Guiding Light (1950–1959)

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Guiding Light
Main article

The Guiding Light (TGL) is the longest-running American television soap opera.

1 Show development
2 Major characters
3 Plot development
4 References

[edit] Show development

In 1952, The Guiding Light began airing on CBS television. Episodes were 15 minutes long.^[1]

After Irna Phillips moved to As The World Turns in 1956, her protege Agnes Nixon became headwriter of The Guiding Light.

Also before As The World Turns and the other first half hour soap opera, The Edge of Night were first broadcast, both CBS and Procter & Gamble tried to convince Irna Phillips to combine The Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow into one half hour show, but Phillips declined both companies.

[edit] Major characters

Original television cast (starting June 30, 1952)

Friedrich "Papa" Bauer (Theo Goetz to end of decade)
Meta Bauer White Roberts Banning (Jone Allison to November 1952)
Bill Bauer (Lyle Sudrow to October 1959)
Bert Bauer (Charita Bauer to end of decade)
Trudy Bauer Palmer (Helen Wagner to August 1952)
Reverend Dr. Paul Keeler (Ed Begley, Sr. to November 1952)
Joe Roberts (Herbert "Herb" Nelson to December 24, 1955), character died of a heart attack
Katherine "Kathy" Roberts Lang Grant Holden (Susan Douglas Rubes, to March 31, 1958), character killed off
Joey Roberts (Tarry Green to September 1953)
Dr. Richard "Dick" Grant, Jr. (James Lipton to end of decade)
Bob Lang, Kathy's first husband, father of Robin, killed off
Richard Grant, Sr. (Ed Prentiss to 1954), written out
Clyde Palmer, Trudy's husband, character talked about but not seen

Replaced original television cast members

Meta Bauer White Roberts Banning (Ellen Demming, January 1953 to end of decade)
Reverend Dr. Paul Keeler (Melville Ruick to 1954)
Joey Roberts (Richard Holland to December 1953), written out.
Trudy Bauer Palmer (Lisa Howard, March 1957 to March 1958)
Bill Bauer (Ed Bryce, November 1959 to end of decade)

Other characters

Gloria La Rue Harper (Anne Burr McDermott, November 1952 to April 1954), written out
Richard Hanley (Mandel Kramer, January 1953 to December 1955, then October 1959 to end of decade)
Janet Johnson (Ruth Warrick, March 1953 to October 1954; Lois Wheeler, October 1954 to September 1956, then May 1957 to August 1958), written out
Peggy Ashley Regan (Patricia Wheel, May 1953 to March 1955), written out
Laura Ashley Grant (Katherine Anderson, 1953; Alice Yourman, 1953 to 1956), written out
Michael "Mike" Bauer (Glenn Walken & Christopher Walken, January 1954 to June 1956; Michael Allen, 1957 to 1961), eldest son of Bill and Bert Bauer, born in March 1952
Robin Lang (Zina Bethune, May 1956 to April 1958; Judy Robinson, April 1959 to end of decade), daughter of Kathy and Bob Lang, adopted by Dick Grant, born May 3, 1953
William "Billy" Edward Bauer, Jr. (Pat Collins, from 1958 to end of decade), second son of Bill and Bert Bauer, born on December 31, 1954
Lila Taylor Kelly (Nancy Wickwire, 1954 to January 1956; Teri Keane, December 1957), written out
Dr. Jim Kelly (Paul Potter, 1954 to January 1956), written out
Dr. John Brooks (Charles Baxter, 1954 - 1955), written out
Dr. Bart Thompson (Barry Thomson, 1954), written out
Dan Peters (Paul Ballantyne, 1954), written out
Marie Wallace Grant (Joyce Holden, January to December 1954; Lynne Rogers, December 1954 to end of decade)
Mark Holden (Whitfield Connor, October 1955 to March 1956, then August 1957 to end of decade)
Dr. Paul Fletcher (Michael Kane, January 1956 to April 1956; Bernard Grant, May 1956 to end of decade)
*Elise Miller Franklin (Ethel Remey, 1956 to 1957).Bert and Alma-Jean's mother. Elise's 2nd husband Albert Franklin died offscreen in Arizona.
Alma-Jean Miller,talked about but never seen.Youngest daughter of Elise Miller. Bert Bauer's Younger sister.
Dr. Bruce Banning (Lester "Les" Damon, January 1956 to end of decade)
Alice Holden (Sandy Dennis, May to June 1956; Diane Gentner, July 1956 to April 1958; Lin Pearson, April to December 1958 and May 1959), written out
Anne Benedict Fletcher (Joan Gray, July 1956 to end of decade)
Ruth Jannings Holden (Irja Jensen, January to June 1958; Louise Platt, June 1958 to September 1959; Virginia Dwyer, September 1959 to end of decade)
Henry Benedict (John Gibson, March 1958 to end of decade)
Helene Benedict (Kay Campbell, April 1958)
Karl Jannings (Richard Morse, September 1959 to end of decade)
Joe Turino (Joseph Campanella, December 1959 to end of decade)

[edit] Plot development

With the transition to television the main characters became the Bauers, a lower-middle class German immigrant family. For the first few years of its television run, the show was produced in separate sessions for radio and television. The actors performed the live TV show in the morning, and then went to the radio studio and read for the live radio show in the afternoon. In 1956 the radio show was dropped.

The television family was headed by a wise patriarch, Friedrich "Papa" Bauer, the father of three children, Bill, Meta, and Trudy. Papa Bauer, who immigrated to this country from Germany with little more than a dream, was a hard worker who was full of wisdom. He imparted his wisdom to his children in a folksy tone, commonly interweaving German words. Meta was a primary character on the radio version and at one point listeners got the chance to choose whether or not to find her guilty of murdering her ex-husband Ted White, who had let their young son Chuckie die in a freak boxing accident. Meta's character faded into a supporting role within the first decade of the TV series.

The conflicts between the Bauer clan and Bill's headstrong wife Bert were an integral part of the plot in the television show's first decade. Although Bert and her sister-in-law Meta eventually became very close, initially there was a considerable amount of hostility between them. An additional plot-line in this period focused on Bill Bauer's alcoholism and his career difficulties, which were exacerbated by Bert's materialistic nature: she wanted to live much more extravagantly than Bill's salary would allow.

Other storylines during this period included Trudy's jealousy of Meta's lifestyle (Meta had been a model at one point) and Meta's struggles to get along with Kathy, the daughter of her second husband, newspaper reporter Joe Roberts. Also featured were Kathy's romantic struggles, including her trial for the murder of her first husband, Bob Lang (the jury would bring back a not guilty verdict); Kathy's trouble with the family and of her second husband, Dr. Richard "Dick" Grant, Jr., and the couple's troubles with Kathy's daughter by Bob Lang, Robin, who would grow up to be just as much of a trouble maker as her mother had been to Meta.

In the mid-1950s, Robin feuded with Kathy, and ultimately, in 1958, Kathy was killed when bicycling children accidentally pushed her wheelchair into oncoming traffic. CBS was deluged with protest letters.