The Doctors

[slick jones]

That and Mike's first wife...There's nothing bout that anywhere around...

[amybrickwallace]

That would be nice!

[slick jones]

Even some of the anthology stuff...I'll say it I'm greedy for anything they've got to offer. So many future soapers and primetimers in the mix. I want the chnce to view all of it...

[YRBB]

I am criminally behind -- watching January 1968 episodes -- and I can't believe it... Retro's already on 1969 episodes? That's great!

Steve and Carolee are breaking my heart. Steve is such a cad. Openly and shamelessly flirting with Liz right after bringing Carolee home from their first date. I have to say, Steve was very sexy the way he wouldn't take his eyes off Liz and leaned in towards her.

I don't have a ton of patience for the Polly story (I do think it's wonderfully acted and has some scenes, here and there, that I love) but when Polly was having John write the letter to her nieces and she said she is getting ready to die... Oh my God, John's reaction was heartbreaking. I just don't understand why there had to be six minutes of material in that scene before we got to that point.

This show just tends to break my heart a lot.

[allmc2008]

I have to wonder if Martha's was created to be a Polly 2.0 because I can see Polly doing the things Martha is doing. Maybe Polly was popular so they created Martha to fill the void?

[amybrickwallace]

I think Martha was already on before Polly's departure, but I could be wrong.

[safe]

[safe]

Nana Tucker (Darcy)

Edited May 11, 2015 by safe

[robbwolff]

You're correct. Martha was on before Polly died.

I always got the impression there was more to Polly's story. In one scene with John Rice, Polly had a very odd reaction to the mention of Phillip Townsend's name. It really stood out to me but there was never any follow-up to that scene.

[jam6242]

I thought Polly's questions about Townsend were odd and when she was dying she also sounded like she was talking about someone taking a baby away from her. Maybe that was dropped because there was no one still around her knew about that after John Rice left?

Edited May 11, 2015 by jam6242

[robbwolff]

I thought the same thing…that there was a baby involved. I thought that John and the niece (was it Bonnie?) were going to find something when they went to Polly's apartment. Perhaps the story was aborted when Terry Kiser departed (his departure seemed a bit abrupt).

[amybrickwallace]

That seems most likely. There didn't seem to be much point playing out that story without Terry Kiser, so I guess they just cut their losses and concentrated on other stories.

[DRW50]

I also think they believed for a while Terry might return once his play was over (as we got postcards from John for a few months).

I guess Jody Lee must have been created when they knew he wasn't coming back.

Steve likely also benefited quite a bit from his departure, as he has steadily built and built from a caddish supporting character.

[amybrickwallace]

Definitely. After Terry Kiser left, I think TPTB saw in David O'Brien (playing John's cousin Steve) another very viable potential young leading man and started writing towards that. Plus, the chemistry with Carolee was there right from the start.

[DRW50]

I wonder when they realized he and Carolee were endgame. If it was fan response or what. For most of 1968 it seemed like she was mostly just one of the women he used and discarded.