Bill Bauer

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.

I'm far more acquainted with the Bert Bauer of the 50s and 60s than the Bert Bauer of the 70s and 80s so it always throws me to hear Bert described that way. Helen Wagner would bring up the fact that Nancy was meddlesome and controlling in her younger days a lot in her interviews. I think she liked playing that aspect of Nancy. It gave her an edge. Did the Dobsons write ATWT from 1980-1984? Because, to me, those four years more than any other years of the show's entire history seemed to stray the farthest from the overriding tone of the show. I'm not saying worse or better, just different. And kind of weird.

Thank you.

Ugh. I forgot about Beau. He was awful. He definitely would have fit in better in early 90s ATWT. Maybe he was a foretaste of things to come. I always thought he was just as creepy as his psycho sister Laura. Maybe more.

Interesting. I've never seen the story bible. Where did you see it? All the story synopses that I've seen says she was struck by lightening so maybe Irna did change it. She probably wanted to make it more of a freak accident because Irna LOVED death by freak accident (Liz Stewart falling up the stairs, Kathy Holden in her wheelchair being knocked into oncoming traffic by boys on bicycles, Frank Collins losing control of his wheelchair on wet pavement and going off a cliff, etc.). So they could have changed it from the story bible or the historical summaries got it wrong (although that would be a very strange and creative error). We'll probably never know for sure since probably none of us saw the episodes where they talked about it and the episodes were only aired once and didn't survive. I know Susan Hughes was discussed by Christopher Hughes after Nancy died. He mentioned how hard it was on Nancy when she died. But he didn't say how she died. Or maybe he said she drowned. I don't remember. I thought it was cool that Susan got a mention after 50 years. I wonder if they ever mentioned her in between. I remember a scene between Nancy and Lisa when Lisa was depressed about John humiliating her and Nancy reminded her that nothing is as bad as losing a child. I thought it was a veiled reference to Susan and Chuckie. And then there's this that makes it even more ambiguous: https://www.soapcentral.com/atwt/whoswho/susanh.php They make it a point to say she was diving into the pool which would make it sound like a head injury but then mention it was during a violent thunderstorm which would indicate the lightening scenario is right. Otherwise, what difference would it make that there was a violent storm? Maybe while she was diving into the pool she got struck by lightening and then hit her head and died? Sounds like it was definitely her time to go.

Yeah, it was a freak accident. Susan was a child so she probably didn't know how dangerous it was?

Very minor point but Susan Hughes didn't drown. She was struck by lightening while swimming which is what killed her.

For any SFT historians out there, what happened to Janet Bergman? It's really hard to find any information on SFT.

Morgan seems like a very likable guy.

There is just as much (if not more) film and TV production in Atlanta as there is in Los Angeles and definitely more than NYC.

As much as I love the Hughes family, I thought they were always kind of boring and stuffy from the very beginning when compared to other soap families. I much preferred the Bauers and Hortons.

Is Marland responsible for Rosanna, the Kasnoffs, Connor and Linc? Because all of that seemed VERY different from the rest of his writing back in the 80s. In my opinion, it's like a bunch of one dimensional, boring characters that had no real connection to the rest of the characters invaded Oakdale and that sort of would have Marland breaking all of his "rules". I know everybody has different taste but I, personally, couldn't stand most of the characters that the early to mid 90s brought. Even Carly who everyone seemed to love. I couldn't stand her.

Personal taste is highly subjective but it's hard to believe even Rapeleye believed that.

I don't understand why they got rid of Abby. Are you saying the actress chose to leave? I agree in time she could have become a tentpole character and she and Rick were a good couple. I really liked her and she was proof that you could be a sweet character without being boring.

I forgot what an annoying character Calla was. I can't look at her without thinking of syphilis.

I agree with what you wrote. I think AW was gutted when they killed off Mary Matthews and the show, in my opinion, lost its core. I'm not opposed to tragic, untimely deaths of matriarchs and patriarchs since that happens in life and I think soaps are best when they mirror real life but if the writers use the death as a symbolic way to move focus away from the core family then I am very much against it. So, I was actually ok with them killing off Maureen because it was good drama and I never really liked the character that much (neither Dolan's nor Parker's version) but not at the expense of gutting the Bauer family any more than it had been. I think the problem is that Ed was never very patriarchal (outside of Hulswit's version). If he had been, the loss of that "moral compass" would have been less of a problem. You haven't seen the old episode where Bert baptizes herself the "slut of Selby Flats"?

I agree that 1986 was his best year and that he petered out by the 90s. There were a few really good things in the early 90s but a lot of it was terrible. Around 1986, in my opinion, EVERYTHING was good! Still, 90s Marland was far better than anything that came after. I don't think Marland and Calhoun were too far in the closet. I wouldn't know but I highly suspect everyone in the industry knew and since very few people outside the industry would even know who they were (unlike actors) there wouldn't be much need to be closeted.

Did he even have a storyline? I couldn't tell you a single thing he did but polish riding saddles.

That's a VERY unpopular opinion but I agree with it.

I don't think P&G or CBS had the nerve to pull the plug so they called Ellen Wheeler in to do it for them.

Thank you for that, Jam. That's more coherent but still a strange story. I wonder what really went down with her and her foster family. I know it's hard to judge by one photograph but she looks traumatized in the photo they used for the article. It's kind of sad. She was such a cute kid and it seemed like she was everywhere in the 70s. Maybe she just happened to appear on the shows and movies I watched and loved. I remember her in things like Days of Our Lives, Sybil and Kingdom of the Spiders. Which says a lot about the kind of kid I was.

Count me as a part of the last group. Although I thought the 90s were great for GL, I consider "the beginning of the end" to be that 1983-1984 time period. That's when the foundation of the show was compromised. It just took a while to completely collapse.