Bill Bauer

9 minutes ago, Darn said:

 

Marie? Marie Osmond? In 2020?

If 2020 needs anything, it's a good dose of 70s cheese.

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

Unshackled was broadcast a few months before The Archers, but its volume of episodes is much less. The Archers has produced over 19,000 episodes so far while Unshackled has produced just over 3,600.

 

But runtime on Unshackled is 30 mins, while The Archers is 12 (formerly 15) mins.

Also, isn't Unshackled weekly while The Archers is daily?

12 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I'm wondering if Alan is afraid of what Eileen would say in a live reunion..since he's all about how it looks instead of the real going onstage backstage.

 

13 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I'm wondering if Alan is afraid of what Eileen would say in a live reunion..since he's all about how it looks instead of the real going onstage backstage.

 

That's a massive possibility. Eileen didn't have much of a filter even in her younger years (when people's filters are stronger) and Alan, as a PR man, is ALL ABOUT the filter. 

8 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

Yes, Unshackled still produces new content (though I believe they’ve cancelled some recent shows due to the pandemic).

 

In many ways, if you try to ignore the religion overtones/propaganda (unless that’s what appeals to you of course), it can be a pretty damn compelling show and it’s produced the same way as the old radio soaps were to this day - with a live organist and all! 

Well, I'm a Christian so I didn't mind the spiritual aspect but I never got really into it (even though I love OTR) because I'm more into the serial format and Unshackled was anthological. I just am surprised it's still in production. I wonder if it rivals The Archers at this point for radio drama longevity. 

2 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

Thanks! In this era where TV/Film productions have shut down due to the pandemic, it would be so easy and safe to do a radio/audio production remotely.

 

Too bad this type of storytelling has all but died in North America.
 

Though I know the Christian radio drama Unshackled is still in production and going strong...

Unshackled is still in production? I'm literally shocked by that news. I thought it was reruns I was listening to 20 years ago!

23 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

 

 

I'm not sure that Irna had much to do  with Days beyond some early involvement years before the show debuted. Wasn't there a lawsuit from Ms Phillips over ownership of the show?

Wikipedia has her listed as "story editor" for Days but doesn't list what years. I think I had read that she was pretty involved in Days at the beginning but kept a low profile. I would imagine she gave Bill Bell the ideas for stories and then let him go with it.

By the way, I'm probably the only person in the entire world who would care (especially in 2020) but that article is wrong in the way they describe Ted's shooting. Ted and Meta weren't having an "hysterical argument" at all. In fact, just the opposite. Meta was pretty calm and cold when she shot Ted. 

21 hours ago, Brolden said:

 

I wonder who will be on next week. Sounds like Alan hasn't had any luck tracking down Eileen.

I wonder how hard he's tried. She has a fan page on Facebook and I can't imagine that the person who runs that is not in contact with Eileen. 

On 5/2/2020 at 1:10 PM, jam6242 said:

From April 1951.  The storyline sounds very similar to the one Bill Bell wrote for Susan Martin on Days of Our Lives (absent the fans being the jury).  Did he ever write for the radio version of GL?

 

 

Thanks for sharing this! I'm currently listening to Meta's trial and I was going to try and find out what the results of the poll was through research. I have about a year's worth of episodes from that time and the announcer talks about the poll but the episodes end before the final verdict is announced. 

I believe Irna was a consultant for Days of Our Lives in the beginning which would explain why her favorite storyline reappeared on that show. Irna had an affair with a married man, got pregnant and the child died. She would write that scenario over and over again in various ways on different shows. A lot of the time, after the child died, the woman would kill the father of the baby. This might have been Irna's way of processing what happened to her with a bit of fantasy of what she would have liked to have done. It was always an "illegitimate" child. Sometimes it would die (Rose Kransky, Meta Bauer, Pat Matthews, Susan Martin), sometimes the child would be given up for adoption and then retrieved by birth mother (Ellen Lowell, Julie Olsen, Meta Bauer), sometimes the mother would kill the biological father(Meta Bauer, Pat Matthews, Susan Martin), sometimes she would marry the adoptive father (Ellen Lowell, Julie Olson). Then you had the theme of a woman being a pariah because she was in love with a married man (Rose Kransky, Janet Matthews, Edith Hughes).  Of course, there are probably a lot more example of those themes going through Irna's writings but those are the major ones that come to mind. Anyway, I believe Irna was a consultant for Days in it's early years and that seems pretty evident in the repeat themes that Irna loved. 

On 1/12/2018 at 3:19 PM, zanereed said:

 

If you are talking about the radio version, that cast differed greatly until 1948, when the Bauers were introduced. The original central characters/family in the first 10 years of the show were the Ruthledges and the Holdens.

There was never really a "Holden family". Ned was a Holden but he was a part of the Ruthledge family. The show was mainly about the Ruthledges and the Kranskys in the first ten years. 

On 1/17/2018 at 11:22 AM, zanereed said:

Mike Bauer wasn't a "good guy" initially, either. He married Robin Lang while still a teenager (it was later annulled), which inadvertently led to the death of Karl Jannings. When he was in his early 20's, Mike  pressured Julie Conrad into having sex before marriage (which she waiting for). He got Julie pregnant with Hope, but wanted Julie to give the baby up for adoption as he didn't want anything interfering in the pursuit of his law degree. Basically, Mike wasn't very noble with his attitude towards women at this point in his life.

 

Of course, later on Mike had the infamous affair with Leslie Bauer while Leslie was still married to Ed. He had a rather chauvinistic attitude when Leslie wanted to return to college. He had another affair with Elizabeth Spaulding Marler while she was married to Justin.

 

In my mind, both Mike and Ed Bauer both had their own issues. I just think Mike was probably the more stable of the two brothers.

 

The other thing I thought of after watching some shows from 1979 last night - I wonder why they never tried pairing Mike Bauer and Sara McIntyre at all?

Don't forget fooling around with his crippled friend's wife over in Bay City. 

I’ve always found it strange how Y&R has always pretended like its first ten years never happened. 

On 5/8/2020 at 11:05 AM, Soaplovers said:

I forgot about the Julie/Frank/Eleni story...it had a slow build and potential...but was quickly dropped (due to writer changes probably).

 

GL had several strong years (1975 to 1984, and 1989 to 1993...1988 was an interesting year..the rebuilding year) that I think we all took for granted.  And it looked like 1997 and 2002 were going to be the start of another strong series of years...but alas no.

 

I was recently watching some GL from 1997 and I forgot how great the show was at that time. Did it lose steam shortly after that? I don't recall. I watched very infrequently back then. Ironically, I watched daily in one of it's worst times (the mid to late 80s). I should have watched it daily more in the 90s. 

Lemay was such a weird writer. He did such good things in his writing for both AW and the Matthews family and then seemed to intentionally gut it all by the time he left. All of these soaps seemed to take the same course. AW went from being about the Matthews family to being about Rachel. GL went from being about the Bauer family to being about Reva. ATWT went from being about the Hughes family to being about Carly. AMC went from being about the Martin family to being about Erica. As a person who loves family drama, I never liked that trend. Nor understood it. I guess they were trying to appeal to their largely female audience members who could relate to a central female character. That always made the shows boring to me. What made soaps great was the ensemble aspect of them. Besides, I hated Rachel, Reva, Carly and Erica. 

On 5/2/2020 at 2:13 PM, titan1978 said:

 

I can see the criticism of Marland.  I sometimes find his ATWT stilted when I watch it on YouTube.  I see why people loved it, but I also feel a disconnect to it.  Especially the latter years, 1990 and beyond.  When I started watching GL on YouTube from the same time period, I fell in love with almost every character.  ATWT did not have the same effect on me. 

The 80s was ATWT's decade, the 90s GL's. 

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

From what I remember Susan and Kim were both written in a very juvenile way in their feud scenes, which was out of character for Kim. What do you expect with hacks though.

 

Anyway...

 

 

I didn’t even watch ATWT when Grant was originally on but I still thought it was weird that they made him a suspicious character when they brought him back. Like it was possible that he would be trying to kill Lisa or drive her crazy or whatever. He was an established good guy for many years on the show. 

11 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

What is everyone's thoughts on Brock/Emily? 

 

I know that tango scene between the 2 was HOT!

Melanie Smith had so much sex appeal, she would’ve had chemistry with Pa Hughes. 

On 1/9/2020 at 3:08 PM, jam6242 said:

From 1949.

 

I believe Vera Allen went on to play Granny Matthews on Another World.

2 hours ago, denzo30 said:I thought Hugh Marlow was an awful actor..  

He really, really was. He delivered every line exactly the same way. Like he was announcing sports scores. 

2 hours ago, denzo30 said:

I thought Hugh Marlow was an awful actor..  

I have trouble remembering who wrote what but I do remember his writing was very uneven. Things were either excellent or horrible with not much in between. I am probably in the minority with this opinion and I’m not even sure he wrote it but, if he did, my favorite storyline of his was the Rose murder mystery. It got rid of of Rose, which was a plus for me, but I loved that he made Will the killer. Most whodunnits on soaps are big letdowns because the killer is always some background, disposable character. Never a main character, never a member of a main family and never a kid. Sheffer broke all three of those “rules”. It was a great mystery with a good, and shocking payoff.

On 9/9/2019 at 6:30 AM, Dr Neil Curtis said:

John H. Martin as Dr. Bill Horton. Though briefly, he did well as Tom and Alice’s youngest son. He had good chemistry with the cast. If they ever decide to bring back Bill, John should be the one. 

I couldn’t agree more! He was great as Bill. He seemed like he belonged on the show. I bought that he had a long history on the show and with the cast even though he was only on for a few episodes. I find it extremely bizarre that they haven’t brought him back to join the cast on a long-term basis. Days really has a problem writing stories for men in that age category, though (these days). I guess that may be the reason. 

On 8/19/2019 at 10:22 PM, Khan said:

Irna had this habit of killing off characters whose performers displeased her in rather gruesome ways.  Didn't she want to kill off Liz by setting her nightgown on fire, because Liz's portrayer had appeared nude in some movie?

I think I heard that too. She killed her off in another morbid but creative way when she fell up the stairs. 

On 8/6/2019 at 8:29 AM, Paul Raven said:

 

 

Looking over synopses, 1967 seems to be a tough year in Oakdale, Both Doug Cassen and his son Neil Wade died, leaving Claire and Penny widows for the second time.

Also Sara Fuller, Bill Holmes and Joan Rogers died in that year.

Irna must have been in a morbid mood...

Must have been. That was the same year she had lead character Robin Fletcher kill herself by throwing herself in front of a truck on Guiding Light. But Irna was always very morbid. Ten years earlier, she had Robin’s mother, Kathy, killed when, confined to a wheelchair, she was knocked into oncoming traffic by kids on bicycles. 

On 5/29/2019 at 7:05 PM, Gray Bunny said:

Oh wow, lots to watch here  

 

I always enjoyed CBS Sunday Morning's 2002 tribute to Guiding Light when it turned 50 years (on TV): 

 

 

 

Yeah, lots of good rare footage of classic. GL. I wonder what Bert was crying about in the beginning. That organ music is life. 

On 7/4/2019 at 9:29 AM, NothinButAttitude said:

 

But Meta never lived in Five Points and never knew Rev. Ruthledge. I guess I’d be one of the few that would know that or care. 

On 7/6/2019 at 9:51 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

For me, I hated the Iva/Kirk/Ellie quasi-triangle (ATWT), the entire thing didn't work. 

Kirk and Iva had unbelievable chemistry and it was ruined for Kirk and Ellie who ended up being a short-term couple that frankly, never truly worked.  I think TPTB thought Kirk and Ellie would be a hip, cool 90s kind of couple but it lacked the wit, zest and heat that Kirk and Iva had.  

And having Kirk pretty much abandon Iva, at a particularly low point in her life and get with Ellie without so much as a breather made both Ellie and Kirk look like jerks in the process.

 

Ellie and Kirk WERE jerks, in my opinion. I couldn’t stand either character. 

On 7/4/2019 at 1:27 PM, Khan said:

Two other good ones from ATWT: Bob/Jennifer/Kim and Dan/Kim/Susan.

 

Also: Tara/Phil/Chuck (AMC).

What about Paul/Liz/Dan from ATWT?

On 7/5/2019 at 12:05 PM, SoapDope said:

Bill Bell also redid stories from when he wrote Days on Y&R. 

 

What stories did Irna redo ? 

Irna loved to do the good family with a scandalous aunt who was having an affair with a married man (Edith Hughes ATWT, Janet Matthews AW), the young woman having a child out of wedlock (rare story back then, common now) and having the child die (Rose Kransky GL, Meta Bauer GL, Pat Matthews AW) or be given up for adoption and then reclaimed (Chuckie White GL, Dan Stewart ATWT) and then the mother shooting and killing the father of her baby (Ted White GL, Tom Baxter AW). The Susan/David/Dickie story on Days fits several of these categories which makes me think Irna had a hand in that storyline even though she’s listed as “Story Editor” during that time and not Headwriter. There’s also the same story of adoptive mothers dying and adoptive fathers marrying biological mothers (Ellen/David/Betty Stewart ATWT, Julie/Scott/Janet Banning DOOL). Again, makes me think Irna had a bigger hand in the early days of Days than she is credited for. 

On 6/19/2019 at 1:05 AM, NothinButAttitude said:

 

That's odd. But then again that seems like the stance on the Bauer clan at that time with the exception of Rick and Johnny. 

 

But why didn't the writers just tie Johnny/Lacie to Meta or Trudy instead of creating this whole new branch of Bauers that the audience knew didn't exist instead? That would've been the more logical route. 

Yes, it would have been more logical but I think the reasoning with the writers at the time might have been; to be a “Bauer”, they had to have the last name “Bauer’”. That couldn’t have been done with the off-spring of Meta and Trudy. I honestly believe that they heard the audience cry of “We need more Bauers!” at the time and thought the only way to answer that was to bring on more characters with the last name “Bauer” even though they would have to reach far across the family tree to do so. They just didn’t get the fans’ love of the history of the show. The love was for the family who had been the focus of the show for decades, not for the surname “Bauer”.