The Doctors Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh yes! I have a quote from afterward, a nameless NBC programmer, not Fred but someone who worked for him, that says in essence that they went with the idea of a 90 minute show because they couldn't think of anything better to do at the time. OY! 

@Paul Raven P&G when they stopped wiping I have seen it expressed as 1979-80. And then you list the 5 shows I believe they continue to have warehoused. 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Broderick]

"After exhaustive research and discussions with the Colgate team, it could only be determined that those tapes were reused by NBC back in the day and thus, the beloved final two years of The Doctors no longer exist."  

Pfffftt.  Let's rephrase that.  "After exhaustive research and discussions with the Colgate team, it could only be determined that those tapes do NOT belong to Colgate-Palmolive, and we do NOT have the funds to enter into into negotiations with NBC to purchase the rights to air them."  

I expect those tapes will "miraculously reappear" if NBC decides there's money to be made in digging them out of their own storage facility and digitizing them.  

[DRW50]

Watching some of the interviews by the lovely Bobbie Wygant, there are at least four different occasions where she starts off an interview with Kathleen Turner by saying when they first met (for Body Heat), Kathleen was only known for The Doctors (that interview doesn't seem to be on the channel as of yet). This is probably the most positive of Kathleen's reactions to this anecdote (in that she even remembers her character name) - also one of the interviews where she doesn't seem quite as...out of it. 

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[jam6242]

 

[slick jones]

Frank Telfer (Luke Dancy),Regis Philbin (Himself) and Jane Badler (Natalie Bell).
NBC Press photo & release for the March 19,1982 episode:
Regis Philbin (then hosting a short lived daytime talk show at NBC),made a guest appearance as himself on The Doctors for the grand opening of a remodeled "Medicine Man"
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/FRANK-TELFER-REGIS-PHILBIN-JANE-BADLER-SOAP-THE-DOCTORS-TV-Orig-7X9-Press-Photo/402506901966?hash=item5db747e9ce:g:XG8AAOSwYZBfkLd5

 

 

Posted on FB by Chuck Snitchler.

[Chris B]

This is what I think as well. I imagine they could be negotiating with NBC for them, but the smartest thing is to say they’re lost so fans don’t hound them about it. 

[Contessa Donatella]

@robbwolff  You were right about where you saw it so your brain is doing A-okay! It is now documented. Thanks! 

(During 1978-79) "NBC was the only network to cancel a soap, "For Richer, For Poorer," and it expanded one of its hour-long daytime dramas to 90 minutes. It appears the expansion of "Another World," hasn't set a trend. CBS and ABC aren't planning to convert any of their current soaps to 90-minute marathons. The NBC experiment was looked upon as a failure by the two competing networks and they could be right. "Another World" wasn't leading its time period in the ratings as an hour show, so the move to 90 minutes was implemented with the hope of building an audience that would stay for the whole hour and a half. It did not work out that way. In any event, NBC has been toying with the idea of turning "Days of our Lives" into a 90-minute entry." 

Steven H. Scheuer. (1979). Daytime Programs. TV: The Television Annual 1978-79. Collier Macmillan Publishers. p. 124.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
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[Broderick]

lol.  Several years ago, they made a BIG production of "we're going to begin airing episodes from 1967 when the show went from black & white to COLOR!!"  

I suppose that sounded better than the truth:  "NBC owned the show from 1963 to 1967, so we don't have the rights to air a blooming one of those pre-1967 episodes.  Sorry, folks!" 

And now they come along with this song & dance about 1981 & 1982, for the same fairly obvious reason.     

[Paul Raven]

But didn't Colgate -Palmolive own the show from the debut? i think so. Retro did show the first episode/a b&w ep  didn't they at some point?

Don't know about the later episodes claims that NBC trashed them but it made sense to start the show from the color eps.

[rsclassicfanforever]

In the Video they posted some weeks ago, announcing the loss of the last 2 years, there were tapes of old shows like Ep# 212 to see. it was when they showed how many old tapes have it been

[Broderick]

The way I've always heard it, NBC owned it from 1963 until 1967, with Colgate-Palmolive as the primary sponsor.  In 1967, Channelex (which was CP's little version of "P&G Productions") purchased it from NBC, produced it and distributed it to NBC until fall of 1980, and then threw it back to NBC.  

Here's a newspaper blurb indicating that's the case.  (They're discussing Hugh McPhillps who was the casting director of the show.)  This is from 1974.   "McPhillips, whose main job with The Doctors is handling the casting of each of the 250 half-hour episodes taped every year, has been with the soap since the mid-1960s.  A director for 17 years at NBC, who introduced the program, McPhillips left the television network when The Doctors was purchased outright in 1967 by Colgate.  He is employed now by Channelex, Inc."  

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Broderick
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[Paul Raven]

Thanks for clearing that up. 

[Broderick]

Welcome.  I don't know enough about it to be "staunch" (as Little Edie would say), but I just figured from Day One any distribution package Colgate-Palmolive assembled for Retro-TV would be 1967-1980, with possibly a few outlier episodes here and there from the public domain.  The rest would be NBC's little red wagon to sell, and Retro wouldn't be getting it easily.     

Retro never seemed very certain (or very forthcoming) about what they'd acquired from Colgate.  

[Chris B]

Pre-Covid, they did say the pre-67 episodes would be app exclusives. I imagine they must know what they have by now from that era. I do wonder if they’ll go back to their original promise and upload that stuff. Even if they just had scattered episodes available, it would be a nice thing to upload considering. 

[Jdee43]

That's very interesting! I guess a parallel would be the game show Concentration, owned by NBC but produced by Goodson-Todman from 1973-1978 and 1987-1991. Those tapes exist, but couldn't be aired without working out a deal with NBC. The Buzzr channel finally did it, airing the 87-91 shows beginning in 2018; the 73-78 shows starting in 2020. The 70s shows were taken off in 2022, while Buzzr is on track to air all the 87-91 shows. Maybe the 70s shows weren't getting the ratings to justify the licensing cost, so back in the vault they go?

Assuming Retro does need to pay NBC something to air 1963-1967 and 1980-1982, perhaps they set up the pay site hoping to generate enough revenue to do that? When they realized it was a pipe dream, they'd never make enough money to do it, there wasn't enough interest, they made the site free and said the rest of the episodes are missing? Again, it's an interesting theory!