Reverend Ruthledge

30s: Ned Holden, Charles Cunningham 40s: Julie Collins, Ted White 50s: Bert Bauer, Laura Grant 60s: Ed Bauer, Ben Scott 70s: Charlotte Waring, Stanley Norris

Well, I wrote synopses for the years 1937-1940 which, if you're interested, are in the radio thread. That would give you a lot of what you'd like to know about the characters I liked. I just liked Ellis because he was cynical and aloof on the outside but, when it came down to it, he would go way out of his way to help people in need. He was enigmatic, which is what I like in characters. I don't like one-dimensional characters. The philosophical debates between Reverend Ruthledge and Ellis were riveting to me. And Rose just had a great redemption arc as she matured. Watching the maturation process with her was fascinating.

I liked Julie mainly because she was a fascinating, unpredictable and sympathetic character. Also, because I'm a psychologist and she was an interesting psychology study. Her story was mainly tragic (GL IS a soap opera, after all. LOL). She had to wear this scarlet A because she got pregnant from Mike Bauer (with Hope) and he had to marry her (this was the mid-60s). She was in love with him but he wasn't in love with her. It was just a sex thing for him. Because he felt trapped in the marriage, he was emotionally neglectful and somewhat abusive to her. She fell out of love with Mike and was the one who eventually felt like the trapped one and wanted to leave the Bauers (she and Mike were living with Bill, Bert and Papa while Mike was going through law school). Just when she was getting ready to leave and live on her own with Hope, Mike raped her and she got pregnant again which made her situation even more unbearable to her. She felt even more trapped which triggered a mental breakdown. She basically went insane. She tried to say the baby was someone else's (someone who she never had sex with). Although this was more of a delusion than an outright lie. She would routinely attack the Bauers. She eventually miscarried and tried to jump out of the hospital room window but was stopped in time. Ironically, at this point, Mike finally saw how badly he had treated her and realized that he did love her but, by then, it was too late. Julie finally got what she wanted, Mike to love her, but by the time he did, she had fallen out of love with him and just wanted away from him. She eventually slipped into psychosis, went catatonic, and Mike had to commit her to a sanitarium. She eventually came out of her catatonic state and seemed to be improving but then had a relapse and committed suicide in the sanitarium. Mike was guilt-ridden for years after.

Yes.

I don't really do couples but my favorite characters were: 30s: Ellis Smith, Reverend Ruthedge 40s: Rose Kransky, Mama Bauer 50s: Bill Bauer, Paul Fletcher 60s: Leslie Bauer, Johnny Fletcher, Julie Bauer 70s: Peggy Fletcher, Bert Bauer

Thanks for posting that. I'd never seen it. Nice to see that Hope got at least a mention towards the end. As brief as it was.

Make me want some Compoz. I guess this is before quaaludes took off.

Thanks for the explanation of how the name came to be. I didn't know she was named by Cassie. It still seems odd to me to name her that of all names.

That's true but, by that time, long-time viewers had been beat to a bloody pulp so a poke in the eye was no big deal.

T To me, the biggest mystery was why they named their daughter Hope. Did Michelle name her after her cousin that she never saw?

One of my biggest pet peeves. I sort of, kind of appreciate a nod to the origins of the show but the very few viewers who would have even gotten the reference would be the people who would know there could be no offspring of Rev. Ruthledge's with the same last name. So, what was the point of using the name Ruthledge? It was kind of a non-event for the viewers who didn't know the original character and an insult to those that did. He could have just said Reverend Ruthledge was his grandfather and leave it at that. But since there was no connection between Five Points or Selby Flats (where Ned and Mary relocated) and Springfield, having an offspring of Reverend Ruthledge show up in Springfield didn't make sense either. It was a huge stretch all the way around and I wonder the point.

Hey there! Actually, she was named Berta Bauer Ramsey, thus B.B. (not Bebe) for short. Thank God this was only for a very short while and the writers realized what a mistake every angle of her name was. Michelle Bauer was MUCH better!

These pics are great. Thanks! I haven't seen most of them and it really helps to put a visual to the characters.

Yes, Dick was an ass. I couldn't stand him. Dick's father was not dead at this point. He was just a much quieter figure than his wife. He was always away on business. I suspect he was hiding from Laura. Yes, Jane in 1959 is the same Jane in the 1966 episodes. I don't mind the articles AT ALL! In fact, they enrich the synopses. So, thank you. Bring them on!

Correct. February 3rd, 1958.

She was just Marian's best friend. She didn't do much but act as a sounding board for Marian. At least in 1959. We'll see if she plays more of a part in 1960. But I don't think she does.

-1/2/59-1/29/59. Henry goes out to Santa Clara to meet Fred and Jane as he investigates Paul’s connection with them. Robin keeps trying to push Mark and Meta together but Mark’s thoughts are with Ruth. Fred goes to Los Angeles to track down Marian and gets her to confess that Paul is their son. Henry goes to Chicago and gets the information he needs to convince Anne that Paul is a fraud. He tells Anne that Paul’s mother is Marian Winters and that his father is marked as “unknown” on his birth certificate. He gleefully tells Anne she can get an annulment because Fletcher isn’t Paul’s legal name but Anne doesn’t care. Anne faints and is rushed to the hospital where it is discovered that she’s pregnant but she quickly miscarries. Fred proposes marriage to Marian so that Paul can rightfully have the name Fletcher and try to take away the shame he feels about his illegitimacy. -2/2/59-2/27/59. Fred sees Judith at the hospital. She accuses him of wanting to marry Marian just to have a son to replace the one he lost in Korea. She tells him he needs to leave Marian alone because he’s already caused enough damage. Helen also comes to the hospital from San Francisco, sees Marian, and understandingly lets her know she knows all about her and Paul. Helene is angry at Henry for trying to break up Paul and Anne’s marriage. Anne tells both Paul and Marian that she knows the truth and it doesn’t change the way she feels about either of them. Paul worries that Anne’s heart ailment is recurring as he also resolves to let go of the shame he’s been living with his whole life based on the way he came into the world. Marie and Dick continue to grow further apart as he gets more obsessed with work and she starts wanting to adopt a baby more. Fred tells Jane that Paul is her half-brother. John asks Marian out on a date. Meta becomes determined to get Mark. -3/2/59-3/31/59. Bert warns Meta not to lead Robin on that there’s a future for Mark and Meta when there very possibly won’t be. Paul goes to Santa Clara when Fred is rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. Father and son meet for the first time and Paul lets him know that he has forgiven everything but there’s no need for Fred to marry Marian for Paul’s sake. It’s too late. Mark and Ruth admit they are in love with each other and Ruth worries about what it will do to Robin whose hopes are all in Mark and Meta getting married. John and Marian get married. Mark tells Robin that he’s in love with Ruth and Robin throws a fit. Alice helps Mark see that Robin looks at Mark marrying Ruth as another personal loss for her whereas marrying Meta is not a threat to her security. Mark starts to finally understand Robin’s obsession. Meta starts to get manipulative in her desperation for Mark and tries to make Ruth feel guilty about Robin’s unhappiness. -4/1/59-4/30/59. While painting out at the park, Marie meets a fellow artist, Joe Turino, who also teaches classes at the Bowden Art Gallery. Joe offers Marie a job teaching at the gallery. Papa is worried that Meta is regressing back to her selfish early ways. Mark tells Meta that he and Ruth are in love with each other and a bitter Meta tells Mark he’s going to hurt Robin. Paul tries to reason with Robin and assures her that Mark would be happier with Ruth because he’s in love with her, not Meta. Robin is dubious and asks Paul if it would ever be possible for him to love another woman if Anne died, in a bit of (perhaps unintentional) foreshadowing. A bit creepy as Robin is 15 at this time. Robin tells Mark she’ll move out if he marries Ruth. When Mark tells Robin that she has to have dinner with him and Ruth when she starts to feel better, Robin stands out in the rain to make her cold worse. She develops pneumonia. Ruth doesn’t think she can put her and Mark’s happiness before Robin’s and says she’s taking a job in Chicago. -5/1/59-5/29/59. Mark is getting fed up with Robin and demands that Ruth not move to Chicago but stay and marry him. Dick talks Marie into getting a final word with a gynecologist in San Francisco before he agrees to adopting a child. Mike asks Robin to the prom. Marie invites Joe over for dinner and he and Dick take an immediate dislike to each other. Nora Gibbs comes to the Bowden Art Gallery looking for work as a model and her mysterious circumstances piques the interest of Marie. Anne is pregnant again. Mark and Ruth get married in San Francisco. Meta suspects Mark and Ruth are getting married in San Francisco and Bert worries that she will tell Robin. While Robin gets ready for the Prom, Meta encourages Robin to call Mark at the hotel. The front desk says that Mr. Holden isn’t in but Mrs. Holden is. Robin is stunned. -6/1/59-6/30/59. Robin runs away while Meta, Bert and Mike are waiting for her to get ready for the Prom. Marie gets definitive news from the gynecologist that she can never get pregnant. Robin heads to the Greyhound bus station and buys a ticket. Mark receives a ransom note for Robin. A guilt-ridden and afraid Meta confesses to Papa that she purposely got Robin to call Mark in San Francisco and put him on the spot to spitefully hurt Mark, not thinking about what it would do to Robin. The police find out that a bus ticket to NYC was sold to a young girl. On the 3-day trip to NYC, the bus stops in Pennsylvania for a lunch break. In the bus station cafeteria, Robin overhears a state trooper asking questions about Robin to the bus driver on the Los Angeles-NYC bus. Robin quickly ducks out and later gets on a different bus. She shows up at her grandmother Allen’s doorstep in NYC. It’s revealed that Nora has been abandoned by her husband and is pregnant. She wants Marie to adopt her baby. Mark takes the new, faster jet plane out to NYC to get Robin. -7/1/59-7/31/59. When Dick and Marie start the adoption process, Nora tells Marie that she’s pregnant and wants her to adopt her baby. A guilt-ridden Meta flies to NYC to try to convince Robin to go back to Los Angeles. She confesses to Trudy that she used Robin’s insecurities for her own selfish end of not being rejected by Mark for a second time. Trudy warns Meta to stay out of it all. Meta ignores the advice and goes over to Helen’s to talk to Robin where she runs into an angry Mark who lays into her and tells her to go away. Meta later tells Robin that she knew Robin was afraid of losing Mark’s love and wanted Mark with Meta instead of Ruth because she knew he didn’t love Meta like he did Ruth. Meta also confesses that she used Robin’s insecurities to try to get Mark to marry her. This confession crushes an already disillusioned and bitter Robin and she says it was a mistake for her to be born in the first place since nobody has ever wanted her, including her own mother. Robin leaves Meta and joins her grandmother Allen on a long trip to Europe and Zena Bethune leaves the role with the parting words “I’m through, Meta. I’m through with all of it”. Trudy gets Bruce to come see Meta and Meta confesses to him that it was more her pride and vanity, than love, that made her want Mark to ask her to marry him. Meta is worried how Robin’s faith in everything and everybody has been destroyed and says, “I’m afraid we’ll never see the same Robin again”. Dick meets Nora and doesn’t like her. Mark and Ruth head for Switzerland to get her teenage son, Karl. The adoption agency turns down Marie’s request to adopt after they talk with Dick and ascertain that he didn’t really want to adopt and was just doing it for Marie. -8/3/59-8/31/59. Marie’s disappointment causes her to be angry at Dick and then Paul and Anne when she learns Paul confirmed Dick’s reluctance to adopt a child to the case worker when she interviewed him. Marie turns on Laura as well because she knows Laura didn’t think they should adopt and probably influenced Dick. Bert tries to lift Marie out of her depression but it’s too severe. Bill is in NYC from Boston and visits Meta. He tells her that he’s being transferred back to Los Angeles. Bruce reminds Meta that he’s still there for and wants to marry her. He also reminds her that they’re not getting any younger. Nora continues to try to get Marie to take her baby but Marie thinks Nora will regret giving it away and tries to convince her to keep it. Nora gives birth to a baby girl. Mark and Ruth come back to NYC with Ruth’s son, Karl. Nora names her baby Marie. Marie wants Nora and her baby to come stay with her for a while to take care of them and everybody thinks Marie is trying to live vicariously through Nora and her baby and it will end in more heartache when Nora leaves. Helen and Robin come back from Europe and Karl goes over to meet Robin and try to reason with her about going back with them to Los Angeles. -9/1/59-9/30/59. Bert, Papa, Mike and Ed fly out to NYC to meet Bill so they can drive across the country back to Los Angeles together. The Bauers have a picnic in Central Park. Bill, Bert and Mike meet Karl. Karl and Mike discuss Robin. Karl opines that she’s beautiful but Mike hasn’t noticed. The Bauers invited Karl to join them on their cross-country drive. Mike tries to reason with Robin and lets her know her bitterness about the past is going to destroy her future. Robin coldly dismisses Mike’s advice. Mark forgives Meta. Robin says she’ll only go back to Los Angeles if she can live with Meta. Nora gets a call from her husband Al who invites her out to Las Vegas where he’s living. She rushes out there, leaving her baby with Marie. Meta tells Bruce she wants to marry him but she must first go back to California since Robin wants to live with her and she feels responsible for her. Dick comes back from his medical conference in Switzerland and is very upset when he learns that Marie is taking care of Nora’s baby and Nora has run off to Las Vegas to be with her husband. As Meta gets ready to return to Los Angeles with Robin, Helen warns her that even though Kathy failed to give Robin the discipline she needed, life will eventually discipline Robin. Mike and Karl bond on their road trip back to Los Angeles and when they arrive home, Karl gets accepted to UCLA and will be entering as a Freshman along with Mike. Karl tells Mike he feels sorry for Robin and Mike warns him that Robin doesn’t want any help and enjoys feeling sorry for herself and he’ll be sorry if he tries to help her. -10/1/59-10/30/59. Alice has transferred to Cornell. Robin wants to become an actress. A detective hunts down Marie and tells her that Al and Nora were in a car that drove off a bridge in a rain storm. They’ve found Al’s body but not Nora’s. They assume she’s dead too. Marie remembers Nora’s pleas for Marie to take care of her baby if anything ever happens to her. Marie lies to the police and tells them Nora was her sister so she can keep the baby. Still angry at Mike for telling her she’s acting like a spoiled child, Robin goes out with Karl to avoid a family dinner with the Bauers. Robin thinks Mark only adopted her because of Kathy and doesn’t think he really loves her. Not wanting to live with Mark and Ruth and thinking that Meta will marry Bruce, an alienated Robin looks for a place of her own. She wants Karl to keep it a secret that they are dating but people are starting to catch on. Papa goes in for gall stone surgery. -11/2/59-11/30/59. Robin is feeling more and more unwanted. Mark is getting tired of Robin’s selfishness. Mike warns Karl that if he gets involved with Robin that he’ll regret it for the rest of his life. Marie’s hopes are restored when she and Dick meet with a lawyer who thinks they will be able to adopt Nora’s baby. This is immediately called into question when Nora’s parents, who Nora said were dead, show up looking for Nora. Robin argues with Meta that Mark isn’t really her father. She says Bob Lang is her father even though he died before she was born. Meta is shocked to find out Robin’s going by Robin Lang, not Robin Holden, as her acting name. Mark thinks Robin is using Karl to get back at Mark and Ruth and that Karl will be hurt. -12/1/59-12/31/59. Meta thinks Robin’s new passion for acting is because she’s trying to escape herself. She warns Robin that no matter how great the part is she’s playing, the curtain always comes down. Dick is kicking himself for not trusting his instincts about Nora and not forbidding Marie to have anything to do with her. Bill, Bert and Meta go over to Paul and Anne’s to celebrate Christmas Eve and are happy to see Bruce when he arrives there from NYC. Papa, Meta, Bruce, Bill, Bert, Mike, Ed and Robin celebrate Christmas Day. Bruce gives Meta an engagement ring which she accepts. Laura crashes Marie’s meeting with Nora’s parents and sticks her nose into everything. Joe goes over to see Nora’s parents to try to persuade them to let Marie adopt the baby. Having not met Dick but having met Laura and hating her, Nora’s mother, Ruby, doesn’t want Dick to have the baby if he’s as snobby as his mother is. Dick reaches his breaking point with Marie and her obsession with the baby. Johnny Fletcher is born to Paul and Anne on New Year’s Eve as we say goodbye to the 50s and hello to the 60s.

Thank you for your insights. Yes, Trudy was short for Gertrude.

Thank you! Yeah, it's a bit frustrating for me. Even though it's all one show, it's like there are two different GLs and most of the talk on here is about the GL that I'm not that interested in. LOL. I get it. People can't talk about what they don't know about. That's one of the reasons why I posted my summaries on the main page to share some of the knowledge and hopefully generate some discussion about what I consider the glory days of GL. I hope you can enjoy those.

There are a few that survived but, alas, there are very few. One of the biggest tragedies the world has faced.

For me, it was definitely 1937-1943. Followed by 1947-1951. Then, the third golden era would be 1965-1970. In that order. I don't think anything topped the first five or six years.

-1/2/58-1/31/58. Dick pushes Kathy to have the surgery that could get her out of the wheelchair but Kathy is reluctant because her life is so happy now and she thinks being in the wheelchair is somehow responsible for the change. Ed has a ruptured appendix and Dick is going to perform his first surgery since he injured his hand on him. Papa has his doubts and Bert is adamantly against Dick performing the surgery but Bill allows it. The crisis tempts Bill to drink again but Papa snaps him out of it. While taking care of Ed, Paul remembers what it was like to be his age and without a father. Bruce seeks Clyde’s advice on whether he should propose to Meta, which he later does but she puts off giving him an answer. Meta remembers when Mark broke things off with her for Kathy and Bruce wonders if Meta is still in love with Mark. She also wonders if she could ever love anybody else like she loved Joe. Trudy has the realization that, ironically, she’s over her long-standing jealousy of Meta and actually feels sorry for her now. Paul, better with children than with adults, bonds with Ed as he recovers from his operation and Paul considers going into pediatrics now that his old medical partner, Dick, is going back into surgery. -2/3/58-2/28/58. Robin doesn’t want Kathy to have her operation. Now that she is finally content in life, Kathy is afraid successful surgery could ruin that. She doesn’t want to rock the boat and she is afraid of dying in the surgery. Meta tells Bruce about her lingering feelings for Joe and Mark and that she’s still not sure she wants to marry him. Kathy tells Mark she’s decided not to have the surgery. The Bauers are excited that Meta may marry Bruce. Paul becomes a medical resident at Cedars and says that he never wants to have children. Bruce and Meta’s talk about marriage is interrupted by Bert calling with news that Kathy was knocked over into traffic in her wheelchair by a group of boys on bicycles and killed. Dick, Marie, Paul, Mark and Alice deal with the death of Kathy. In shock, Mark glances at the Tree of Life Kathy was weaving on the loom and sees that it’s finished. -3/3/58-3/31/58. The aftermath of Kathy’s death. Meta postpones accepting Bruce’s marriage proposal to take care of Robin and leaves New York City to return home. Paul comforts a despondent Robin. The death of Kathy has made Trudy think about how she would be alone if something happened to Clyde since they decided not to have children. Clyde reminds her that, just because someone has a child, there’s no guarantee the child would stay around when they got older or be a comfort. Marian, a woman from Paul’s past, moves to town which Paul isn’t happy about and dodges her attempts to reach out to him. Trudy tries to get Bruce to go out to California to visit Meta and bring her back as his wife but Bruce is concerned that Meta is interested in Mark again now that he’s single. Dick begins working under Dr. Henry Meyers at General Hospital and he meets a nurse working with Dr. Meyers who turns out to be Marian Winters. When she recognizes who Dick is, she inundates him with questions about Paul. When Paul catches wind of this, he is not happy. Bill thinks Meta needs to concentrate more on Bruce and less on Robin. Marian finally gets a hold of Paul on the phone and he tells her to leave him alone before hanging up on her. -4/1/58-4/30/58. Paul is haunted by memories of being fatherless as a child. John Lipsey, Paul’s pharmacist friend, thinks that Paul’s plans to move to NYC is just another way for Paul to try to run from himself. Bill continues to worry that Meta is too obsessed with Robin and is trying to get close to Mark again, so he eagerly tells her that Mark’s Aunt Ruth is planning on coming from Connecticut to run the house. Meta is subconsciously disappointed. Robin finally feels like Mark is a father to her and Alice is like a sister to her. Marian finally makes Paul talk to her and threatens to tell the other doctors at the hospital about his past. The Bauers celebrate Meta’s birthday and a dissatisfied Meta perks up when roses arrive from Bruce Banning. It is revealed that Marian is Paul’s mother. Paul takes care of a new patient at the hospital named Anne. -5/1/58-5/30/58. Bruce comes for a visit. The reality of Kathy’s death finally starts to hit Mark and Robin. Bruce tells Meta he plans to marry her but Meta is still in love with Mark and is torn when Paul says he thinks Robin should live with Meta to help her heal from her mother’s death since she’s fallen into a depression. Marian reveals to her friend Edna that she couldn’t give up her child, Paul, even though she was an unwed mother, and told her son that her father died. Paul’s move to NYC is aborted when Anne’s physical condition becomes even more serious. Bert gets choked up when Michael goes on his first date. Paul’s feelings for Anne grow as he becomes more and more concerned about her. She gets diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis. -6/2/58-6/30/58. Marian turns out to be the best nurse to be able to take care of Anne so Paul reluctantly hires her but makes her promise not to tell anyone that she’s his mother. Bruce tells Meta he no longer wants to marry her because he realizes she’s still in love with Mark Holden. Tom Sloane, Anne’s fiancé, comes to visit Anne from San Francisco. Paul tells Anne he’ll never get married because he doesn’t want a child because he wouldn’t wish himself on any child. Before leaving to go back to New York City, Bruce helps Meta face her feelings for Mark. Bruce tells her to let him know if she ever stops loving Mark because he, Bruce, “will probably still be around”. Paul throws himself into the care of Anne as the shame of being an illegitimate child seems to reach a crescendo with Marian’s presence and all the questions from his friends and co-workers about his past. Meta wants to go on a vacation with Robin to Lake Louise and Bill is disappointed it’s not to NYC to see Bruce. -7/1/58-7/30/58. Mark hasn’t been feeling well and is in Cedars for tests and it turns out to just be nervous exhaustion. Trudy tells Clyde that Meta needs to be honest about herself and realize she’s glad Kathy’s dead. Janet tries to get her hooks into Mark but Mark lets her know she’s barking up the wrong tree because he’ll never love any other woman than Kathy. Now that she’s about to be released, Anne is reluctant to go back home to San Francisco and while Marian is nursing her, she hears Anne say Paul’s name in her sleep. -8/1/58-8/28/58. Anne tells Marian that her hospital stay has caused her to think about things for the first time and now she’s not sure she wants to live the pre-ordered life that’s been laid out for her in San Francisco by her family. She wants to stay in Los Angeles and doesn’t think she wants to marry Tom. Bert tries to point out to Meta that she’s not Robin’s mother. Meta is defensive and says she loves Robin now as much as she loved Chuckie then and, since Robin’s mother is dead, she is the next best thing to a mother Robin has. Paul is fighting his feelings for Anne so he tries to get her to go back to San Francisco. Meta admits to Bill that she never stopped loving Mark. Paul works up the nerve to ask Anne out for dinner but quickly loses heart when Anne is surprised by a visit from her mother Helene. -9/1/58-9/30/58. Anne tells Helene she wants to break off her engagement to Tom. Paul gives in to his feelings for Anne. Mike says he might want to be a doctor one day. Helene learns from Anne that she’s in love with Paul and Helene, worried and disappointed, ironically tries to find out about Paul’s background from Marian. Henry Benedict, Anne’s father, comes from San Francisco for a visit and is told by Helene that Anne is breaking off her engagement because she’s in love with Paul. Henry thinks Paul is after Anne’s money and vows to get to the bottom of all this. Tom comes down for a visit as well and Anne breaks the news to him. Meta meets the Holdens new housekeeper, Ruth Jannings, who is from Austria and has come to the U.S. via her brother’s home in Switzerland where her teenage son is still. -10/3/58-10/31/58. Robin overhears Meta and Bert talking about Meta’s feelings for Mark which excites Robin but Meta is afraid that Robin will tell Mark. Anne wonders to Marian if Paul’s mother would have liked her, not knowing Marian is Paul’s mother. Marian assures her she would have. Paul continues to fight his feelings for Anne due to her high social status and his illegitimate status, thinking he’s not good enough for her. Mark offers to loan Ruth the money to bring her son over from Europe. Marian urges a self-hating Paul to meet his father. -11/3/58-11/24/58. Bill loses another job and tries to hide it from everybody but Bert. Paul confesses to John that he is illegitimate but John had already guessed. Paul decides to meet his father. Henry encourages Tom to try to win Anne back from Paul. Paul finds his father’s house and meets his half-sister Jane outside. He doesn’t tell her who he is but they have a discussion and Paul learns that he had an older half-brother who died in the Korean war in 1950. Paul chickens out and leaves before he’s able to meet his father, Fred Fletcher. Mark offers Bill a job with his firm but it would mean moving to Boston which Bert is against because it would mean Mike having to leave his school and friends for his final semester of high school. -12/1/58-12/31/58. Papa Bauer suggests that Bert and the boys stay with him and Meta when Bill moves to Boston until Mike graduates. Meta isn’t happy about the idea because she’s hoping things will work out for her and Mark soon. Marian confesses to John that she is Paul’s mother. Under pressure that his past will come out, Paul convinces Anne to elope with him and they are married by a justice of the peace. When Paul and Anne return to San Francisco from their elopement, their picture is taken for the society pages. Fred and Jane see the picture and see that the man who was looking for Fred and looks so much like the deceased Fred Jr., is using the last name “Fletcher” and an intrigued Fred determines to get in touch with Paul. Fred sends a letter to Paul via the Benedicts. The letter arrives after Paul and Anne have left on their honeymoon and the return address of “Fred Fletcher” intrigues Henry. He decides to go to the return address to find out more about Paul. Marian and John celebrate Christmas Eve with Paul and Anne in their new apartment. Meta, Papa, Bill, Bert, Mike, Ed, Mark, Robin, Alice, Dick, Marie, Paul and Anne all gather at Meta’s house to celebrate Christmas. Bill takes a picture with a tripod of them all together to take with him when he moves to Boston. As Paul and Anne spend New Year’s Eve alone, Paul worries what the future holds.

I think that's due to the fact that the show still had the same writer that created and wrote for these characters that weren't on the show any longer. She remembered them and would have the characters still on the show talk about them often.

Clyde had very strong opinions but he wasn't forceful. He was just very much a loner. It's a wonder he even married (he didn't want kids either) but when he married Trudy he kind of isolated her too. Not out of malice or to be controlling. He was just very much allergic to drama and tried to stay away from it which meant staying away from the Bauers as they brought lots of it. He also felt like Trudy's self-esteem problems were caused by her family of origin so that's why he encouraged a distance between Trudy and her family to keep her healthy. He was aloof but never mean-spirited and never forceful. I guess one could argue he passive-aggressively tried to control Trudy but she was a willing participant as she was happy with Clyde and he was really the only person she felt loved her. Plus, she was very happy to be on the other side of the country from Meta. LOL. Bert would eventually warm to Paul but it would take a while. In the beginning, every time someone would mention Paul, Bert would always say, "Oh, that old sour apple!". They were just very different personalities. Bert was an idealist and Paul was a cynic. Bert was all about the family and Paul was anti-family. Bert was always in everybody's business and was very demonstrative and Paul was very private and quiet. Bert was all about the home and Paul was all about his career. Just very, very different characters. You are right that when one knows the entire story of The Guiding Light, the fatherly relationship Paul had with Robin at the beginning is kind of icky. I don't know if Irna had any idea that the two would eventually marry. I doubt it. Robin was SORASed quite a bit and ten years go by between this paternal relationship and the romantic relationship. There is some strange foreshadowing of it but I don't think it was intentional. There are several examples of that, actually. Where a line here or there will foreshadow something that happens years down the road (sometimes decades). I don't know if it's intentional or just an eerie coincidence. I've tried to include these instances and lines in the synopses for those knowledgeable of what's to come. No, they didn't bring the actor back for that flashback of Bob Lang. They just had a stand-in with his back to the camera. It was basically just Kathy remembering the vows they took at their wedding. Kathy was plagued with memories of Bob the rest of her life so she could occasionally have nightmare and flashbacks of Bob. I'm not saying they NEVER brought the actor back (I'd have to check, but I don't thinks so)but, in this instance, it was just a stand-in.

Yes.