The Doctors Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

From the October 27, 1981 Digest.

[DRW50]

December 8, 1981 Digest.

[DRW50]

January 19, 1982 Digest. This should cover the last few days of 1981, or part, right?

MichaelGL I don't want to post too many too quickly as I don't know if you might only have time to read some, so when you want to see the 1982 I have please let me know.

[MichaelGL]

Thanks again Carl for these scans, they help to shed some light on TD's lesser known years.

To my knowledge the following months have been posted in this thread (I've copied and pasted much of it and saved it to my computer.): July, Oct. Sept., and Dec. 1982 have all been posted in this thread. So if you have any of the other months, I would greatly appreciate it if you scanned a few of them, and posted them when you're able to. So far, I've read half of the ones you posted yesterday, so I'll let you know when I've been able to read all the ones you've posted.

[Paul Raven]

Reading these synopses makes me wonder how anyone thought MJ & Matt would be an acceptable pairing. At some point Kathy Glass left and Amy Ingersoll took over. Was Matt involved with boyh actresses in this storyline?

I don't think it was a good idea to split up Matt and Maggie again as they had been through previous similar stories and it made the characters look like they had learned nothing. Remember also that this was the time the youth movement was really happening on soaps. Not saying that was a good thing, but did they think they would grab new viewers by focusing on the break up of a middle aged couple? It probably annoyed long time viewers to see the Powers unhappy.

Also the casting of Terry O'Quinn as Jerry was a puzzle. It was smart to bring him back and he isa great actor but hardly a stunner in the looks department.Surely the show would have grabbed more attention with a 'hearthrob' in the part.

SOD at that time did not post regular comings and goings. I have never learned who played Robin. Can anyone help?

[DRW50]

I'd like to know that too, about Robin.

I was bewildered when I read these synopses and they talked about Matt/MJ. Doesn't that seem very random? I guess they had run out of ideas for the characters.

So did Maggie lose her baby?

I found another 1981 recap I had. This one is in the middle of the two September 81 I already posted. September 15.

[DRW50]

[Paul Raven]

Seems like they were building up to something with the Steve sex book but I think it was dropped (change of writers?)

[DRW50]

From the March 2, 1982 Digest.

[DRW50]

March 16 1982.

[MichaelGL]

If I'm correct Carl, some of the early 1982/late 1981 stuff of The Doctors might be from Harding Lemay's lesser known tenure on the show. So these help alot in shedding some light on what he wrote on the show.

[dc11786]

Maggie miscarried in either late November/early December. She became very sick, and lost the baby when she was suffering from some life threatening ailment.

It started during the writers' strike. It was dropped when the writers returned.

Lemay's material starting airing the last week of December. The Christmas 1981 episode is credited to someone else, but New Years Eve was penned by Lemay. The first March 1982 SOD is from Lemay's first week I believe. I didn't think SOD was that far back, but I'm prety sure this was the final weeks of 1981, first weeks of 1982.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I really appreciate your help in figuring out dates. I thought this was at least February or late January 1982 so this was a surprise.

I have a few more from March and April but then there's a gap.

Do you think they were right to have Maggie miscarry? What did you think of the MJ/Matt stuff, from what you've read about it?

[dc11786]

To be quite honest, I didn't pay much attention to the late 1981 synopses when I was reading them. The 1981 Writer's Strike was such a bad time for the show with really bad stories. I didn't pay much attention again until the December 1982 synopses when Lemay took over. I don't know how it played out onscreen, but I think the intention of the M.J. / Matt story was well intentioned. I don't think the writers intended for Matt and M.J. to be the show's new cornerstone couple. M.J. and Matt were paired in August 1981 when the show was still written by scabs. When the writers returned, I think they continued M.J. and Matt because they new Mike was returning. Mike and M.J. had been a couple right before Mike left in February 1980. The conflict between Mike and Matt played out when Mike returned. I suspect Mike and M.J. would have moved back into each other's orbit with Katy being the spoiler.

Matt seemed like a rather hard man. He was confident and unbending, which made him a good doctor, but not always the easiest man to get along with. I've seen people complain about Matt and Maggie's split, but I found it reasonable. Matt was rather cruel at times. When Maggie thought she was pregnant in the late 1970s, he made it clear he wasn't happy with the idea of raising another child. I thought this was rather crass considering Maggie seemed delighted with the idea of raising another baby.

Maggie's miscarriage was used to keep Maggie and Matt apart. Matt wasn't even aware Maggie was pregnant at the time of the miscarriage. A baby would probably have united them. If the show had more time, a Matt and Maggie child would have been important to the show's canvas. With a show in its dying days, explaining where the baby was might have been a hassle and Greta and Mike both had children who would have been older than their aunt or uncle.

[DRW50]

Was Katy the character Hillary Bailey played, or was that Kit?

I wonder if it was a good idea to have father/son conflict over MJ when no actor had managed to make a strong impression as Mike.

So the Writer's Strike stuff was all that with the woman who killed her brother because he loved Nola, and she wanted revenge on Nola, and so on? It does sound off, although I like the part where Mona and Nola reluctantly help each other.

Thanks again. I will have more of 1982 up in the next few days.