Susan Hunter

Is this the first time we're seeing that church set? They did a great job on it.

Also it's nice to see that Steve is still trying with Karen. I bet some event like the baby kicking (if they can even allude to that in 1968) will soften her up a bit.

Is it true that Retro only licensed 2 years worth of episodes? I am very grateful for what we've gotten, but I really do hope that we can see more.

I'm intrigued by Townsend and Liz. I hope this moves Liz back to the front burner. She is one of my favorites.

Karen got more sound advice today from Althea. I hope she doesn't ignore it like she did Maggie's good advice. I love the fact that Matt and Maggie's wedding gift is still driving story for the Aldriches. One electric blanket and weeks of story.

Speaking of Maggie, how great was her outfit today. Love it! And those candles.

At this point, is Lydia Bruce a full contract player or is she still 'subbing' for Bethel Leslie?

According to Laryssa, the producers saw Karen as a villainess, to which I personally disgree. She could certainly be an antagonist at times, and her frosty exterior turned off some viewers, but Karen was not bad. Her actions harmed herself more than others. I love the fish-out-of-water aspect -the culture clashes between her and the other characters. Given her background, I understand why Karen acts (and reacts) in the manner she does, and throughout the series my heart went out to her. I wanted her iciness to melt. I wanted her to find love and have the happy ending which sadly eluded her. To that end, Laryssa was told that Karen should have dark hair. When she was offered the part, the producers requested that she dye her natural blonde hair to brunette, and she flatly refused. The wig was a compromise.

I agree with you. The Doctors has a lot of great characters, but there is something about Karen that really draws me in. I can't wait to see how her story plays out.

if soaps today gave each character and story the same kind of TLC Lakin/Edelstein/Potter gave, maybe the genre wouldn't be in the freefall it's in today.

Amen. Soaps gave up some of the things that only soaps can do well in order to complete with movies and primetime. If you have 250 episodes a year, use them to tell every beat of the story. Fast paced doesn't have to mean skipping the character building moments of the story. I think The Doctors runs at a very nice pace. We've seen about 200 episodes since Retro began airing the show. So everything that we've seen is about a year's worth of story and a lot has happened in that year.

I liked today's episodes, especially Carolee. I also like Ms. Bennett the PT lady. And Mike is very cute.

The nun story probably got him a lot of sympathetic fans and even more love letters.

I decided to do the inflation calculator on his salary. $60K in 1973 is just over $315,000 today. Not bad by any stretch for a working actor.

It feels so much more modern than a lot of material I've seen from this era or from most soap stuff around this point (the little that's available) - before this the earliest soap material I'd seen that was this frank and playful was early Ryan's Hope.

I was surprised when I first saw The Doctors because it was nothing like I imagined that it would be. It will be interesting to see what the show becomes after Rita Lakin exits.

Thanks for posting that Amy. A great little blurb, plus a future spoiler!

As a Karen fan, I really believed that she was going to take Maggie's advice and try to meet Steve half way. Steve is still trying to get through to her (in all the wrong ways), which leads me to believe that he really has feelings for her -- or has convinced himself that he does.

Thanks for posting that Mod Squad episode. I'm really interested in Rita Lakin now, she created some show called The Rookies, I'm going to get it from Amazon.

I really loved Maggie in today's episode. You really got to see her be, a woman, a wife, a friend, and an advisor. A fully realized person. This show should be required viewing for some of our current daytime executives on how to write a real woman who doesn't act like a reject from a Real Housewives franchise.

And, of course, I loved my Steve and Karen. Those two, what a mess.

I'm probably way off, but I do wonder if Matt and Maggie are going to somehow end up with Steve and Karen's baby. Even though I know the kid is raised by Steve and Carolee and grows up to be Ian Ziering. Hmmm....

I remember the message boards praising the Pollock and Marland eras as really good. I never recall anyone mentioning the Lakin/Edelstein era. If the Pollocks and Marland were better than this, I can't wait to see it.

Interesting that Lakin didn't do another soap, I bet she was in demand for daytime. Do you remember what the Starsky and Hutch rerun was about?

I didn't get the impression that Steve was horny. I thought he was horribly cruel to Karen in those scenes and wished she had told him to stifle himself.

I got the impression that he is not only sexually frustrated but frustrated with the entire situation. He pointed out that Karen didn't take the electric blanket back. Then he pointed out that Karen sneaks into the bathroom to change so he won't see her. I think from Steven's point of view he's trying to make this a "real" marriage and Karen's is just not cooperating and the embarrassment of the Powers now knowing that it isn't a real marriage is just too much. I think all that he wants is for Karen to just meet him half way. He's tired of doing all of the heavy lifting.

Steve is horny. Karen is hormonal. I really want them to work through their problems and make this work. When Steve left the apartment, I do wonder where he went off to.

Good episodes today. Mostly setup for what's coming. Poor Steve. I must have missed it, but is Mike pre-med or an intern or what? I believe Matt said, Technical Services, but I'm unclear of what that means.

One thing I want to praise is the long scenes. That model makes it feel like a lot happens in the span of the episode. Plus, you get those great character building moments, which is a great benefit for new characters. It's kind of a shame that we got away from that.

That Steve and Karen marriage is the best. They are so miserable and then here comes Matt and Maggie with their electric blanket. How great and awkward was that.

Carl, tell your mom I agree with her that these episodes don't even seem "soap-like". As a long-time lover of old shows, I think TD from the era we are seeing now is more like Ben Casey meets Bewitched.

This show has really spoiled me. And it makes me sad that so much soap material was lost because this was considered disposable entertainment. I could watch full channel of nothing but soaps from the 60s.

I was thinking the other day about the NBC lineup during this time. Three different type of shows in a span of 90 minutes. You have California based Days with pretty actors and drama, then the Doctors (as Amy said), followed by a conservative PG show still using an organ as background music. And I don't NBC was ever able to create another daytime lineup as good and popular as this.

I like the way that Lakin has developed Karen as a character. A fish out of water trying to understand American customs and language (mostly colloquialisms) and not very likeable. But now she's softening, slowly. The conversation with Mike about fathers was great. Then the scene with Steve at the end. Nice touches. Even though it looked as though Steve was going to strangle her while smooching her neck. Another great show. Loved the original sponsor plug.

Today's episodes really highlight the superiority of the 30 minute soap. I never understood why great soap writers like Bell and Nixon had to be dragged kicking and screaming into expanding their shows to an hour, but now I get it. I loved the way they played Nick and Althea along with Steve and Karen. You could see what Rita Lakin was trying to say about these two stories by playing them together like that. I think the meaning would have been lost in hour show.

I kept thinking that Karen was going to back out at the last minute, but they married. Loved the end credits scenes of them alone in their twin beds. Since I don't know much about early The Doctors, I would assume that Karen's coldness will eventually lead Steve to find comfort somewhere else, very soon. Can't wait.

I think that I am probably in the minority, but I really like Steve and Karen. Their scenes fascinate me. I think Steve is lying to himself in a hope for some kind of absolution. While Karen is looking at the true reality of the situation and it is causing her to come undone. Can these two crazy kids make it?

Loved Matt finally thawing out a little bit regarding Maggie and when he told Jody Lee to cut his hair.

The Friday shows were really good. I get such a kick out of Karen. She's not even trying to pretend that this marriage to Steve is anything, except what it is.

Loved seeing Mike. This makes me wonder if we're going to see a young Anna Stuart soon.

Actually, in one of the episodes that aired this week, Steve came out and asked Karen point blank if she was contemplating having an abortion...or something like that. I was shocked by that and that he actually used the word "abortion".

Thanks Rob. I totally missed that.

I find it interesting that Steve just went all in with wanting to "do the right thing" regarding Karen and the baby. Since he was a playboy, I am somewhat surprised that he didn't recommend that Karen have "an operation" -- as they referred to it on some TV shows and movies back then -- to take care of the problem. I can imagine that this wasn't the first time that this problem had come up. Maybe Mona had taken care of all of the others. It definitely makes his character much more interesting.

Thanks for the answer Matt.

Loved the scenes between Maggie and Karen. A frank and honest discussion between two adult women. No childish behavior, name calling or hair pulling or vows of revenge. This entire story would have been written so differently today.

Has the location been named yet? Are we in Madison or is it still an "unnamed New England city"?

Great job putting all of those summaries together. I wonder if Retro will go back and show those episodes, eventually.

The scenes in the Powers bedroom were great. Excellent writing and performances.

I had a weird moment watching the shows today. Watching this show growing up, I just assumed that Matt, Maggie, Steve, and Carolee were all the same age. I guess Steve is considerably younger than Matt and Maggie. Interns are what? Mid 20s?

I really liked Steve and Karen today. She has a very modern outlook for 1968 and for classic soap opera. This show is really progressive and stands out from what I've heard and read about other soaps during this time period. All the characters are very well drawn and three dimensional. There are no mustache twirling villains or good girls versus bad girls. Look at Maggie... I feel badly for her, but her marriage mess is her own fault.

Rita Lakin was an excellent writer. I really wish that I could see fan mail from that time period, just to get an idea of how the audience was reacting to the show and her stories.