MichaelGL

I think killing Pat off is a mistake, especially on Christmas day. It seems that death waits most of my favorite characters, or even worse (poor Sue). I hope Carol isn't going to be killed off when she leaves.

You'd think they might at least get one or two people to return, but who knows. I think Nick Berry said at one time he might return.

I too was was unsure about killing off Pat, and yes another traumatic Christmas is going to add to bleak tone of the stories going on around the end of this year (Apparently the climax of the Yusef story will be playing out as well). However, with all that said, I can't help but to feel that at least in the end, Pat will be reunited with her one and true love Frank Butcher. To add to that, it's not like St. Clements will be returning to EE.

Anyone know when this is from in 1986?

I always enjoy watching the Fletcher/Reva friendship. It's too bad it was forgotten later on.

It's so interesting seeing Reva in friendships like those, like with Phillip and Fletcher. I tend to find Reva quite enjoyable and at her best.

The set doesn't fit The View, but would for a primetime show.

This episode seems like an episode of General Hospital from the 80s. Centering heavily around Cedars, which I liked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lUx2RVd2Hk&feature=related

I also think the show aged that group a little too much. For instance, by 1987 wasn't Rick already getting involved with Meredith, who looked much older? That whole story about passing Phillip's child off as Rick's also seemed too old for them. I think SOD named Rick/Meredith worst couple of the year.

Honestly I think that whole story was rushed and ill paced, from the episodes I've watched of Rick/Meredith (their proposal on the fourth of July...it seemed like Rick and Meredith had only known each other for a short amount of time, and all of a sudden Rick was proposing to her). While I loved the mechanics of the story, Meredith practically becoming a late 80s equivalent of Rita Bauer(Rick=Ed, Phillip=Alan), there were just some parts of the story that didn't work or seemed to not ring true to me, like Rick/Meredith's rushed pairing.

I HATED the Roxie character, as there were just too many damn Lewis/Shaynes in too short of a time. I really hated her as they used her to break up one of my fave couples Rick and Minday (no one watching later on would believe me that MOL was cute as hell in his younger years and he and Terseu were just a cute couple together.)

That reminds me, I have the episode where Reva baptizes herself as the slut on Springfield saved on my computer. While KZ's scenes are one of the many highlights of the episode, another highlight is when Rick dumps Mindy into the fountain and forces her to take a good look at herself for the vain person she is. I really liked those scenes and made me wish they could have seriously pursued Rick and Mindy as a couple, instead of sending Mindy into Kurt's atmosphere and Rick into Roxy's. If the show really wanted a pairing for Roxy, I think they should have pursued Roxy and Kyle.

I still think Romney is the most "electable" so hopefully reasoning trumps blind faith and he is selected. But this is the Republican Party we are talking about.....

The funny thing is....I hope and pray Romney gets the nomination because the Tea Partiers would self destruct if that happened. It would be 2008 all over again, with the Republicans putting forth a nominee they're less enthused about. Romney getting nominated...if you thought Tea Partiers were up in arms over John Boehner and the debt deal, just wait and see if Mitt is nominated. They'll probably put forth their own nominee if that happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX7Wu47Zgck

That's an interesting clip of the 1981 closing. I don't think I've heard that version of that particular theme song. I always thought that moody downright depressing one with the trumpet was the closing theme for the show at the time. I actually liked hearing the closing theme in that video, and wish they could have used parts of it for the opening.

Wonderful article, Carl. I had never read that one. I loved Linda Grover's tenure at The Doctors. She was superior to the writers who came before and after her, IMO. I wish she had stayed longer, but NBC never gave its good writers a fighting chance. Her comments about the proposed story of Greta attempting suicide and killing her baby are absolutely appalling and the height of distasteful. Greta never would have done such a thing. Mel and Ethel Brez were clueless. Thank God Grover was hired and corrected it. I enjoyed the teen pregnancy story of Greta and Billy. It was tasteful and well written, one of the best of its type really in all of daytime. Her decision to move The Doctors back to more realistic, medical-based stories was a good one, particularly since the Pollocks had moved away from it near the end of their reign, and when they did a "disease" story, it was something inane such as Ann Larimer's Obonda fever.

From the synopsis's I've read, her tenure does seem quite good too. Didn't Grover write some interesting stories for Nola and Jason?

Personal finances are not the same as the mammoth financial structure the government has. Some don't want to admit it, but it's apples and oranges.

Wealth was developed extremely under Ronald Reagan, yet the government was deficit spending under him, unable to save as much as they put out.

Honestly, I don't think enough has been done to fix, improve, and develop our infrastructure, and that is due to the cut backs Republicans put into place. While such projects do cost money, they both benefit those looking for a job and the taxpayers themselves.

And I wonder, just how much of the shrinking size of government, firings of government employees, abolishing certain departments, has contributed to the unemployment rate. I would think, very much.

I'm really in awe at the production values of Edge back then, very few soaps at the time seemingly had such controlled lighting, very cinematic.

Kathy Beale's daughter. She was the product of rape from when Kathy was 14. Donna was a druggie with quite a manipulative streak. I believe at one point Dot took her in.

According to a site called thetaxfoundation

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

in 1916 a married couple earning $250,000 paid a tax rate of 10%

in 1917 when WWI hit, the same couple, if I read this chart correctly, paid 46% to help finance the war

by 1925 things settled and they paid 25%

when the depression hit and FDR was elected, they paid 58%

by the time of WWII they paid 88%

So there is a logic. Times and huge events come up, expenses get incurred, the government raises taxes to finance the needs of the day. So what happened in recent years? Modern conservative thought has adopted this new theory that when times are good you cut taxes (Bush tax cuts) and when times are bad you cut taxes (today). How does that economic theory make any sense? Someone had to pay for all the bombs and soldiers, but nobody wanted to raise taxes to pay for this adventurous US policy. Now Obama is president and the very same people who just two years ago were all for financing wars on Visa and Amex suddenly want balanced budget amendments. They don't need an amendment for that, they just need Bill Clinton to tell them what to do.

The tax rates today are historically on the low end of the spectrum of the last 100 years. Not coincidentally, more and more money is being consolidated by an ever narrowing top tier of society. These people don't even want to cut loopholes for the wealthy. I never heard of a politician saying "I am pro loophole. I am pro legalized tax evasion if you have a good accountant" but there you have the republican position as it stands currently. And then to turn right around and want to cut social security and medicare? When each bomb costs tens of millions of dollars? If that is not class warfare, then I don't know what is.

George W. Bush's biggest mistake, and yeah there were quite a few of them, yet the biggest one was not raising taxes to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taxes are always raised to fund wars, most notably when George H. W. Bush raised taxes, it was to fund the war in Iraq in the 90s. It did cost him the presidency, but it was also a hard reality he had to accept; to increase revenue to pay for the war in the middle east.

I will never understand this mentality that there should be cuts, and no increased revenue. I just...don't...understand.

Dems give and give until they won't have any of their base voting for them. The Republican hold outs in the House and Senate just take, take, and take, standing by their campaign slogans no matter what happens to this country.

I wouldn't expect anything more from McFadden than what you've seen. He tends to just sort of rasp through the days, and then he has some very good moments in pauses.

The problem with gay bad boys on soaps is that it always becomes "They just want to be loved! Poor them!" And there's no real way to do that with Ben because I don't think the actor is suited to that type of complex material and there isn't any type of family bond that would make for any type of good contrast. You're just basically going to get Phil drinking and angrily whispering and shouting, and Shirley hovering.

I also don't know if this will work with Ben because Santer conditioned viewers to see Ben as a bad joke, and as Phil's greatest burden. That is all he will ever be to many viewers. If he isn't doing drag balls by Christmas a lot of people will just say, "Bored now."

You make a lot of good points, especially about McFadden, who should have brought it at some point between September and now (Sept. when I started watching again) but didn't. I agree, I have some major reservations about the actor that plays Ben, I was hoping Kirkwood would recast the role before he brought him back again, unfortunately that isn't happening.

I see it as a chance for a soap (other than Hollyoaks, which really bungled the attempt) to finally have a gay villain,

considering I had a feeling that Ben was a baddie at heart, especially after he pushed Glenda down the stairs. If they use homosexuality to redeem Ben, and turn him into a self righteous goody two shoes, I'll be severely disappointed.

Plus, I want to see what all the fuss is about the actor that plays Phil. I was never really impressed with him when I started watching, but I caught the end of the crack story, so this will be a make it or break for me where Steve McFadden is concerned.

Finally.....

Spoilerish: EE's next coming out story.

I'm glad Janine made Pat beg her for the money to give to Ricky.

Both Pat and Ricky have been assholes to Janine since Lydia died and are first to condemn her with everything, yet when they need her help, they expect her to be giving? And Pat blames Janine for Ricky going to Dubai? What the hell?

And god I hate Maisie Smith's acting. I normally just excuse child actors since they don't have much experience, but this girl always grates my last nerve. Can Tiffany and her stage school antics go away?

They should do a two-hander between Janine and Pat before Pam St. Clement leaves at the end of the year.

I'm a Janine fan, but I don't really blame Pat and Ricky for how they've been treating Janine, especially after she played them for fools in regards to Ryan and Stacey. And Janine could have been more...humble....in offering Ricky the money, and she could have offered it earlier too, but she didn't, and she's partly to blame for Ricky going to Dubai. Not entirely to blame, but that was Pat acting out on the hurt she was feeling.

I'm always amused by your dislike for Tiffany, as the posters on DS seem to adore her. You should have seen some of the posts on there after Janine revealed to Tiffany she had gotten her nothing, while getting Morgan and Liam gifts. There were a few posters up in arms about that. I really don't have a overall opinion of Tiffany, but the cutesy childish stuff they have her do, do get on my nerves. I was however liking it when they had Tiffany spend time with Lydia, and some of Lydia(and Janine) was rubbing off on Tiffany. However that side of Tiffany seems to have been forgotten.

As for Pat, there's a possible spoiler that states...

Carol hits Shenice, a young girl that will living with Kat and Alfie. Pat will take the blame for the incident, which will cause waves within the square.

I do hope for a two-hander between Pat and Janine before Pam St. Clements leaves. This is where I hope Kirkwood's admiration for character of Janine comes into play and sees that there needs to be such a episode.

God the show sucked then! Love the drapes covering the walls so they dont have to build a set.

Dumber then even the clone was the two princes and San Crud!

Being a preteen when San Cristobel made its debut on GL, I loved all of it, but didn't like how it resulted in Josh and Reva eventually breaking up.

Then as time went on, I got a bit older, I grew tired of that damn island.

Danny Martin was introduced in August 1981 during the strike. He was involved with Althea's mysterious hit and run patient, Robin. Althea and Danny, an orderly, both took a shine to the young girl. Danny snuck her out to a carnival and later they ran away when it looked like Robin might be hurt by Sebastian, the drug dealer Jerry Dancy was involved with in Tokyo. Sebastian had killed Robin's mother and he feared she might rat him out. Sebastian kidnapped Danny and Robin, a fire ensued, and the two nearly died. Robin later faded from the story and Danny returned to his position at the hospital. Natalie came to work there in November 1981 so I assume that's how Danny-Natalie became friends. When Lemay began, Danny was defending Natalie to Nola, who didn't like her brother's relationship with Natalie.

Danny wasn't killed off during the plague storyline. He can be seen in the final episode. He tells off one of the nurses who had been trying to use him. Danny dated Kit McCormack briefly when she arrived on the scene and was later involved with sexy nurse Hollis, who also went after Mike Powers.

Thanks dc for the clarification.

I think Danny was one of the characters offed during the plague, unfortunately.

And you're right Carl, John Pankow does resemble the actor that plays Luke, from that scan you posted.

My curiosity is piqued about this Danny character. I've read in past recaps from The Doctors, that he was well intentioned character, willing to go the lengths to protect his friends such as Natalie. What was his connection to Natalie? I know he was involved in the story where Billy blackmailed her, and Danny tried to get Billy to back down, as Natalie tried keep her relationship with Luke intact.

I might have an ounce of respect for Coburn than I do for most of the Republicans in Congress because of this....he actually suggests tax increases.

Coburn Proposes Budget

Thanks again to saynotoursoap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8fAgBDpMbY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhx9QJ0kqB8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Who says Christmas isn't in July?

Thank you saynotoursoap!

That's quite the find Carl, I don't think I've ever seen a cast photo for The Doctors.