Reverend Ruthledge

No need to apologize at all. I love talking about the pre-1983 story. Julie last appeared in 1949, I believe. Ray was running to her when he was having trouble with Charlotte but there was no rekindling of the romance. Julie had sort of moved on at that point. She kind of faded away and Ray later tells Charlotte that Julie had remarried and was living off somewhere. Jonathan and Claire, I believed, moved off somewhere. Either back to Chicago or NYC. I can't remember. Larry was last seen going to jail for pushing pills. Pamela moved east to get over her heartbreak with Larry and her mother Winifred (Rev. Matthews' sister) went with her. Rev. Matthews goes out to visit them later and winds up staying. So, the whole family drifts away. When Irna decided to focus on the Bauers, a lot, if not all, of the original characters in the reboot just all drifted away. Most just moved away. I might be able to get more specific on where they all ended up but I would have to go back and read the scripts. Because the show was set in Los Angeles this time, most people just "went east" and it wasn't always specific. I'm sure it was frustrating for the listeners who had invested in those characters because there was never big send-offs. People just kind of disappeared and we were lucky to get a single line of explanation of what happened to them. It was almost like there was a "New New Guiding Light". Irna just took everything in a whole new direction. Kind of a shame because the story was so good before the Bauers came on but hard to complain because it was so good once the Bauers came on. Just different. But Trail's End burning to the ground was very symbolic of that old vision of the show coming to an end.

Bert was awful in her younger days. When Bill was talking about Meta loving Chuckie, Bert said, "Who could love that kid?" And Chuckie was a sweet kid. She was just terrible.

Yeah, Bert was talked about but never seen (or, in this case, heard) until her wedding day. Yeah, once Irna decided to focus on the Bauers, all the other characters started to drift away. The Brandons were friends with the Bauers so that kept them around for a while but Julie really didn't have anything to do with the Bauers and she was a despicable character that it would have been hard to redeem her.

She was a piece of work, that's for sure!

Yes, Ray was really innocent. Martin was guilty but pinned it on Ray and Ray was sent to prison. Tim Lawrence was Clare Marshall's husband before she married Jonathan McNeill. He died in a plane crash that Clare witnessed. Well, there was a little ambiguity left even at the end of the storyline, but the consensus was that Frank's wheelchair slipped on the wet pavement and he went off the cliff in an accident.

French Fan is correct. Ned Holden, Clare Marshall and Jonathan McNeill were the only characters to make the transition from the old show. Ned, however, was only on the new show very, very briefly. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe his last episode was when he went to the airport as French Fan said. I would have to reread the scripts to make sure. But I know he was only in five or so episodes before he just disappeared.

From your lips to God's ears.

Well, they were in the TV show quite a bit but there's only one surviving video with Trudy. There aren't any with Clyde.

-1/1/53-1/30/53. Bill is worried about losing his job. Joe threatens Kathy that he’ll tell Dick the truth if she doesn’t. Joey starts dating Lois. Kathy begs Don Crane not to write about what he knows. Meta tries to persuade Kathy to tell Dick the truth. Bill tells Bert he got an offer to work for Gloria’s TV program and Bert says if he takes it that she’ll take Michael and leave him. Joey leaves for military school. The police have reopened the inquiry into Bob’s death and come to take Kathy in for questioning. A frantic Meta tells Dick the truth that Kathy had married Bob. Kathy finally tells the truth of everything to the police but during questioning she snaps and says she killed Bob. Laura clutches her pearls when she hears about Kathy getting arrested, tells Bob that Kathy is probably guilty and urges him to divorce her. Bill loses his job but Bert won’t let him take the job for Gloria’s program due to her jealousy of Gloria. -2/2/53-2/27/53. Dick stands by Kathy. Bill, desperate for work, puts his foot down with Bert about taking the job with Gloria’s program. DA Hanley seems to have it out for Kathy due to his bitterness of Joe switching his testimony at Meta’s trial which caused Hanley to lose the case. Laura won’t let Richard give Dick the money for Kathy’s bond. Joe sets out as a reporter to prove Kathy’s innocence. Dick’s cousin, Peggy Regan, comes to work as a nurse at Cedars. Bert snaps and lays into Meta which causes Bill and Meta to lay into Bert. A guilt-ridden Kathy tries to get Dick to divorce her. Bill gets the opportunity to go into business with someone but is hesitant to invest all his savings into the venture for fear of failure. Bert pushes him to take the leap. Gloria warns Bill not to take the risk. -3/2/53-3/31/53. Kathy goes before the grand jury. Kathy starts to think of her unborn baby as redemption and plans to give the baby the love she never gave to Bob. Joe works hard to uncover evidence for Kathy by trying to track down the mechanic who serviced Bob’s car. Richard offers his support to Kathy but Laura thinks Joe pulled strings to get Kathy off. Dick tells Laura he’s sorry that she’s his mother. Meta thinks that DA Hanley is retrying her through Kathy. Right after Kathy goes before the grand jury, Joe comes in with evidence from the mechanic that Bob’s brake linings were worn and in need of being fixed. Kathy tells Meta that if she goes to prison that she wants Meta to raise her baby. Joe comes in with the news that the jury has brought in a No Bill verdict after the mechanics testimony but Kathy is not appreciative and only whines about how her life has been ruined by the nightmare she went through. Ray and Charlotte want to sell the house Bill and Bert are renting from them and Bert goes to Meta for the money. She makes a reluctant Meta keep it a secret from Bill. -4/1/53-4/30/53. Joey comes back home from military school for Spring Break. Laura gleefully finds out that Dick and Kathy’s marriage may not be valid because Kathy signed the marriage certificate as Kathy Roberts and not Kathy Lang. Laura is quick to tell Dick what she discovered and Dick says he doesn’t care and storms out. On Good Friday, Hanley asks Joe to forgive him for hurting Meta and Kathy and Joe forgives him. Reverend Keeler goes to Carmel to visit Kathy at the sanitarium and she tells him that she has decided to stay with Dick so that her baby will have a father but that she won’t tell him that Bob is the real father. Joey says he wants to leave military school and enlist in the air force. Bill’s short stint of optimism is dashed when one of the few major clients his new company has threatens to leave. Bert’s jealousy leads her to believe Gloria is behind it. Tim, a little boy Kathy befriended at the sanitarium, comes to Los Angeles to visit Kathy. Meta meets him at the train station and has flashbacks to Chuckie. Kathy, guilty of living a lie, is haunted in nightmares by Bob Lang. -5/1/53-5/29/53. Kathy’s sense of urgency and dread becomes realized when she starts to hemorrhage after having another nightmare of Bob trying to take the baby away. Kathy tells Meta that if anything happens to her that she wants Meta to raise the baby and tell Dick that the baby wasn’t his so that Laura won’t have anything to do with the baby’s life. Fearing she might die, Kathy calls for Rev. Keeler and she asks God’s forgiveness for what she did to Bob. Kathy has a caesarian and Robin Lang is born. Dick’s doubts resurface as he wonders about the similarity in Robert/Robin when Kathy chooses to name her baby Robin. Kathy becomes ill after a visit from Laura and becomes delirious. Papa loans Bill some money. -6/1/53-6/30/53. Bill is angry at Bert when he learns she had Meta buy the Brandon house for them. Bill laments to Meta about his financial troubles and Meta lets him know that even though she doesn’t have to worry about money, the rest of her life is falling apart. Joe enters and he and Meta get into a fight both accusing the other of being selfish while Kathy could be dying. Bill heads for a bar and is tempted to drink but calls Gloria instead who bolsters him and talks him out of having the drink. Peggy hears the truth about the baby as she tends to a delirious Kathy crying out. With Kathy in her weakened physical and mental state, Nurse Janet Johnson makes moves toward a vulnerable Dick. Joey comes home to be with the family as Kathy’s life hangs in the balance due to viral pneumonia. Kathy’s fever breaks and she starts to recover physically but not mentally. Tom closes down the business and joins another team, leaving Bill alone and holding the bag which sets Bill off and he falls off the wagon. Bill shows up drunk at the hospital to see Kathy and Meta won’t let him see her. Joe apologizes to Meta and they reconcile. Kathy doesn’t remember having given birth to Robin. -7/1/53-7/31/53. Joey gets engaged to Lois. Dick graduates from medical school and goes to work as Dr. Baird’s resident. Bill and fellow alcoholic Karen party together at Richard and Laura’s after the graduation. Joey says goodbye to Kathy at the hospital as he prepares to be shipped off on his military assignment. Bert goes on the warpath when she finds out Bill borrowed money off his life insurance, driving Bill back to the bar. Sid and Gloria try to help Bill. Kathy runs away from the hospital but returns on her own volition. Peggy confronts Janet about her designs on Dick. Janet denies the accusation but Peggy says she has her number. -8/3/53-8/31/53. Kathy can’t gather the courage to tell Dick the truth so she lies and says Robin is definitely his daughter. Kathy finally leaves the hospital and moves into the Roberts home with Robin. Kathy has gone from neglectful with Robin to obsessed with Robin. Bert can’t take anymore and goes to Arizona to visit her parents with Michael. Laura asks her niece over to pry information out of her about Kathy but Peggy calls her out, refuses to be used and storms out. Dick is feeling neglected by Kathy now that all her attention is going into the baby. At the advice of Gloria, Bill checks himself into the hospital. -9/1/53 thru 9/30/53. Bill is at the hospital for a check-up and to dry out after a bender. Kathy is obsessed with baby Robin and shutting Dick out, making him vulnerable to Janet. Helen Allen reveals she is Bob Lang’s mother to Laura Grant. Bert is visiting her parents in Arizona with Michael and Elsie is trying to get Bert to give up on Bill. Bill gets released from the hospital and heads straight to a bar. Dick and Janet begin an affair and Janet tries to get Dick to face the fact that he’s probably not Robin’s biological father. Helen has second thoughts about meeting Kathy but then Laura tells her that Robin may be Helen’s grandchild. Bill packs his bags, gets some money from Papa and heads out of town to parts unknown. -10/1/53 thru 10/30/53. Elsie takes Bert to a divorce attorney. Meta gets firm with Kathy and tells her she has to leave her and Joe’s house. Helen meets with Kathy and tells her that Bob Lang was her son. Bill comes back to town and takes a job with Sid and Gloria. Bill, trying to build his life back, is served with divorce papers from Bert. Without Bill’s knowledge, Papa flies to Tucson to try and reason with Bert. Bert comes back home to a changed Bill. Dr. Baird warns Dick about his affair with Janet. 11/2/53-11/30/53. Bert and Gloria clear the air about Gloria’s past with Bill and Bert’s concern for Bill’s drinking. Bill tells Bert he’s afraid of moving to New York with Sid and Gloria for work because he might fall off the wagon. Bert gives him the confidence to decide to make the move. Kathy tells Helen that Robin is her granddaughter and Helen encourages Kathy to tell Dick. Kathy tells Dick that Robin isn’t his and he is apathetic and says he already knew. Helen goes back to New York and reassures Kathy that if Dick divorces her, she can come with Robin to live with her. Laura confronts Dick with her suspicions that Robin isn’t his daughter and Dick tells her that he already knows. Richard tells Kathy that she’ll always be a part of his family and then tells Dick he needs to stay with Kathy and ditch Janet. -12/1/53-12/31/53. The new resident, Jim Kelly, is giving a Dick a run for his money with Dr. Baird who thinks Dick is spending too much time on his personal life. Dan Peters, a mysterious man with a scar on his face, reaches out for medical help and ends up at Cedars. Dick tells his parents about his plans to divorce Kathy and marry Janet. Only Laura is happy about the divorce news, neither Richard nor Laura is happy about the Janet news. Peggy warns Dick not to marry Janet. Dan and Peggy start to develop feelings for each other. Bill comes home from NYC for Christmas. -12/25/53. Papa, Bill, Bert and Michael celebrate Christmas. Bill is in town for Christmas as he’s been away for business. He says he doesn’t want to let anybody down again. Meta calls and says Kathy isn’t going to come over but Bert insists she come so Michael and Robin can get acquainted.

Hey! Well, he did kind of just appear. He was an acquaintance of Kathy's who started to pursue her romantically. He came on pretty strong so it seems like there should have been more of a buildup to his introduction but there wasn't.

No. A different Alice. The one in 1952 is Kathy's roommate, Alice Graham. It can be confusing when the same character name is used more than once and I don't always mention last names in my synopses.

By the way, another thing that might be confusing is that Dick's sister also goes by the name "Bunny". So if you see the name Bunny and the name Karen, they are interchangeable. Bunny was a nickname.

Well, Mike killed Karl Jannings in a fight although he didn't mean to kill him.

Yes, she is.

I think I know the sentence you are referring to and I may not have worded that well. Bert was worried that her own baby (who would be Mike) might inherit the same Bauer trait that caused Meta to be a murderer. Meta was not pregnant. Bert was pregnant with Mike at the time.

-1/2/52 thru 1/31/52. Bruce helps Meta not to put her repressed memories back into her subconscious. Meta tells Bruce that she’s married and Bruce says that the marriage is a mistake and if Meta decides to end it, he’ll be there. Kathy has met a boy, Dick, while visiting a friend in San Francisco and is interested enough in him to attend Stanford. Joe, tired of Kathy trying to push him and Peggy together, tells Kathy that he’s married to Meta. Kathy becomes hysterical and screams to Joe that she hates him. Before Bruce heads back to NYC, Meta tells him that though the jury found her not guilty, she will forever have the stain of having killed someone. Kathy and Peggy discover that the boy Kathy is interested in is Peggy’s cousin. Margaret and Dick’s mother, Laura, are estranged sisters. Dick comes to Los Angeles to be with Kathy. Joe brings Meta home and the children make her feel unwelcome. -2/1/52 thru 2/29/52. Ray and Charlotte are moving to New York City and Bert wants to move into their house but Bill protests. A reporter finds out Joe and Meta are married and Ted’s murder is brought out in print again, causing Kathy and Joey to be even more fearful of Meta and to become pariahs in the community. It also causes Bert to question Meta’s sanity and if her unborn baby will inherit the same tendencies. Bruce shares his concern about Meta with Clyde and Trudy. Bruce thinks Meta could snap again with all the pressure she’s under in the Roberts home. Clyde, who dislikes Meta, says that both Bruce and Trudy should stay away from Meta and her problems. Meta fears she will never be free of the past. Ready to get away from home, Kathy goes to San Francisco to celebrate her 18th birthday and to see her best friend Louise and Dick Grant. Laura Grant, Dick’s mother, tries to get Dick to stop seeing Kathy. -3/3/52 thru 3/31/52. Joe and Meta discuss Joey going away to a boy’s school. Meta thinks Joe is sending Joey away because of her and she proposes that she leave instead. Joe thinks Meta is looking for an excuse to leave to be with Bruce Banning. Charlotte stops by to say goodbye to Meta on the eve of her and Ray’s departure from Selby Flats and Meta lets it be known how desperate she feels. Meta freaks Joey out by hysterically begging him not to go away. Meta fears she is losing her sanity again. Joe slaps Kathy when she becomes more defiant and starts sneaking out. Meta fears Kathy is going to make the same mistakes she made as she is the same age Meta was when she left home and has the same defiant attitude. Bert worries that if Meta is mentally ill, her child could inherit it. She thinks Meta is becoming unbalanced again and could possibly kill Joe like she did Ted. Bill, per usual, thinks Bert is overreacting. Bill and Meta discuss their closeness, her desire to try to reach Kathy and Bill’s lingering feelings for Gloria. Bill reports that Gloria married Sid Harper. Meta tells him not to idealize Gloria as she is in danger of doing so with Bruce. Meta receives a letter from Bruce and Bert pries into the situation. Bert goes into labor with Mike and Meta is haunted by memories of Chuckie. The birth of Mike Bauer. Meta has a hard time sharing the joy as she grieves Chuckie. -4/1/52 thru 4/30/52. Bert’s joy of her baby’s birth is quickly marred by jealousy when she finds out Bill is producing a TV show featuring Gloria. Meta, staying with Bert to help with the baby, isn’t sure she’s going back to Joe. Bill wants to name the newborn William Jr. but Bert, resentful of Bill for working with Gloria, names the baby Michael which Bill does not like. Joey starts to warm up to Meta and tells Joe he misses her. Dick’s sister, Karen, talks to Dick about the love of her life that she lost because she let their mother come between them and how now she feels she is settling with Laura’s pick for her, Charles. She warns Dick not to allow the same thing to happen to him. Bill refuses to call his son “Michael” and calls him “Butch” instead, resentful that Bert didn’t name him after himself. Bert tells Bill she won’t believe him that he’s not interested in Gloria anymore unless Bill stops working with her. Meta talks to Sid about the Bill/Gloria dilemma and Sid tells Meta that if Gloria’s TV show gets picked up nationwide, he will move to New York City with Gloria. Bert dotes heavily on Michael to the exclusion of Bill. -5/1/52 thru 5/30/52. Sid, out of concern for Gloria and not jealousy, pleads with her to forget about Bill as he’s married with a child now. Gloria agrees to move to New York. Clyde will be on a business trip for a month and Meta decides to go stay with Trudy while he’s gone so she can get away and decide if she and Joe should divorce. Kathy tells Meta she can do whatever she wants because she’s just ready to move out and start her own life now. Dick announces he doesn’t want to study medicine and tells Laura to quit trying to control him. Bill has to go to New York to work on Gloria’s show for a month and Bert wants to go along because she doesn’t trust Bill to be alone in New York with Gloria. Bert’s claws come out when Sid and Gloria stop by for a visit after dropping Bill home and Bert later regrets her behavior and gives Bill her blessing to go to New York alone. -6/2/52 thru 6/29/52. Clyde wants Trudy to be completely separate from the Bauers for her own well-being. Clyde, who doesn’t like Meta, thinks she’s stringing Bruce along. As her New York debut looms, Gloria gets stage fright and Sid tries to break her of her emotional dependence on Bill. Meta and Gloria meet and hit it off. Sid tells Bill to stop working on Gloria’s program and not come back to New York. Kathy admits that though she broke things off with Dick, she’s in love with him. Bunny gets engaged to Charles but feels like she’s settling thanks to Laura’s interference. Laura intercepts a letter from Kathy to Dick, Karen finds it later and confronts Laura. Bert goes to Bill’s boss and asks him to take Bill off of the account. Kathy graduates high school. Since she didn’t get a return letter from Dick, she decides not to go to college and gets a job in a department store with plans to move into an apartment with another girl, determined to prove that she doesn’t need anybody else. -6/30/52. First television episode. Meta is staying with Trudy in New York while separated from Joe. Trudy tries to convince Meta to call Joe but Meta feels there’s no hope because Kathy hates her. Back in Selby Flats, Kathy tells Joe that she’s moving out and getting a sales job at a department store so Meta can move back. -7/1/52-7/31/52. Sid tries to keep Bill and Gloria apart. Meta, visiting Trudy in New York, tells Bruce that she’s decided to go back to California and to her husband Joe. Kathy moves into an apartment with a girl named Alice. Bert is jealous of Gloria and wants Bill to stay at home. Knowing Joe and Meta have money, Alice introduces herself to Meta and tries to butter her up to get money out of her by lying that it’s for Kathy. Gloria starts drinking again. Bob wants to get serious with Kathy and talks marriage to her but she tells him she wants to hold on to her newfound independence. Kathy confesses to Alice that she’s still hung up on Dick, who hasn’t spoken to her in months. Gloria visits Meta to express her concern that Bill will start drinking again. -8/1/52-8/29/52. Meta is haunted by her past and blames herself for Kathy’s leaving home. Bob feels like his social inferiority is the reason for Kathy’s ambiguity about their relationship, not knowing that the real reason is Kathy’s physical attraction to Bob yet emotional attachment to Dick. When she finds out Dick is thinking about interning at Cedars Hospital in Los Angeles, Laura forbids him to see Kathy. Karen threatens to tell Dick that their mother destroyed Kathy’s letter to Dick. Gloria’s laryngitis may be psychosomatic and she wants to go away to a sanitarium for a rest. Sid is put out with Gloria’s lingering feelings for Bill. Sid calls Alice to replace as the singer for the show while Gloria is away for a month. Kathy strings Bob along because she’s lonely and he’s willing. Bob is inpatient to marry Kathy. Peaceful now that she’s at the sanitarium, she tells Sid during his visit that she’s not going back to the TV show and tells Bill, during his visit, that she can’t keep working with him because of her feelings for him and that he belongs with Bert. With inner doubt and reluctance, Kathy elopes with Bob and immediately regrets getting married. Kathy tells Bob she wants to keep the marriage secret for the time being. -9/1/52-9/30/52. Meta is starting to be suspicious of Alice. Alice likes Bill and Bert is jealous of Alice. Joey visits with Kathy for the first time since she moved out and has a surprise run-in with Bob, oblivious to the fact that he’s Kathy’s husband. Kathy and Bob park along the ocean during a foggy night. Kathy tells Bob that she doesn’t love him, has always loved Dick and that she wants an annulment. A hurt Bob drives speedily away with Kathy in the car and crashes. Bob dies in the crash and Kathy leaves the scene of the crash. Later, Kathy tells Alice what happened and Alice persuades her not to tell anyone she was in the car. Dick confronts Laura about Kathy’s letter to him that Laura destroyed before he could read it. He tells Laura that she won’t interfere in his relationship with Kathy anymore and he plans to marry her. Dick goes to Kathy and explains about the letter and the two get engaged. Mac tells Joe that a woman’s lighter was at the scene of the crash and Joe suspects Kathy was in the crash. -10/1/52-10/31/52. Dick pressures Kathy into marrying quickly to spite Laura. Kathy tries half-heartedly to tell Dick about Bob but fails to do so. Kathy tells Meta that she secretly married Bob, was with him when he died in the car crash and that she’s pregnant with his baby. She guilt-trips Meta into silence by suggesting it’s all Meta’s fault. Bill tries to fire Alice for a contract violation and she tells him what she knows about Kathy and blackmails him into keeping her on contract. Crane is snooping around trying to find out who owns the woman’s lighter found at the crash. Dick and Kathy get married. Joe asks Kathy if she was in the car when Bob died and Kathy lies and says she wasn’t. -11/3/52-11/28/52. Kathy tells Dick that she’s pregnant but lets him believe the baby is his. Dick and Kathy tell Richard and Laura the news about the pregnancy. Laura is upset over the news and doesn’t trust Kathy. Crane finds evidence that Bob and Kathy were married and posits that Kathy might have killed Bob. Papa, Bill, Bert, Joe and Meta celebrate Thanksgiving. -12/1/52-12/31/52. Joe finds out from Mac that Bob and Kathy were married. He confronts Kathy about the marriage and she confesses but continues to lie about the night Bob died. When the newspapers drag the Ted White murder story out again, Laura is mortified and suggests to Kathy that she and Dick move to San Francisco and into her house to get away from it all. Kathy jumps at the chance to escape her problems but Dick refuses to be under Laura’s thumb. Meta blasts Bert for sticking her nose into the Kathy situation. Meta tells Joe the whole story about Kathy. Joe tells Crane the truth of what happened but Crane isn’t ready to drop the story. After a blow-up with Joe, Kathy goes to San Francisco and Meta goes to New York City. Kathy finally lays into Laura about her controlling behavior and Laura’s claws come out. Out of a job and with Crane breathing down her neck, Alice moves to New York. -12/25/52. Bill, Bert and Papa talk about how great it was to see Michael’s first Christmas through his eyes. Papa talks about the meaning of Christmas.

I know TGL ran until 1956 on radio but I'm just including the synopsis in this radio section up to when the show went on television. The Guiding Light 1952 -1/2/52 thru 1/31/52. Bruce helps Meta not to put her repressed memories back into her subconscious. Meta tells Bruce that she’s married and Bruce says that the marriage is a mistake and if Meta decides to end it, he’ll be there. Kathy has met a boy, Dick, while visiting a friend in San Francisco and is interested enough in him to attend Stanford. Joe, tired of Kathy trying to push him and Peggy together, tells Kathy that he’s married to Meta. Kathy becomes hysterical and screams to Joe that she hates him. Before Bruce heads back to NYC, Meta tells him that though the jury found her not guilty, she will forever have the stain of having killed someone. Kathy and Peggy discover that the boy Kathy is interested in is Peggy’s cousin. Margaret and Dick’s mother, Laura, are estranged sisters. Dick comes to Los Angeles to be with Kathy. Joe brings Meta home and the children make her feel unwelcome. -2/1/52 thru 2/29/52. Ray and Charlotte are moving to New York City and Bert wants to move into their house but Bill protests. A reporter finds out Joe and Meta are married and Ted’s murder is brought out in print again, causing Kathy and Joey to be even more fearful of Meta and to become pariahs in the community. It also causes Bert to question Meta’s sanity and if her unborn baby will inherit the same tendencies. Bruce shares his concern about Meta with Clyde and Trudy. Bruce thinks Meta could snap again with all the pressure she’s under in the Roberts home. Clyde, who dislikes Meta, says that both Bruce and Trudy should stay away from Meta and her problems. Meta fears she will never be free of the past. Ready to get away from home, Kathy goes to San Francisco to celebrate her 18th birthday and to see her best friend Louise and Dick Grant. Laura Grant, Dick’s mother, tries to get Dick to stop seeing Kathy. -3/3/52 thru 3/31/52. Joe and Meta discuss Joey going away to a boy’s school. Meta thinks Joe is sending Joey away because of her and she proposes that she leave instead. Joe thinks Meta is looking for an excuse to leave to be with Bruce Banning. Charlotte stops by to say goodbye to Meta on the eve of her and Ray’s departure from Selby Flats and Meta lets it be known how desperate she feels. Meta freaks Joey out by hysterically begging him not to go away. Meta fears she is losing her sanity again. Joe slaps Kathy when she becomes more defiant and starts sneaking out. Meta fears Kathy is going to make the same mistakes she made as she is the same age Meta was when she left home and has the same defiant attitude. Bert worries that if Meta is mentally ill, her child could inherit it. She thinks Meta is becoming unbalanced again and could possibly kill Joe like she did Ted. Bill, per usual, thinks Bert is overreacting. Bill and Meta discuss their closeness, her desire to try to reach Kathy and Bill’s lingering feelings for Gloria. Bill reports that Gloria married Sid Harper. Meta tells him not to idealize Gloria as she is in danger of doing so with Bruce. Meta receives a letter from Bruce and Bert pries into the situation. Bert goes into labor with Mike and Meta is haunted by memories of Chuckie. The birth of Mike Bauer. Meta has a hard time sharing the joy as she grieves Chuckie. -4/1/52 thru 4/30/52. Bert’s joy of her baby’s birth is quickly marred by jealousy when she finds out Bill is producing a TV show featuring Gloria. Meta, staying with Bert to help with the baby, isn’t sure she’s going back to Joe. Bill wants to name the newborn William Jr. but Bert, resentful of Bill for working with Gloria, names the baby Michael which Bill does not like. Joey starts to warm up to Meta and tells Joe he misses her. Dick’s sister, Karen, talks to Dick about the love of her life that she lost because she let their mother come between them and how now she feels she is settling with Laura’s pick for her, Charles. She warns Dick not to allow the same thing to happen to him. Bill refuses to call his son “Michael” and calls him “Butch” instead, resentful that Bert didn’t name him after himself. Bert tells Bill she won’t believe him that he’s not interested in Gloria anymore unless Bill stops working with her. Meta talks to Sid about the Bill/Gloria dilemma and Sid tells Meta that if Gloria’s TV show gets picked up nationwide, he will move to New York City with Gloria. Bert dotes heavily on Michael to the exclusion of Bill. -5/1/52 thru 5/30/52. Sid, out of concern for Gloria and not jealousy, pleads with her to forget about Bill as he’s married with a child now. Gloria agrees to move to New York. Clyde will be on a business trip for a month and Meta decides to go stay with Trudy while he’s gone so she can get away and decide if she and Joe should divorce. Kathy tells Meta she can do whatever she wants because she’s just ready to move out and start her own life now. Dick announces he doesn’t want to study medicine and tells Laura to quit trying to control him. Bill has to go to New York to work on Gloria’s show for a month and Bert wants to go along because she doesn’t trust Bill to be alone in New York with Gloria. Bert’s claws come out when Sid and Gloria stop by for a visit after dropping Bill home and Bert later regrets her behavior and gives Bill her blessing to go to New York alone. -6/2/52 thru 6/29/52. Clyde wants Trudy to be completely separate from the Bauers for her own well-being. Clyde, who doesn’t like Meta, thinks she’s stringing Bruce along. As her New York debut looms, Gloria gets stage fright and Sid tries to break her of her emotional dependence on Bill. Meta and Gloria meet and hit it off. Sid tells Bill to stop working on Gloria’s program and not come back to New York. Kathy admits that though she broke things off with Dick, she’s in love with him. Bunny gets engaged to Charles but feels like she’s settling thanks to Laura’s interference. Laura intercepts a letter from Kathy to Dick, Karen finds it later and confronts Laura. Bert goes to Bill’s boss and asks him to take Bill off of the account. Kathy graduates high school. Since she didn’t get a return letter from Dick, she decides not to go to college and gets a job in a department store with plans to move into an apartment with another girl, determined to prove that she doesn’t need anybody else.

Yes. And, although not murderous, she was also deceived by Charlotte Waring who posed as her dead niece Tracy Delmar. It's ironic as Sara was portrayed as a very intelligent doctor but she was conned a lot.

Thanks for letting me know you're enjoying them!

Thank you for sharing!

Those are good points. The cast did get considerably smaller when they moved to TV and it was pretty much just the Bauers at the Bauers household for a large portion of the episodes. Definitely cut down cost and trouble of actors and sets. The early years of the radio show had a slew of characters. Almost too many. There were so many characters in that first year that it was hard to keep everybody straight. And, in radio, characters were all over the place but, with radio, you didn't have to worry about building all those sets.

-6/12/50 thru 3/15/51. 197 consecutive episodes. Episodes #791-988. Bert pushes Bill to live above his means which starts Bill’s drinking. Bill meets a sympathetic Gloria LaRue, who he is attracted to. Trudy and Meta fight over Ross. Meta files for divorce and she and Ted fight over Chuckie. Chuckie dies in a boxing accident. Meta shoots and kills Ted. Meta’s trial. Meta meets Joe Roberts who falls in love with Meta. Kathy Robert’s first episode. Ray and Charlotte adopt a baby named Penny and then take in her older brother Jimmy. -1/2/51 thru 1/31/51. Ross is located and Trudy doesn’t believe him that the prosecution is wrong in their accusation of him and Meta being romantically involved. Bill is angry that Ray has contacted Gloria. Meta’s trial. Joe tells Ray that he’s changed his mind about Meta. -2/1/51-2/8/51. Charlotte agrees to adopt Penny’s brother Jimmy. Meta’s trial is underway. -3/12/51 thru 4/30/51. The trial of Meta White continues. At the close of the trial, the jury deliberates and the listeners are encouraged to write in their verdict. Bill tells Papa and Trudy that he wants to divorce Bert to be with Gloria and they both plead with him to stay with Bert. Ray and Charlotte’s new adopted 14-year-old son, Jimmy, proves to be a problem child. The verdict in the Meta White murder trial is announced and Meta is not guilty. Trudy talks to Meta about her plans now that she’s free. Kathy tells Joe that she doesn’t like Meta and doesn’t want him bringing her over to their house. Joe gets his job back at the newspaper. As Meta navigates her newfound freedom, she senses that Joe is drifting away from her because of his children and she discovers she’ll never truly be free of the stigma she carries. Bert comes back from visiting her parents in Arizona and tells Bill she has no intention of getting the divorce that he wants. -5/1/51 thru 5/31/51. Bill gets a job with an advertising agency and Gloria makes note that she was the second person he told, after Bert. Meta wonders to Reverend Keeler if there’s redemption for her after having killed somebody. Meta asks Joe if he’s been avoiding her because his feelings for her have changed and assures her that his feelings are the same but Kathy isn’t ready to accept her father with a woman who killed a man. Gloria is afraid to let Sid make her a star because she’s afraid if she fails again it will lead her back to drinking. Bill tells Bert he’s in love with Gloria and moves out of the Bauer home but Bert refuses to divorce him. Meta writes Joe a letter from Mexico City, where she is vacationing, and Kathy hides it. -6/1/51 thru 6/29/51. Bert meets Gloria. Bert has gained weight and wears a maternity dress when she sees Gloria so Gloria thinks that Bert is pregnant. Joe finds out through Joey that Kathy hid Meta’s letter and confronts Kathy, who lies to him. Joe and Meta wonder how they’ll get Kathy to accept Meta. Gloria says she can’t see Bill anymore because Bert’s pregnant. Bill angrily confronts Bert about lying about her pregnancy to break up he and Gloria. Bert’s scheme backfires and Bill moves out. Bert suggests a trial separation for a few months, before a divorce, in a last-ditch effort to keep Bill. Ray tells Joe that Julie has remarried and that he hardly sees Roger, Susan and his two grandchildren. -7/2/51 thru 7/31/51. Meta and Kathy finally meet. Meta hopes to win Kathy over but Kathy remains hostile to her. Reverend Keeler and Joe both work to combat the Red Menace. Trudy is excited as she prepares for her big trip to Jamaica. Trudy meets Clyde Palmer in Montego Bay. At first, she is let down by reality when he says he read about Meta but they quickly drop the subject. Charlotte and Jimmy don’t get along which causes friction with Charlotte and Ray. Trudy writes a letter from Jamaica talking about her vacation romance. Meta is glad that Trudy finally has some good in her life but Bert is worried that Trudy is getting carried away and is in for a let down when she gets back. Clyde and Trudy visit Rosehall and discuss their growing feelings. Trudy can’t believe a sophisticated man like Clyde would be interested in her when they get home and Clyde tells her not to automatically think they’ll never see each other again once they get back to the States. Gloria signs with Sid, which upsets Bill. Clyde takes Trudy to her ship in Kingston to say goodbye. Trudy is content thinking it was just a wonderful summer romance but Clyde says he’ll be seeing her. Kathy tells Joe she can’t accept Meta because she killed a man and she’s scared that Meta could kill her father as well. Joe tells Meta he’s willing to break things off with her because she doesn’t deserve to have to wait for Kathy to come around. Bill goes to pick Trudy up at the airport to bring her back to the Bauer home as an excuse to be with the family again, missing them due to his separation from Bert. Meta and Trudy reconcile. -8/1/51 thru 8/31/51. Joe is in an automobile accident, possibly on purpose, while investigating certain organizations. Meta and Kathy rush to Cedars separately to see Joe. Kathy drives Meta away from the hospital even though Joe had said he wanted to see her. Mac tells Joe they’re not going to chase subversive groups anymore and leave it to the FBI. Joe tells Mac he has to give up Meta because of Kathy. He changes his mind and asks Meta to marry him and plans to keep the marriage secret. Bill tells Bert he wants to go ahead with a divorce but his main motive is to get Gloria to give up on her career. Bill thinks if Gloria doesn’t give up her career, it’s because she doesn’t want to be with him. Though she’s afraid of failure, she doesn’t want to give up her career. -9/3/51 thru 9/28/51. Clyde Palmer comes over to the Bauers for dinner to meet them. Mac finds a house for Meta and Joe but Meta doesn’t want to live there because it’s at the beach in Malibu where she was when her memory left her before the murder and she’s scared of remembering. Joe and Meta get married. Gloria breaks things off with Bill because she thinks his reluctance to divorce Bert proves he wants to be with her instead of Gloria. Gloria’s fears come true as her relational failure with Bill causes her to give a bad debut performance at the Coconut Grove and she falls off the wagon. Trudy has doubts about herself and Clyde ever really liking her. Bert says she’s ready to give Bill his divorce but Bill says he’s not going to marry Gloria and wants to try to put the marriage back together. Bill moves back home. Clyde wants to marry Trudy but she fears they’re too different and that she’s not good enough for him. Bert tells Bill they have to make a go of their marriage because she’s pregnant. -10/1/51 thru 10/31/51. Meta is already having doubts about her secret arrangements with Joe. Joey becomes ill and Mac calls Joe to come back home. Meta, alone in the secret house she and Joe share, finally remembers what happened when she murdered Ted. Joey has rheumatic fever and may be confined to bed for months, making it harder for Joe and Meta to be together. Meta can’t take the arrangement anymore. Clyde invites Trudy to NYC and Meta wants to go with her to get away from things an insecure Trudy is afraid Meta might upstage her with Clyde and his friends. Bert thinks Bill is still in love with Gloria. Sid lays into Bill saying his selfishness is what called Gloria’s downfall and he, being a fellow alcoholic, is the only person who can reach Gloria now. Joe brings in a live-in children’s nurse, Peggy Reagan, to take care of Joey. Joey and Kathy take an instant liking to Peggy. Trudy decides to let Meta go to NYC with her. -11/1/51 thru 11/30/51. Meta and Trudy leave for New York City. Kathy tells Peggy she’s afraid of Meta. Clyde and Trudy get engaged. Meta meets Dr. Bruce Banning, Clyde’s best friend, in New York. Gloria tries to get her life back on track and goes back to singing at the cocktail lounge. Trudy, back from New York, celebrates Thanksgiving with the rest of the Bauers sans Meta who stayed behind in New York. Meta confides in Bruce that she got her memory of the killing back and could use Bruce’s help. Bruce is eager to help her and not just medically. While Meta and Bruce date each other, Joe tells Meta that if she doesn’t come back to California, he’s coming out there to New York. -12/3/51 thru 12/10/51. Meta goes back home and is cold towards a frustrated Joe. Bill warns Meta to tell Bruce that she’s married. Kathy and Joey try to get Joe and Peggy together. Meta thinks about Bruce even though she’s back with Joe. Peggy tells her mother, Margaret, that it’s going to be hard to leave the Roberts family when her job is up in a few weeks now that Joey is recovering. -12/27/51 thru 12/31/51. Clyde and Trudy have been married. Joe has found out about Bruce. Joe, realizing that Peggy has feelings for him, has told her that he’s married. Mac gives Joe stern advice to bring Meta back home and get rid of Peggy. Gloria tells Bill that she loved him but she needs Sid. Meta leaves a New Year’s Eve party with Bruce to welcome in 1952 with Papa, hoping Joe will call. As Papa and Meta talk about the past and future, Joe calls right before midnight.

-6/12/50 thru 3/15/51. 197 consecutive episodes. Episodes #791-988. Bert pushes Bill to live above his means which starts Bill’s drinking. Bill meets a sympathetic Gloria LaRue, who he is attracted to. Trudy and Meta fight over Ross. Meta files for divorce and she and Ted fight over Chuckie. Chuckie dies in a boxing accident. Meta shoots and kills Ted. Meta’s trial. Meta meets Joe Roberts who falls in love with Meta. Kathy Robert’s first episode. Ray and Charlotte adopt a baby named Penny and then take in her older brother Jimmy. -1/2/51 thru 1/31/51. Ross is located and Trudy doesn’t believe him that the prosecution is wrong in their accusation of him and Meta being romantically involved. Bill is angry that Ray has contacted Gloria. Meta’s trial. Joe tells Ray that he’s changed his mind about Meta. -2/1/51-2/8/51. Charlotte agrees to adopt Penny’s brother Jimmy. Meta’s trial is underway. -3/12/51 thru 4/30/51. The trial of Meta White continues. At the close of the trial, the jury deliberates and the listeners are encouraged to write in their verdict. Bill tells Papa and Trudy that he wants to divorce Bert to be with Gloria and they both plead with him to stay with Bert. Ray and Charlotte’s new adopted 14-year-old son, Jimmy, proves to be a problem child. The verdict in the Meta White murder trial is announced and Meta is not guilty. Trudy talks to Meta about her plans now that she’s free. Kathy tells Joe that she doesn’t like Meta and doesn’t want him bringing her over to their house. Joe gets his job back at the newspaper. As Meta navigates her newfound freedom, she senses that Joe is drifting away from her because of his children and she discovers she’ll never truly be free of the stigma she carries. Bert comes back from visiting her parents in Arizona and tells Bill she has no intention of getting the divorce that he wants. -5/1/51 thru 5/31/51. Bill gets a job with an advertising agency and Gloria makes note that she was the second person he told, after Bert. Meta wonders to Reverend Keeler if there’s redemption for her after having killed somebody. Meta asks Joe if he’s been avoiding her because his feelings for her have changed and assures her that his feelings are the same but Kathy isn’t ready to accept her father with a woman who killed a man. Gloria is afraid to let Sid make her a star because she’s afraid if she fails again it will lead her back to drinking. Bill tells Bert he’s in love with Gloria and moves out of the Bauer home but Bert refuses to divorce him. Meta writes Joe a letter from Mexico City, where she is vacationing, and Kathy hides it. -6/1/51 thru 6/29/51. Bert meets Gloria. Bert has gained weight and wears a maternity dress when she sees Gloria so Gloria thinks that Bert is pregnant. Joe finds out through Joey that Kathy hid Meta’s letter and confronts Kathy, who lies to him. Joe and Meta wonder how they’ll get Kathy to accept Meta. Gloria says she can’t see Bill anymore because Bert’s pregnant. Bill angrily confronts Bert about lying about her pregnancy to break up he and Gloria. Bert’s scheme backfires and Bill moves out. Bert suggests a trial separation for a few months, before a divorce, in a last-ditch effort to keep Bill. Ray tells Joe that Julie has remarried and that he hardly sees Roger, Susan and his two grandchildren. -7/2/51 thru 7/31/51. Meta and Kathy finally meet. Meta hopes to win Kathy over but Kathy remains hostile to her. Reverend Keeler and Joe both work to combat the Red Menace. Trudy is excited as she prepares for her big trip to Jamaica. Trudy meets Clyde Palmer in Montego Bay. At first, she is let down by reality when he says he read about Meta but they quickly drop the subject. Charlotte and Jimmy don’t get along which causes friction with Charlotte and Ray. Trudy writes a letter from Jamaica talking about her vacation romance. Meta is glad that Trudy finally has some good in her life but Bert is worried that Trudy is getting carried away and is in for a let down when she gets back. Clyde and Trudy visit Rosehall and discuss their growing feelings. Trudy can’t believe a sophisticated man like Clyde would be interested in her when they get home and Clyde tells her not to automatically think they’ll never see each other again once they get back to the States. Gloria signs with Sid, which upsets Bill. Clyde takes Trudy to her ship in Kingston to say goodbye. Trudy is content thinking it was just a wonderful summer romance but Clyde says he’ll be seeing her. Kathy tells Joe she can’t accept Meta because she killed a man and she’s scared that Meta could kill her father as well. Joe tells Meta he’s willing to break things off with her because she doesn’t deserve to have to wait for Kathy to come around. Bill goes to pick Trudy up at the airport to bring her back to the Bauer home as an excuse to be with the family again, missing them due to his separation from Bert. Meta and Trudy reconcile. -8/1/51 thru 8/31/51. Joe is in an automobile accident, possibly on purpose, while investigating certain organizations. Meta and Kathy rush to Cedars separately to see Joe. Kathy drives Meta away from the hospital even though Joe had said he wanted to see her. Mac tells Joe they’re not going to chase subversive groups anymore and leave it to the FBI. Joe tells Mac he has to give up Meta because of Kathy. He changes his mind and asks Meta to marry him and plans to keep the marriage secret. Bill tells Bert he wants to go ahead with a divorce but his main motive is to get Gloria to give up on her career. Bill thinks if Gloria doesn’t give up her career, it’s because she doesn’t want to be with him. Though she’s afraid of failure, she doesn’t want to give up her career. -9/3/51 thru 9/28/51. Clyde Palmer comes over to the Bauers for dinner to meet them. Mac finds a house for Meta and Joe but Meta doesn’t want to live there because it’s at the beach in Malibu where she was when her memory left her before the murder and she’s scared of remembering. Joe and Meta get married. Gloria breaks things off with Bill because she thinks his reluctance to divorce Bert proves he wants to be with her instead of Gloria. Gloria’s fears come true as her relational failure with Bill causes her to give a bad debut performance at the Coconut Grove and she falls off the wagon. Trudy has doubts about herself and Clyde ever really liking her. Bert says she’s ready to give Bill his divorce but Bill says he’s not going to marry Gloria and wants to try to put the marriage back together. Bill moves back home. Clyde wants to marry Trudy but she fears they’re too different and that she’s not good enough for him. Bert tells Bill they have to make a go of their marriage because she’s pregnant. -10/1/51 thru 10/31/51. Meta is already having doubts about her secret arrangements with Joe. Joey becomes ill and Mac calls Joe to come back home. Meta, alone in the secret house she and Joe share, finally remembers what happened when she murdered Ted. Joey has rheumatic fever and may be confined to bed for months, making it harder for Joe and Meta to be together. Meta can’t take the arrangement anymore. Clyde invites Trudy to NYC and Meta wants to go with her to get away from things an insecure Trudy is afraid Meta might upstage her with Clyde and his friends. Bert thinks Bill is still in love with Gloria. Sid lays into Bill saying his selfishness is what called Gloria’s downfall and he, being a fellow alcoholic, is the only person who can reach Gloria now. Joe brings in a live-in children’s nurse, Peggy Reagan, to take care of Joey. Joey and Kathy take an instant liking to Peggy. Trudy decides to let Meta go to NYC with her. -11/1/51 thru 11/30/51. Meta and Trudy leave for New York City. Kathy tells Peggy she’s afraid of Meta. Clyde and Trudy get engaged. Meta meets Dr. Bruce Banning, Clyde’s best friend, in New York. Gloria tries to get her life back on track and goes back to singing at the cocktail lounge. Trudy, back from New York, celebrates Thanksgiving with the rest of the Bauers sans Meta who stayed behind in New York. Meta confides in Bruce that she got her memory of the killing back and could use Bruce’s help. Bruce is eager to help her and not just medically. While Meta and Bruce date each other, Joe tells Meta that if she doesn’t come back to California, he’s coming out there to New York. -12/3/51 thru 12/10/51. Meta goes back home and is cold towards a frustrated Joe. Bill warns Meta to tell Bruce that she’s married. Kathy and Joey try to get Joe and Peggy together. Meta thinks about Bruce even though she’s back with Joe. Peggy tells her mother, Margaret, that it’s going to be hard to leave the Roberts family when her job is up in a few weeks now that Joey is recovering. -12/27/51 thru 12/31/51. Clyde and Trudy have been married. Joe has found out about Bruce. Joe, realizing that Peggy has feelings for him, has told her that he’s married. Mac gives Joe stern advice to bring Meta back home and get rid of Peggy. Gloria tells Bill that she loved him but she needs Sid. Meta leaves a New Year’s Eve party with Bruce to welcome in 1952 with Papa, hoping Joe will call. As Papa and Meta talk about the past and future, Joe calls right before midnight.

Thanks, vetsoapfan, but I'm afraid there would be too few people interested in it. I think there are like ten of us in the world who would be interested enough to read it. LOL. Even in this forum, which is represents a minuscule percentage of the general population, most of the people here are interested in just the last years of the show. We're a subgroup within a subgroup within a subgroup.

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.