Bill Bauer

5 hours ago, Nicholas Blair said:

I never saw Barbara Berjer's Claire on ATWT, but I seem to recall reading that Irna said because Claire had committed adultery, TPTB wouldn't allow a divorce and remarriage, which Irna had wanted, so Irna either had to make Claire suffer or kill her off, and chose to kill her off. It would make sense to use a more popular actress on GL.

If GL wanted to give Barbara Norris a romantic interest--which they would do, with Robert Milli as Adam Thorpe--perhaps they thought Barbara Berjer projected a less matronly and more appealing image than Augusta Dabney. That's how I would see the two.

So this appears to be another double switch like Lynne Adams to TSS and Barbara Rodell to GL?

 

I think you're confusing Claire with her husband Jim. Jim was having an affair with Edith Hughes and Irna wanted to have Jim leave Claire for Edith but the censors wouldn't have it. So, Irna decided to kill off Jim Lowell in a boating accident. Claire never committed adultery. She just had husbands cheat on her (Jim with Edith, Michael with Lisa). 

1 hour ago, Frank2803 said:

I never understood the Henry love on ATWT.

The constant overacting and mugging was too much 

He was the Michael O' Leary of ATWT. Always overestimating his comedic talent. 

While I would welcome an Eileen Fulton interview in the Locker Room, I fear that it would just be a wasted opportunity. I just imagine the interview thus:

Alan: So what was it like working with Van Hansis? 

Eileen: I never worked with him. 

Alan: That's crazy! So what did you watch during lockdown? 

11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

The timeline here has always confused me.

When did Claire die on ATWT? Did Barbara Berjer immediately go to GL as she was popular and they felt she would be an asset as Barbara and decided to drop Augusta?

 

Claire died in January 1971 and Barbara Berjer started as Barbara Norris the same month. 

3 hours ago, Mitch said:

Lord..more then one person saying they liked RVF as Ed..the world has gone MAD!!  I never like PS, I know he is a good actor but he comes across as so..disinterested and cold.  I heard they tried to get MH back but I just can't see Rauch and MADD and that group wanting to bring back a "fat" guy!

Oh, I never said I liked RVF. I actually didn't like him at all. I just preferred him over Peter Simon. That's not saying much though. 

I couldn't stand Peter Simon. I actually have a bad physical reaction when he pops up on screen. I'm not entirely sure why. I actually prefer Richard van Vleet and that's saying a lot!

13 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I know. It was weird. I was thrilled to hear that Gentry was returning to TGL, because I really had liked him as Ed Bauer, but throughout his brief comeback, something just did not feel right. He no longer fit the part. (God knows he was better than Richard Van Fleet, however.)

Maybe Gentry just plays angry son better than he does concerned father. 

2 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

For 28 years, I always referred to Peter Simon on The Guiding Light, as "the fake Ed Bauer," LOL.

Although many viewers seem to embrace the low-brow camp storytelling style being foisted on modern-day soaps, I loathe it with every fiber of my being.

I much preferred Laura with Scotty over Laura with that slug, Luke, on General Hospital.

Speaking for myself only, I'd I'd rather see the remaining shows cancelled than watching them be further and further decimated and decapitated.

Although he is regarded as a legend, I think Harding Lemay's writing took a noticeable nosedive in about 1975.

I think Paul Rauch did not understand the soap opera medium and its audience, and does not deserve the kudos he's given. Ultimately, he was a destructive producer.

For several decades, many nominees and winners of the Daytime Emmys have not been deserving.

Several cancelled soaps deserve to be on the air today, instead of some of the ones still being produced and broadcast.

Not surprisingly, I whole-heartedly agree with all of your points. The only point I only slightly disagree with is point four. I would keep Days on but only because it's a sentimental favorite, I love longevity (it's strangely comforting knowing it's always there even if I don't watch it), and hope springs eternal that it might somehow, miraculously be good again (even though it hasn't been good in over three decades IMO). I guess it's like having a loved one on life support for a very long time but not being able to bring yourself to pull the plug. I feel the same about Y&R to a lesser degree. I couldn't care less about GH or B&B.

57 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

My favorite Ed Bauer is Mart Hulswit, but Robert Gentry was excellent in the role during the 1960s.

Robert Gentry was my favorite Ed from what little I saw of him but I just recently watched his return in the 90s and the magic was gone. It was strange. He just didn't seem to fit. Something was off. 

Although I don't feel qualified to have this opinion since I never really watched AMC, I agree with the above posts about Erica Kane/Susan Lucci. From what little I saw, both Erica and Susan seemed overhyped and overrated. Both the character and the actress seemed like one-trick ponies. 

I'm full of unpopular opinions because I'm usually quick to notice when the emperor has no clothes. However, one opinion I've really developed in my current rewatching of ATWT is that Scott Defreitas is a horrible actor. I think he's just a sentimental favorite because he grew up on the show and played the character so long. He had "moments" of good acting but, for the most part, he was very stiff and in some scenes his acting is downright laughable. 

39 minutes ago, Broderick said:

The Goutman interview wasn't bad.  (Sometimes it's interesting to hear from a person who's universally reviled, lol.)  But the dude asking the questions was horrid.  He didn't seem capable of asking even the most fundamental follow-up questions.   Goutman mentioned that CBS and P&G had "differing views about some issues".   Most interviewers would then ask, "Which issues?  Can you elaborate?", or something to that effect.  Locher said, "Oh, so they didn't play nice in the sandbox.  Wow.  Crazy.  Hmmm", or something, and just let it go.  He did that with 90% of the questions, as though he didn't even listen to Goutman's response. 

He's always been that way. That's his style. Apparently nobody in his life has pointed this out to him. It's very frustrating. He's a PR guy, not a trained interviewer. He doesn't seem very bright and just likes to see himself on camera.  He seems very self-absorbed and people who are that way have trouble thinking about other people and what would matter to them. In this case, if it's not interesting to him, he won't pursue the line of questioning even though it would be interesting to most people watching. If it has to do with him, he's very eager to talk about it. For example, an actor could be telling a story about meeting with a producer to talk about the show in a certain restaurant and Alan will get wide-eyed and enthusiastically break into the story, "Oh my God! I used to eat there all the time. That's crazy!". 

Deidre Hall was a GREAT actress in the 70s and 80s. I think she just stopped trying somewhere along the way and kind of went into autopilot. 

10 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

My pleasure. As you know, I can babble on ENDLESSLY about my beloved soaps of yore, LOL!

I don't think Edith or John were even referenced. Like when Papa Bauer passed away on TGL, no one mentioned Trudy. It would have made sense for the show to mention Penny, considering how hugely popular she had been, and how much the audience remembered her and wanted to see her again, but if Penny did get a mention, I did not hear it.

I guess this proves that even in the golden age of soaps they still were guilty of not honoring history. 

16 minutes ago, danfling said:

However, at some time in the 1980s (after I had stopped watching the show), Judge Lowell was brought to the show.     Later, the actor did pass away.    Was there any acknowledgement of the judge's death?

 

Judge Lowell never made it to the 80s. The last year the character was on the cast list is 1978 or maybe 1979. I don't think he was seen much in the few years prior to that. He was most definitely not on the show in the 80s. 

5 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

 

Some are excited about the interview. Saying it's going to be great. I replied that it would be a softball interview.

I find it hard to believe people are excited about the interview. I don't think anybody but hardcore ATWT/soap fans would even know who he was and all of us hate him. 

1 hour ago, BoldRestless said:

I'm not sure if you all have seen this, but I came across this collection of 96 radio episodes of GL from 1950!

https://archive.org/details/1950-11-24-886-bill-gloria-talk/1950-07-26+-+797)+Stays+with+Charlotte.mp3 

 

Edit: Another set of 100 episodes

https://archive.org/details/otr_guidinglight 

Those are the same episodes. I guess they were just posted by different people. There are 197 consecutive episodes from 1950/1951 that we are VERY lucky to have. It was one of the best times for GL (if not the best). 

I loved Claire Beckman and wish she would have stayed on the show longer, but her version of Sabrina was very different. Not as dark and ambiguous as Julianne Moore's version. 

I can't believe that photo of all the Christina/Blakes exists. I can't believe someone (other than a big fan of the show) would think to take the photo. I can't believe they cared enough to find Cheryl Brown. And I can't believe they were able to get them all together for the photo. It's very cool. I wonder what happened to Cheryl Brown? It looks she hasn't acted since she was a child according to her imdb page. 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

I would've loved to have been able to write a proper ending for Lisa. As one of the longest-running characters in all of daytime television, it still strikes me as sad that her character was so disregarded.

I think they should have had her remarry Grant and leave Oakdale with him. That would have been a more fitting ending than John and Lucinda laughing at her and her just standing there looking hurt as happened in her final scene. But then, everything was so depressing about the show in the end, I guess it fit. 

1 minute ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Was Lisa still known as Grimaldi at the end of the series? For some reason that always struck me as strange. Eduardo had been deceased for how many years by then? I don't think Lisa ever stuck with a last name for that long. In a bizarre way, it was as if her identity no longer matter towards the end of the show's run anyway. They weren't writing for her, she was shunted off to the side, almost as if she were a non-person.  

I really can't believe she stuck with the show considering how badly they treated her to the very end. She was neglected and disrespected for at least the last ten years of the show. Perhaps longer. 

14 hours ago, P.J. said:

I could understand Susan retaining Stewart---it was her professional name, and the era in which she divorced, women commonly kept their husband's surname. I know I wouldn't have known who "Susan Burke" was prior to her eighties return. And while it's a trifle odd that the show used Stewart for Alison, in essence, she was entitled to it, as Emily was her biological mother.

Kim certainly never went back to Sullivan after her myriad of divorces and widowhoods.

Right. It's not odd for a divorced woman to retain her ex-husband's surname but why didn't she retain McDermott? Why go back a couple of husbands? 

46 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

That's down to the absolutely ridiculous aging of Dan Stewart. He was Bob's contemporary in age by the late '60s. 

Yes it was ridiculous but he seemed more like Tom's contemporary than Bob's. Wasn't he coming out of med school around the same time Tom was in Vietnam? Of course, Tom's aging was ridiculous as well. I just always thought of David being Bob's contemporary in age, not Dan. 

11 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Every parent was pretty much a deadbeat by the last decade of the show, .

LOL. Very true!

5 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Did Allison cut ties with her father? I don't remember whether that was discussed or not. The writing was so bad for teenage Allison. The writing for just about everyone was subpar by then though.

 

Yes. If I remember correctly, she was mad at Larry for cheating on Susan and being a deadbeat dad after Larry divorced Susan and took off. That was her justification for changing her name to Stewart because it was her Mom's last name. Although why Susan wouldn't keep McDermott or revert back to her maiden name Burke and instead go back to using the last name of a previous ex is a mystery. 

4 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Yeah, but the Lowell bloodline connection was never emphasized as long as I was a viewer.

I always hear people rail about the Stewart family being tossed out, as if they were one of the series' original families, with no mention of the Lowells. I actually had to read about the Lowell family to find out that they existed. As much as people complain that the Stewart family were written out of existence, Emily and Susan both continued to go by the Stewart last name, through marriages, divorces, until the end and from what I remember, so did Allison, although she was a McDermott. All were there until the end. As Stewarts.

No, they were never emphasized after Judge Lowell died (or moved off) but that was because the name "Lowell" went with him. Like I said, though, the Lowell descendants were there till the end. Of course, unless someone had been watching from the beginning or was read-up on the history, they never would have known these people were "Lowells" because they didn't carry the last name. However, I will say that it was great that they would throw a bone here and there to in-the-know viewers. I remember Ellen telling Brock in the late 80s or early 90s (can't remember exactly when) about Judge Lowell and Jim Lowell. I also remember and even more shocking reference to the Lowells when Emily told Tom she thought baby Daniel looked like Judge Lowell! It was a particularly shocking reference because the writers at the time had ZERO regard for history. I'm sure 95% of the viewers at that time didn't know who she was talking about. I really appreciated the reference though! You are right that it was bizarre that Susan would keep the name Stewart and Allison would take on the name Stewart. But I guess that was just a way for the writers to keep the Stewart name alive. By that time, there were no male Stewarts to keep the name alive unless you count Stewart Cushing. But he hadn't been on the show in ages and even though he was a Stewart he didn't use the last name. Probably because it would have made him Stewart Stewart. 

31 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

A lot of people talk about the Stewart's but wasn't it originally the Hughes family and the Lowell family? Why doesn't anybody seem to mention them? Was Ellen the sole Lowell left?

 

The Lowells were kind of swallowed up by, or morphed into, the Stewarts. Jim died in 1957 and he and Claire just had a daughter (Ellen) so when she married David the last name was lost. Judge Lowell stayed around until the late 70s but he didn't have any other children other than Jim. So, the name was lost. Claire died in 1970 but had lost the last name Lowell when she married Doug Cassen and then, later, Michael Shea. There was really no way to keep the Lowell name alive. They tried to do it by naming one of Annie's quads Lowell but the quads weren't on the show long. So, technically, Dan, Annie, Dee, Betsy, Emily, the quads, Dani, Daniel and Allison were all Lowells (through the bloodline if not the name).