Guiding Light: Encyclopedia II - Guiding Light - 1960s

Guiding Light - 1960s

Agnes Nixon wanted to see social issues worked into the plot, and set the tone for much of the material used during the 1960's. One story, which involved Bert's battle with uterine cancer gave many female viewers the incentive to see their gynecologists.

In 1966, Nixon left the show to create the ABC series, One Life to Live.

In 1967 the was broadcast in color. A year later, the show expanded from 15 to 30 minutes.

Guiding Light - Major characters

The Bauers

• Bill Bauer (now played by Ed Bryce)
• Mike, Bill and Bert's older son (Gary Pilar)
• Ed, Bill and Bert's younger son (Robert Gentry)
• Julie Conrad Bauer, Mike's wife (Sandra Smith)
• Hope, Mike and Julie's daughter

The Norris's

• Stanley Norris (William Smathers)
• Barbara Norris, Stanleys first wife (Barbara Berjer)
• Kenneth "Ken" Norris (Roger Newman)
• Andrew "Andy" Norris (not seen, spoken of as in Vietnam)
• Holly Norris (Lynn Deerfield)
• Kit Vestid, Stanleys second wife (Nancy Addison Altman)

Other Characters

• Dr. Jim Frazier (James Earl Jones)
• Martha Frazier, Jim Frazier's wife (Ruby Dee)
• Robin Lang Bowden Fletcher, Kathy and Bob's daughter, was now played by (Gillian Spencer)
• Dr. Paul Fletcher, Robin's second husband (Bernard Grant)
• Johnny Fletcher, Robin's stepson
• Dr. Stephen Jackson (Stefan Schnabel)
• Maggie Scott, Bill's secretary (June Graham)
• Ben Scott, Maggie's husband (Bernard Kates)
• Peggy Scott, Maggie and Ben's daughter (Fran Myers)
• Marty Dillman, one of Peggy's boyfriends
• Johnny Fletcher, one of Peggy's boyfriends
• Dr. Sara McIntyre (Millette Alexander)
• Dr. Joe Werner (Anthony Call)
• Lee Gantry (Ray Fulmer)
• Mildred Foss, Lee's housekeeper (Jan Sterling Douglas)
• Maggie Wexler (Margie Impert)
• Janet Mason (Caroline McWilliams)

Guiding Light - Plot development

The Guiding Light 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 Lang Bowden Fletcher. In the mid-1950's, Robin had feuded with her stepmother Kathy. Ultimately, in 1958, 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, Johnny Fletcher, as well as her fears that her husband loved another woman; the group of writers at that time recycled the same story conclusion by having Robin throw herself into oncoming traffic as well, another move that was unpopular with viewers.

Around this same time, in a bit of "retroactive continuity," the show's writers changed the name and location of the series's locale from Selby Flats, which had been described as a suburb of Los Angeles, to Springfield, U.S.A.--no state designated, but apparently in the Midwest. Cedars Hospital (so named to suggest the real Cedars of Lebanon Hospital--now Cedars-Sinai--in Los Angeles), introduced in Selby Flats on radio in the 1940s, remained a central location in Springfield. Bill and Bert's younger son Ed began his residency at Cedars Hospital in Springfield under the tutelage of Dr. Stephen Jackson. Their older son, attorney Mike Bauer had become estranged from his overbearing parents after his young wife, Julie Conrad Bauer had become mentally unstable and later committed suicide, and had moved a year earlier with his daughter Hope to Bay City (the characters crossing over to Another World; they would return to The Guiding Light in 1968). Bert also had to deal with Bill's affair with his secretary, Maggie Scott, and Ed's turn to alcoholism when he discovered his father's affair (Bert and Ed would fight over this, when Bert forgave Bill but Ed did not). Maggie had trouble herself when her husband, Ben Scott) turned up alive after Maggie had thought Ben had been killed in the Korean War. Maggie and Ben had a teenaged daughter named Peggy. Her romantic troubles with first teenage gang member, Marty Dillman and later, Johnny Fletcher, served as much of the story in the late 1960s. Marty Dillman would end up murdered, with his wife and the pregnant Peggy wrongly put on trial, with Mike defending her and exonerating her. Ben would die of a heart attack in early 1968, followed by Maggie dying herself from an intestinal ailment a few months later (Ed had operated on her and felt guilty that she had died during the operation). Peggy ended up being treated by Bert as her own daughter.

1967 also saw the arrival of Dr. Sara McIntyre, the former girlfriend of Dr. Paul Fletcher who was already married to Robin. Sara was a gifted psychologist who was able to help Bert cope with her husband's presumed death in a plane crash, in 1969. Sara seemed to have less luck in her personal life. Though attracted to Dr. Joe Werner, she instead married the charming Lee Gantry. But Lee and his housekeeper, Miss Mildred Foss soon began orchestrating a series of events to make Sara believe she was going insane in an attempt to embezzle her money.

Also in 1969, the rich businessman Stanley Norris was introduced. Stanley was divorced from his first wife, cookbook writer Barbara. Barbara was left to raise their three children, Kenneth "Ken"; Andrew "Andy"; and Holly on her own. Stanley himself would soon divorce his second wife, Kit Vestid, when Kit found out that Stanley was carrying on affairs with several other women. Stanley would soon be murdered, shot to death in his office.

Ed had disappeared from Springfield back in April 1969, after having a traffic accident while he was intoxicated. That accident sent the other driver Maggie Wexler into a coma and then miscarrying her child. While he was away, Ed started working at Hastings Electrical Supply (as the company's doctor) in nearby Clayton, and got involved with the company's secretary, Janet Mason.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1960s", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki