Jump to content

The Doctors


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Beginning of Dec. 1968. Nick & Althea just got home from their honeymoon. Nick fell out of the bed. Kinda disappointed that the honeymoon wasn't shown more. I guess back then they couldn't do much other than these simple, indoor sets pretending to be outdoors! I was just thinking about Ryan's Hope a decade later and how much they utilized the outdoors even in the early years, but they also had the advantage of not only filming in NYC but locating the show's town there as well. When I saw the red blinds at the wedding reception "hotel", I was like, gee, they're having their reception in the hospital! tongue.png

Karen really does get tiresome to watch. "Steven, we need to talk." "Steven, I don't want to talk about it now!" Is this ice-queen, Matt-fixation bit coming to any kind of an end soon? Between her demeanor and David O'Brien's premature gray, I feel like I'm watching 2 middle-aged people playing at being younger. It's strange, I know they were both in their early 30s at this time, but they just seem older. Maybe they should have left the wig off Karen and put a dark one on Steve! Heaven knows, a few of the men on Ryan's Hope had "alternate" hair! wink.png

I've got to say, I've been pretty much skipping the Liz, Jody (is that his name?), and stalker stuff. Just not really interested in any of that at all.

Edited by applcin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

Well...in Michael Levin's case, I'm thinking a bald 35 year-old Jack Fenelli wouldn't have made quite the same impact with his very masculine physicality, not to mention the pairing with a 19 year-old girl! wink.png I guess the piece was a "necessary evil"!

I'm not saying DOB doesn't look fine. Steve just comes across like he should be further along in life and career.

Edited by applcin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hahaha - I wonder if Althea and Nick's reception was held in the lounge or the lab...

Jody Lee Bronson, that's the Southern gentleman smitten by "Liz Liz". Yes, the story where they ape Dark Shadows is very, very tedious and went on way too long - though it really only aired over 7-8 weeks. With two a day in the reruns, that was cut in half for us and still felt like an eternity.

I have to wonder if the character of Jack Fenelli on RH wasn't at least partly inspired by Nick Bellini. Both Gerald Gordon and Michael Levin are still unparalleled in the all-time soap yeller category!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Yes, I thought it was Nick's lab!

I, too, have been noting the similarities between Nick and Jack. Although Jack, in the early years, was far more emotionally damaged and emotionally abusive, I think, and had deeper issues. Nick seems more like a simple product of the times and upbringing...the Chicago streets, the 'tude, the jealousy and machismo, which usually ends up melting away anyway. Nick's acted like a jerk many a time to Althea and other people but he comes around. Jack had some deep-seated abandonment issues and did some serious hurt.

I was reading one of the articles posted earlier about Gerald Gordon and how Nick was like the first anti-hero and how he was so popular that he basically helped turn the show into a success. I do think Jack was cast in a similar mold, even if RH didn't consciously have Nick in mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I thought Kate looked about 10 years older than her age, but I wasn't really talking about Levin - more the godawful rug on that loser Ed Coleridge (I really do wonder if that + his wooden acting are why he got the chop), and the messy Grecian Formula poor John Gabriel was stuck with for a decade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

That seems to be the case with people in general years ago. When you look at the 20 and 30-somethings in tv and movies back then, they look older than people of that age look today.

Amy, I'll post about the wedding later when I don't have to go to work! ;)

Edited by applcin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Yeah..I don't like that hippie cowboy Jody whatsoever. The characters are saying hoe wonderful he is..but I'm not seeing it. Good to know some tropes such as that were around even then :)

Still I'm wondering what Liz will be doing for the next year or so of her stint. She's had a couple of failed relationships, bad reaction to drugs, kidnapped, etc. What else can they throw on the poor girl?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Nick and Althea have become my favorites so I pretty much liked it! biggrin.png I can see how they became so popular. I only vaguely remembered Gerald on General Hospital and I never watched ATWT where Elizabeth was so I'm kinda just seeing them "fresh".

It did bring home how small the cast was. I mean, all the regulars were there and they all had their thoughtful voiceovers. At first I thought it odd that Althea's uncle was brought in to give her away...but there wasn't really anybody in the cast left to do it who would have been appropriate! The sound effects, particularly when the minister talked over N & A's thoughts, got a little wonky, though. And sometimes Gerald's voiceover sounded less like Nick and more like Gerald, if you know what I mean.

The reception was a little odd, I guess, maybe because of set and budget constraints. They obviously used a hospital set and the room was so small, even that small group were practically on top of one another. They might have tried at least to change the red blinds, lol.

So...what happened to Althea's psychedelic bikini? Should have made an appearance on the honeymoon. Speaking of appearance, also odd that Althea was wearing a sweater and slacks on the beach, while sunbathing. Anyway, I do wish there had been a few more scenes of the honeymoon, even if they were at dinner or something. I guess over the years I just got used to seeing the soaps take the viewers along more...like part of the payoff. smile.png

It's funny. This is the first soap my mother watched when I was a toddler, so she remembers Nick, Althea, Matt, Steve. I'm watching the same episodes now that she watched when I was a tyke.

Edited by applcin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Watching the cult of Fetterman collapse is one of the few political bright spots for me. The best part  is watching all the people who built him up now decide they want to tear him down. I'll be fascinated to see how this ends for him. https://buckscountybeacon.com/2025/05/pennsylvanias-democratic-senator-john-fetterman-raises-alarms-with-outburst-at-meeting-with-union-officials/

      Please register in order to view this content

    • Long ago, this Rachel fan channel uploaded a number of clips of Rachel with Felicia during the alcoholism story, and this one in particular stands out for me. 

      Please register in order to view this content

      And then you have this scene, which is the dark mirror of the above, especially the final moment: By the late '80s, especially after Wallingford's death, those times were gone, and Donna Swajeski added further misery to Felicia with the Gold Street backstory. Luckily, after a bit of time the show found a good framing for this new twist on Felicia. The stories with finding and losing a love from her past, learning that a woman she hated was the daughter she'd spent years searching for, sinking into alcoholism, they all fit into the type of material suited for the '40s and '50s screen goddesses.  When Dano tried some of this old weepy type of material when she went back to ABC, it mostly fell flat, as the atmosphere wasn't the same and her character always felt shoehorned in. It worked perfectly at this period on AW because you had Iris, you had Rachel, you had Donna - you had a number of tough-but-vulnerable women of a certain age, most of them grandmothers by this point, but still trying to find love, find themselves. This is what AW could have had earlier if they hadn't dumped Pat and Alice, but better late than never. This is an approach you saw more often on British soaps than on US soaps, which for a number of years respected women in that age group. Both UK and US soaps have done away with this, both countries having the ladies devolve into perpetual ingenues (with added doses of endlessly self-aware camp in the UK) or just being shipped off entirely.  You could even see that on AW with the treatment of Iris (shipped off, never to be mentioned again, too old to return), Donna (repeatedly humiliated and crippled), Felicia (regressed into degrading herself with married John), Rachel (mother to newborn twins, put into lengthy periods of trauma through her new relationship with Carl). 
    • I'm of a certain age where I caught some of Upton's final year and it was not great but Jean Holloway was worse. All I remember is Bambi, Bambi, Bambi!
    • Yes, of course, all of those servants added to the overall picture at AW & also people had relationships with those servants! I like it when Anita asks after one of the servants at the club, how their children are doing & like that. 
    • Great scenes between Marlena and EJ today. Paula and Jeanne are making EJ have more depth than Ron had during his long drawn out tenure.
    • Might as well say it, Minority opinion, granted, but I like Joss & I'm okay with this WSB story & i hope that Emma will be their next recruit & she & Joss can be partners.
    • Thanks again @Paul Raven  The Arlene/Ben/Betsy triangle is one I wish I could see for myself as on paper it doesn't tend to excite me but I can see how well-constructed it was. I wish I could see the Rick/Meg relationship too, although I wish they'd had him genuinely fall for Meg after he gets together with Cal. The whole Brooke/Deacon/Bridget story on B&B was horribly damaging to Brooke as a character but it was dramatically very sound because I could completely believe Deacon would fall for messy and vulnerable Brooke after finally settling down with the more docile Bridget.
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • According to the head writer list, it seems the show may have started to fall apart while either the Schneiders or Upton were writing.  And when it started to crumble, it crumbled fast.  It was sad to see everything Labine had brought to LOL be disassembled.  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy