Reverend Ruthledge

Yes, a lot of the matriarchs/patriarchs mellowed with age. Papa Bauer was almost tyrannical in his early days. Judge Lowell was very controlling. Bert Bauer was materialistic, opportunistic and manipulative. Pa Hughes was stubborn and cranky. These are the shows I'm most familiar with but, on GL and ATWT, the matriarchs/patriarchs all mellowed with age and became the kind, supportive heads of the family. Chris Hughes was pretty even-keeled with his kind, albeit oblivious, nature throughout his run.

No, the Soaps & Serials rendition of what happened didn't have her "fall up the stairs" but it was just as weird. In the book, she wasn't running up the stairs but was walking up the stairs with a tea tray and tripped. The ceramic tea pot shattered and she was stabbed with a shard of the broken tea pot. I think they were competing for the weirdest version of the accident. I never got the tea pot angle unless the writer was trying to make some statement about Liz being English and being killed by a tea pot. Soaps and Serials would change things up for no discernible reason. Sometimes they were accurate to what really happened and sometimes they just completely pulled something out of nowhere. What Irna really wrote was less sensational than all the future discussions of it. Liz was running up the stairs because Susan had left the baby gate open and Emily was teetering at the top of the stairs. When she fell, she landed on the sharp edge of the stairs on her side and ruptured her liver. She hovered a very long time at death's door before she finally died. The idea that she could fall hard enough to rupture her liver did ask the viewer to suspend disbelief but she didn't "fall up the stairs". If this was Days of Our Lives in 2024 then, yes, I'm sure someone could fall up the stairs.

I don't think she truly calmed down until the 70s. After Bill faked his death, Papa Bauer died and she eased into the matriarch role. It's funny because most people remember the kindly matriarch Bert of the 70s and 80s when they were watching and never witnessed anything else. I have the opposite viewpoint in that I really only started watching GL right before Bert died so I don't remember her much as the kindly matriarch. I don't have many episodes from the 70s but have a lot of episodes from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Most of the experience I have with Bert was when she was a bitch-on-wheels. LOL. I'm sure people are shocked when I say I didn't like Bert.

Thank you, Matt! These are great!

I'm glad you had a positive experience. Thanks for letting us know. I've been trying to order but they don't answer my emails which made me think they weren't professional and, therefore, not reliable. I'd hate to send a lot of money to someone who didn't answer emails.

I'd be careful with ordering things from them. They don't seem to be very professional and I question their authenticity.