a plane crash. Once he learned everyone thought he was dead he ran off to Canada where he apparently had an affair with a woman years before. Her real husband had just died so he married her and became “step-father” to the product of this affair his daughter, Hillary. He will return to Springfield years later to make amends and ended up being murder by Annabelle Simms Reardon’s psychopathic father Eli Simms as part of the famous mysterious photo storyline that kind of unbelievably tied in a lot of older men around the canvas. However, it was much better written than the sorry attempt of a carbon copy Maryanne Curthers storyline which didn’t make a lick of sense towards the end of the show.
10. I missed a trivia question on the year I went to the real life BBQ about which Bauer died in a mental hospital. It was in fact, Hope’s mother, Julie Conrad, But the way it was phrased I didn’t get it. I really don’t think a short term unhappy marriage that ends in your death really makes you a Bauer. But on the other hand she WAS Hope’s mother. What do you think?
11. Another Irna Phillips created soap, Another World took its name as a play off of As the World Turns. Originally it was planned to be a bookend with ATWT. CBS didn’t want the soap though so it instead sold to NBC and most links between it and the CBS soaps were dropped except the kickstart of Mike and Hope.
12. The article is called Roger Dawson for some reason. An odd mistake to make since he was such an important character. I don’t know if he came into town with a fake name, but from the description it’s 1000% Roger Thorpe and I fixed it in the article.
13. Ken Norris completely dropped out of the story after he was committed to a sanitarium. He returned to the show in 1998 reforming close connections with his sister Holly and niece Blake adopting a very protective attitude to them. However, he acted as if he didn’t know or still love either Janet Mason or their child. In between appearing as an actor he joined the show’s writers including being part of the team that won a Daytime Emmy for writing.
14. Roger’s father and Holly’s mother, Adam and Barbara, developed a relationship. They married and despite their eventual divorce seemed to keep a warm relationship. I saw a clip and thought it must have been pre-marriage from their interactions and, nope, it was after.
15. I fixed Diane Balland to Diane Ballard.
16. I fixed Ross Marlen into Ross Marler.
17. Kelly and Morgan weren’t married, they were just starting their relationship when Nola moved in on them. They married afterward.
18. Hope and Alan are my second favorite soap opera couple of all soaps and all time and I’ve written about them before. This is hardly a fair depiction of their terrible fate, but I will just clarify that Hope’s job was as an interior decorator so to have Trish involved in designing Hope’s own home over Hope’s choices was awful.
19. Mark Evans and Amanda Spaulding were romantically involved – married? – that’s why Amanda was dragged into it. Apparently whatever other crap he pulled Mark truly loved her.
20. A lot of upcoming issues with the lack of Bauers in the Bauer family can be traced back to Ms. Kobe’s decisions. Having taken over, she was determined the actors realize that no one was safe under her and hers was the will of God. So she took out Hope Bauer and other mainstays quickly began to fall.

Guiding Light Nov 2 1979

From Friday, November 2, 1979, Roger makes plans for plastic surgery in France with the beautiful surgeon Dr. Renee Dubois. Back in Springfield, Alan wonders who received the blind trust from his late father, Lucille Wexler plans another fatal “accident” for Ben McFarren, and the marriage of Rita and Ed Bauer is headed for the rocks. Note this episode is 42 minutes without commercials, in later years 37 minutes would be the norm.

This is why Alan Spaulding hated Roger Thorpe. Roger had something on Alan and he blackmailed him into helping him. That allowed him to escape the country after his near conviction for multiple rapes. His current plan is to get plastic surgery and then return to town. As that would mean Roger Thorpe would not longer be played by Michael Zaslow, that’s not going to happen. Roger later shows up at the plastic surgeon’s office (she’s the woman in the green blouse with the French accent). The doctor and Roger had a pretty strange and intense relationship that played out over months.

Rita was the wife who most enjoyed the fact that as a doctor Ed Bauer now had money. It’s because of Rita that Ed bought the house next door to the Spaudling mansion which was how Rick and Phillip (the true flagship couple of Guiding Light) got to be friends, so I’ll always be grateful for that. Otherwise, although many people I know like and respect Rita, I really couldn’t. It might be because of 1970s Ed. He was even more of a doofus than Peter Simon’s version and I lost respect for any woman who would marry him, especially if she wasn’t head over heels in love with him and therefore not so much to blame if she didn’t notice his faults. Maureen gets a pass on this because while she did love him and marry him, she also didn’t put up with much of his bull. Rita had been involved with Roger, but I’m not sure if that’s the secret she’s been “pretending” about here or not. On the other hand, I think Ed does have a point, what the heck does Rita mean Ed shouldn’t worry because her leaving him has nothing to do with him? Rita and Ed break up eventually so I don’t really care that much about this. Ed just accept it she’s just not that into you.

The older woman is Lucile Wexler, Amanda Spaulding’s adopted mom. She tried to kill Ben McFerrin (Amanda’s then boyfriend) by sending him up to deliberately falling out of a door in her mansion. She wants all of Amanda’s attention and Ben is the first serious threat she’s faced in awhile and she’s been pushed to extremes. The guest house is the Carriage House that Ross Marler later lives in for many years. Lucile does a nice long set of what Dark Shadows Every Day calls “Thinks.” Actually Ben is entirely right all the way down the line, except for stupidly threatening Lucile. Ben should have pretended to be fooled. And Amanda was the lucky recipient of Brandon’s blind trust because she was his daughter or granddaughter, he probably didn’t care which. Nobody knows Amanda is a Spaulding biologically at this point. That’s part of the secret Lucile is trying to control.

We get a good look at the quad that defined late 1970s-early 1980s. Alan Spaulding and Elizabeth Spaulding are talking about the trust that young (not yet SORASed) Phillip Spaulding and the trust he inherited from Alan’s father Brandon. Their talk branches out to old hurts and they remind us that they had currently switched partners Elizabeth was married to Justin Marler and Alan was married to Jackie Spaulding. This is post Hope and Alan on the Island and Elizabeth is taking the unfair position that just because Alan hadn’t loved her, that he was incapable of loving anyone which he was.

Evie is Rita sister. I was never very interested in her. She gets into a lot of trouble during her time in Springfield, but not a lot of it was interesting.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Lightfandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to findGuiding Light and especially Manny online. Check back here for her blog, find fanfic previews and fake WSPR newscasts on her YouTube, find podcasts that look back to old shows and audios of her fanfics onBlog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Worst Parents in Springfield

I have been thinking about this for awhile, but I hesitated to do a post because I vacillated back and forth over whether psychological inflicted damage should count more or less than actual physical violence. I finally decided that as evil and twisted as psychological abuse was that actually trying to kill or otherwise physically harm your child wins out. I ranked them according. I also ranked attempted murder  or murder of someone close to the child above other types of physical attacks. Although if I just went with my gut Brandon Spaulding and Lucile Wexler should tie at number one because what they did their children was sick and the damage lasted far after their deaths.

1. Carmen Santos– Carmen wins because she was actually guilty of both years of psychological damage by trying to turn Danny into a pliant version of her late husband and she actually shot Danny nearly killing him. She also encouraged Mick’s reckless violence that lead to his own death. Plus between her faked shooting of her house, the cover up from shooting Ben Warren, and faking her own death, plus making sure she didn’t get the mental health care she needed (since she might turn Carmen in if she did) Carmen was directly responsible for Pilar’s total mental breakdown.

2. Claire Ramsey – Claire got this rank because she actually tried to kill Michelle as a baby and actually convinced Michelle that it was Michelle’s fault later. She claimed she didn’t mean it and would have stopped, but as much as I liked Claire back then when she was coupled with Fletcher Reade, she totally would have killed Michelle if Ed hadn’t made a timely arrival. Later she colluded with Carmen to fake Carmen’s death and did everything possible to destroy her daughter Michelle’s marriage despite the fact that it was what made her happiest in the world. She also told Michelle in no uncertain terms that Michelle’s career choices weren’t good enough and that only being a doctor reflecting glory on to Claire would do. Claire didn’t tell Michelle Carmen was still alive which gave Carmen opportunities to both gaslight Michelle and try to kill her.  Once that came out, Claire made a plea bargain to testify against Manny. The bad mother points just keep on coming.

3. Maria Santos – Maria’s three sons were already dead before the Santos Family arrived on our screens and Maria didn’t play a role in their deaths. She did make sure they followed the crime family which surely at least contributed to their deaths. However, Maria owes her place on the list to her treatment of her grandsons. She personally – and in person – ordered hitmen to take out two of her grandsons because they wouldn’t return to the crime family and she felt her own power threatened. I won’t even start to list her many mindgames against them because they are legion.

4. Alfred Randall – Alfred emotionally and physically abused Jonathan Randall his adopted son, but it’s a debatable point whether murder or attempted murder is on his list. It was implied, but I don’t think actually proved (statements made to Jonathan designed to bully and threaten him aren’t really proof) that he killed his wife, Olivia’s sister. His placement this high on the list assumes that he did, but if we’re wrong, others would be worse because Alfred was a pretty basic thug without the complex layers of evil manipulation you’d find with some of the others.  He did seem to be on the point of killing Jonathan’s birth mother, Reva Shayne Lewis, when during a struggle with Jonathan he fell into a boat propeller, one of the more grisly on screen deaths in the history of the show. Even then Alfred wasn’t done, he was one of the very few evil people to return as a ghost, normally an honor reserved for good people to show up as guardian angels on the show.

5. Bradley Raines – Bradley was Beth’s step-father, but he played a major role in raising Beth, even giving her his last name which she continued to revert to even to the end of the show. He was physically and emotionally abusive to Lillian and Beth. Beth’s abuse also became sexual and he raped her. Ultimately Bradley was imprisoned for his various crimes and when he got out he tried to apologize to Beth, but she wasn’t interested. He also left her a mine in his will, but as that only got Edmund more fully entangled in her life and he was as controlling and manipulative as Bradley with Beth it really didn’t turn out to be much of an apology. I don’t think he felt the need to apologize to Lillian for the frequent line “Lillian, shut up and bring me a beer.”

6. Brandon Spaulding– Despite Vicky’s watercolor memories/family stories of Brandon when she returned to Springfield in the late 1990s, I truly believe Brandon was the most thoroughly evil regular character in the history of Guiding Light. He viewed his children as competitors who had to fight for control of the company and his love and he regularly set out to pit them against each other. He fed Alan all this macho crap about having to be in control and taught him to have affairs so he was incapable of being, long term, the man true love Hope Bauer needed him to be which destroyed her. Brandon arranged that both Alan and Alexandra have their children taken away and raised by strangers (Alan lost Gus Aitoro, Alex both her twins Lujack and Nick McHenry). Brandon slept with Jennifer Richards while she was involved with Alan, fathering Amanda and didn’t claim her as his child instead letting Alan believe she was his once the story behind her adoption came out. Brandon faked his own death, letting his family believe he was dead for over a decade and didn’t tell them about another daughter, Victoria, he’d had years before with a woman in Barbados. Finally he told both Victoria and through her Vicky stories that made him the good guy and Alan the evil one after everything Brandon did to destroy his life to the point she basically came looking for revenge against Alan. EVIL!

7. Lucile Wexler – Easily the most evil female regular character on the show (her only real challenger being Susan Piper), Wexler totally ruled her adopted daughter Amanda’s life. She kept her suppressed and acting, thinking, and at least occasionally dressing like a child, well into adulthood. Lucile attacked anyone that tried to gain a place in Amanda’s life. Even when Amanda finally showed some backbone and ran off to get married, her mother convinced her to come on her wedding night and not see her husband again for years. Lucile also set traps to try to kill several people she saw as coming between her and Amanda. Jennifer Richards, Amanda’s biological mother, was a strong contender for this list and both men she believed to be her biological father made this list, so people really ought to cut Amanda Wexler Spaulding some slack. She truly had a lot of garbage thrown at her to overcome.

8. Bill Bauer – If some day I do a list of best siblings, Bill Bauer will surely be on that list too, but let’s face it as a father and a husband he was awful. He was an alcoholic and an adulterer and took legitimate criticisms of his behavior as unfair attacks which he counter attacked his own family on. Eventually he was believed killed in a plane crash and let his family believe him dead, while really sneaking off to Canada where he’d gotten another woman pregnant years before. He now married the other woman and let his own daughter believe she was his stepdaughter. As much as I love the Bauer family, Bill was a rotten apple in the barrel. It’s a miracle that people as awesome sauce as Mike and Michelle sprung from his line and they should get extra awesomeness points for having overcome the handicap of being his descendents.

9. Buzz and Nadine Cooper – Although I’d be the first to admit that both Buzz and Nadine could be truly great friends and Buzz actually was a great mentor to Jesse Blue, as parents for their actual children Buzz and Nadine deserve to be on this list. Although to be fair, where many of the people listed could add actual maliciousness to their selfishness, neither Buzz nor Nadine really meant to be hurtful, they were just really, really self-centered and frankly never really matured beyond how they were in high school for years. Neither had any problem dumping their kids permanently on older relatives like the children’s grandfather and Uncle Stavros and for a large part on their kids themselves. Frank especially had to become an adult way before he should have to keep the family going. Harley had commitment issues with men for years mostly because she felt her father had abandoned her. Harley also had a tendency to remember her mother’s good points and not her dumping them because she thought she could become a movie star and moving to Hollywood. Harley constantly forgave her for any stunt Nadine pulled and even continued to call her Mommy even as an adult woman. Frank and Harley’s half-sister Lucy probably was the best off of the three as Buzz actually spent a lot of time raising her, but even then he kept her from knowing any of her extended family and they were constantly on the move with little chance to development friendships or relationships with other people. Family tradition for Lucy growing up meant eating holidays at Chinese restaurants because they were normally the only ones open on the holiday. When Buzz started a second family with Jenna after Nadine’s death, he seemed to have matured a great deal and really did a wonderful job with the boys and homelife until shortly after Jenna’s death when he shipped the kids  (Coop and Rocky) over to Jenna’s relatives in England (that we’d never heard of before) to “celebrate Thanksgiving” (which they don’t do in the United Kingdom). Coop was college age before Buzz saw him again (he’d been just below pre-school when he left) and Rocky never saw Buzz or Springfield again. Buzz did develop a better relationship with his adult children after his younger children departed, but had further difficulties with Frank after Buzz fell in love with Frank’s then girlfriend Olivia, and slept with her behind Frank’s back and the fact that Buzz seemed determined to irresponsibly borrow money against Company which caused the family many financial hardships.

10. Alan and Alexandra Spaulding – I hesitated to put brother and sister team Alan and Alex on this list because frankly I think a lot of their destructive behavior can be directly traced back to Brandon. In fact, even though I think he earned his place on this list, Alan should at the same time be commended because while lots of soap stories emphasis the importance of blood over nurture, Alan truly never treated Phillip any different because he was his son by adoption than he would have if Phillip was his biological child. Alan-Michael would even say that Alan favored Phillip over him which along with Michelle and Maureen was an example of the strongest and best endorsement of bond created by adopting a child and how it is just as real as the other kind. In fact while there is a lot selfishness and control issues with both Alan and Alex, I don’t think even their worst enemies would say that didn’t love their off spring fiercely. All that being said, Alan and Alex were adults when they had their kids and while their are certainly excuses for their actions they are adults and have to take the responsibility. Both Alex and Alan inherited their father’s issues with control, Alan’s made worse by his experience in causing wife Hope’s descent into alcoholism. They truly wanted their kids to be happy, but on Alan and Alex’s terms. Their children were supposed to have the careers and spouses that their parents approved of and both felt quite free to use manipulation and even hired thugs to enforce their desires. Alan actually ended up shooting Phillip twice, once accidentally while trying to kill Phillip’s bride, Blake to stop their marriage and once on purpose while trying to get Phillip under control to get the psychological help that to he really did desperately need. (That alone would move him higher on the list except that he didn’t have an intent to kill either time.) Beloved granddaughter Lizzie felt so threatened by Alan’s control that she let Jonathan disappear with their daughter Sarah rather than let Alan be a major influence in her life. Alex didn’t quite get that desperate with that control on her own children, but mostly because she didn’t get a chance, Lujack died shortly after she truly developed a relationship with him and she liked Beth who he was involved with at the time. Later when she discovered Nick McHenry was her son she was willing to do anything, including engaging sworn enemy Roger Thorpe to keep Nick and his then fiancee Mindy Lewis apart. It was only after Nick moved on to another woman she approved of that her meddling backed off some. It continued with Alan’s children being quite willing to play the same control games with Phillip and Alan-Michael that Alan did and that they both learned from Brandon. While she didn’t personally endanger nephew Gus Aitoro, she did get involved with and allow a drug deal to continue that did risk his life.

Now, I’ll have to start thinking about my best parent list.

Christmas Dec 12 1984

I did a post last year on Christmas 1984 and this is definitely not the Christmas episode (although I think I might have found a little bit more of the Christmas storyline possibly for next year). Anyway I’m including this because it’s a nice transition episode. They’d just finished a big adventure story, some of which they sum up during this episode and I don’t think really get started again too much before Christmas. It’s kind of holidayish with what is probably supposed to be a party, but is kind of a glimpse of everyday life near Christmas (it’s a whole episode) that everyone will enjoy.

This has commercial included, but old commercials can be fun and I just can’t get over Colleen Zenk in the beginning one. Ed and Maureen show a little bit of what a strong marriage (apart from Ed’s occasional philandering) that they had. I love how Ed and Maureen talk over their careers. It will also be nice for Manny fans to see a bit of Claire before Michelle was conceived, back when I actually liked her.

They just finished what ended up being an adventure umbrella story that ended up in Barbados. Brandon Spaulding, who we’d seen die in a very decrepit state on screen, turned up alive in Barbados. He’d apparently felt the need to fake his death before taking a second black wife with whom at some point he’d had a daughter Victoria. Victoria is Vicky Spaulding’s mother. Vicky had a very odd take on family history based on how great Brandon is. Frankly the man was evil personified and ranked right up there with Carmen Santos and Amanda Wexler in the worst parent ever in Springfield game. There had been lots of efforts made hushing this story up.

It had also involved my beloved Tony and Annabelle. They had been caught up in a series of past life flashbacks in which Annabelle and Tony’s brother Jim had been in love. Through these pseudo memories, Jim had fallen in love with Annabelle and he will not long stay in town. The only good part of this story was the scene after Jim had decided to make a play for Annabelle who was already married to Tony (frankly I don’t think she’d been too receptive anyway). As Jim stood looking out a window at them together below, he said “Next lifetime she’s mine.” Which was a great scene and the only good part of this horrible story.

Rick and Roxie are together at this point. Roxie was as brass as her sister. I didn’t really ever care for her much, but I did think it was totally unfair that she went crazy taking care of a thought terminally ill Johnny Bauer and never recovered. She is seldom mentioned after she left town, especially after Cassie is introduced as a sort of replacement. I didn’t want her back in town, but I would have liked to know she recovered and was off living a good life somewhere. I didn’t like her with Rick at all. Rick should have let me make all his romantic decisions for him. He’d be better off.

Phillip angry at Lujack (I think with some reason), went to far and hired someone to blow up Lujack’s club. No one was supposed to get hurt, but Beth came back when she wasn’t supposed to be there and was blinded in the explosion. She is working at becoming more self-sufficient at the blind school. (Really when Pharley fans especially used to say mean things about Beth I always bristled. It was a miracle Beth hadn’t gone insane like Roxie would, she certainly had more cause.) I hadn’t remembered Lujack working at the blind school under another name. I didn’t realize Blind Michelle was this much of a retelling. Why in heavens name didn’t they have Beth and Michelle bond over this shared experience?

Speaking of Michelle she won’t be conceived until the foursome of Ed-Claire-Maureen-Fletcher end up in Beirut. She isn’t around yet in this episode.

There is also a nice bit here, which is sort of a high point of Vanessa and Billy’s first marriage. It’s nice to see Little Billy as a baby. I loved Vanilly together.

Goodness! What a beginning with Colleen Zenk. Guess their life wasn’t filled with singing and dancing for long. Love happy Ed and Maureen. Rick you can and will do WAY better than Roxie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSCQ5FIxKXM [Part 1]

Beth does need this. She’s an artist who’s blinded. Love Vanilly together. Little Billy is wonderful. Loved Tony & Annabelle. Jim deserved a Gibbs head slap for getting in the way. I loved Claire at this point, she was the world’s 2nd worse mother-in-law though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjS76ERMtFY [Part 2]

4:30 Baby Little Billy Awww! Love Katie ♥ This is when I loved Fletcher before he broke my heart when he broke Claire’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0n8neBn7FU [Part 3]

This is really nice seeing happy Claire-Fletcher, Mo-Ed, and Tony-Annabelle. When they were good together they were great. It’s easy to forget that especially with Mo-Ed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hof4Z2KHblE [Part 4]

Commercials until 0:45 Lujack’s piano skills was one of the best parts about him. I hated the Brandon back to life story, although I did like Vicky Spaulding once they decided what to do with her. I hated Jim coming between Tony & Annabelle, but I loved the scene where he decided to let her go. They’d remembered a past life. Jim’s great line was “But next lifetime she’s mine.”  I didn’t like Roxie, but I thought it wasn’t fair that she disappeared so utterly when she left. The only sl of hers I enjoyed was the fake INS marriage living at the Boarding House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDd2U16onpk [Part 5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9IbqPx3nk [Part 6]

Springfield Bound by Robansuefarm – Chapter 6

I’ve published this fanfic as one piece before, but I decided I wanted it in chapters. I hope you enjoy it.

(It’s around a week after the Santos Family has moved back to Springfield.) Hilda shows Danny into the front room/office of the Spaulding Mansion. He’s wearing a suit. Phillip is sitting at what used to be his father’s desk and he stands as Danny comes in. They shake hands and Phillip gestures for Danny to take a seat in front of him.

“Danny, I just want to tell you again how glad I am you, Michelle, and the kids moved back. Rick is a new man having his family back again.”

“Well, we’re glad to be back. And I don’t know exactly how to phrase this, but I’m really glad you didn’t die after all.”

Phillip chuckled. “Me, too. Yeah, it isn’t really an occasion Hallmark makes a card for, is it? Though maybe in this town it should be.” Phillip chuckled again at his own joke.

“And I’m sorry about your father.”

Phillip sobered. “So am I. In fact, Alan is why I asked you here today.”

“I was wondering.” Danny gave Phillip a friendly, but cautious look inviting him to continue.

“First, Danny, I want to explain a couple of things. When you worked at Spaulding, I wasn’t as welcoming as I could have been.”

“I seem to remember something like that.”

“Well, I’d like to apologize. I don’t think you quite understood my position at that time.” Phillip leaned back in his chair and then began to speak, broke off, fidgeted in his chair, and started again. He was seemed to be struggling to collect his thoughts.

“My grandfather, Brandon, was quite a piece of work. He used to pit family members against each other. He had this crazy idea that it would make them, make the family, strong. The more I learn about Alan and Alex’s childhood, it’s really a wonder they turned out as well as they did.”

“I understand.” Danny’s face had withdrawn as if behind a mask. Phillip couldn’t have picked anyone else in town, not a Spaulding, who would understand the complicated and destructive nature of Phillip’s family dynamics more.

Phillip’s eyes snapped back to Danny’s at the toneless, careful quality of Danny’s voice. “You really do, don’t you?” Phillip laughed. “You ARE one of the very few outside the family who does understand what it’s like.” He paused again, still struggling for words to express his complicated meaning. “Alan picked up from Brandon the habit of pitting his children against each other and I was the only one of his kids in town at the time you came to work for Spaulding. He truly thought a lot of you and so he pitted me against you.”

“Excuse me.”

“Oh yeah, every five minutes he was rubbing it in my face, how you were a man of action, how you got your family back, how you protected your family and how I failed to protect mine.” Phillip grimaced at the still sore memory.

Danny was surprised in spite of himself and before he could stop, blurted out, “No wonder you were such a jerk. Oh.” He stopped short realizing he had said it aloud.

“No, I was, especially about the FBI sting. I got a lot more pleasure than I should have from not telling you and it did put Michelle at some risk, although I know you’d never let anything happen to her. I’ve gotten a little more perspective now and I wanted to explain and apologize.”

“That really isn’t necessary, Phillip. It was a long time ago. I accept, but you didn’t need a special meeting…”

Phillip held up a hand to stop him. “That was just the first thing we had to clear up. I have a couple other things to talk to you about.” Again he paused, then surged ahead. “Have you ever heard of Hope Bauer?”

“Of course, she’s one of Michelle’s cousins. My daughter is partially named after her.”

Phillip nodded, he was just trying to make sure everything was making sense to Danny. “Did anybody ever tell you about her marriage to Alan?”

“Yeah, I heard the story. I was told it should be an object lesson for me about what not to do.” Danny smiled at the memory and he had to admit, they’d been right. There had been a lot of similarity between the marriages and it had taken a lot of hard work for theirs not to fall permanent prey to some of the same things that did in Alan and Hope’s.

“That will make this easier to explain then. Alan seems to have really identified with you and Michelle. He always regretted how things ended with Hope. I think in some way he thought you and Michelle were living the second chance he and Hope never could seem to find. Take a look at this.” Phillip handed over a folder. “I found this when I was going through Alan’s papers.”

Danny opened the folder and of all the things he thought might be there, he wasn’t prepared for what was. Danny flipped through a record of his family’s life, news clippings, report cards, photos, ads from his business back in California, etc. “What is this?!”

“Even though he was too consumed with his own problems the last few years of his life to do much about it, he always kept a watchful eye on you. He thought that much of you.” Phillip gave Danny a minute to process. “We haven’t had the formal reading of the will yet, but he even left you a small block of Spaulding stock.”

Danny’s eyes snapped off the folder’s contents and back up to Phillip’s at this news.

“To will it out of the family, well, it shows how much he thought of you. He always said you were Spaulding material, you just didn’t realize it yet.”

Danny decided not to get upset about the folder. Alan was gone now anyway and in combination with the rest of what Phillip was saying, he decided it had only been Alan’s way of showing interest. Twisted, yes, but just the kind of thing his mother might have done to show affection, before she went totally around the bend. “I get that.”

Phillip shifted in his chair. “Alan is gone now. Alex isn’t going to be involved in day to day operations for awhile, maybe never again. Lizzie and Bill are out, at least for now and I think they’d probably go back to Lewis Construction before they came back here. James will continue in the junior capacity Alan started him in, but he’s hardly up to running the company. I’m going to take part, but I don’t think my life was saved so I could spend every day in the office. I’m going to ask back Alan-Michael and Lucy and I’m going to ask Amanda back, too, but I’d really like you to be part of the team. It would have meant a lot to Alan also. You’re a gifted businessman. You were involved recently enough and in a broad enough position that you understand a lot about the company. Rick tells me that you were planning on starting up another business here, but I know how much time that can take, running your own business, especially a start up and I know you want to spend time with Michelle and the kids. You come on board at Spaulding and I can promise you that you can get home at a decent hour almost every night and we can work your schedule around Robbie and Hope’s school stuff. Take a look at this.” Phillip handed Danny the job description, salary, and benefits for the position he was offering. “It’s a good deal, especially since you’ll have a stock block now. What do you say?” Phillip stuck out his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

Danny hesitated, “I’ll have to talk it over with Michelle, but” Danny flashed Phillip his smile and took Phillip’s offered hand. “Tentatively, we have a deal.”

“Great.” Phillip grinned back.

Springfield Bound – Lost Scenes Around the Finale

Springfield Bound – A Collection of Short Lost Scenes in and around the Guiding Light Finale

This is quite literally a series of lost scenes as I imagined them. They fit in between the actual episodes of Guiding Light and I have labeled accordingly where the real episodes fit in between. They are mostly focused on Manny, but they also interact with other characters. Most just help explain things that happened on screen, but a few are conversations I think are long overdue and some are just Manny being them and being happy.

Danny, Michelle, Robbie, and Hope Santos pull up and park at the Bauer House in their rental car from the airport. Robbie has been chattering away to Hope about the Bauer BBQs he remembered, everything they’re going to see and how he thinks this year Uncle Rick is going to start teaching him to use the BBQ and maybe he’ll even let them try on “the hat.” Danny pulls into the parking area and stops the car. Michelle bends forward slightly, peering out the car windshield taking in her family home and her mother’s garden, and all the other cars she knows must belong to family and friends. A lot can change in 3 years. Danny notices she makes no move to get out of the car. He undoes his seatbelt and leans over putting one hand on the back of her neck and entwining his other one with hers as it rests on her knee. She gives him a quick glance and smile and squeezes his hand.

Danny: “Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve been back, Honey. Are you ready to face all those old memories?”

Michelle: “They were mostly good ones and I wouldn’t trade even a minute of the bad as long as it got us here.”

Danny: “Neither would I. Happy 3rd and 5th anniversary, Honey.”

Michelle: “Did you think I could forget?” (Rueful laugh turning happy.)

They lean in together for an amazing kiss.

Robbie: “Come on Dad. I want to see Uncle Rick.” Robbie jumps out of the car. “Come on, Hope.” She quickly follows her big brother.

Danny: “Ok, Tiger. We’re coming.”

Danny gives Michelle one more quick kiss and they get out of the car and follow their children into the Bauer BBQ hand in hand.

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Guiding Light episodes from July 2^nd and 3^rd, 2009 – Bauer BBQ

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(Plane in Route for California from Springfield, July 5^th, 2009. It’s a small commuter plane with 2 seats on each side of the aisle, they will have to transfer in St. Louis. Each one of the kids has a window seat and Danny and Michelle are sitting across the aisle from one another. They are still sitting at the gate as passengers continue to load and the “no electronics” sign has not yet been turned on.)

Danny looks up in irritation when somebody drops a pillow on his head while reaching up for the overhead bin. “Watch it.” He grumps before politely handing it back. Turning to Michelle, “I told you Fourth of July weekend would be a nightmare for flying. Why can’t you admit your handsome husband is always right?”

Michelle laughs at his expression as it turns into a puppy dog pout. “Ok, Mister, you could have told your son he’d have to miss his soon to be championship soccer game and then you could be right all you want.” She laughed again.

Danny sighed. He knew she was right, but knowing why you HAD to do something didn’t mean you actually liked to do it. He fidgeted in his seat and turned to her again. “They definitely did not design these seats for someone with legs as long as mine.”

This, Michelle knew, was a legitimate complaint, if not one she could share with her petite frame. “Well, don’t let yourself get too cramped up. Once we take off, walk around a little. It isn’t good for your circulation to be squeezed in like that for the whole flight. You should get a little exercise.”

“Exercise, hmmm.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “If the munchkins weren’t along we could try for the bathroom and renew our…” He paused and looked at Robbie in the seat beside him, but he seemed totally absorbed in his video game. His eyes moved over to Hope on the other side of Michelle, Hope was absorbed in brushing her doll’s hair, so he continued seductively, “‘club membership.’”

“That sounds inviting. Does that plane you rent to keep your flight hours up have an autopilot, Mr. Santos? ” Michelle purred. She suggestively bit her lower lip and gave him a look.

“Why, Mrs. Santos, I believe it does.” He was grinning back at her now.

“Well, Mr. Santos, maybe I should go with you the next time you go up. That ‘membership’ definitely needs to be renewed.” She gave him a wink and for a second they had totally forgotten about all the other travelers and even their children right beside them. They started to lean across the aisle for a kiss, when Robbie suddenly piped up.

“Daddy, why does Mom want a turn to go up in the plane?” Normally, if they weren’t required instructor hours so a teacher would have to be in the other seat, Robbie and Hope took turns going up with their father and if Mommy was suddenly going to start taking a turn it would cut down on their number of times they could go. “And what club do you have to be in a plane to renew a membership?”

Danny grimaced, so his son wasn’t as absorbed in the video game as he had hoped. He made an effort to cover the situation. “Well, Mom doesn’t normally get a turn. It would be nice to let her have one for once, wouldn’t it?”

Robbie considered, “Yeah, I guess so.” “Once,” he thought, “that doesn’t sound so bad. As long as she didn’t want a turn all the time it wouldn’t matter.”

“Good.” Danny said, hoping Robbie would miss that he hadn’t answered the second question. He did not want to think of a good explanation to give his young son for the Mile High Club. Really he should have known better. Robbie was Michelle’s son and he wasn’t going to let something like a nonanswer get by him anymore than she would.

“What kind of club is it?” Robbie asked again.

“It’s a special club for Mommies and Daddies.” Danny was getting a little flustered trying to think what else to say about it. Then inspiration struck. “You’ll probably join after you get old enough. I’ll tell you about it then.”

“DANNY!” Michelle said shocked from across the aisle. She had been enjoying his discomfort at explaining the “club,” but this was a bit much.

“What?” He shot her a rakish grin. “He is OUR son after all. He’ll be a legacy member.”

Robbie seemed satisfied, but not wanting to risk another question like that, Danny checked to see if the no electronics sign had been turned on yet. They were still in the clear. So he pulled out his phone and texted Michelle. “Wish u hadn’t said yes so fast.” Beep.

Michelle pulled out her phone, read the text and puzzled sent “Y?” Beep.

“Thinking about it will make it HARDER for me to sit.” Beep.

Michelle giggled and blushed a little.

“Who’s that from Mommy?” Hope asked. Her attention attracted by the beeping.

“It was from Daddy.” Robbie told his sister without looking up from his game.

Danny quickly turned off his phone and put it away. He bent down and tickled his son, “How do you know that? It could have been a ‘funny’ joke from Uncle Rick.”

“No, Mommy only giggles like that for you.”

“Busted,” Danny sighed and resolved that he better be good for the rest of the trip, his son was too observant sometimes for their own good.

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(Back in California, the Santos family is out doing some shopping. Robbie is at soccer practice.)

Bill Lewis’s wedding to Lizzie Spaulding was coming up and they had to get a present. This time they were going to be flying in on a night flight two days before the wedding, so they’d have a little more time in Springfield. Michelle was looking forward to it. Going back for the Bauer BBQ had reminded her what a feeling of home Springfield always gave her and the small taste had only made her miss it more. She was looking forward to Bill’s wedding, even if he hadn’t asked her to stand up for him this time. She couldn’t wait to dance with her husband and her son at Bill’s wedding. She had a good feeling about this relationship. This was a real marriage. The one that would really last for Bill and she was glad for her friend.

Michelle was staring at the electronic screen looking at the bridal registration in the national system under Lizzie Spaulding. Page after page scrolled by. “Well, one thing is sure the same about Lizzie.”

“What’s that?” Danny asked coming up behind her carrying a tired Hope in his arms.

“Lizzie sure does love to shop.” They grinned at each other. “I think this list is even longer than the one she had when she insisted I take her to see the mall Santa when I was babysitting her. Of course that was her third trip.”

Danny watches her scroll through several more pages as Hope played with his hair. “Hey, I saved her life. Doesn’t that count as enough of a present?”

Michelle shot him a don’t-be-such-a-guy look. “Yes, that would look real classy on the card for my BEST FRIEND’s wedding. Reminder: Saved life of bride. I DON’T think so.”

“You didn’t give me any credit for doing it when it happened either,” he muttered.

Michelle did always feel bad about that. She hadn’t even apologized for accusing him of kidnapping after he saved the girls, she’d just been so mixed up in her feelings then. “Ok, you’re right. I’ll just have to think of some way to make it up to you.” She turned around and kissed him. “But later, we have to pick out something for this gift right now.”

Michelle went through another few pages of Lizzie’s list and Danny rocked back and forth from one foot to the other shifting his weight. Hope was getting heavy. He wanted to get Bill and Lizzie a present. His relationship with Bill was always a little different, but he genuinely liked Bill and while he hadn’t had too much to do with her, Lizzie had always seemed like a good kid. He wanted to get them a nice gift, but he was getting tired of standing there. Suddenly his whole face lit up with a thought. “Hey, they ARE going to be living in Springfield? Right?”

“Yeah,” Michelle said absently, her eyes still scanning the list.

“Then forget the list. I know exactly what we should get them.”

“What?” She broke concentration and turned to look at her husband.

“You’ll see.” He strode off and Michelle followed. It took him a few turns and he had to completely turn around once, but then he spotted his prize. He set down Hope, who clung sleepily to his leg. He picked up a box off the shelf and excitedly handed it to Michelle.

“An answering machine?” she questioned.

“Yeah, I remember being a newlywed.” He grinned at her. “And the worse thing was the uh, (he quickly glanced down at their daughter) inopportune interruptions. This model not only takes a message, it’s completely silent. You can’t even tell somebody is calling when it’s turned on. I’ve been looking them over and it wasn’t for needing to know about the kids I’d have bought one for us.” He looked at her.

She grinned back at him. “You’re right. It’s perfect.”

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Guiding Light episode for July 13, 2009 – The Bizzie Wedding
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Michelle came downstairs from tucking the kids in for the night and met Danny coming into the family room with two mugs of coffee. They snuggled down in the corner of the couch. Danny had had very specific requirements for this couch. He wanted it to be long enough so he could lay down flat on it without his feet hanging over the arm or cricking his neck. He insisted on them “test driving” this snuggle position on about 2 dozen models driving the furniture salesman crazy until he found the most comfortable. He had lived with furniture that looked good and felt awful most of his life and he wasn’t about to buy another piece of it. Then he insisted on a tan print to hide stains well and that it be Scotch Guarded within an inch of its life, for various reasons. He also wanted a table right behind the back of it for putting down things like mugs of coffee if they suddenly found they wanted their hands free for… other uses.

For a few minutes, they just enjoyed feeling so comfortable, so safe. Then Danny broke the silence, “So tell me about the wedding.”

Michelle snuggled in closer, “Well, in the first place it was lucky I went out early, they put the wrong date on the invitations.”

“What? You’re telling me the two top executives of Spaulding-Lewis didn’t catch a mess up like that. I’m glad we don’t own any of THEIR stock.”

“Ha. Ha. Well, they feel pretty stupid about it. I think we’d better give them about a year to get over it then you have my full permission to tease Bill about it without mercy.”

“Deal. So what did they do?”

“Dinah saved the day. She accidentally found out about it and called everybody and organized a wedding in the field. It kind of reminded me of our wedding at the BBQ. It was really beautiful.”

“I’m even sorrier I missed it then. I would have liked to thank Dinah again. She took a big risk when she brought me Hope that day and told me the truth. I’d just been going through the motions, trying to keep things normal as possible for Robbie and the minute I held Hope in my arms, deep down I felt this peace. I knew she’d just given me my life back, our life back. I was still so scared I’d screw it up that I almost didn’t take the chance, but down deep inside I knew it was going to be all right as soon as I felt our little girl in my arms.” Danny arched and twisted his neck to kiss her forehead.

Michelle squirmed and worked around to kiss him on the lips. “We’d never be able to mess up so badly I wouldn’t eventually get you back. You should know that by now.”

“I do know, Babe. I know.”

Michelle squirmed back around and kissed him a second time before settling back again. “It was all so beautiful I told everybody that it made me want to marry you all over again.” Her voice changed as irritation crept in. “Rick said that I’d married you 27 times already.”

“I hope you swatted him.”

“I did.” With a little triumph in her voice.

“You know this is the longest we’ve ever gone without some kind of wedding since we’ve been together. We might be getting rusty.”

“Hey” She turned around and swatted her husband.

“Seriously you told me once that you’d marry me a 1000 times. I’d marry you 1001 times, Babe. If you want to renew our vows again, I’d be there in a heartbeat.”

“Well, I’ll keep that in mind.” She said, appeased. “We could have Doris preside this time.”

“Doris… Wolfe? The woman who tried to put us both in jail for murder?”

“Well, she married Bill and Lizzie.”

“I think we can pass on that. It would be worse than having Jeffery O’Neill again.”

Their mugs abandoned to the table, she rolled over so they were face to face. “I also told Bill as happy as I was for him, he’d never be as happily married as I am. Ever.” She slowly started kissing and nuzzling against her husband.

“Darn straight!” He shot her his sexy grin before responding in kind. “The kids are probably pretty out of it with the cold medicine and….”

“Mom, Dad, Hope had a nightmare,” Robbie said walking into the family room. He couldn’t see his parents over the back of the couch, but he’d heard their voices.

Michelle stifled a moan of disappointment as she rolled off her husband and got to her feet. “Ok, we’re coming.”

Robbie continued, “I think she’s going to want to sleep in your bed tonight. She’s missed you Mom.”

“Is she the only one?” Michelle asked ruffling Robbie’s hair.

“No,” he replied softly.

“I guess maybe it should be a family bed night. Let’s go.”

She looked back to Danny and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, that’s why we bought a California king. Or at least one of the reasons. I’ll shut things up down here and meet you upstairs.” He lovingly watched his family walk upstairs and out of sight before he got things settled for the night and joined them.
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Michelle was leaning against the glass of the sliding patio door of their deck looking up at the stars. Even in the relative dark of the moderately well to do neighborhood, the stars seemed distant here, weak and hazy, not like the view from the lighthouse observation deck back home, not like from the balcony in her and Danny’s bedroom at the Bauer house. She held her hands in front of her and she twisted her wedding ring, like she always did when she was nervous, but this was a slow twist. She wasn’t really upset, just slightly unsettled. She loved her life in California. Life in California had been good for all of them, but it still didn’t feel like home. Not really. Not like Springfield. She wanted roots. She wanted to cook in Maureen’s kitchen. She wanted to give Rick grief every day. She wanted to be able to go visit Maureen’s grave whenever she wanted to. She wanted Hope and Robbie to know what it was like to be related or almost related to half, heck most, of the town. She wanted to have one darn Thanksgiving with Danny in Springfield that didn’t totally suck! She wanted her family to move back home. The last dark horrible year that they lived there had tainted everything she loved there for awhile, just as her mother’s death had, but time had gone on and just like when she was a little girl time had healed the wounds and she could remember and see the good in the places and people again. The dark memories had receded to become just that, distant memories and while they still sometimes popped up to claim her attention at unbidden moments they were mostly crowded out by all the good memories, old and new. But had they receded that far for Danny? He’d needed this fresh start more than she had and he’d done really well here. It wasn’t fair for her to even ask him to consider giving it up, was it? And her thoughts started off on another circle always ending up in the same place, circles just like the ones she was slowly turning with her wedding ring.

“You want to move back home, don’t you?” the words came gently out of the darkness behind her. Michelle had been so caught up in the merry-go-round of her thoughts that her conscious mind hadn’t registered he was there. She knew she really shouldn’t be surprised that he knew what she was thinking, he knew her, could read her so well.

“I miss Springfield. I really do. I always thought we’d be raising the kids there.”

“Well, we’d have to look things over. See what we could do about jobs and a place to live, but if it means that much to you. We can move back.” Danny’s voice seemed neutral, noncommittal.

“That wasn’t ever the question.” Michelle moved over in the darkness to embrace her husband. “I knew you’d be willing to move back if I had my heart set on it. The question my darling husband, is what do YOU want. You’ve done so well here in California, well all of us have really, and I’m not unhappy here. It’s just that it’s not….” Michelle’s voice trailed off.

“It’s not home.” Danny finished for her. “Babe, home for me is you and the kids. It’s different for me. I started out in Chicago and I was older when we moved to Springfield and I wasn’t exactly Springfield’s sweetheart either, like you were.”

“I was not…”

“Honey, I love you. But you WERE definitely the sweetheart of the town, all the while you were growing up. That’s one of the reasons nobody could believe that you fell for me. Not that I can blame them. I couldn’t believe it for awhile myself.” He bent down and kissed her.

“But everybody came to see I was right about how wonderful you are. You would have won the mayorship if Ross hadn’t had all that money left over from the Senate run and if stupid Jeffery O’Neill hadn’t messed with the results. If I was the sweetheart, WE were the favorite couple.”

“For awhile baby.” This time Danny trailed off thinking about how everything went wrong from the moment he followed Jeffery O’Neill into that hotel room at the Beacon. He could go a lifetime without seeing that man again, but even if they moved back he probably wouldn’t have to. Jeffery was on the run from a murder rap himself and while Danny knew better than anybody that being accused of a murder in Springfield didn’t mean you actually did it, his darker half was secretly pleased that O’Neill was getting a taste of his own medicine and apparently not caring for it much.

“Michelle, we were back for the BBQ. And I didn’t burst into flames and I didn’t turn into a pillar of salt. The bad memories didn’t block all the good ones out. I can’t say I wouldn’t be sorry to leave here, but I can say that I think you want to go back much more than I don’t. I could be happy living there again, just as long as I have you and the kids. You don’t have to worry about that. We do need to have some real conversations with hard numbers first though. We’d have to decide what to do about my business and your job at the clinic. Do we sell the house or rent it? The market isn’t too great right now. What would we do for jobs back in Springfield? You know I did run into a couple of people I used to know from when I ran the club when we were back for the BBQ. Maybe I should fly back and take a few meetings. See what the situation is on the ground. Where would we live? What about the kids? Would a move right now be too hard on them? We need to discuss it with them, too. But when we’ve done all that, I think, probably, Springfield here we come.”

“Ok, serious grownup work with numbers. I can handle that. As far as where we’d live, we could stay with Rick. I have it all planned out. Rick is just rattling around in that big empty house all by himself. He’d love to have the kids there all the time. We’d have our old room.”

“Hmmmmmm. I have very fond memories of that room.” Bending down, he began nibbling on her neck.

“Would you climb up the balcony for me again?”

“It depends. What my reward would be?”

“Oh, I’ll definitely make it worth your while. Anyway, Robbie would have his old room and Hope could have Meta’s. It’s been long enough since she passed, she wouldn’t have wanted it kept as a shrine forever and I think she’d love to have Hope in there enjoying it. Have I ever told you I have THE BEST husband in the universe?”

“Yes, but I’d much rather you showed me.” Danny said huskily, he kissed her again and led her back into the house. “My favorite thing about your mother’s garden was that you couldn’t see into it from any of the neighbor’s houses, too bad we can’t say the same thing here.” (He regretfully looked around at all the lit neighbors’ windows he could see from where they stood.) I’ll lock up, you check on the kids, and we’ll meet up in our room, first one there gets first choice.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Michelle murmured, stretching up to kiss him again and leaning into him with the weight of her body to feel every inch of him. “I love you, Danny Santos.”

“I love you, too, Michelle Santos.” He kissed her one more time before regretfully pulling away from her body, “On your mark, get set, go!” He swatted her on the bottom and headed off to make his usual rounds, securing the house for the night.

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Guiding Light episode from July 23, 2009 – Danny is at Company talking to Marina having talked to his local business contacts

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Guiding Light episodes from Sept. 17^th and all of Sept. 18^th, final episodes, except the flash forward

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(It’s around a week after the Santos Family has moved back to Springfield.) Hilda shows Danny into the front room/office of the Spaulding Mansion. He’s wearing a suit. Phillip is sitting at what used to be his father’s desk and he stands as Danny comes in. They shake hands and Phillip gestures for Danny to take a seat in front of him.

“Danny, I just want to tell you again how glad I am you, Michelle, and the kids moved back. Rick is a new man having his family back again.”

“Well, we’re glad to be back. And I don’t know exactly how to phrase this, but I’m really glad you didn’t die after all.”

Phillip chuckled. “Me, too. Yeah, it isn’t really an occasion Hallmark makes a card for, is it? Though maybe in this town it should be.” Phillip chuckled again at his own joke.

“And I’m sorry about your father.”

Phillip sobered. “So am I. In fact, Alan is why I asked you here today.”

“I was wondering.” Danny gave Phillip a friendly, but cautious look inviting him to continue.

“First, Danny, I want to explain a couple of things. When you worked at Spaulding, I wasn’t as welcoming as I could have been.”

“I seem to remember something like that.”

“Well, I’d like to apologize. I don’t think you quite understood my position at that time.” Phillip leaned back in his chair and then began to speak, broke off, fidgeted in his chair, and started again. He was seemed to be struggling to collect his thoughts.

“My grandfather, Brandon, was quite a piece of work. He used to pit family members against each other. He had this crazy idea that it would make them, make the family, strong. The more I learn about Alan and Alex’s childhood, it’s really a wonder they turned out as well as they did.”

“I understand.” Danny’s face had withdrawn as if behind a mask. Phillip couldn’t have picked anyone else in town, not a Spaulding, who would understand the complicated and destructive nature of Phillip’s family dynamics more.

Phillip’s eyes snapped back to Danny’s at the toneless, careful quality of Danny’s voice. “You really do, don’t you?” Phillip laughed. “You ARE one of the very few outside the family who does understand what it’s like.” He paused again, still struggling for words to express his complicated meaning. “Alan picked up from Brandon the habit of pitting his children against each other and I was the only one of his kids in town at the time you came to work for Spaulding. He truly thought a lot of you and so he pitted me against you.”

“Excuse me.”

“Oh yeah, every five minutes he was rubbing it in my face, how you were a man of action, how you got your family back, how you protected your family and how I failed to protect mine.” Phillip grimaced at the still sore memory.

Danny was surprised in spite of himself and before he could stop, blurted out, “No wonder you were such a jerk. Oh.” He stopped short realizing he had said it aloud.

“No, I was, especially about the FBI sting. I got a lot more pleasure than I should have from not telling you and it did put Michelle at some risk, although I know you’d never let anything happen to her. I’ve gotten a little more perspective now and I wanted to explain and apologize.”

“That really isn’t necessary, Phillip. It was a long time ago. I accept, but you didn’t need a special meeting…”

Phillip held up a hand to stop him. “That was just the first thing we had to clear up. I have a couple other things to talk to you about.” Again he paused, then surged ahead. “Have you ever heard of Hope Bauer?”

“Of course, she’s one of Michelle’s cousins. My daughter is partially named after her.”

Phillip nodded, he was just trying to make sure everything was making sense to Danny. “Did anybody ever tell you about her marriage to Alan?”

“Yeah, I heard the story. I was told it should be an object lesson for me about what not to do.” Danny smiled at the memory and he had to admit, they’d been right. There had been a lot of similarity between the marriages and it had taken a lot of hard work for theirs not to fall permanent prey to some of the same things that did in Alan and Hope’s.

“That will make this easier to explain then. Alan seems to have really identified with you and Michelle. He always regretted how things ended with Hope. I think in some way he thought you and Michelle were living the second chance he and Hope never could seem to find. Take a look at this.” Phillip handed over a folder. “I found this when I was going through Alan’s papers.”

Danny opened the folder and of all the things he thought might be there, he wasn’t prepared for what was. Danny flipped through a record of his family’s life, news clippings, report cards, photos, ads from his business back in California, etc. “What is this?!”

“Even though he was too consumed with his own problems the last few years of his life to do much about it, he always kept a watchful eye on you. He thought that much of you.” Phillip gave Danny a minute to process. “We haven’t had the formal reading of the will yet, but he even left you a small block of Spaulding stock.”

Danny’s eyes snapped off the folder’s contents and back up to Phillip’s at this news.

“To will it out of the family, well, it shows how much he thought of you. He always said you were Spaulding material, you just didn’t realize it yet.”

Danny decided not to get upset about the folder. Alan was gone now anyway and in combination with the rest of what Phillip was saying, he decided it had only been Alan’s way of showing interest. Twisted, yes, but just the kind of thing his mother might have done to show affection, before she went totally around the bend. “I get that.”

Phillip shifted in his chair. “Alan is gone now. Alex isn’t going to be involved in day to day operations for awhile, maybe never again. Lizzie and Bill are out, at least for now and I think they’d probably go back to Lewis Construction before they came back here. James will continue in the junior capacity Alan started him in, but he’s hardly up to running the company. I’m going to take part, but I don’t think my life was saved so I could spend every day in the office. I’m going to ask back Alan-Michael and Lucy and I’m going to ask Amanda back, too, but I’d really like you to be part of the team. It would have meant a lot to Alan also. You’re a gifted businessman. You were involved recently enough and in a broad enough position that you understand a lot about the company. Rick tells me that you were planning on starting up another business here, but I know how much time that can take, running your own business, especially a start up and I know you want to spend time with Michelle and the kids. You come on board at Spaulding and I can promise you that you can get home at a decent hour almost every night and we can work your schedule around Robbie and Hope’s school stuff. Take a look at this.” Phillip handed Danny the job description, salary, and benefits for the position he was offering. “It’s a good deal, especially since you’ll have a stock block now. What do you say?” Phillip stuck out his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

Danny hesitated, “I’ll have to talk it over with Michelle, but” Danny flashed Phillip his smile and took Phillip’s offered hand. “Tentatively, we have a deal.”

“Great.” Phillip grinned back

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Mindy, Phillip, Beth, and Peyton were all over at the Bauer House again. With Phillip working with Danny and Hope Santos and Peyton Spaulding becoming fast friends, they socialized a lot more since Danny, Michelle, and Mindy had moved back to Springfield. The Four Musketeers were definitely riding again and Danny and Michelle were now basically honorary Musketeers. The talk was all about Phillip and Beth’s upcoming wedding. Phillip was saying how they wanted something simple. There had been so much chaos in the last few months and Beth had said that she’d already done the Princess thing when they were married the first time, so they had been talking about following Christina and Remy’s example and having a Justice of the Peace ceremony. Danny had been waiting his chance and during a lull he signaled Phillip to follow him and slipped out the kitchen door himself.

“What’s up Danny? Something happening I should know about at Spaulding?” Phillip asked with concern, looking at the younger man who he now considered a close friend.

“No, this is definitely personal.” Danny began, a little uncertain of how to put this. “I’ve been listening to the wedding talk and I want to give you some heartfelt advice.” Danny broke off.

“Yes,” Phillip prompted.

“The last time Michelle and I got divorced, while you were, uh, gone. It really wasn’t something we wanted, we sort of let ourselves be talked into that it was what we ought to do.” Danny looked to Phillip for some understanding. And he got it, Phillip had gotten married and divorced before based on what he ought to do and he didn’t recommend it. He nodded and Danny continued. “So when we got back together, it had only been a couple of months since the divorce went through and we still felt married, so it was more like an un-divorce than a wedding, if you understand. We were undoing a legal mistake, not making a new commitment THAT had always been there. We’d just lost sight of it for a little while.” Danny ran his fingers through his hair as he always did when he felt unsure about something. “So I just arranged an un-divorce. I had Ray re-marry us right there in the kitchen.”

“The kitchen?! You couldn’t at least have it in the living room?” Phillip had clearly not heard this story before.

“Well, we spent so much of our lives in that kitchen. Michelle saved my life in there. She went into labor with Robbie in there. We, uh, celebrated my being cleared from the murder charges right there on the countertop.”

Phillip interrupted, “Too much information. Michelle may be your wife, but I still think of her as my little sister.”

Danny looked a little sheepish, he wouldn’t want to know that about Pilar either. He nodded and continued. “I gave her back my wedding ring and we almost quit on each other before we even started right over there. It just seemed right. Michelle said so too.” It had seemed to make so much sense at the time.

Phillip looked at him questioningly.

Danny went on. “So even though at the time she said how great it was and how right I was that it was just what she wanted, NOW we can be arguing about something else completely and she’ll bring up the kitchen wedding. For the rest of my life, I’m going to be hearing about it. So my advice my friend, is even if Beth says she wants something simple, small, and plain, DO NOT believe her. I’m not saying it has to be a princess fairy tale wedding, but do something nice with more than 6 guests and with you in a tux. Trust me, it will be worth it in the long run.” Danny looked relieved he had found the words to explain what he meant to his friend to head him off from a potential mistake.

Phillip nodded and took the advice to heart and in the end Phillip and Beth’s wedding was just enough grander than what Beth actually said she wanted that they were both happy.

Beth and Phillip had decided to give it a little time after Alan’s death before they got married, then came Lizzie and Bill’s Thanksgiving and finishing up their house, and after that were the holidays, so they decided to be re-married on their original anniversary, February 14th. The men of the bridal party were in tuxes and Beth wore an off-white tea length sleeveless gown with a tight bodice and a very full skirt that looked like something Audrey Hepburn might have worn. Rick and James stood up for Phillip and Mindy and Lizzie stood up for Beth. The families had so many young people that they ended up with more flower girls and ring bearers than adults. Peyton, Emma, Hope, and Lizzie’s daughter Sarah were the flower girls and Robbie, Zach and Jude (who Harley had finally been prevailed on to bring back for the occasion after many phone calls from Rick, Beth, Phillip and even Olivia) were ring bearers. Danny and Michelle were official “wranglers” for the ring bearers and flower girls, respectively. To get them all properly dressed, kept clean, neat, on time, and on task, and, in the case of the boys, kept from wrestling with each other, was a full time job.

True to her word, Alex and Fletcher came back for Phillip and Beth’s wedding. At the reception, Danny was glad everything had gone well and that he was officially relieved of his duties, now only being responsible for his own children. He looked out over the room. Hope was chasing around with the rest of the flower girls. Michelle was dancing with Robbie and Danny was thinking about going to catch Hope to dance with him, but at the moment he was just watching everybody being so happy and enjoying his children being part of the community in a way he never had been growing up or for a long time after.

Fletcher Reade walked up to him. “Hello, Danny. I wanted to introduce myself, I’m Fletcher Reade.”

“Oh right, Ben’s father.”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while. That is there is something I think you should know. I don’t think anyone else has probably told you.” He smiled. “Maybe nobody else in town really knows. I was a foreign correspondent around the world for years. Plus, I was married to the love of Roger Thorpe’s life. I know trouble.” Fletcher paused again.”I was in love, I thought, with Claire when Michelle was born. I even thought Michelle was mine for awhile and later she was one of Ben’s best friends growing up so I kept an eye on her. I just wanted to tell you something about her. Rick and Ed and probably everyone else around here,” Fletcher paused to gesture around the room. “has told you that all the trouble you two have gotten into is your fault, that you brought danger into her life.” He looked Danny in the eye.

Danny wondered why he was dragging all this up now. But he only said, “Well, they’re right. I did.”

“No.” Fletcher shook his head. “Michelle Bauer was in danger on a regular basis long before she became Michelle Santos since she was born, heck since she was conceived in Beirut in the middle of a war zone. No matter who she was with Michelle would have managed to put herself in danger. That’s just the kind of person she is. She doesn’t do the sensible thing. She doesn’t play it safe. She never has. She takes risks. She trusts in people other people wouldn’t take a chance on. Heck, that’s the only reason she found you in the first place. No matter who she was with Michelle would have found some way to be in just as much danger. She’s just like her mother and Maureen was married to Ed Bauer of all people and she still got in all kinds of trouble, we were assumed dead in a terrorist attack for God’s sake. Michelle would have gotten into trouble too no matter who she with and I  for one was glad when I heard you two got together because I knew you could handle whatever trouble she found. You didn’t get her into trouble, but you were always there to deal with it. Don’t let anybody else,” Fletcher stopped to gesture at the room at large again, “tell you differently.” Fletcher nodded again definitively and walked off to find Alexandra.

Danny would ponder what Fletcher had said later, but for now he went to catch his daughter. He wanted to dance with Hope and Michelle and just enjoy the day. Dark thoughts and other truths could wait to be dealt with.

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Rick and Mindy’s rehearsal ran like clockwork. Mindy had designed the gowns for herself and the entire female half of the bridal party. The makeup of this second bridal party was much the same as Phillip and Beth’s bridal party had been. Beth was Mindy’s matron of honor. Phillip was Rick’s best man. Leah was added so there was an extra bridesmaid and Ed was supposed to balance the addition on the groom’s side, with Frank prepared to step up from usher and stand in if Ed and Holly got delayed. Michelle and Danny had taken Lizzie and James’s places. James had flown out to California to visit Daisy at college, so Lizzie and Bill got to be the child wranglers this time, a fact Danny and Michelle were both grateful for. Danny was also grateful that Mindy considered ease of removal when she designed a gown. He and Michelle had already had a “test run” and he thought it had come off remarkably well. Ed and Holly were due to fly back just in time for the ceremony tomorrow.

It had meant a lot to Danny that Rick had asked him to be in the wedding party. Rick had told him he was the closest thing he to a brother he had, apart from Phillip, and that he really wanted Danny to stand up for him. Danny had shaken his hand and they had hugged and he was truly proud to stand up for Rick.

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Flash forward from the Sept. 18^th episode

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At Rick and Mindy’s wedding reception the dancing was in full force. Lizzie and Bill were dancing, so were Vanessa and Billy. Frank and Blake made quite the show. Ed and Holly were dancing with more happiness than skill, while Phillip and Beth looked like they could only see each other. The children had been dancing and running around again. Robbie’s parents, Michelle and Danny, were dancing with each other and attracting all eyes with their dancing ability (it was their second favorite physical activity after all), when Robbie Santos eased up to Sarah Randall where she was standing still for a moment watching the dancers. Suddenly overcome by an impulse brought on by her curly long hair and petite frame (like father, like son after all), Robbie reached out and kissed Sarah on the cheek. It was sweet, innocent little kiss, but it was more than that. It was a promise that life and love will continue in Springfield, just as it has for the last 72 years within sight of the Guiding Light.

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Postscript: The champagne at Mindy and Rick’s wedding was delicious and that was good because Michelle wouldn’t have any more for quite a while, at least 9 months, actually.

The week after Rick’s wedding, Michelle and Danny were lying in bed, entwined together.

“My darling husband, have I ever told you life has consequences?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, do you remember when we decided we had our boy and our girl and that was enough, but you didn’t want to get a vasectomy?”

“I don’t want to start that discussion again, Michelle.” Danny groaned.

“Oh, I’m not,” Michelle purred. “I’m just reminding you of the consequences part and the pill isn’t 100 percent effective you know.”

“What do you mean? What consequences? Stop talking in riddles, Miche…..A BABY! WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY?! And I get to be here for the whole pregnancy this time?” He jumped out of bed, picked her up, and swung her around.

Michelle was delighted by his reaction. She knew he’d eventually come around to being thrilled, but she had been a little bit concerned about his initial reaction. After all they HAD agreed that two children were enough and this meant at least 18 more years before they could make love on the living room couch in the middle of the afternoon any time they wanted to. Danny had set her down and was unlocking one of their “special” drawers.

“What are you doing, sweetheart? I think we’ve already done that part.” Michelle’s seductive tone contradicted her words.

“Ha Ha. You know I think you are incredibly sexy when you’re pregnant, but I need in here for another reason. Eureka!” He held up a pair of handcuffs. “This time I’m not letting you go anywhere without me until you have this baby AND maybe not even then.”

“Oh Mr. Santos, I LOVE you and you’re not getting rid of me this time. I expect you to be there every step of the way, morning sickness, strange cravings, Lamaze classes, and all.”

He stepped back over to her and took her in his arms. “You better believe it, Baby. Always.”