Guiding Light

The Guiding Light (known as Guiding Light since 1975) is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest soap opera ever told, as well as the longest running drama in broadcast history (its 15,000th televised episode is slated to air in the autumn of 2005). The program began as an NBC radio serial on January 25, 1937 before moving to CBS on June 30, 1952, as a televised serial.

Early years of GL on television

The television family was headed by wise patriarch Friedrich "Papa" Bauer, who had three children, Bill, Meta, and Trudy. Papa Bauer was wise and a hard worker, having immigrated to this country from Germany with little more than a dream (in real life, Papa Bauer's portrayer, Theo Goetz, a successful actor in his own right, escaped Nazi occupation in Austria). Papa Bauer imparted sage wisdom on his children in a folksy tone, commonly splicing in German words in his normal speech. Meta was a major character on the radio version (at one point listeners chose whether or not to find her guilty of murdering her ex-husband) but faded into a supporting role within the first decade of the TV serial.

Related Topics:
Germany - Theo Goetz - Austria - German

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Bill's headstrong wife Bert (played by Charita Bauer) and her conflicts with the Bauer clan set the stage for much of the drama in the television show's first decade. After Irna Phillips moved to her "baby", As the World Turns in 1956, her protege Agnes Nixon, who wanted to see social issues worked into the canvas, set the tone for much of the 1960's material. One point involving Bert's battle with uterine cancer sent many female viewers to their doctors for the first time in years. GL was also the first show to regularly feature African-American characters (played by James Earl Jones and Ruby Dee). In the 1960s and 1970s, the focus of the show slowly moved to Bill and Bert's children, Mike and Ed. Their lives and loves provided high drama for many years. Other popular characters of the time included Robin Douglas (Gillian Spencer, among others). In the mid-1950's, Robin had feuded with her stepmother Kathy; ultimately Kathy was killed when bicycling children accidentally pushed her wheelchair into oncoming traffic. CBS was deluged with protest letters. In 1967 Robin was struggling with her own stepson as well as her fears that her husband loved another woman; Phillips recycled the same story conclusion by having Robin throw herself into oncoming traffic as well, a move that was unpopular with viewers.

Related Topics:
Charita Bauer - Irna Phillips - As the World Turns - 1956 - Agnes Nixon - 1960 - Uterine cancer - African-American - James Earl Jones - Ruby Dee - 1960s - 1970s - Gillian Spencer - 1950 - 1967

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While Papa Bauer ended up being the bearer of the Guiding Light, the religious tones of the light and even religion in general were almost completely lost by the time the show moved to television. Religious matters gave way to cementing the bonds of family. In the 1970s, Bert Bauer's two sons fought over the lovely Leslie (Lynne Adams), a storyline which was criticized by Charita Bauer herself, whose role moved, in time, from Bauer matriarch to the beacon of support for the entire town. Bauer was quoted as saying, "Now don't really care about the idea of the family anymore. That used to be the main theme of the show, but now it's gone."

Related Topics:
1970s - Lynne Adams

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In late 1975, the "the" in the show's opening and closing visuals was dropped (in an attempt to modernize the show's image), the same year it adopted the harp-and-string-laced "Ritournelle" as its theme song. The serial was still called The Guiding Light by CBS (and the show's staff announcers) until early 1982, when the "the" was completely dropped from references an a more upbeat musical theme was adopted.

Related Topics:
1975 - 1982

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Feeling pressure from newer, more youth-oriented soaps such as The Young and the Restless, P&G hired writers Bridget Dobson and Jerome Dobson in 1976. The married duo focused on core characters, giving Bert her first real story in years when her husband Bill came back from the dead. They also shook up the town by bringing in the dynamic, jetsetting Alan Spaulding (Chris Bernau) and his emotionally distant wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth doted on young Phillip, whom she believed to be her son. In reality, her baby was stillborn, and Alan had obtained Phillip from an unknown woman. That woman, Jackie (Cindy Pickett) soon followed, and although she was still in love with her former husband Justin (Tom O'Rourke), she married Alan to make sure she was close to her son (Justin had no idea he was a father; Alan had no idea Jackie was Phillip's mother). Elizabeth married Mike Bauer. (The paternity mystery finally exploded in 1983 when Phillip found out the truth - the ramifications continued to be felt decades later, as Phillip (Grant Aleksander) grew up to be a psychologically scarred, controlling man who was shot dead by his own adoptive father, Alan Spaulding.)

Related Topics:
The Young and the Restless - Bridget Dobson - Jerome Dobson - 1976 - Chris Bernau - Cindy Pickett - Tom O'Rourke - 1983 - Grant Aleksander

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The Dobsons also created one of the sexiest and most complicated "vixens" in the show's history when Rita Stapleton (Lenore Kasdorf) arrived with her sweet sister Eve and mother Viola (Kate Wilkinson). Rita had a sordid past with bad boy Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow). Roger had been on the show, in a self-destructive relationship with neurotic Holly (Maureen Garrett) since 1971, but only when the Dobsons arrived did he become truly malevolent. The badder he got, the more popular he became with viewers. One night, Roger raped Rita. Zaslow was unhappy with the scene, which he felt came across as a seduction. The Dobsons crafted a full-fledged marital rape (at the time this was not considered a crime) episode involving Roger and Holly. Holly bravely took Roger to court, but Justin's sleazy lawyer brother Ross (Jerry ver Dorn, whose Ross quickly reformed and remained a core character for over twenty-five years) got Roger acquitted. When she thought Roger was going to rape her again, Holly shot Roger to "death". While she rotted in jail, Ed and Rita raised Christina. Roger was very much alive and in an Emmy-winning sequence, chased a pregnant Rita through a hall-of-mirrors as the Donna Summer/Barbra Streisand hit "Enough is Enough" played in the background. Roger kidnapped Christina and Rita, and Rita had a miscarriage. Roger fell to another "death" in Santo Domingo on April Fool's Day 1980 - 9 years to the day of his first airdate. He would return in 1989 and then leave in 1997 when, in an extremely controversial decision, P&G fired Zaslow due to his medical problems. The Bauers and the Spauldings' lives grew ever-more complicated as Alan married Mike's daughter Hope (Elvera Roussell), and eventually had a wild fling with Ed's wife Rita.

Related Topics:
Lenore Kasdorf - Kate Wilkinson - Michael Zaslow - Maureen Garrett - 1971 - Jerry ver Dorn - Donna Summer - Barbra Streisand - April Fool's Day - 1980 - 1989 - 1997 - Elvera Roussell

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