Jump to content

The Doctors


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

Robert Mandan did another week on TD as the focus character at the end of September 1963. Sometime that same year (before? after the first TD appearance? the second appearances?) he played “Nathan Axelrod” on “The Edge Of Night.” He was cast as heroine Jo’s love interest, “Sam Reynolds” on “Search For Tomorrow” in 1966 and stayed until his character’s death (poor Jo!) in 1970.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


Are you watching on the RetroTV app/website? I’m out of the loop on how to access episodes. I want to see the series of 1963 episodes titled “How Are Things at Home?” which feature one of my former teachers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think I still have a subscription to the website, at least I think they're still charging me for one. It was frustrating trying to navigate it from day one, so I never bothered trying to get into it via the site, but I was fine with continuing to pay for it just to show support. I'm ready to go looking for those early episodes, though.

A new story every day - 250 or a year...did they ever really think that they could sustain that? Thankfully they ended up going full-on soap, but if not, it might've been interesting to see it as a weekly Saturday afternoon anthology (along the lines of something like Death Valley Days or INSIGHT) or even the week-long stories done alongside the regular TV season with summer reruns so that they only had to do 25-30 stories a year. I'm super curious as to how many stories they'd had planned out as they worked their way through those early months.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
"Why did we switch to a five episode format?" echoed Jerry Layton when I finally caught up with him in the carpeted viewing room where he was glued to a TV screen watching the dress rehearsal via closed circuit.
"Well, we realized this 'Eight Hours ' for Emily' was too good to condense, then other stories of the same value came along and we changed our pace." He sounded like a happy man as he went on, "Now we can get below the surface of the characters and into their motivation in the five-day treatment. Important to us, too, is that now we can develop secondary and tertiary relationships among the regular characters in the back ground running story."
 
That might be a bit of PR spin as the ratings had not been good and as stated, a brand new story everyday would be a huge undertaking.The switch to 5 episode stories came about in August 63 and continued until the show become a fully fledged serial in March 64.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Honestly, the more I read about early daytime television (and early television in general) I don't get the feeling they thought much about the long-term, but were just happy they were able to get an episode on air each afternoon. I'm sure the reason they switched formats was because they eventually just realised how hard it was to write a new story each day - while it might seem obvious to us now, I don't think they thought that far ahead. As long as the show got on air they were fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Is anyone else having trouble with The Doctors website?  I hadn't been for quite a while but when I go to https://watchthedoctors.com/home, I get a message saying it's not a safe site.  I've attached a picture below.  This site used to work so that I could see subscription options and episodes available.  Has something changed?  I am getting an Amazon Fire Stick this weekend.   I hope it will be available there but I will still need to be able to subscribe.

 

Thanks!

Please register in order to view this content

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