Bob & Kim & Susan: The Affair That Rocked Oakdale

The year was 1990: The Berlin wall had crumbled a few short months prior, a slack-jawed animated brood called The Simpsons made their debut on television and the marriage of Bob and Kim Hughes, regarded by many as Oakdale's role model of fidelity and stability, faced its greatest crisis.

The problem began when Kim's son Andy became an alcoholic. In order to deal with the troubled teen's travails, Kim attended Al-Anon with her ex-husband, John Dixon -- the boy's father (and Bob's adversary). With the two of them pre-occupied with Andy, a left-out Bob found a pre-occupation of his own: Susan Stewart, who was becoming addicted to prescription painkillers following an injury. Susan confessed to Bob that her injury was caused by Lucinda (then John's wife). Bob made the decision to help Susan beat her addiction; he also chose to keep it a secret from Kim, Susan's privacy being his top concern. Kim needed to know what could possibly require Bob's constant surveillance; Bob evaded her questions and told her he was beginning to feel like the "odd man out" now that she was spending so much time with John. In short, he felt that Susan needed him more than Kim.

Later, after Susan disappeared, Bob tracked her down, finding her at the Foxwood Lodge, where she confessed she had fallen in love with him. The two gave in to their feelings and made love. As a result of the dalliance, Susan soon decided to resign from Memorial and get out of Oakdale. Before she could, however, Bob stopped her. In the meantime, the Hugheses were growing more and more suspicious; it made no sense to them that Bob would have to stay with Susan at the lodge overnight because of her back injury.

Unable to continue hiding the truth, Bob confessed what happened, in the hopes that Kim would understand that it was a momentary lapse of reason due to his feeling isolated from her. Having dealt with Susan's machinations when married to Dan Stewart (Susan's ex), Kim was incensed to learn that her old nemesis was able to strike at the heart of her marriage to Bob. She asked Bob to move out; despite Bob's hope for a reconciliation, as well as Nancy and Margo pushing for the two of them, Kim would only agree to let him stay in the guest room. Realizing the extent of the damage done, Kim decided to confront Susan once and for all. The two battled it out, culminating with Susan's cruel declaration that, "After being married to a saint for five years, Bob needed a real woman!" Kim's distrust of Bob was only exacerbated by her memories of her affair with Bob during his marriage to her sister Jennifer, and the discovery that Susan and Bob would be attending the same medical conference in Los Angeles. Would Bob stray again? Fortunately for Kim, the answer was "no." Bob told Susan he wanted to be "just friends."

Susan, unhappy with the status quo, decided to leave for the University of California. Unfortunately, tragedy struck, and while packing she fell off a ladder, paralyzing her from the waist down. Bob got wind of the news while in London with Kim, visiting daughter Sabrina, and quickly headed home. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, took place after Kim and Bob started counseling. She told him she couldn't share him with Susan, and after seeing Bob and Susan celebrate her recovery from paralysis, Bob and Kim made their separation official. Making the period even more difficult was Bob's admission to the marriage counselor that he couldn't decide what would happen if he had to choose between Kim and Susan. Making things worse, Kim grew even closer to John, who was still having marital woes with Lucinda.

After a while, Bob eventually got Kim to agree to a temporary reconciliation, but things didn't turn out so well during their first night together. Unfortunately, Bob wasn't "up" to the task of wooing his wife. His therapist felt that it could be boiled down to Susan. Despite yet another run-in where Kim walked in on Bob consoling Susan, Bob wanted to move back in with Kim. It wasn't easy, but the two of them got back together and renewed their wedding vows.

Today, a new generation of Stewarts and Hugheses have gotten together: Bob and Kim's son Chris is starting to get serious with Susan's daughter Alison. Find out what Kim has to say about her son's involvement with the daughter of her nemesis by downloading the Sept. 8 episode here.