The Doctors

[DRW50]

I'd be surprised if Bethel was let go. I thought she left partly due to wanting to focus more on her writing career.

[jam6242]

I have an interview from when she was writing for The Secret Storm and in that she did indicate that she was let go while she was off making a film.  She was told that Maggie would be killed off.

[DRW50]

Thanks. That's surprising. I wonder why they changed their mind. I wonder if Lydia (was she originally a temp recast?) and her wonderful chemistry with Jim Pritchett changed their mind.

[Chris B]

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall Lydia was initially announced as a temp recast and didn't they even go back and forth for a while? 

[Jdee43]

There was no back and forth between Bethel and Lydia. Lydia started appearing one day and that was it.

Going by the airdates on the itsrealgoodtv website, Lydia's first airdate was Wednesday, May 15, 1968. Bethel's final airdate was Friday, May 10, 1968. 

I thought Bethel's final episode was a fitting tribute to Maggie and Matt's relationship; loving, adult, and understanding. With that in mind, what follows in June, July and August with Lydia in the role didn't make much sense to me. 

I can definitely see recasting Maggie as an example of taking a character in a new direction, in this case, making the character more neurotic, less stable, less confident. 

Perhaps the nail in Bethel's coffin was when Kathleen Murray was temporarily playing the role of Maggie from March 5, 1968 to March 19, 1968, "due to" what they said on air was "illness."  I thought Murray played the role more shrill and neurotic, less stable, centered, and wise. Maybe after seeing Murray's performance, the producers decided that that's the direction they wanted to take Maggie in. Presumably Murray was acting from scripts intended for Bethel.

I guess with Lydia Bruce, the producers had the best of both worlds. Lydia could play Maggie as Bethel did, strong, wise, sarcastic, confident, kind  (if the producers ever gave her that material, which seemed rare in her first months). Lydia could also play Maggie as Kathleen Murray did, weak, shrill, neurotic, unstable, self-centered (which is what it seemed the producers were initially going for with her).

Edited December 26, 2022 by Jdee43

[The Doctors fan]

I know this is an old thread but over the last several months I binged watched The Doctors on "It's Real Good Tv"  Love that soap remembered watching it after school as a kid.

Anyone know where and how I can watch the episodes from 1980 -1982?

TIA

Edited December 26, 2022 by The Doctors fan

[victoria foxton]

 A couple of episodes from 81 and 82 are on Dailymotion.

Edited December 26, 2022 by victoria foxton

[Soaplovers]

A lot of times how a performer plays the words written can affect how the character becomes long term.

I do recall Lydia almost mirrored Bethel's take on Maggie..but she had a harder edge when doing so before she softened her portrayal to become more the mother figure of the show.

Nurse Kathy was another example of how the character change based on the performer.  Kathy #1 was more a no strings attached woman, Kathy #2 had a more calculating person that was a co schemer with a scheming doctor, and Kathy #3 that was a passive weaker character.

[chrisml]

Is the It's Real Good TV app the same one that used to show the doctors? I remember not being able to use it years ago because it didn't work on my device. 

[Chris B]

Covid slowed down the process, but they're working on converting the rest of the episodes. It seems like they plan to convert all of them before they start releasing them.

This is a new improved app. The previous app was horrible, wasn't available on your smart tv and drove me away from the show for years. The new app works so much better. 

 

BTW, to update on my streaming, I'm in October 1974 and the show definitely picked up in the second half of the year. My girl Karen is alive and so is Mike, although nobody knows he's alive yet. They finally wrapped up John's murder and things overall are picking up. I'm hoping for a strong 1975 since it's The Pollock's last year. 

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[Jdee43]

I would love to see whatever they have of 1963-1967. It would be great to see how Matt, Maggie, Althea and Nick all started out. Here's hoping they haven't abandoned the project, and that they bring it to it's completion!!

[slick jones]

Most of 1963-67 is damaged or in rough shape.  They've allegedly been working on 80-82 since Covid restrictions were lifted, but Chuck has gotten the same response when he contacts them for well over a year now.  He posted a handful of episodes from 80-82, but Retro had them removed from youtube.  The ball is in Retro's court, but it could be anywhere from tomorrow to a year from now before the 80s surface.  I don't know if they have done anything with the 1963-67 episodes outside of the premiere episode, which can be found at the Paley Center. There was another anthology episode that turned up and was quickly taken down.  Carol, who did the closed captioning for Retro, said that there were earlier episode attempts, but that the sound was horrible on many of the episodes prior to the ones in 1967 that they started airing.

[The Doctors fan]

Good to know.  I watched a couple of them yesterday.  Maggie and Althea looked so much older since 1979.

I actually met Elizabeth Hubbard once in the late 60s (I think) backstage in Boston, she was doing a play, can't remember the name.  She was very pleasant, exactly like her character Althea

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I looked up many of the actors to find out what had happened to them and was shocked and saddened about the suicides, Aids related deaths, cancer.

Especially David O'Brien, he looked like such a healthy robust guy, I think he passed in 87.

[victoria foxton]

I googled Peter Burnell and Geri Gerlach. During Retro's first airing of the late 60's/early 70's episodes. And was also saddened to learn how both actors died. Dying to see the last two years. Hopefully they will finally air next year. I know the show made a lot of mistakes in their last years. But the handful of episodes on Dailymotion aren't bad. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by victoria foxton