The Doctors

[Sedrick]

I believe Alec Baldwin had kicked the habit by the time he went out to Hollywood (thank goodness)...a few years ago he ran into the clerk who used to run that arcade and the man told him he was for sure Alec was going to end up dead because he was so far out at the time.

[DRW50]

That's interesting stuff. I guess there's no real way to tell whether or not an actor is on coke, as you are just seeing a brief fraction of their day, but the few times I've seen him on The Doctors, I never would have known.

I wonder if that's one of the reasons he was written out, or if he wanted to leave.

[Khan]

I'm sure the no-name producer and HW's didn't instill confidence either. Of course, it seems like most, if not all, soaps get canceled at a point when no one who's any good will go near 'em, doesn't it? No one with a reputation as large as, say, Agnes Nixon's will step up and say, I might have won X amount of Emmys, put this many shows at or near the top of the ratings, etc.; but I am willing to stake my reputation and everything else on turning this failing show around, because losing just one soap is bad for all of us. If NBC or Colgate-Palmolive had taken a look at the landscape and decided to lure over a writer like Wisner Washam or an EP such as Michael Laibson, who knows what might have been accomplished. Would it have saved THE DOCTORS in the end? Hard to say. But perhaps it would have gone out on a high note.

Edited September 2, 2011 by Khan

[DRW50]

May 1974 TV Radio Mirror. Posting this mostly because it's such a striking photo of Liz Hubbard.

Edited September 8, 2011 by CarlD2

[beebs]

I think most of the problem there was that NBC was interfering so much that no one with a name would touch the show anymore after Lemay was out. It said so much about the network's priorities and their level of patience (ie. little to none) for any character-based stories to build up that could've resuscitated the show's fortunes. Why bother risking your rep on a show that would dump you just as your stories were building up in earnest?

[Cat]

Have been watching some of the episodes from the late 70s-early 80s that saynotosoaps posted on YouTube: LOVE. Alec Baldwin may have been high on Bolivian marching powder all throughout his Doctors run but he sure was convincing as that relatable !@#$%^&*] Billy Aldrich.

The show is gripping and it only seems to use two sets per episode! I love it, especially Mona, Carolee, MJ and the glimpses I've seen of Kathleen Turner's Nola (forgive me but while Kim Zimmer's Nola looks the part, KZ plays her as SO smug that it is hard to warm to her).

[DRW50]

Which episode is Kathleen in? Is it the 1978 one? I haven't seen that one in a while so have forgotten most of it, outside of Doreen and Carolee/Mona.

[DRW50]

September 1969 Afternoon TV

[teplin]

From this week's TV Guide: Constructing the new multimillion-dollar studio for NBC's upcoming newsmagazine show Rock Center with Brian Williams has been a TV version of an archaeological dig. "We've found a piece of the set from the soap opera The Doctors," says Williams.

[Khan]

Knowing NBC, they probably junked it the moment they found it.

[DRW50]

October 1967 TV Picture Life mentions that Rita Lakin had become TD's new head writer.

[Paul Raven]

That's interesting.I had read that Lakin came on in 66,but earlier someone (maybe you Carl) that Orin Torov was still writing at that time.I know Lakin introduced Nick and possibly Steve and ratings took off.Unfortunately,she never wrote another daytime show.

[DRW50]

In the They Almost Became thread I mentioned George Reinholt's comments that right after he was let go from AW, NBC tried to get him to go to The Doctors. I wonder how that would have worked out. He did bring a ratings boost to OLTL. If he'd done the same for The Doctors, that might have helped stave off some of their decline.

[Paul Raven]

Armand Assante as Dr Mike Powers with David O'Brien

[DRW50]

That's great. Good quality too. I've never seen this before.

One article from 1976 mentioned how Armand was going to become the show's new leading man since Gerald Gordon was leaving. Yet even in the article it says Armand doesn't want to stay forever (and he was gone by the end of the year, I think). The show really seemed to have a problem with men in that age range.