Reverend Ruthledge

Well, as a writer, it wouldn't make much difference to her. She used the same script but would just write in different stage directions for TV and radio. What must've been overwhelming for her was writing both The Guiding Light and As the World Turns simultaneously in 1956 and 1957.

Actually, the radio show didn't end on Christmas. It was on another date. I can't remember the exact date but I think it was around September of 1956. Yes, Irna still wrote the show throughout 1956. Agnes Nixon didn't take the reigns until 1958.

You're very welcome. Yes, the radio show ended in 1956.

Was he seriously writing all the way to 1979? I'm shocked. The writing was so good up until 1975 and so bad afterwards, I just assumed there were two different writers responsible.

-1/1/56 thru 1/31/56. Elsie continues to cause havoc in the Bauer home. Jim quits Cedars and Dick thinks Lila is a bad influence on him. Dick lays into Laura for her controlling machinations and says he is no longer her son. Laura asks Marie for help to win back Dick and Marie refuses. After the eye doctor gives Marie a good report and tells her she no longer needs to be in California, Marie has to decide whether to go back to NYC and it causes her to face whatever feelings she has for Dick. Bert strikes up a friendship with Marie to get the scoop on the Dick/Kathy situation. Mike becomes defiant as his hatred for his grandmother and baby brother grows. He resents Elsie’s favoritism towards Ed. -2/2/56 thru 2/28/56. Marie starts to paint Mike’s portrait. Mike becomes more neurotic and defiant. Jim proposes to Lila but she doesn’t want to ever get married. Papa sternly rebukes Elsie for trying to mother Ed and for rejecting Mike. Papa tells Bill that Elsie should move out. Bert tries to get Mike to stop seeing an older friend, Jock Baker. Papa puts the foot down with Bill to put the foot down with Bert to put the foot down with Elsie. Mike runs away from home. Marie uses a charcoal sketch she had made of Mike to give to the police to aid in their search for him. The police question Jock Baker. -3/1/56 thru 3/31/56. The Bauers are frantic because Mike is missing and Bert fears the worst. Though Jock had withheld the information from the police due to his promise to Mike not to say anything, he tells his dad that Mike ran away due to his grandmother. Mike is lost in the Sierra foothills as Bert starts to feel guilty for the way she treated him. Bill blames Elsie’s favoritism of Ed over Mike and his own passivity about the situation. Marie remembers Mike talking about wanting to go camping in the Sierra foothills and informs the police. Mike is found by a search team and taken to the hospital where he asks to see Papa Bauer. Meta stops Elsie from going to the hospital and lays into her for how she’s treated Mike, blaming Elsie for Mike’s running away from home. Bill wants to introduce a bachelor work associate named Mark Holden to Meta. -4/2/56 thru 4/30/56. Elsie is moving back to Arizona. She and Mike make amends first. Bill brings Mark with him to Elsie’s going away dinner. Jim and Marie make Lila go for a chest x-ray even though she’s scared of the results. The results come back that Lila has tuberculosis. Meta is mad at Bill because she thinks he is trying to set her up with Mark. Since Lila’s sister died in a TB sanitarium, Lila is scared to go to one. Jim gets Lila to check into the TB quarantine wing of Cedars for 6 months to a year so that Jim can keep an eye on her. Dan Clark, who Kathy has been seeing in New York City while staying with Helen, proposes but Kathy declines. -5/1/56 thru 5/31/56. Lila gets scared and stir crazy in quarantine and starts to freak out. Helen tries to get Kathy to send Meta a Mother’s Day card. Kathy remembers old resentments towards Meta and admits her fears that Robin is starting to treat Kathy the way Kathy treated Meta. Jim figures out that Lila’s cynicism about marriage comes from her blaming her brother-in-law for her sister’s death. Laura comes back to town and tries to reconcile with Dick. Mark and Meta both agree to enjoy each other’s companionship but leave marriage off the table. Papa thinks Meta should marry Mark but Meta tells him she’s not interested in marrying anyone after Joe. Papa and Meta visit the graves of Mama Bauer and Joe on Memorial Day. Bert hopes Mike never has to go to war. -6/1/56 thru 6/29/56. Marie leaves to go visit Mrs. Laury in NYC and her family in Iowa, not sure if she’ll come back to Los Angeles. Papa also goes to NYC to visit Trudy and Clyde. Marie visits Kathy in New York and they discuss the past and which of them might want to be with Dick. Bill, Meta and a tearful Bert, who realizes her son is growing up and leaving her for the first time, say goodbye to Michael as he gets on the train to summer camp on his own. -7/2/56 thru 7/31/56. Mark tells Meta that if he ever did get married it would be with someone like her, if not her. Meta tells Marie that she knows how she feels about Dick and Marie confesses. Dick tries to find out why Lila has had an emotional setback this month and Lila admits July was when she lost her sister and her fear is overtaking her. Bert learns that her mother has met a man and may marry again. Meta, after hearing the news that Elsie is open to remarriage, decides to finally get rid of Joe’s old chair. Mark proposes to Meta and she accepts. -8/1/56 thru 8/31/56. Bill regrets introducing Mark and Meta as he thinks Mark is toying with her. He also thinks that Elsie's new fiancé, Albert, might be after Elsie’s money. Mark flies to New York City to see his brother Fred and then to Colorado to see his sister Alice to let them know of his plans to marry Meta. Both of them give him their blessing. Mike comes back from camp and isn’t happy that Meta is marrying Mark because he doesn’t like Mark. Elsie comes to Los Angeles with her new fiance, Albert Franklin. Mark has decided he doesn’t like Kathy even before he’s met her. Mark and Meta set a wedding date for Christmastime. Last aired radio episode on August 31, 1956. -9/3/56 thru 9/28/56. Albert assures the Bauers that he’s not after Elsie’s money. Papa thinks Mark is selfish and worries that Mark doesn’t love Meta the way she loves him. This causes Meta to have doubts about her future with Mark. Kathy comes back home and meets Mark. Kathy learns that Mark and Meta are engaged but thinks they are all wrong for each other. Mark and Meta start getting edgy with each other and they feel a rift between them. Meta debates whether to invite Clyde and Trudy to her wedding. She doesn’t think Trudy wants anything to do with the Bauers and that Clyde is encouraging the separation. Meta is missing Joe. Mark and Meta’s plans to take Kathy out to dinner are disrupted by Meta catching a cold. Meta suggests they go on without her but is secretly disappointed when Mark doesn’t protest the idea. Mark and Kathy get to know each other better at dinner. In a sign of how things have changed over the years, Bert warns Meta about Kathy. Dan Clark heads to California to pursue Kathy, despite his mother’s warnings that he’s wasting his time. -10/1/56 thru 10/31/56. Lila is elated that she’s about to be released from the hospital after six months of quarantine. Albert and Elsie are married. Dan picks up on Kathy’s feelings for Mark and urges her to go back to New York with him. Mark doesn't think Kathy should marry Dan and wants to talk to her about it. Papa and Meta wonder why he cares so much about the subject. Lila comes home. Kathy tries to justify her feelings for Mark to Dan. Jim wants to move back to Chicago to take over his father’s practice since he’s had a stroke and he wants Lila to go back with him as his wife. Dick and Kathy have dinner where he tells her he’s figured out she’s in love with Mark. Dick is in a car accident and hurt his right arm. Jim fears Dick’s right hand is permanently damaged. Kathy gets histrionic, worrying and feeling guilty about Dick and rushes to the hospital to see him. Dan suggests she’s overreacting to try and repress her feelings for Mark. -11/1/56 thru 11/30/56. Mark and Kathy have a harder time fighting their feelings for each other. Dan cryptically tells Meta that he’s sorry Kathy ever came back to California and tells Meta to open her eyes, leaving Meta confused about the meaning. Mark says he can’t go through with marrying Meta since he loves Kathy. He wants to tell Meta about Kathy but Kathy doesn’t want the whole truth to come out now. Lila is still reluctant to marry but Jim patiently says he’ll wait for her. Everybody is keeping the news that he won’t be able to be a surgeon anymore from Dick. Before he leaves California, Dan tells Meta that Kathy is in love with Mark. Meta is in denial at first but then remembers all the clues she ignored. Mark comes over to tell the truth to Meta but Meta says she already knows and had known, subconsciously, for some time. Bill and Bert learn the truth from Kathy and are outraged. Bill and Papa try to comfort a despondent Meta. Bill and Bert break the news about Meta and Mark to Albert and Elsie on Thanksgiving. Bill is worried and sad for Meta, who had cancelled Thanksgiving over at her place. Jim leaves Los Angeles to move to Chicago but not before stopping by to give some encouragement to Dick, who is facing the reality that he won’t be able to perform surgery again. Bert tells Kathy that Bill hates Mark now. Kathy implores Bert to not judge Mark and reminds Bert of Bill’s affair with Gloria. Meta laments to Dick that she’s lost so much. Dick says that she’s lost Chuckie and Joe but she hasn’t lost Mark because she never really had him. -12/3/56 thru 12/31/56. Kathy thinks Robin doesn’t like her and Helen thinks Kathy has spoiled Robin. Helen is hurt when she tells her that Mark is going to adopt Robin and give her the name Holden instead of Lang. Lila stops by the hospital to say goodbye to Dick as she moves back home to make amends with her family. She assures Dick that if and when she sorts out her past, she will be ready to go to Jim and marry him. Dick meets Dr. Paul Fletcher, a young doctor from Chicago who is finishing up his residency at Cedars and is planning on staying and taking over Jim’s old office. The two will be rooming together as they are now both interns, Dick having to go into internal medicine now that his surgery career is over. Dick is not looking forward to it since he doesn’t like Paul but Paul is hoping Dick will teach him about bedside manner, something Dick has and Paul lacks. Kathy thinks Robin’s illness is psychosomatic because Robin doesn’t want to meet Mark. She fears she built up Bob too much in Robin’s mind. Jim calls Dick with the news that he and Lila got married while she was visiting him in Chicago over Christmas. Dick and Paul see in the year 1957 while on duty at the hospital. -12/25/56. Papa, Meta, Bill, Bert, Mike, Albert and Elsie gather at Meta’s house to celebrate Christmas. Everyone is worried about Meta being depressed.

Even though she moved off for a while, you will see that Irna kept Janet around till at least the end of the decade. Although it wasn't Ruth Warrick and Janet didn't do much but make catty comments and gossip at the nurses station.

-1/1/55-1/31/55. Dick has taken the train to New York City and ends up renting a room at Mrs. Laury’s rooming house under the assumed name of Richard Edmonds. John comes to Los Angeles and Bart wants to replace Dick with him. Mrs. Laury tells another of her tenants, an art student from Iowa named Marie, that she’s worried about the new tenant she knows as Richard Edmonds. Marie discourages her from phoning the police, unaware that Dick has been mugged and is lying unconscious at the waterfront. Mike is jealous of the new baby. Even though Bill wants to name the new baby Frederick, after Papa, Bert wants to name him William Bauer, Jr. John agrees to join the staff at Cedars and move to Los Angeles. Kathy stops by the Grants and Laura blames Dick’s disappearance on Kathy and orders her out of her house. Kathy admits to Bert she’s still in love with Dick. Dick ends up in the hospital and Mrs. Laury, who is lonesome for her son in a VA hospital indefinitely, takes a maternal role with Dick. -2/1/55-2/28/55. Kathy admits to Jim that she’s still in love with Dick and has to admit to herself that she’s lost Dick. The psychiatrist at the hospital tells Mrs. Laury that Dick is suffering from MDD and gets her to start worrying that he’s suicidal and that’s why he was down at the waterside when he got mugged. Dick goes back to Mrs. Laury’s rooming house and meets fellow tenant Marie. Mike feels like his world is crumbling even more when Papa has to go to the hospital for a hernia operation. Marie tries to bring Dick out of his shell. -3/1/55-3/31/55. Marie wants to paint Dick’s portrait. Mrs. Laury tells Dick that Marie has lost the vision in one of her eyes. Nobody can figure out Bart’s favoritism and controlling of John, including John. With Bunny expecting in San Francisco and having lost hope of Dick ever returning to Los Angeles, Laura persuades Richard to move back to San Francisco. Jim warns John that Janet is a trouble-maker. Marie starts asking questions to Dick and he gets nervous as she gets too close for comfort. Dr. Baird tells Bart that John isn’t working out, which makes Bart panic for fear of losing John. -4/1/55-4/30/55. Mrs. Laury and Marie find out Dick’s real name, that he’s a doctor and Marie remembers the story of him being missing. After listening to an Easter sermon on the radio, Dick is inspired to finally write his parents a letter. Bill and Bert urge Kathy to forget about Dick and not let Jim slip away. Dick starts to come out of his depression. Bert takes the baby and heads to Arizona after she learns her father is having an emergency operation. -5/1/55-5/30/55. Bart tells Dr. Baird that John is his son. Dick confesses to Mrs. Laury about his real past and he learns she and Marie have known the truth for a while. Everyone tries to convince Kathy to give up on Dick but she won’t. Dick mentally prepares to return to Los Angeles. John’s mother, Liz, comes for a visit and angrily tells Bart to stop meddling in their son’s life. John decides to move back to San Francisco. -6/1/55-6/31/55. Bert’s father dies. John and Jim can’t understand why Bart ran Dick away and brought John to Cedars to push John into plastic surgery even though John really wanted to go into psychiatry. John feels manipulated and maltreated by Bart. Bert brings her mother Elsie back with her to Los Angeles to live, much to Bill’s dismay. Papa Bauer moves in with Joe and Meta to give Bill and Bert more room for Elsie. Mrs. Laury and Marie lament about how they’ll miss Dick when he goes back to Los Angeles. Elsie is already getting on everyone’s nerves. Kathy has decided to go stay with Bob’s mother indefinitely. Dick leaves New York City for Los Angeles at the same time Kathy says goodbye to Jim and leaves Los Angeles for New York City with Robin. John and Janet are involved in a car crash. A frantic Bart blurts out to Jim that he has to save John because he’s Bart’s son. -7/1/55-7/31/55. John dies as a result of his car accident, never having known that Bart was his father. When Bart learns that John had been drinking before he wrecked his car, he blames himself for the death of his son. A repentant Bart welcomes Dick back and says he wants to treat him the way he should have treated John. Helen wants Kathy and Robin to go to Europe with her. Marie is feeling lost and alone after the doctor told her she has to give up painting due to her eyesight and is missing Dick. Kathy sees Marie’s painting of Dick, Dark Echo, and tracks down Marie. Kathy tries to get information out of Marie but she’s reticent. Kathy can sense, however, that Marie is the new woman in Dick’s life. Mrs. Laury doesn’t like Kathy and tells Marie to stay away from her. Elsie’s hypochondria and loneliness comes to a head and she decides to move into the Bauer home. A newly confident Dick tells off Janet for her past behavior with Kathy. -8/1/55-8/31/55. Dick is nervous as he’s called to perform his first surgery since he froze up during surgery a year ago. Out of guilt for the way he treated Dick and John, and loneliness after John’s death, Bart begins to try to smother Dick in a paternal manner. Marie tells Mrs. Laury that there’s nothing left for her now in New York and she’s going back to Iowa. Mrs. Laury recounts the whole story of Dick’s stay at the boarding house. She thinks Dick and Marie are in love with each other and tells Kathy that Dick is back in Los Angeles. Kathy thinks she’s still in love with Dick. Dick sets Marie up with an eye specialist in California and sends her an airplane ticket. Mike doesn’t like Elsie. -9/1/55-9/30/55. Kathy arrives in Los Angeles the day after Marie does. Marie finds out from a letter Mrs. Laury wrote to her that Kathy is back in Los Angeles but Marie hides that information from Dick, although she confides in Laura. Marie gets hopeful news from the eye specialist. Laura and Kathy have a catfight and Laura lies to her that Dick and Marie are engaged. Dick finally makes it over to the Roberts’ house to see Kathy but she’s gone. -10/1/55-10/31/55. Marie starts sketching a woman she sees at the park named Lila, meets her, and asks her to model for her. Kathy leaves for Europe with Helen and Robin. Dick thinks since Kathy left Los Angeles without seeing him that that’s a sign that he can now completely get over her, not realizing that her departure was due to Laura’s lies and manipulation. Marie is afraid the treatment isn’t working on her eye and the doctor thinks her fear of completely losing her sight is hindering her recovery. Her fear starts to consume her. Jim and Lila get interested in each other. -11/1/55-11/30/55. Laura asks Marie not to tell Dick that she met Kathy in NYC and tries to make her feel indebted to do so because of the help she’s given her. Marie calls her out on trying to play God in people’s lives and her emotional upset from Laura’s intimidations causes her eyesight to worsen. Janet has moved to New York and gotten married. Marie feels guilty that even though Laura has tried to keep her from telling Dick about Kathy coming to Los Angeles for him, she knows that she has already kept that information from him anyway. Joe and Meta are back from their long stay in Washington D.C. The Bauers celebrate Thanksgiving, missing Kathy who they get a telegram from. Meta mentions to Papa how she misses Chuckie and Mike asks who Chuckie is. Dr. Kelly is over at the Bauers checking up on Michael when he gets called over to the Roberts because someone is sick. Bill and Bert worry that it’s Papa but it turns out to be Joe. -12/1/55-12/31/55. Joey returns home just after Joe gets wheeled into surgery. Joe has some sort of obstruction. Kathy has left Paris and is heading toward Switzerland but nobody has a forwarding address. She’s finally located in Geneva. Joe Roberts dies while waiting for Kathy to arrive from Switzerland. Bill and Bert are discussing what to do for Christmas since Meta is grieving. Meta and Kathy talk about Kathy and Robin’s life in Europe and Kathy’s feelings towards Dick. Bill and Bert argue about Elsie’s favoritism towards Ed and her treatment of Mike. Dick and Kathy are reunited and Kathy and Dick realize Laura’s lie to keep them apart. Kathy tells Dick she’s met Marie, shocking him even more. Though the air is finally cleared between them, Dick and Kathy decide there’s no future for them at this point. Bert and Kathy talk about maturity and the transient nature of romantic love. Kathy goes back to Switzerland.

Yes, Irna was still head writer at this time. Well, you mentioned TV but Irna had already done a much more extensive storyline on radio on The Guiding Light in 1950 when she had Chuckie White got to a child psychologist. I think that was very groundbreaking at the time. The show was set in a suburb of Chicago when the show was produced in Chicago. Then, the show's setting moved to a suburb of Los Angeles when the show's production moved to Los Angeles in 1947. The show was only produced in Los Angeles for a couple of years and then it moved to New York City although the setting for the show stayed Los Angeles until the late 60s and then it moved to the fictional Springfield. Yes, there were times when the show's setting seemed to be simultaneously in Los Angeles and NYC. The characters went back and forth to the two cities frequently. That may have to do with the fact that the production had moved to NYC.

Yes, that's what happened. She kind of disappeared from the story. When Dick, her cousin, became a main character, Peggy rejoined the story and came on staff at Cedars. Same character. She just came back into the story after an absence.

-1/1/54-1/31/54. Dick tells Kathy that he wants a divorce and that he’s in love with Janet. Dan tells Peggy his life story of how his mother was his only comfort from being teased about his facial scars growing up and, after she died, he ran away at 14 never to see his father and brother again. Lacking grounds for a divorce, Dick tells Kathy he’s seeking an annulment based on fraud. Joe investigates the mysterious murder of a woman shot and left in a cabin named Judith Weber. Judith’s brother and sister-in-law are questioned but released. Dan takes an overinterest in the murder. -2/1/54-2/28/54. Mike has his first day of school. Joe finds a scar cream called Coverall in Judith Weber’s apartment and it causes him to think. Peggy finds a jar of Coverall in Dan’s hospital room while he’s being operated on. Jim doesn’t get what Peggy sees in Dan and tries to get her to look at him. Dan freaks out when he knows Peggy found his Coverall and tells her to get rid of it. Before she can, she accidentally leaves it for Jim to find. After Peggy tells Joe how much she is in love with Dan, she is shocked when he mentions he found a jar of Coverall at the murder victim’s apartment. Peggy lies to Joe that she’s never heard of Coverall, Jim lies to a panicked Peggy that he didn’t find her Coverall. Kathy asks Dick to not make her wait anymore on his decision for an annulment. Dick tells her to expect to hear from his attorney. -3/1/54-3/31/54. Mike is misbehaving as he is missing Bill who has been away in New York City for work. Reverend Keeler counsels Kathy to fight for her marriage in spite of Dick serving her with annulment papers. Meta and Kathy fight and Meta tells her to quit pitying herself. Kathy decides to contest the annulment and the hearing is postponed as Kathy claims Robin is Dick’s baby. An angry Dick confronts Kathy and tells her he hates her. Dan confesses to Peggy that he knew Judith and was after her money for the operation but that her shooting was an accident, not murder. -4/1/54-4/30/54. Peggy is torn as she doesn’t know if the man she loves is a murderer. Dan’s surgeries are over and they finally take off his bandages to reveal his new face. Kathy is bedridden with nervous exhaustion. Dan checks himself out of Cedars without saying goodbye to Peggy. Kathy changes her mind and doesn’t contest the annulment. Dick starts to push away from Janet which makes Janet even more determined to keep him. Mike continues to misbehave and runs off claiming he’s going to New York to see Bill. -5/3/54-5/30/54. Helen Allen comes to pick up Kathy and Robin and take them with her to her home in Miami Beach as Kathy decides she needs to get away. Dan shows up in Chicago, reveals himself to his brother, Paul, and asks for his help as a criminal attorney. Paul is reluctant to help out Dan so Dan reminds him that he’s responsible for his scarred face and Paul had a great life compared to Dan’s painful suffering. Papa and Bert urge Bill to stay in Los Angeles but Bill is reluctant based on his success in New York and his bad memories and fears of going back to alcohol in Los Angeles. Janet is presumptive enough to buy her own engagement ring, making Dick feel more trapped. -6/1/54-6/30/54. Joe figures out Dan might be the murderer and asks Peggy to turn him in. Peggy says she believes in Dan’s innocence and reminds Joe he felt the same about Meta after she killed someone. Sid tells Bill there’s no job for him in Los Angeles, only New York and Bill decides to stay in Los Angeles anyway due to his family. Mike continues to sass and when Mike mentions Bill’s drinking, Bill loses his temper. Mike keeps insisting Bill isn’t his father and Bert wants to send him to a child psychologist. Kathy comes back for Joey and Lois’ wedding. Paul, more worried about his own family and reputation, doesn’t want to help his brother Dan. Dan comes back to Los Angeles and sees Dr. Baird to thank him before he turns himself in. Dr. Baird tells Dan he’s finally turned into the man he would’ve been if he hadn’t been scarred. -7/1/54-7/30/54. Kathy goes on a date with Jim before she goes to New York City with Helen and Robin. The child psychologist meets with a reluctant Bill who suggests Bill and Bert need the counseling which angers Bill. Peggy goes to visit Dan in prison and he sets her free, telling her to get on with her life without him and tells him he won’t see her again. Dick wants to take a job in NYC and everybody thinks it’s because Kathy has moved there although Dick denies it. Dick is trying to get away from Janet because he doesn’t want to marry her. Bert gets psychoanalyzed by the psychologist which gets her finally thinking about her behavior. Dick gets up his nerve to tell Janet that he was never in love with her and doesn’t want to get married. Janet plays magnanimous, returns her engagement ring to Dick and tells him he doesn’t have to turn down Dr. Baird’s job offer and run off to New York to escape on her account. After he leaves, Janet vows to even the score. Bert thinks she might be pregnant. -8/2/54-8/30/54. Dick decides not to move to New York. He is disappointed to learn Dr. Baird gave his position to another man, Dr. Thompson. Bert tells Bill that they’re going to have another baby. Dan Peters gets sentenced to 20 years and Peggy accepts that she’ll never see him again. Jim and Kathy start dating. Mike is not happy that he’s going to have a baby sibling and continues to hate Bill. Bill takes Mike on a trip to San Francisco and it’s there that Mike begins to call Bill “Dad” again. -9/1/54-9/30/54. Kathy leaves Robin in NYC with Helen and comes back to paint Los Angeles red much to the concern of Meta who thinks she’s neglecting Robin and her responsibility. She confronts Kathy about the irresponsible life she’s now living and Kathy says it may be time for her to move out and live on her own. A pregnant and depressed Bert starts to envy Kathy’s new care-free life and wishes she never had gotten married. Dr. Bart Thompson, Dr. Baird’s new associate who got the job Dick wanted, automatically clashes with Dick. Mike continues to have behavioral problems. -10/1/54-10/31/54. Bill starts doing PR for Richard’s company. Richard and Bert try to get Dick and Kathy back together. With Dr. Baird in Europe, Bart makes Dick’s life even more of a hell which gives Janet a vengeful schadenfreude. Dick and Kathy have an awkward reunion at a medical fraternity dance and it stirs up old memories and feelings for both of them. -11/1/54-11/30/54. Jim tells Peggy that he’s in love with Kathy. Jim tells Bart to quit bullying Dick and lets him know he’s got his number. Dick starts to sink into a deep depression due to all his pressures. Bert prays a prayer of gratitude as she, Bill, Papa and Mike prepare to go over to the Roberts’ for Thanksgiving dinner. Jim tells Dick that he’s going to ask Kathy to marry him. -12/1/54-12/31/54. Dick starts to crack up. Kathy turns down Jim’s marriage proposal and Jim thinks it’s because she’s still in love with Dick. Dick freezes in surgery and Bart orders him out of the operating room. Dick goes missing. Bart tries to get his biological son, who doesn’t know Bart is his father, to come to Los Angeles. The Bauers celebrate Christmas. Ed Bauer is born on New Year’s Eve. -12/24/54. Papa, Bill, Bert and Michael celebrate Christmas as they anticipate the birth of the new baby. The Roberts have gone to San Francisco to be with Joey and Lois. -12/31/54. Ed Bauer is born. Joe, Meta and Kathy are worried about a missing Dick.

Yes, it was the first full year on TV. Only half of 1952 was on TV. The radio show and the TV show ran simultaneously until 1956 when the radio show ended. Well, Kathy kind of went in and out of the story for the time she was on the show. But, when she was IN the story, she tended to be the main focus. Meta's presence was more consistent and she was also a focal point so there can be a debate on who got the most story attention in the 50s. Well, technically, the Bauers were radio characters so one could say there was always a radio character on the show until Charita/Bert Bauer died. But, as far as the characters that began with "The New Guiding Light" reboot in 1947, yes, Ray and Charlotte were the last to go. I'd have to check, but I think the Brandons moved to NYC in February 1952 but I don't think they were in the story in 1952. I think it might have just been mentioned that they moved and they hadn't been in the story for a while. I'd have to double check. I know they didn't do a whole lot in 1951 except adopt two kids. They were in the story in 1951 but very sporadically.

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.