The Doctors

[DRW50]

Thanks again. It does sound interesting. So was that the end of Doreen's story? What would you have done with her?

Do you think Jessie and Mike would have worked? I don't know anything about Shearin's Mike. I guess he was right after Assante.

This was what I posted a few months ago on that Geraldine Court item.

[Paul Raven]

Jet magazine reported in Oct 82 that actor Ben Harney ,Tony award winner for Dreamgirls would be playing Dr Gregory Stone and be involved with Nurse Hollis Rogers played by Donna Drake.

Did Ben/Gregory ever make it to air or was the show cancelled before he taped any shows?

[DRW50]

I wish this could have happened. It seems like The Doctors had a fair amount of material for black characters but we know little beyond synopses.

[Paul Raven]

April 15th 1977 Producer Doctoring The Doctors by Jon Michael Reed.

Jeff Young,producer of "The Doctors" has been doctoring his show with a slew of new characters and storylines over the past year.

To mark the serial's 14th anniversary,April 1st, he introduced a "peppier,livelier" jazzed-up version of it's theme music during a special one hour edition a few days earlier. The NBC graphics department also executed a new opening, featuring a romanticized montage of the shows major performers a la the innovative titles of "The Young and the Restless".

Changes continue this week with the debut of John Shearin in the returning role of Mike Powers, previously played by Armand Assante. Shearin,who'll commute to the NY studios of "The Doctors" from Baltimore, where he lives with his wife,recently understudied two roles in Broadway's The Comedians. So he's not a novice in taking over someone else's role.

Another "Doctors" inheritor is Katherine Eckles,who replaces Fanny Speiss in the role of Wendy Conrad, a role that has been "matured" in order to provide a story of a mother daughter contest over the affections of a young buck.

The other major casting switch is the casting of Gordon Rigsby in the role of Dr McClintock. Gordon was a director at OLTL for many years as well as several recent episodes of "The Doctors". McClintock will handle Carolee's professional care after the exit of her physician Dr Brandt. Actor Gil Rogers, in the latter role, departed to play executed convict Gary Gilmore in an upcoming PBS special.

I never knew Rigsby and Rogers were on the show. There must be so many other recurring roles played by known actors that are unreported. I don't think the Wendy/Eleanor rivalry came to pass. Were they slated to fight over Luke?

[DRW50]

I never knew any of this either. Thanks. I guess this was after Rogers was on AMC as Ray Gardner.

[Paul Raven]

Yes and synopses later in the year again mention Dr Brandt,so I would assume that Rogers returned to the role.

[Paul Raven]

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Thanks for all this.

I wonder if Nick and Althea were just instantly popular.

[Paul Raven]

I think that Nick and Althea seemed to have been popular from the get go. I wonder if there was a point that the relationship grew stale or viewers were unhappy - was the divorce storyline well written or accepted and what followed in the story that kept them apart?

The Kathy Glass pic is from the RTPP era as by the time she was on TD,she sported the brunette pageboy.

They were the 1st show to win the daytime Emmy.

[DRW50]

I don't know all their stories but I do remember reading that fans had gotten sick of Althea having brain operations, to the point where the last story they did with Nick operating on her was cut short due to viewer complaints.

Is that the producer holding the Emmy? He looks so much like James Pritchett.

[MichaelGL]

Thanks for these scans Carl.

Joe Stuart does resemble James Pritchett in this picture. He would later go on to producer OLTL during its glory years.

[DRW50]

These are from Paul Raven.

I didn't realize that was Joe Stuart. He was at OLTL in the late 70's right?

[MichaelGL]

My mistake, I'm so use to you posting those scans of TD in here.

Thanks to you PaulRaven!

Yes, Stuart was at OLTL well into the late 70s, he departed in 1983 actually. While OLTL got one of TD's earliest EP's, TD hired one of OLTL's earliest EP's, Doris Quinlan to take over in 1980.

[Paul Raven]