Jump to content

The Doctors


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

Thanks for posting. I guess that episode was during the writers strike.

MJ fussing over Jerry...nothing came of that relationship.

 

Back to the 60's. July 1964

 Fans Kept Her From Being Killed By Script Writers

When a character on a serial drama becomes too lovable to write out of the script, what can you do? That's the dilemma which veteran actress Ruth McDevitt presented to the producer of NBC-TV's The Doctors (Monday through Friday, 2:30 p.m. on channels 4 and 5). First of all, you call the lady's agent and find out if she is signed for a Broadway play in the fall. When she is (as Miss McDevitt is signed to star in "The Absence of a Cello"), you agree to write around her for many a long week provided she will return from time to time. Ruth McDevitt signed to play Mrs. McMurtrie, an elderly Irish housekeeper for Chaplain Sam Shafer. The lovable lady of the script was supposed to expire of a kidney ailment but the warmth of the on-the-air relationship with the chaplain drew so much appreciative fan mail, that neither the producer (Jerry Layton) nor the writer could bear to eliminate dear Mrs. McMurtrie. She survived her kidney operation and after a few weeks returned to her duties as the chaplain's housekeeper. The chaplain is portrayed by Fred J. Scollay, whom the actress holds in high regard. "Fred is a very good actor," she says. "But then in daytime television you've GOT to be fast, accurate and good. They don't have time to fool around with people who have to try things a dozen ways before they're right. Some of the best acting on television is done in the daytime. "I think many actors make a bad mistake if they look down their noses at daytime drama. It's a great mistake." Although Mrs. McMurtrie is a woman of impeccable behavior, Miss McDevitt often plays ladies who are somewhat less inhibited. "In my new play," she points out, "I will be seen as an elderly lady named Emma Littlewood who drinks, swears and gambles... but she IS a lady, despite that." Miss McDevitt wagged her head and said firmly, "Don't underestimate Mrs. McMurtrie. She may not drink, smoke and gamble, but I think she is more than a meddlesome old woman in a daytime serial. She's a simple honest woman of keen insight who feels too much responsibility toward human nature. The only reason she seems meddlesome, I guess,' is that she tries to get everything fixed up for everybody before her life span runs out. I like Mrs. McMurtrie." Other people like Mrs. McMurtrie, too, as the fan mail arriving at Studio 3B in New York's RCA Building amply indicates. "So glad to see you," writes a fan who has enjoyed Miss Mc-Devitt's work on Alfred Hitchcock's nighttime TV show. "I've always enjoyed your work," wrote another woman who recalled Miss McDevitt as Mrs. Gamadge the national commit-teewoman, in the Broadway production of "The Best Man."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Paul Raven I didn't realize that was Jerry. I thought that was some random guy. And MJ's date was filler to pad out the episode. Nola's story seems like a hot mess. But Kim Zimmer still gave it her all. Plus Kim looked great with krimp hair. Even through this episode was ghost written during a writers strike. Who ever wrote Althea's scenes knew who Nick was. It was a nice touch to see Nick's photo. In one of Althea's moving boxes. I do love when history is used. Little details like that mean a whole lot. 

Edited by victoria foxton
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

That's Kathy Glass playing MJ.  She really wasn't accepted as MJ, but she did stay in the role for quite a long time.  And she was a very good actress.  She basically played MJ like an entirely different character -- not confident witty MJ as played by Lauren White.  After Glass had been there a while, her MJ was sort of accepted, but more as a new character -- if that makes sense.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have to disagree. I think she was widely accepted as MJ. It was quite a casting coup. I know I adored her in the role — both during the show’s original run and in the reruns. And she played the character as it was written. This was a period when there was constant turnover of head writers — I think there were four sets of head writers in just the first year of Kathy’s run. They were the ones that transformed the character so radically. The changes started when Mel and Ethel Brez were writing the show and MJ was widowed. The changes were even evident when Carla Dragoni briefly played MJ. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

From SOD 

Alan Locher, who hosts The Locher Room on YouTube, has partnered with Retro TV to bring you a virtual reunion with former cast members from THE DOCTORS. David Elliott (ex-Billy), Jonathan Frakes (ex-Tom), Nancy Stafford (ex-Adrienne), Anna Stuart (ex-Toni), Frank Telfer (ex-Luke/Lew) and Marie Thomas-Foster (ex-Lauri) will be participating in the chat on Friday September 25 at 2 p.m. ET, 

 

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/the-doctors-virtual-reunion-scheduled/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Despite the glitches,  I enjoyed the stories they were telling.  A couple of them were quite funny.  I was not surprised to hear that Gil Gerard was not pleasant to work with, lol.  Nice to hear the opposite was true of Armand Assante.  Sounds like TD was a great working experience for everyone.

 

And I don't know how it's possible that Frank Telfer is 76 years old!

Edited by jam6242
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

    • Finland seemed such an odd choice for a location shoot. ATWT went to Greece and later Spain while GL had Tenerife and there were others in that timeframe. But Finland not being a known tourist destination or offering the tropical/sunny atmosphere usually associated with location shoots seems off brand. Maybe they were negotiating a deal with a tourist association and it fell through.
    • I was talking about 1986, but the glimpses of 1982 are about the same. 
    • I skimmed some of the 1982 synopses; Steve was planning on an opening an office in Finland, and I think Jim went there as part of the preparation. That probably was a big issue; AW had already gone to San Diego that year, with Rachel/Steve/Mitch. And to upstate NY with Pete and Diana. I wonder if upstate was as expensive lol  AW in 1982 has always fascinated me, because of how messy it was 
    • That makes sense. What a messy time for the show. And any changes they made were mostly for the worse.
    • The transition from Neal to Adam was very abrupt, and to be honest my theory is that the character of Neal was designed so that we think he is super shady but then it turns out that he was on the side of good all along so Neal could have seamlessly become a hero of the BCPD with no need for Adam. I don't know whether Robert Lupone was hired on a short contract or if he was fired from a longer-term contract because they decided they wanted someone who was more of a leading man type, but I can imagine a scenario where Charles Grant did both the undercover Egyptian treasure/flirt with Victoria and the straighter-arrow day to day police investigation. But in my imagined scenario the MJ prostitution plotline probably doesn't exist and instead he probably continues a relationship with Victoria. The story seems very odd to me. I assume that David Canary would have been included only because a plotline where Steve is going to Finland in which only Rachel is seen in actual Finland seems unlikely. The synopses explicitly mention that Alice can't go with Steve but would whoever was playing Alice at that time have had the kind of clout to get the remote cancelled? It also strikes me as unlikely that production would have approved the expensive location shoot and *then* cancelled it only because of jealousy. It seems more likely that they rejected it because of the expense but then the jealousy part got added to the gossip speculatively, possibly because while it was being worked out they justified not including more castmembers because of the expense. 
    • My comment has nothing to do with cast resentment, but does relate to the Finland location shoot: It may be a coincidence, but Jim Matthews died in Finland in 1982.  Hugh Marlowe's final episode was in April 1982, but the character probably didn't die untll May or June. (I'm unable to find the character's date of death, only the date of Marlowe's final episode). SInce Jim and Rachel had very little interaction after around 1975, it is unlikely Jim's death in Finland had any connection to Rachel's potential visit, but the choice to have Jim die in that location at that time is a head-scratcher.  I'm sure the writers sent Jim on an extended trip (and off-screen) because of Marlowe's illness.  But Finland seems like a strange choice considering the (then) recently cancelled location shoot.  
    • I totally understand your sloths concern about it and I agree with you. Let’s hope the show plays it’s cards right.    Further comments about the last few episodes: - I liked that one of the attendees was filming the scene. That’s realistic. I wonder if the writers will follow up with that.  - Martin and Smitty trying to drag Leslie out was very heteronormative, so perfectly in line with them two as characters lol.    As for the future: it’s obvious the Duprees will come to accept Eva one way or another, but the rivalry with Kay should be here for the long term   On the topic of acting: the only bad actors I’m seeing are Ted and Derek. Tomas hasn’t proven to be either good or bad, so far, but he’s certainly mediocre and uncharismatic. He sucks the energy out of the scenes and I don’t see any couple of women ever vying for him. 
    • I’m trying to think which actors VW were working with at the time, and none of them had been there for a while. Even like Mac and Ada didn’t have that big of a part in Rachel’s storyline.  And Jamie was involved with all that movie stuff.
    • Brooke did ads before ATWT too. That probably helped get her the job. After ATWT she seemed to branch more into hosting, along with ads.  I think I saw Kelley in an ad or two, but you're right she wasn't on as much. 
    •   Thanks for sharing these. I wonder if Charles might have been in the running for Adam. I know Preacher was a bit of a bad boy at times on EON, but Neal seemed to be a step down, and Robert Lupone had played a similar part on AMC. Given the huge cast turnover at this point I wonder who thought they had been there long enough to go.  Laura Malone/Chris Rich would get a remote within the next year. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

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