who was eventually adopted by Ed and Maureen. The success was short-lived though, as Long chose to write out or kill off nearly every Bauer (Hillary, Hope, and Mike) and replace them with yet more new creations. Charita Bauer died in February 1985. (Bert Bauer was said to have gone to stay with her sister-in-law Meta, when the actress first became ill; the character's death occurred off-camera in March 1986.) Around this time the opening was updated from the Jack Urbont disco-themed opening to a slowed-down version of the disco opening to one using a theme that became popular with much of the audience, My Guiding Light. This slow opening was used, with several different changes, from June 1983 to early in January 1991, and incorporated action or beauty shots of the characters in action or scenes. From the spring of 1984 to the spring of 1985, several stories seemed to get even more convoluted and bizarre. Such storylines as the Dreaming Death (that killed off the unpopular Lesley Ann Monroe, and meant that Alan Spaulding and his portrayer, Christopher Bernau departed, until 1986), the mystery surrounding the hauntings of Annabelle and Tony Reardon's cottage next to the Spaulding mansion (that near the end would bring in, Alexandra finding out that her father, Brandon was not dead after all—even though viewers had seen him die onscreen, but was living in Barbados with an entire new branch of the Spaulding family. Brandon's mistress Sharina and their daughter Victoria Spaulding). Vanessa giving birth to her and Billy's son and then getting hooked on a variety of different type of prescription drugs (a storyline and character point later revisited in a much better way in 1987), and finally Phillip being involved with a criminal named, Andy Ferris, who would end up blowing up a nightclub being built by Floyd Parker (who ended up winning the lottery in January 1984) and Lujack, that the explosion blinded Beth for a short time and then Andy being killed by being shot at Alexandra's Valentine's Day, 1985 party (with Lujack being arrested and imprisoned for a short time, and Floyd Parker being the one who shot Ferris, but only found out after he kidnapped India who knew the truth, and both Katie and Floyd Parker being written out), did not endear the audience to the show as it had under both Marland and in the early days