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Jeff Allin played Kevin.

Your mention of Kevin and Catherine brought to mind this story,another ill fated plot.

I agree that despite the killing off of many characters,the show still had a good base to work from.

They never found the right Mike Powers,one of the most recast roles in soap history.

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Several years ago, Hilary Bailey Smith told SOD that the plague that hit Madison was used to renegotiate contracts on "The Doctors" since several actors were up for renewal at this time. Didn't Steve come down with the plague as well? Maybe they were playing hardball with David O'Brien and cast John Rixey Moore in order to show O'Brien they would move on without him. The plague storyline certainly didn't take any lives of important characters, other than Mona. Barbara Lang played Marilyn Langley, Paul's wife. James' major story point seemed to be to disinherit Billy of his claim on the Aldrich fortune.

The Writer's Strike was AWFUL for "The Doctors." Wasn't it revealled that Kevin had been sexually abused by Cahterine at the climax of that storyline? I know Kevin staged a wedding ceremony for himself and Nola and then raped her. Around the same time an impotent Matt and Maggie broke up only for Maggie to learn she was pregnant. Did Matt and Maggie even have sex or was this truly a miracle child? Jerry Dancy was revealled as a drug dealer working for an Asian drug cartel. And then there was the mystery patient who knew Althea? It all reads as very bizarre and nearly changing from week to week.

Glenn Corbett was also killed off during this time. I wonder if that was the original plan or if it was something the scab writers cooked up. The episode where he is killed is available at the Paley Center. I believe Barney is featured in it working at the Medicine Man alongside Calvin Barnes.

I think Barney appears past March 1982. In one of the weekly columns from this time, Barney asked Natalie to break up Billy and Nola. This was right before Nola ended up pregnant and left the series. Initially, Donald Crabtree played Burton Canfield on "Texas" I don't think Weber ended up in the role until the summertime. There is an article in one of the papers about the show's second anniversary and Weber is referred to as being a new addition.

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Geez. I keep forgetting sometimes just how much of a wrecking ball the writers strike was to some shows in 1981...I don't think it was as bad in 1988, aside from AMC maybe.

Did Althea have any major stories when Liz Hubbard returned? I guess I've mostly just seen synopses from when she was away but I barely ever read anything about her storylines. I guess I just wasn't paying enough attention.

Edited by CarlD2
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Althea returned in January/February 1981. There was a conference of some sort at Hope Memorial and Althea was set to be the guest speaker. She was in town for the conference, and a few weeks later, her son-in-law, Jerry Dancy, arrived for his sister Nola's wedding to Jason Aldrich. I think there were some issues between Jerry and Althea. Jerry was very aggressive in his approach to medicine, and I think Althea didn't want him working in the hospital. Matt and Maggie were on the outs again. Matt was becoming very close to Althea right before the strike, but once the strike hit everything went to the pot.

In the final year Althea had romances with both Jeff Manning, a much younger surgeon, and Jean Marc Gautier, a doctor who seemed to be experimenting with the fountain of youth serums.

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Thanks. So that's why they brought Jerry back. I guess he wasn't around for long?

Matt and Maggie don't sound like what I thought they were. For some reason I thought they were one of those couples like Mike and Nancy Karr who were generally together and loyal to each other, but it sounds like there were a number of breakups and some affairs.

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I think the couple reconciled in early 1978. Matt and Maggie tended to be on different sides of arguments, but they didn't really separate again until spring 1981 and weren't reunited until the show's final weeks. In the meantime, I'm not sure how much story they got. I know Maggie was kidnapped at one point, Maggie had a pregnancy scare, but for the most part it seems like they were reacting to their children's problems.

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Thanks, I am shaky on the last couple of years because I did not watch as often as I would have liked. I can only go on the episodes I have from that time period. The episode where Luke says that Barney walked out and left no forwarding address is from the end of March 1982. According to Texas: The New Generation expert Brian, Larry Weber's first appearance on Texas was in July 1982. This leaves a three month period (April/May/June) in which Barney could have continued on The Doctors. I hope someone who has soap opera magazines or summaries from these months can tell us how Barney was finally written out.

The writer's strike of 1981 was terrible for The Doctors. Jerry being caught up in drug cartel was ridiculous, especially in view of his late sister Joan -another indication that no one paid attention to history. Terry O'Quinn was miscast, too. He sleepwalked through the role. I think this is when John Pankow (from Mad About You) was introduced as Danny Martin. Danny and some girl were held hostage in a mansion by a man named Sebastian, who was out to get Jerry. A candelabra fell onto the drapes and caught the house on fire. Danny became infatuated with Natalie, and it turned out that he was a virgin. Thank God the core characters of Matt, Maggie, Steve, and Carolee were around to counter this nonsense.

Edited by saynotoursoap
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It probably sounds that way because we're condensing stories to a few sentences, and we're talking a couple of incidents in nearly 20 year run. Matt and Maggie were, more or less, a stable couple. The exceptions were during Doug Marland's headwriting and Ronnie Wencker-Konner/ Harding Lemay's in the last year. This should not be surprising given that Marland trained under Lemay, and both were good at creating discord among veteran characters. Also, I think The Doctors was better than most soaps at creating three dimensional physicians.

Most soap doctors border on sainthood, but the medical practitioners at Hope Memorial were allowed to be fallible. Steve Aldrich, especially in the early days, was a real swinger. He went after Karen Werner for the fun of it and got her pregnant. Later, he had a fling with Carolee, impregnating her out of wedlock, too. In the mid-70's, he had an affair with his first wife Ann Larimer, driving Carolee away. Matt Powers was arrogant and stubborn. He flirted with Nola Dancy because he enjoyed seeing Maggie's jealousy, and when he was accused of the mercy killing of Joan Dancy, he became an abusive alcoholic who rejected Maggie's gestures of love and support. This is when she finally succumbed to what amounted to a one night stand with Kyle Wilson. Years later, Matt dumped Maggie for the much younger M.J., and after breaking M.J.'s heart, turned around and expected Maggie to reconcile with him. The fellows on The Doctors definitely had balls. These guys were not being subjugated by women.

Other than these stories in 1976-77 and 1981-82, Matt and Maggie were generally stable. Matt forgave Maggie fairly easily for the incident with Kyle. Maggie and Kyle's affair was in April 1977. They went away together to New York on a business trip. I believe they were together in the one-hour special The Doctors aired for their 14th anniversary. The affair was a secret until that fall when Greta accidentally overheard Maggie and Kyle discussing what had happened. Greta became very angry at Maggie, and part of her acting out was having sex with Billy, which led to her pregnancy story. Greta outed Maggie and Kyle at a family event. It was either Thanksgiving or Christmas 1977. Maggie moved out, but she and Matt reconciled for New Year's with resolutions to be better mates to one another.

Maggie's kidnapping happened in December 1979, as an offshoot of the tornado that destroyed Madison in November. Maggie was taken in after the storm by a young girl who had volunteered to help with the storm victims. The girl held Maggie captive. Maggie developed a serious infection and nearly died. It turned out that the girl was a former nursing student who been ousted from the nursing program at Hope Memorial by Maggie.

Edited by saynotoursoap
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Being used to soaps from the last two decades, it has been astonishing to have so many notions regarding past soap characters ripped apart. Matt Powers wasn't some warm patriarch of the series, he tended to be an stubborn and set in his ways. I believe he clashed with Dr. Jack Garner on occassions during 1980 over hospital protocol and the treatment of patients. Jack was one of Greta's beaus, who Matt was always critical of. He wasn't a fan of Billy Aldrich when he returned to town either, but, to be fair, he had quite a right to be given Billy abandoned Greta to raise Leanne on her own. That most have been interesting to see play out given the friendship between those two families.

I have to wonder if Matt was always this strong personality who would clash with others over professional and personal matters. I've read that Mike blamed Matt's behavior for his mother's suicide years before. I use to think this was simply Mike perception of the matter, but maybe Matt always read on the cold side. I have to wonder if this wasn't another reason Matt and Maggie didn't make it down the aisle in the early stages of their courtship.

Regarding Barney, it's entirely possible the reference I found to him in the May synopses was a mistake. The columnists often mistook characters or misprinted names. I do know Natalie did become involved with Billy, which pitted him against Luke for her affection. Given Lemay's nature, I could also see where this could have been revisited later as Barney's request would once again have put him at odds with his son Luke.

Speaking of the tornado, what did you think of the new characters who were introduced around this time: Dr. John Bennett and his wife Ashley, Jack Garner, Darcy Collins, Brad Huntington, Alan Ross, Viveca Strand, Calvin Barnes, and Dr. Terri Foster. It seems like the show was trying to integrate the cast with more African American cast members with paramedic Calvin, gynecolist Terri, Terri's mother Lillian (who I believe was Mona's maid), and the pregnant prostitute who Terri took in. Overall, it seems like the characters weren't integrated into the overall canvas very well.

Now I remember the Jack Garner/Matt Powers issue. There was another intern alongside Darcy/Alan/Brad who wasn't able to cut it and dropped out of the program and left the show in June 1980. Jack was furious with the way Matt had pushed the young man out of the program, while Matt felt there needed to be a standard for doctors. The conflict was rather interesting as it fueled the Matt/Jack conflict which spilt over into Jack and Greta's relationship.

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The Doctors - The 60's (from LaGuardia's book)

1963

When it premiered, The Doctors was not the continuing drama it is today, but a half hour anthology series centred around life at Hope Memorial Hospital.Each episode featured only one of the show's four leading players: Fred J Scollay as hospital chaplain Sam Shafer, Jock Gaynor as Dr Willia Scott, Margot Moser as Dr Elizabeth Hayes and Richard Roat as Dr Jerry Chandler. After a few months, the daily stories became weekly.

1964

Early in the year,the show became a continuing serial. The stars were now Jim Pritchett as Dr Matt Powers,Ann Williams as Dr Maggie Fielding,and Richard Roat and Fred Scollay from the original cast. Jim Pritchett is still on the show today.

The early story emphasized the attraction between Matt and Maggie. She was originally married to Alec Fielding (Charles Braswell.Joseph Campanella). After the death of Alec,memories of his late wife Grace kept Matt from marrying Maggie. Distraught,she married Kurt Van Allen(Byron Saunders) on the rebound.

1965

Major cast members included; Adam Kennedy as wealthy cattle baron Brock Hayden,who wanted to marry Maggie but was murdered,Ellen McCrae as Dr Kate Bartok (now known as Ellen Burstyn,Academy award winner), Elizabeth Hubbard as Dr Althea Davis, and Gerald S O'Loughlin as hospital custodian Pete Banas.

After Ann Willias became pregnant and quit, Bethel Leslie was cast as Maggie Fielding. Bethel played out the complicated Kurt Van Allen story. The marriage was bad and Kurt finally ran off-he was later reported killed on a South Sea island.

1966

Dr Althea Davis, head of the Outpatients Clinic, became engaged to Matt even though he still loved Maggie. Althe was divorced fro Dave Davis (Karl Light) and had two children Penny and Buddy.

Morgan Sterne and Meg Myles came on for a year as troubled married couple, Keith and Harriet Wilson. Their teenage daughter Liz, tried to rebel against her archly conservative mother, who later suffered a breakdown. Her husband took her away,but Liz stayed on.

1967

Matt's teenaged son Mike(Harry Packwood) and the popular Liz Wilson (Pamela Toll) provided a story of Young Love. Liz almost fell to her death from a hospital ledge after taking a psychodalic drug that Mike had made as an experiment.

Terry Kiser was Dr John Rice, a nice young man who wanted to help Liz. He stayed on till 1969.

1968

Pamela Toll was given a going away party when she left the show to do a Walt Disney movie.The same year, Bethel Leslie also departed for Hollywood, shortly after Matt and Maggie were finally wed. Gerald Gordon had just joined as brain surgeon Nick Bellini.

Lydia Bruce replaced Bethel Leslie and has been in the part ever since.

Nancy Donohue played Nancy Bennett. As a nurse in charge of rehabilitation of disabled patients, she helped newspaper woman Anna Ford(Zeida Coles). Anna had a romance with black doctor, Dr Simon Harris (Conrad Roberts).

The Doctors greatest love story was between Althea and Nick. Viewers loved the idea of an involvement between a brilliant though brash rough neck surgeon from Chicago and a sophisticated lady physician brought up in the finest New England schools.

Gerald Gordon,as Nick, has performed numerous brain operations on the show, and is considered so gifted a neurosurgeon that any viewers write to hi asking for medical advice. He always politely replies that they should consult their own physicians.

Nick and Althea were wed in late 1968. Because of the difference in their backgrounds and temperements, they had a stormy and short lived marriage,. But they have always loved each other and even to this day,viewers are tempted to believe they will remarry.Gordon and Hubbard,who each won Daytime Emmys in 1976, are still with the show.

1969

Peter Burnell took over the role of Mike, who fell in love with Nancy Bennett, after Liz was out of his life.Nancy though her husband Paul (James Shannon) was dead, but when he re-appeared quite alive, Nancy left town with him.

Liz Hubbard left in 1969 and Virginia Vestoff took over as Althea. a year later, Liz returned.

Eileen Kearney played Greta, Maggie's daughter by the late Kurt Van Allen. For a while everyone thought she was a 'bad seed' child , until it was discovered her hostile behavior was caused by a bite fro an infected rabbit.

Julie Forrest (Ginger Gerlach) became Mike Power's new romance. Julie, a distant cousin of Maggie's, moved into the Powers home and caused a lot of trouble. During a struggle with Greta,Julie fell down the stairs to her death.Not long after Ginger died from an overdose of sleeping pills.

David O'Brien came on in 1969 as Dr Steve Aldrich, a complete heel with the ladies. He had an affair with Dr Karen Werner (Laryssa Lauret) and made her pregnant. Then he saw the folly of his ways and married her. But she was a complete neurotic and made him miserable.

Carolee Canpbell as introduced as gentle and shy nurse Carolee Simpson only a few months after David O'brien. (The actresses first name was considered so interesting that it was also used for the character).Carolee was afraid to let the philandering Steve know that she was in love with him, but after his divorce from Karen, Steve professed his love and they had an affair. Carolee became pregnant.

More to come...

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LaGuardia's book is like Schemering's -full of inaccuracies.

John Rice (Terry Kiser) left in 1968. Peter Burnell took over as Mike Powers from Robert LaTourneaux, who succeeded Harry Packwood, in 1968, not 1969. Gerald Gordon's Nick Bellini had not just joined The Doctors in 1968. He started in 1966. David O'Brien and Carolee Campbell both began on the soap in 1968, not 1969, and Carolee Campbell joined the show before O'Brien, not after. Julie Forrest fell down the stairs and died in 1970 instead of 1969. Coincidentally, Peter Burnell and Ginger Gerlach (who played out the story of Mike and Julie) both committed suicide in real life. Gerlach od'ed on sleeping pills in 1971, and Burnell hung himself in 1987.

Edited by saynotoursoap
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Ivy Gooding was the hostess at The Medicine Man. She was in love with Luke, not Michael Powers. Luke and Natalie had broken up in 1982, and Natalie had taken up with Lt. Paul Reed, who ended up murdering Billy Aldrich. Ivy was very light skinned. Actress Chris Calloway could have easily played Carla on One Life to Live. Truthfully, when she first appeared, I had no idea that she was African American. I loved the story. Calloway was a good actress. Luke was blind to her interest in him, almost comically so. He dated one girl after another, theorizing that playing the field was better than getting serious -and hurt- as he had been with the deceptive Natalie. In the last few shows, Luke was dating a vapid blonde. They smooched and cooed in The Medicine Man, and Ivy watched painfully as Luke took her up to his apartment for one of Andre's special lunches in the sack. The girl eventually hurt him, as Natalie had. This is when Ivy professed her interest in him. It really didn't seem like an interracial story to me. At least it wasn't played that way. I feel like Ivy's daughter may have caused problems for them had the soap continued, as Ivy mentioned having a grown daughter before the show ended.

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