The Doctors Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

 

Yes, but it was all psychological.. which made it even more disturbing then if she and Nick had actually done the deed.  Plus, the writers then slanted it to where it wasn't normal or acceptable unlike modern day soaps like B & B and Days.

 

Though I did think it weird Toni did go with Mike's cousin Alan... and I still contend he emotionally strong armed her into marrying him when she wasn't ready.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Agreed...and it was a mistake to kill off Margo. Alan treated her like trash...so I'm glad that now HE'S the one out in the cold.

[amybrickwallace]

Here's Leslie Ray (Stacy Wells) in a Pledge commercial from the 1970s:

 

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Edited April 8, 2018 by amybrickwallace

[Paul Raven]

I think SOD did a story about soap actors and commercials back in the 80s. The gist was that if you landed a national commercial that ran for a decent amount of time, the money was very good.

[amybrickwallace]

I wrote a letter to Leslie Ray, and she said that Johnny Carson even made fun of her commercial on The Tonight Show! She took getting roasted by the King of Late Night back then in stride. 😎

 

Switching gears, I am surprised how many popular songs of the time have been played on the reruns - especially since they got to the 1975 episodes. I wonder if SFM (who owns the rights to the show) and/or Retro TV have had to pay any licensing fees. So far, the popular songs, the versions by the original artists, that I've heard in these episodes from 1975 have been (in no particular order):

 

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack

 

"Only Yesterday" by The Carpenters 

 

"Evil Ways" by Santana 

 

"Bless You" by John Lennon

 

"Hollywood Waltz" by The Eagles 

 

"Lyin' Eyes" by The Eagles 

 

I think there are a couple of songs I'm forgetting, but I'm not complaining. It proves that the show's music department was paying attention to current popular music!! 😎

[Soaplovers]

 

My theory is maybe in 1975, you didn't have that clause in contracts to pay residuals for music being used, etc.

 

It's now October 1975... and the new headwriter Cenedella has been leaving his mark 6 weeks into his writing stint.  I can kind of see why he ended up not lasting because while he has returned to character driven scenes... the show has virtually little to no action so I could see the audience (after being use to 5 years of the Pollocks having a case of whiplash at the 180 the show turned from plot driven to more character driven).

 

I do think it was wise to pull Ann from living at Steve/Carolees place.. and interacting her with some of the other characters while still being a concerned friend to both Steve and Carolee.  I think Cenedella knew she would be the next spoiler.. but it was the right decision to focus on the Karen issue and resolve that before moving Ann into the slot as the next spoiler for Steve/Carolee.  Strangely, Ann is no longer acting unhinged nor having nightmares and is acting like her old self.

 

Stacy is less hot mess, but certainly likes to lead the men on... at least Penny admits she is manipulative while Stacy puts on the innocent act (with pigtails to boot).  MJ is win

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  Althea is kind of bitter and mean.. but she is without her abuser Nick so she's still going through her withdrawals from him.

[amybrickwallace]

It was very clever for them to use "Evil Ways" and "Lyin' Eyes", because Penny was in the scenes when both songs were played in the background. Too funny.

 

Andy is now gone for good, yay!!!

 

Kudos to the show for bringing back Meg Mundy as Mona. I love how Mona has Karen’s number...and is basically the only person who is able to strike fear in her. We're actually rounding third and headed home with Karen, as Laryssa Lauret left TD for the third and final time in November 1975.

 

I'm also loving Lauren White and MJ. LW is now a jazz singer with several albums available on iTunes and Amazon. In addition, she is a producer of Homeland on Showtime. Her husband, Alex Gansa, is that show's creator and executive producer/showrunner.

[amybrickwallace]

Getting back to Leslie Ray, here's a bio which explains how she went from a NYC soap actress to a producer/writer for sitcoms in LA:

 

http://www.kristinmartinmedia.com/our-team.html

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

Hi everyone. I just joined. I asked some folks on another site how Karen eventually exits the show. Someone thought she was in another plane crash. Is that true? Or does she go back to Germany? Maybe she just disappears and is never mentioned. I find it strange she would not still be part of Erich's life when Carolee takes off. Why leave her son in the hands of Mona and Ann?

[amybrickwallace]

Right now, the show is in October 1975. Laryssa Lauret/Karen left for the third and final time in November. I believe she returned to Germany, but we'll know for sure soon.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Thanks Amy. She's my favorite character/actress on the show. I remember watching her on Guiding Light in 1977/78. That time she played a French Canadian woman named Simone.

 

I'm not a fan of Cenedella's writing and can't wait for Margaret DePriest's stuff to start airing. Any idea what month her material begins?

[Khan]

 

I'm sure she was glad to be done with that hideous brunette wig.

[vetsoapfan]

 

To be honest, IMHO, DePriest is significantly worse than Cenendella (whose work I do not like, either).

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Really? So the show obviously started to stumble after the Pollocks left. Maybe Doug Marland's stuff will be better. I wrote this a while back on the Daytime Royalty site, when I was waiting for my account to be verified here. Some of you may have read it over there, but this conveys my feelings about Cenedella as a writer:

 

*****

I just watched the September 19th episode on YouTube. I have to say I felt this was one of Cendella's worst episodes. In fact I lost a lot of respect for him as a writer and am glad he will soon be replaced by DePriest.

The stuff with Mike going off to South America is totally RIDICULOUS. He's not a cop, he's a doctor. He has no skills or training in how to guard/protect or ensure the safety of a gangster.

I am sure if the Pollocks were still in charge and they needed to send him away from the hospital for awhile, they would have sent him to Singapore and we would have seen nurse Dawn again. There was no need to invent this gibberish about a criminal and Mike following never-before-seen said criminal to Bogota.

I also felt Andy's exit seemed rushed. There was no foreshadowing or build up that he was missing his parents or that Penny and Stacy had broken his heart to such an extent he needed to leave. With Mike we've seen how his feelings about Toni would make him leave. But we had no inkling of that with Andy. He was primarily used in scenes as a singer. He had very little romantic drama to play since Cendella and Young took over.

Joe's impending exit came out of nowhere. There are too many exits happening all at once, which I blame on the producer (Young) who seems eager to axe people he doesn't want on the show. The departures should be more gradual with proper foreshadowing, so their wanting to leave makes sense.

The stuff with Hank & Matt was equally preposterous. I do like the idea of them mentioning preventative medicine. But Hank thinking they can take a paramedic unit into a poor section of town and making sure people repair faulty steps so kids don't fall down stairs is completely unrealistic. Doctors do not have time to go around and look for steps that need fixing. That's what a landlord and a repairman do.

Again this was the worst episode I've watched post-Pollocks. Anyone know when Cendella's last episode airs? It won't be soon enough for me.

Edited April 18, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[Soaplovers]

To be honest, Cenedella's stint is almost a complete 180 from the Pollocks... which is both good and bad.

 

The Pollocks also axed a few characters they didn't want either when they first took over (Anna, in particular who announced one day that she got a job in New York.. had a two day goodbye ceremony and was off the show).  With that said, Andy was dead weight and that Joe character didn't really fit in either.

 

The good of Cenedella:  More character driven scenes, which the Pollock's seemed incapable of writing especially in their last months as writers.  He quickly bought back Mona and involving her in the Steve/Carolee/Karen custody battle.... he quickly moved Ann out of Steve/Carolees house (plot driven move by the Pollocks imho given Carolee's jealousy issues and no woman in her right mind would allow her husbands ex wife to move in even if they didn't have feelings for one another)... he is writing MJ and Penny with more depth and made Stacy  less of a trainwreck of a character.

 

The bad of Cenedella:  The Pollock's were heavy on plot and action.. and light on character driven scenes.... Cenedella is the complete opposite.  Other then the Steve/Carolee/Karen custody batte.. which is getting some movement/action... there aren't any other plots going on... just a lot of scenes of characters talking.  Since the previous writers/producer drove the actress playing Lauri off the show, he did at least provide a reason as to why she isn't on the show (and to be honest.. it fit the character though it would have been nice to see on line).. and I get why Mike had to leave.. but it didn't fit how he was written off.  It has caused the Toni/Alan characters to stall... had the Pollocks not killed Margo off, it wouldn't have been a problem.

 

With that said, I'm not sure about the Scott/Althea coupling... it does answer for me which writer created his character and Eleanor/Wendy.

 

So while I like the more character driven stuff, I do think some plot lines/actions would have been nice as well.  I can see why Depriest was hired, tbh.