Reverend Ruthledge

Thank you, Paul.

Well, in ATWT's defense, the Pa Hughes funeral came when the show was an hour and Papa Bauer's funeral was when GL was only 30 minutes. So, ATWT had more time to fill. Actually, if ATWT would have been 30 minutes, it would have been the same amount of focus as Papa Bauer's funeral was actually only one scene as well. Now, after having defended ATWT, I still say that the lack of time dedicated to Pa Hughes during that episode was inexcusable. You are correct about Chris Hughes. I'm not sure about Jim Matthews. I think John Black on Days got two or three days dedicated to his funeral (if I'm not mistaken). I felt like it was overdone.

Yes, it was the Soderbergs. I'm usually a fan of their writing but I felt like they didn't do Pa Hughes justice with this episode. However, you are correct that, at least, he got a funeral unlike other patriarchs/matriarchs like Mary Matthews and Nancy Hughes. And I might add Bert Bauer. Among others. So I have to give kudos to the Soderbergs for that.

The episode was surprisingly very light on Pa Hughes and his memory even though it was his memorial episode. Chris and Nancy talked about him in one scene in the episode but his funeral was only one scene. The final scene. The other scenes were between Jay and Carol, Lisa and Grant, Tom and Dee. But not much talk about Pa Hughes. I was a bit surprised that Pa Hughes didn't warrant more of a send-off. Bob's eulogy was nice but that was about it.

I don't know for sure but I doubt that any of these people or the farm was mentioned again. John and Edith strangely didn't even get a mention at their own father's funeral. So they had both been long-forgotten by this point. You are absolutely right that Irna would have at least mentioned them since they were her creations. Apparently, even in the glory days of the 70s, writers tended to have little concern about characters they didn't create. This is probably why Donald and Penny only got a brief mention. This, of course, got way worse going forward in the soap world.

Bob said she wasn't physically able to make the trip to Oakdale for the funeral. She was at "the farm" with her family. So, I would assume the farm he mentioned was the farm Grandpa Hughes and Irna lived in together. And I would also assume that they had married. I guess Grandpa either died in Oakdale on a visit or his body was sent there just for the funeral. I don't know. I only have the funeral episode. If that happened, it would have been 1975. I'm not doubting it happened. That's just the one Christmas episode I don't have. It's definitely not 1974. He didn't surprise anyone with a visit that year and had some lines. And he died in 1976. So it had to be 1975.

Penny sent a cable but there was no excuse for her not being there given. I guess maybe because she was in England that it was too far for her or something. Donald, who was living in California at the time, tried to make it but was the victim of that old "plane grounded by fog" soap trope.

It was an "accident" only in that Ellen didn't mean to kill her, just stop her from telling Dan that Ellen was his biological mother (which Franny, the housekeeper, had just threatened to do). It was a spontaneous act on Ellen's part. Not premeditated murder. Which is why she was released from prison. Franny was leaving the room to go tell Dan and Ellen grabbed a small statue on the desk and bashed her over the head to stop her. Franny didn't have any children of her own. She considered Paul and Dan her own children. That was part of the problem. She was possessive of them and hated Ellen because she was their new mother after David married her (or was about to marry her. I can't remember the chronology).

Did I miss something? Why isn't Will at the funeral? And it's been great to see Deidre Hall acting again. I haven't seen that since the 80s.

Yes, he was.

I believe he also turned out to be Doug Cassen's son. I could be wrong about that. Yeah, he doesn't get talked about much in the history books.

Maybe Vetsoapfan will chime in. He might know.

Julie Poll's 40th Anniversary Book states that he died of an embolism. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that either. As I've learned after collecting scripts is that no history book is 100% reliable. I have scripts from right after Neil died but I don't think I have any from the time of his death. Penny is talking about moving on after Neil's death but I don't think there is any specific mention of the way he died. I believe it happened off-screen. Neil and Penny had moved to New York and were off the show during that time. I THINK. So, the manner of his death could have just been a line somewhere.

I don't think Neil Wade died in an automobile accident. I think he died of an embolism. Unless he was driving at the time and it caused him to crash. Jeff was the only husband she had who died in a car accident.

For those interested, that GL scene is from August 30, 1968.

I liked (not loved) the character of Reva. I just didn't like how she ate the show.

That makes sense. Thanks.

Thank you, Jason. I always thought As the World Turns was the number one soap from 1958 to 1978. I guess that's not true.

If those came from that mass-produced CD that was put out a while back, I'm afraid those episodes are wildly out of order and are very confusing to listen to. I had to painstakingly put them in order to make sense of things. I need to make my own CD to give to people just to try and fix the problem. Thankfully, I had time during the lockdown to do that. Just a word of warning.

Thank you for posting these, Paul. I always look forward to posts about the golden years of GL.

Bert Bauer had cancer but Charita Bauer never did. She died from complications from diabetes. She lost her leg due to a blood clot.

I know it's not video, but the debut episodes of ATWT and AW are preserved in script form. As you know. The debut episode of TGL is missing, however. Scenes of it were reprinted in future scripts but the intact entire episode is missing and nobody knows where it is. As you also know. I would love to get my hands on the first episode of TGL but I fear that will never happen.

That whole time period was alienating and cold. I'm actually surprised they gave Hilary a funeral. Didn't she die at the hands of the same dumb storyline that killed her father Bill? The writers seemed determined to get rid of the Bauers at this time. And it wasn't like there were any Bauers to spare at this time either. Which makes it seem even more obvious. Trying to get rid of what few there were instead of trying to replenish them.

Daytime TV history is the saddest subject of all. It's depressing that most soap operas didn't even start saving their shows until AFTER they started declining in quality.

Well, Robin was always insecure but she was, at the same time, a fighter (even if her fights were sometimes unwise). It wasn't until the last year or two of her life that her insecurity got out of control and led her to take on an emotionally unstable victimhood mentality. This could be attributed to the writers in the last year of that character but it really started towards the end of Agnes Nixon's writing.