The Doctors Discussion Thread

[slick jones]

Very cool, thanks as always for the info.

[YRBB]

December 15, 1967 #1314

Liz & Polly are hard to take at times, despite the fact that I liked the actresses.

The actor playing John Rice is so, so wonderful! It seems as if Polly may not survive and, with his acting, those scenes are going to hurt!

DAMN, Matt is planning to invoke the morals clause and fire Althea? Talk about a Friday cliffhanger!!!

Edited October 11, 2014 by YRBB

[beebs]

LOL @ Nick, talking about Steve "Old Rich".

Karen is such a stereotype of a hard, German woman. It's offputting when contrasted to the realistic writing for the others on the show.

[amybrickwallace]

Didn't Althea already give Matt her letter of resignation - just asking that he not turn it in until she began to show?

I liked the scene of Liz becoming Carolee's roommate, and when at their new bachelorette pad they proceed to get drunk and reveal certain things they probably wouldn't have sober.

At last, we get an Althea AND Nick episode. Love how he just barely manages to be civil, leaves and just one second after closing the door barges back in and demands that they get married. In one of those Google-archived articles I read, it said that Gerald Gordon was one of the first - if not THE first - actor in a soap to say "damn" and get away with it. I've heard some people who watched TD in the later years of his run say that Nick mellowed a little bit, and became a mentor of sorts to the younger doctors like his nephew, Rico.

The 1967 episodes are now done - when RTV picks up on Monday they will air the episodes from January 1 and 2, 1968. I know that's the same year Lydia Bruce took over the role of Maggie and kept it until the show's end in 1982. Does anyone know when in 1968 she debuted? When we see Maggie again (right now she is out of town with her daughter Greta), will she be played by Lydia?

[DRW50]

I'm still going slow through this - I just finished episode 4 - and it's interesting to me to see the live-on-tape era and how smooth most of the cast is. James Noble called the social worker "Dr. Berger" instead of "Mrs. Berger" and then corrected himself and it worked as part of how flustered the character was.

I remember reading about a blooper on the show where a character is supposed to say, "I just balled out your son in the hallway" but instead says, "I just balled your son in the hallway."

I wonder if that is going to happen, or if it already has, or if it was an urban legend.

[amybrickwallace]

That blooper is mentioned in the book Inside the Soaps - and the one who made it was David O'Brien in character as Steve Aldrich.

[slick jones]

Well in his case, he may have

[Matt]

According to Jason47's page, DAYS (which immediately preceded The Doctors on the NBC schedule) was preempted on January 1, 1968 for football. I say that it is safe to assume that The Doctors was preempted as well, so Monday's first episode of 1968 should probably be the Tuesday, January 2, 1968, episode (#1325).

[amybrickwallace]

This show really is a window into the past. Doctors smoking in the hospital - like Nick when he and Althea were talking in her clinic. He offered the pregnant-with-his-baby Althea a cigarette before lighting one up for himself and smoking it right in front of her. When she refuses and tells him he should quit, he says, "I can't. I'm addicted."

Sadly, when Gerald Gordon passed away in the summer of 2001 - it was from emphysema.

[slick jones]

Is that Micki Grant as the nurse in Althea's clinic in the most recent episode? It looks like the pictures I've seen of her.

Edited October 11, 2014 by slick jones

[Paul Raven]

In light of all this smoking ,it's interesting that years later TD ran an anti-smoking story that utilised guest stars like Johnny Carson,Tony Randall and Judy Collins. Steve was trying to quit.

Re Maggie,as I posted earlier Variety reported in August 68 that Lydia Bruce would now be taking over the role of Maggie after filling in for Bethel Leslie.So Bethel left sometime earlier than that.I think it was due to being cast in the feature film "The Molly McGuires' with Sean Connery. Bethel then immediately got primetime work in 'Name of the Game' and 'High Chapparal' as well as writing for 'The Virginian' with writing partner Gerry Day in an episode starring Joan Crawford.

Coming in 68,the first major Black characters Dr Simon Harris (Conrad Roberts) in April and Anna Ford (Zeida Coles)Penny Davis (Jami Fields)in May ,Jody Bronson (CC Courtney) Mike Powers (Peter Burnell) in September and Martha Allen (Sally Gracie)

Edited October 11, 2014 by Paul Raven

[amybrickwallace]

Looks like we've got a lot to look forward to!! Thanks for the info.

I would also love to see the First Ladies Diaries specials that earned Elizabeth Hubbard and Gerald Gordon Emmys (she for playing Edith Wilson, he for playing Andrew Jackson). My understanding is that Paul Rauch produced the specials. How many were made?

[DRW50]

Some promos I didn't see on Youtube.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyxi9_nbc-daytime-1965_news

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz3so_nbc-1967-afternoon-lineup_news

[Paul Raven]

FYI Liz's parents were on the show.Harriet and Keith Wilson were played by Morgan Sterne and Meg Myles.Apparently Harriet was neurotic and over protective. They were on from 66 -67.

Seeing Larry Weber in the cast was interesting on a couple of levels. Firstly,this is another previously unknown soap role for this actor who is at the top of the charts for most soap roles along with the likes of Keith Charles and Conard Fowkes and secondly because he returned a decade or so later as Barney Dancy

[All My Shadows]

He definitely sounds like him, and his facial features are similar, but "Noel" seems much taller than the person we're thinking of. Taller than he would have been in 1967, at least.

Edited October 11, 2014 by All My Shadows