The Guiding Light 1961

-1/3/61-1/31/61. Marie finally accepts Joe’s marriage proposal. Marie tells Bert the news but is disappointed Bert doesn’t give her her blessing. Bert intuits that Marie isn’t really in love with Joe but just wants to marry him to have the children she wants. Wanting to get away from everyone’s pity, Robin finds herself drawn to the art gallery and to Alex. Alex wants to paint her portrait. While having dinner with Joe and Marie, Phil faints. Robin tells Meta to quit smothering her. Both Bill and Papa try to get a worried Bert to accept the fact that Mike is a grown man now and not her little boy. At night school in NYC, Mike meets a fellow classmate, journalism major Frances Conway. Paul examines Phillip and he has a heart condition that needs operating on and recommends Dick to do the surgery, which Joe doesn’t like. Dick is upfront with Amy and tells her that, even though he enjoys her company, he doesn’t want to remarry after his divorce.

-2/1/61-2/28/61. Bruce is concerned about Robin spending time with Alex because Alex is single and it could complicate matters more. Meta says Alex wouldn’t be interested in Robin because she’s younger than Alex and not as sophisticated. Bruce says Meta doesn’t know men very well. While painting Robin’s portrait, Alex talks about Mike because he wants to capture the pain in her eyes and because he says the more she talks about Mike, the quicker she’ll get over him. Alex tells Joe that he’s going to postpone the sale of the gallery until he finishes his portrait. Joe points out that Alex is being selfish by not thinking about him, Marie and Phil and Alex points out that everybody is selfish, he’s just honest about it and has the money to indulge it. Bill goes to see Paul for his annual physical and, after it’s over, Paul offers Bill a cigarette. Bert goes over to Meta’s to announce that Mike has mentioned to her that he has written to Robin but Robin hasn’t written to him and this shows that Robin doesn’t want to stay married. Meta boils over and tells Bert that she has a day of reckoning coming, that one day Mike will look at Bert with hatred in his eyes, and Meta can’t wait. Fran invites Mike over for dinner and they talk about Robin. When Marie asks about how Elsie treated Bert back in the day, Bert starts to see how she might now be acting like her mother used to but doesn’t allow herself to fully acknowledge the similarity. Bill implores Robin to write to Mike but Robin says she doesn’t want to talk to Mike anymore. Alex takes Robin out on a date and tells her she could have an exciting life ahead of her if she’d start making better decisions and, with his help, she might be able to do that. Alex meets with his lawyer, George Hayes, to continue arranging for “her” to be paid off.  

-3/1/61-3/31/61. Mike and Fran continue to spend time together but agree not to get seriously entangled. George goes to San Francisco to meet with Doris Crandall, the woman who he has been sending money to from Alex. She’s in a drunken mess and threatens to go to Los Angeles to see Alex even though George tells her Alex doesn’t want to see her. Bruce, feeling paternal towards Robin and not liking Alex, warns him not to hurt her. Dick grows affectionate toward Phillip as he cares for him. Phil becomes more than a patient when his health becomes even more important to Dick as he thinks about how much Marie cares for Phil and wants to adopt him. Dick wants to make sure he keeps Phil alive to make up for what he’s denied Marie. After the surgery, Dick delivers the news that Phil is ok and Marie suddenly sees how important Dick’s work is and feels selfish for complaining all those years about him working too much. She sees that a surgeon belongs more to his patients than to his wife. Alex has a svengali-like effect on Robin and he gets her to tear up a letter she received from Mike before reading it. Dick and Marie keep vigil at Phil’s bedside as he has trouble recovering from surgery. Papa tells Bert to quit trying to kill Mike’s marriage and Bert angrily defends herself by saying that Robin is doing that job herself by seeing an older man, Alex. The fight escalates and Papa yells at Bert to quit trying to run everything. Bill enters and attempts to break up the fight but it is too heated. Papa leaves without it being resolved. On a date, Robin says she’s happy she’s no longer a naive adolescent and Alex makes the bold statement that he would kill anybody that tried to take away what he’s found in Robin. Robin is strangely attracted to his boldness. With the divorce hearing coming up on April 10th, both Dick and Marie are having second thoughts. Doris shows up at the Bowden Art Gallery looking for Alex. 

-4/2/61-4/30/61. Dick expresses his regrets to Papa Bauer, Papa encourages him to go talk to Marie before it’s too late. Bert goes over to Meta’s to get the scoop from Robin and Robin lets her have it. She tells Bert she doesn’t have to worry anymore about Robin being a threat to her perfect family because she no longer wants Mike. After learning that Papa had told Bert about Robin tearing up Mike’s letter, an angry Robin lashes out at Papa and tells him to mind his own business. Dick and Marie learn that, though they thought the divorce would be final on April 10th, it’s actually an interlocutory decree that they’re getting, based on California law, and the divorce won’t be final for a year and neither of them can marry until then. On a date, Robin tells Alex about the trouble she’s had with Bert and Papa. Alex says he doesn’t like Bert and finds her “smug, petty, opinionated, completely provincial and utterly obnoxious”. When Robin notes that there are a lot of people who like Bert such as Marie Grant, Alex says, “Well, she’s a sentimental hausfrau type too. Although, I admit not as bad as Bertha Bauer. Doris is fighting alcoholism and some other sort of illness for which she’s in a lot of pain. Alex asks Robin to marry him. Robin apologizes to Papa but then gets into it with Bruce. She shocks Bruce and Meta by telling them she wants to get the annulment with Mike because Alex has proposed to her. Joe is upset when Marie tells him they can’t marry for a year but Marie is secretly relieved. Meta counsels Robin that Alex is bedazzling her but it doesn’t compare to the love she had with Mike. Robin says it could never work with Mike because it will always be a threesome with Karl. Alex mesmerizes Robin with the life he offers her and the chance to leave the old Robin Holden behind, convincing her to get her annulment from Mike. Robin goes over to the Bauers to ask Bert to call Mike and tell him to go ahead with the annulment because she’s going to marry Alex. She bitterly tells Bert that Alex is a man and Mike is just a boy, Bert’s boy that she finally has all to herself again. Doris goes to Paul for a refill of her medication to help with alcohol withdrawal but Paul won’t give her any without a physical which causes Doris to storm out.

-5/1/61-5/31/61. Alex and Bill become enemies when Alex tells Bill to get Mike to give an annulment to Robin so he can marry her and Bill refuses. Alex gets George to investigate Bill’s background. When Papa and Meta try to find out if Robin really loves Alex like she did Mike, Robin replies, “No. Thank Heaven”. She declares she’s no longer a child with childish romantic fantasies and nobody will ever hurt her again. While Alex pressures Robin into ending her marriage to Mike, Mike tells Fran that he’s decided he wants to be with Robin and will return to Los Angeles after the semester is over. Dick admits and regrets his arrogance and selfishness to Marie and they both confess they still are in love with each other. Marie gathers enough courage to tell Joe that she can’t marry him because she wants to stay with Dick. Joe is furious, and says that she’ll be hurting Phil who is expecting them to be a family. He says she’s only going to be hurt worse than she was before and to not come crying to him when that happens. Joe sadly breaks the news to Phil that he and Marie won’t be married and they won’t be a family. With his dreams for the future crushed, Joe leaves for Oregon. Alex and Marie tear each other apart. Alex accuses Marie of being selfish and Marie accuses him of robbing the cradle and killing a young marriage. Dick admits that part of his past reluctance to adopt was because he feared the baby would take Marie’s attention off of him as a husband. He says he’s had a change of heart, has grown paternal feelings towards Phil while he was caring for him at the hospital, and tells Marie he’d like to adopt him. Doris, in the hospital for alcohol withdrawal, lets Paul know that she is Alex’s ex-wife and, even though he doesn’t want to have anything to do with her, he is all she has left in the world. Bert goes to Alex with the suggestion that he get Robin to go to NYC to see Mike about the annulment instead of waiting for Mike to come back home. Alex says he’s already thought of that and he’s going with her to make sure Mike doesn’t talk her into staying married. Bert says he should because she knows how much Robin is in love with Alex. Alex shocks Bert by calling her out and says she’s full of it because she can see that Robin isn’t in love with Alex. But he doesn’t care because he intends to make Robin eventually fall in love with him. Too smart to be manipulated and getting the upper hand on Bert, he reads her for filth and says, because he knows what she’s doing, she will basically do whatever he says from now on or he will go to the Bauers and tell them about her machinations. Dick and Marie legally set aside their divorce and return to the adoption agency to see if they’d be able to adopt Phillip. Phil is thrilled when they give him the news. Bert is scared of Alex.

-6/1/61-6/30/61. Robin prepares to go to NYC to talk over the annulment with Mike. When Bill learns that the domineering Alex is going with her, Bill decides he wants to go to NYC to be a support for Mike. This freaks Bert out as she is afraid of Alex and the emotional blackmail power he has over her. She’s afraid Bill will find out about what
Bert was up to. It’s enough to make her ask Paul for some nerve pills. Bert warns Robin that it will be a mistake to marry Alex which just makes Robin wonder why Bert has suddenly switched her tune. She tells Bert that if she doesn’t care what Papa, Meta and Bruce think about the situation, she definitely doesn’t care what Bert thinks about it. Paul lets Alex know that Doris is his patient in the hospital, that he knows she is his ex-wife, and implores him to go visit her as she is sick and alone. Alex lies and says he’ll go see her and then jumps on an earlier plane to New York. Anne is tired of living in an apartment and has dreams of moving into a big house in the suburbs like the one she grew up in. When Paul learns that Anne has found a big estate as a potential home, he is adamantly opposed to living in such a big house. Dick and Marie officially adopt Phil and everybody at the Grant home is joyful when Phil moves in. Robin and Alex meet with Mike, although Mike wishes it would be just him and Robin. Mike tells her that he is over his guilt feelings about Karl and wants to stay married. Robin, egged on by Alex, says that she’s over Mike and wants the annulment so she can be with Alex. Mike is annoyed at Alex’s influence and seeming power over Robin. Paul shares his dream with Dick of becoming a family doctor and having his own clinic attached to his residence. Meanwhile, Henry says he wants to give Anne her dream home as a belated wedding gift. Fran goes over to see Robin to encourage her to try with Mike. Robin isn’t there but Alex and the two meet. Alex says that the only reason Fran wants to encourage Robin is because Fran is really in love with Mike and wants to get in Mike’s good graces so she can pursue him when it doesn’t work out with Mike and Robin. Fran is offended. Alex questions why she’s offended by the truth. Fran storms out. Anne, Helene and Henry are shocked when Paul announces he’s resigning as Chief of Staff. When Paul tells Anne about his dreams of having a home/clinic and that he doesn’t want Anne’s dream home, Anne is outraged. Defeated, Mike agrees to the annulment. Back in Los Angeles, Alex is visited by George who implores him to show mercy to Doris and go see her because he is the only thing in between her and the bottle or suicide. Anne, a volunteer at Cedars, helps out Doris who tells her what encouragement her doctor, Paul Fletcher, has been to her and is surprised to learn that Anne is his wife. 

-7/3/61-7/31/61. Meta suggests to Robin that she’s just marrying Alex to blot out the past with Mike and to reconsider it. She asks her, “Is a supposedly successful marriage without love better than a supposed failure where there was love? Which becomes success and which failure? I know that a marriage lived without love is neither a marriage nor a life and I don’t want you to have to learn this from personal experience.” Fran comforts Mike but Mike says only he and his mother are to blame for the death of his marriage. He’s so despondent, he didn’t go to his final exam and, therefore, won’t graduate. Alex lets Robin know that he was married before but that it was a miserable, traumatic experience. His mother ran off with another man when Alex was young and his father didn’t have much time for him because he reminded him of his ex-wife. Growing up alone, he was desperate for love and thought he could find it with Doris because she was available but he never loved her so it was a miserable marriage and Doris always had a drinking problem. Robin’s sympathy for Alex overtakes any doubts that Meta has put in her mind about rushing into marriage with Alex. Paul and Anne argue about Paul’s need to serve the down-and-out. He says that he feels an obligation because he, as an illegitimate child, always felt like an outsider. Anne doesn’t share his calling. Doris is released from the hospital and thanks Paul for his encouragement but Paul is concerned about the other thing that has given her encouragement to recover from drinking, her pipe dream that there’s a future for her and Alex. Bill and Bert fly to New York for Mike’s graduation and are stunned when he says that he’s not going to graduate right after he signs the annulment papers they brought with them to sign. He bitterly tells Bert that it wasn’t a wasted trip for her because she finally got what she’s always wanted. He viciously tears into Bert for brainwashing him against Robin, destroying the only thing he’s ever had that was his own. He regrets not fighting Bert and says that he, Bill and Ed are just patsies for a conniving wife and smothering mother. Bert says that she didn’t poison anything, Robin has been the poison. Poison for Kathy, for Mark, for Karl and now she’s poisoned Mike against her. Mike says Bert has robbed him of Robin, his identity and his manhood and he doesn’t have to live with it anymore. He leaves. Meta accuses Alex of trying to play on Robin’s sympathies with his stories of his miserable past marriage. Alex replies that Meta is starting to resemble her conniving, scheming, interfering sister-in-law. Doris’ hopes are dashed when Alex lets her know there is absolutely no hope for the two of them being together. When Papa learns the news about Mike not graduating and his emotional upset from meeting with Robin is the reason, he asks Robin if that makes her happy. Alex jumps to Robin’s defense and assures Papa that he and Robin are happy together. Papa responds angrily, “At least somebody’s happy”. Bert has been left devastated and tortured by her moment of truth, triggered by Mike’s words to her. Her conscience tells her that she should let Mike know that Robin isn’t really in love with Alex, but she is also consumed by fear for her son. Doris runs into Robin at Paul’s office. Robin doesn’t know Doris but Doris recognizes her from Alex’s portrait. Robin mentions that she’s getting married to Alex and Doris is shocked and then runs off to find the nearest bar. Marie goes by to visit Bert upon her return from NYC and learns that Bert didn’t tell Mike the truth about Robin not loving Alex so that Mike would sign the annulment papers. Marie is furious at Bert’s “motherly love” and says it’s really possessiveness and Mike is her slave, not her son. She exclaims Bert’s not fit to be a mother or even a woman. Doris finds out where Alex lives and goes over to put a sort of curse on him. She says at least she’ll wind up with a bottle in her hands but he’ll wind up with nothing in his.

-8/1/61-8/31/61. A drunk Doris shows up at Paul’s while he’s away but Anne is home. Anne doesn’t like Doris and resents Paul’s need to try to help her. Doris calls her a phoney, a snob and a bitch. Anne tells her to leave before she calls the police, Doris leaves but not before telling Anne to drop dead. Mike makes up his final exam and graduates as he prepares to go back to Los Angeles. Bert, tortured by guilt and looking for help, goes to her minister, Reverend Stevens, and confesses the fact that she withheld the truth from Mike. Reverend Stevens doesn’t give her the absolution she was hoping for but firmly tells her she needs to tell Mike the truth as soon as she can so that Mike can try to make his marriage work out. “Don’t play God, Mrs. Bauer. Join Him.” Bert, crying, with a maturity she’s never had before, thanks the Reverend for saving her life and, more importantly, her son’s life. Learning the annulment is final, Alex pushes Robin to get married ASAP. While Dick encourages Paul to fulfill what he believes is his calling or he’ll be miserable living a life not of his choosing, Henry tells Anne to stand up to Paul because somebody of her breeding was not meant to be living in a house/clinic in the poor side of town and she would be miserable. Helene, however, encourages Anne to stand by her man. Dick and Marie read in the paper that Amy Sinclair married a bank executive. Mike says goodbye to Fran as he heads back to Los Angeles. He thanks her for all she did for him and says they’ll keep in touch, but Fran is dubious. Paul locates Doris, blind drunk, in a bar and goes to help her. Mike comes home and Bert bravely confesses to him that she knew Robin didn’t love Alex but withheld the information from him. Mike is enraged that Bert would withhold that from him and meanwhile push him to sign the annulment papers. He scornfully asks, “Now you hurt, Mom. Where does it hurt?” and she replies, “In my soul, Mike”. Armed with this new knowledge, Mike rushes over to Meta’s to tell Robin that he knows she doesn’t love Alex and that Mike wants Robin back. However, he misses Robin by minutes as she has gone off with Alex to get secretly married at Alex’s insistence. 

-9/1/61-9/29/61. Meta’s resentment towards Bert grows when Mike tells her what happened. Meta is appalled that Bert would try to play God. An evil God, at that. Alex and Robin are married and Robin wants to go to Cedars to check on Doris and break the news to her themselves because she feels bad for her. Alex puts the kibosh on that quickly and says they’re not to think about the past. Mike goes to Robin and tells her that he loves her and he knows now that she doesn’t love Alex. He says he’s there to stop her from marrying Alex, not knowing that the marriage has already taken place. Mike kisses her. Robin responds but then says they can’t because she’s married to Alex now. Mike is shocked and he warns Robin that she’s making a mistake and that she should leave Alex and be with him. Robin says she can’t keep on ruining people. Mike says, “I love you” and leaves. Robin says, “I love you too” after Mike has left. Papa and Bruce go over to give the news of Robin’s marriage to Bill and Bert. Bert is shattered with guilt and fears she’ll never see her son again. Bill hopes that Robin could get an annulment from Alex but Bruce says there’s no hope of that because Alex has her brainwashed. Anne wonders why Paul cares so much about Doris who she sees as a dislikable lost cause but Paul says he can’t just watch people suffer without trying to help them. Anne sees the new house/clinic and is appalled at how ghastly she thinks it is but she tries to be accepting for Paul’s sake. Mike takes an engineering job in South America to get away from Bert and Robin. Henry goes by to see the clinic/house and is incensed that Paul wants Anne and Johnny to live in such a poor neighborhood. He goes to Paul’s office to blast him and is appalled when Doris barges in and begs Paul to let her have a drink. He later tells Anne to leave Paul while she still can. Mike packs his suitcase and gives a cold goodbye to his mom. Bert sobs after she watches him walk out the door. 

-10/2/61-10/31/61. Papa and Bill say goodbye to Mike at the airport as he heads to Caracas. Meanwhile, on their honeymoon in Honolulu, Alex’s controlling nature begins to exhibit itself. Alex starts to experience pain which causes Robin to call a doctor. At Anne’s urging, Paul tries to get Doris to see a psychiatrist but Doris is resistant to his treatment and the psychiatrist suggests that Paul is better suited to help Doris since they already have such a good rapport. This infuriates Anne who wants Doris out of Paul’s life. Doris tries to apologize to Anne for the tongue-lashing she gave her but Anne only politely accepts it. When Doris volunteers to help them move into the new house, Anne coldly says they have no use for her, prompting Doris to take back the olive branch. Doris laments to George the unfairness of great men like Paul being saddled with bitches like Anne. Alex and Robin call their honeymoon short as Alex starts to have stomach pains and they fly back to Los Angeles where Alex’s insecurity and possessiveness of Robin begins to show even more. Alex has an ulcer. Doris tells Paul that he should have let her die because, now that she’s still alive, her main mission in life will be to destroy Alex and Robin’s marriage. Robin goes to see Doris at the hospital, trying to befriend her. Although Doris likes her well enough, her bitterness won’t let her change her plans. Paul tries to take back his suggestion that Marie befriend Doris but Marie can tell that right away that Dick put him up to it and she stands her ground. She wants to help a fellow human being who is suffering whether Dick likes it or not. Bert apologizes to Robin for interfering in Mike and Robin’s marriage and their lives. Now that it’s too late, Robin is infuriated at Bert’s admission that the marriage could have survived without her interference. Robin becomes hysterical, laughing and crying at the same time, and shouts, “Oh Bert, shut up! Just, please, shut up!”

-11/1/61-11/30/61. Robin recovers enough to apologize for her outburst but when Bert asks if they could still have a relationship, Robin replies, “Don’t call me. I’ll call you”. When Meta invites Alex over to the Bannings for dinner, he lets his resentment be known towards Robin’s family because they’re a reminder of Mike. When Meta relays this to Papa, he retorts that nobody’s going to stop him from loving his granddaughter. Paul tells Anne that he wants to hire Doris as his receptionist so that she can be productive and help others. Anne throws a fit. She gets determined to prove to Paul that Doris is rotten to the core and not worth “saving”. Papa goes to visit Robin and she tells him that she, surprisingly, finds herself feeling sorry for Bert because she’s lost the one thing she was trying to hold on to the most–Michael. Alex is furious when he learns that Anne has been visiting Doris. Paul offers Doris the job as receptionist but Doris warns him that he might regret it because she’s Pandora’s box. Papa tells Bill that Bert is trying to mother Robin now that she feels she’s lost Mike and is lonely for him. Papa thinks Bert feels the need to mother others so she won’t have to look at herself and that’s what’s going on with Robin. Henry is disturbed to read in the newspaper of an armed robbery of a gas station on the same street Paul and Anne have moved to. He’s also appalled when Paul says Doris will be working for him and accuses Paul of putting his wife and grandson in danger. Paul finally snaps and tells Henry to either get off his back or get out of his life and let the Fletcher family live. Bill calls Paul over for a house call as Bert has a fever. Paul encourages Bert to not stress out anymore over her guilt in the Michael/Robin situation. Dick tells Marie that he got a job offer in Geneva. He also tells Robin that Alex’s ulcer is made worse by emotional upset, such as the jealousy he’s exhibiting, and, as hard as it is, Robin must pretend to love him. 

-12/1/61-12/29/61. Meta and Bert reconcile. Paul tells Bert that one of the tests they’ve run on her after her physical, her pap smear, has indicated abnormal cells. Bert gives the news to Bill but tells him not to worry because she’s not. This doesn’t stop the worrying. Alex’s jealousy towards Robin starts to go completely mental as Alex finds out Robin spent the afternoon with George. When she tells him George was helping her pick out a birthday present and presents it to him, Alex accuses her of just using the gift as an alibi and smashes it against the wall. Bill calls Mike in Caracas, tells him about Bert’s surgery, and asks him to come home before it takes place. Bill surprises Bert by bringing Mike to the Bannings, where the family is gathered for Christmas, after picking him up at the airport. Bert is thrilled but tries to get Mike out of there before Alex and Robin come over but she’s unsuccessful, leading to an awkward Christmas gathering. Since Bill and Bert aren’t letting anyone know about Bert’s upcoming surgery, Alex, of course, thinks that Robin got Mike back secretly. Alex’s insecurity and paranoia lead him to think Mike is back to claim Robin and that Bruce, as Alex’s doctor and Meta’s husband, is using Alex’s ulcer as an excuse to keep him from continuing his honeymoon with Robin. Bruce has recommended that Alex not go to the south of France with Robin that Alex has planned since the honeymoon in Hawaii got cut short for medical reasons. 

-12/25/61. Papa, Bill, Bert, Bruce, Meta, Dick and Marie gather at the Bannings to celebrate Christmas Day. Dick and Marie are planning on going to Europe and Bruce is going to take over as Alex’s doctor. Bill goes to the airport to pick up Mike who has been living in Venezuela. Bill and Mike talk about Bert’s potential upcoming operation for her ovarian cancer. Bill is hoping Mike and Bert can reconcile. Bill brings Mike back to Bruce and Meta’s to surprise Bert.