Reverend Ruthledge

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.

You're welcome. I have a wealth of trivia in my brain and always happy to share it with anyone who might care.

Well, her accident was the day after marrying Dan. She hovered between life and death for a month or so before finally kicking the bucket.

They could have done it just to get Dan and Liz together as Paul's only real storyline on the show was the Dan-Liz-Paul triangle. Although, Liz had her infamous, fatal fall the day after her wedding to Dan so they didn't stay together too long. But Paul was always a minor character. He always played second fiddle to Dan's story and he was away in Vietnam a lot of the time. They probably just thought he outlived his usefulness. He was never fully fleshed-out as a character or given much to do. Elsie was also always pressuring Bert to divorce Bill. Even taking her to see her lawyer once and having Bert file divorce papers because Bill was an alcoholic. Which she withdrew when she decided to go back to Selby Flats and give Bill a chance. Elsie hated Bill. Of course, I'm sure a lot of people thought Bert should have divorced Bill but I actually thought the opposite. I thought Bill should have divorced Bert. LOL. Especially in the younger years. In the latter years, Bert turned out to be an anchor for Bill instead of the irritant she was in the younger years. I thought Bill was a fascinating character. He seemed to always be doing the wrong things but those things came out of him trying to do the right thing and denying himself. He married Bert and stayed with her because it was expected when he should have been with a woman like Gloria and, probably, later, Maggie. He worked at jobs he hated when he really wanted to be in the military and travel but felt like he had to be domestic. That's why he could never keep a job and drank so much. He was unhappy in his life but never felt like he could do what would have made him happy because he was trying to do "the right thing". Very misunderstood character. Sorry. This is an ATWT thread and I've spent too much time deconstructing Bill Bauer. I just find the character very interesting. Everybody talks about women being constrained back then because of social expectations but men were too to some degree.

Yeah, he pressured Ellen to give up her baby. He was very stuffy and always telling Jim and Claire how they should act. Granted, somebody needed to keep a reign on those two but he did it in a heavy-handed way. He wasn't all that likable in the beginning at all. Tragic is the best way to describe Claire. She was a fascinating mess. I think Emily inherited her neurotic gene.

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.