Bill Bauer

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.

I'd be curious to know what happened to Natasha Ryan and what she looks like now. She wasn't just on Days but seemed to be everywhere in the 70s. I think she just disappeared. Update: Interesting. The only information I could find about Natasha was this weird bio. "Weird" because it reads like whoever wrote it was high at the time of its writing and seems to shift from first to third person with every other sentence. From what I can gather, she had a rough life. Homeless at 14? Kicked out by her foster parents (who probably pushed her into acting). Who knows what the real story is. http://snowtig.blogspot.com/2008/05/natasha-ryan-aka-ex-hope-as-child.html

Why not? Just curious.

I could be wrong, but I think that Nick and Frank were both gone by the time Marland came on board (I don't remember any other Andropolouses) and he probably would have gotten rid of Steve right away but had to phase him out slowly because he had been such a fan favorite. You could tell Marland didn't like the character because he really assassinated the character. Steve really didn't seem to fit in with the new Marland ATWT. I think his character got the shaft and I always felt sorry for him. I liked the character but it's interesting that nobody seemed to care that he was so unceremoniously written out of the story when he and Betsy were the stars of the show just a few years before that.

This was the best one I've seen. Nobody talking over each other, few technical glitches, fewer dumb questions, only two interviewees and both interviewees seemed into it. The Ellen Dolan/Scott Holmes should have been good but it didn't seem like either one of them wanted to be there. Maybe it's a personality thing. Michael and Margaret both have fun personalities.

I've only had one video blocked which was a Y&R episode. I'm just getting nervous because I'm unclear on what I can and cannot publish, people keep speculating the channel will be taken down and I don't want my channel completely taken down. I was surprised the Y&R episode was blocked because the only warning I was initially given was that I couldn't monetize it. So, I've only privatized my Y&R and DOOL episodes since they are still in production and those shows seem to take things down regularly. A youtube search almost never reveals complete episodes of Y&R and DOOL but there are plenty of complete episodes of ATWT and GL. So I'm thinking it has to do with the shows still being in production. Hence why I privatized the Y&R and DOOL episodes even though I hadn't had any of my DOOL eps blocked yet. Better safe than sorry. The rules are just too ambiguous and I don't want to lose everything. It's a shame. I enjoyed sharing.

I'm the owner of the channel but I'm probably going to make it private. I wanted to share my collection but I'm getting so many warnings of it being shut down (from people who are watching it) that I will probably just make it private again. A few of the videos had copyright claims, mainly due to music, but it said that it was either blocked in certain regions or I couldn't monetize it. That's fine. I wasn't going to monetize the copyrighted material. It didn't say I couldn't make the video public. But now I'm getting so many comments from people saying they don't expect the channel to be up for long that I'm getting nervous. I don't want to lose my channel.

Yes. One of the two major families when The Guiding Light started was Jewish. The Kranskys. I think Irna's fascination with Christianity came less from the networks and sponsors than it did from a positive relationship she had with a Christian minister who helped her when she got pregnant by a married man and lost her baby (a theme that would run throughout her work). I'm not sure how the relationship started. There's just mention of it in her biographical material. I don't think she ever became a Christian but she did "flirt" with the faith through her writings. I think Sigmund Freud would have loved Irna. That's an unfortunate freeze frame. Looks like a scene from The Exorcist.

Oh. Ok. I was in Y&R mode and thinking Jennifer Brooks.

What happened with Jennifer falling into the glass. I can't find anything about that but it sounds kind of familiar.

No, I don't remember that. This was pre VCR and I was a kid going to school so if it didn't happen in the summertime I probably didn't see it. I'm actually amazed at the things I do remember. Even things that didn't happen in the summertime. I'm thinking either I never went to school or they used a lot of flashbacks back then. Wow. That's just...strange. On so many levels.

I'd like to see it again too. It's mind-boggling to me why Y&R and DOOL kept every episode they ever made just to let them sit around and collect dust. They should make them available to the public. Surely there's a market. It would be better than nobody seeing all those episodes. What's the point? Everybody laments the fact that so many soap episodes of shows like ATWT and GL were not saved but what's the point of having saved ones if nobody gets to see them?

It's amazing how much Ruth Warrick remembers about a storyline so long ago! I contrast it with the interviews Alan Locher is doing on youtube where the actors don't seem to remember anything. Kathryn Hays didn't even remember that she played Leslie Bauer on GL!

That's a very real possibility. After all, I saw the scene in the 70s as a child. All I do remember for sure is Lorie angrily slamming the piano key cover on Leslie's fingers while she was playing. I don't remember anyone else in the scene. If I remember correctly, Lorie was yelling at Leslie and Leslie was playing the piano louder to drown her out and that's when Lorie slammed the covering on her fingers. The only thing that makes me think it wasn't a fantasy and the door scenario is wrong is the fact that I have the episode where Leslie is playing her first concert after the incident and somebody remarks about how good it was that her fingers healed in time. Leslie gives Lorie a knowing look and Lorie looks very guilty. If it had been an accident, I don't get where the accusatory look and the guilty look would come into play. I also think I would remember the door scene since I remember the piano key covering scene. Both would be impressionable and I was watching every day at that time. Even though i'm going on a very old memory, my gut tells me that synopsis above is wrong. I've noticed that in other synopses over the years. Things are just wrong sometimes. And no, it wasn't explained away as an accident. Lorie was remorseful and Leslie forgave her but it was clearly no accident. I think Leslie told others it was an accident to let Lorie off the hook. My sister also remembers the piano key covering scene and doesn't remember a door scene.

I remember seeing this scene. She didn't slam a door on her fingers. She slammed the covering of the piano keys down on her fingers while she was playing the piano. She definitely did it on purpose. She did it violently on purpose in a fit of jealous rage. That description above is strangely wrong.

Alan should just use his connections and get someone else to do the actual interviews. These reunions are a great idea but they’re mostly wasted with missed opportunities, annoying interruptions and dumb questions. I agree with someone who said that the interviewees actually ask better questions than the interviewer.

I guess Locher is proof that’s it’s not ALWAYS about who you know.

Only in soaps can a meth-addicted pornstar be called "vanilla". LOL. But I get what you're saying. The character did calm down quite a bit towards the end. I actually thought Marnie did a great job of acting when she first came on as one in her meth/porn phase but her character radically changed throughout the time that Marnie played her and Marnie did a good job of playing "both" characters.

People were asking for the Coopers? Just more proof that we all live in different worlds. Irna was right.