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 Cast Roundup 81

This is the eighty-first in an irregular feature where we will report updates on what cast members of Guiding Light are doing now. I’m playing catch up on some soap magazine news. So as a reminder you can buy back issues:
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/faq-back-issues-2014/

Bethany Joy Lenz (our dearly beloved Michelle Bauer Santos #4) guest starred on Grey’s Anatomy. The episode is called “1-800-799-7233.” It’s the winter premiere of the second half of the season (Season 14, Episode 9) and originally aired January 18, 2018. Her character’s name is Jenny. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7043736/

Morgan Englund (Dylan Lewis, Billy and Reva’s son who ended up with Bridget) is the subject of a where are they now feature in the July 3, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest. After GL, Englund wanted to go into music, but he was a single father so he decided he needed something more regular. Following in Dylan’s shoes he became a first responder and then part of the fire department. Then in 2017 he decided to try to get into music again. About his connections to the Guiding Light cast he says “I just talked to Melissa Hayden [Bridget Reardon Lewis] yesterday because she’s hopefully going to be involved in some way with the video. We connect every couple of years and want to do something together. And every time I see Kim [Zimmer, Reva Shayne Lewis], we’re right back to where we were before, so there’s a lot of love there. I loved working with her and Jordan [Clarke, Billy Lewis]. Maureen Garrett [Holly Reade] and I also exchanged messages recently….GL didn’t hire just any people; [they cast] mostly theater actors, like [the late] Michael Zaslow [Roger Thorpe]. They were amazing actors to work with. I feel very fortunate.”

In the May 14, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth Sharon Newman’s Crimson Lights gets a shout out because – unlike Company in the last couple of years – people actually pay for what they eat. Go Sharon!

Joseph Campanella (a criminal named Joe Turino) died May 16, 2018. Campanella was an incredibly busy actor appearing on many shows on daytime, primetime, film, and the stage over the decades until his retirement in 2009. Guiding Light was his second regular series role and we was on between 1959-1960. I have to idea who this character was. I’m glad we got the name, but if anyone has more details, please share.
https://www.cbs.soapsindepth.com/posts/days-of-our-lives-bold-and-the-beautiful-guiding-light-joseph-campanella-dead-160189

Joseph Campanella Dies: TV & Film Actor With 200 Credits Over Six Decades Was 92

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/joseph-campanella-dead-character-actor-909457

Check out photo spreads of soap star houses in the May 27, 1997 issue of Soap Opera Weekly. Check out the homes of:  Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor, The Young and the Restless she also had a cameo as a friend of Vanessa’s at the last Vanilly wedding in the final days of the show), Grant Aleksander (Phillip Spaulding, Guiding Light), Judi Evans Luciano (Beth Raines, Guiding Light), and Robin Mattson (teenage Hope Bauer, Guiding Light). As a bonus there are two childhood photos of Ethan Erickson who played J Chamberlain on Guiding Light. His childhood nickname was Skip.

Recently John Wesley Shipp (Dr. Kelly Nelson, of Kelly and Morgan fame) was recently left out of a reunion photo for Dawson’s Creek where he played Dawson’s dad. He was interviewed for the Entertainment Weekly article for the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut, but neither of the parents were included in ET‘s reunion photo. Thanks for the tip VIP Auctions newsletter.

After Fiona Hutchison (Jenna Bradshaw Cooper) left the Guiding Light, one of her projects became teaching Understanding Daytime at New York’s School of Film and Television (SFT). Read all about it in the February 8, 2000 issue of Soap Opera Weekly. She talks about her return in December 1996 after 2 years and a baby. She feels she is better at her job and more appreciative. She neogiated a 3 year contract with a 52 week cycle instead of the normal 13. Read all about it in the May 27, 1997 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.

Emme Rylan (Lizzie Spaulding Lewis #6, part of the wonderful Bizzie pairing) has a quick interview about her General Hospital role in the January 22, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest. In a seperate roundup in the same issue about irrational fears Rylan confesses to an irrational fear that there are sharks in her swimming pool. Rylan had announced the birth of her daughter Dakota Rose Money on June 26, 2017. See a photo and read more in the July 24, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.

Kurt Knudson recurred as Len the ice cream store owner who gave Michelle an alibi. He first aired January 4, 2000. He previous had a recurring role as Judge Ari Waxman on Law and Order and as Judge Louis Brandels on ABC’s Annie. Read more about it in the January 11, 2000 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.

There is a profile about Scott Bryce (Craig Montgomery #1, both chronologically & in greatness, during falling in love with Sierra, etc.) in the July 25, 2016 issue of Soap Opera Digest. It includes a shout out to his father Ed Bryce who starred as Bill Bauer on Guiding Light. He passes on this advice from his dad. “Remember, even when you’re the star, you are just a brush stroke in someone else’s painting, so check your ego at the door.”

Melina Kanakaredes (Eleni Cooper #1) talks about her time on Guiding Light and on her new show The Resident in the February 26, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest. She says she is still close to Rick Hearst (Alan-Michael Spaulding #3).

There is an indepth feature story on John Driscoll (Coop Cooper #4) in the November 13, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest. It talks about his transition from acting (last appearing as Chance Chancellor on The Young and the Restless) to a life in the Army. He currently is serving in the Virginia Army National Guard 29th Infantry Division in Kuwait. Driscoll said he is currently in touch with Robert Bogue (A.C. Mallet #2), Mandy Bruno (Marina Cooper #6), Lawrence Saint-Victor (Remy Boudreau), Jeff Branson (Shayne Lewis #7, the last one), Michelle Ray Smith (Ava Peralta), and Frank Dicopoulos (Frank Cooper).

Saint-Victor was featured as a Take Five in the July 24, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.

Among the stars on hand for the 2017 Jane Elissa Extravagenza benefitting Broadway Cares and The Jane Elissa Charitable Fund for Leukemia and Lymphona were Sonia Satra (Lucy Cooper Spaulding, part of terrific LAM pairing, victim of Marian Crane) and Sean McDermott (Hart Jessup #3 who came back to find Roger married to Dinah). Read more in the January 8, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

Laura Bell Bundy (Marah Lewis #5, the one who started Marony) produced and directed a concert benefitting women’s rights, the ACLU, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, and Planned Parenthood NY. Read more about it in the January 8, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

The October 30, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth features a tribute to New York City photographer Arthur L. Cohen who specialized in shooting soaps. He had to retire in 2014 when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and passed away during summer 2017. Check out a roundup of photos from New York based soaps over the years. Find a bunch of Guiding Light and As the World Turns stars with their memories of the photographer.

Karla Mosley(Christina Boudreau) reports back on a recent publicity trip for The Bold and the Beautiful. The trip was to South Africa during October 2017. She got the chance to show off South African high fashion. B&B cast mates Jacob Young (Rick Forrester) and Heather Tom (Katie Logan) joined her on the trip. Read more and see photos in the January 8, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth. Mosley announced she is expecting her first child with boyfriend John Roger it’s due in August see the announcement in the May 7, 2018 issue in Soap Opera Digest. In the same issue in answer to a roundup Mosley says: “They call me ‘The Human Jukebox.’ because if someone says anything that reminds me of a song, I can’t help but sing it, and I don’t even realize I’m singing it sometimes.” Mosley also won one of the GLAAD awards for her portrayal of Maya Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and showed of a baby bump she is pregnant by her boyfriend John Roberts. In a separate story she tells about going to see Nelson Mandela speak and that she was in a kids’ rock group called Sugar Beats. Read all about it in the May 14, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

Maura West (Carly Tenney Snyder on As the World Turns, Ava Jerome on General Hospital) is interviewed about her General Hospital role in the July 3, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest. About ATWT she says she keeps connected with her former costars through social media, “We were SO close on that show. We are still a big family, we’re just sort of scattered to the wind. I communicate the most with Martha [Byrne, Lily Walsh Snyder], Michael [Park, Jack Snyder, part of CarJack], and Colleen [Zenk, Barbara Ryan].” She hadn’t yet seen Park in his hit Broadway show, Dear Evan Hansen.

Kassie DePaiva (Chelsea Reardon, Maureen and Nola’s little sister) is featured in a roundup where they feed actors quotes from past interviews and ask them to respond. Find it in the November 13, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest. DePaiva also was featured in a detailed round up about the stars on Mother’s Day. Read it in the May 14, 2018 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

Back in the February 8, 2000 issue of Soap Opera Weekly featured Jean Carol (Nadine Cooper, Harley and Frank’s mom) talked about her latest movie Scream Queens: A Musical.

Laura Wright (Cassie Layne #1, Reva’s long lost sister) talked about her time on Guiding Light when her character stayed with Edmund when they were trying to get pregnant and impregnated Dinah Marler. “Brian Mertes, who was my director on Guiding Light, taught me that I can justify absolutely anything as an actor. He wouldn’t let the stay in the no and he taught me to just go for it. He’d say, “We have to do this. So why would your character do it? I’m not the actor who would say, “That doesn’t make sense to me,” or put in changes or complaints, ever, because I still justify anything you hand to me.” Read about it in the February 26, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest.

The 1997 Time Capsule round up article in the July 3, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest list these turn over in the TPTB at Guiding Light: “Paul Rauch took over as executive producer, succeeding Michael Laibson; Head Writers Michael Conforti, Victor Miller and Nancy Williams Watt were replaced by James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten; and the show celebrated major milestones; the 60th anniversary of its radio debut and the 45th anniversary of its move to TV.”

The 2003 Time Capsule round up article in the February 26, 2018 issue of Soap Opera Digest list these turn overs in the TPTB at Guiding Light: “John Conboy was named EP, and Millee Taggart resigned as head writer, succeeded by Ellen Weston and Donna Swajeski.”

A spooky story round up in the October 30, 2017 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth includes the end of the Cleva (Reva’s clone) story complete with photo. It also has photos of David Kimball (Killer carved in his forehead) from The Young and the Restless and from As the World Turns the James-Barbara-Gunnar time travel story and Shannon O’Hara return from the dead despite her shrunken head storylines.

In the July 24, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest has a close up photo of Vincent Irizarry (Lujack/Nick McHenry) in his disguise he wore for the end of his role on Deimos Kiriakis on Days of Our Lives. Read an article about his character’s death and an interview with him in the July 3, 2017 issue of Soap Opera Digest.

CBS Soaps in Depth online celebrated Kim Zimmer‘s (Reva Shayne Lewis) birthday in February. Check out the photos across her long career. http://www.cbs.soapsindepth.com/posts/guiding-light-kim-zimmer-birthday-124616/photos/kim-zimmer-gal-01-132496

Ellen Parker who played Maureen Reardon Bauer #2 announced she was in the independent film called Ties to Rachel that was then seeking a distributor in the May 27, 1997 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.

During the heighth of the Annie-Reva feud around when Annie faked Reva pushing her down the stairs, Suzanne Schwarzer (GL’s then costume designer) found a company called Annie Reva (in a total coincidence). She bought several of their pieces for the cast. Read more about it Soap Opera Weekly issue May 13, 1997. The article also spells out the complicated shooting of the actual fall. It mentions stunt woman Janet Paparazzo, director Bruce Barry, and stunt coordinator Peter Hock. It also looks as if Reva could actually be charged (it hasn’t happened, but hypothetically it could).

The May 27, 1997 issue of Soap Opera Weekly did a Where Are They Now? feature on Val Dufour. He left acting right after he left his role of attorney John Wyatt on Search for Tomorrow in 1980. He gave this great quote. “But the real challenge is the development of the characters and the day to day movability of it, because the writers change. I once told Mary Stuart (the last Meta Bauer on Guiding Light) that we should have been given an award for rewriting.”

UPDATED December 31, 2018: I caught 2 typos and fixed them.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Final Brent Lawrence Terror Part 3 Jan 29 Feb 2 1996

Picking up from the last post Brent Lawrence still has Lucy. That’s the major storyline to me in this next section, but it’s interrupted for some more early Dart and kicking up the biggest story ever for the Grant family up a notch. Matt is still threatening Amanda about coming clean about the her escort service. Nola is still having problems with J and Bridget is trying to decide if she should go after Hart or not. Also, sort of tying in with the rescue attempts, but not really, Alan warns Annie that he thinks Jeva are starting to get back together and Buzz is making a move on Reva. Comment blocks below include clip description, quotes, and my comments.

Monday, January 29, 1996

The cop tailing A-M reports to Frank (via radio which they know Brent has been checking????) and they are ready to follow A-M when he leaves thinking he’ll lead them to Brent. Amanda jumps in front of A-M’s car telling him she won’t let him risk his life. A-M is her brother and she loves him. Buzz is also listening to the police band radio while working in the dinner. Buzz and Reva had started the beginning of a friendship (which always turns to sex with Reva) when she was still in Amish Reva/Rebecca mode. They’d met up a few times in Springfield, but Reva had never told him of her connection to either Alan or Josh which hurt Buzz and made him feel like a fool.

It’s hard to tell if Brent is buying Lucy coming around to like him or not. He wants to have sex with Lucy, but she tells him that she’d be fine if only they’d go someplace else. Brent starts to freak out, but then comes around. He starts to walk Lucy through the night of rape, making Lucy walk them through that night from his POV. Amanda begs A-M to tell police what Brent said and A-M begs Amanda to let him go.

Amanda: “You’re my brother, I just found you again, you can’t die.”

…

A-M: “If I die trying to save her, then I die. I can’t let her down. Please try and understand Amanda, I can’t.”

A-M spots his police trail and realizes Frank is going to have him followed. He asks Amanda to help him get away.

Alan is trying to get Annie to help him keep Reva and Josh apart. Annie at first claims her marriage is solid, but then listens to Alan. Annie says she has nothing to hide (um, the retcon makes this totally untrue, although the drug addiction she had even then doesn’t help).

Frank’s partner suffers a fit of self-doubt giving a recap of recent action. Meanwhile Amanda disguised as A-M drives off. A-M runs down the stairs that shows Level 5 is the first one under street level. Brent continues his rewrite of their rape night.

Lucy takes over reminding Brent of how great they had been together before that night. It seems like Lucy has him reeled in, but then the alarm goes off and Brent calls A-M telling him next to call him from the phone booth on the docks near where they found Nadine. Buzz is full of self-blame from how he has let everyone down repeatedly. Most recently by staying with Reva instead of showing up at Frank’s police academy graduation. Reva tells him to knock off complaining and do something. Alan continues to push Annie to help him. Rick is still interested in Annie and she turns to him afraid her alcoholism will come out.

Annie is frantic to Rick that by revealing her alcoholism Reva will take Marah and Shayne from Josh. Rick talks her down. A-M makes the deadline to pick up the phone on the docks.

Brent reacts to Lucy having interrupted his A-M. Lucy says she’s upset because Brent lied to her, not because of A-M. Lucy continues to try to convince Brent to leave town without seeing A-M. Brent doesn’t bite and tells A-M to come to the lighthouse which A-M believes is finally the meet. Frank catches Amanda and tells her she just killed A-M.

Rick says he will help Annie, but never lie for her again. She freaks out and storms out the door. Buzz tells Reva she made a mistake being with Alan, that she should be with him instead. Frank gets out of Amanda what she knows which isn’t much. Alan shows up and Amanda catches Alan up. A-M shows up at the lighthouse and Brent comes out and smiles.

Tues., Jan. 30, 1996

Annie returns home to the Land of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams. She’s freaked and tells Josh she has to move out. Buzz tells Reva that she should be with him instead because he could love her better than either Alan or Josh despite the fact that minutes ago he was saying how he failed everyone he ever loved. Alan is furious when Amanda catches him up and attacks her. Brent delightedly welcomes A-M to the lighthouse.

Brent makes fun of A-M. Brent: “Do you know how stupid a name that is, Alan-Michael?” (I kind of wish that A-M had explained the story behind his name at that point just to throw Brent off.) Brent reminds A-M that he shot him in the stomach after making him beg for Lucy’s life and to see her. Brent: “It feels like you swallowed fire.” Brent says pushing the gun into A-M’s stomach. Annie tells Josh about what Alan said and she says she has to move out. Marah overhears and is further upset. Reva asks Buzz what he’s talking about that they are just friends with some sexual attraction. Reva runs down Alan’s good points. I wish she’d remember this later on. Buzz insists if she really loved Alan, she’d have said so. Buzz tells her to call Alan and say she is going to date Buzz and goes in for a kiss.

Meanwhile Alexandra has Matt over telling him she wants to build a second home office that would be for Alan – I guess she’s taken over the one she’s standing in -and a solarium off the kitchen for cook to grow herbs. Matt calls her on just wanting more information on Amanda. Brent runs a portable metal detector over A-M and discovers he has a gun. Brent brings A-M up to the second floor of the lighthouse where Lucy is and they finally see each other again. I haven’t counted soap days, but in real life it’s been a month. See I think I would have wound this up quicker than this and pushed Reva and Josh to the second part of the month, but I’m not a writer. 🙂

A-M says hello and Brent taunts him. Lucy says she never wanted to see A-M again. Alan has pressed the right psychological button and Amanda is back to being a good little girl again. Sadly she’s fragile. Alan hires a new computer expert and puts him on finding Brent even though Spaulding’s normal computer people have failed. Alan calls the diner and Buzz tries to put him off, but Reva takes the phone and he catches her up and asks Reva to come. When he realizes it’s about Lucy and A-M, Buzz insists on coming along. And leaves the diner unlocked and unmanned. Seriously it’s no wonder why they were always on the verge of losing the business.

Marah comes down singing the song that drives the guy nuts in George Orwell’s 1984. This is NOT a good sign. Marah says Shayne was asking if they’d ever have to go live with Mama. They tell her no. Marah is clearly pretending the questions came from Shayne when they are from her and she is upset on whether she’ll have to go live with Reva or away from Josh or not. Then Marah continues to sing the crazy bell song — seriously it freaks me out every since I heard a radio production of 1984. Amanda is also freaked out. Alex tells Amanda that Matt has told her all about it. Matt jumps into the breech and continues the cover story. Lucy freaks out on Brent pretending she doesn’t care about A-M. Lucy jumps into attack mode and Brent thinks she’s his mother and backs away into the fetal position, but still holding on to the gun.

Alan’s computer man, constantly typing, is working on tracking him down. Buzz says he thinks Brent doesn’t just want money, but wants to break everyone. Buzz thinks that Brent wouldn’t leave until he breaks A-M. Buzz, Alan, and Reva profile Brent. The computer guy gets a lead. A-M is afraid what Lucy is doing as they communicate with their eyes. Then Brent pops back up. Brent says he’s going to count to 30 and then shoot A-M. If Lucy tries to stop him, he’ll know she’s lying. Lucy tries to argue that he shouldn’t kill A-M just because it would be stupid. It doesn’t work. He puts Lucy’s hands under his on the gun and points it at A-M.

Amanda and Matt talk. Amanda tells Matt that she’s always afraid she won’t be part of the Spaulding family anymore. Amanda tells Matt they have a deal. She’ll stay away from Ross and he’ll keep his mouth shut about their connection in California. (If you don’t know for reasons they’re never really clear about, Amanda was running a prostitution ring and Matt was working for her.) As Brent reaches 30 in his count for Lucy to shoot the expert finds the number, Alan chats to Brent. Meanwhile A-M comes up behind Brent with a ceramic knife. Bravo! Bravo! There’s some his grandfather Mike’s smarts! ♥

Wed., January 31, 1996

We pickup a different storyline today as Hart comes in and finds Dinah sitting alone in the farmhouse in the dark. He lights a kerosene lamp. Dinah expects Hart to tear into her. Alan is luring Brent in on the chat when A-M comes behind Brent (For some reason with a horror movie knife raise instead of a quick next to jugular move), but at the last minute Brent turns and fires at A-M.

A-M is shot and in pain, but not dead. Lucy continues with her plan to convince Brent she wants him. Holly, Fletcher, Ross, and Blake are having a nice reception at Reva Bend. They are concerned about Dinah. Holly abruptly changes the conversation when Fletcher brings up that Roger had said he still loved Holly. Hart tells Dinah that he just wanted to help Dinah – which I don’t think is really true, but for the sake of future story I’ll believe it.

Roger is eating with his lawyer Leo Flynn at the diner. The diner is totally jumping now, Elaine is in charge, and I have NO idea what time of day is this supposed to be other than they’re not eating a normal breakfast. Leo sends up a line saying this first thing Roger…Ross will ask for is a financial accounting and as Roger has stolen all of Dinah’s money that isn’t good. Roger is sure he can talk Dinah back, but she heard the sincerity in Roger’s voice when he said he loved Holly. Alan and Buzz are blustering at each other when Brent returns to the chat with the news he shot A-M.

Hart tries to cheer up Dinah pointing out all the other people that Roger fooled and that Hart himself had been the biggest fool. Hart retells her his story and how his grandfather raised him on Yates. Hart: “The woods of Arcady are dead. And over is their antique joy.” Ross turns down seconds on the appetizer that Blake made and Ross and Fletcher both threw their appetizers into the fireplace when Blake wasn’t looking. I guess Blake isn’t that good a cook. Holly is concerned with Meg’s future. Blake tells Holly about her baby concerns. Blake’s outfit is really cute, but I just can’t stand how Holly keeps talking about how great Fletcher is and how she can trust him. The only woman he never abandoned was Maeve and that was just because she died before he got the chance. Fletcher broke my heart when he broke Claire’s and never did a thing to make it up.  Alan and Reva think Brent has brain washed Lucy, but Buzz recognizes she’s conning him to buy time. Alan negotiates with Brent and when it starts to go wrong Buzz panics.

Frank is at the diner, but he can’t eat. Eleni has made sandwiches for the other cops. Eleni tells Frank she was wrong to be opposed to Frank becoming a cop that he was meant to be one to help save Lucy. Brent leaves and A-M begs Lucy to quit playing this. Lucy tells him it’s her plan and it’s meant to buy time so they can survive. Dinah says she loved Roger. Hart to Dinah: “Roger isn’t worth your tears.” 

Roger shows up at Ross and Blake’s carriage house looking for Dinah. Meanwhile at the Jessup Farm, Hart kisses Dinah. Buzz is upset. Both Buzz and Alan agree that the money is bait to lure him out into the open. Alan intends to kill Brent. A-M tells Lucy that the reason Brent is reacting to her strangely because he’s feeding her into the role his mother played in his life.

Thurs., Feb. 1, 1996

The Grants are having a family dinner and Griffin Williams shows up because Charles invited him. Hart and Dinah were still making out, but he breaks away. Roger tells everyone at the Bloss Carriage House to stay out of his life.

Hart kisses Dinah and we’re not sure at this point whether he’s playing Dinah or not. I don’t think Hart is entirely clear either. Griffith is showing off with stories of his work in the Civil Rights campaign and generally being kind of obnoxious.

Vivian does NOT want Griffith to stay in town. Nola sets up Jay to get his car locked up so he can’t take it. It’s pretty Nola-esque caper with Nola, Marcus, and Bridget. Roger hits a little close to Folly and Bloss and then declares that Dinah’s love for him will make their efforts to break them up useless. Meanwhile Hart declares he loves Dinah.

Nola and Bridget work on going through Bridget’s closet to see if she can deal with her closet and her life. Bridget: It’s “a big pile of maybe, a bigger pile of no, and not many yeses.” Now explain this to me. Why would anyone ever want Hart? I mean how does this guy get people to constantly have 2 women fighting over him. Dinah denies Hart could love her. Charles offers Griffin a fellowship to teach a political science for a semester at Springfield University. Jay and Marcus hang out. Did chariots have driver license requirements? Interesting Question. Roger shows up to beg Marcus to forgive him to save his marriage.

Holly wonders if Roger isn’t a little bit right about why they went after Roger. Roger makes a case that Marcus should forgive him. Dinah and Hart continue to talk about his relevation that he told her he loved her.

Bridget confesses to Nola that she wants Hart, but she’s afraid. Nola is very supportive. Bridget about Hart: “He walks into a room and I start to feel goofy… and then I see him with Peter and I think why not? Why not try to be a family.” Gillian tells her dad that her mom has been way out of line (which is kind of teenager like of her, sure Vivian didn’t act like Griffin staying would be Christmas morning, but she was perfectly polite). [Spoiler alert the woman Griffin hurt was her and she’s upset because Gilly is Griffin’s daughter and she doesn’t want anyone to know.] I don’t know why anyone would pick that African name over hearing him say Vivian. I might change my name to Vivian to hear him say that too me, he just rolls it through you. Dinah and Hart discuss what’s going on and then that bed is all too close.

Vivian asks Griffin to leave for her sake. Bloss have a heart to heart about their fertility issues. Dart starts to have sex for the first time.

Friday, February 2, 1996

Dinah wakes up in Hart’s bed the morning after. We Finally get back to the kidnapping. Alan has collected $10 million and is working with Buzz to offer it to Brent.

Lucy continues to play a part to survive and protect everyone. Alan insisted that Lucy be included before Buzz could object she wasn’t included. That’s why you never give up on Alan. Just when you give up on him he does something stand up like this.

Dinah and Hart are still in bed when Roger shows up. I wish Roger’s fear was that he’d lose Dinah, but it’s that he’d get caught stealing her money. Alan and Buzz work together which is always great.

Lucy works on picking a lock. Griffin comes in and joins Vivian and Gilly at their breakfast table. Vivian admits to Gilly that she and Marcus had an affair years ago. Dinah doesn’t regret sleeping with Hart, but isn’t sure what she wants to do from here.

Griffin comes to Marcus and tells him he wants to improve their relationship. Marcus having taken a backseat to everything else his entire life has no interest. Frank comes in and finds Reva. Frank tries to get the truth out of Reva. Frank: “Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me the truth?” Alan picks up the phone and Brent is there. He tells Alan he’s on A-M’s yacht. Buzz and Alan do a verbal dead drop.

Vivian tells Gilly about what happened between her and Griffin. Marcus explains that he doesn’t hate Griffin he just doesn’t know him and he wasn’t there when he needed him. Alan and Buzz work together and Buzz tackles Brent. Dinah tells Marcus about Hart and how good the sex was.

Marcus was OK with Dinah being with anyone other than Roger until he learns that she’s moving on with Hart. Hart sadly was using her – mostly – to get back at Roger. Brent tells Alan and Buzz they have to let him go. Alan-Michael and Lucy discover a bomb.

 

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Christmas 2001 A Christmas Tale

Springfield sometimes turned the Christmas episode into a special focused episode that didn’t exactly disrupt the normal storylines, but were sort of a moment out of time just at that moment in time. Such was the case during Christmas 2001.

This Christmas episode reflects back on the best Christmas episodes of the past. The main character is Kris Kringle who seems to be a modern day version of Santa Nick who has dropped in to spread magic around Springfield. There is even a connection to the Mike Bauer singing at the end of this one. It’s well worth watching.

Michelle and Robbie Santos, Harley Cooper and Jude Bauer, Blake, Jason, and Kevin Marler, Holly and Meg Reade

A Christmas Tale

Ross gathers everyone up at the Bauer cabin with Aunt Meta and the Bloss children – Jason, Kevin, and Clarissa who was born one year also at the Bauer cabin. He brings them to the fireplace and starts to tell a Christmas story or rather a Christmas Eve story that takes place right there in Springfield.

Michelle, Blake, Harley, and Holly carry in a real Christmas tree  – in their dress coats. They work on setting up and decorating the tree. Meanwhile, at the Lewis House, Shayne is resisting staying in his elf costume that he has on to match Josh as Santa. When Billy shows up, Shayne passes on the elf hat to Billy although he won’t fit the rest of the costume and they are off to Towers to fill in as Santa. As we look around town we find irritation everywhere as we have the warmest Christmas on record at 65 degrees F outside.

More than one person called out the calvary and Phillip and Beth show up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. (That’s a TERRIBLE Mrs. Claus outfit, but couldn’t Billy at least taken off his tie and suit coat to look more elf like?) Meanwhile Reva realizes bulldozing into the elevator stuck her with Olivia and Edmund.

“Santa is short a reindeer, Frosty must confront the sun…..and now power lines are about to fall.”

A blackout hits all over Springfield. After a confrontation over who was going to play Santa, Phillip agreed to let Josh have the job although it seemed like Beth (still influenced by Loreli) is ready to rumble, However they realize that there is now 2 feet of snow on the ground and no one is going anywhere soon. Olivia, Edmund, and Reva are pretty darn hilarious. They ought to have been forced together more often.

December 24, 201 (Part One)

Even story tellers get a commercial break. Ross: “You know there are four generations gathered here in the Bauer Cabin…” Everyone else: “Story! Story! Story!” Santa Josh was overwhelmed so Phillip and Beth opened a second station on Santa’s knee and worked together. Reva told the story of the Christmas truce during World War I. Reva’s story inspires Reva, Edmund, and Olivia to call a truce of their own and share Reva’s catering and Olivia’s champagne in their own Christmas Eve dinner. Gus finally shows the Christmas spirit and gives up the offer of a ride in the 4-wheel drive truck to the guys going up to the Bauer cabin to reach their families. Not knowing Gus did that, Rick asks if Gus could come along too but the “security guard” says there’s no room.

December 24, 2001 (Part Two)

The guys show up at Bauer Cabin reporting that on their way the roads were terrible and then they rounded a corner and everything cleared. Danny meets Michelle with a kiss and a ‘Hi, Tiger” for Robbie. Sigh! Meta pulls Ross aside and says she knows it’s not the end of the story and she wants to know what happens next. With the roads now clear will the Christmas spirit spread over the outcasts too? Edmund, Olivia, and Gus are all miserable at Towers each eating alone with two poor Towers employees stuck working. Edmund remembers Reva’s story and moves to the piano and starts to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The others join in and everyone from the Bauer Cabin, the Lewis house, and the Spaulding Mansion come in.

December 24, 2001 (Part Three)

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Blake Marler Book Update 2015

One of my early projects for this website was to put together a list of books about Guiding Light. It took longer than I thought to find, read, and review each one so I decided to do something I thought would be faster. I decided to put together a list of the fake books that only exist in Springfield. I thought this would be easier to find than the real books, but it’s proven a far harder a task than I thought it would be. Tonight I’m offering up an update of my original post on Blake Marler’s books. I’ve discovered several things over the years that I’ve included as updates to that post, but I think it’s time to reorganize and repost what I’ve found.

Blake Book Signing

Blake “Chrissie” Thorpe Marler, first driven to write while she hung out pregnant at the Bauer Cabin (not wanting Ross to realize he was the father of her baby since she wrongly believed Holly and Ross had developed a romantic relationship at that time). Eventually Blake produced two best-selling novels. Subsequently Blake uses that fame in her investigations aka snooping (like when she discovers Gus’s true identity during Danny’s murder trial). She later used this experience to serve as Henry “Coop” Cooper’s book agent and was considering writing another book herself when the show ended.

I kindly had Blake’s titles confirmed for me by welovekeifer They were published under the pen name Darlena LaCrosse, originally this was to keep Ross from realizing Blake was the author and she kept using the name for her second book to cash in on initial fame.

Blake’s Writing

One True Love – Set during an approximately World War II era romance, OTL told a fictionalized account of the Hoss story where they get a happy ending. Blake’s versions of Holly and Ross often appeared before her on screen to act out scenes from the book as she wrote it. They even talked to her to comment on her writing and how realistic or unrealistic it was and what she should be writing. Blake called the Holly character Clarissa, the Ross character Armand, and the Blake character Christina. Holly accidentally got hold of some chapters and the book was first published as a serial story in the Springfield Journal. Ross eventually realizes Blake wrote the book and deduces to look for her at the Bauer cabin finding her at the cabin just in time to help deliver their daughter, who they name after the Holly character in the book, Clarissa.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030411002010/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/love.html

 Hearts Alone – (Don’t expect this part to make sense – it was just plot point so swallow hard and just accept it. ) While looking around for a love story to tell in her second book (rather than use any of the incredible Springfield love stories – Manny, Bloss, Quola, and Jeva spring to mind as great novel possibilities) and after discarding writing about Cassie & her experiences with Richard (which Blake had done at least some preliminary work on – see below), Blake chooses to focus on the story of Selena Davis’s (recently revealed mother of Drew Jacobs, currently dating Buzz Cooper) hidden past which involved a long term affair with Danny’s father Miguel Santos (who was married to Carmen at the the time) which produced a much talked about, but never actually seen on screen son. This let us have the few glimpses we had of Miguel on screen. Sadly we’ll never know which image of Miguel was closer to the truth, Carmen’s or Selena’s as we see and hear of him chiefly through their memories and each has a lot of their own self-image tied up in how they saw Miguel.
Unfortunately, Blake failed to adequately disguise the people involved in the book and almost immediately everyone figured out it was about Miguel Santos. That the woman was Selena took a little longer to come out, but out it came with Maria Santos (aka Abuela) realizing Selena was the woman. It’s less clear that Carmen realized it (she was busy with her own troubles at that time) and the goons after Selena were unspecific about who gave the orders. Blake has a book launch party for it at Company and begins her investigation of Gus there. She later apologizes to Danny if the book brought up bad memories. Danny told Blake he had heard from many people it was a good book, but that he hadn’t read it himself because he didn’t want to look back on that part of his life. He felt only bad memories and revelations waited there (and by this point who could blame him) and he was much more interested in his future with Michelle than in revisiting his father’s past. This was during the time that Bloss and Manny were the closest, but sadly they never even really acknowledge the important beat of them being once and future step-siblings and therefore in-laws.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030411001314/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/hearts.html

The cover above is Hearts Alone. The image above was the closest thing to a clear shot of the cover. It says Darlena La Crosse on the top above the sunset and Hearts Alone below. Attend Blake’s Book Launch Party for the book here:
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/blakes-book-launch-party

Apparently Blake used that early research on Rassie to produce a short story she published on her author’s website:

True Romance – SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME: Cassie’s Story – A web publication
http://web.archive.org/web/20021001072758/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/romance.html

Blake’s Author Website

Thanks to Soap Opera 451 for putting me on this website.

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20030410201729/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/index.html

A second archived version with a different letter from Blake:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021206055651/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/index.html

Blake’s Author Bio
http://web.archive.org/web/20021015001920/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/bio.html

Blake Marler’s Web Diary – Tory Granger
http://web.archive.org/web/20030205231959/http://www.soapcity.com/gl/behindthescenes/blake_marler/diary.html

Scenes from the Show

Conversation about book

Ross Discovers Blake is Darlena LaCross.
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/ross-realizes-blake-darlena-lacross

Ross discovers that Blake being Darlena means he’s the father of her baby.
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/christmas-1999

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Danny Confronts Claire May 31 2001

Thurs., May 31, 2001 – At Infierno: Danny tells Claire that he has nothing to discuss with her and he doesn’t feel they need to clear the air. She tells him that he is avoiding her and he tells her that she is of no consequence to him. He stays out of her relationship with Michelle and wants nothing to do with her. He tells her to get out of his office and he walks out for a moment. Claire adjusts her wire before he came back in. When he returns, Claire asks Danny if the place has been swept for bugs because she can’t afford for Gus to hear what she has to say. Claire tells Danny that she can’t afford for Gus to get more evidence on her, he already knows that she faked Carmen’s death. Danny says if none of them cooperate with Gus he can’t get anything on them. Claire tells Danny Gus has been threatening her. Danny tells her to calm down; he isn’t talking to Gus at all. Claire says that Gus told her that Danny tried to implicate her in Carmen’s murder. Danny tells her that is a good idea but he hadn’t thought of that. Claire is getting upset that Danny is talking more and just spits out that she knows he killed his mother the night Michelle disappeared from the hospital. She tells him that he has the most to lose so he should talk to her. Danny tells her she has a wild imagination and a reckless mouth. She continues on with Carmen conversation and Danny gets angry. He tells her he will not discuss his mother with her now or ever. He tells her that Gus doesn’t know as much as he pretends to know and she should keep her mouth shut. He tells Claire to leave his office and this time he follows her out. Claire calls Gus and tells him that she talk to Danny but didn’t get anything concrete. He tells her to try again; the clock on his deal is ticking. Rick says Gus is making life hell around his house and Harley has to be involved because of her job. Harley says she feels bad about it as well. Rick says his house is bugged and under surveillance and he can’t sneeze without the feds hearing. Phillip isn’t buying and he tells Rick that Harley would never hurt him on purpose. Rick says he doesn’t blame Harley for bugging the house. On top of everything else Michelle and Danny are being hounded to the point that they can’t even walk outside with their baby. Phillip says this should be a happy time for Danny and Michelle but he wonders if Robbie isn’t reminding Rick of what he doesn’t have. Phillip says it makes sense that Rick feels bad about not having children. Carlos Sandoval is standing on the docks and says he called Gus with the tip to look in harbor near the docks as a business decision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO3lFoLNXYs (Part 1)

Blake’s Book Launch Party was also today:
https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/blakes-book-launch-party  The book launch scenes intercut with what’s in the Manny highlight clips.

My Comments:

Very early on Danny realized he wanted Michelle to be an independent person and that even if he wanted to he couldn’t control her. Over and over again different people who love Michelle are always telling Danny he needs to make Michelle do this or do that. He always has held firm that he doesn’t control her. I love that about them. From the beginning Danny has also been very deliberate about not influencing Michelle about Claire. He has insisted at different points that he doesn’t trust Claire or accused Claire of different things, most of which she was guilty of, but he left it entirely up to Michelle whether she had a relationship with Claire or not. Danny tries to talk Claire down from her seeming hysteria. Actually Claire killing Carmen isn’t ridiculous, it actually sounds a lot more like something Claire would actually do than plotting with Carmen. I’m glad they included the scene with Carlos talking about his actions and Danny’s insurance policy. It really helped explain his motivation.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Blake’s Book Launch Party

 Harley Cooper and Rick Bauer are trying to hide the fact that Harley is pregnant with Rick’s baby. As Harley was only recently separated from Phillip Spaulding they don’t want him to know. Both think Phillip will break contact with both of them when he finds out. They are having supper at Infierno. Phillip comes in wearing an absolutely gorgeous suit.

Cut to Company where Blake is having her book launch party. Buzz is still angry with Blake because her book put the mob wise to Selena Davis who was dating Buzz at the time she was recently forced to run. I think he’s quite reasonable to be mad at her. He is now competing with Billy for Holly’s attentions. This makes less sense except that Billy and Buzz just love competing with each other. At the moment Buzz has ticked Holly off and his efforts with Blake’s party to make it up to her isn’t working. So currently Billy is ahead in Holly’s affections. I truly think Billy and Buzz enjoyed sparring with each other more than either of them cared about Holly, but it’s a really fun storyline (if you don’t think about it too much, cough, cough, Holly’s fault Jenna died, cough, cough).

Meanwhile Blake is determined to track down Selena’s unknown lawyer son. Ross is already not so crazy about Blake’s involvement digging into mob history. Blake has taken the bit in her teeth and won’t be stopped. Ross: “Since I to love you and I prefer loving living people, I have to change your mind.”

Fresh off eviscerating Buzz, Holly comes over to Blake on her break from signing books and wants to know what Ross is upset about. Holly brings the news that Hearts Alone (the book the party is launching, the one about Selena and the Santos family) is on the bestseller’s list. Buzz flashes back to Selena fleeing town. Gus is at Blake’s party. Claire calls to tell him she hasn’t gotten anything on Danny yet, Gus threatens her to continue trying to get Danny to confess to something on tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxnC_edJzrI (Part 2)

Rick, Harley, and Phillip catch up on all the other on-going storylines around Springfield after they all gather together at a table at Infierno (a rare instance of there being two restaurant sets up at once).  Blake realizes something is wrong with Buzz (he’s not over what happened with Selena). Billy tries to help and Gus takes another stab at Blake hoping to use her against Manny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOP0EQQcAzQ (Part 3)

I may find more of this. I think there was a little more to this party, but basically I went ahead and did this post from one channel’s posts because I wanted to get it out.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

New Year’s 1995-1996 Masquerade Ball

It’s an incredible New Year’s in Springfield where almost everyone his headed to a masquerade ball at the Lakeland Country Club and the Marian Crane story is coming to a head with Nick McHenry’s fiancee Susan Bates in a coma, but knowing Marian is to blame and meant to attack Lucy. The Reva returned to town from the dead storyline reaches a crescendo. Blake and Amanda’s fight over Ross hits high gear. Plus this includes one of the most defining moments of Rebecca Budig’s Michelle.

These dates aren’t given on the YouTube channel and finding day to day reports back then is problematic, so these are dates given on several assumptions. There is currently no easily available source to double check them. The dates given are coming from the known date of the distinctive clip episode which is known to have originally aired on Christmas day 1995. From there I’ve followed the episode breaks to divide episodes (these sometimes include clear opening or closing credits and are other times based on knowledge of how soap episodes are structured. It also based on what the included ads say about what days episodes would air and a 1995-1996 calendar. The numbers the parts don’t match the clip titles that they were loaded with but are their order in this post. For each link below description and comments on that particular piece are made, followed by the actual link.

Rick and Abby at NYE Ball 1995

Tuesday, December 26, 1995

Roger is excited his stock is going well and so is Dinah until she discovers a suspiciously fat credit card bill. Lillian and Annie are discussing the Masquerade Ball. Josh goes to Ross Marler for legal help protecting the kids and Reva goes to see Vanessa in case she’ll listen to her side of the story and help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3wvVG8w9r0 (Part 1)

Annie and Rick talk about if Annie’s and Josh’s marriage will take place. Reva uses Vanessa’s past with Dinah to make her point. Vanessa is bested by facts, but stubbornly sticks to Josh’s side. Sadly I think Marah did need help and she never got it. Ross tries to talk sense to Josh (which almost always an impossible task).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSwlRSyknsY (Part 2)

Matt comes back to give a not too receptive Bridget some big brotherly advice about Hart. Hart stops by the Fifth Street Diner. Buzz: “Well, Son of a …..Thorpe is back.” Blake met Hart at the diner, gives him a hard time for not keeping in touch and catches him up on her life. Roger makes sure Dinah can’t read the details of the credit card bill. Vanessa argues that Reva needs to give her children space. Vanessa tells Reva they found out that she was alive via Alex’s tape of her dancing in the diner with Buzz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbMNUnANFu4 (Part 3)

Ross urges Josh to get an annulment as fast as possible. Blake and Hart continue their talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqIKzD3H6U8 (Part 4)

Bridget continues her argument with Matt while Bridget sets up Company for the day which she is currently running. Bridget: “Dylan…(voice break) Dylan was different.” Hart stops by and wants to be friends again with Bridget. Annie gave Rick a friendly hug which Abby spies and is heart broken over. Rick does a comedy dance number in the hospital. Lillian and Annie are clowning around trying to make Abby excited about the masquerade ball, Abby the girl who freaked out over masks a couple of months ago at Halloween. Rick asks Abby to go with him to the ball. Buzz: “As I live and gag, it must be unwanted customer day.” Reva charges into the diner to give Buzz what for for exposing her. Ironically Buzz indignantly asks Reva how she could leave town when she has kids here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrjhbNxQ69U (Part 5)

Apparently it’s drop a pop culture reference day. Blake was waiting for Ross to get back from court in his office. They are trying to get pregnant, but no luck yet. Blake shares her hopes that she and Hart will grow closer now they agree about Roger. Ross makes a Father Knows Best joke Bud and Kitten. Talk turns to Josh and Reva. Buzz and Reva make up and Buzz makes a Lazarus joke. Hart asks Bridget to the ball and says he will get the costumes. Dinah and Roger spy on Bridget and Hart and disagree if Hart is trying to get in a relationship with his son, Peter, or into Bridget’s bed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB–6_9OjGI (Part 6)

Dinah actually does give Bridget a good piece of advice, but since their rivalry is already started Bridget won’t listen. Dinah: “Now what would I want with a two timer like Hart who’d come onto you after kissing me.” Good advice Dinah, wish you’d followed it yourself. Hart always does have to have two women on a string normally one is closer at a time, but the other one he keeps interested. Roger overhears Dinah bragging about Hart’s recent come ons to her. Matt came home and urged Vanessa to skip her fitting for her costume (that night?). Josh stops by the hospital to reassure Annie and drops the bomb that they need to get an annulment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0_kNwDlQyk (Part 7)

Michelle and Bill at the Ball 1995

Wednesday, December 27, 1995

Roger overhears Dinah talk about Hart’s recent bad behavior. Frank Cooper is a beat cop sitting at the diner with his partner Nell Cleary and Detective Levy. Frank wants to have a confidential police conversation in the diner. He and Nell have been trying to solve Det. Patrick Cutter’s murder, they feel they have evidence that points them to Marian Crane, instead of former prime suspect Marcus Williams. Lucy and A-M are telling Marian the news about Susan’s reaction which might mean she’s recovering from the attack. Lucy still thinks of Marian as a friend. A-M is thinking Marian attacked Susan (which she did).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHNNlGz7MXY (Part 8)

CBS soaps Guiding Light and As the World Turns won’t be on air for New Years ad. Brent psychotically hears his mother’s voice telling him how worthless he is when he hears Susan is waking up. Lucy checks on Marian after she runs out of the office. Frank continues to push the case. Cutter had written Mar before he died. They think it was Marcus Williams, but what if it was Marian Crane?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8n2_yaw94w (Part 9)

Roger suggests Hart’s behavior was because he was still trying to get to Roger (which he was despite his attraction to Dinah). Dinah accuses Roger of all people of wearing rose colored glasses. Nice transition from crashing glassware to crashing glassware. Det. Cutter HAD been “dating” Marian because he suspected her of murder and it was part of his investigation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnAs3tODRfQ (Part 10)

Bridget’s speech references Nola’s speech from years ago shortly before she decided to land Kelly. Nola should really commiserate. Marian called to find out Susan’s condition and they tell her. Now you know why they passed HIPA. Frank and Nell shows up and try to trap Marian into spilling about Cutter’s death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQzQMhw8unc (Part 11)

Nell compliments Marian on always looking so perfect (which she does). Marian is rattled. Lucy and A-M are talking to Nick who is frustrated the doctors know so little about Susan’s condition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsQtG0cF84c (Part 12)

Hart and Roger confront each other over the state of their relationship and what they’ve done. A-M and Nick try to convince Lucy that Marian was the one who has attacked her and Susan. Buzz is looking at Christmas cards and Eleni points out Nadine hasn’t contacted them. Buzz: “I’m in my blue period. I hope to get out of this into my impressionistic period where I can let everything out.” Brent argues with his mother’s disembodied voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3V7PTUo8c (Part 13)

Nola and Bridget are talking. Nola tries to cheer Bridget up, but seems to say everything wrong until he finally talks her around. Nola is right it was her attitude and personality was what attracted Quint. Nola has gotten Bridget an appointment for a makeover at Salon de Artiste. Roger still wants Hart to come around and for them to connect with Peter. Hart isn’t having any. Nadine’s canvas wrapped body floats up to the surface of the lake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fgArVR-asw (Part 14)

Thursday, December 28, 1995

Frank and Nell are staking out Marian. The ball begins at the Lakeland Country Club. Alan-Michael is dressed as Zorro and Lucy is his senorita. I understand the red sash matches Lucy’s accent color, but as Zorro wore black to disappear into the night, it really doesn’t fit the outfit. Lucy and A-M continue to discuss their strong and opposite views about Marian. Alexandra arrives and says Alan isn’t welcome at the ball, but Reva is at home getting ready.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttSWZURsInA (Part 15)

Alan calls Reva out that she wants to go to the ball because of Josh. Alexandra seems to be Queen Elizabeth. Josh and Annie are a nondescript antebellum southern belle and her beau. Lucy worries if Marian IS guilty that it can be put down to her poor judgment of people. Marian really has an unbelievably beautiful apartment. Look at that stylized arch into the alcove and that amazing windowseat. How much is she paying for that?  Marian realizes Frank and Nell are staking out her place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwFG_hYRNOI (Part 16)

We find Rick and Michelle in the Bauer Living Room which is still decorated for Christmas. Rick is teasing Michelle and makes a Beverly Hillbillies joke. Rick: “Are you going as Ellie Mae Clampett?” Michelle doesn’t like the colonial miss (maybe Betsy Ross?) outfit Ed picked out for her. Ed is right though the Betsy Ross dress IS Michelle. Rachel Miner’s Michelle and Joie Lenz’s Michelle would totally wear that and love it. It’s only Rebecca Budig’s Michelle that’s so uncomfortable with herself that she would object. Michelle gets an idea for Abby. Reva insists she just wants to dance at the party when Josh’s restraining order arrives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIj7kBI7mqg (Part 17)

Josh’s restraining order temporarily breaks Reva’s spirit. Alan urges her to run away with him. Annie agrees to annulling Josh and Annie’s marriage. Oh, Josh and Annie are supposed to be Katherine and Healthcliff from Wuthering Heights. Those are TERRIBLE costumes to be that, but it’s fitting because they were crazy and dysfunctional, too. A-M convinces Lucy that she needs some distance in her relationship with Marian. Marian thinks she’s outsmarted Frank, which admittedly isn’t that hard. Frank is probably the best community service-beat cop that the world has ever seen, he’s even pretty good while he’s chief of detectives, but he’s awful when it comes to actually solving a crime. Heck, he should bring even THIS version of Michelle along and she could do better than he could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJkXww9Elo (Part 18)

Michelle decides to help Abby win Rick. Reva decides she needs to fight Josh for the kids rather than run with Alan. Reva declares she’s going to stand up for who she is at the ball. Frank returns to the docks to see if there is something they missed as his mother’s floated to the surface body lurks nearby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DdAUqtm8p0 (Part 19)

Ed is George Washington and Rick a generic colonial guy – I’m going with Paul Revere (both costumes WAY better than Josh and Annie’s by the way) when Abby and Michelle come down the stairs. Rick makes a going bald joke to Ed which goes over about as well as you’d expect. Rick’s wig is great though. I could get used to him in that look. This Michelle of course wears a pathetic bid for attention that didn’t really even look good in the original let alone a sad copy. I only feel sorry for the subsequent Michelles that they know photos of Michelle in THIS exist out there. She’s supposed to be Madonna. Rick supports her feelings in front of Ed, but what about how she’ll feel when she makes a spectacle of herself at the ball? I’m guessing she’s glad that Reva, Brent Lawrence, and Amanda and Blake all cause diversions. We get an extended Lady in Red version of Reva getting ready, but we don’t see her all dressed up yet. Alan can wear a suit like nobody’s business, but he doesn’t wear a tux all that well. Buzz is Napoleon (with apparently one too many of his brandies) and almost falls down the stairs in front of Eleni’s Josephine. A disguised Brent leaves under police scrutiny while they watch a dummy in the window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvsW8aS53hA (Part 20)

Lillian appears to be a nondescript medieval woman. Matt is a southern gentleman (turns out it’s supposed to be Rhett Butler) and Bill is a Civil War Confederate solider.  Reva and Alan come in and both Josh and Annie swallow their gum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7_3iDnA80 (Part 21)

Friday, December 29, 1995

Nick is at Susan’s bedside. Holly and Fletcher arrive to visit Susan. Frank unknowingly discovers Nadine’s corpse.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBMqIR5TeXs (Part 22)

Alan and Reva and even Josh and Annie continue to make spectacles of themselves. I think Blake is dressed as Mae West and Ross is just in a tux. Nope I’m wrong they are Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (still think that is a FAR better Mae West costume than it is a Ginger Rogers). A-M is concerned that Reva is there. Roger and Dinah come dressed as Julius Cesar and Cleopatra. Hart and Bridget show dressed up in 1920s flapper style, my guess maybe as Daisy and the Great Gatsby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKf7q-XQNVg (Part 23)

Vanessa, continuing her Gone with the Wind theme, is wearing Scarlet’s green curtain dress (which is by far the best and most identifiable costume we see all night,bar Gilly’s show girl which is also well done and clear) which makes Matt Rhett Butler. Matt tries again to talk sense to Bridget. Fletcher tries to talk Nick into coming back to the Journal. Nick tries to explain the concept of sticking with someone you love to Fletcher to whom it seems a foreign language. A-M asks Reva follow up questions about the strange man she saw in the lab. She agrees to work with a police sketch artist and says she can probably sketch him herself. Reva agrees to follow up tomorrow. Reva follows Josh and Annie to the Country Club terrace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It77ce-Qd-U (Part 24)

I really loved Matt and Dinah, I’m sorry they never went there. I think they were much more a partnership than Matt and Vanessa ever were. Reva, Josh, and Annie have a confrontation. If only Josh would have said, “Annie, I love you, but Reva is the love of my life. I may be furious with her, but that where my fate lies.” I think Annie would have been OK. But NO, he had to string her along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3dDXknc5nQ (Part 25)

Reva flashes back to her telling Alan of her determination to go to the ball. Josh follows her into the for some reason empty bar. Alan and Rick both reach out to Annie, one a beginning, one nearing the end of their relationship. Brent flashes back to killing Nadine, in case anyone forgot. Frank pushes to get an ID on the body he found. Levy: “That is what history is FOR Frank. You learn from it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrlog0-t3N4 (Part 26)

Beautiful close up of Lucy’s engagement ring. Lucy is approached by a disguised Brent. Back in the ballroom Holly and Roger talk. I’m going to say having watched that Fletcher is supposed to be Henry 8th and Holly one of his wives whose head he chopped off, which is rather appropriate. Marah is so upset by Reva’s visit that Josh took her to a therapist. Annie is taking Rick’s opinion as her not being good enough, when Rick really want her marriage to fail so he could swoop in.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAAfxiYu_N8 (Part 27)

The body from the lake also has “Auburn Mist” wig hair on it. Reva finally tells Josh what happened from her point of view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nY7QhMdfbE (Part 28)

Wednesday, January 3, 1996

Frank is furious a third matching hair sample isn’t enough to get a search warrant on Marian. Lucy tells A-M she plans on confronting Marian. Annie: “I trust Josh completely.”  – while Jeva kiss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9OmEWmn5aw (Part 29)

Reva tries to convince Josh to reunite. He’s being a jerk. Someone wearing less than Michelle! It’s a Vegas showgirl. I don’t think that looks like Gilly, but she’s wearing a similar costume, so it could be. Annie tells Rick how secure her relationship with Josh is. Amanda arrives dressed as a belly dancer and Blake is irked as she dances over to Ross. Frank and his boss discuss the case in loud voices and Marcus’s dad Griffin Williams (who is a jerk, but right about this one) wants his son released immediately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snW9vZhmtK8 (Part 30)

Griffin’s being right status doesn’t last long as he sees it as a media opportunity and seems to suggest Marcus’s arrest was racially motivated when that wasn’t the case at all. Frank doesn’t make a strong argument, but he’s right if they tip Marian (and she wasn’t psycho) she might take off and the truth might never come to light so Marcus would always live under a shadow of suspicion. And just how did “We” beat them? Frank is coming close to truly solving a case in his whole life doing all sort of grunt work to do it and Griffin only accidentally overheard part of a conversation. Josh bursts back into the ballroom with enough force that everyone turns to look at him and many notice he’s removed part of his costume. He strides over to Annie and asks her to dance trying and failing to act like he isn’t upset. Back in the still empty bar, Alan details all the things that her relationship with Josh has driven Reva to and declares if she still goes after Josh that she and Alan are done. Reva gives him a look and sweeps out of the bar. Reva storms over and pulls Josh and Annie apart. Reva: “NO MAN…and that includes you Joshua Lewis…walks away from me, after kissing me like THAT!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykaEVOsIy0w (Part 31)

Reva and Josh have screaming match in the middle of the dance floor. Reva: “I can read you like a book. See Bud… See Bud run away from what he’s really feeling; To Berkley, To South America, Into Telephone Poles, Or into the Arms of a Desperate Nurse.”  Josh hits her in the housekeeper’s daughter sore spot and like always Reva reacts. Buzz comforts Reva. A-M urges Lucy not to talk to Marian alone. Nick tries to get Susan to remember what happened during the attack. Finally she remembers it was Marian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U232coiWS5Y (Part 32)

Nick calls Frank and tells him Susan remembers Marian attacking her. Marcus and Griffin have an argument. I think Griffin is totally wrong though. His efforts didn’t lead Frank to do more. I still don’t know why Marah is so upset over her mother being alive. Reva (about Roger): “Better watch this one, Dinah. He makes me look respectable.” I wish Roger had danced with Reva. Or Fletcher or Ross, but most Roger he understands being the pariah. Reva is doing the Angelina Jolie leg pushed out through slit move years before Angelina did it. Reva and Buzz are definitely not Manny quality on the dance floor. Most people are horrified at Reva’s grandstanding, but Rick is grinning and Amanda is openly laughing. I bet Phillip would be out there dancing with her again if he was in town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktro8qBuYQU (Part 33)

Josh admits that he’s starting to understand Reva’s behavior. Josh is not really wrong what he says about their relationship, but honestly I think he’s emphasizing the negative. Alex calls for a change partners dance (which is really called a Circle 2 Step) and everyone piles out onto the floor. It’s really hard to tell because they don’t give her any close shots, but that’s Lillian in her white Medieval costume dancing with Brent. Who is Michelle dancing with? Roger to Vanessa: “It’s New Year’s Eve, Scarlett, not the Ides of March.” Susan gives details of attack to Frank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYhhnzHVeCQ (Part 34)

Annie and Josh discuss Josh kissing Reva. Reva returns to the house Alan gave her and finds that Alan is holding to his statement that they were through if she ran after Josh. Back at the country club partners change again and Brent is dancing with Lucy. Honestly this kind of dance is a brilliant way to mix characters. Soaps ought to do this more often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN032MpPHrQ (Part 35)

Thursday, January 4, 1996

Susan warns them that Marian was really after Lucy. Vanessa tells Roger off about his attempts to get closer to Peter. Josh admits Reva’s kiss made him feel something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w36KcpMIwo (Part 36)

Alan insists that he’s leaving and Reva begs him to stay. Josh and Annie talk about him and Reva. Josh: “She was kissing me and all I could think about was getting back to you was being with you where it’s safe and where I’m happy and getting away from that place that was so painful and so hard.” If Annie stayed with Josh after hearing that, she kind of deserved being hurt, but not being driven crazy. Susan reaffirms that Marian meant to kill Lucy. Frank calls for a warrant for Marian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3aWX6-hpC8 (Part 37)

(Sound not clear at beginning fixed halfway through) Lucy is trying to figure out who is dancing with her, still Brent. Poor Gilly has a pretty great costume, but so far not a single line. Hart jumps in to defend Dinah to Roger. Amanda: “So Ross, have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet?” Ross: “Of course I have, can’t break them if you don’t make them.” Amanda and Ross had a relationship before she left town years ago (when she was a different actress). Now she’s decided she wants Ross back, despite his marriage to Blake, Ross thinks she’s just being friend until she makes a pass even he couldn’t miss. That hasn’t happened yet. Vanessa talks Blake down from clobbering Amanda.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hATvIK2wdtA (Part 38)

Josh (having magically regained his costume’s coat) goes after Annie when she flees to the porch. Reva tells Alan all about Josh pushing all her inferiority buttons (which he always does and why I don’t particularly like them together and it reminds me Josh Lewis is a Jerk). Hart to Dinah: “You sure didn’t inherit the Chamberlain manners, did you?” Hart and Dinah have it out about his interference between her and Roger. Michelle and Bill are in the background today. Gilly finally gets some lines when after Alan-Michael stumped Lucy and she tried to see if anyone else knew. Lucy: “Trivia for you – what was Zorro’s horse’s name?” Gilly and her date all shout out various cowboy names. Answer: It’s Tornado. (Totally adore Guy Williams and Disney’s Zorro is an amazing show. I wonder if it means A-M was a Disney Zorro fan, too. Seriously watch the episodes if you can.) Marian starts to confess on the phone to draw A-M out of the ballroom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqBv-u9PQ2Y (Part 39)

Frank and Nell are back in the car watching Marian’s house. A-M rushes off leaving Lucy with her father. Buzz knows the name of the horse. Josh pulls Annie back in, using her as a shield from Reva, just as Reva said. Alan points out he and Reva had this relationship before where he supports her and then she runs back to Josh. Alan is not willing to repeat that. Reva strips for Alan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdUhXQUJWm0 (Part 40)

Josh makes love to Annie “like never before” and Annie doesn’t get that it’s because of Reva. Annie is wearing gorgeous underpinnings though. Reva is seducing Alan. Susan and Nick are ringing in the New Year. Finally having warrant in hand the cops discover Marian’s mannequin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxf1NhD_WQ (Part 41)

Ladies Room scene with Blake and Holly. Blake and Amanda have confrontation, always good stuff in those ladies room scenes. Oh Amanda, the place to lock people in there is the broom closet, ask Vanessa and Reva, someone is going to come in and need the facilities. Wow have we seen the room with the stalls and sink before? A-M showed up at Marian’s apartment. A-M realizes Marian set him up to get Lucy alone. A disguised Brent gets Lucy outside as the only two people wanting to see the New Year’s fireworks. And doing better than every other soap character ever, one kiss and Lucy knows this guy isn’t A-M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM03WgfRJxg (Part 42)

Friday, January 5, 1996

Amanda had locked Blake into the bathroom stalls part of the ladies room and Blake is struggling to get out while Amanda makes a friendly move on Ross. For some reason they have a substitute Brent Lawrence today. Brent subdues Lucy on the Country Club patio. Dinah takes a New Year’s feast to her best friend Marcus Williams in jail. Blake comes charging out to be waylaid by Matt. but we don’t get to see what must have been a terribly interesting conversation between them. Marcus: Don’t you usually get your last meal before electrocution?” Dinah: “Actually I think it’s lethal injection in this state.” Lucy has been drug off. Nick is waiting for Susan’s answer to his proposal. Nick to Susan: “I do love you and I want to be your husband. It’s as simple and as complicated as that.” Michelle and Bill grab champagne for a toast, but Vanessa spots their underage attempt and cuts them off at the pass. Blake confronts Amanda. A-M realizes Marian has Lucy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRel_fCv35g (Part 43)

Blake and Amanda’s confrontation turns into a food fight to cheers and egging on from the crowd. Matt who has spent most of the night grabbing wayward females does it again with Amanda. Marcus and Dinah laugh over their late supper. It’s great that Dinah came and visited him every day he was in jail. Marcus and Dinah had such a great friendship. It’s truly why I wish Marcus had never left town, that was an important relationship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXjdO7VpLUk (Part 44)

Roger crashes Dinah and Marcus’s party. Roger offers to take Dinah to New York City for a two week vacation to make their fight up as a proper honeymoon. Marcus sarcastically encourages Dinah to go to New York City, but she realizes she needs to stand by Marcus until he’s out of jail. Hart and Bridget leave. Amanda confesses to Ross that she locked Blake in, coloring it in her favor. Vanessa gives Blake good advice. Great cut away interfaces where they pick up phrases and repeat it between the two conversations. Alex vainly tries to carry on as if nothing had happened. Alex asks Fletcher to edit down the piece on the party making it seem less drama filled than it was, but he refuses. They realize that it was Marian dressed up in the Cyrano (big nose) costume they saw leave Marian’s building.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJrgTg7txc (Part 45)

Marcus stirs up Dinah against Roger. Gilly and Griffin have a friendly conversation. This is part of the buildup where Vivian finally reveals she herself had an affair with Griffin and he could be Gilly’s father. Rick had protected Marian’s cross dressing as doctor-patient privilege, but he tells now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm1Q12MXUVY (Part 46)

Dinah says good night to Hart. Hart showed up to talk to Dinah who is leaving half her stuff she set up for Marcus behind. Matt says it’s time to go home. Brent takes Lucy to the lighthouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LLUM6I2TVY (Part 47)

Monday, January 8, 1996

Dinah starts to remove her costume to signal we’re leaving New Year’s Eve behind. Hart tries to tell Dinah he sees a lot in her. Vivian confronts Griffin about whether he expects to seduce Gilly. The police discover footprints, most likely Marian’s, leading to service parking lot. Alan and Jeva are in afterglow, but they aren’t exactly glowing. A-M arrives pounding on Reva’s door. Brent is a substitute again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzs9FfofTVM (Part 48)

A-M barges in needing to talk to Reva. Alan tries to kick him out, but Reva intervenes and A-M says Lucy was kidnapped. Frank recaps what’s happened with Lucy tonight. Nice that the background noise includes radio calls about the kidnapping. Dinah: “The point is NOBODY tells me what to do.” Hart talks Dinah into going somewhere quieter with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUr0IsuZoAs (Part 49)

The local news people descend in costume on the investigation. Frank convinces them to keep the story quiet until they find Lucy. Griffin denies that he did anything wrong with Vivian. Vivian remembers their days protesting together. A-M came to Reva to get a sketch of the man who scared Reva in the lab when he was changing Lucy’s test results and who he thinks has her now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J4FcLgcrlQ (Part 50)

Cleary suggests avenues of investigation. Buzz still can’t believe Marian was living in disguise so long. Buzz: “This person, this Marian Crane lived around us for.. what? months? She ate with us, told us her problems, I even felt sorry for her.” Buzz finds out that Marian was always a suspect before she grabbed Lucy and reacts badly. Dinah and Hart end up at the 5th Street Diner to talk. Eleni is working the diner (after all this, they didn’t just close it?). An apparent hooker comes in for coffee and Eleni wants her to move along so Marina won’t see her. Hart interferes to buy her a coffee. Gilly interrupts Vivian and Griffin, she hears part of the conversation and Vivian covers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hml99PrCboc (Part 51)

Hart’s actions and comments gets Dinah’s ire raised and she tells him about how she was raised in circus. Buzz tears into Nell wanting to know what she thought she was doing. Brent starts to record a gloating message. Does Reva show artistic talent anywhere else (besides her photography)? Because that’s a pretty impressive drawing that shows Alan-Michael and Alan that it’s a supposedly dead Brent Lawrence behind it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypnux2H5MVs (Part 52)

Technically the day hasn’t dawned on New Year’s Day yet, but as costumes are removed we get more back into a regular day and seem to forget it’s still the small hours of the morning. So I thought this was the best place to stop this post, but since I have the dates figured out to this point, I’ll pick the story back up when I get a chance and continue to match the days with the episodes.

UPDATE 2015: Justin Deas explains why they switched Brents about halfway through this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrh7RNfO8q8

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Roger Thorpe’s Funeral

Roger Thorpe After Shooting

After the disaster of a recast after the show shamefully fired Michael Zaslow for becoming sick, they left the character of Roger Thorpe floating in limbo married to Amanda Spaulding who he’d married for power and money in 1998. Attempts to reach him were mostly unsuccessful. He’s next substantially heard from in this episode which originally aired September 29, 2004. Sebastian Hulce showed up the episode before this and announced that he’d become very close to Roger the last few years and Roger was dead.  His story expanded for him to claim to be Roger’s son and suffering from the same genetic disease that Roger died from. Sebastian being Roger’s son is terrible, not only had he already had one long lost son, but it didn’t work timewise and they really worked on remaking him into Roger, not just his son. Not quite, but pretty close to that garbage that Mick was James Steinbeck towards the end of As the World Turns. It was a mess of a story that involved making Michelle’s deep, dark, best forgotten amnesia storyline worse. It also decimated Holly’s character worse than even the Nursery Rhyme Stalker Storyline. Read more about Sebastian here:
http://www.soapcentral.com/gl/whoswho/sebastian.php

The best part is Holly’s disbelief that Roger is really dead, since he always found his way back from death. I also like his goodbye letter to Holly.

Holly, I know you loved me. I know you hated me. But if there are stars in the night sky then we belong there darkness and light forever. The best of me has always been you both; my daughter, my Chrissy, my eternal love, my Holly. Forever yours, Roger

They also do a very nice juxtaposition with Holly and Chrissy who despite everything loved him and Ross and Alan who truly hated Roger for good reason and Phillip who had reason to strongly dislike him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zvn2UEIMjI (Part 2)

Ross to Alan and Phillip: “I want you to promise me you’ll keep the gloating to a minimum…..I’m just asking you to behave for the sake of Blake and Holly.” Phillip: “A quick chorus of ‘Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead,’ it will be tasteful though.”  They up the ante on trying to make Sebastian into the NEW and IMPROVED Roger Thorpe. Roger has left a huge whole in the show and they want to fill it. A recast didn’t work, so they’re trying this…..It also doesn’t work. Roger’s ghost gives his 3 non-mourners a good scare, temporarily trapping claustrophobics Phillip and Alan in the elevator.  The Holly-Roger flashback is to a much better time on the show. It’s the best part of this episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTg46MBsYss (Part 3)

I really hate how informal Roger’s ceremony is and how so many people are missing including his ward Tangie Hill, Peter Jessup (his grandson), Blake’s 3 children (his grandchildren), and Michelle herself to represent Maureen and return his visit to Maureen’s funeral. From a storyline perspective Ed Bauer should definitely have been there. I really wonder if they are Roger’s ashes or just a trust building exercise for Sebastian. I really kind of hope they are Roger’s ashes because the ash in Alan’s eye is the best part of this story. It is part of why Alan Spaulding’s wish to be sprinkled in the lake was ridiculous. On top of everything else some of Roger’s ashes had to go into the lake and for Alan to choose to spend eternity mixing with Roger Thorpe is unthinkable.

In the August 22, 2006 issue of Soap Opera Weekly they answered a question about the poem that Sebastian read at Roger Thorpe’s memorial service. It’s attributed to Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley.

I cannot say and I will not say

That he is dead. He is just away!

With a cheery smile,

And a wave of the hand,

He has wandered into an unknown land,

And left us dreaming how very fair,

It needs must be

Since he lingers there.

UPDATED September 5, 2023: I italicized the poem and updated to the current signature block.

Robansuefarm is the handle of one of Manny and Guiding Light‘s biggest fans following in her family’s footsteps of Guiding Light fandom since 1939. This blog is an effort to make it easy to find Guiding 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 on Blog Talk Radio, and finally follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Guiding Light September 17, 2009 Remembered

Manny Move Back

I have been wanting to watch the last two weeks of Guiding Light again in real time. It ended up being a bad time for me to do the whole thing this month, but I’m going to finish out the week in honor of the five year anniversary of the final episode. In these posts among the things I looked for a bright spot in the cancellation and I also look for the line of the day which is in many of these posts. Sometimes I can’t help breaking down in bitter, BITTER sobs.

September 17, 2009 – An Almost Perfect Day

NOTE: During the last couple of months of Guiding Light, I did a daily feedback and summary post. I had just started my blog and it was an early experiment that helped establish my style. I put comments and summaries on the same storyline together, with time tags to the different parts of the episode. I put the official CBS link at the end. Sadly that is no long viable so I’m going to put the YouTube links at the beginning instead. The time codes are for a full episode load and so won’t match, but should still give you a rough idea. Also the parts are on a playlist in the wrong order, so you have to watch or it will jump to different parts of the last week, if you don’t watch just what the original link is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scPoNRdBbGw&list=UUDYGjcwJbenO3eWYRJppasQ&index=238 (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRoUnYgeUZo&index=237&list=UUDYGjcwJbenO3eWYRJppasQ (Part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9epuxnIS5vQ (Part 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kH1FiWKlPQ (Part 4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2V5qDLkg8c (Part 5)
Today gives us almost everything they promised us last July. Why did they wait so long? I’ve put the most important things first (the most important things being the Manny family and the Bauers).

8:55 – A rental truck pulls up honking its horn pulls up in front of the Bauer House. IT’S DANNY, MICHELLE, ROBBIE, AND HOPE SANTOS!!!!! Somewhere between the visit back for the Bauer BBQ, Danny’s reconnection with his (legitimate) business connections over the summer, and Ed’s being back so much, Danny decided to give in to Michelle’s missing Springfield (when could he ever deny her something she wanted for very long?) and they are moving back. They didn’t tell anybody so they could surprise Rick. They all look absolutely ecstatic and even more in sync than they did at the BBQ. I literally jumped up for joy when this came across the television screen – seriously I bounced off the couch and jumped. (Joyful sniff) Why did they wait so long?

Danny’s first line is “There he is” and I think it was directed at Robbie. I think he was pestering his Dad on when they would see Uncle Rick. Line of the Day – Danny announces “We’re moving back.” He said they should have let Rick know, especially since they are planning on crashing at his house at least temporarily, but like they did one dark and stormy night years ago, they just show up, boxes in hand. Michelle wanted to surprise Rick with the good news. They both look so happy together and relaxed, I just can’t get the happy smile off of my face watching them.  And in just this short scene they have definitely retained their title of Tactile Twosome. They discuss dinner. Rick says Michelle can cook. Michelle says she just drove all the way across the country and he can buy dinner tonight. Danny backs her up and they pull into one joyful group hug. (Bet Rick never pictured this the day he first showed Danny her room and told him she’d be happier without him – Judging by the smiles on all their faces, I think, for once, Rick would be glad to admit he was wrong.)

12:05 – Rick is helping to unload Manny’s rental truck. He tells Ed who’s reading the newspaper that it’s his turn to move back next, but Ed is working on a different plan.

23:25 – Rick walks into Company to order supper for 6. Rick: “Hey…I need dinner for 6 my family just moved back. Keep it under $15.”  (The jokes about Rick’s cheapness approached Jack Benny levels in the last year.) Frank (another of Springfield’s finest) does not say who moved back? Does not say is it Danny and Michelle?, once some of his best friends in town. He basically ignores Rick’s statement and blows off the order. This restaurant is going to make money how again?

30:06 – Rick comes home with dinner, calling out that he’s got the food. Manny come into the kitchen and Rick tells them, it’s so great having a family there in the house again. He was so tired of being there alone, Danny punches his shoulder lightly and tells him he hopes he still feels that way in a week. Michelle is falling back into happy homemaker mode (if that cleaning out the frig scene between Rick and Ed was any indication the old home place needs it) and tells Danny, Rick will be even happier in a week because she’ll be cooking and doing his laundry. Robbie and Hope have discovered Rick’s video games and are already making themselves at home. They must, at least subconsciously, remember living there before. Ed though has disappeared.

30:34 – (Ok, I admit it, I jumped up and down here, too.) Ed has shown up at Holly’s door and I thought I was just going to have imagine something like this happened. After all the disappointments the show has dealt us, it’s too good to be true. Ed seems happier, more sure of himself, and more relaxed than I’ve seen him since Danny rescued him from Africa, heck, maybe since Maureen died. He’s even wearing cruise wear and cool shades. Everything with Phillip and Alan has convinced Ed to grab what he wants out of life and quit worrying about it. What he wants most right now is Holly. Holly starts to ask a practical question and then thinking about what she saw in Ed’s eyes, in Ed’s face, the girl who fell in love with Roger Thorpe comes back out and only asks him “How long do I have to pack?” as a smile spills across her face, joy as true as any that shown itself on his son-in-law’s face takes over Ed’s features and shakes his whole body, spilling out in a choked laugh.

Alan’s funeral is totally rushed. I really would have rather they had it off screen rather than do it this way. (OK, so I can still gripe on an almost perfect day.) Bill has picked up Alan’s remains at the crematorium. For some reason Phillip feels compelled to look inside. (Like you could tell anything from just looking, unless some fool left the Woofie dog tag attached again – really Claire.) Alan seems to be in his cigar humidor. He’d like that. [Minute 0] Alex poured Alan’s cup of coffee he always shared with her in the morning without thinking. She gives it to Phillip, still not fully accepting that Alan will never come down stairs to have breakfast with her again. She talks briefly with Phillip about Alan and then when he asks, she says she’s ready to go to the memorial. She strokes the chair where he always sat as she passes by. [Minute 6] Somehow they’ve added that Alan wanted his ashes scattered in the lake to his final requests in the hospital. (I DON’T think so . 1. Alan would want to be in the family plot. After all to him, to steal a Manny phrase, La Familia es segrada. 2. As many problems as the Spauldings have had with family members coming back from the dead, wouldn’t they want the remains somewhere they could get at them for the almost inevitable DNA test? 3. Roger Thorpe’s ashes were scattered from Towers, some of them must have ended in the lake. Would Alan really VOLUNTEER to spend eternity cheek to jowl with his worst enemy, no matter how mellow he’s gotten lately? I think not.  4. How much did Alan whine about just getting splashed on at Universal Studios? Would he really request to spend the afterlife in a “Splash Zone”?) [Minute 13]

The immediate Spaulding family (and most extended family in town) gather at the lake to sprinkle his ashes. Judging by the rocks, this could be very near where Michelle killed Mick, but Bill seems to have no dark memories about this spot. [Minute 13] Apparently Father Ray, Mayor Doris, and Josh were all busy, so they don’t have a clergymen. Actually now that I think about it, they really should have brought back Josh’s mentor Rev. Rutledge, descendant of the town’s original Guiding Light. It would have been fitting to have him on this last week. So, lacking any kind of organizer, they mostly stare at the waves coming in off the lake and let its calming effect take them. [Minute 15] Beth tells Buzz to say a few words after closer family members demurred. It’s a pretty decent eulogy for off the cuff. [Minute 19] Each family member takes a handful of Alan’s ashes (with their bare hands – EWWW – the tradition is each family member takes a handful of DIRT) and slowly releases it one at a time into the lake. EW’s production models have been criticized for relying too much on music (repeated ad nauseam), but she showed great restraint here to great effect. (I’ll also add that Bill didn’t get his own handful and considering that Bill once literally saved Alan’s life, besides being Lizzie’s husband and soulmate, the omission was pretty tacky.) The entire ceremony has only the sound of the calming waves and each member gets a full beat. My main complaint here, except for the entire concept, is that Peyton, who we just saw yesterday and pretty much all the younger children weren’t given the chance to be at their father’s/grandfather’s funeral. I think that is wrong and false, especially considering how much Phillip regretted missing his biological mother’s funeral. [Minute 20] After the service, Phillip and James make tentative steps towards reconciliation over their mutual loss and a Frisbee. [Minute 23] Phillip still hasn’t been able to leave the beach. Beth is worried about him. They talk. Beth: “He (Alan) did what he wanted to do.” Phillip (with a broken laugh): “He always did.” [Minute 32]

Bizzie are checking on Alex. Bill seems especially worried, which he should be standing in for her practically adopted son and his best childhood friend, Ben Reade, who preceded her in death and so can’t be there and who Bill couldn’t save, but his name never passes their lips, which is especially odd because the next person to walk in is Ben’s father. Fletcher Reade strides in (boy, the last 10 years have been hard on him). He heard about Alan and came to see if he could help Alex which is especially nice because he couldn’t even be bothered to come back for his own son’s funeral. I wonder if he stopped at the cemetery first to see the grave for the first time? (Bitter, Bitter sob!!! – Sorry, Fletcher broke my heart once when he walked out on Claire, long, long ago, and I can’t forgive him.) “Hello, Beautiful” is what he always used to say to Alex, they lived together during almost all of Ben’s formative years, before he dumped her too. Fletcher thought she might need an old friend and Alex throws herself into his arms and totally dissolves into tears. [Minute 33]

Daisy got a call from Berkley. A spot opened up in their fall class, if she wants it and can get there by Monday, (A day we’ll never see in Springfield – Bitter, BITTER sob!!) it’s hers. She’s got 4 hours to decide. Buzz encourages her to go. [Minute 2, Minute 6] Daisy tells James about Berkley, but he’s not upset. In fact he’s really supportive of her goals. James: “I’m rich. I’ll come visit you.” [Minute 34]

Frank and Blake are still working on a name for the baby without much success. [Minute 7] While he is busy ignoring Rick’s order, Frank tells him he’s asking a girl of his dating website out. Rick teases him about it, but is pleased for his friend when she (unknowingly Blake) says yes. [Minute 24]

Remember when I pointed out that Remy and Christina didn’t have the legal papers when they got married after Bizzie’s wedding. Well, the insurance company just figured that out, too. It takes Remy (THE COP) a little while longer and Olivia had to help explain it to him. (Rolls eyes – Hey I said almost perfect.) [Minute 10] Remy tells Christina, they aren’t officially married. Christina tells Remy she’s pregnant. It takes Remy a minute to get her clue about this too. (Are we sure Remy is cut out for the police force? I’m really starting to think he was a better EMT.)[Minute 16]

Reva looks the best she has in ages. She and Jonathan are bickering a little bit and he announces he and Sarah better start looking for their own place. [Minute 3] Apparently Billy and Vanessa didn’t plan a honeymoon. Billy is back at work. Josh finds him there and tells him he plans to steal Billy’s idea and kidnap Reva to marry her, like Billy did Vanessa. Billy refuses to help. He basically says with everything going on, he’s pretty sure she isn’t ready right now. Josh is right. He should have done this a year ago. Billy refuses to help. [Minute 4] Josh’s kidnap plan goes awry when he finds Reva in the midst of the family picnic that he hadn’t checked his voicemail to get his invitation to yet. [Minute 8] Josh tells Billy, he’s back to plan A and he’ll leave town for awhile. [Minute 11] Billy tells him not now, doesn’t mean not ever, and not to give up hope. [Minute 12] Josh stops by Marina’s house to say goodbye to Shayne, Marina, and his brand new grandson. [Minute 25] Reva remembers that Cassie’s wedding present for Tammy was supposed to be a cottage. Cassie had actually bought it and she never could find it in her heart to sell it or rent it, so it’s been sitting empty. She calls Cassie to check and she wants Jonathan and Sarah to have it. [Minute 26] Josh tells Billy he’s going to Tulsa first to build a new wing on H.B.’s hospital and will take it from there. Billy wants to spend the last couple of hours together. [Minute 35] Jonathan talks to Tammy about moving into what should have been their house. [Minute 36]

Cyrus has baked some cookies to repay Mel for the ones she brought on his birthday when they broke his bed. (No, they literally broke his bed and they only had gotten as far as kissing and it scared Mel off.) [Minute 7] Cyrus gives Mel his cookies and they end up in bed and this time, no distractions. OK, I’ll give her that I don’t think I ever saw get that excited that quickly with Rick, except when they were fighting. [Minute 17, Minute 24]

Meanwhile, back in the adventure story, Richard, I mean Jeffery, it’s so hard to tell in his CLEVER disguise (I guess he never took my advice to look up the old Roger Thorpe footage for disguise ideas), thinks he has a chance at getting a clean shot at Edmund and calls Jonathan and tells him so. [Minute 10] Jeffery is up on a very industrial looking rooftop watching Edmund’s limo pull in the warehouse next door. [Minute 12] That’s it, I definitely want my tax money back for whatever government training Jeffery has had. Jeffery is supposedly setting up an ambush. He’s wearing street clothes, not a gilly suit AND using a handgun. Rifle, Jeffery, for long distance shooting you use a R-I-F-L-E. Surprise, Surprise, he’s spotted by one of Edmund’s men who struggles with him for awhile and makes him drop his handgun to an inaccessible ledge. He has no back up piece (this is the guy that boxed DANNY into a corner, REALLY?) and doesn’t check Edmund’s now unconscious henchmen to see if he was carrying. Edmund watches with undisguised glee. Thankfully the Edmund we know is back, his bad James Bond impression forgotten. He tells Jeffery they are too much alike and that Jeffery will never complete or abandon his hunt and deep down he doesn’t want to. [Minute 27]

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.