SteveFrame

That article I posted is one of the things that bugs me to death about politicians, and the reason that when people are talking about hope and change and all that crap I am forever cynical and jsut say they are all being whitewashed. These politicians -- every one of them -- say they care and say they are different. They ahve the audacity to complain about big executives coming to Washington to ask for money in their private jets, when the majority of them took private jets there that were paid by the tax payers. Pelosi even requested a bigger plane than the one usually afforded to the person in her position which costs more in fuel. Then they all come in and have these big fancy shindigs and hire decorators at the tax payers expense to redecorate the White House. And Obama who was supposed to be different than the others is falling right into the same old patters and now his Inagural is costing more than any other in the history of inaugurals. As Yahoo puts it: "Obama's inauguration will cost nearly four times more than the next most expensive celebration" And they wonder why people like me don't trust them and don't feel any hope when any of them get into office. Politicians have jaded me way too much. I don't trust any of them and never will again.

That's a lot of balloons Digg Facebook Newsvine del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Sat Jan 17, 9:18 pm ET As the recession continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy and inauguration celebrations ramp up, a lot of people are asking: "How much will this shindig cost?" The short answer? More than $150 million — and yep, that's the most expensive ever. (By comparison, George W. Bush's 2005 inauguration cost $42.3 million. Bill Clinton managed with $33 million in 1993.) For the first time, President Bush has declared an emergency in Washington, D.C. to supplement the $15 million Congress has already allotted for security measures. It's no surprise that security costs are sky-high — Barack Obama received Secret Service protection very early in his presidential run and record crowds (likely anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million people) are expected for the record number of events. In fact, the Secret Service will be in charge of security not just for inauguration day, but for four days, starting Saturday with Obama's train ride from Philadelphia. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP: "It will be the most security, as far as I'm aware, that any inauguration's had." Obama's much-discussed (and very cool-looking) custom Cadillac limo certainly couldn't come cheap, though we'll never really know how much it cost. Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell said the car's exact specifications are a big secret, including the safety features and production cost. But Forbes reports it's not all flak jackets and armored cars: To manage an event of this scale, the District of Columbia will spend a mammoth $47 million. It is not enough.... Much of the $45 million will go toward creating a dynamic Inauguration experience for the everyday visitor, not just funding exclusive events. "We don't even consider these events to be extravagant," says Linda Douglas, a spokeswoman from the Presidential Inauguration Committee. "With crowds of this size, most of our attention is being devoted to opening up as many events to the public." The good news for taxpayers: Inaugural celebrations are paid for by the inaugural committee — and Obama has, once again, been a very successful fundraiser — at least $35 million by recent counts. Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, told the New York Daily News: "We're always very budget conscious. But we're sending a message to the entire world about our peaceful transition of power, and you don't want it to look like a schlock affair. It needs to be appropriate to the magnitude of events that it is." And if you're eager to whoop it up in the same sassy fashion as our government, Washington hotels have come up with tons of ways for you to spend your money. The Washingtonian has made a list of some of the best ... and worst. "Most unusual item in a hotel package: Round-trip airfare and hotel for four in St. Petersburg, Russia, part of the Omni Shoreham’s Live Like a President package—the trip is aimed at gaining “foreign-policy experience.” The $440,000 package also includes an in-suite dinner with entertainer Mark Russell. Most controversial item: A puppy—in honor of Obama’s promise to get his daughters a dog — was originally part of the package deal at the Omni Shoreham but was dropped when the hotel caught heat from animal lovers. Instead, the hotel will make a donation to the Washington Humane Society." So don't feel bad if you're sitting on the couch watching the historic festivities from home — at least you'll be saving some pennies. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl204

I didn't get to see those last months, and I don't remember if Nola had the baby or lost it. But of course Billy was killed. I don't think they ever married.

Natalie came to town after having worked as a nurse for Greta's aunt, Theodora (played then by the late Augusta Dabney). Billy I think had also worked for Theodora and he and Natalie were lovers. They had learned that Greta was going to inherit all of Theodora's money so Billy came back to win Greta back after having abandoned her the previous year. Natalie followed him to Madison. Billy was going to marry Greta and then kill her. Then he and Natalie would run off together. I don't remember all of the big details of the story. I do know that Natalie finally tried to break away from Billy and did fall in love with Paul Reed but Billy wanted her back. I did not get to see a lot of the last year of the show as our affiliate dropped it before it was cancelled. I do remember reading that Paul Reed is the one who killed Billy Aldrich due to something to do with Natalie. I do remember that both Greta and Billy had been played by average looking performers - not ugly but just average. Then all of a sudden they were both being played by gorgeous performers. Gracie Harrison took over as Greta and then Alec Baldwin came on as Billy. It was a big change.

We have had both Demorcrati and Republican corrupt politicians in Tennessee - so like Golden Dogs said we could go on all day back and forth mentioning corrupt politicians. Deep down I don't trust any of them and wouldn't be surprised to hear that any of them are corrupt or on the take. As to this story along, I am not a big newshound anymore. I don't watch any of the news channels at all - they are all slanted way too much for one side or the other - so I don't watch them. I get some of my news from the local paper, the rest from the Internet on such sites as Yahoo News, and the rest on Good Morning America. For some reason I trust George Stephanopolous and he always seems to hit both sides (conservate and liberal) or (Rep. and Dems.) just as hard. Anyway I agree with him that Obama has not had anything to do with this and that there is no evidence to say that he is. But I also agree with him that Obama is being tested by this in as he said "how transparent he is going to be with the public". In other words how open he is going to be with the American public as he has always seemed to push that he would. He talked about it this morning that there is enough evidence to indicate that the Governor did have talks with someone in the Obama camp and as he George S. said Obama needs to seek out who that was and launch his own investigation to make sure the truth comes out as to who it was. As they said on GMA this morning if he is open with this first bit of light scandal then he can win over some doubters to his side. If he tries to skirt around the issue as did with the Rev. Wright thing when it first came out then this could be just another thing that clouds his early days in office as some will always think he tried to hide something.

Eric, You have missed out. She was wonderful on Texas and then tremendously wonderful on GL. She is truly a gifted writer but as with most writers some shows are not her forte. Sadly One Life To Live has been the downfall of a few (i.e. Claire Labine). Pamela really cemented Texas and if NBC had not gotten back into cancellation fever I think she could have really turned the show around and made it successful. She had some of the best couples and stories going on soap operas toward the end. I watched all of Texas but I have to say the last 6 months was some of the best. She blended comedy, romance and drama so well. She borrowed a lot of TExas in her vision on GL. I have always said and maybe even said in here (don't remember right now) but Reena Bellman Cooke Dekker was the pattern for Reva Shayne. But in many ways I actually think Reena was a better character. Vanessa Chamberlain on GL under Pamela became a lot like Pamela's character Ashley on Texas. And Billy/Vanessa were a lot like Justin/Ashley. She didn't rob the stories she wrote there but so many of the same elements were transferred. And I loved that she even used so many of her friends and castmates from Texas. I just wish she had found some use for Jerry Lanning and Carla Borelli who were wonderful as Justin and Reena on Texas. They had such great chemistry as did Donald May and Carla Borelli. Donald May would have been a wonderful Michael Bauer on GL after Don Stewart left but I guess they just didn't want Michael anymore. Or he would have been a lot better recast for Alan Spaulding after Chris Bernau left. Texas was a great little show. I still miss it.

Well her stint on Texas is considered successful too - by critics and historians. It was just the fact that NBC was cancellation happy at the time. Well nervous is more like it. I mean just look at Days in 1980. They had forced Betty Corday to make changes just as they had AW. Catch GH was the directive. Make the shows younger was the directive. The new writers and changes at Days were too drastic. The show was just weeks away from cancellation. Ken Corday was right about that statement recently. Gary Tomlin came in and changed things. He literally saved the show. But it wasn't enough for NBC. They still worked to have him canned when Pat Falken Smith became available. Of course the Corday's showed NBC in that instance by firing Smith. Pamela Long and Gail Kobe really turned Texas around. And there was a lot of buzz that they might even get a writing or Best Series nom when the Emmys came about in 1983 but that was in the midst of the ABC domination of the Emmys. And when I say domination it was a domination with all capital letters. While The Doctors did need to go in December 1982 since it had done gotten way too far off course, Texas should have been given more time.

Big fan here. Ryan & Ginny to me got a lot more interesting as the show went on. They were one of the most popular parts of Texas during it's original run. In the Daytime TV readers polls which a big guage for popularity back then Philip Clark & Barbara Rucker were two of the only Texas stars to ever make the list - always in the Runner's Up area. Beverlee McKinsey made it a few times too. I have not watched any of the AOL run wished I had but just haven't taken the time. So not sure where they are at. I loved so many of the couples for the show. I loved Elena too but only after they teamed her first with Tom Wiggin and then later with Billy Joe. My favorite all time couple on the show though was Reena and Max Dekker - but only when played by Chandler Hill Harben. I love Jay Hammer as an actor but his casting and the later writing for Max ruined the character and the coupling. Texas was a great show from the beginning for me too. But I will admit to you that the show really blossomed and geled when Pamela Long Hammer started writing and Gail Kobe took over as producer.

I absolutely loved both the movie and the show. The movie was another of those instances where the character that Joan Crawford played in the movie did not become the central figure of the series. That happened with both The Best of Everything and Flamingo Road. It wasn't much of a surprise as Joan was not the star of The Best of Everything but in Flamingo Road her character was the protagonist. The show just changed that. For me Flamingo Road suffered a little from key characters in the movie not being able to star on the series. Not as many as it was in Bare Essence which really hurt, but one key role was Elmo Tyson which was played in the movie by Mason Adams. Mason Adams and Barbara Rush were minor players but their star crossed love was a central element of the show. For me Adams and Rush had great chemistry. But in the series the role was played by Peter Donat and he was a good actor but just no chemistry with Rush at all. Also I really missed Dianne Kay's character that had been killed off in the movie. She and Woody Brown were a great young love pair and she had ties to Titus Semple too. Of course both Kay and Adams were in series already so they couldn't have done the series. Kay was in the successful Eight is Enough and Adams was on Lou Grant. I always loved Woody Brown on the show esp. from the movie, but his character just seemed to wander on the series, but had a lot to do in the movie. I was so shocked to see him years later as the main rapist of Jodie Foster in The Accused. He was still sexy as all get out. As some said FR didn't measure up to the quality of Dallas or some others, but I loved FR. My mom and I both did and often enjoyed in a lot more than Dallas or the others.

I think they were really wanting to cash in on the youth sex craze that Y&R had started in 1973. I can remember not long into 1974 all the soaps got into the shirtless male craze - something that had not been seen on soaps prior to that. Men all of a sudden were walking around in towels or shirtless because it had started on Y&R in 1973 when you constantly saw Bill Espy esp. shirtless or in a towel. HTSAM was really the only soap that got as bold with the sex chatter as Y&R did though. The others talked about it more but still not as much as Y&R did.

Eric, Network came out in 1976. How To Survive A Marriage was on TV from 1974 to 1975. I have heard mixed reviews from people who saw it. My Mom tuned in the early months just to see Rosemary Prinz. She was a big fan of hers as was my older brother. There wasn't enough to interest her and she went back to her old shows. As to Lin Bolen. I do not know what happened to her. Her production company is still in business in Malibu - so maybe she just runs it. I used a business profile thing my old boss had and they are still in business and have estimated sales of $250,000 a year.

As far as I know Bud Kloss and Doris Quinlan were the only early producers of the show. I know I have seen credits from AMC in 1970 and Wisner was not listed at all in the closing credits but of course I have not seen every episode from 1970. In the eppys I saw Doris Quinlan was listed as Executive Producer and Bud Kloss as Producer. Later He and Agnes served as producers together. but I had always felt from interviews that Wisner seemed to talk as if he was there from the beginning too. In fact I seem to remember reading that he was there before Judith Barcroft moved from AW to AMC and that was part of the reason she moved.

Wisner Washam was Nixon's protege for many many years. They worked together much like Irna Phillips did with William J. Bell and even Agnes for awhile - as co-headwriters basically. I have heard for years that it was really hard for instance on ATWT in the early 60's esp. to know what exactly was a Phillips thing and what was Bell's thing. Agnes and Wisner worked very much the same way. She was grooming Wisner to take over I have always heard. Why he left and never worked in daytime again (except for a short time on GL) is still a mystery to me. He was a great writer and would have been perfect to take over the guiding of AMC. I know after he left AMC in 1992 that he worked with foreign soaps quite a bit, but why he wasn't snatched up as HW for another show or at least rumored for one is a mystery. I have always wondered too why Judith Barcroft didn't return to the role of Anne when they brought her back. Her husband was still on the show as co-headwriter with Agnes. I liked Gwyn Gillis in the role, but loved Judith Barcroft. Wikipedia says Washam did not begin working with AMC until 1981, but I know for a fact he was there in the 1970's. I am not sure what year he started on the show as my sources do not say. I know he was nominated for his first Emmy for writing AMC in 1976 with Agnes Nixon, Kathryn McCabe, Mary K. Wells and Jack Wood. ********************************************** As to WTHI, I can remember briefly watching this show in the early 70's. It was not a regular show for us to watch. In fact for awhile here in my part of Tennessee it was taken off by our affiliate who got complaints that the show was too risque. I know that happened in several other areas too. I think it was the only daytime soap that I can remember that happening too. It would later happen to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in primetime when many affiliates aired it late at night after the children went to bed instead of the normally scheduled time slot. WTHI had some great performers - James Mitchell, Diana van der Vlis, and Louise Shaffer were splendid. But so was Robyn Milan but when she guest starred as Delia on Ryan's Hope she seemed like a totally different performer. I have always heard that Labine & Mayer wanted Milan for Delia when Kristen left and that the guest stint was her chance to audition for the role. From what was on screen I can see why she didn't get it. They did hire Shaffer and van der Vlis to work on Ryan's Hope. James Mitchell was so good as Julian, I was totally shocked that it took 6 years before he ended up back onscreen when AMC hired him to play Palmer. Back on

I forgot to mention in my posts earlier that Steve & Carolee became so popular around 1970 that NBC toyed with the idea of moving David O'Brien and Carolee Campbell into their own program. It almost happened in 1971, but for some reason they backed out. The title of the new series was to be The World of Hope.

I think some of these are already answered by the poster above. I will attempt the rest. 1) Doreen was given a maiden name as mentioned above, but it was after she had been on awhile. I just cannot remember it at all. 2) Katherine Squire portrayed her mother Emma Simpson. Then the cousin Betsy Match who was M.J.'s sister along with Betsy's son. 3) I do not remember what happened to Winston Croft at all. 4) I do not remember any mention of Jason & Steve's father. 5) Mike only had the one child: Michael Paul Powers with Toni 6) When Shawn Campbell portrayed Billy when he impregnated Greta - Billy was just played as a confused teenager. He just wanted to have sex with Greta and didn't want to be involved with her. 7) Yes Toni did die. Mike & Toni went away on a trip. An accident happened while they were out of town and to the best of my memory and my sources Toni's body was never found. I think they planned to bring Toni back at some point. Anna Stuart had left The Doctors to join General Hospital. *********************** As to the questions in the last thread. Stacy was tied to the Aldrich's somehow I think too. she was not Doreen's daughter though. She may have just been a cousin but I cannot remember right now. ************************** When Steve visited Anne Larimer, it was implicated that Anne was pregnant, but it was never mentioned again. *************************** As to the mention above that Anne is the one who hid Carolee away - for some reason I am remembering that it was a collaboration between Anne and Mona. And yes it did happen when Carolee Campbell left. There were no plans to ever bring Carolee back at that point. When The Secret Storm was cancelled, Jada Rowland became a hot commodity. Labine & Mayer wanted her for Ryan's Hope to portray Faith Coleridge, but they ended up either being forced to go younger with the role or just went a different route. Rowland became available and The Doctors sought her out to be the new Carolee.

Thanks for filling in the blanks on some of that. As to the spelling for Billy you are right. I had been typing up some stuff on Billee Reed from Days and just kept typing Billee the same way. **************************** Not sure of the date that Marland started but it was in 1976. He stayed until sometime in 1977. He was still with Another World early on in 1976, and then went to The Doctors. As to the Dancy's Jerry was the very first Dancy in town. He was involved with Penny early in 1976. Then Joan showed up. When Joan got sick or overdosed, I remember Jerry talking to Penny about looking for his mother who was in Switzerland skiing - which I always found weird because they were supposed to be poor and it seemed like something a rich woman would do. Virginia was then shown in Switzerland reading the paper and there was a mention of Joan's illness in the paper. Virginia flew back to Madison and for awhile it was just shown of the 3 of them. Virginia kept arguing with Jerry about not telling him about Joannie being addicted to drugs. I remember the outlook for Joan was bad and then of course the evil doctor pulled the plug and framed Matt for it. Then we saw all the other Dancy's. All of the Dancy's showed up in 1976. I know that Margaret DePriest created Jerry. I am not sure if she created Joan or Marland did - I am assuming from your info that DePriest did or he created her to go with the Paul Summers story which was already going on. I know it was started by the previous regime. He started early in 1976 about the same time Jerry Lacy came on as Jerry Dancy. I think if my mind is not playing tricks on me that Nola was seen before Luke. Luke had been out of town where he met Doreen and he came back when he heard about Joan. Then later Doreen showed up too. Of course after Jason who had not been heard of before that time. Marland created him as a brother to Steve and of course to set up the romance with Nola. Then of course Doreen showed up. I think even that Mona paid to have her brought to town and then it was revealed that Luke had been her gigolo. Sara was the last of the Dancys to show up. She was away (forget where) practicing as a doctor. Of course it was in 1976 that Toni was killed and Mike was widowed and thus was set up for Mike and Sara to romance. Then colin showed up and it was revealed that Sara had been his lover while he was married. ************************************ As to MJ, she was first portrayed by Lauren White. Jonathan Frakes played her husband, Tom. M.J. had actually showed up a few months before Marland started but he really explored the character more. Lauren White stayed in the role for almost 3 years and then was replaced by Katherine Glass - who left soaps after this and retired from the industry. According to the backstage rumors that went around at the time and were later verified in Ellen Holly's autobiography, she was a real diva backstage and very racist. Both things played into her backstage problems at both One Life To Live and The Doctors. She was a very popular actress with fans, but I think no producers wanted to work with her after that - much the same way as none of them wanted to work with George Reinholt after his problems at One Life To Live. ***************************** I never found it strange that Mike & M.J. would get together. I loved them together when James Storm & Katherine Glass were in the roles. The other actors to portray both roles just never had chemistry together. The setup of Mike & M.J. was good as both had been unlucky in love many times and I liked them finding one another - much more than when they toyed with Mike and Nola. ********************************* And yes Mike is one of the most cast roles in the history of daytime but I am not sure he is the winner of the most - Patti Barron, Ed Bauer, Tom Hughes, and Mike Bauer have to be right there with him.

As soon as I get them all uploaded Michael, I will have a lot of pictures - well not a tremendous lot - but quite a few of The Doctors cast members and characters through the years. I will put them over on my site SoapsWEB. Right now I am having to spend most of time redoing all the old threads after I converted to Zetaboards - so not a lot of new going on right now but I hope to be through with the redo's soon. I have a lot of pictures on the site already for various shows but I don't think I have any of The Doctors ones up on the site yet. The address is: http://s15.zetaboards.com/SoapsWeb/index/

Michael, I was wrong about Carolee's last name. It was Simpson. I am sorry. I looked back to see if I typed it right. M.J. and Carolee were cousins. I did have that right, but I had Carolee's maiden name wrong. It was Simpson. Stephanie was Carolee & Steve's child. Erich was Steve's son with some nurse I think. That was in the early 70's but I think it was an affair he had - he had several of those in the early 70's. She took off and left the child. It seems like it was the nurse played for awhile by Nancy Barrett. I forget her name. She may have went crazy. I will have to research that a little more. Steve and Carolee raised Erich - just like they did Billee together. Billee was not even teh natural son of Carolee. He was the son Carolee's abusive husband - something Allison. Billee's real name was Billee Allison - Steve & Carolee adopted him when they married. As to M.J. - she was created by Douglas Marland I think and was sort of the forerunner of Anne Logan on General Hospital. It has been so long since I researched some of this but I do remember reading a lot of this. Alot of the characters that Marland created on The Doctors in the short time he was there - he later kind of tried to finish them out on General Hospital. Bobbie & Luke were just like members of the Dancy family. Anne Logan was just like M.J. Anne had never been mentioned before by Audrey or Lucille and just showed up as their niece. the same way M.J. was with Carolee. Billee & Greta were already existing characters on the show just like Scotty & Laura were on GH. Marland penned very similar young love stories for both. Billee even had a black best friend just like Scotty did at the time. I have always wondered what Marland's plans were for both. He said he never got to complete either young love story as he left The Doctors to go to GH and Monty put a kabosh on the story at GH in favor of the Luke & Laura pairing. On and one more thing I had wrong. Jessica Aldrich was the name of jason & nola's daughter. Lee Ann Aldrich was the name of the child born out of wedlock to Billee and Greta. Both girls were about the same age and even back then I got their names mixed up.

The Doctors was once a great show. Even the last few months of the show were not technically bad. The show took a lot of risks in the last few months that the critics did not completely pan, but they were way early for their time. In the time of JER writing Days, The Doctors would have been a hit as that is the type of stuff fans wanted by that time - grave robbing, the science fiction of the woman deaged and taking over the life of her daughter, etc. They were bold plots. anyway back to the 70's and even the late 60's, The Doctors was one of the best. It had 3 great couples - three of the best in daytime in the 70's: Steve Aldrich & Carolee Match - rich playboy doctor falls for poor virginal nurse Matt Powers & his wife Maggie - 2 widowed or divorced characters finally finding true love with one another Nick Bellini & Althea Davis - two very head strong doctors needing each other but too filled with pride to admit it They were wonderful. Add to that the next generation. Under first Eileen & Robert Mason Pollack with a great producer, Joseph Stuart - The Doctors excelled. Then GH stole the Pollocks from The Doctors, to try and duplicate The Doctors success over at GH. TD still did well - they hired former AW protege Douglas Marland and gave him his first head writing job. He was wonderful with The Doctors. While there he created the predecessor family for all his other poor big families (the Spencers, the Snyders, the Reardons & the Rescotts) he would create on later shows. This time it was the Dancy family - using current doctor Jerry Dancy (portrayed by Jerry Lacy) and building a family around him. He got a great set of actors to portray the family - soap vets Lawrence Weber and Elizabeth Lawrence portrayed the mother and father, Frank Telfer played playboy son Luke, Kathryn Harold played Nola (later portrayed by Kathleen Turner & Kim Zimmer), and Dorothy Fielding portrayed Sara. The new family did not take over but they were blended in. The poor mother Virginia had been abandoned years ago by her husband Barney - of course he is going to show back up in town. Virginia was the housekeeper for the wealthy Aldrich family. The Dancy family were first heartbroken when young daughter Joni was killed - presumably by Matt Powers - but it would turn out another doctor did it to frame Matt for the murder. Playboy son showed up in town having been living as a gigolo esp. as the young boy toy of the wealthy Doreen Aldrich, ex-wife of Jason Aldrich, who was now involved Nola Dancy - the housekeepers daughter. Jason's mother Mona was opposed to the union of course. This set up battles for years. Sara arrived back in town after living life away for years. She soon fell for newly widowed doctor, Michael Powers, who was working to raise his son alone. Of course things weren't smooth for Sara and Mike as it was soon learned that while she was away young ingenue Sara had fell in love with married doctor and colleage Colin Wakefield - who of course came to Madison and joined the staff of Memorial Hospital. Those were the mid to late 70's and things were great at The Doctors even then. The Pollocks were not able to duplicate the success that GH wanted - so what did they do they went after The Doctors current writer Douglas Marland and they got him. If I remember correctly Elizabeth Levin & David Cherrill were the next writers. They were there for several years, I know as late as 81 they were still there. They did well for the show - particularly writing one of the best death scenes ever in the history of daytime when Dr. Mike Powers sat at the death bed of his new wife Dr. Sara Dancy - who was part of the new family Douglas Marland created for the show. Levin & Cherrill basically continued Marland's course and did very well with the characters IMO. Doris Quinlan, who had been very successful at One Life To Live, in the early to mid 1970's was hired in 1979. She had a pretty successful career in daytime - all the way back to Young Dr. Malone in the late 50's. She did good with The Doctors and led it during it's last critical success. The biggest thing I had against the show during this time was she made way too many changes in a short period of time. She had a big disaster storyline where the local hospital - not Memorial Hospital the main setting of the show - but a neighboring hospital was demolished in either of tornado or something. It was to help establish her new characters which did pretty much take over The Doctors. She tried to capitalize on the primetime success of Three's Company and set up a situation in which 2 new male interns would end up living with a new female intern - thinking it was another guy. These characters were played by 3 new soap newcomers - Richard Borg, Nana Visitor and Nicholas Walker - who would all have successful runs on others shows later. She hired former OLTL favorites of hers - Nancy Pinkerton and Doris Belack - and put them in key roles. Nancy's character, Viveca Strand, tried to come in between happy couple Steve Aldrich and Carolee Match Aldrich. Viveca was very Dorian like - the character Nancy had created on One Life To Live. She also hired former OLTL ingenue Katherine Glass who originated the role of Jenny Wolek and hired her as the new M.J. Match, cousin of Carolee Match. Doris Belack's character Dr. Claudia Howard was involved basically with three other brand new characters - Dr. John Bennett, his wife Ashley, and John's best friend Jack who was in love with John's wife Ashley. These 4 characters pretty much dominated the show at this time and had no real ties to any other familiar characters. It hurt big time. The best thing that happened under Quinlan's tenure was the introduction of Billee Aldrich back to the story. Billee was the "son" of Steve & Carolee Aldrich. Under Marland, Billee was part of his pre-Scotty/Laura coupling he would create at GH. Marland had Billee impregnate young virginal Greta Powers. They had sex one time and she got pregnant. Of course that had put longtime freinds Matt & maggie Powers and Steve & Carolee Aldrich in a bad situation as they tried to force the teenagers to take responsibility. Billee finally just left town. Greta was not the natural daughter of Matt Powers but was the product of an earlier marriage that Maggie had to the evil Kurt Van Allen. Levin & Cherrill really did their homework when Billee Aldrich came back to town in 1980 - this time portrayed by sexy daytime newcomer Alec Baldwin. IN the mid 1960's Kurt Van Allen's sister Theodora had been shown a few times. The Van Allens were wealthy but they had not even been mentioned since the mid-1960's. Well while Billee was out of town, Cherrill & Levin had him working in the household of the wealthy Theodora Van Allen and of course Billee had learned that Greta was the only living relative of Theodora and of course stood to inherit the complete Van Allen fortune. He came back to town with the premise of finally growing up and wanted to make a home for himself and Greta and get to kinow his daughter Jessica. Of course he had a lover on the side - Natalie (portrayed by the sexy Jane Badler who had previously worked on OLTL under Doris Quinlan as well). Natalie had been Theodora Van Allen's nurse. She and Billee concocted a plan for him to marry Greta, then kill her and then the two of them leave and live off the money. It was a wonderful plot and Alec Baldwin was wonderful as Billee and Jane Badler was wonderful as Natalie. Even though it was filled with lots of new characters and new faces, this was the last real critical and exciting time on The Doctors. Of all the new characters only Natalie would stay around until the end of the show. All the others would disappear soon. None of the OLTL actors she hired stayed with the show either after Doris Quinlan left or was fired. I don't remember which. NBC got rid of producers and writers a lot back then - trying to find writers who would do what they wanted in trying to make all the shows just like the ABC shows. My Mom and I both watched The Doctors up until the day our affiliate cancelled it and would have watched it fully to the last day. We loved the show even though the last year of the show was really bad.

I did not get to see the end of The Doctors. My mom had watched since day one but our affiliate chose to cancel The Doctors a few months before NBC did. So I forever missed the end. I don't know what happened to most of the characters. I can tell you that Mona was dead though. she had died of the mysterious illness that hit Madison due to the grave robbing.

Right now listening to some Puff Daddy/Diddy songs I bought from Wal Mart today. I Need A Girl (parts 1 & 2) Trade It All Come To Me We Fly High Tell Me Last Night

Great casting choice. Love that pic of him. I use it in my blog for him from time to time too. It will be interesting to see what this E.C. has to do.

Wow it all sounds great guy. Definitely an action packed Spring ahead.

What a great ending to a great soap. I have read it 3 times. The first time moved me to tears. The ending reminded me of the end of Titantic as Rose layed down in her bed leaving viewers to wonder if she just went to sleep or if she did die an old woman in the comfort of her bed. I like to think that Nancy is alive, but it would have be a great ending too - to know that Nancy thought of her loved ones and thought of Chris at the end. Great setup for the John & Roxie. I can't wait for fans to follow it into the story at FTR and how they play in. Absolutely wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tishy, I hate to hear this. Maybe by then though I will be caught up on it. I love it so much that I jsut can't even skim any of the episodes I am behind on. I'll look forward to your return. Good luck on your certification.