Bauer family (Guiding Light)
| Bauer family | |
|---|---|
| Guiding Light family | |
| Created by | Irna Phillips |
| Introduced by | David Lesan, Joe Ainley, Carl Waster |
| Duration | 1948–2009 |
| First appearance | June 1948 |
| Last appearance | September 18, 2009 |
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The Bauer family was a fictional family on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light. Though they originated in California, from 1966 on, the Bauer family mainly resided in Springfield and is considered by many to be the anchor family and the moral compass to both the town and the show. The Bauers became central to the storyline in 1948, as the family dealt with the terminal illness of their mother, known as "Mama Bauer."
Because Guiding Light has changed locations three times, and the Bauer family has been a part of the show from near the beginning, they have, over the history of the show, resided in the fictional towns of Five Points, Selby Flats (a suburb of Los Angeles) and eventually Springfield.
With the transition to television the shows focus became the Bauer family, a working class, second generation German-American family. 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 husband Ted White, whom she blamed for letting 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.
During the 1960s, Bill and Bert's sons, Mike and Ed became central characters of the show. Storylines largely focused on their romantic entanglements, as well as the then strained relationships each had with their parents. The character of Bert became very popular at this time with the viewers, who were largely housewives that could relate to her situation.
When the show expanded to an hour, the Bauers began to share the storyline with an expanded cast of characters. The family still remained essential to the story through the 1970s. As the 1980s progressed, the family members became increasingly irrelevant to the primary stories, and either fell into supporting roles, or were written out of the show altogether. The family did endure on the show until the end of its run though, and occasionally were given front burner material, if not on a regular basis.
The Annual Bauer family 4th of July barbecue was a recurring event on the show for several decades. Nearly all of the shows current characters would gather each year at Ed Bauer's house for this.
Rapid Aging[edit]
As is common on Soap Operas, the Bauer children were rapidly aged into adulthood. This eventually created a preposterous age differentiation between the generations, as the practice was utilized over the course of the series. For example, Bert's son, Mike was aged about fifteen years, as was Mike's daughter, Hope. Hope's son, Alan-Michael was eventually rapidly aged as well. Had they been seen on screen together, Bert, whose portrayer was born in 1922, would have only been about forty-five years older than her great-grandson, whose portrayer (Rick Hearst) was born in 1965.
Social Issues[edit]
Guiding Light often incorporated relevant social issues into its storyline, some of which involved the Bauers. Examples are as follows.
The long run of the show allowed it to feature, in real time, the concept of inter-generational alcoholism, the theory that alcoholism runs in families. Bill Bauer became an alcoholic during the 1950s while dealing with the stress of providing financially for his socially ambitious wife. Ed Bauer became one during the late 1960s and continued to have occasional relapses throughout the rest of the shows run. Hope Bauer began drinking while married to Alan Spaulding, who was treating her badly. Her character was soon written out of the show after this storyline, but it was mentioned in later years that she was still struggling with the affliction, and that it was the cause of her estrangement from her son, Alan-Michael.
Bert Bauer was diagnosed with uterine cancer during the early 1960s. The actress claimed to have received thousands of letters from women who were motivated to request pap-smears from their doctors as a result of the story.
During the late 1970s, Ed's second and third wives, Holly and Rita, were both raped by Roger Thorpe (Holly, quite some time after she and Ed had divorced, and Rita just prior to her marriage to Ed). In Holly's case, she and Roger were married at the time, and marital rape was just then becoming recognized as a criminal act.
One of Rick's wives, Abigail was a deaf woman. When the real life technology of cochlear implants became available, Abigail struggled with getting one over the objections of some within the deaf community who argued that the technology was a threat to the deaf culture.
Rick married an African-American woman and produced a bi-racial child, Leah. The discrimination the family would have probably experienced in real life though, was not shown.
Final Status[edit]
In later years, the Bauer family's presence on the show had dwindled significantly, leaving Rick as the only one regularly seen. He was often involved in major storylines, but never as the protagonist. In one of the final scenes of the show though, several members of the family are shown in a park celebrating Rick Bauer's engagement to Mindy Lewis. There it is shown that Ed has reunited with his ex-wife, Holly Norris; and that Michelle and Danny are living happily ever after with their two children in California. The fates of other family members such as Trudy, Mike and Hope are not revealed.
The Bauer Family Tree[edit]
- Great Grandpa Bauer (deceased)
- m. Great Grandma Bauer [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. Papa Frederick Bauer (deceased)
- m. Chistina Bauer [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. Meta Bauer
- m. Ted White (deceased)
- c. Charles "Chuckie" White (deceased)
- m. Joseph "Joe" Roberts [dissolved] (deceased)
- m. Bruce Banning [dissolved] (deceased)
- m. Ted White (deceased)
- c. William "Bill" Bauer Sr. (deceased)
- m. Berta "Bert" Miller [divorced] (deceased)
- c. Michael "Mike" Bauer
- m. Robin Lang [annulled] (deceased)
- m. Julie Conrad [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. Hope Bauer
- m. Alan Spaulding [divorced]
- c. Alan-Michael Spaulding
- m. Harley Cooper [divorced]
- m. Eleni Andros [divorced]
- m. Christina "Blake" Thorpe [divorced]
- m. Lucy Cooper [divorced]
- c. Alan-Michael Spaulding
- m. Alan Spaulding [divorced]
- c. Unnamed child (deceased)
- c. Hope Bauer
- m. Charlotte Waring [divorced] (deceased)
- c. Unnamed child (deceased)
- m. Leslie Jackson [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. William "Ed" Bauer Jr.
- m. Leslie Jackson [divorced]
- c.Frederick "Rick" Bauer
- m. Meredith Reade [divorced]
- m. Elizabeth "Beth" Raines [divorced]
- m. Annie Dutton [divorced]
- m. Abigail "Abby" Blume [divorced]
- a. Harley Cooper
- c. Jude Cooper Bauer
- m. Melissande "Mel" Boudreau [divorced]
- c. Leah Bauer
- m. Elizabeth "Beth" Raines [divorced]
- m. Melinda Sue Lewis
- c.Frederick "Rick" Bauer
- m. Holly Norris [divorced]
- m. Rita Stapleton [divorced]
- c. Unnamed child (deceased)
- m. Maureen Reardon [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. Unnamed child (deceased)
- a. Claire Ramsey
- c. Michelle Bauer {Adopted by Maureen Reardon}
- m. Daniel "Danny" Santos [divorced]
- c. Robert "Robbie" Santos
- m. Daniel "Danny" Santos [divorced]
- a. Daniel "Danny" Santos
- c. Hope Santos
- m. Daniel "Danny" Santos [married]
- m. Daniel "Danny" Santos [divorced]
- c. Michelle Bauer {Adopted by Maureen Reardon}
- m. Leslie Jackson [divorced]
- c. Michael "Mike" Bauer
- a. Simone Kincaid
- c. Hillary Bauer (deceased)
- m. Berta "Bert" Miller [divorced] (deceased)
- c. Gertrude "Trudy" Bauer
- m. Clyde Palmer [married](deceased 1974)
- c. Meta Bauer
- m. Chistina Bauer [dissolved] (deceased)
- c. Douglas Bauer (deceased)
- m. Ellen Bauer [married](deceased)
- c. Karl Bauer (deceased)
- m. Alice Bauer [married](deceased)
- c. Mary Bauer (deceased)
- m. Alice Bauer [married](deceased)
- c. Otto Bauer (deceased)
- m. Myra Bauer [married](deceased)
- c. Jack Bauer
- m. Lanie Bauer [married]
- c. Johnny Bauer
- c. Lacey Bauer
- m. Lanie Bauer [married]
- c. Jack Bauer
- m. Myra Bauer [married](deceased)
- c. Papa Frederick Bauer (deceased)
- m. Great Grandma Bauer [dissolved] (deceased)
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