Paul Raven

I read somewhere that it was the Ed Sullivan Theater in NY. Regarding Annie and Dee,Marcia McLain was the first adult Dee and according to a John Colenbeck interview in SOD she was fired for not losing weight.I think Dee was offscreen for a while until Jacquie Shultz took over. She and Larry Bryggman were married for a time. Then Vicky Dawson took over and that was it for Dee. It's a pity Doug Marland wasn't interested in bringing Dee back. She only had one marriage under her belt and her relationship with John could have been explored as well as mixing her in with the new characters that were around late 80's/early 90's. As for Annie, that character had pretty much played out after 3 marriages and being saddled with quads but again it would have been nice to see her kids brought in in the 90's as the new teens( not necessarily all at the same time).

I thought they did a good job presenting the theatre/backstage etc with only a few extras. Colleen Zenk was a real find as she had an individual look at the time that still holds up today.

Annie looked so matronly. I guess the slow pace is due to the live to tape process, where each scene was commercial to commercial. GH was the first to start editing scenes. When did P&G follow suit?

I also recall Mike dated Trish ,Lillian and Helena.

Variety May 30th 1979 Fred Silverman,then programming chief at NBC announced plans to have soaps running 11.30 am till 4 pm each day, with gameshows from 10.00 till 11.30 am. As a part of that plan The Doctors would expand to 60 mins and move to the 11.30 timeslot.

Variety Oct 11th 1972 A notably weak half hour for CBS is with the "Family Affair" sitcom reruns, giving the web its lowest audience levels ever at 4 p.m. with a 4.3 rating to NBC's 7.1 for the soap opera "Somerset," and ABC a 6.0 for "Love American Style."

For the 79/80 sesaon the daytime Emmy's had an outstanding cameo category. Among the nominees was Kathryn Harrow as Pat Ryerson on The Doctors. Can anyone shed any light on the story for this character?

Please post more. I do read and enjoy all your post and the fascinating responses from posters like saynot and DC, but have been lazy/busy of late and don't always respond. Anyway, Doris Frankel was the writer of the proposed 1957 CBS soap 'The Will to Dream'.

Doris Frankel wrote SFT in the mid 60's with Leonard Kantor and was apart of the AMC writing team in 77/78. I recall her name from the proposed soap thread and will go back and check.

The writing was on the wall for 'The Doctors' for several years. The ratings were dropping and then the show was moved out of its longtime timeslot. All of NBC daytime was tanking so it would have taken a top notch writing/producing team to make any headway. I remember an Afternoon TV critique of the show saying that Marlands stories moved away from the hospital and that the show was no longer reflective of its title.

I have never seen Doris Frankel listed as co headwriter with Don Arpel. Did Somerset set a record for most headwriters in a year?

Going back to the Jack/Ashley/Claudia story,I think one of the problems was that all the characters in the story were new to the canvas so viewers didn't have any great interest or attachment. I guess in a way this was intentional as the show was trying to get away from Matt/Maggie and Steve and Carolee to bring freshness but maybe if a core character had been a part of it - if Jack were Mike Powers or something like that it would have blended old and new. Anyway,all those characters were soon gone.

Thanks for that info. Those short term,supporting characters often remain a mystery.

Someone please explain Val Dufour's outfit!! Never seen Ruth Hunt,Virginia Martin or Robert Maxwell in cast lists before. I think Connie was a love interest for Stu.

Looking at a clip of credits from 81 on We Love Soaps and saw Patrick Tovatt listed in a dayplayer role. 4 years later he was back on contract as Zane Lindquist.

I still maintain that with a little bit of rewriting the character of Marlena could have been Sandy instead, which would have breathed new life into the Hortons. And the SORASED David Banning should have been Julie's brother Steve in the story rather than saddle Julie with a grown son and then a grandson when she was barely 30 years old.

An overview of Kathleen Murray's brief career http://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/the-candy-fudge-sundae-girl/

George Petrie was the actor. He played in many primetime shows, most noticeably as Harve Smithfield on Dallas.

I can never follow the argument that says if you support gay marriage then you must support polygamy. They are TWO SEPARATE ISSUES. It's like people who say that bestiality will be legalized next if gay marriage is allowed. They try to muddy the issue with distracting elements.