The Doctors

[soapfave06]

Thanks so much-sad that they will soon be gone. From what I have read the rest of the series is constant cast changes outside of Matt & Maggie. 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Well, David O'Brien as Dr. Steve Aldrich stayed until the final episode in 1982 (as did Jim Pritchett and Lydia Bruce as the Drs. Powers). Meg Mundy (Mona Aldrich Croft), who returned to the show in summer 1975 (which means we will be seeing her very soon in the rerun cycle) also stayed until 1982. Liz Hubbard was written out of the show in spring 1977, but returned as Althea in early 1981 and stayed through the series finale. Carolee Campbell left of her own accord in March 1976, and the character of Carolee was recast with Jada Rowland. She, too, stayed to the end in 1982.

[Paul Raven]

Mike stayed around, albeit with several different faces. Luke and Nola and Barney Dancy were pretty much on till the end as were Greta and Billy. So there was some consistency along with  the changes.

[amybrickwallace]

Jennifer Houlton stayed on as Greta until the summer of 1980, when she left the show to become a full-time college student at Cornell. Gracie Harrison took over and played Greta from 1980-81, and Lori-Nan Engler became the final Greta from 1981-82. 

[soapfave06]

Glad to know I was wrong on the long term cast. It will be interesting to see how the tone of the show changes over the next several years. 

 

When did the show begin declining in the ratings and why? 

[MichaelGL]

Isn't much of what we are currently seeing (or 76?) around the same time ratings were declining? Having done some reading much of the expansion of other soaps had some effect on TD's ratings. Later on many of the cast changes, a revolving door of writers, and later on time slot changes put the final nail in the coffin. 

[amybrickwallace]

I think we're starting to see the beginning of the end (the rerun cycle is currently in June 1975).

[Paul Raven]

It will be interesting to watch TD under Cenedella/DePriest etc and see how things play out.

 

Perhaps the quality dips, and maybe the competition at the time also factored in.

[SFK]

AA reminds me of Brando a bit in terms of looks.

[danfling]

"Mike stayed around, albeit with several different faces. Luke and Nola and Barney Dancy were pretty much on till the end as were Greta and Billy. So there was some consistency along with  the changes."

 

 

Wasn't Billy murdered?  I know that Judith Howard (Judy Collins) was giving condolences to David O'Brien's character after someone had died.

[MichaelGL]

Yes, he was murdered and there was bit of a mystery surrounding his death. I think it was a major mistake to kill off another Aldrich(of course he's not Aldrich by blood). 

I'm liking the slow burn of Mike's return to Madison. For all their faults, I think the Pollocks were masters at build up. 

[jam6242]

I seem to recall that Lauri left town before Hank did.  I can't remember the circumstances though.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Awww, I hope they didn't break up...or if they did, I hope they got back together before all was said and done.

[SFK]

I get so tickled watching that little schemer Penny.  You can see where Newhart's Stephanie got her roots.  It also kind of blows my mind when I think of Lucinda as Stephanie's mother.  I wonder if Julia and Liz have kept in touch over the years, would love to see them reunited in something.

 

Between TD and the occasional  Petticoat Junction rerun, good grief, were those of you who were around back then driven batty by all those musical interludes??

[SFK]

I didn't realize Mike and Alan are cousins.

 

Maybe it's just in my market, but have any of you noticed how LOUD RetroTV is compared to other channels? I scramble for the remote to turn down the volume before the orchestra rings out the opening theme.  No shade intended but I wonder if it's purposely loud given the presumably older viewership.