The Guiding Light 1964

-1/2/64-1/31/64. Julie starts to become materialistic and possessive of Hope. Johnny overhears Paul tell Helene that he wants to marry Robin. Jane thinks of herself more as Johnny’s mother than aunt and is panicking with jealousy of Robin becoming his stepmother. Jane manipulates Johnny into telling Paul that he doesn’t want Robin as his new mother and tries to turn everyone against the idea of Paul and Robin marrying. Alex comes back from Tennessee and surprises everyone with the news that he and Doris didn’t get married but that she married an amnesiac patient from the hospital that she’s working in. Robin tells Paul they need to put off their marriage because of Johnny and an angry Paul tells Jane to move out of his house.

-2/3/64-2/28/64. Mike’s cold turns into a bronchial infection which could develop into pneumonia but Julie’s main concern is the delay it could mean in Mike becoming a lawyer. Bruce calls Julie out on her selfishness. Julie opens up to Alex and tries to explain to him how horrible it was to never have had any money. Robin packs her bags and leaves town. Jane is feeling triumphant. Alex takes Julie out to lunch and she tells him that she’s not the same person she was, a girl in love with Mike Bauer, and that she now doesn’t feel anything for him because she knows he only married her because she was pregnant with Hope. Julie having lunch alone with Alex causes Mike to be jealous and Jane to warn Julie. George’s detective finds out that Robin is in NYC but Jane interferes before Paul can get to Robin.

-3/2/64-3/31/64. Julie is starting to get on Papa Bauer’s nerves and he’s getting testy with her. Julie accepts an expensive gift from Alex for Hope, Mike orders her to take it back and Julie refuses. Mike goes to Paul for a checkup and tells him that Julie has been frigid since Hope’s birth and that he doesn’t have much hope for the marriage. George confronts Jane about telling Robin that Paul had found her. Julie flashes back to when she told Mike she was pregnant and he told her to give the baby up for adoption. Jane gets Henry Benedict involved in her machinations. Paul tracks down Robin in New York.

-4/1/64-4/30/64. Paul suggests to Robin that they secretly marry in New York and that she come back home with him. Mike is plagued by a mysterious, crippling pain in his right arm which worries him but Julie is only worried about Mike having to drop out of law school. Julie confides in Alex that she doesn’t love Mike anymore. Paul and Robin get married and leave New York. Bert talks to Papa about Julie’s accusation that Bert forced Mike to marry her and the shame that she thinks Julie feels about the
Bauers knowing she got pregnant before marriage. Mike is diagnosed with a viral infection and is ordered to check into the hospital for treatment, much to Mike’s protest and Julie’s catastrophizing due to Mike having to miss more school. 

-5/1/64-5/29/64. Paul and Robin live separately and keep their marriage a secret from Johnny and Jane. Paul is getting fed up with Jane. Jane tries to pull Bruce into her web but Bruce isn’t falling for it. Jane continues to poison Johnny’s mind against Robin. Henry tries to discourage Robin from marrying Paul, not knowing that they are already married. Julie tells Alex she is tired of everyone accusing her of being selfish and then tells Alex she wants to be with a man like him. Being released from the hospital, Mike has a new determination to save his marriage. Johnny becomes emotionally disturbed thinking that Robin could become his stepmother. Mike tells a disappointed Bert that he’s going to quit law school because he feels like it will save his marriage. George tries to get Jane to see that she’s hiding from men and the world by losing herself in her brother and nephew, which angers Jane. 

-6/1/64-6/30/64. Jane calls Paul’s hotel in Chicago and the hotel mentions “Mrs. Fletcher” much to Jane’s shock. Jane tells Johnny that Paul and Robin lied to them and are married. Johnny runs away from home. Henry’s anger at Paul boils as he blames him for the death of his daughter and now perhaps of his grandson. Mike quits law school and gets a job at a construction site. Johnny is found by a guard at the zoo and when Johnny tells him he doesn’t have any parents, only grandparents, the guard gets in touch with Henry. The guard takes Johnny over to Henry’s and Henry tells Johnny he doesn’t have to go back to Paul. 

-7/1/64-7/31/64. Johnny refuses to go home with Paul and threatens to run away again if he tries to take him home. Paul returns home alone, puts Jane on blast and throws her out. Jane is devastated as Johnny turns on her as well. Julie talks to Alex about the irony that Mike now loves her since she once loved Mike though he didn’t love her but, because he only married her because she was pregnant, that killed the love she once had for him. She tells Alex she’s leaving Mike. A sympathetic George rushes to help Jane after she is found by the police, walking around incoherent and in a daze. George takes Jane to his apartment where Jane gets suicidal and runs out into the street. George chases after her and gets hit by a car. George has a craniotomy performed on him and a guilt-ridden Jane becomes his private nurse. Alex reluctantly lends Julie the money she needs to leave Mike.

-8/3/64-8/31/64. Julie tells Mike she’s leaving him. Mike forces himself sexually on Julie. Johnny continues to give Paul and Robin the cold shoulder and Robin doubts whether she and Paul should have married. Julie tells Bert she is leaving Mike. Bert pleads with Mike to fight for his marriage but Mike says he’s done. Papa gives Julie some Old World advice. Paul and Robin start to think that Johnny should go back to the Benedicts.

-9/1/64-9/30/64. Mike decides to go back to law school. George regains consciousness but has amnesia. Everyone is worried about George’s brain damage. Johnny leaves Paul to go live with Henry and Helene in San Francisco. Robin feels guilty. Julie fears that she’s pregnant after Mike raped her. George has vague memories of an old flame named Mary and says Jane reminds him of her. Bert stops by Julie’s new place to see Hope and Bert and Julie have a fight.

-10/1/64-10/30/64. George starts to get some of his memory back and Jane, now that she’s falling for him, fears that George will stop liking her if he remembers what she did to Johnny. Julie desperately consults a divorce lawyer. George starts to have feelings for Jane as well and can’t understand why he wasn’t with her before the accident. Jane swears Alex to secrecy but he encourages George to wait till he gets his memory back before making any big decisions. Bill comes back home from Europe. Julie becomes more bitter and paranoid against the Bauers and hits up Alex for money to leave the state to get a quickie divorce. When Alex refuses to give Julie the money unless she tells him why she needs such a fast divorce, she is forced to tell him she’s pregnant. Robin, longing to be a mother herself, starts to get obsessed with Hope. 

-11/2/64-11/30/64. Papa thinks Robin should have her own baby but Robin, thinking of her own painful childhood, doesn’t want to alienate Johnny anymore. Julie is shattered when she learns from her lawyer that she can’t move out of the state without Mike’s permission. Julie wants to give her unborn child up for adoption without telling Mike about the baby’s existence. Mike forbids Julie to leave California with Hope. Julie tells Alex that if she can’t leave the state and give the baby up for adoption, she’s going to abort it. Alex asks Julie to marry him. Bill is already bored and restless being back in domestic life and longs to keep traveling. Johnny fakes being sick so he doesn’t have to go to Paul and Robin’s for Thanksgiving. 

-12/1/64 thru 12/31/64. Jane and George are both perplexed to learn that Alex and Julie are planning on getting married. Jane accuses Julie of wanting to marry Alex for his money and Julie says money is more important than love. Bert is worried that Julie is going to move away with Hope. George, who has amnesia after an accident that Jane caused, is dating Jane and everyone is concerned about what will happen if George gets his memory back and remembers how Jane manipulated Johnny to break up Paul and Robin. Paul tells a shocked George the truth about George’s past disdain for Jane and how running after her caused him to be hit by a car. Bert wants Julie to come over for Christmas but Mike doesn’t want her to. Bert tells Papa she’s going over to see Julie to invite her for Christmas and Papa thinks it’s a big mistake. Mike tells Bill he will have Hope on Christmas Day. Bert goes over to Julie’s apartment to try and get her to come over for Christmas. Bert notices Julie being in pain and finds her pill bottle. Bert asks Julie not to move away with Hope and Julie becomes unhinged and lashes out at Bert, telling her that she’s going to be married to a very wealthy man who can buy and sell all the Bauers. George tells Alex he thinks Paul is wrong about Jane and blames Paul for what happened with Johnny. Bill and Bert tell Papa that Julie’s planning on remarrying though they don’t know with whom. Julie tells Mike she’s not moving because she’s getting married to Alex Bowden and tells him she’s going to Mexico for a divorce. Mike gets angry and refuses to sign the papers. George and Jane go out to celebrate New Year’s Eve and George toasts to their new year together.