The Doctors

[dc11786]

I like the sad theme.

Thank you, saynotoursoap, for this closing. It's from February 1981, right? Hubbard returned in January, the Bennetts left in March, and Jerry returned for Nola / Jason's wedding in March. Also I think Theodora finally died in February, didn't she?

[Paul Raven]

This would have been how long after Doris Quinlan left? Seeing Vivica,Ashley,Alan,Darcy etc in the credits -they were all characters created under her tenure and would soon be gone.

Had the Connors just started as headwriters?

[DRW50]

November 1971 Daytime TV (sorry about the bad scanning!)

[DRW50]

November 1978 Digest.

Edited August 14, 2011 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

saynoutoursoap has very kindly uploaded the full February 1981 episode of The Doctors. I have to say I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed everything. I love seeing these old soaps but sometimes parts of the episodes are a muddle (as any show is); this, however, has a real energy and followthrough in every scene, even the casual conversations. The best part for me was the Mona schemes and the flashback to the Mona/Nola throwdown.

So just how much did the strike derail these stories? How long before this was the strike? I know that Jason ended up dead but I don't know if that was a strike story or not. I wonder how it affected the Billy/Greta/Natalie saga.

video gone

Edited October 18, 2014 by DRW50

[dc11786]

This is from February 1981 and the strike lasted three months during the summer of 1981 (June / July / August). Jason's death occurred during the strike, but it may have always been the intention of the writers to kill Jason anyway. Glenn Corbett had been on / off the show for some time in the late 1970s; I'm not sure if that was his choice or the writers. Anyway, Jason was killed saving Mona, who had been kidnapped by Kevin and Catherine Shaw. Catherine was the woman scheming with Mona in this episode. I believe Catherine was working as baby Jessica's nanny, but secretly harboring a grudge against the Aldrich clan because of her father's financial ruin / suicide that came about because of the Aldriches.

I'm not sure any show suffered as creatively as 'The Doctors' did during the strike. Kevin kidnapped Nola, who he fell in love with and proceeded to 'marry' in a marriage ceremony performed by Kevin himself. Then, he raped Nola. Meanwhile, Catherine plotted to kill Nola, and Kevin revealed that Catherine had sexually abused him years earlier. I don't remember how the story ends, but I think Kevin ends up dead and Catherine in the asylum.

By the summer, I believe the Billy / Natalie / Greta story had come to its climax. When the truth came out, I believe Greta moved on with Dr. Jack Garner, but she learned she was pregnant by Billy. Greta eventually lost the baby. Natalie was involved with Steve's sex book storyline, which was dropped. Maybe Natalie and Steve were going to become involved. I don't think the audience would have cared for that though.

The only things I remember reading about that seemed to be dropped / changed during the strike were Jerry's Toyko days (the strike writers wrote him as a drug dealer) and the Althea / Matt pairing (instead we got Matt's sterility / Maggie's pregnancy).

[DRW50]

Thanks. I didn't realize this was Catherine. At first I thought it was Carolee, then realized she was supposed to be evil. I liked her work with Mona...I'm sorry they made her so psycho.

You're right, Kevin did die, as Catherine went on a vendetta against Nola over his death.

I wonder how Althea/Matt would have played out. That probably would have destroyed the Althea/Maggie friendship.

So this was Jerry Dancy? Nola/Luke's brother? What was the Tokyo story?

[dc11786]

I don't remember the timeline, but I think Catherine came in under Ellis / Hunt as the nanny who Mona hired to look after baby Jessica. Catherine had feelings for Jason or Steve; I'm thinking it was Steve. It was only later revealed that the Shaws and the Aldriches had been tied together in the past. I don't think Mona was aware of the past connection and maybe Shaw wasn't their real name.

In regards to the flashback, at some point in the story, Mona had arranged for a photographer to drug Nola and put her in a naughty position with another couple. The pictures of Nola's menage a trois were what caused her to lose custody of baby Jessica. Nola eventually tracked down someone involved in the scheme, I believe the photographer, and got him to confess it was Mona's doing. I don't know exactly how Mona lost Jessica to Nola, but I believe this is the scheme being referred to in the flashback. I may be wrong because I feel like the whole menage a trois plot was from 1979.

I'm not sure if Althea / Maggie's friendship would have been ruined by a Matt / Althea pairing. It wasn't like Althea was going to jump into Matt's bed to cure him of his sterility. When Matt and Maggie started having fights, Matt turned to Althea; Althea was Maggie's friend and could understand the fights. Matt was a rather harsh man from what I've read and the little I've seen. Obviously, the pairing would have caused tension, but I think Lydia Bruce, James Pritchett, and Liz Hubbard would have acted the hell out of it.

Jerry Dancy wasn't in the episode saynotoursoap posted, but he returned within the month for his sister's wedding. He and Penny married and left town in the late 1970s. The Konners brought back Jerry and Althea and killed off Penny. There was tension in Penny / Jerry's marriage when Jerry returned, but the nature of the drama wasn't clear. There was even some tension about Jerry being back. I cannot remember if Althea didn't want him on staff or Matt didn't want him on staff, but there were issues. Later, Jerry and Jack Garner would go at it over an outpatient clinic or some other hospital subdivision. This rivalry never really went anywhere because both characters were written out. I think Jerry had a few flings; M.J. or Natalie, maybe, but nothing serious as these were brief writer strike arcs. Eventually, it was revealed Jerry had been dealing drugs or providing drugs to Mr. Sebastian, an international drug kingpin, who wound up in Madison to torment some minor characters. Jerry's drug dealing resolved the 'mystery' of Jerry / Penny's marital trouble, but I'm not sure this was the original intentions of the Konners.

[Paul Raven]

Back in the 60's Althea and Matt had been engaged,so in some ways a renewed romance might have made sense.But I think that act had been completely forgotten and viewers saw Matt and Althea as friends only. However a well written triangle may have worked.

[saynotoursoap]

Nola had an affair with Dr. Colin Wakefield while married to Jason Aldrich and became pregnant. Jason discovered the affair and left Madison for South America. Nola remained in Mona's mansion and schemed to leave town herself in order to cover up the baby's date of birth, since Mona would figure out that Colin was the baby's father instead of Jason. Before she could leave, Nola had an accident and went into premature labor. Mona grew suspicious and secretly had paternity tests performed on little Jessica. Although Nola thought that Colin was the father, it transpired that she had miscalucalted her conception date. Jason was the father after all. Meanwhile, Nola attempted steal Colin away from M.J., but he was killed in the Thanksgiving tornado of 1979.

Somehow Steve and Carolee discovered that Jason was Jessica's father, a fact Mona had kept secret. Carolee phoned Jason and told him about the child. He immediately caught a plane to come home, but the plane crashed, and he was presumed dead.

Mona blamed Carolee and Nola for Jason's death. She wanted to make Nola pay even more by taking Jessica away from her, too. Nola, who had a drinking problem in the past, started to hit the bottle again. Mona hired a private detective named Fisher to tail Nola and get proof that she was an unfit mother. Fisher, imagining the money he could get from Mona for doing a good job, set Nola up by drugging her and getting a photographer to take dirty photos. He also planted drugs in her car and tipped off the police. Nola was arrested, and this caused her to lose custody of Jessica to Mona.

Nola began drinking even more heavily when Mona refused to agree to visitation rights. One night in June 1980, Nola showed up drunk at Mona's house and they got into a terrible quarrel, which Stephanie Aldrich overheard. During the argument, Mona realized that Fisher had taken it upon himself to frame Nola for the drugs and orgy. Nola ran out of the room, vowing to get back at her mother-in-law. Mona, who was going upstairs to bed, was so upset over the revelation about Fisher that she had an angina attack and fell down the staircase. With Mona comatose, everyone thought that Nola had intentionally pushed her. Nola could not remember what had happened as she blacked out, but with Stephanie's account of their argument, Nola was indicted for attempted murder.

Things looked even more bleak when Mona regained consciousness, as she lied that Nola had been responsible for the fall. Released from the hospital, Mona took Jessica and left Madison. At that point, Carolee found canceled checks Mona had given to Fisher. She and Steve realized that Nola had been framed and turned the evidence over to the police. Nola was released, and the judge reversed his decision, awarding custody of Jessica back to Nola.

Edited August 18, 2011 by saynotoursoap

[DRW50]

Thanks for this detailed recap. So did Jason return from the dead and then die again?

It sounds like the show made sure neither Nola nor Mona were ever too "bad," at least at this time. I also wonder if the story was done to "redeem" Nola, since she'd done some bad things, like not being there when her sister died, and using her sister's death to manipulate Mona.

[dc11786]

I wondered if the writers always intended Jason to be the father of baby Jessica. I seem to recall Colin had lost a son / daughter while he was living in Austrailia. I believe the child died in surgery, which caused problems for Colin. I thought all of this would have driven Colin to claim Jessica when he learned he was the father, but did Colin even learn he might be the father? Also the conflict over the paternity would have spilled over to Steve / Carolee as Steve was Jason's brother and Carolee's cousin M.J. was involved with Colin. Given Steve and Carolee history with Billy and Jason's with Stacey, I could see how this all could become very messy if Colin indeed was the father of Nola's child.

[DRW50]

February 17, 1981 Digest.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Poor Alec Baldwin. That's just hilarious.