Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

Oh, they lost a lot of his backstory in the dustbin. Some of it was probably forgotten, other things deliberately obscured because they wanted to have the Roger/Holly thing. When he comes back they make it seem like the rape was a blip in his history. The truth is, he was abusive almost from the beginning. He attempted to rape Holly's sister-in-law, he didn't rape Hillary but he was physicially abusive while they were in a relationship. He did many other terrible things: blackmailed Alan into faking his death so Holly would go to prison for many years, tried to kidnap Christina, kidnapped a pregnant Rita instead and left her in a burning building so that she lost her baby, indirectly caused the death of his French girlfriend Renee, kindapped Holly and tried to kill Ed and Mike. Peggy was supposed to be his redemption and when she left him that's when he really lost it.

The other thing they changed (or possibly forgot) was that it was NOT Roger who was in love with Holly. It was always the other way around. She was obsessed with him for years, since she was a teenager. Only after her marriage with Ed ended did that kind of kill her feelings for Roger. She deeply regretted letting that marriage end. (Interesting that they didn't forget this yet they never gave Ed and Holly a real romantic story again). She married Roger only for Christina's sake. 

Sure, they had to find a way to work around this stuff to make him a viable character on the show after he returned. They probably assumed a lot of people wouldn't remember it or many of those fans who did had long abandoned the show by then.

Although I think you are correct that she at one point had cancer, I believe her actual cause of death was complications from diabetes. That's why she lost her leg. She was open about it and spoke about it in interviews. Amazing lady, very brave. Those scenes between her and Josh during rehabilitation are classics. Watching them still make me emotional.

Edited 15 hours ago by DeeVee

[DeeVee]

Never understood this. She was a core family member, had all that backstory with Alan, was AM's mother. It's ridiculous they never brought her back. And yet for some wild reason they had Michelle name her kid after her, so it's not like they didn't know she existed.

[bboy875]

Actually, Dinah was carrying Cassie and Edmund's baby and only Edmund knew she had a miscarriage. He was with Michelle when she gave birth, stole the baby and presented her as his and Cassie's. Cassie named her Hope. When she told Michelle, she told her that she has a cousin named Hope

[P.J.]

Are you talking about maybe Ken's wife? The one he'd shot Ed over? I didn't realize he'd attempted another rape.

I have caught some of the '79 episodes, and it blew my mind that Roger had slept with Hillary. And while married to Holly. What I got was that his obsession was really about Ed, and feeling inferior to him. So much like he ended up sleeping with the daughters of his enemies in the '90s', he's out to hurt Ed via the women in his life. 

I guess I had assumed Charita's leg amputation was due to cancer, the same as Bert. But yes--she's so good in those scenes with Josh. 

[bboy875]

In 93, the show announced Jordan was suspended for bad behavior on the set, but that's all I remember them saying. I assumed he would be back until they sent Billy to prison. When Clarke returned, he told SOD that he told JFP that he and a drug problem, and needed to leave to get help. He said she told him that it was not a good time to leave the show. I assumed that his reaction was the bad behavior on the set. I believe he and his wife were arrested on charges sometime before the clone story. I remember Rauch saying that he planned to heavily use him in the story. I'm not sure, but I think something also happened during the Billy/Holly/Buzz story, because he was gone from the show and someone in the press said that with the Holly/Buzz pairing that the writers seem to erase Billy's name and replace him with Buzz. I'm trying hard to remember, but I'm pretty sure something happened around that time too

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Bert Bauer had cancer but Charita Bauer never did. She died from complications from diabetes. She lost her leg due to a blood clot. 

[P.J.]

I think in part they feared a backlash over a recast. And the fact they wanted to emphasize A-M's Spaulding-ness, if you will. 

Did Michelle actually mention naming her daughter after Hope, or did that current regime simply stumble on the name and forget there was already a Hope in the Bauer family? 'Cause I know which theory I'd be first to believe. As I wasn't a Nancy St Alban or Manny fan, I'd forgotten she had a daughter, and when I rewatched the last episodes, it too me more than a little while to connect Hope Santos with Hope Bauer.

I could be wrong about when he was arrested. I know in '93, physically, he looks bad. I'm glad in the end he prioritized his health, but I'll always wonder how everything would've played out with Peter's custody had Jordan been in the role.

I do know he's not in the clone story much after the beginning, but I'd always assumed that was because of Jordan's recurring status and the difficulty of trying to explain how Billy could've been fooled by a teen clone when he'd known Reva all her life. 

[bboy875]

Fletcher possibly being Michelle's father is because he was with Claire when she and Ed did the deed, and he said he couldn't be the father because of the vasectomy, so from the beginning of the pregnancy we all saw Ed as the father. When he got Holly pregnant, I thought as those in the soap press, and fans writing to soap mags that because he did get Holly pregnant, he could've gotten Claire pregnant too. However, I'm sure none of us wanted him to be the father, but it should've been addressed, but I don't think ever was. And because Michelle was a baby/toddler when Claire took off, I don't know if they ever did the story where Michelle finds out Maureen adopted her but Claire was her biological mother. It's downright stupid if they didn't. Imagine in press reports of Maureen's death, this scandal was brought up and that's how she found out. Or was it addressed when Claire came back? Anyone know?

[P.J.]

I'm pretty sure they didn't. I think one of the Michelles explains that she'd always known Maureen wasn't her biological mother, and that it was never really a secret. And that to me seems consistent with Maureen's personality and philosophy. 

[bboy875]

Thanks! It would seem consistent with Maureen, but confusing for those of us who were there when she was conceived but missed this pivotal scene lol

[Mitch64]

Actaully...Charita's death came as a BIG suprise...she was only 62 (she was one of those people who looked a certain age when she was young and never got older) and THAT is not old...(at least, not to me now.) Everyone thought she was okay (she died from complications from diabetes) and Charita, like Bert, was counted on to always be the "up person" who everyone counted on so she didn't let on to anyone about how ill she was post surgery. As a matter of face Gail Kobe killed Hillary, wrote off Mike and recast (disasterously) Ed as she thought people would tune in to her new GL as long as Charita/Bert was there (which is why it took them so long to do let Bert die offscreen...they didn't know what the hell to do.)

[DeeVee]

Yes, I think her name was Janet or Janice? (We're talking over 50 year ago here.)

Yes, I agree, it had a lot to do with resentment of Ed. Ed and the rest of the Bauers were very close to Peggy. They were almost like siblings. I think Roger felt that Peggy left him in part because of Ed being hurt by Christina's real paternity. Also, he chose the night of Rita and Ed's engagement party to rape her. He was once involved with Rita and even saved her from a murder charge by giving her an alibi. He may have felt her getting with Ed was a betrayal.

I missed this entire storyline. Thanks for filling that in! That makes a little more sense. Kind of, LOL.

I wonder if Elvera would have come back. At any rate, they didn't seem to care as far as recasting Alan and Amanda. But you could be right about AM--once Maureen dies (I remember he was there in the hospital and very distraught when she was brought in), they don't talk much about him being a Bauer, do they?

[bboy875]

I'm playing catchup after not being on site for a few days, so I'll say this instead of more quote replies. First, I never knew Roger had a vasectomy, so this was missed with Hart, and the baby Mindy miscarried (for me a fail with Calhoun/Curlee/Demorest/Reilly. Mindy giving birth to Roger's son would of had major consequences for them, and everyone connected to them, more far reaching than Nick). Also, I always thought it was a mistake to downplay a lot of Roger's past. Dealing with them the right way would have gone to show how much he changed after falling off the cliff, and realistically, those who knew him wouldn't have believed him. It's kind of if he had to earn it. But I think they chose to sweep it under the rug to justify Alex marrying him. Though it made for great story, I don't see why she would marry him knowing/learning about his history. And ignoring Rita was unforgivable 

[DeeVee]

While I don't dislike Peter Simon as much as some people, I think if Mart Hulswit has been retained as Ed, the show would have weathered Charita's death a bit better (Richard Van Vleet was Ed at the point she passed away no? Even moreso). There was something about Mart that was so relatable. Peter was kind of dour, and RVV was...well, he just wasn't Ed. It was like Chuck Tyler was visiting Cedars.

[bboy875]

I haven't seen it since it aired but I believe AM had a scene with Michelle at Maureen's repose, and I had to remember they were cousins. Weird because Carl Evans' AM was a fixture at the Bauer House, but they seem to move him futher away from them when Rick Hearst took over, and this was even when Blake faked a pregnancy to marry him, and then a miscarriage after they married