The Doctors

[Dave_01]

 

I'm curious to see how Retro will deal with the 90-minute episode from 1976 that brought Gerald Gordon back to the show for awhile. Would they break it up into 3 half-hour segments or actually air the whole thing in a departure from their usual schedule?

 

I remember when Soapnet was airing reruns of Dallas and got to the 90-minute season ending episode where Bobby "died". They ran an extremely edited version in the usual one-hour slot. If you had never seen the full episode before, you would have been very confused by the choppiness and all the missing scenes. I'd hate for something similar to be done with this special TD episode.

[All My Shadows]

I feel as though what might happen will be worse - they could just skip the episode altogether and pick up with the next regular-length episode.

[Dave_01]

 

I hadn't considered that option, but now that you mention it, it wouldn't shock me. That would definitely be worse. I'd settle for a massively edited show over it being skipped.

[~bl~]

I wonder if that episode is at Paley from 1976 as Gerald Gordon was listed as cast. Does anyone know? If they skip or edit it at least then there would be a possibility to see it.

 

When it comes to the 1982 episodes that were shared from watching it sounded like LeeAnn was brought to Steve for a medical appointment and the girl's behavior alarmed him. (OFC Steve seeing Billy's child as a doctor is a bit weird, though Matt or Maggie would have been even worse, was there no one else other than Althea? There was a line about Billy, so she may be afraid of men in general.) When we saw her, she wasn't talking or interacting like a child of that age normally would. I hope my guess is correct and if not someone will correct me. 

[robbwolff]

 

I thought that episode was 60 minutes, not 90 minutes. From everything I've read over the years, the only soaps to air 90-minute episodes were How to Survive a Marriage, The Edge of Night, and Another World.

[amybrickwallace]

There is another "current" cast member in that photo that we're seeing now on Retro, and that's Jennifer Houlton (Greta Powers). She's the girl in red holding the baby. Jennifer played Greta from 1971 until she left for college in 1980.

[DRW50]

 

It's good to see you posting here again. I hope you can talk with us in the SB thread. 

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you - it's good to be back. Here are a couple more 1982 episodes that have been posted in the past few days:

 

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For those of you who prefer Christmas (1981) in March...

 

 

[SoapDope]

Thanks for posting the 1981/82 shows. It's weird to look how the show evolved while still watching 1973 shows on youtube. I see Mona is still as prickly as ever. It's funny to see Jada's version of Carolee talking disparagingly about Matt when Carolee Campbells version saw him as a saint. Liz was pretty much turning into Lucinda at this point.

 

I read that NBC hated Alec Baldwin and wanted him gone. I guess they had ESP about how he would turn out.

[amybrickwallace]

I can see why Mona became the show's main villainess for most of the rest of its run. Meg Mundy was the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford of TD. God bless her; she made it all the way to age 101. 

 

Barbara Morgenroth, the show's final HW, joined the show's fan group on Facebook and regaled us with all sorts of behind the scenes stories. She and her senior line producer fought NBC over their choice for the newly created role of a nurse named Kit - a newcomer named Hillary Bailey (later Smith). This fresh face beat out some future movie stars for the role - Holly Hunter, Ellen Barkin and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Kit was to have a brother and she started to mention him. They had already cast him but the show was cancelled before he could appear. The actor who was cast but never seen? Roscoe Born. Barbara Morgenroth later joined the writing team of OLTL and created the role of Mitch Laurence for Mr. Born. She also said they wanted to keep Alec Baldwin but NBC demanded that he be killed off - but he took it in stride. She's still surprised that he is now the darling of NBC, in 30 Rock, where it all began for him.

 

I wrote to a slew of former TD actors during my absence from here, and these are the following who autographed the screencaps I sent - Anna Stuart (Toni), Eileen Kearney (Greta, 1970-71), Gracie Harrison (Greta, 1980-81), Lori-Nan Engler (Greta, 1981-82), Marc Alaimo (Frank, who haunted Maggie in 1971-72), Holly Peters (Nurse Cathy Ryker #3), Josef Sommer (Dave Davis, 1973), Jeramie Rain (Sam, the dippy redheaded desk nurse who was Richard Dreyfuss' first wife and the mother of his children), David Pendleton (Temp Hank Iverson, 1972) and Marie Thomas Foster (Lauri James). I will try to have them posted here one way or the other soon.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2017 by amybrickwallace

[amybrickwallace]

Yes. David Elliott, the "current" Billy, joined the show in the summer of 1972 and stayed until 1977. Then he relocated to Hollywood, where he landed a role in Jaws 2. 

[SoapDope]

I wonder what happened to the Cliff DeSales character played by Thomas Connolly ? He is no longer being shown and only mentioned, but someone posted on youtube that the role will be taken over by another actor. 

[amybrickwallace]

Cliff has spent most of his time lately offscreen, so I'm surprised that they bothered to bring him back at all!

[SoapDope]

I agree. Thomas Connolly looks and sounds familiar for some reason. He may have done voice overs or acted in commercials. I tried Google but came up with nothing on him. 

[amybrickwallace]

He was in a L&O episode from 1996 called "Corpus Delicti", if that helps any.