Matt

Actually, the original Charles Paul theme song was around from the beginning until (I think) 1975, so that would be about 11 years.

One of the most fun parts of watching old 70s episodic television episodes is playing "Spot the Soap Star", especially when they play against type.

Unnamed New England city. From what I've read, the city isn't named as Madison until sometime in the mid 1970s around the same time as General Hospital's unnamed East Coast city picks of the name Port Charles.

Dennis Parker who played Derek Mallory on Edge of Night had quite a porn past as Wade Nichols (as well as a brief disco singing career after he changed his name to Dennis Parker) in the 1970s that included both gay and straight porn. He became ill with AIDS & left the show a few months before the end of the series when he became too ill to work & died within months of the final episode. You really should look up "Like an Eagle" by Dennis Parker on youtube. It's quite a campy disco experience. lol

It's the recently rebranded TV Guide Network.

I've often read that during the Watergate hearings, a lot of the soaps that DID air & weren't preempted often aired in a deliberately abbreviated form. I have to wonder if this is similar to how ABC handled the soaps in 1984 during the Olympics when GH, OLTL, & AMC continued to air (Edge, Loving, & RH were completely preempted) in a 20 minute (I *think*) format for those 2 weeks or so.

Bethel's back! Bethel's back! Bethel's back in today's first episode!

That could very well be. Although I'm not overly familiar with Walther, she would be the right age and had previously played Patti Tate on SFT for a period and this would've been right before she was on another NBC soap "Hidden Faces". A very quick image search on Google turns up this photograph for comparison.

Lynn Benisch (Meredith Lord Wolek on OLTL) makes an appearance in today's 2nd episode as the last of Polly's nieces, Bonnie!

I've grown to simply love snarky, slimey (and now sympathetic) Nathan Bunker. House Jameson (who plays the part) is simply brilliant in the role, imo, and was actually once a rather well known actor thanks to his role as Sam Aldrich, the father on the sit-com "The Aldrich Family" which he played on both radio & tv from 1939-1953. In fact, for a brief period, GL's own Charita Bauer played his daughter. Prior to "The Doctors", he played the patriarch of the ill-fated Gregory family on "Another World."

Carolee Campbell played Carolee Simpson until 1976 when she left the show. There was a brief period when the character was off screen (and explained in storyline, which I'm not sure if I should spoiler) before Jada Rowland took over in the second half of the year.

February 1972

For those looking to purchase a long, extended version of The Doctors theme song from the period on RetroTV... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=dramatic+world+without+end&sprefix=dramatic+worl%2Caps%2C503

THAT'S who that is!!! For YEARS I've been trying to figure out why Melissa Converse looked so familiar to me. I've got about a full month of SFT from the summer of 1966 on video tape & Melissa Murphy is playing Patti (quite well, too, I might add). Those episodes are REALLY good & I really connected with Murphy's Patti and always wondered why I'd never seen her in anything else. But it turns out I have! lol I never made the connection between Converse & Murphy because none of Melissa Murphy's credits are listed under Melissa Converse or vice versa.

based on an ebay listing for a collection Rita Lakin scripts for The Doctors (which has since sold. the original Buy it Now price was $950 lol) the following episode numbers & air dates can be confirmed... PRODUCTION #1302 (11/29/67) PRODUCTION #1304 (12/1/67) PRODUCTION #1477 (7/17/68) PRODUCTION #1571 (12/16/68) PRODUCTION #1572 (12/17/68) PRODUCTION #1573 (12/18/68) PRODUCTION #1574 (12/19/68) PRODUCTION #1575 (12/20/68) PRODUCTION #1576 (12/23/68) PRODUCTION #1577 (12/24/68) PRODUCTION #1578 (12/25/68) PRODUCTION #1579 (12/26/68) PRODUCTION #1580 (12/27/68)

So don't think I didn't follow along with my script for the second episode and BOY were there some changes. The entire first act (which consisted of Nick & Maggie discussing/recapping the hear) was cut. You can see where the show was supposed to lead into it via the opening which had Maggie exiting the elevator & walking towards Nick at the desk where he's on the phone. Nick never again appears in this episode. Also, nearly NO ONE on this show is word-perfect according to the script. Both Elizabeth Hubbard & James Pritchett paraphrase the hell out of their lines. House Jameson, however, is probably the closest. He only changes a word here and there, but it's almost totally word for word. DAMN, but James Pritchett gave an Emmy worthy performance during Matt's monologue. Matt took that hospital board to CHURCH. I sat totally enthralled the entire time he spoke. Utterly mesmerizing. The explanation that all Friday shows end in either 5 or 0 makes perfect sense to me considering my own OCD. lol However, the date is still off. Taking into account the January 1st preemption, the Friday, February 23rd, episode should've aired on RetroTV tomorrow at noon. This tells me that there had to have been one other preemption sometime during the months of January or February.

I'm at a confusing OCD quandary. Ever since the first episode on Retro, I've been keeping track of both episode number and original airdate. Thanks to the screencap of the slate for that first episode that Retro posted, we know the first episode was #1305 with an airdate of December 4, 1967. The only pre-emption that I'm aware of is for January 1, 1968 (based on Jason47's DAYS pre-emption list, since I feel it's safe to assume that if DAYS is pre-empted, then The Doctors will be, too, since it immediately follows). By my calculations, Friday's 2 episodes should be #1363 (2/23/68, Friday) & #1364 (2/26/68, Monday). HOWEVER, I have a script for The Doctors in my collection (which I believe I transcribed once in this thread some many pages back) that gives a Production #1365, but an AIR date of 2/23/68 (Friday). Something isn't lining up and it's annoying the crap out of me. The script concerns the board hearing with Matt & Althea's testimony (a very strongly scripted monologue by Matt). I'm just not quite sure what to make of the conflicting info. Oh, and according to the script's cover page, the episode that was to air on 2/23/68 was taped on 2/21/68 - only TWO days before. Oh, and this monologue of Matt's is like 4 pages long in the script and ends the episode.

I just noticed that Greta Rae was also credited in the cast crawl of #1348 (2/2/68) as Nurse Richardson

I've been informed on another board that veteran TV/film actor Joel Fabiani is playing Liz's nextdoor neighbor, Joe Finch.

Long running character Martha Allen, played by Sally Gracie, makes her first appearance today in episode #1345 (1/30/68) as Nick's new lab assistant.

Because a show titled "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" just screams crime-mystery.... smdh

I loved the fact that Maggie gave Karen a full on side eye all throughout her espousal of a woman's responsibility for the success of her marriage & duty to her husband.

Pleasantly surprised that they left in the original commercials for M&Ms & Colgate toothpaste at the end of today's 2nd episode before and after the production credits.

Penny's daughter, Amy, was adopted.

Greta is Maggie's daughter with her 2nd husband wealthy Kurt Van Allen (who, if I remember reading correctly, was rather nasty & died). Matt adopted Greta once he and Maggie finally married. Kurt's sister, Theodora, came to get custody of Greta because Greta inherited Kurt's fortune in trust and Matt/Maggie turned over all of Greta's inheritance to Theodora just to be rid of her. Years & years later, Theodora would factor into the storyline because she was dying and had willed her entire estate to a now grown Greta. This is while Alec Baldwin's Billy Aldrich was so determined to marry Greta - to get her hands on the money. His partner in crime, Natalie Bell, had been Theodora's nurse (I *think*) in California.