Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Trudy would have been a wise choice. I wonder if any at the show even remembered her. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Does anyone remember the rumor that Claire Labine (when she was GL's head-writer) planned to bring back Trudy Bauer played by Helen Gallagher and Ed Bauer played by Gil Gerard?  I read it online a few times, and I believe the news (or rumor) actually made it into one of the major soap magazines at that time.  This may have been while Mary Stuart was off the show for illness, or perhaps after she died.  I don't remember the exact timing, but I believe Paul Rauch was still the executive producer.  

[Vee]

I remember that. The Gil Gerard thing is news to me lol

[DRW50]

I remember the Trudy rumor. Hadn't heard the Gerard rumor.

I can see where she would have been interested in expanding the older Bauer set as she used Meta quite a bit in her run as headwriter. The only writer who did (to be fair I think Mary may have been too sick to work much in the late '90s).

[SoapDope]

I never really cared for O'Leary. There always something smug about him. I always felt another actor should have been cast as Rick. 

I agree that Trudy Bauer would have been a great character to return. I wonder if Sada Thompson would have made a good casting choice ? Or cast Sada as Bert's sister. I read Bert had a sister Alma, but was she mentioned as deceased ?

[vetsoapfan]

I only vaguely recall the existence of Mary Bauer. I remember thinking that she was a retconned character whom I didn't accept as really ever existing. Do you remember the specifics?

Yes, Trudy was basically a blank slate, with whom the show could have gone in many directions. Off-screen for so long, she could have had children and grandchildren to repopulate the dwindling Bauer bloodline. Critics tell me that most 1980s' or 1990s' viewers would not even know who she was, but soaps routinely foist newbies upon us; total strangers whom none of us have ever seen or heard of before. A "stranger" to modern viewers, but who's a blood Bauer, and whose roots actually go back to the 1940s, is not a bad thing. It's no worse than having a plethora of random, unknown and unrelated characters coming and going through a revolving door (which was TGL's problem starting in the 1980s).

I strongly identified with Ellen Demming in the role of Meta, and if I had had my druthers, I would have cast Mary Stuart as Trudy Bauer (with some bio descendants to follow).

[vetsoapfan]

I doubt it. Latter-year PTB screwed up history egregiously (and proved that they did not do their research) more often than not.

I remember hearing about Gallagher. Claire Labine was wont to dig into history (bringing back Meg Dale to Love of live after an extended absence revitalized that show), but the rumor about HG felt like fan-driven fiction to me. I hadn't heard the bit about Gil Gerard. Still, it would have been nice. Gallagher was a fine, respected actress, and Gerard was attractive and had an affable presence (I would have preferred him as Ed Bauer over Peter Simon). Alas, no one in charge ever cared about or mined into TGL's rich history in its final years.

I did too. While I did not totally despise O'Leary, I found him grating, and could never see him as leading-man material. 

I would have accepted Sada Thompson as a new Bauer matriarch. I loved her on Family in the 1970s. Getting the actress to sign a contract might have been a challenge, however. I wonder if she could have adjusted to a soap's hectic pace and shooting schedule.

[Contessa Donatella]

Mona, Paul Rauch was EP the entire time Claire & her family attempted to HW GL. That is both before he fired them & after he asked them to return. Meanwhile Rauch shot down every thing she pitched. Of that time, I am sure it was a miserable one, she once said that the only thing she got to write that she liked was that cigarette girl, Mae. Which just goes to show how pitiful a time it was for Labine. 

[DRW50]

That's interesting, as some of what she did felt so much like material very specific to her rather than for the show, especially the Bauer kitchen shootout and the whole mess with Selina. It did seem like after those early points the material started to be more generic to Rauch's GL (like the San Cristobel saga rumbling on).

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I think Paul meant Mary Stuart, not Mary Bauer. There was a Mary Bauer, I think, that was supposed to be a cousin of Meta's that was long-gone but was part of that angel storyline. I don't know. I only vaguely paid attention to that storyline. It was too revisionist and cringey. Actually, with Mary Stuart's Meta, there was a lot of revisionism. I think it was her that at one time talked about the Bauers being in Five Points. While I appreciated the nods to history that her appearance on the show brought, it was usually WRONG history. So my gratitude was usually cancelled out. 

When Trudy came back home for Papa's birthday party in 1957, she and Clyde were talking about how she didn't want to have children. So, her coming back with kids and grandkids would have been a slight bit of revisionism but only to me. LOL. Nobody else in the world would probably know of Trudy's desire not to have kids. But, if Leah can go from being Jude's younger sister to being his older sister, anything was possible for the Bauers in the later years. 

[DRW50]

I didn't mind Rick through the early '00s, even if MOL wasn't the most dynamic actor, as he still had good moments like Abby's exit storyline. After that the character did further stagnate, with the shockingly rushed Mel pairing and failed imitation of much better stories on St. Elsewhere and GH (among others) with his heart transplant, followed by just becoming a Beth catspaw and getting weirder and sadder and more forced through the '00s. 

And the completely pointless decision to give him a child with Harley, unless we desperately needed that week or two of tension with Philip.

The biggest problem was his being the only Bauer, along with Michelle. They just ended up feeling very isolated and small. If there had been another man in the family to contrast with Rick it would have helped.

Edited August 8, 2024 by DRW50

[vetsoapfan]

I might be confusing myself, here, LOL. Didn't Mary Stuart play Mary Bauer in flashbacks? (I may be totally off about this. The show was too painful for me to pay attention to at that time.)

In a Christmas toast, Meta reflected on knowing Reverend Ruthledge when she was a girl. I had to do mental gymnastics in my mind to justify how she could say that, but I too appreciated the nod to history. I just wished it had been easily-accepted/accurate.

Throughout my life, I have known both men and women who initially swore that they did not want kids, and then later changed their minds and had some. I could have accepted Trudy doing the same, and even acknowledging her change of heart on-air.

That. Was. EGREGIOUSLY. Stupid.

[DRW50]

From Soapcentral, Michelle was meant to look like Mary, and Zachary her angel boyfriend looked like Zachary who had been in love with Mary.

(of course, they also claim Meta went to visit Trudy and Clyde during her late '90s absence, which I do not remember)

Edited August 8, 2024 by DRW50

[Reverend Ruthledge]

That makes more sense as the flashbacks were of Mary as a teenager which even an actress as good as Mary Stuart couldn't pull off at that time. LOL. 

 

Yeah, the soap central synopses should always be taken with a grain of salt. I think it's like wikipedia where anybody can just add things. Fanfic can sometimes turn up in historical synopses. 

That's what it was. Maybe she just mentioned knowing Reverend Ruthledge, not that she lived in Five Points. Of course, if she knew Reverend Ruthledge as a child, that would mean that she grew up in Five Points. Which, of course, she didn't. I found the most historical accuracy to be in the 70th anniversary show. Somebody really did their research there!

[Mona Kane Croft]

Actually, I'm almost certain Meta did mention Five Points in that Christmas speech.  I'm not sure she said she had lived there, but I think she did say that.  The speech is on YouTube -- it used to be, anyway.  

Edited August 8, 2024 by Mona Kane Croft