Reverend Ruthledge

They are good but have a lot of inaccuracies. In particular, when it comes to dates.

That commercial is cringe-worthy. Everybody has different perspectives but that would make me NOT want to watch Days.

Cool photo! Lisa busy texting and not listening to Bob.

LOL. Surely Ellen had lived long enough to know you should never tell a woman she looks pregnant.

I didn't listen very closely but I don't think that's what he was referring to. He was talking about women entering the work force. I think he was talking about having the female characters do the same. He was talking about the socially-relevant storylines just being something that Doug enjoyed doing.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but Dr. Mary Leland was actually GL's first woman doctor. Back in the late 40s. It was a major part of her storyline to struggle with sexism in that field. In fact, she could only get one patient, Mama Bauer. That was when Mama was sick with cancer. Mama loved her but the rest of the Bauers were against a woman treating Mama. They only went along with Mary treating Mama because Mama insisted. Surprisingly, even Trudy was against Mama having a female doctor.

Yes. Robin's death was erroneously attributed to Irna in Christopher Schmering's book and in, possibly, also Julie Poll's book. However, Irna did not write Robin's death.

@FrenchFan I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your command of the English language is incredible! That, on top of the fact that you have excellent taste in soaps. You are right in that the late 60s were a great time for soaps, in general, and Guiding Light, in particular. Also As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives and Another World.

You are correct.

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Hey kalbir, Just curious. No antagonism intended at all. Why would you only consider the TV years and not the radio years. I ask because I know several people do this when talking about GL and I'm genuinely curious as to the reason for this. It's like some people refuse to even acknowledge the radio years. I don't get that. It's the same show, just different medium. It's almost like people have an aversion to the medium of radio or something. I've never understood it.

No, she wasn't but she had a very hard life. To sum it up, Meta told Paul, when she was trying to comfort him for feeling guilty about Robin's suicide, "Robin's life was conceived in tragedy, lived in tragedy and ended in tragedy".

Yes.

Corrected a line from above. Ruth blamed Robin for Karl's death and accused her of trying to get even with her for marrying Mark. This was an accusation out of grief. Ruth eventually realized Karl's death was an accident.

You're welcome. I wish I could answer everything. I don't know if that's Philip Sterling. You're right that you can get into complex relationships when there's a small canvas. Especially when a core group of characters stays around for many years. I liked Gillian Spencer but my favorite Robin was Abigail Kellogg. Although those are the only two actress I witnessed in the role so I don't know which of all the actresses who played the role would have been my favorite.

Yes, he was on good terms with Robin. She had gotten over him marrying Ruth. Ruth, however, blamed Robin for Karl's death and even accused Robin of trying to get even with Ruth by causing Karl's death. This was an accusation coming out of grief. Robin and Mark had left that in the past but Ruth dragged it back out when Karl died. I'm not sure if Ruth got over her resentment towards Robin before she left town, however. So, yes, Mark and Ruth were both in town when Karl died. I don't know why they weren't at the inquest.

Yeah, I couldn't stand Bert but I witnessed her more in the 40s, 50s and 60s than I ever did her mellowed grandmother stage. Bert pushed Mike to get an annulment from Robin and, because he was so guilt-ridden over the death of Karl (who he accidentally killed in a fight after Karl found out they had eloped), he went along with it. Which angered Robin. She hated Bert for her meddling and Mike for his weakness. All the guilt made Mike leave town which is why he was stopping by to say goodbye and why Robin was so cold to him. And why Bert and Robin were so cold to each other.

It was never really addressed in terms of a storyline but there was a bit of an ick factor as Paul was a father figure to Robin since her biological father Bob was dead and she hated her stepfather Mark so she turned to Paul as a substitute father when she was a preadolescent. She grew to love Mark and was adopted by him so the fatherly role of Paul drifted away and then they SORASed Robin and the previous role wasn't much of an issue except for longtime viewers with good memories.

I don't think it was a scowl. I think it was just he was going to go talk to Robin and then saw Mike walk up to her and didn't want to interrupt. It's possible he didn't approve of the Mike/Robin romance at the time but I wouldn't read much into it. He had nothing against Bill and Bert. Most likely, the actor just needed a facial expression to show why he didn't go talk to Robin. Selby Flats was a suburb of Los Angeles so anytime something "official" took place, like a trial, it always happened in Los Angeles. I doubt changing the setting was that big of a deal. The first time it happened, from Five Points to Selby Flats, the show had been off for a while so that helped the transition and then the second transition from Selby Flats was so quiet and gradual with no big changes that viewers probably barely noticed.

Worse than SORASing Leah (which I could deal with because it's done so frequently on soaps) is that they didn't SORAS her older brother Jude who then became her younger brother. As well as just being stupid, it had all sorts of storyline implications like the fact that that meant Rick must've cheated on Mel with Harley at some point. Just one of a million stupid decisions made toward the end of the show.

I think if it was Marisa Tomei, she would have said her name because people would know who that was.

Emily and Allison were, technically, Lowell grandchildren. They just didn't carry the same last name. But then, nobody did so there couldn't be any grandchildren with the last name of Lowell. Judge Lowell only had one child, Jim, and Jim only had one child, a daughter Ellen who became a Stewart. The Lowell family was still represented by Emily and Allison at the end but the name couldn't carry on after the Judge and Jim died. I think Chris Hughes suffered from the same problem that GL's Rick did. Bland casting and bland writing.

You know, it's a testament to KL that when I see a picture of the actors who were on the show it feels like seeing photos of old friends. When I see a picture of the actors from Dallas or Dynasty, I just feel like I'm looking at a picture of actors.

Bill Bauer was one of my favorite GL characters (if not my favorite) and I'm a huge Bill apologist but I didn't so much mind that the killed him off. In fact, I'm not a big fan of his "return from the dead" and wish they would have just left him dead in the plane crash in 1969. His return in 1977 at least gave us Hilary but it was so poorly handled. He was brought back to basically not do anything and just fade away. I don't think main characters should just fade away. I'd much rather have them die. So, a death for Bill would be preferable in my opinion then just not ever mentioning him again. HOWEVER, NOT the way he was killed. For the sake of a very stupid storyline that didn't make sense to begin with. For such a long-lasting, important character to die for the sake of a lame, revisionist, nonsensical storyline featuring people who would only last a couple of years (hello, Annabelle) was just a slap in the face to the character and GL's legacy.

Vetsoapfan may be able to answer that. He's very knowledgeable on the backstage drama of soaps.