Jdee43

Watching episode 90 (12/3/84), there were two confessions, Brick learning Amy's secret and Mason learning Santana's. The Brick and Amy stuff went over like a lead balloon. A more believable reaction from Brick would have been so much better. Brick and Amy have the potential to be the most likeable characters on the show. I don't understand why the writers would saddle them with this kind of story, her pregnant by another man, a man who just dumped her. So many other places they could have gone. The Mason and Santana stuff was better. The next episode, 91, is probably Lane Davies's best on the show so far, as he tries to talk truth to Santana. Poor guy, in the course of two episodes, Santana goes from finally wanting to be with him to pulling a knife on him and never wanting to see him again! And this after his father just pulled a gun on him too, in episode 89! The writers at this point seem to really like portraying Mason as quite the loser!

Peter Mark Richmond might be my favorite CC. I would have liked to have seen what Lloyd Bochner could have done in the role though. The pilot was good, but it was not sustainable. Interesting to see how they were setting up Augusta in the pilot to be this big baddie, petting a dog while paying goons to shotgun Joe. That potential never materialized. She was never that evil again. When Lionel showed up 5 weeks later, her character was watered down even more. By then, how she acted in the pilot pretty much made no sense.

Stunning!! I was expecting this to be the case for the 1963-67 episodes, not the 1980-82 ones!! But hearing the story, it does make sense. NBC brought the show, and, I presume, was no longer required to send copies of episodes to Colgate-Palmolive. Sounds like Colgate never bothered to inventory what they had; they just assumed that they had everything! Did they forget that they had sold the show to NBC at the end?! Here's hoping 1981 and 1982 episodes will pop up on youtube from time to time from home recordings, and when they do, that Retro TV won't be overly aggressive in taking them down! I wonder what this means for the 1963-67 episodes?? Assuming they have them, if they don't meet broadcast standards, is that the same as not meeting streaming standards?? I would love for them to put whatever they have on streaming, no matter the quality. If they did have the episodes, though, you'd think by now they'd have done something with them, like put up Elizabeth Hubbard's first episode or something. The two 1963 episodes they had on the site came from the Paley Center for Media. The Paley Center also has a 1966 episode; maybe that will come to the site one day.

I guess we have Lin Bolen is to thank for the hour long soap opera and Wheel of Fortune? Those are the two things that she put on the air that are still around! Her legacy? I think the 60 minute format was ok for established shows. Trying to introduce new shows at 60 minutes was a mistake though. It's never worked long term. Santa Barbara came the closest to success, at 9 years, and even that show would have been so much better, and perhaps lasted longer, at 30 minutes. Interesting that from 1965 on, all the new soaps NBC tried to introduce failed. In hindsight, perhaps they should have just doubled down and focused on the health of their old stand-bys of DAYS, The Doctors, and Another World.

I only started watching Santa Barbara regularly as a kid in 1988. Then in 1990, it was moved to noon, and I lost touch. I never realized until watching the 1984 episodes how essential Nicholas Coster was to the spirit of the show, one of its pillars. It's a shame that they ever got away from that. I think Santa Barbara definitely was his best soap role; no where else did he play a character as humorous and multi-faceted as Lionel.

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/19/archives/nbctv-trying-an-hourlong-daytime-proliferation-is-noted.html NBC‐TV Trying an Hour‐Long Daytime Soap Opera By Les Brown Oct. 19, 1974 When daytime soap operas moved from radio to television in the early nineteen‐fifties, they retained the accustomed 15‐minute format. In 1956, the networks found 30 minutes to be more suitable. Now, NBCTV is preparing to expand one of its long‐running daytime serials, “Another World,” to a full hour every day, beginning next Jan. 6. If the innovation proves successful, NBC program executives expect that other serials will adopt the 60‐minute format and that in time it will become standard for daytime melodrama. NBC also plans to experiment with a one‐hour episode for two of its other soap operas, “Days of Our Lives” and “The Doctors.” The serials — which came to be called soap operas in the radio era because they were favored advertising vehicles for soap companies — have diminished in number in recent years because game shows have proved more popular with women in the 18‐to‐49 age group that advertisers of supermarket products are most eager to reach. Lin Bolen, vice president of daytime programs for NBC‐TV, acknowledged that the network was violating an old show business principle by tampering with a hit, but she said the 10‐year‐old serial was being expanded to an hour in hopes of rejuvenating the entire genre. She pointed out that during the last five years, despite numerous attempts by all three networks to establish new daytime serials, only one, “The Young and the Restless” one CBS‐TV, has developed into a success. Proliferation Is Noted Soap operas require 18 months to two years on the air to prove themselves, while game shows succeed or fail in a matter of weeks, Miss Bolen noted. She cited this as the reason for the proliferation of quiz and panel shows on daytime television. The NBC schedule has seven game shows in a row, followed by five serials. Two of the serials, “How to Survive a Marriage” and “Somerset,” are not hits by commercial television standards, and one of them will be canceled to allow for the expansion of “Another World,” Miss Bolen indicated. “We are reasonably convinced that the daytime viewers have become more sophisticated in recent years and that, what formerly satisfied them in the 30‐minute sketch form no longer does,” she said. “A complaint has been that the stories progress too slowly, that too little happens from day to day.” The 60‐minute form would facilitate both story and character development, and the longer scenes will be played out in a single episode instead of being strung over several days, she added. “To make serials interesting, we have to do something daring,” Miss Bolen said. “I hope this is the coming thing.” The case for the longer soap opera was made on May when NBC offered a special one‐hour edition of “Another World” in celebration of its 10th anniversary on the air. The episode scored the highest Nielsen rating of any daytime program that week. The serial is packaged, and sponsored by Procter & Gamble and is taped at the NBC studios in Brooklyn. Among its regular featured players are Jacqueline Courtney, Irene Dailey, Hugh Marlowe, Beverly Penberthy, George Reinholt and Michael M. Ryan.

My experience has been pretty much the same unfortunately I wouldn't mind going back to paying 2.99 a month, for a quality stream, occasional customer service, and the hope that the rest of the episodes will be put up eventually. Now all those things seem to be gone

Has anyone found, since going free, that the video quality of the playback on the site has declined?

Watching the show, I think Mark Arnold was completely miscast as Joe. How about Jack Wagner as Joe Perkins in 1984? Or Jack Wagner as Joe Perkins in 1991? That would have made much more sense in terms of the kind of character Wagner ended up playing. Joe would have had tons of reasons to be pissed off. I never bought Wagner as Warren or liked what they turned Warren into to fit Jaxk Wagner.

I just watched episode 89 from 11/30/84. The show is finally trying to pick things up with Mason, by having him be accused of his brother's murder. It doesn't really make much sense as to why his sister and father would take the word of a lowlife that Mason was guilty, and why Mason would then suddenly start acting as if he were really guilty, but much about this show just doesn't make sense. Episode 89 features the first knockdown verbal fight between Mason and his father. It would have been so much better if Peter Mark Richman were still in the role of CC. Charles Bateman just didn't have the gravitas or the menace. Richman I believe could punch his son and pull a gun on him; with Bateman, it all just comes off as pretty ridiculous, he's so not believable.

Santana and CC were so icky in 1984. It was unnessary for the show to try that again in 1991.

I had no idea that Lin Bolen was the inspiration for the Faye Dunaway character in Network either! No doubt she was a more interesting character behind the scenes than those on-screen on any of her shows! Here's a photo of her that ran with her NY Times obit, where she's on the set of The Doctors in 1972.

Maybe he just does it for the Twitter responses, for a sign that people still care?

I think the main problem Santa Barbara had in 1984 is that none of the characters are especially interesting, memorable, or even likeable. They all are so generic and boring that it's hard to care or be invested in any of them. Augusta and Lionel come the closest to breaking the mold. It's crazy to see Mason, who later becomes interesting, being such an unlikeable non-entity in these early episodes. He could just stop appearing, and no one would care or notice. Robin Wright is so beautiful, but boy her character sucks, especially after Dane was fired; the character is so grating. It's the writing.

I've gotten up to episode 85, 11/26/84. Louise Sorel and Nicholas Coster are really carrying the show. I'm just stunned by the lackluster writing. In this episode, two storylines have their climax, and there are no pay-offs whatsoever. One is Joe being exonerated, a story that goes back to the first episode. You'd think this would be exciting, with Joe finding the killer or something. But no; instead, Peter, who just got shot trying to kill Joe, now reveals that he was there at the time of the murder and can vouch that Joe didn't do it. Everyone believes this, and this clears Joe. It's so silly and anticlimactic. The writers keep giving Peter things that come out of no where, ruining the character. They also have lost interested in Joe; he's not even in the episode where he's cleared. Both characters are dead 3 months later. In hindsight, they should have gotten rid of both of them in the earthquake. The second story that climaxes is the "adventure" of the 4 teens buying a haunted hotel, fixing it up and trying to run it, all the while being harassed by their teacher Ray Walston. I felt so bad and embarrassed for My Favorite Martian Ray Walston; through a comedy of errors, he's caught with a hooker. This is his last appearance and the last time we see any of this. It was all supposed to be "funny," but what a waste all around. The show had no idea what do with the younger characters. The show in general has no idea what to do. The show in 1984 is not working.

It's great that they've made it all free, but I wonder what incentive now do they have for finishing this project and putting up the rest of the episodes.

Wow Unbelievable. She was such a fundamental part of the show in the 1980s and 1990s. Their treatment of her, and other female vets, from 2002 on was so disgusting and disrespectful. They've been trying to make it up to Genie recently, but they never really made it up to Jackie

There's a major updating of the site, with new photos for all the years and new thumbnails on all the episodes. Also, a couple of missing episodes have been added!! These are ones that aired on Retro TV but were not on the site before! One was 2/14/68; it's now up, making February 1968 complete! Also 8/1/68 has been added! There are still episodes mislabeled -- 2/24/68 is 12/24/68; 9/25/68 is really 9/26/68; 9/26/68 is really 9/27/68. There are also some episodes that aired on Retro that are still not up, like 1 from April 1968, 6 at the end of June 1968, 8/5/68, the real 9/25/68. However, the fact that they've added any new episodes to the site is encouraging! The quality of the playback on the updated site is a little jerky. Hopefully that will improve!!

I'm watching from a Samsung smart TV. I'm not surprised to see the app disappear for me, as it hasn't worked on my TV since last summer. I think The Doctors streaming free is a mistake, a glitch on their website, that they will no doubt be correcting shortly.

It looks like itsrealgoodtv has done away with its app. To watch, you need to go directly to the website, itsrealgoodtv.com. The Doctors has its own section on it. Interestingly, at the moment, it's not behind a pay wall! You don't have to sign in or anything; you can watch all the episodes for free! There doesn't seem to be commercial interruptions either. It doesn't look like any new content has been added. What was there is still there, but now it's up for free! Don't know how long this will last for.

I got to watch the wedding of Nick and Althea. It was a bit anticlimactic. If anything, it showed how miniscule the show's budget was. It's too bad they couldn't make it really special and shoot on location, in a real church or outside. Instead they built a nondescript church set with aluminum folding chairs as pews, and then had the reception in a cramped set that looked like the hospital lounge redressed. In what felt like filler, they have the minister go on and on, giving the longest, most impersonal marriage rite possible. Nick and Althea look miserable and don't even look at each other when they say their impersonal vows. I don't know if that was a conscious choice on the part of the actors for their characters, or just poor direction. Speaking of poor direction, someone should have told Lydia Bruce that the little girl at the wedding is supposed to be her daughter. Bruce goes by her like she's a stranger. Equally weird, they have Greta hanging out with and being held only by Jody Lee and then Steve, people who her parents aren't particularly fond of or hardly know that well! Matt barely acknowledges Greta, and Maggie not at all! Watching this, Nick was totally right! They should have just had a small wedding, or eloped, or even just got married in his lab. It would have been more personal and romantic, and more in keeping with the show. The show, with its budget, just couldn't deliver on a big splashy wedding.

On Monday night, the Buzzr subchannel aired a 1974 episode of To Tell the Truth that had a segment featuring Ira Avery, head writer of The Doctors, among other soaps, both on TV and radio. He was plugging a gothic mystery he had just written under the pen name "Mavis Hathaway" called "What Evil Lurks." Apparently it was acceptable at the time only for women to be the authors of gothic novels. It was ok for men to use their real name for soap writing though. I think I read an article way back on this thread where The Doctors executive producer Allen Potter criticized the writing of a recently departed writer, and it seemed likely that that writer was Ira Avery.

Elizabeth Hubbard was one of the great ones. Her performances always had truth to them. She was always present and engaged. And she was incredibly charismatic. We're lucky that her run on The Doctors survives and is available for viewing. She's one of the main reasons to watch it.

Why didn't Harding Lemay get a longer stint back in 1988? Penny pinching from network execs? Swajeski came cheaper? Did Lemay want to stay?

Rita Lakin was great. It's been posted before, but here she is talking about her time on The Doctors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsM2yA_rMy8 The show lucked out getting a primetime writer of her quality to write for it for two years. It's interesting that she took the job not knowing what she was in for; it turned out to be more work than she thought, especially since they wouldn't give her other writers. She said they were looking for a nighttime writer to save the show, and all it took "was a little good writing." "Writing for it was so simple." A shame no one who followed her had the same philosophy!