The Doctors Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

Its obvious that Marland and this show were a bad fit.  It proves that even talented writers can have a misfire....and maybe he realized that he messed up on the Doctors..cause he did tailor his style to fit within GH, GL, and ATWT( though he was a better fit on ATWT then he was on GL).

 

I didnt realize that Julia Duffy quit....I figured he fired her along with Elizabeth Hubbard....fascinating.  I will be excited to see Julia Duffy as Penny...

[Paul Raven]

When Althea returned,the writers at the time decided to kill off Penny. A bizarre decision...Althea had already lost one child,it cut off a whole area of story for her and got rid of a young female character with heaps of story potential that was tied to a legacy character..

[danfling]

I did confuse them.   I apologize.

 

Margaret Whitton, who played Joan Dancy on The Doctors in 1976, has passed away.   I have read today that she was also on Search for Tomorrow and One Life to Live, but I am not sure who she played.

[vetsoapfan]

 

I agree that Marland made certain mistakes during his tenure at THE DOCTORS, but he was still miles above the dreadful writers he replaced, and worked relative miracles with the garbage he inherited.

[DRW50]

 

Who was it (this was after the Pollacks right)? What bothered you most with their work?

[vetsoapfan]

 

It's late at night and my memory is fuzzy, but I believe at that time, Marland replaced Mel and Ethel Brez. They were simply horrible in every conceivable way, so it's hard to give a short, concise answer to this question. Their general crappiness bothered me, LOL.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Did they HW any other shows? 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Head write by themselves, I don't think so, but they were associate head-writers, breakdown writers or dialogue writers on other series.

 

Also, now that I am thinking more about it, I believe that they FOLLOWED Marland, and penned THE DOCTORS after he left that soap. They were still sucky, but the awful writing mess that Marland had had to clean up when he took over was probably Margaret DePriest's.

 

Mel Brez, as per Wikipedia.

The Doctors

• Head Writer: 1978 (with Ethel Brez)

Another World

• Script Writer: 1974, 1995

As the World Turns

• Co-Head Writer: 1997
• Associate Head Writer: 1997, 1998

Days of Our Lives

• Associate Head Writer: 1993 - 1994

One Life to Live

• Associate Head Writer: 1985 - 1992

Passions

• Associate Head Writer: 1999 - 2002

Edited December 6, 2016 by vetsoapfan

[DRW50]

Thanks. It's always hard for me to guess what was going on with some of this later material. Some of it like Althea going through a glass door or Matt raping Maggie or whatever happens, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to seeing if I ever actually do...

[vetsoapfan]

 

Some writers who worked on THE DOCTORS were great, and some were...god-awful. I think the Pollacks' best work was on this show (I did not like their material anywhere else), but some other scribes like Marland and Harding Lemay had mixed success here. Of course, Margaret DePriest was mediocre-to-awful everywhere she went.

[SoapDope]

I remember seeing an interview with Kathleen Turner on a talk show and they showed a clip of her on The Doctors. She said that her character flipped flopped and the horrible writers were to blame. 

[Soaplovers]

Marland might have been better then the writer he replaced...but he didnt get the essence of the show...and his decisions gutted the show long term.  the show was more about the family of doctors/nurses...then about actual families.  He was a bad fit...and he is a tad over rated...imho.

[soapfave06]

Was trying to get back into the Retro TV episodes. Is anyone else caught up that can give a brief recap? I haven't really watched since the 1970 episodes when Althea returned and a little bit when Carolee and Steve reunited after he was in prison. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

 

I think he has been overrated on certain shows, but deserved his acclaim on others. His LOVING was tepid asnd his work on THE DOCTORS was off-kilter, but his material on GENERAL HOSPITAL was first-rate and his ATWT was also (mostly) very good. Some writers just "get" certain shows better than others, I guess. On the other hand, there are writers like Jean P and Charles Pratt, who are uniformly horrible no matter what soap they inherit.

[jam6242]

January 1964 article about the offspring/relatives of well-known entertainers getting their break on The Doctors, including Mia Farrow.  She appeared in the 5-part story, "The Stone Maiden," which aired the week of August 5, 1963.

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7901659/detroit_free_press/

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7901503/detroit_free_press/

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by jam6242