7 hours ago, Reverend Ruthledge said:

I think it was a way to answer the viewers' complaints that there weren't enough Bauers on the show. This was their way of saying, "Look! We have more Bauers on the show!". Uh, yeah. That's not what we meant.

TIIC never understood this. (Or much of anything else, LOL.)

7 hours ago, Khan said:

Introducing another branch of the Bauer family should've been done while Theo Goetz was still alive. You really needed Papa Bauer to explain why no one had mentioned Otto or his offspring up to that point.

Right. The introduction of all these strangers who had never existed or been mentioned before was more irritating than comforting. It was clear what TIIC were trying to do, but the audience was not as stupid or as easily duped as "the suits" wanted us to be. Faux Bauers, whom we did not know or care about and whose very existence was absurd, did not placate the longtime fans who were continuing to voice anger at the decimation of TGL's core family.

1 hour ago, zanereed said:

Meta Bauer certainly would have been more than welcomed in 1986 after they officially recognized Bert's passing on air. @Paul Raven , you might be right - Ellen Demming may have retired by that 1986. However, others on here have certainly posted good candidates who could have filled that role.

Demming was only 63 in 1985. She could have retired by then, sure, but many folks (and many soap actors, certainly) continue to work well beyond that age. I was ultimately pleased with Mary Stuart being cast in the role (it should have happened right after SFT ended, IMHO), but I would have approached Ellen Demming first, and then only cast another candidate if Demming declined to return.

1 hour ago, zanereed said:

The other "missing" Bauer who could have ushered additional Bauers onto the canvas would have been Bill and Meta's sister, Trudy. Although Trudy wasn't on screen much past the 1950's, she did marry Clyde Palmer and that they were living in New York. I think Clyde passed away in the 1970's, but I don't know that Trudy was ever mentioned again...?

I don't recall either Trudy or Clyde being mentioned in the 1970s or ever again until the show ended. When Jeanne Cooper made a guest cameo on the show in his last days, I really wanted her to show up as Trudy Bauer, to give her real historical purpose to the canvas. Alas, her appearance ended being unrelated to anything, and therefore meaningless.

1 hour ago, Reverend Ruthledge said:

You are correct. The years of 1966-1971, Meta would just make guest appearances. Much like Trudy did from 1952-1959. I was including the years where she would make those appearances. She didn't disappear into oblivion until 1974.

Your posts are always so informative and enlightening, @Reverend Ruthledge . Most sources don't even mention (or know) that Meta appeared sporadically for several years. It annoyed me to no end when she was just dispatched into oblivion in 1974, without any fanfare or closure for the character.

On 1/19/2026 at 10:19 PM, Speed Racer said:

Having AM shift business loyalties from Spaulding to Thorpe is a fascinating proposal. Yeah, I agree that Roger understood AM better than Alex ever did.

Maybe I'll swipe your idea and add it to my thought of Amanda marrying Ed, with AM shifting familial bonding attempts from Spaulding to Bauer. Amanda and AM were stated to be fairly tight...and add Matthew to it and you have something that Phillip, Alex and Alan never had.

Add to THAT your idea of AM in business with Roger, and you have one hell of a mess. Perfect!

The only thing lacking is AM progeny. Maybe AM and Gilly have some offspring. I don't think you've run across the AM/Gilly chemistry yet, which is off the charts. That's a late 1993/early 1994 thing. Lucy who??

As a long time fan it practically writes itself.

And like so many other opportunities during AM’s run, you can bring Hope back just as AM switches his loyalty to Roger/Thorpe Inc. Hell it even opens up for a bombshell return by Alan. (None of that Tangie mess, instead Alan finding out AM and Roger have teamed up?!? Explosive)

Sprinkle in a sense of longing between Gilly and AM but AM is torn because Blake (and her father Roger) hold the key to him achieving his thirst for power

"And like so many other opportunities during AM’s run, you can bring Hope back just as AM switches his loyalty to Roger/Thorpe Inc. Hell it even opens up for a bombshell return by Alan. (None of that Tangie mess, instead Alan finding out AM and Roger have teamed up?!? Explosive)"

It'd be a great reason to bring Hope back. Perhaps Amanda (a very close friend of Hope's traditionally) calls her up re: AM/Thorpe. And it is Hope, not Amanda, who goes on the offensive. Amanda can't due to her new last name - and because she's pregnant with Ed's baby. Now in GL 95s world, Maureen is alive and also working for Thorpe. If so, then instant-rivalry for Amanda/Maureen. Puts teenage Michelle in a horrible position and embitters barren Maureen further.

And as you say, it's a great way to bring Alan back without any Tangie/Toshua/Japanese nonsense. Alan just shows up at Thorpe's door with zero prior build-up, on the very day he's sprung from the slammer. And he's mighty pissed. Five years in the jailhouse kind of pissed. That'd be a great Friday cliffhanger. Viewers would lose their collective minds and it'd all be excellent. (I can just hear Zaslow say...yeah, Alan, your sonny-boy is no longer. He's mine now.)

In my GL world, Phillip comes back in 1995 as a closeted drunk. Viewers see him carrying around lots of martinis for a while, yet nothing is overtly said on the show and there's no telltale foreboding music. (We're just thinking - what's with all the booze, Phillip?) Turns out that a quietly enraged, drunken Phillip is trying to destroy Spaulding Enterprises. It's not Roger/AM, as Alan and Alex believe.

It does write itself, doesn't it?

23 minutes ago, Speed Racer said:

"And like so many other opportunities during AM’s run, you can bring Hope back just as AM switches his loyalty to Roger/Thorpe Inc. Hell it even opens up for a bombshell return by Alan. (None of that Tangie mess, instead Alan finding out AM and Roger have teamed up?!? Explosive)"

It'd be a great reason to bring Hope back. Perhaps Amanda (a very close friend of Hope's traditionally) calls her up re: AM/Thorpe. And it is Hope, not Amanda, who goes on the offensive. Amanda can't due to her new last name - and because she's pregnant with Ed's baby. Now in GL 95s world, Maureen is alive and also working for Thorpe. If so, then instant-rivalry for Amanda/Maureen. Puts teenage Michelle in a horrible position and embitters barren Maureen further.

And as you say, it's a great way to bring Alan back without any Tangie/Toshua/Japanese nonsense. Alan just shows up at Thorpe's door with zero prior build-up, on the very day he's sprung from the slammer. And he's mighty pissed. Five years in the jailhouse kind of pissed. That'd be a great Friday cliffhanger. Viewers would lose their collective minds and it'd all be excellent. (I can just hear Zaslow say...yeah, Alan, your sonny-boy is no longer. He's mine now.)

In my GL world, Phillip comes back in 1995 as a closeted drunk. Viewers see him carrying around lots of martinis for a while, yet nothing is overtly said on the show and there's no telltale foreboding music. (We're just thinking - what's with all the booze, Phillip?) Turns out that a quietly enraged, drunken Phillip is trying to destroy Spaulding Enterprises. It's not Roger/AM, as Alan and Alex believe.

It does write itself, doesn't it?

I think another fun bit of intrigue could be a non-romantic triangle between AM/Roger/Blake. She would start out ecstatic to be working with them and being integral to keeping things from imploding, but if AM starts to become the son Roger never had (since Hart never had any interest in business and was pretty consistent about it unlike Nick/Phillip) I could see Blake start scheming to keep her positioning with them both. Also if Bloss are together you have the spectre of AM always there plus I could see Roger trying to bring AM/Blake together. As I joked before this ends with Ross/AM fathered twins.

We now have our stage set for the younger generation with the AM progeny being Roger’s favored grandson and Ross’s being the also ran in a flip of Phillip/AM’s roles in the Spaulding hierarchy. In 2005 when everyone is SORASed Lizzie is in a creepy but not true incest relationship with AM’s kid (but of course it initially starts because she’s working with Alan to lure AM’s son over to the Spauldings.)

Edited 53 minutes ago53 min by GL95

6 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

A question I had was that in reading write-ups of Vanessa in 1980, it said that she remembered Andy because of how he up and left Lewis so am I to believe that she knew of Billy Lewis long before 1983?

It's a peculiar inconsistency. Billy and HB are mentioned a little under Marland, but when Long brought them to town she ignored the fact they'd been in town (and off camera) for business meetings. Vanessa clearly knew of Billy, as he was Trish and Josh's brother and they occasionally discussed him, but I've never seen anything from prior to '83 that suggests they met face to face.

I'm not sure if Vanessa had met Andy prior to her arrival in Springfield. She knew about the circumstances of Trish's marriage and abuse. I always wonder if anyone other than Sara knew Vanessa slept with him.

1 minute ago, P.J. said:

I always wonder if anyone other than Sara knew Vanessa slept with him.

OH MY GOD.

Is there one pair of pants in SF Vanessa DIDN'T get into back then?

I must have blanked this one out. I had NO memory that she ever slept with Andy and I'm wondering why, other than promiscuity, would she do such a thing.