The Doctors

[te.]

I think it's more down to the fact that Colgate were obviously the ones preserving the tapes before then and NBC just continued their practice of wiping the tapes for re-use once they bought it, probably not giving much thought that these episodes weren't being preserved by Colgate anymore, especially since it wasn't sold internationally and NBC weren't persuing that option at the time.

[Paul Raven]

P&G started saving tapes in 79 I think so AW,ATWT,GL,SFT and EON were kept.

Days and Y&R were always kept  by Screen Gems/Sony. ABC soaps were kept from late 70's (RH from the beginning) as well.

That left TD as the outlier. Once NBC bought it, they chose to wipe it.

[watson71]

This seems to be what happened.  Once NBC took ownership of the show, this is where the missing episodes begin.  NBC simply reused the tapes, and Colgate probably never requested copies of the episodes since they no longer owned the show.

We know almost the episodes of Texas during this same time exist because many have already been digitized when P&G used to have its online channel.

[Contessa Donatella]

DAYS, AMC &OLTL are all missing very early seasons due to warehouse fires. 

[Sapounopera]

I have been watching a lot of THE DOCTORS lately. Mostly 1976-1980 episodes.

The show is a lot better than I would have expected.

For some reason the late 70s episodes feel like vintage Australian soap. It is the look of the actors, everyone looks normal and they live in normal homes, nobody is crazy rich I guess.

The show's aesthetic is amazing. Love the closing credits.

It is more vibrant than the P&G shows for sure.

Then Doris Quinlan shows up and she gives a short in the arm at first. Love Viveca, the introduction of Dr Theresa Foster, her mother, Darryl and Bobbie. The Bennetts with the fascinating Valerie Mahaffey. I see no purpose in characters like Jack, Alan, Darcy, but the idea of featurning all these doctors make sense. 

Sometimes I feel that Viveca and Terri are replacing Carolee.

Greta looks 30 now and Billy is a hunk. The show lost something with these generic recasts (sorry Alec).

I was bored with Missy, but she didn't deserve such a brutal death. Neither did the viewers. 

I hate the last opening. Too -we are in the 80s now, we are so dramatic- for my taste. It has no heart. 

We get several "action scenes" and several outdoors scenes as well. They are as bad as ANOTHER WORLD's from the early 80s.

THE DOCTORS was a little traditional show that got destroyed because of GENERAL HOSPITAL's crazy success. That poor soap had years of life ahead. 

 

 

 

 

[dc11786]

This is why I am leaning into believing NBC did in fact wipe the tapes. Sally Sussman Morina made the point of saying that NBC was interested in a new soap in the late 1980s because they were very impressed with the money New World was making with syndicating "Santa Barbara." If they had the September 1980-December 1982 run of "The Doctors" which is basically the entire Alec Baldwin run I cannot imagine them leaving it on the shelf even if the show was not as creatively strong as it had been. 

The addition of African American characters, which "The Doctors" had done fairly well in the 1960s/early 1970s, is a treat to see of the Ralph Ellis/Eugenie Hunt episodes I saw. I was particularly surprised that they had Teri deal with a white couple where the man basically says he wants Dr. Aldrich after realizing Teri is black. The conversation with Teri and Calvin (I think it was Calvin) afterwards was pretty strong. 

The cast feels very large in early 1980 with the addition of the interns, which I don't think was a terrible idea in theory. Bringing in everyone at once probably wasn't the smartest idea.  

[dragonflies]

EXCLUSIVE: Retro TV Drops 181 New Episodes of ‘The Doctors’ from 1980, Reveals Final Two Years No Longer In Existence

https://michaelfairmantv.com/exclusive-retro-tv-drops-181-new-episodes-of-the-doctors-from-1980-reveals-final-two-years-no-longer-in-existence/2023/07/11/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ&fbclid=IwAR2_T5r7s1NulIqc8mJPuywXdJQCVHgSnbee42v3hVsvTScOntYeQGqi_J0

Edited July 15, 2023 by dragonflies

[Vee]

Honey, everyone has been talking about this news for 4-5 pages.

[Jdee43]

Can anyone shed some light into why NBC bought the show in September 1980? Did Colgate want out? 

Instead of canceling it, NBC took it over, so I guess that means they still saw some value in it. You'd think, as owners paying no licensing fee, they'd give The Doctors better treatment and have more patience with it, but ultimately that just wasn't the case.

[dc11786]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it is easier to cancel a show when it is network owned. NBC may have already decided they wanted the flexibility to cancel the show without much pushback. Though, they didn't seem to have any issues cancelling "The Doctors" and Proctor & Gamble "Texas" at the same time. 

[Contessa Donatella]

It shouldn't make any difference. Their decision to drop a show from their schedule is pretty much absolute. There were some instances where someone negotiated that the network would not cancel it for a fixed period of time. I know Irna did that some. Then, though contracts routinely began to be either 1 year or 2 years or 3 years, when in the early days they literally learned every 13 weeks if they were picked up. 

[Paul Raven]

Moving the show to 12.30 from  2pm was a risky move but coincided with NBC taking over the show. Maybe CP were resistant to that move?

Maybe they hoped up against SFT and RH both 30 min shows that were not huge raters at that time they could be competitive.

By the time they shifted to Noon it was all but over.

I've never been certain who was daytime VP during that time. Lucy Johnson? If a new VP came in then that would explain some of the moves. Those execs have to justify their appointments by making changes, not always for the good.

[will81]

Based on the news at the time that I shared in a previous post, that Doris Quinlan and Colgate wanted Harding Lemay and NBC wanted the Ellis' to stay, makes me think NBC felt they knew better and they could bring the show around. I think it showed in 1980, at least, NBC had an interest in the show, enough to push back. 

Maybe the fact ABC owned GH, AMC and OLTL by that point and they were the top rated shows made NBC believe the problem with their line up was the fact they didn't own the shows on their schedule and they wanted more control. Cut out the middle man, so to speak. Just a guess

Edited July 16, 2023 by will81

[Contessa Donatella]

NBC was almost frenzied about not owning any of their shows at a certain point & actually quite jealous of ABC's ownership. One of the things they came to have against AW was that P&G would not accept their offer to buy into it & be part owner. When they had 4 potential soaps in competition to be the new NBC soap one of the factors in SUNSET BEACH's favor was that the Spelling corp. was open to partial ownership with the network. (The other factor was that the affiliates preferred it over the other 3.)

[Joseph]

I bet the failure AW had with that Format discouraged the Idea, there's so much even a Excellent Writer can do

Thanks! Anyways those who really need to see the rather decadent 2 years, there's a bunch on Dailymotion

Not to offend but Maggie Pregnant at that point? Kinda Hard to believe