FAQ: Part 1
General Questions
Last Modified July 29, 1998Please send any and all complaints, gripes or updates to mccb AT idt DOT net.
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FAQ: Part 1General QuestionsLast Modified July 29, 1998 |
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Please send any and all complaints, gripes or updates to mccb AT idt DOT net. |
The location of Springfield is kept intentionally vague. On the 60th anniversary radio broadcast, it was stated simply that Springfield is situated "somewhere in the Midwest." Addressed envelopes rarely, if ever, include a state, although they do sometimes include a Chicago ZIP code. Some say the name Springfield was chosen because there is a Springfield in every U.S. state. My guess is that the writers keep Springfield's location vague so they can play fast & loose with geography as it suits the stories & their moods. For example, here are some contradictory things we know about GL's Springfield:
As you can see, it's truly an exercise in futility to try to pinpoint Springfield. I think we just need to accept that it's a mythical, mobile, Midwestern town. [MC]
Cross Creek (a ficticious setting) is located in Oklahoma, near Tulsa, where the Lewises are originally from. The caretaker's name is Otis.
The Bauer cabin is somewhere in a rural area around Springfield, presumably in those mythical Midwestern mountains.
Brandon Spaulding and Sharina Tamerlaine met when they were both children (do you all remember that charming "flashback" of little Brandon on the beach with his true love before he was scheduled to return home). Victoria Tamerlaine was conceived when Brandon was in Barbados (I'm not quite sure if this was before or after he married Penelope, but it was around the time Alan and Alex were born), but was raised by her mother and a Mr. Tamerlaine (I think the mother and Tamerlaine were related somehow, though not by marriage). When Alex arrived at the Tamerlaine estate and saw Brandon - Bev's faint is scorched in my memory- neither Victoria nor Alex knew of the other's existence, nor did Victoria know that Brandon was her father (Fletcher had seen Brandon but couldn't get him to admit his identity, so he managed to convince Alex to come to Barbados, obviously not telling her the real reason why he wanted her there). Anyhow, the two of them had a very long talk during which Brandon tried to explain everything. Then there was that wonderful scene between Alex and Victoria in the Tamerlaine drawing room - the best part was when Alex and Victoria were standing in front of the mirror and Alex says (approx) "I think I can see the family resemblance." The two women were obviously close to the same age. Thus, not only would it be believable for Victoria to have a teenage daughter, but would also indicate that she had the child somewhat late in life.
Also, does anyone remember when Brandon and his real wife actually died on the Balcony at the Tamerlaine estate together? It was sunset, the wind was blowing, Brandon took her hand and quietly closed his eyes. Then Sharina looked at him, smiled, and peacefully passed on. Then, Victoria enters asking for mother and father, sees that they're gone, and well, I cried - it was so beautiful. Another great scene was the one in which Victoria caught Fletcher and Claire having a moonlight "swim" in her bath, and shall we say, was NOT amused. :)
I guess you all can tell that I really enjoyed this storyline despite the fact that we all saw Lucille Wexler hold the emergency call button in Brandon's hospital room so that he'd flatline before he could call for help (does anyone else miss Rita Lloyd as much as I do).
I hope my love of the classic Spauldings (i.e. before Alex's backbone was stolen and Alan lost a dimension) hasn't clouded my memory of this storyline. [HB]
See also, Who is Susan Piper?
Roger had an affair with Hart's mother, Laura Jessup, who was also an agent in The Agency. Roger has claimed that Laura was the true love of his life, though devotees of Roger/Holly history would debate that. Agency business took Roger & Laura in opposite directions & Roger never found out she was pregnant. Laura died in the line of duty and Hart was raised by his grandfather.
We met Hart when Roger was buying up property in Springfield [using the late John Davis as his front man], and conned Grandpa Jessup out of his land. The grandfather had a heart attack and died when he found out he had unwittingly signed away his land. Hart eventually found out what Roger did from Ross Marler, and confronted Roger about it. Roger did not know he was Hart's father, and the revelation came as he was on his way to Mindy's bedside after she miscarried their baby. Roger never made it to Mindy, and so she dumped him. Meanwhile, Roger's contention (to Hart and to everyone) was that everything he does (good/bad/indifferent) is for his children.
To this day Hart hates Roger because of the grandfather's death, and the fact that Roger never really trusted him. Hart is the father of Roger's oldest grandchild, Peter. Hart left town (not knowing that he had a son) after his then-rival for the heart (and toe-shoes) of Julie Camaletti, Dylan Lewis, bought his farm, which had been put up for auction for back taxes. Roger mistakenly believed that Hart attempted to "put the moves on" his then-wife, Jenna, after Hart caught Jenna and Buzz in some compromising positions, and Jenna lied about it. Roger chose to believe Jenna over Hart, but now knows the truth. He was looking for Hart during the initial phases of the custody trial for Peter, but Hart managed to skip town before Roger got to him. Hart returned to town a few years later, learned about his son, and then hooked up with Roger's latest wife, Dinah, in yet another attempt to stick it to "Dads." [DVW, LK, MC]
Michelle's biological mother is Claire Ramsey, who was a doctor at Cedars. Somehow she and Ed ended up in war-torn Beirut along with Fletcher and Maureen. Ed and Claire (who thought Fletch and Mo were dead) ended up making love, Ed pretending that Claire was Mo and Claire pretending that Ed was Fletch. Claire found out she was pregnant, Ed and Claire discovered that Mo and Fletch were alive, and all returned to Springfield. After Michelle was born, Claire decided she would be better off if Mo and Ed raised her. She gave up custody of Michelle and left town. Yes, Michelle knows Mo wasn't her real mother, and had extreme anxiety during Peter's custody trial that Claire might return to try to claim her.
When Claire found out she was pregnant, she initially thought the baby was Fletcher's, but it turned out that Fletcher had had a vasectomy after losing a daughter, so he knew he couldn't be the father. Nevertheless, he had a test to make sure his vasectomy wasn't letting anything by, and the test showed that he was indeed sterile. After Holly became pregnant, Fletcher was tested again, and this time the test showed that the vasectomy had reversed itself. While it's always possible that the writers will rewrite past history at some point in the future, right now, it seems unlikely that Fletcher is Michelle's biological father.
While married to Ed, Holly had an affair with Roger and became pregnant. The baby, Christina, was born prematurely and was Roger's biological child (even though Ed and Holly tried to raise her as their own). After much drama (see Kent's history about Roger/Holly/Ed), Roger was presumed dead, and Holly and Christina moved to Europe. Several years later, Blake Lindsey arrived in Springfield and no one realized who she was. She worked for Alan Spaulding at Spaulding Enterprises as a tough-as-nails PR person. She also got involved with Ed's cousin Johnny Bauer who eventually figured out she was really "Christina Thorpe." By that time, everyone in town had gotten to know her as Blake. Roger still calls her "Chrissy." [SA]
Time: June 1986. India is serving time at the Stony Lake Reform School (or something like that), doing community service work for embezzling funds from the Spaulding Foundation (talk about being soft on crime!) While there, she meets Dorie Smith, approximately 11 years old, who is a brat and tries to get India in trouble at every turn. Surprisingly, India starts to have maternal feelings for Dorie. About the same time, a stranger pops up at Company. She is Dinah Morgan, a 17-year-old runaway who has lived her entire life on the road with a circus/carnival. We soon learn that Dinah is searching for her foster sister Adelle, who she hasn't seen in years. All Dinah can remember about Adelle is that she has a birthmark in the shape of a butterfly. Of course, Dorie turned out to be Adelle, and she and Dinah were reunited. The whole story was kind of lame, I can see why people didn't remember it.
But there was more to come: Vanessa went to visit her Aunt Grace, who was getting senile and forgetting things, like birthday cards. While there, Grace told Vanessa that she knew where Vanessa's adopted daughter was. We found out that as a teenager, Vanessa had been pregnant and had gone to stay with her aunt during the summer, while she told Henry she was in Europe. Vanessa had the baby and gave her up for adoption. Grace gave Vanessa the name and address of the couple who had adopted her baby, who lived in Springfield (how convenient). Vanessa went to the house and discovered that the couple no longer lived there; in fact they had been dead for some time. However, their stuff was still in the attic. Vanessa looked through it and found a birthday card from Calla and Gordon Matthews. For a while, Vanessa thought that Jessie Matthews was her daughter. When Jessie and Simon got in trouble in San Rios, Ross and Johnny went down there to help them. At the last minute, Vanessa came running across the runway and told Ross that Jessie was their daughter (that must have been on a Friday). Ross, who was involved with Calla, simply asked her if Jessie was adopted. The answer: no. As it turned out, Gordon's sister and her husband had been the couple that adopted Vanessa's baby. When they died in a car accident, Gordon turned the baby girl over to an adoption agency.
Shelley and Joe, a gypsy-like fortune teller and a con man who had been with Dinah in the carnival, came to town and tried to get Dinah to come back with them. Somehow (and this is where my mind goes blank, folks) they tricked Grace into telling them that Dinah was Vanessa's daughter. They kidnapped Dinah and demanded that Vanessa pay big bucks for her. When Vanessa arrived at Stony Lake with the money, Joe kidnapped her, too. Ross and the police swooped in and saved the day after Dinah gave Ross a clue as to their whereabouts during a ransom phone call. Afterwards, Dinah lived with Ross for awhile. Now, an editorial: Dinah had a pretty good relationship with Ross. She didn't blame him for abandoning her, since he never knew of her existence. Ditto for Henry. At first, Dinah was wary of Vanessa and didn't like her much. Then the show changed writers and all was suddenly forgiven. [DJ]
Then a few years went by, the show changed writers a few more times, and they forgot that all had been forgiven when Dinah returned from Europe. Of course, it's all been forgiven again. No harm, no foul. [MC]
Bridget Reardon and Hart Jessup are Peter's biological mother and father. When Bridget became pregnant, she decided that she couldn't tell her Uncle Ed and Aunt Maureen. Nadine, who was then married to Billy Lewis, found out, and hatched a plan to pretend she was pregnant, while Bridget lived in the attic of the Lewis home. They told Ed & Mo that Bridget was in the Appalachian Mountains on a research mission for a college class. Peter was born in the back seat of a car, with David's help. They took Peter home to Nadine, and when Billy arrived, told Billy that the child was born at home. Bridget stayed on as the nanny. Vanessa had become suspicious, and the (then) newly-returned Buzz knew that Nadine was not pregnant. They confronted Nadine with the truth in front of Billy. When Billy and Nadine divorced, Billy retained custody of Peter, and remarried Vanessa. Vanessa found out that Bridget was Peter's mother, and when Billy accidentally found out that Hart was Peter's father, he shot Roger (to keep Roger from gaining custory of the child). Billy went to jail, and Vanessa and Bridget fought for custody of the child. After a bitter custory battle, the two of them finally decided that it would be best to share custody of Peter. Vanessa divorced Billy and later married Bridget's brother, Matt.
Leo, played by Robert LuPone (brother of Patti) is Roger's lawyer. Leo used to be the Springfield DA, and when the current senator died, Leo was appointed in his place. Leo then appointed Ross DA in his place. When the dead senator's term was over, Leo & Ross both ran for the spot. Ross won, but gave up his seat because of the "scandal" of being involved with Blake. Judge Collier was then appointed to Ross's Senate seat instead. This storyline was when Roger first came into contact with Leo. Roger really wanted Ross to lose, so he backed Leo in the race & tried to pull some dirty tricks on Ross. For a long time, this was what Roger held over Leo's head to get Leo to do his bidding. Of course, Leo and Roger turned out to be simpatico (and Roger pays very well), so Leo has been doing Roger's bidding ever since.
Josh's wives: Sonni Carrera, from Venezeula; Reva Shayne and Annie Dutton. Josh was also engaged to Harley Cooper after Reva's supposed death, and also had an affair with Tangie Hill.
Jenna, the daughter of a poor British woman, was looking for her absentee father. The guy apparently had knocked up mom and left. The only clue she had was a photo of a car w/partial license plate and she knew he was a "Chicago businessman." Henry Chamberlain recognized the car in the photograph as Brandon Spaulding's. This didn't mean Brandon was Jenna's father, rather it meant Jenna's dad was the swindled inventor of technology the Spaulding fortune was built on. Jenna was owed something like 25% of Spaulding's worth. To throw her off the trail, Henry (ever the loyal company man!) stepped forward as "dad." Jenna and Vanessa became friends. Eventually the truth came out, and Jenna & Roger won control of Spaulding. Later, the document proving that Jenna's father had been properly compensated for his invention came to light and the Spauldings regained their family company.
Jenna was married to Roger and miscarried his child. She later became pregnant by Buzz Cooper and gave birth to Henry Cooper Bradshaw. She is currently married to a thief named Jeffrey, but her love for Buzz is bound to win out.
Rick's mother was Leslie Jackson Bauer. She divorced Ed in 1971 and married his brother Mike in 1973. In 1976, Leslie died as a result of a car accident. According to the GL 50th anniv book, "...Spence (Jeffers) followed Ann (Jeffers) to Mike's house, and in an alcoholic rage, punched mike and knocked him out cold. Spence fled the scene in a panic, pulling out of the driveway so fast that he ran over Leslie, who had just arrived home. Ann called ambulances for both Mike and Leslie and they were rushed to Cedars.
"Mike regained consciousness, but Leslie had severe injuries and needed surgery. After the operation, Leslie told Mike to tell Freddy (a.k.a. Rick) that he would grow into a fine man like his father and uncle. She smiled weakly, told Mike that he had been a wonderful husband, and quietly died."
Meta is the daughter of Mama and Papa Bauer and a sister to Bill and Trudy Bauer. She is also a sister-in-law to Bert Bauer. And of course this makes her Rick and Michelle's great-aunt. She left town around 1975 and did not return until 1996. Back in 1985ish she was mentioned because when Cherita Bauer (Bert) was ill in real life her character went to take care of Meta, who was said to be ill. Bert died while staying with Meta. When Meta left Springfield, she was married to Dr. Bruce Banning, but he has not been mentioned since her return. Maybe he's dead, or maybe they divorced. Meta had one son, Chuckie, but he died in childhood.
Zachary's origins were never really explained, but the general consensus is that he was an angel derived from the spirit of a man who loved a woman named Mary Bauer many years ago. Originally, his mission in Springfield was to help Lucy & Alan-Michael, but management changed his direction more often than they changed their underwear.
Mary Bauer was a cousin of Meta's. Michelle apparently looks exactly like her. Zachary was in love with Mary. Meta recognized Zachary, but initially thought he was the grandson of the Zachary who loved Mary. Zachary is attracted to Michelle because she reminds him of Mary. Something tragic happened between Zachary & Mary, but that's about all we ever found out. It's really better to try to forget the whole thing.
AM is the son of Ed's niece Hope and Alan Spaulding. Hope's father is Ed's brother Mike. So Ed is AM's great-uncle. (Also see the family trees in FAQ part 3.)
Alexandra ran away with concert pianist Eric Luvonocek when she was in her teens. She gave birth to twin boys, Brandon (nicknamed Lujack) and Nick, but didn't raise either one of them. Lujack showed up in Springfield as a troublemaker, but reformed and fell in love with Beth Raines. He was killed as the result of an explosion on a boat. Unbeknownst to Alex, Lujack had a twin brother that Eric sold to Kip and Mary McHenry to raise as their own after their newborn son died. (Mary and Alex were in the hospital at the same time.) Fast-forward 25 years later: Mindy was in New York and spotted "Lujack" in a hotel (it was Nick). She finally made friends with Nick, and he followed her to Springfield. After a long time, Alexandra finally saw Nick, and was immediately convinced that he was her son. By this time, Nick and Mindy had started a relationship. The fact that Alex's marriage to Roger was broken up (in part) by Roger's affair with Mindy did not help matters between Nick and Alex. With Frank's help, Alex tracked down Eric (drunk and washed up in a Paris apartment), and Eric broke down and told her the real story. Nick was still not convinced. Alex wanted a DNA test, but Nick refused. After awhile, he decided to take the test. In the meantime, Mindy discovered a picture of Mary McHenry looking quite shapely and decidely un-pregnant in a bathing suit, dated one month before Nick's "birth." The DNA tests showed a match between Alex and Nick. Mindy snuck into Cedars and changed the results of the DNA test. Alex and Nick finally discovered the truth, and Alex offered Nick the world (including a seat on the Spaulding board of directors). [SA & DVW]
Mallet was a cop in NYC who went undercover to catch a mobster. He fell in love with the mobster's daughter, Francesca, whom he called Chella [she of the large brown eyes], put her brother away, and made her father a bitter enemy. The father in turn set up a bomb in a car and Mallet thought the love of his life died in it. He was given a new identity and his family thought he was dead. He ended up in Springfield, and was brought into the show by the then assistant DA Lisa Dravecky, working as a P.I. investigating Phillip Spaulding's "death" (during the Neil Everest murder investigation). AC was continually blaming himself for Chella's death. Chella thought Tony was dead. Chella ended up in Springfield when she accompanied her aunt there for an operation (all the hospitals in NY and they had to come to Springfield?). The father followed. In the meantime, AC found Chella in a church, and they started meeting in secret. Roger was in business with her father, and having figured out that this thorn in his side "AC Mallet" was in fact (A)nthony (C)a(Mallet)i [AC and Mindy had become good friends during the Phillip investigation, and at the same time Rog and Mindums were having their affair], sold Mallet out when the time was right. To settle things, Chella decided to marry the son of one of her father's "business" associates. As they left Springfield for NYC, her father had Mallet beaten to a pulp. Mallet and Mindy followed them to NYC, but reached the church just as the wedding ended. AC wanted to know why Chella went through with it, but just as the limo with the newlyweds drove off, another big black car drove up, and released Julie. AC wanted to know why Julie was in the car, and she told him some men had picked her up while she was on her way to dance class. Julie lived with their father and step-mother, and wasn't comfortable there. She was just supposed to live in Springfield for the summer, but then got permission to stay permanently. [VSW/DP/DVW]
Mallet's real name was Anthony Camaletti, and his sister was Julie Camaletti. Julie called him Tony, Frank called him AC, and just about everyone else called him Mallet. Mallett is married to Buzz and Nadine's daughter Harley. They went to Florida on their honeymoon, and decided to stay there.
Josh Lewis married Sonni Carrera in Venezuela. Her twin sister, Solita, had committed suicide as a teenager after her father brutally beat her because he thought she had slept with a priest (Will Jeffries, known then as Guillermo), when it actually was Sonni. This caused Sonni to go off the deep end and sometimes she was (the good) Sonni and sometimes (the "evil", well OK Kent, "misguided") Solita. Will followed Sonni to Springfield, and encouraged her "Solita" side to emerge, in order to get to Josh's money. [DP]
[Sonni *was* also the object of Prof. Kent Boklan's affection, but she seems to be challenged for his heart by RoboMercinary, George.]
She was Tony and Annabelle Reardon's chain-smoking real estate agent. (I remember Donald posting a rather intriguing description of her once; perhaps he saved it?) [SA]
[Here's a note from Donald.] Susan was played by Carrie Nye, who is Dick Cavett's real-life wife. Susan was ugly and lecherous -- long stringy dirty grey/blond hair, she SMOKED -- always taking LONG drags on the cigarette, had an old southern accent, not pretty at all -- and she was EVIL! all of these being WONDERFULLY portrayed -- and making a FABULOUS character who I miss very much... she met her demise by falling into into a lava pit in Barbados (but since they NEVER FOUND THE BODY, there's still hope!).
[And from Dale, a summary of Susan Piper's plot.] The characters involved in this heinous story were: Tony and Annabelle Reardon, Jim Reardon and Hillary Bauer, Fletcher Reade and Claire Ramsey,Susan Piper and her sidekick John Young, and Piper's mysterious "boss", whose face we never saw. Tony and Annabelle bought a cottage through Piper Realty, but it was mistakenly sold by a realtor employed there. In reality, Piper was being paid by a mysterious man to take care of the cottage and to make sure that no one went near it. So Piper set out to terrorize Tony and Annabelle at every turn to get the cottage back.
Meanwhile, Annabelle was having psychic visions and feeling cold spots in the house. There was lots of weird stuff going on, like secret rooms hidden behind the paneling, strange Caribbean voodoo artifacts, and a painting that cried real tears. Finally, Annabelle realized that sometime in the past, a murder had taken place in the cottage. She had dreams about a black man and a little black girl who was screaming. (I'm not making this up!!)
Jim, Hillary, Fletcher, and Claire gradually got drawn into the mystery because of Piper's wicked dealings. Piper, who didn't know who her boss" was, was also trying to find out the cottage's secret so she could blackmail him.She tried to frighten Tony and Annabelle out of the cottage by sending them a bomb in a music box, but Hillary wound up dead after she toyed with the box. The key to the whole mystery was some papers hidden inside an old doll,which proved who Piper's "boss" was.
Eventually, everyone ended up in Barbados, where Piper tried to kill them all. Jim fell in love with Annabelle and Tony was jealous. Fletcher and Claire were set adrift in a boat in a storm, but they survived. Piper kidnapped Jim and Annabelle and Tony came to their rescue. Piper met her presumed demise when she fell into a pit of lava (or something like that.)
After Piper's "death", everyone gathered at a sugar plantation where they met Victoria Tamerlaine and her aged mother Sharina, who lived with (surprise!!) Piper's mysterious boss. Fletcher, ace reporter that he is, guessed the truth and brought Alex to Barbados, where she immediately recognized Piper's boss as her dead father Brandon, and she promptly fainted dead away on the spot.
The story: 40 years before, Brandon had an affair with Sharina, and they had a child, Victoria. Knowing that society would never accept their mixed-race marriage, Brandon planned to move Sharina and Victoria from the cottage to Barbados. But Brandon's wife found out about the affair,and came to the cottage with a gun. She had just given birth to Alan (so Alex IS older!!), and she was very weak. She tried to shoot Sharina, but Sharina's brother Conrad took the bullet as little Victoria screamed. Conrad died on the floor of the cottage, while Brandon's wife (I think Penelope was her name) collapsed after the shooting and died shortly thereafter. Brandon whisked Sharina and Victoria away to Barbados, promising to join them when he could. Later he faked his death (Ha!) and hired Piper to look after the cottage.
After this story was told, Brandon and Sharina died on the same day, and Alex and Victoria vowed to be sisters forever. Alex left and we have not heard Victoria's name since.
This story was lame because it cheated: Brandon died on camera in a nursing home a few years earlier, as Lucille Wexler watched.
Four. Mindy was married to Phillip Spaulding (divorced), Kurt Corday (deceased, accident on the Venezuelan oil fields) and Will Jeffries (deceased, cliff diving). [DP]
She was most recently married to Nick Spaulding, but they also got divorced.
After the departure of Harley and Mallet, TPTB (the powers that be) decided that we couldn't live without a resident super-cop/skeptic (that Macauley West creature dosen't count). So, direct from Chicago comes tall, cynical, soup-eatin', on-the-make, Pat Cutter. We assume that he is single, but his past is clouded with some secrecy, as Alexandra alluded to his being "disappointed" in the past. She's checked into something, but we don't know what she found out. He had a wicked crush on Tangie, but it never went anywhere. Cutter was hot on the trail of cross-dressing serial killer Brent Lawrence [aka Marian Crane] when said cross-dressing serial killer bumped him off with a knife in the chest.
The Four Musketeers were Phillip, Beth, Rick and Mindy. They started calling themselves this in high school when Rick was with Beth and Phillip was with Mindy. Then it all changed around and the New York trip was in there and Phillip had to marry Mindy because she was pregnant and then Lujack entered the picture & won Beth's heart.
"Blue skies & palomino ponies" was the toast that the Four Musketeers always drank to.
Dylan and Harley were teenage lovers and Harley ended up pregnant. [note: neither the Dylan or Harley characters were on the show at the time] AM delivered the baby, Daisy, in the back seat of a car. Harley gave the baby up for adoption. At one point, they found out who was raising Daisy and thought about trying to get custody. They got to see her by getting Samantha Marler to babysit for the couple. They finally realized that she would be better off with her adoptive parents, the LeMays. [SA] A few years later, Dylan underwent surgery to donate part of his pancreas to Susan to help control a rare form of diabetes. The parents still refused to allow Dylan to see the child.
Mindy & Nick separated after Nick started playing the Spaulding power game & put it ahead of his relationship with Mindy. They got back together again when the chance to adopt a baby came up, but Nick nixed the adoption when he realized that Mindy wanted the baby more than she wanted him. They realized their relationship was over & agreed to a divorce. Mindy went to Milan to revitalize her fashion business & never returned.
Nick met & fell in love with Susan, who is HIV-positive, after she took a PR job at Spaulding. She resisted him at first, thinking he just felt sorry for her, but he finally convinced her that he really loved her. Nick & Susan were good friends with AM & Lucy, and were also involved in the Brent/Marian story. Marian attacked Susan when she was taking a shower in Lucy's bathroom, then turned on the gas. Susan passed out & went into a coma, but she came out of it on New Year's Eve. That's when Nick proposed to her.
Shortly before their wedding, Susan discovered a lesion that was diagnosed as Kaposi's sarcoma, so she now has active AIDS. They decided to take an extended honeymoon, traveling Europe, so that they could enjoy whatever time they had together. They went off into the sunset, but returned briefly just before GL's 60th anniversary. They tried to convince Alexandra to come to Europe with them, but she said no. Susan is taking the new protease inhibitors & her AIDS is apparently in remission.
Ross and Blake have been married since June 1994. Before that, they were together for 2 years. When Amanda returned to Springfield, she had the hots for Ross & tried to break up him & Blake. At this time, Blake was trying to get pregnant, but wasn't having any luck. Ross didn't believe that Amanda was a threat to their marriage, but he got so fed up with Blake's obsession about Amanda that he went up to the Bauer cabin to think things out. Amanda followed him up there and started coming on to him big time.
Blake also went up to the cabin & saw Ross & Amanda kissing. She got so upset that she went back to Springfield and got drunk in a bar. Rick ran into her there & took her home. At this time, Rick was also very upset because Annie had told him there was no way they were getting back together. (Rick & Annie used to be married.)
Blake & Rick both had a lot more to drink back at the Marler house, and they had a one-night stand. The next morning, Ross came home & apologized to Blake, admitting that she was right about Amanda's evil intentions. He & Blake reconciled & made love in the shower. She never told Ross that she & Rick had slept together.
A few weeks later, Blake discovered that she was pregnant. It turned out that she was pregnant with twins, and since the conception date was right around the time when she slept with Rick, she secretly had a test done to find out if the twins were Ross's or Rick's. It turned out that one baby was Ross's and one was Rick's, which is medically possible.
At first, Blake lied to Rick that her twins were identical & were both Ross's. But Annie knew the truth & she told Rick. Rick agreed to keep it a secret.
Blake gave birth to the twins up at the Bauer cabin, with the help of both Ross & Rick. Jason had to be delivered by Caesarean section, and needed a transfusion after he was born. Ross's blood matched Jason's, so Blake & Rick both assume that Jason is Ross's son, making Kevin Rick's son.
When Blake & the twins were in a car accident and baby Kevin was seriously hurt, Rick blurted out that Kevin was his son. After he performed surgery that saved Kevin's life, he told Ross the truth.
Ross took it very hard & separated from Blake. He started divorce proceedings, but Blake has fought him every step of the way because she wants to save their marriage. Ross agreed to hold off on the divorce and right now they look like they might be starting to get close again.
Josh & Reva have known each other since they were children. Reva's mom, Sarah, was the Lewis housekeeper in Tulsa, where they both grew up. When Josh went off to college, he broke Reva's heart & she turned to Billy. When she was about 16, they conceived a child together (Dylan), who Reva gave up for adoption. Later, Reva & Billy married, and even later, they divorced. All of this took place before any of the characters came to Springfield.
Josh was estranged from his family & came to Springfield to work at Spaulding. He was a pretty slick operator back then, and had affairs with Morgan Nelson and Carrie Marler. Alan Spaulding brought Reva to Springfield to break up Billy & Vanessa, but it didn't work. This is when Reva & Josh met up again.
For some reason, Reva wound up marrying Josh's father, H.B., causing Josh to get so upset that he ran his car into a tree & was paralyzed from the waist down. He eventually recovered from this, but Reva & Josh were still star-crossed. Josh's presumed-dead wife, Sonni, showed up & was involved in a plot to try to kill him. Reva got involved with Billy's half-brother, Kyle Sampson, and they would have been married, but Reva got hit with a car. Reva was also involved with Alan Spaulding for a time, and he married her while she was deleriously ill in the hospital. (She thought she was marrying Josh & when she awoke to find she was married to Alan, they got an annulment.)
Eventually, Reva & Josh found their way back to each other. They had a daughter, Marah, before they were married (Reva thought for awhile that Marah was Kyle's daughter). After their marriage, they had Shayne. Then Reva suffered a horrible post-partum psychosis which ended in her driving her car off an incomplete bridge. Her body was never found & she was presumed dead for 5 years.
While she was "dead," Josh fell in love with Harley Cooper, and got engaged to her. Then he got some evidence that Reva might be alive, so he broke the engagement & went off to Italy in search of Reva. Eventually he gave up & came back to Springfield, followed by Tangie Hill. They were involved for a time, but it didn't work out. Then Josh met Annie & got engaged to her.
Meanwhile, we learned that Reva was alive & living in an Amish-type community in Goshen. She had lost her memory & went by the name Rebecca. She ran into Alan Spaulding with her horse & buggy, injuring him, so she brought him back to her community & cared for him. Eventually, he helped her remember who she was & she went back to Springfield with him. When she saw that Josh & Annie & the kids were so happy together, she didn't want to screw it up, so she was going to leave town with Alan. But Alexandra found out that she was alive & announced it at Josh & Annie's wedding.
Reva was determined to let Josh & Annie have their life together, because she felt it was best for the kids. So she married Buzz Cooper to convince Josh that she really didn't love him anymore. So Josh married Annie after all. But Annie was always paranoid that Josh really wanted Reva, and this paranoia led her to drugs and later to passing herself off as Reva's long-lost sister & having herself artificially inseminated and passing the baby off as Josh's. When her fetus died, Annie staged a fall down the Spaulding staircase, making it look as if Reva had pushed her. The truth came out at trial and Josh & Reva were finally reunited.
When A-M and Harley first got together, it wasn't really a love match. They decided to get married so that they could get A-M's trust fund. He couldn't get the trust fund until either he turned 25 or got married, whichever came first. So they decided to get married. Alexandra and Phillip tried to break them up because they thought Harley was just a fortune hunter. At this point in time, Phillip and Alex had orchestrated a hostile takeover of Spaulding and ousted Alan. Phillip was in the middle of one of his dark, manipulative periods. He was determined that Harley would not get some of the Spaulding fortune. So he pretended to befriend Harley. But slowly he started to realize that there was more to Harley than met the eye. He couldn't help but like her. I remember one scene where he was telling Harley about Beth. At this point everyone thought that Beth was dead. He told Harley that she kind of reminded him of Beth. Not in looks, and not really in temperment either. But they both had this refreshing way of telling it like it is, calling a spade a spade. At one point, Harley asked Phillip to teach her etiquette so she wouldn't embarrass herself at dinner parties.
Harley and A-M got married and then got divorced. Meanwhile Phillip and Blake married, Beth came back to life. Phillip and Blake got divorced. In fact both couples got divorced on the same day. The day after Neil Everest was killed, A-M and Blake got married. They had been having an affair while both couples were separated. Through all of this, Harley and Phillip remained friends.
The night before Phillip, Beth and Rick faked Phillip's death so that he could avoid prosecution for Neil Everest's murder, they were at the Country Club. The plan was for Phillip to pretend to get drunk, fight with Beth, take off in his car and fake a car crash. Harley happened to be at the CC that night and saw Phillip getting drunk. She went up to their table and Phillip exclaimed, "Harley, my favorite ex-sister-in- law". She asked him to dance and proceeded to rake him over the coals for treating Beth this way. After all, she was pregnant at the time. They had a heart to heart and he asked her to be there for A-M when Blake inevitably would hurt him. Then he took off and crashed his car and "died".
Fast forward to Phillip coming back to life, Lizzie was born, Gary Swanson is proven guilty for Neil's murder. Phillip, Beth and Rick receive a sentence of Community Service for obstruction of justice during the Neil Everest murder investigation. The court sentences Beth and Phillip to do their Community Service out of town so that they can't use their Spaulding connections in Springfield. They opt for Arizona. Rick decides to leave town to do his community service also. Rick leaves town first. After he leaves, Phillip and Beth get married. The day after their wedding, Phillip's sister Samantha Marler has surgery to enable her to walk again. Phillip and Beth stick around long enough to make sure the surgery goes ok.
The night before they leave town, everyone (Phillip, Beth, A-M, Harley, Alex, Ross, Justin, Lillian...) goes to the Country Club for a goodbye celebration. At one point Phillip turns to Harley and says "Look Harley, there's dancing", and drags her out onto the dance floor. She tries to refuse the dance saying, "The last time I danced with you, you turned up dead the next morning". At this time Harley was trying to get over her broken engagement to Josh Lewis. He had left town to go to Italy to search for Reva. Billy and Sarah both thought they had seen Reva on a TV travelogue show on Italy. Meanwhile, A-M had found out that Blake had faked her pregnancy (which was the main reason that A-M had married her), and he divorced Blake. Anyway, while Harley and Phillip were dancing, he says that the last time they danced together he asked her to take care of A-M. "Now I'm asking you to let him take care of you", he says, realizing how much she's hurting over her breakup from Josh.
Phillip and Beth leave town. Five years later Phillip returns. Then Harley returns and the writers actually remember that the two of them are friends. I think that Harley is the one person that could make Phillip forget Beth. And I think that there is tremendous chemistry between Beth Ehlers and Grant Aleksander.
Every previous romance Harley has had on the show (with the possible exception of Dylan) has started out as an adversarial relationship. Harley and Dylan's relationship occurred largely offscreen since the first day she was on the show, she went into labor and gave birth to Dylan's child, Daisy. A-M and Dinah were seeing each other when they met Harley. They literally ran into Frank's car with A-M's motorcycle. Harley gave birth to Daisy in the back seat with Dinah delivering the baby. A-M and Harley did not like each other at first.
With Josh, Harley was hired to be Marah and Shayne's nanny shortly before Reva died. The sparks flew between Harley and Josh from the beginning. With Mallet, the sparks also flew. For some reason that I'm having a little trouble remembering, Mallet and A-M needed to get Harley out of town because she had stumbled upon a mystery involving Roger, one of his CIA buddy's and some kind of drug that she had accidently been given. It was some kind of case that Mallet had been working on. A-M was involved because he had discovered that Roger (who was married to Alex at the time) was embezzling Spaulding money. I think he had hired Mallet to solve the case. Harley had stumbled upon the mess somehow and Roger's henchman thought she knew more than she did. Oh wait I remember, A-M asked for her help with the computer because she was better with computers than A-M was. So she put a password on the document. So Roger and his henchman drugged her with a truth serum to get her to tell them the password, which if I recall correctly was "paydirt".
At first A-M and Mallet thought she betrayed them. But she broke into Roger's office and found the drug they had used on her. She gave it to Mallet and A-M. So they decide to send her out of town against her will. They (A-M and Mallet) "kidnapped" her and put her on the Spaulding yaght and sent her out to sea on what they called a vacation. But she didn't like sailing and spent the whole time seasick. Eventually, she got off the yaght in NYC. Meanwhile, Mallet and A-M had solved the case.
Mallet was then in NYC with Mindy searching for his old love Francesca who had been kidnapped by her father and forced to marry the man he chose for her. Mallet had been beaten up by Francesca's father. He and Mindy got to the church just in time to see Francesca walk out with her new husband. Just then, a limo stopped by Mallet and out walked Mallet's sister Julie, who had been kidnapped by Francesca's father. He had used her to make sure that Francesca would marry what's his name. Realizing he lost Francesca forever (ie, the show had fired Francesca), Mallet took Julie and went to the airport to go back to Springfield. Meanwhile Mindy stayed in NYC for a little while longer and met Nick McHenry. But that's another story.
At the airport, Mallet who was still a little under the weather after the beating by Francesca's father's goons, ran into Harley. Ticked off that Mallet left her on A-M's yaght for a few weeks puking her guts out, Harley hit Mallet, and the fans said, "Well I guess these two are destined to fall in love". Harley eventually joined the police force where Mallet was her instructor, and the rest is history. [SM]
Let me tell you, it's not pretty. Amanda was raised by crazy Lucille Wexler, who was Brandon Spaulding's one-time mistress. Lucille always believed that Amanda was Brandon's child by another liaison, but on his deathbed, he revealed to her that Amanda was really Alan's daughter, by a woman named Jane Marie Stafford. Jane Marie had worked in the Spaulding home as a teen, and she & the teen-age Alan had a love affair. But Jane Marie never told Alan she was pregnant, and Brandon took care of everything.
Jane Marie left town and changed her name to Jennifer. She later married a man named Walter Richards, who died in a car accident in 1980, as they were driving through Springfield. Jennifer & daughter Morgan stayed in town. Lucille, who had been been searching for Jane Marie, finally recognized her in Jennifer. The truth came out, shocking Amanda to the core, and she miscarried the baby she was carrying.
Fast-forward to 1997. Roger learns that Alexandra has secret papers that could bring down the Spauldings. He teams up with Amanda to track them down. The "papers" turn out to be Amanda's birth certificate, which shows her parents to be Brandon Spaulding and Jennifer Richards. Amanda is once again shocked to the core & drives Alexandra out of town for keeping this secret for so many years.
This latest development raises several questions. How could the teen-age Jane Marie have slept with yucky old Brandon when she had the virile young Alan? If she was sleeping with both of them, how can anyone be sure who the father is without a DNA test? And, most important, why is the mother's name on the birth certificate "Jennifer Richards" when this was a name that Jane Marie Stafford took years after giving birth? A writer's slip, apparently, since if it was deliberate, Alan should have caught the error immediately and pronounced the birth certificate a fake. But maybe he prefers to keep the truth to himself, and Amanda's paternity will be switched once again somewhere down the road.
No, but Annie's trying to make it look that way.
Roger swindled Hart's grandfather out of his land. When he found out Hart was his son, he gave the farm back to him. Hart didn't keep up the tax payments, so Dylan bought the farm at action. Roger bought the farm back from Dylan, but Hart had left town by this point. After Dinah & Hart got Roger committed, she got control of Roger's holdings & sold the farm back to Hart for $1.
Roger found out that Peter was his grandson, and conspired to frame Billy Lewis for the shooting at the country club. In a startling, shocking, turn of events, Billy really did shoot Roger! After Billy overheard Briget and Dylan discussing Peter at the engagement party, Billy found out the truth about Peter's parentage. Afraid that Roger would once again make an assault upon his (Billy's) family (Roger had an affair with Mindy, did nothing while the woman who owned the property on which the Towers stands died and then stole the deed, got Gilly to humiliate HB in public, forced Dylan into bankrupcy, stole most of Henry Chamberlain's shares of Spaulding from him in a poker game, etc.), Billy went home, got his gun, shot Roger, and promptly started drinking again. Tangie was the only one who really knew the truth, and was keeping her mouth shut, but in the end, Billy confessed.
Julie was a chick who used to dance with a broom in a treehouse Hart fell in love with, the chick not the broom or the treehouse. Anyway they were both new to the show at the time, Hart was just a few months into learning what it was like being the son of Roger Thorpe, and Julie had moved in with her big brother A.C. Mallet.
There was a great feud brewing between Roger and Mallet back then, so Julie was forbidden to see Hart. Of course we were treated to many sugary sweet scenes of Hart and Julie pining for each other. Then along came Bridget, niece of Maureen who was a good friend to Hart. Bridget started out being Julie's friend and chasing after Dylan, but after Dylan rejected her, Bridget set her sights on Julie's boyfriend Hart.
By then Hart and Julie has successfully waved the flag of true-love in Mallet's face and he agreed to let them date. There existed one problem though, Hart wanted to have sex, Julie wanted to wait. This was fine for awhile, until Julie started confiding her her supposed friend Bridget, who tried to 'help' her by always talking Julie into holding off on sex. Then one night after Julie and Hart had decided they were both ready, Bridget somehow (I can't remember how) clued Julie's brother into their plans. Concerned big brother talked little sister out of her plans. So Julie told Hart she'd changed her mind and decided to hold off again, Hart got mad and stormed off in a huff.
Bridget of course followed Hart, bottle of wine in hand, cosied up to
him, got him drunk and slept with him herself. Now you have to keep
in mind that in their first incarnations, Hart was naive and a bit
clueless (especially when it came to his father), Julie was sweet and
innocent, and Bridget was the wild child that, well just take a look
at poor Ed's hairline.
So after Bridget and Hart slept together, he was very upset, and hungover as I recall, and he begged her to never tell anyone what had happened. She agreed, and immediately told a couple people, can't recall if it was David, Dylan, or both. However Hart told no one and promptly made up with Julie. A couple months later poor Hart's life blew apart all in the same day when Bridget got tired of waiting for Julie and Hart to break up on their own, and went and told Julie that she and Hart had slept together. All the while this was happening, Hart was learning Roger was the one who'd stolen the Jessup farm and had been lying to him since day one. Hart went home where Julie was waiting for him. She chewed him up, spit him out and dumped him. Devastated, Hart left town for parts unknown.
After Hart was gone, Julie got together with Hart's buddy Dylan, which was just fine with Bridget. The two girls made up somewhat for a little while. Then Bridget found out she was pregnant, went to go live in Nadine's attic, Julie had sex with Dylan, Peter was born in a car, and Hart came home two weeks after the birth.
Hart's homecoming was most interesting. Seems he came home to reclaim his beloved Julie, who was sleeping with his friend, who quickly became his ex-friend. Of course Bridget was letting Peter be passed off as Nadine and Billy's son, but still pining after Hart. If he'd made any attempts at a relationship with whatsoever, she would have told him about his son, and snatched the kid back in a flash. But no poor Bridget just followed Hart around, while Hart was following Julie around.
In all this, Bridget and Hart managed to build a wonderful friendship, though she still pined for him. They really looked out for each other, and it was actually Bridget who came thisclose to ending the bitterness that existed between Hart and Roger. Remember how she told him all about how Roger had saved Ed's life, knowing how much Hart wanted there to be some good in Roger, even though he never really said it. She actually got Hart to the point where he went to speak to his father. Roger had nearly talking Hart into spending more time with him so they could work through their problems, when Gilly burst through the door to slam Roger for picking on her brother David. Hart left in disgust.
Whether Julie was leading Hart on at all is subject to debate, but needless to say she had two men in love with her and it seemed she didn't know which she wanted. Of course Bridget grew to hate her. On the eve of Julie and Dylan's wedding, Julie slept with Hart, she did it to get him out of her system so she said, while he was planning their future with the house, kids, white-picket fence and all that. Julie dumped Hart the next morning and ran off to marry Dylan, but not before leaving Hart a letter at his house saying she was sorry about what had happened. Guess who found it? You guessed it! Bridget!
Bridget crashing Dylan and Julie's wedding and announcing the bride had cheated on the groom the night before with her old flame in front of the family and friends of all four of them was definately one of the all time greatest scenes of GL. Dylan dumped Julie on Hart's porch, literally, Hart FINALLY got over her and told her he didn't want her anymore, and Bridget stopped talking to Hart for reasons he didn't understand (he was still a bit clueless).
A couple months later Hart left town again. Julie tried unsuccessfully to get Dylan back, while Bridget landed him instead. Then Julie went to work as Marina's nanny for Frank and Eleni, and turned into the bitch nanny from hell. Eventually Julie left town in search of Hart, never to be heard from again.
Julie and Bridget were classic soap rivals. I used to love their constant fighting. Bridget would launch full scale attacks, Julie would be right in there with the underhanded barbs and snotty remarks. It was great! Bridget hasn't had anyone her own age to go to war with since Julie, so it was great to see her back in form against Dinah, but it's still lacking so much. Dinah is no Julie. [JB]
The year was 1989. Everyone thought Roger was dead. Phillip Spaulding & (Christina) Blake (Thorpe) Lindsey were engaged to be married. This angered Phillip's father, Alan, who had previously had an off-camera romance with Blake & who was mortal enemies with her (presumed) dead father.
Alan was wheelchair bound, presumably paralyzed from the waist down, the result of a gunshot wound inflicted by Sonni/Solita in Venezuela. Alex and Fletcher flew down to Venezuela after they found out Alan had been shot. On their way back to Springfield, the Spaulding jet crashed on a desert island. Alex & Fletch fell in love, but became separated in a storm. After the storm, Fletcher was rescued, but Alex was nowhere to be found.
Alex had been "rescued" by the island's secret inhabitant, Adam Malek, who wore a mask to hide his disfigured face. (Many viewers familiar with actor Michael Zaslow, who had played Roger 10 years earlier, knew immediately that Adam was really Roger Thorpe, who's face was not disfigured at all and was just pretending it was so he would have a reason to wear a mask.) Alex grew to trust Adam & told him all about Phillip & Blake. Eventually, he arranged for her to be returned to Springfield & followed her there shortly thereafter, where he became friendly with Blake, without revealing to her his true identity.
Nadine was Alan's "nurse." She found out that he could really walk (he was practicing in the attic & she heard the clomping) & blackmailed him into an engagement. Alan, meanwhile, was determined to halt Phillip & Blake's impending nuptials at any cost. Alan's first attempt on Blake was at WSPR, when he'd rigged a rack of spotlights to fall on her. She and Philip were taping an appearance on some show (might have been Johnny Bauer's talk show). Then, he sent Blake a gift-wrapped bomb. She was about to open the gift when Adam/Roger dashed up (looking very Phantom-of-the-Opera), snatched it and threw it aside just before it blew up.
The way the writers had it, you really weren't sure if it was Alan trying to kill Blake, or Roger trying to kill Phillip, because during the above two attempts, Blake & Phillip were together.
Then, Alan hid out in the church & fired at Blake from on the choir loft as she walked down the aisle. Phillip was wounded. Adam/Roger swung Tarzan-like from some kind of rope, or wire, or chandelier down to the main floor of the church to save Chrissy. Alan fired again, and Roger was shot. Everyone gathered round & Adam's mask was removed. Holly screamed when she saw the face of her dead ex- husband. Holly's scream when she found out that this masked guy was really Roger was classic... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Then they took him to the hospital and Holly remembered the rape and being dragged through the jungle, and later she attempted to smother him with a pillow. After that, she tried to convince Ed to let Roger die on the operating table, but good ole Dr. Ed wouldn't, although I believe the thought crossed his mind.
The wedding was postponed. Roger & Phillip sent Blake (Elizabeth Dennehy) away for a few weeks to keep her safe from another attempt by Alan. She returned as Sherry Stringfield. Phillip didn't even notice that his blonde fiancee was now a brunette. They were later married in a small, private, uneventful ceremony.
Meanwhile, Roger, now unmasked, was bent on proving that it was Alan who had tried to kill Blake. Alan's defense was that he was paralyzed & couldn't possibly have climbed to the (choir loft?) from which the shot came. Roger cooked up a plan with Phillip and Alan-Michael in which Roger threatened them with a gun & then (presumably) shot both of them. Blood spurted & Alan leaped out of his wheelchair to go to his sons' aid, thus proving that he wasn't paralyzed at all. It turned out to be blanks & one of those props that spurts fake blood on command; the young Spauldings were actually quite uninjured.
As a result, Alan was tried & convicted for trying to kill Blake. Obviously, he was less than thrilled with his sons' part in the whole scheme. On his return, he held AM solely responsible, since Phillip can do no wrong in his eyes. [MC, SM, KW, DJ]
This storyline was about a disease discovered in a Central American country that caused hallucinations (dreaming) and death. I think that Spaulding was hoping to make a killing on a cure if it could be discovered at Cedars hospital (funded by the Spaulding Foundation). The researcher was Dr. Jim Reardon (Bea's son, Nola's & Maureen's brother. Jim was involved with Nurse Hillary Bauer (Ed's & Mike's half sister).
Warren Andrews was the sleazy hospital administrator at the time and he was in cahoots with Alan Spaulding -- they had Dr. Jim Reardon holed up in some back room at the hospital at the time. In fact, he went by an alias at the time, but I cannot remember what it was. Everyone was very curious about him and hardly anyone saw him.. Sure enough, though, one by one different people saw him. I believe he and Hillary met because her curiosity got the better of her and she broke into the lab. Jim caught her and made her swear not to tell anyone. Ed was Chief of Staff and he was really pissed that Warren hadn't introduced him to this new resident nor did he know exactly what kind of research he was doing. But eventually even Ed met him. Maureen was dying to check him out -- I don't think this was very long after Maureen was hospital administrator and I think she was in one of her "trying to conceive" modes -- or now that I think about it, this may have been about the time of her pregnancy. (I still remember her eating those damn soda crackers and Bert having to tell her she was probably pregnant!)
Anyway, I don't remember the *exact* sequence here.... Maureen opens the door to the lab and drops whatever was in her hand and gasps "Jimmy..." That was definitely on a Friday :^) I think she and Jim snuck around seeing each other for awhile -- she didn't tell Ed or Bea or any one. I am pretty sure Ed even went on some jealous freaking out because he thought Mo was having an affair with this new doctor (Pretty ironic, beings what we know about the good Dr. Ed today, huh?!) Everyone eventually found out who he really was. He and Hillary were a hot item.
My last real recollection of the story was when Jimmy injected some mice with the dreaming death virus -- Warren Andrews and Spaulding were pushing him REAL hard to come up with a cure. Warren was a tad deranged and had snuck into the lab (perhaps to spy on Jimmy?) -- he knocked over the mice cage and one of the mice got in to his briefcase. When he went home, the mouse got out. Warren's wife, Nurse Lesley Ann (who he was very in love with and who was very good buddies with Hillary and Katie Parker) was bitten and she died. Warren freaked out knowing he had caused her death.[JG & MB]
Henry, HB, Tom Reardon & Bill Bauer all went on a fishing trip where they met Annabelle Simms's mother. She hung out with them & they went out in a boat together & she dived into the water & was never seen again. In actuality, her husband, Eli Simms, killed her because he thought she was being unfaithful to him (she wasn't). Annabelle saw all this & repressed it, but it started coming back in flashbacks to her when she was involved with Tony Reardon.
This was when they discovered that Tom Reardon had also been killed by Eli Simms and had not abandoned his family as they had thought for many years.
Annabelle was played by Harley Jane Kozak.
Nurse Rita came to Springfield in 1975 from Bluefield, WV, with her sister Evie and mom Viola. She had been working for an old guy named Cyrus Granger (who bit the dust and left Rita a sizable chunk of cash). Cyrus' son, Malcolm, was annoyed about this, and somehow ended up in the hospital. Rita left early, didn't sign out, and the nurse next on duty apparently over-medicated him, killing him. Cedars didn't press charges, but the widow Georgene, who was one pancake short of a stack, terrorized Rita, making her stand trial. Rita was aquitted thanks to an alibi provided by the man she was boinking on the night in question, young Roger Thorpe. Ed, who had been dating Rita, was not too thrilled about this, but apparently got over it, and they were married.
As a sidebar, Georgene sought revenge and set little (blind) Evie's apartment on fire, trapping her inside. (She was saved and went on to marry artist Ben McFarren...but that's another story.)
After being dumped by Hillary Bauer, Roger raped Rita, but she married Ed anyway. During Ed & Rita's marriage, they raised Chrissy (Blake) while Holly was in the big house for shooting Roger, who was presumed dead, but was really in hiding. Meanwhile, Rita became pregnant by Ed. Roger showed up at a Cedars charity bazaar dressed as a clown, and terrorized the pregnant Rita in the House of Mirrors to the disco-beat of "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand. He kidnapped Rita, took her to the Bauer Cabin, and tied her up. In her struggle she knocked over a lantern, setting the place ablaze. Ed and Mike arrived just in the nick of time, but Rita miscarried the baby.
During her marriage to Ed,.Rita had affairs with Greg Fairbanks and with Alan Spaulding. When Ed discovered her affair with Alan, he divorced her & she moved to San Francisco.
Stavros is not dead. He went away on a vacation to visit friends. He came back, but we have not heard from him. He seems to have just gone the way of others...like Samantha...there in Springfield..just not mentioned.
Samantha was living with her Uncle Ross in the carriage house after her father moved back to India. She went upstairs to pack, since she was planning to move to the Springfield U law school dorm. She never came downstairs & we never heard about her again. Weird, huh? You'd think they'd at least have offered a plausible explanation for her disappearance.
Floyd Parker was the brother of Nurse Katie Parker. He worked at Cedars as an orderly. Floyd was hopelessly in love with Nola who was in love with Kelly Nelson who was in love with Morgan Richards, Amanda Spaulding's half sister (same mother, Jennifer). Nola got pregnant by Floyd but told everyone the baby was Kelly's. When the baby was born, Nola named her Kelly Lousie. After Nola finally confessed the truth, she changed the baby's name to Anastasia, later shortened to Stacy.
In 1985, Andy Ferris was murdered. Andy was the madman working with Phillip that blew up Lujack and Floyd's club. That was the explosion that led to Beth's blindness. Originally, Lujack and then India were blamed for the murder, but it turned out to be Floyd. He had never forgiven Andy for blinding Beth. Floyd kidnapped India and tried to make her sign a confession, but she was rescued and Floyd was arrested and put in prison.
Floyd was played by Tom Nielson, who used to be married to Lisa Brown (Nola) in real life. They are now divorced.
With the help of Josh Lewis, Morgan became a successful model. This led to problems in her marriage with Dr. Kelly Nelson (Ed Bauer's godson). Kelly wanted kids, but Morgan wanted her career. She wound up having an affair with Josh, but when she realized it was going nowhere, she left town and moved to New York. She & Kelly divorced.
So far, Stacy has only been mentioned as an aside. It is assumed that Quint has long since adopted her because she was mentioned as Stacy Chamberlain in his will among the grandchildren. It's been said that she is either in California with her boyfriend, or on an archeological dig.
Roxie had a nervous breakdown after nursing Johnny Bauer back to health. (He was miraculously cured of terminal cancer.)
After breaking up with Mindy, Rusty married Rose, a reformed druggie. Rose was killed by Will when she was hot on the trail of discovering that he had kidnapped Marah. After Rose's death, Rusty helped Mindy take down Will in a gaslighting scheme and then left town to join the Tulsa police force.
Warren killed the infamous and universally hated Paul Valere. He went to jail for it, I believe. Can't recall his motive, but it was probably money.
After being dumped by first Phillip, and then Johnny Bauer, Chelsea developed a crush on Fletcher, but he did not return her feelings. She gave up and joined Jackson Freemont in London to pursue her singing career.
Jim took a medical research position in Denver after ridding the world of the Dreaming Death.
Despite many inquiries and much fan speculation, neither Michael Zaslow nor GL has provided any information on what, if anything, may be wrong with the actor's health. Many viewers noticed a change in his speech pattern. The only thing we know for sure is that his father has been ill and Zaslow has been under a lot of stress lately. There are some reports that he is undergoing tests to find out what's wrong. He is currently on a 3-month leave of absence, during which the character of Roger Thorpe is being played by Dennis Parlato, who previously played Clay Alden on Loving.
You can't. Soap sets are closed to the public, and their taping schedules are such that you probably wouldn't be awake anyway. But if you want to watch for the actors, you can hang out outside the studio at 222 East 44th Street. Lunch is a good time to catch people going in and out.
Address for CBS:
Guiding Light
51 West 57th Street
New York, New York, 10019
Yes, Janet Wright posted this to the discussion list:
For all those interested in the Guiding Light Fan Club..... Send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Sharon Kearns, President Guiding Light Fan Club 104 St. George Drive Camillus, New York 13031-2147 The basics are that for $20 (Canada--$24) you will receive four newsletters, a bumper sticker, a membership certificate and one 8 x 10 Black and White photo of the cast member of your choice. Also, at the time the membership kit is sent out, a list of available merchandise is also included.
The GL Theme is called "Hold On To Love" and was composed by Rob Mounsey and the lyrics are by David Bushkin and Abra Bigham.
To obtain a copy send $6.95 to Monkeyville Records, P.O. Box 2015, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10011. The single includes both a vocal and instrumental version of the song. The vocalists are Diva Gray and Darryl Tookes.
Here are the lyrics:
Man: When we are soul-to-soul
Lost in each other
Baby don't worry
It's gonna be all right
Hold on to love
'Cause love is all we have
And love will find a way
To see us through the night
Woman: And when we're far apart
Torn from each other
Keep thinking of me
You know we must be strong
Hold on to love
Cause love is all that we need
And love will find a way
If we just hold on
Both: And I know somehow
Some way
Our day will come
Never give in to the darkness
'Til the dawn
Hold on
Woman: And if we lose our way
We'll find each other
I reach out and touch you
And all my fear is gone
Hold on to love
'Cause love is all that we need
And love will find a way
If we just hold on
1997 Update: During a recent AOL chat with the actors from Guiding Light, Frank Dicoupolus (Frank Cooper) said that Leonard's recuperation is going slowly but surely. Someone who was in the hospital with Leonard after the accident indicated that Leonard's mother was very grateful to all the GLers who sent letters wishing him well.
You can write to him at:
Leonard Stabb
P.O. Box 110
San Gregorio, California 94074
Leonard Staab was the second actor to play Hart Jessup [the others were (1) Jeff Phillips [ICK!], (3) Sean McDermott, (4) Marshall Hilliard & (5) Frank Grillo]. Stabb was in a serious hang-gliding accident in upstate New York in 1993. He crashed into a tree, and was in a coma for a long time. CW posted the following after he emerged from his coma:
Just read in Soap Opera Weekly that Lenoard Stabb is still in rehab and is making slow but steady progress. However, he is only just beginning to recognize some of his visitors and call them by name. I don't think he will be ready to go back to GL for a _long_ time--in fact, he may never be able to.
Stabb was a little stiff and played a more angry Hart than Phillips. However, I am of the opinion that he was really growing into the role when the accident occurred. Sean McDermott was brought in on a short- term basis to provide another exit for Hart (if Stabb had not been injured, I'm sure Hart would not have left town again). [DVW]
Unless you know someone at GL or P&G, chances are an unsolicited script will be either thrown out or sent back unread, for fear of a suit if any of your ideas ever appeared on the show without crediting/compensating you.
Even if you know people, your sample script would never be used as is, because of the way the stories are planned out in advance. You can't just write a script for a soap episode in isolation, like you could for a sitcom or other non-continuing episodic TV show. You have to know the exact point in time your script is taking place relative to all the concurrent storylines and be able to pick up from the previous day's action and end just before the next day's action.
If you're interested in writing for the show on a regular basis, AND you could get in touch with someone at P&G or GL, AND you could convince them to agree to read your work, you could then send in some kind of sample (I don't know if they would ask for a script or a story plan) and be considered that way. But even if they asked for a script, it would probably not be used even if they liked it, because of the storyline considerations mentioned earlier.[MC]
There were four of each.
Beths:
Mindys:
Rick Hearst wasn't happy with the way his story was going. Specifically, Hearst was displeased with the writers' decision to turn A-M back into a mean, power-hungry Spaulding. Hearst felt like the character had been there done that and that taking him back down that road would be a mistake. Maybe the new writers will decide to change the storyline and convince Hearst to return. I haven't heard from a single GL viewer who is pleased with the replacement.
Cari Burstein runs an e-mail list just for discussing GL. So, if you subscribe, you can mail discussions, flames, comments, little notes, etc., without having to log on to the pesky, crowded, expensive internet. The address to post discussion items is gldiscuss-list@server.berkeley.edu.
Margaret Gibbs posts general FAQs for the rec.arts.tv.soaps.* (commonly known as RATS) groups periodically. Look out for them (they have the prefix of ALL). If you post anything about "Guiding Light," please use the prefix of "GL:" in your subject header, it allows those newsreaders with the "KILL" feature to discard GL if so desired (heathens!), or it can allow you to search for GL articles quickly. And you won't get flamed by the [self-appointed] header police. If you have other questions, you should contact the internet administrator for your site (especially on use of the KILL feature, it discards all headers that you aren't interested in, leaving only the ones you want to read).
If you use rn, at the end of an article, type "h", and you'll get a list of commands you can execute on the posting. Use "F" to follow-up a posting and include the post you want to reference. Use "f" to follow-up without including the post. Use "R" to reply by e-mail to the poster, including the post, and use "r" to reply without the post.
We don't hate the show, we love the show, but that doesn't mean that we'll always love or even like everything about it. We are a diverse group of individuals with different wants and needs. It wouldn't make for much of a discussion if everybody liked the same things. Disagreements and differing opinions are the spice of online discussion. Everyone isentitled to his or her own opinion, which is why there are so many!
As individuals, we may dislike certain aspects of the show, such as storylines, characters, actors, or continuity and history gaffes. Becausewe do like the show so much, it bothers us to see stupid stuff happening or bad actors getting airtime, so we complain about it. Besides, it's fun to complain and make fun of the things we dislike, and it's a lot easier to be funny with criticism than with praise.
When Reva came back from Goshen with Alan, they moved into this house, which he said had previously been used to house clients when they came to town. Later, when they broke up, he gave the house to Reva.
The original Holly was Lynn Deerfield, who played the role from 1970- 1976. Lynn was blonde. Maureen Garrett played Holly from 1976-1981ish then again since December 1988 to the present.
Yes, Blake was originally played by the blonde Elizabeth Dennehy (daughter of Brian), then by "ER" co-star Sherry Stringfield (a brunette), and now by auburn-haired Liz Kiefer (who was blonde in a "Married...with Children" episode).
Julie Camaletti is/was allegedly a dance student. After her arrival in Springfield, she lived in the Bauer's garage apartment with her brother, AC Mallet, and she would go out to the Bauer's gazebo and start pirouetting until we were all dizzy. Hart used to secretly watch her, and beyond all reason, fell in love with her. We just all got dizzy. So, an enterprising netter rechristened Julie "Spinner," who has stopped spinning, but remained just as dizzy as ever. She became obsessed with Frank Cooper and became Marina's nanny. She made it look like she was sleeping with Frank, and Eleni found them. After months of trying to break Frank and Eleni up, and trying to destroy Bridget and Dylan's relationship, the residents of the boardinghouse bought her a one-way ticket to Florida so she could go bother her brother & Harley. When she got to the airport, she tried to exchange the ticket for one to Vancouver, where Hart had last been spotted. No one knows whether she actually went to Vancouver or Florida or someplace hotter.
No. When Tangie Hill arrived in Springfield (after having encountered Josh Lewis on the Riviera), Josh asked her what "Tangie" was short for, and she replied that it wasn't short for anything, it's just plain (!) "Tangie". Any references to her as "Tangerine" are in jest.
It was Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Phillip Spaulding originally owned the lighthouse, but he gave it to Rick as a wedding present when Rick married Meredith Reade. Rick lived there until he left town, which was when Mindy moved out of Roger's apartment (which she had been subletting) & rented the lighthouse from Ed, who was acting as landlord on Rick's behalf. For a long time, it seemed as though the writers had forgotten that Mindy was only renting the place, especially after Nick moved in there with her & she fixed up the boathouse as his private office.
The lighthouse was burned to a crisp on New Year's Eve 1994, as the culmination of a story involving Tangie Hill being chased by gangsters. After the fire, it gradually became clear that Ed was still in charge.
Later in 1994, Alan-Michael hid in the base of the burnt-out lighthouse while recovering from injuries suffered in an explosion set by an enemy of Alan's. In early 1996, Brent Lawrence kept Lucy Cooper hostage in the skeletized lighthouse.
Ed contracted with a mysterious fellow named Zachary to restore the lighthouse in the summer of 1996. In January 1997, on the show's 60th anniversary, the town banded together to get the light spinning again to help guide some stranded boaters safely to shore. Zachary is gone, but the lighthouse continues to burn brightly. No one is living there right now.
DJ -- Dale Joyner
DP -- Donna Porter
DVW -- Diane V. Wilkerson
HB -- HollyBeth Billington
JB -- Jo Burgess
JG -- Jim Garcia
KDB -- Kent D. Boklan
KW -- Kevin Wright
LK -- Leesa Kern
MB -- Michelle Brouillette
MC -- Marni Centor
SA -- Shelby Anderson
SM -- Sheila McMahon
VSW -- Valerie S. Williams
