The Guiding Light 1967

-1/3/67-1/31/67. Peggy goes home from the hospital. Joe and Leslie come home to Leslie’s after a date. Bill learns that Maggie is moving. Bill feels guilty about Maggie and Peggy’s estrangement and Maggie having to move out of the family home. Peggy is missing Maggie but can’t bring herself to forgive her. A hopeless Maggie asks Ben for a divorce so she can move on alone. Maggie and Bill say goodbye as Maggie makes plans to move to New York City. Bill tells her he’s sorry. Maggie says goodbye to Peggy. Bill looks for a job. Ben tries to thwart Johnny and Peggy’s romance. Bill is up for a big job but loses it when his prospective employer learns about his drinking.

-2/1/67-2/27/67. Joe proposes to Leslie but she turns him down. A hurt Joe wants to continue seeing Leslie. Peggy is elated and feels free now that her back is completely healed but Ben wants to control her every move. Bert tries to cheer up a depressed Bill as his unemployment drags on. Robin is feeling lonely and neglected. Paul is excited when he gets a letter from his old resident in Chicago, a Dr. McIntyre. Robin is surprised to discover Dr. McIntyre is a woman. Leslie tries to get over her feelings for Ed but is having a hard time doing so. Ben continues to annoy everybody. Ben goes to pick up Peggy after her last physical therapy session and Dr. Jackson encourages him not to smother Peggy. In a rare candid moment, Ben defends himself by admitting that Peggy is the only one that’s loved him and that’s why he cares so much about her. Johnny and Peggy worry about future financial problems and Bill and Bert worry about running out of money in the present. Johnny wants to draw from his grandfather’s trust fund so he can marry Peggy which puts Paul, as trustee, in a bind as he has to deny Johnny the money he so desperately wants. Ben angrily throws Johnny out of his house and forbids him to come back.

-3/1/67-3/29/67. Bill refuses to allow Bert to work. Leslie is bitter about Ed. Ed stops by George’s office for support and to keep him away from the bars as his shame tempts him to drink again. First color episode on March 13th. Ben reluctantly lets Johnny come to the house to appease Peggy but says he’d kill Johnny before letting Peggy marry him. Dr. Sarah McIntyre’s first episode as she moves to town for a research project. Joe continues with his marriage proposal to Leslie. Martha warns Ed that he could lose Leslie for good if he continues being nonchalant. Joe’s persistence and Ed’s coldness towards her weaken Leslie and she reluctantly agrees to marry Joe. Sarah meets Joe. Johnny flies to New York to ask his grandfather Henry to allow him the money he needs to marry Peggy. Leslie tells Ed she’s marrying Joe and the news creates a feeling of jealousy that surprises Ed.

-4/11/67-4/27/67. Henry, not wanting to come between Paul and Johnny as he did when Johnny was a little boy, allows Paul to make all the decisions when it comes to the trust. A deflated Johnny vows to Peggy that they’ll get married when she turns 18 even if they don’t have any of his trust money. Johnny and Peggy feel like it’s them against the older generation and their anger comes out at Paul and Ben. After finally getting Bill’s blessing, Bert applies for a job at Cedars as ward secretary. Bert is surprised when she gets the job despite having never worked before. On Peggy’s 18th birthday, she and Johnny slip down to City Hall to obtain a marriage license. 

-5/1/67-5/31/67. Ben finds Peggy’s marriage license and slaps her. Ben goes on the warpath over to the Fletchers to attack Johnny. Johnny isn’t home and Robin, home alone, is disturbed by Ben’s state and threats and shocked by the news of the marriage license. Robin calls Paul at Cedars and lets him know what’s going on and Paul desperately tries to get ahold of Johnny as he fears Ben is violent. Ben tracks Johnny down at the university. Peggy heads to the university as well to find Johnny before Ben does and finds him in a drugstore. Ben catches up to Johnny and Peggy outside of the drugstore where Ben physically assaults Johnny. A group of fellow college students jump in to help Johnny and try to subdue Ben. Ben knocks Johnny out before he takes off. Leslie goes over to the Scott home to wait for Peggy and is there alone when Ben comes home. Ben breaks down in tears and anger and as he yells at Leslie, he falls over dead with a heart attack. When Peggy comes home and finds out her father is dead, she starts to feel guilty since the last thing she said to him was that she hates him and never wants to see him again. Maggie comes back to be with Peggy after Ben’s death but Peggy rejects her.

-6/1/67-6/30/67. Maggie goes back to New York alone as Peggy is still bitter and unforgiving of her and is now, out of guilt, defending Ben. During their goodbye, Maggie calls Peggy out on her condemning self-righteousness but immediately regrets her harshness. Ed considers moving to New York to get away from Leslie. A grieving Peggy pulls away from everybody who hated her father and cries for the first time when Jane comes by for a visit and is the first person to say something nice about Ben. Peggy doesn’t want to live with the Fletchers because she knows how they felt about her dad so Jane gets the idea that Peggy could live with her and George. Bert intuits that Leslie doesn’t want to marry Joe and that Ed and Leslie should be together so she sets out to make it happen and pressures Ed to get married. Ed and Leslie find themselves alone and kiss when they give in to their repressed feelings for each other. Leslie pushes to marry Joe as soon as possible. Stephen figures out that Leslie’s haste to marry Joe is because she’s trying to run from her feelings for Ed. Bill finally gets a job. 

-7/3/67-7/31/67. Sarah has dinner with Paul and Robin and Robin compares herself to Sarah and feels woefully inadequate. Johnny’s grades suffer as he and Peggy drift farther apart due to her inability to get over her father’s death. Jane is pregnant again. Stephen has chest pains and Paul gets him to spend the night at Cedars to examine his heart. Peggy tells Johnny that she wants to put off their marriage while she finds herself. Tests reveal Stephen has had a heart attack and his condition causes Leslie to postpone her wedding to Joe and Ed to postpone his plans to move to New York. Jane tells Robin she’s pregnant again which evokes envy and sadness in Robin. Johnny announces to Paul that he’s going to drop out of school for a year and bum around the world. Paul is, predictably, upset and doesn’t want Johnny to be a dropout. Johnny says he doesn’t have anything to drop “in” for anymore. Johnny says goodbye to Peggy, who worries he’ll do something he regrets because of her. Stephen has a cardiac arrest and an arrhythmia and his life hangs in the balance. Worrying over Stephen brings Ed and Leslie closer together. Ed decides to stay at Cedars and to permanently decline the position in NYC. 

-8/1/67-8/31/67. Johnny leaves for his solo travel wanderings. Joe is feeling left out as he watches Ed and Dr. Jackson’s closeness as well as the closeness between Ed and Leslie. Ed and Leslie give in to their feelings for each other. A guilt-ridden Leslie dreads breaking the engagement with Joe and telling him that she wants to be with Ed. Joe confronts Ed and angrily tells him to stay away from Leslie. Jane receives a postcard from Johnny from New Orleans and tells Peggy, who is living with her, that it was really meant for her. Joe’s anger scares Leslie out of telling him the truth. Ed and Paul talk Stephen into going to a nursing home away from town to avoid stress and recuperate. Leslie stays with him there due to her concern for him but possibly also to try to avoid the inevitable with Joe. Robin tells Sarah she envies her because she has a career and something to occupy her time. Sarah tells Robin she envies her because she has a family and a home. Instead of helping Robin, this just causes her to resent Sarah more. Bill talks Papa into moving back in with him and Bert. Peggy thinks she wants to be a nurse like Jane. Johnny keeps updating his travels with postcards back home. This time, a worried Paul gets a postcard from New York City. Ed pushes Leslie to tell the truth to Joe as soon as possible as Joe’s delusions about him and Leslie are getting unbearable. When Joe learns that Ed is going out to the nursing home where Leslie is, he corners Ed and lays into him. Ed reaches his breaking point and tells Joe what Leslie has been afraid to tell him. An irate Joe heads out to see Leslie and Ed, worried for Leslie’s safety, follows him. 

-9/1/67 thru 9/29/67. Joe finds Leslie at the nursing home and confronts her with what he knows. Right when he hits Leslie, Ed comes in and restrains him. Robin’s loneliness is getting to her with Paul always gone for work and no children to occupy her time. Sarah, concerned about Robin, stops by to visit with her but Robin is cold and suspicious of her. Paul is also becoming concerned when Robin later becomes more hysterical and paranoid with him and accuses Sarah of trying to use her to get Paul. Ed and Leslie tell Bert their marriage plans and Bert is over the moon. Paul suggests that Robin sees a psychiatrist which sets her off even more. Robin shows up late at night at the Bauers and rambles incoherently to them about things like loneliness, losing her baby and not being able to talk to Jane because she envies her. Paul suggests he and Robin get away to a lake cabin and Robin’s rapid change of mood and intense acceptance of the suggestion disturbs Paul. Bert consults Ed with her worries of Robin but Ed blows it off saying Robin has always been high-strung. Paul thinks Robin could be bipolar based on her extreme and erratic mood swings. Robin irrationally attacks Jane and accuses her of lording her pregnancy over her. Sarah tells Paul that she has a niece somewhere named Tracy that she hasn’t seen since she was a baby because her sister died in childbirth and her brother-in-law disappeared with Tracy. Robin is suddenly happy again when they get to the cabin but her mood quickly turns south again when they run into an old work colleague from Chicago while eating at the lodge dining room. The colleague says he divorced his wife because she was neurotic and implied that Paul had “the inside track with Sarah” which sets Robin spiraling. Sarah calls the cabin about a patient and Robin lies to her that Paul wants her to bring the x-rays out to the cabin. Paul is stunned and puzzled to learn what she’s done and tries to stop Sarah but it’s too late. Robin says she did it because Paul really wanted to be with Sarah anyway. Ed and Leslie are married with Stephen, Papa, Bill and Bert in attendance. Sarah makes it to the lodge and gets a cabin for the night. Paul, Sarah and Robin are in a sitting room at the lodge where Robin causes a scene and walks out. Paul and Sarah talk about when he had proposed marriage to her back in Chicago and how he didn’t tell Robin about it because he didn’t think she could handle it. Unbeknownst to them, Robin hasn’t gone far and is listening outside the terrace door. Sarah goes to her cabin alone and is shocked to find Robin in the dark waiting for her. 

-10/2/67 thru 10/31/67. A mentally unbalanced Robin lashes out at Sarah and tells her there are other ways other than divorce to give a man his freedom. After Robin leaves, Sarah finds Paul and tells her she’s scared Robin is going to commit suicide. Paul rushes to find Robin but she’s packed her suitcase and left. Paul and Sarah search for Robin. As Paul and Sarah continue to search for Robin, they come across an accident on a country road and discover Robin’s been run over. The motorist says Robin threw herself in front of his car. Robin is unconscious and rushed to the hospital.  Papa, Bill, Bert, Ed and Leslie return home after Ed and Leslie’s wedding. Paul calls Ed to come help with Robin. Sarah and Paul are at the country hospital where Robin was taken. Ed makes it there in time to operate on Robin who has a basilar skull fracture and internal bleeding. Robin doesn’t make it and Ed breaks the news to Paul that Robin has died. The Bauer family’s joy of Ed and Leslie’s wedding is quickly spoiled by the news of Robin’s death. Bert tries to comfort Paul. Peggy gets accepted to nursing school. Johnny comes home for Robin’s funeral. Sarah says that Robin’s death was an accident, not suicide, but Paul doesn’t buy it and knows she’s just trying to comfort him. Johnny sees Peggy and tells her he’s through running and hopes they can be friends. Paul’s grief is compounded by his guilt. Stephen tries to get him to see that, even if Robin committed suicide, it was because of her mental illness not because of him. Sarah feels guilty too but Paul tells Sarah that Robin’s death was not her fault. Sarah later confesses to Stephen that some of her guilt feelings come because she is indeed in love with Paul though he doesn’t know it. Johnny decides to go back to college and then medical school. He wants to live at home because he’s sick of the road and Paul needs him while grieving Robin. Tracy Delmar shows up at Cedars, fresh off the bus, looking for Sarah. She learns that Sarah is out of town and goes to find a hotel to stay in. A bitter Joe returns from vacation and promises Ed he’s not going to make life easy for him.

-11/1/67 thru 11/30/67. Johnny decides to go away to college but before he leaves he helps Peggy move into her nurse’s dorm room. Tracy aggressively pushes a friendship with Peggy. Joe throws his weight around as supervisor until Stephen comes back to work full-time, making life miserable for everyone. Ed tells Leslie about Joe’s mistreatment of him which angers Leslie and she quickly goes to her father to tell him about it. Stephen reprimands Joe and Joe thinks Ed ran to Stephen. Ed realizes it was Leslie and gets angry at her for not letting him fight his own battles. After now having lost two wives, Paul tells Sarah he’s done with romance, will never marry again and figures he’s just one of those people not meant for happiness. This is something Sarah does not want to hear. Tracy goes over to Sarah’s and finally introduces herself as her niece. A lonely Sarah is happy to meet her and quickly takes her in. Paul becomes medical director of Cedars. Joe continues to try to sabotage Ed but now is doing so by subterfuge. Man-hungry Tracy is on the make. Bert regrets talking about the blessings of having a full family in front of Paul and wonders why she often only thinks about herself. 

-12/1/67 thru 12/29/67. Sarah throws a party to introduce Tracy to everybody. Tracy is the life of the party and does the frug for everybody. Sarah enjoys having someone like a daughter around. Paul worries if Tracy has a serious plan for her life. Joe, knowing Ed is a hothead, plays it cool and tries to get under Ed’s skin so that he’ll lose his temper and Joe can play the victim and make Ed look like the bad guy. Leslie points this out to Ed but Ed says he’s aware of the game that Joe is playing. Even though he’s aware, Ed still plays into Joe’s hands and Stephen and Paul are becoming aware of Ed’s outbursts and not how Joe is inciting them. Tracy has her sights on Joe. A patient of Ed’s dies when he was supposed to be on duty but had left. He left because Joe had offered to cover his shift but later Joe claims he didn’t hear Ed accept his offer. Matters are made worse by the fact that Ed forgot to sign out when he left because he was so upset, much to Joe’s delight. Joe tells Stephen and Paul that he didn’t know Ed was leaving but Ed tells them that Joe knew. Stephen and Paul don’t know who to believe but Ed’s anger is not helping his case. Bill reaches out to help Ed but can’t do much for him. Meta surprises the Bauers with a Christmas visit. Paul decides not to censure Ed but Stephen makes Joe and Ed promise to leave their bickering out of the hospital. Tracy and Johnny meet. Meta goes to see Paul and reassures him that he’s not responsible for Robin’s suicide, that she understands because she had blamed herself for Kathy and Robin’s problems but she realized we can’t blame ourselves for other peoples’ unhappiness. She tells Paul that he should realize that Robin “was born in tragedy, lived in tragedy and died in tragedy”. Robin could never be happy because tragedy stalked her just like it did her mother Kathy. Leslie asks Bert if she can call her “Mom” and Bert is touched. Ed and Leslie’s dinner with Bill and Bert is ruined by Ed’s antagonism toward Bill. He’s angry because Bill has talked Bert into quitting her job at Cedars. Ed tells Leslie he’s afraid of alcohol because of what it did to his father. Leslie tells Ed not to be afraid of anything. Sarah announces she’s thinking about moving back to Chicago when her research grant runs out and Paul offers her a permanent job at Cedars. Bill tells Papa that Ed is a “rebel without a cause” and he’s worried that his anger will destroy his life. Bert and Meta catch up over coffee. Paul and Johnny discuss Anne. Johnny notes the irony of Paul closing up the clinic to become medical director at Cedars when that was what Anne wanted all along and was the bone of contention between them. Now that Johnny is going to med school, he thinks he might want to open those clinic doors again for himself. Paul is shocked at the things Johnny is saying.