The Doctors

[MichaelGL]

Rest in Peace Rita Lakin. You were one of the greats. Wish she had written for other soaps like GL or GH later on. 

[~bl~]

Glad that she had a long life, and that she was able to share her talents in writing to a whole new generation like many of us.

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[Jdee43]

It's a shame that they are not doing more to celebrate The Doctor's 60th Anniversary. In particular, this would have been an excellent opportunity to release the rest of the episodes to their website. I sort of wonder now if we will ever get to see the rest of the episodes..

I guess we should be thankful for what we did get, 12 full years of the show.

[Matt Powers]

Agree @Jdee43. Would love to see the remaining 2 years-even though the writing was all over the place if the synopses from the period are correct. Especially interested in the Adrienne Hunt story, which was ahead of its time. Sounds like a story Reilly would have written 15 years later on DAYS

[vetsoapfan]

ITA. Rita Lakin has never really been placed alongside the greatest of the greats, like Phillips, Nixon, Bell and other writers of their ilk,  but she was a solid and capable scribe who put out fine work. She was definitely the best writer TD ever had.

[Mona Kane Croft]

Prior to the early-1970s, both The Doctors and General Hospital set aside casting budget for temporary characters coming on the show(s) as patients for hospital/medical plots. And typically, after each patient either recovered or died, the character would be written off.  But in the early-70s, both TD and GH stopped bringing on new temporary characters for medical/hospital plots, and started using on-contract actors/characters as patients for all their medical storylines.

I think this harmed both TD and GH, making their medical drama less believable -- because all their patients were their friends and colleagues.  Can anyone speculate on why this decision was made?  Especially on both shows at approximately the same time?

The practice continues today on GH. All the featured patients in the hospital are existing characters on the show.  When was the last time GH brought on a new temporary character just for a medical plot?  Decades ago?

[Jdee43]

Rita Lakin was great. It's been posted before, but here she is talking about her time on The Doctors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsM2yA_rMy8

The show lucked out getting a primetime writer of her quality to write for it for two years. It's interesting that she took the job not knowing what she was in for; it turned out to be more work than she thought, especially since they wouldn't give her other writers.

She said they were looking for a nighttime writer to save the show, and all it took "was a little good writing." "Writing for it was so simple." A shame no one who followed her had the same philosophy!

[Chris B]

This is part of why I found The Pollocks tenure so draining. They did continue to do stories involving outside patients, but they were usually awful stories. Then the main cast, it seemed like they constantly had some medical issue. It was as a joke how many times Althea had brain surgery, as an example. 

[victoria foxton]

So glad i got to see her on The Doctors. Thanks to Retro TV. And really see what range she had. Since Althea and Lucinda were worlds apart. #RIP

  

Edited April 10, 2023 by victoria foxton

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[DRW50]

I didn't realize until today that Julia Duffy is on Twitter. I checked to see if she mentioned anything about Liz Hubbard. She had far more to say about the latest Succession episode, but nothing about Liz as far as I could see. Not judging her - supposedly that wasn't a very happy set as the years passed, and she may not have good memories of the show, or of Liz (I don't know if she has ever spoken about the show). Just thought it was interesting.

[Soapsuds]

 

[victoria foxton]

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Edited April 13, 2023 by victoria foxton

[DRW50]

Shortland Street, as another part of its 2023 revamp, has decided to include a "patient of the week" format (complete with looks at the home lives of said patients), somewhat similar to what GH and The Doctors used to do with more patient focus. I can't say whether it's working out that well or not, but it's certainly a shift away from what you often get on soaps in recent years. This format started with the March 20, 2023 episode. You can find all the episodes from recent months on Youtube.