Bill Bauer

I remembered how disappointed I was with that 50th anniversary. It was pitiful. You're right. No returning characters, no in-show flashbacks. No real celebration. Just detached clips at the end of each episode that week and the actors seemed depressed while presenting them. And it was strange that it was in July and not in January on the actual anniversary. It was a low time for GL. I remember watching the Daytime Emmys that year and there was a camera shot of the GL table. They had a "50 years" sign on the table but that was the extent of an acknowledgement if I recall correctly. The actors even looked depressed at the table. The 60th anniversary and even the 70th anniversary were handled much better. I think the best anniversary show the soaps have ever done was ATWT's 30th. That's how an anniversary show (or week) should be done. Did soaps even do anniversary shows before that? I can't think of any before 1986 for any soap.

Thank you, Victoria!

Ah, Trish. The lost Lewis. Not only do I not think she reappeared after she left town, I don't even think she was mentioned again. Maybe when H.B. died.

Somebody in Alan's life needs to have a heart-to-heart with him. His idea was great. He just needed someone else to host. Everybody has different gifts and abilities.

You're welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I've said it before but I think Robert Gentry was the quintessential "Ed" but Mart Hulswit was definitely the most likable. I too wish they would have brought him back. I never liked Peter Simon and I thought Richard van Vleet was a bit of a miscast.

LOL. I mean in the fictional world of the story. I think by the time the show premiered on television, Bill and Bert had bought their own house and Papa was living with them. Well, she actually was very materialistic back then. It wasn't so much that she wanted her own house it was that she was pushing Bill to buy a house he couldn't afford in Beverly Hills. Bert had a lot more ambition than Bill. Bert was way too ambitious for her time. In today's world, she would have just gone out and got the things she wanted. Back then, though, the husband was the one who was supposed to be the go-getter. The problem with Bill and Bert's marriage is that she always wanted way more than Bill did. So she used her ambitious energy into pushing him. It was an interesting dynamic to a story that couldn't be told in 2020. Back then, a woman was expected to be just a supporting housewife. In today's world, Bert would probably become the CEO of a company. Because it was the late 40s/early 50s she just pushed Bill (instead of supporting him) because of her extreme ambition. They were extremely mismatched but loved each other on a certain level. Bert was actually more suited for Ted White back then and Bill even mentioned it. Bert loved Ted White's ambition and wealth. She didn't care that he was such an ass. Interestingly, even though they were siblings, Bill and Meta were much closer to each other and more compatible than Bill and Bert were. In fact, Bert was very jealous of Meta because of the closeness she had with Bill. And of course Meta was so unsuited for Ted that she wound up killing him. If they hadn't have been siblings, Bill and Meta would have been a better match and Ted and Bert would have been a better match.

I don't know for sure but I suspect that Papa and Mama's house didn't survive the transition from radio to TV. Just a guess.

Bill and Bert lived in Papa and Mama's house with Papa and Trudy. Although Bert hated it and was always wanting to move into her own house with Bill. She pushed Bill to buy a house they couldn't afford and borrow the money from his brother-in-law Ted. This caused a lot of financial stress on Bill and was one of the things that started his long battle with the bottle. After Ted was killed by Meta, Bill and Bert were forced to move back in with Papa Bauer in his house. Bert was not happy. They weren't in their new home for long. Just a few months. I don't know when they got their own permanent place. Probably when Mike was born in 1951.

I thought it was weird that he didn't know Katie was Casey and Lyla's daughter since she was such a huge character in the last decade or so but I guess that makes sense if he has poor pre-1997 knowledge since Katie didn't talk about her parents much. How sad to only have knowledge of the show after 1997 when it was at its worst.

Scott Bryce seems very likable and I loved him mentioning his dad who I loved as well.

Not really. It wasn't just about Rachel. By then, the quality of the show had already deteriorated too much. In my opinion. Just personal taste. Everybody likes different things. No, I wasn't a fan of Rachel ever. I couldn't stand her character in the 60s and early 70s and didn't like her even when the character became more likable and became the lead heroine. I just never liked the character. However, I don't mind characters I don't like as long as they are part of an ensemble and not the main focus. I'm funny that way. I couldn't stand Aunt Liz either but I liked her being a part of the ensemble. I felt the same about Rachel. I always wanted to lock Rachel and Liz together in a room and have them go at each other. Even though I hated both of them, I would love to watch that!

No other soap evokes such extreme feelings of like/dislike for me as Another World does. I absolutely love Another World's first ten years. It was soap opera at its best. I loved it as much as my other favorites (GL, ATWT and DOOL). However, when it went from an ensemble piece to The Rachel Show, I absolutely hated it and did hate it for the rest of its run. Those first ten years, though...Wow! Great stuff!

Thank you for sharing, Manny!

I actually never really liked any of the Snyders except Iva. Emma was ok though a bit annoying at times. You're right that Seth was dull and he was also very self-righteous. Meg was whiney and snide. Holden could be ok at times but was generally too shallow and opportunistic. Caleb and Ellie were the worst and both completely insufferable to me. I don't even consider Jack a real Snyder. Just a character they tacked the last name on to. But he was a dolt. You're right. ATWT continued that pattern with focusing on Tom and his family and letting Frannie and Sabrina fall by the wayside. GL did the same with focusing on Bill's family with Meta and Trudy fading away, then Ed's family and Mike and Hilary fading away (well, Mike fading away and Hilary blowing up), then Michelle leaving the show with her family and the focus being on Rick. Well, what little focus the Bauers had on them towards the end. What little there was, Rick had it.

Please don't apologize. Feel free to share and reshare anything you'd like from the early days of GL! Thank you for sharing.

I thought the actress playing Amanda was really good. She said a lot with her eyes.

Yes. And apparently living in Atlanta. My pleasure. I share what I can.

I much preferred the 15-minute format. 30 tops. The hour-long format just meant they had to add a lot of boring filler material and the cost of production for an hour-long show is what ultimately led to their demise. If the shows were still 15 minutes, they might still be on the air. Alas, you can't go back.

It's funny how Bert was so disapproving of her sister-in-law Meta and then disapproving of Meta's step-daughter Kathy and then disapproving of Kathy's daughter Robin. If Robin had had children, I wonder if Bert would have carried on the tradition. Heck, Bert was even disapproving of Meta's little son Chuckie who was a very sweet kid. When Bill was telling Bert how much Meta loved Chuckie, Bert replied, "Oh who could love that little boy?". She was really something else in her younger days. I think Leslie and Peggy filled Robin's role after she was gone.

I've only seen Abigail Kellogg and Gillian Spencer in the role. I preferred Abigail's version. She was acerbic and fun to watch. Gillian Spencer's version was more neurotic and manipulative. She was good too but I just preferred Abigail's version and I wish there were more surviving episodes with her in them. Robin wasn't being reverent with Bert because Bert didn't like Robin and tried to keep Mike and Robin apart. She was the one pushing to have the marriage annulled and one of the reasons Mike is leaving town in that episode is to get away from Bert. Bert was very judgmental and controlling back then.

Yes, viewers were upset because Robin was popular. Yes, it was Irna's writing. Irna made the rather impetuous decision to kill off the main female lead of the show (Kathy Holden) in 1958. It's been said Irna was angry at the actress for becoming pregnant. There was a huge angry protest by fans and Irna soon left the show. She came back to the show briefly in 1967 after Agnes Nixon left and made a similar arbitrary decision to kill off the main female lead of the show. It also happened to be the daughter of the previous female lead she had killed off a decade before and she killed her off in a similar manner (Kathy being knocked into oncoming traffic in her wheelchair by boys on bicycles and Robin throwing herself into traffic). There wasn't quite the outrage when Robin died as when Kathy died probably because Robin, though very popular, wasn't quite as popular as Kathy was. Also, by the time of her death, Robin wasn't the main focus of the show like Kathy was at the time of her death. Still, there were a lot of angry fans and Irna, once again, left soon after. It was a brief run the second time around for Irna. In fact, it was almost like she just came back, killed off Robin, pissed people off and left again. Her second tenure is mainly known for the unpopular decision to kill off Robin. She may have been "encouraged" to leave after that but I could be wrong about that. It's been a while since I read about it. I think the producers weren't happy with her decision and how it angered fans and that time around Irna didn't have the power with the show she once did. I think the producers were looking for new blood, new writers, new vision and the Robin decision gave them the impetus to make that happen. Also, Karl actually died because he hit his head on Meta's iron patio table when Mike hit him. That's how Mike was acquitted. Karl didn't die from the punch but from him hitting his head on the table. There's a scene from a 1960 episode where Papa Bauer is running his fingers along the rim of the table. That's why. That's also why Robin is surprised Mike wanted to talk to her out on the patio in that 1961 episode.

When did GL go to the Peapack model? I was watching an episode from 2007 and they were still using the old model with proper sets and everything. Does that mean they were only out in Peapack for like a year or two? It seems like it was way longer than that. GL had a long, slow deterioration but that deterioration accelerated really fast in the last year it seems. I don't know if it's really the fault of the writing (although that was certainly bad). I really think it was all about Peapack. That was just hard to watch.

I didn't watch GL growing up in the 70s and by the time I started watching the show she was on very sporadically. The vast majority of GL material I've watched/listened to is from the 50s and 60s and she was a bitch on wheels back then! I think she became more of a sympathetic character in the late 60s and grew into the sweet grandma type in the 70s. Now THIS is a reunion I can get behind! I so hope Alan doesn't drop the ball!

Thanks for the historical info. I'm not familiar with SFT but I was watching an episode recently where Janet was a little girl. I knew her father, Stu, remained a major character till the end so I was just wondering what ever happened to Janet.