The Doctors Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Stacy really is as dumb as a post. Thank goodness Penny and MJ are on the canvas because they actually have brains!!

[victoria foxton]

I loved Richard Niles as Rico. But i'm really liking Chandler Harben. My girl Penny has already set her sights on yummy Dr. Bellini. It's so funny how both Stacy and Penny have quickly forgotten Andy. Stacy is already obsessed with New Rico. Stacy was an annoying nut. Poor Rico he seems to attract nutty girls. First Julie Forrest now Stacy.  

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Edited March 18, 2018 by victoria foxton

[Soaplovers]

So the officially changing of the writing regime occurred in today's episodes.  I noticed a tonal shift, as well as, the sudden reintroduction of that annoying old shrew back onto the show.

[amybrickwallace]

This time Mona is in it for the long haul...Meg Mundy stayed until 1982!!

[Khan]

Well, I hope Robert Cenedella doesn't make me want to chuck my desktop out the nearest window like the Pollocks did.  I know they have their fans, but....

[SFK]

Darn, how long ago did Niles appear?  Knew him from acting school. 

[Soaplovers]

From what I understand.. Cendella was basically kicked off head-writing Guiding Light for being plot-driven.

 

Guess soap operas recycled bad writers even back in the 70s.

[MichaelGL]

The Pollocks are gone, I'm a bit sad, but also happy at the same time. Farewell to repetitive triangles where the third party turns out to be a total nutcase. But I'll miss the stability they provided the show with. 

 

Looking forward to DePriest, Marland, and Chuck Weiss's tenure. 

I have to say Toni's characterization these days is all over the map. 

 

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

He was on TD from July 1970 to January 1971, and actually reauditioned for the role in 1975. 

 

They did create some memorable characters like Hank, Lauri, Ann, Toni, Cathy, John and more. They did not create Penny, but got her characterization down cold. Julia Duffy just picked right up in 1973 where Jami Fields had left off in 1969.

 

I won't miss their overuse of flashbacks (and flashback effects like flashing lights), and writing the men as verbally abusive or passive aggressive while the women are wishy-washy and self-destructive. Plus, I think the Pollocks were just plain burned out. It will be interesting to see the upcoming episodes and see how they are different from the work the Pollocks/Joe Stuart did.

 

The last seven years of the show suffered from major turnover with writers AND producers (and no doubt network interference), lousy timeslots and affiliates who dropped it like a hot potato. It still has to be light years better than the remaining soaps are now.

 

It sure is, and Anna Stuart was very vocal to the soap press about her dissatisfaction about the ruination of her character. Who could blame her?

Edited March 20, 2018 by amybrickwallace

[Khan]

 

I'd agree with that, if I didn't feel like the Pollocks told the same story over and over again.  (Right now, I'm watching Carolee talk to Althea about how she caught Steve hugging Ann after a nightmare, and I'm like, "Gawd, we JUST went through this [!@#$%^&*] with Karen!  Now it's with Ann!  Give us a [!@#$%^&*] BREAK, Pollocks!".)

 

 

Which is ironic, since, for the most part, the characters on this show trended toward being UN-stable under their watch.

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Yeah, but I'm not looking forward to

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.  Maybe it's because I'll be watching (hopefully) from 2018 or 2019, but I feel like that kind of story had to have been played out even back then.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Khan

[amybrickwallace]

Just in the past year, there have been two characters back "from the dead" (Karen, Mike) who have waged angry custody battles over their children (Erich, Michael Paul) and are harboring bitter hatred against their respective children's stepparents (Carolee, Alan). You have two characters who have taken to hitting the bottle (Alan, Stacy) after being rejected by their objects of affections (Toni, Rico). You have two women who have apparent fear of sex (Ann, Stacy). Then you have that passive-aggressive idiot Steve side with his first two vipers, ahem, wives, over Carolee and accuse her of being the vicious liar. Of course, we went through all that chapter and verse not two years ago (one year ago Retro time) with Medea, ahem, Mona. 

 

The past few weeks of episodes have featured more yelling than your average episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. I am totally ready for the change in writers.

Edited March 20, 2018 by amybrickwallace

[Khan]

 

I read somewhere (maybe in his memoir?) that Harding Lemay would do something similar on ANOTHER WORLD, but with the expressed intention of having one storyline or scene serve as a counter-point to the other.  Nothing that I have seen on this show (and I will admit, I FF sometimes, because some of their [!@#$%^&*] is just too unbearable) suggests to me that the Pollocks had similar intentions with their material.  We didn't see Mike and Karen commiserate over their similar, custody-related dilemmas.  We didn't see Alan and Stacy get blotto and end up in bed because they're still hung up on their exes.  We didn't see Ann and Stacy bond and decide to get over their sexual hangups by knowingly seducing the same man (on different nights, of course, or even on the same night, in some sort of envelope-pushing threesome).

 

It's just lazy, irresponsible storytelling.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Khan

[Soaplovers]

Love them or hate them, but the show won Emmy's for best show during their tenure... and I have to admit I enjoyed their tenure (of course, I liked when they wrote Dynasty.. and even enjoyed the few scenes I saw of their take on General Hospital).

 

I will be interested to see Cendella's, Depriest, and Marland's (the world's most over-rated writer) take on this show.  

 

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Too bad you weren't on the writing staff of TD in 1975!! I like your ideas.

[MichaelGL]

Yup this is what I agree with.

I can't help but to think having Allen Potter as EP somewhat helped to make the Pollocks writing a bit better than it was under Stuart.