Graves72

I think it was on air, which was my take-away when I read that years ago. I believe there was mention that the family was supposed to be Jewish originally but very early on the name was changed to Bauer and the writers made them of German descent.

Yes. Charlotte worked at the hospital where Tracy died. Tracy had told Charlotte about her life and her Aunt Sara's inheritance. So, after Tracy died, Charlotte assumed her identity. Victoria Wyndham had everyone fooled (audience included) until Flip and Marty showed up.

Jane played Liz well into 1972. Irna wanted to kill her because Jane wouldn't give up the play. Irna wanted the world to see Jane as sweet heroine Liz and her role in the play countered that image. The network forbade her from offing the beleaguered Liz, who was enormously popular as the show's front-burnner young heroine. (Susan Stewart was her nemisis.) When her contract was up in '72, Jane had had enough and walked. In those days, characters were often as popular as their portrayers. Because Liz was popular and loved, the show had to replace her. That's when Irna got her revenge by killing Liz (Judith McGilligan) and writing out nearly all of the large Stewart family. She wanted no reminders of Jane House and Liz. Irna died and the new writers brought back all the Stewarts whom Irna didn't kill. (Dan, the girls, Ellen, Susan, Annie, Dee) David and the old judge survived Irna's wrath but went onto the backburner until the banished Stewarts resurfaced.

Seems like Paul faded out. The actor went on to One Life to Live as a romantic leading man right after he left GL. Charlotte was there when the real Tracy Delmar died in the hospital. Charlotte worked at the hospital. That's why she concocted the scheme to assume Tracy's identity and bilk Sara out of big bucks. Tracy had relayed the story about being Sara's niece during her last days. Charlotte was a hussy.

Phoebe was a wonderful character, and I LOVED Johanna Leister in the role. I was shocked when she was killed off. But at that time, ABC was offing a lot of the CBS Edge characters. For example, within two years of the show going to ABC, running characters like Adam, Phoebe, Tiffany, Johnny and Martha had been dismissed. Maeve McGuire's Nicole was replaced by a younger, less experienced, model-looking blonde actress (Jayne Bentzen, whom I grew to really like), and by year four, 1979, good-bye Kevin and Bill. Thankfully, the show still was a great watch. Pure joy. Phoebe had grown to be a smart, professional, classy, tough but earthy young lead. I loved her with Richard Schoberg, the original Kevin, and John Driver. And she was a great foil to domineering Geraldine. (Adam and Kevin reminded Geraldine of her late sons, so, whatever women they became involved with, Geraldine disliked if she couldn't control them. Phoebe was not controllable.) *This was a response to an earlier post asking about Phoebe Smith.

Ellen was written out in April of 1975 but brough back in January of 1976 when the show went to an hour. Under the hourlong format, the show reintroduced a lot of veteran characters like Don, Sandy and the Stewart daughters, who were aged