The Doctors

[Avatar610]

Great episodes! One really wants to slap Nick as Liz did for being such a louse, and to stick a pin in Karen to see if she feels ANYTHING- she's as cold as ice! Poor John- he needs a hug. Perhaps Liz can do it after a while. It's interesting to listen to Robert Cobert's music- very similar to his score for "Dark Shadows". I can't wait to see the '68 storylines- a major wedding, Hope Memorial gets its first black doctor, and Steve gets close to Carolee and ​someone else……. Also, we'll get to see Peter Burnell make his debut as Mike Powers- the longest and most remembered actor in the part. That role was like Tom Hughes on ATWT- blink and it's another recast! I remember when Mike married Sara Dancy in 1979, John Shearin played the role. A year later, it was James Storm, and the Stephen Burleigh, who I think was the last actor in the role.

BTW, that's a wig Laryssa Lauret is wearing as Karen- in real life she was a Polish blonde. I guess the producers decided there were too many blondes on the show (Maggie, Althea) at the time.

[danfling]

The wig looks better than the one that Lara Parker wore as Cassandra Blair Collins on Dark Shadows in 1967.

[Matt]

Let me tell you what, if anyone had any doubts why they expanded Carolee Campbell's role, they shouldn't after that utterly spellbinding performance she gave when Carolee told Liz about her first kiss. She made me smile, warmed my heart, and then broke it all in one scene. IMO, seeing Carolee Campbell as Carolee Simpson has been one of the biggest revelations for me with these episodes. Also, I'm beginning to wonder if this is the very beginning of the role being expanded beyond that of regular background nurse because it does seem like she's being given more and more to do. And I do wonder if that scene where Steve and Carolee meet for the first time and he calls her by her first name is the first time viewers ever actually heard Miss Simpson's first name.

[amybrickwallace]

Yeah, I found it ironic that the German doctor was played by a native of Poland. One of the old soap magazines (I saw it on eBay) had a photo of her with her kids on the cover and boasted her "the Bavarian Bombshell"!!!

[DRW50]

I am up to episode 5, and was pleasantly surprised to see back-to-back episodes featuring Althea's therapy sessions. I'm sure this was rare even for 1967-era soaps, and whoever wrote that material (I know Rita Lakin was headwriter but there were subwriters, weren't there?) had a real knack for mature, adult conversations that get basic information across for viewers. Althea struggling with her daddy issues, talking about her failed marriage, her difficulty in reconciling that a man who in many ways makes her feel more alive and "on" than any man she's ever known is also a huge controlling !@#$%^&*].

Their full-blast confrontation at the end of that episode just reflects the attraction and toxicity of their relationship - neither of them backs down, and wouldn't even begin to know how to. It's fascinating to watch.

I agree with the comments about Carolee. This is the type of thing Carlivati tried to fast-track with Sabrina on GH, and which he failed miserably at. I think it helps that Carolee Campbell looks like a "real" woman (even compared to most of the leading women, who are fairly glam), and that she's so comfortable with broad comedy. I laughed when she was waving the folder and finally shoving it at that other nurse to get her out of the station.

Terry Kiser is a real ball of energy and melancholy and singlehandedly saves the stale and overlong "doctor and quirky tragic quasi-comic relief elderly patient bond" scenes. He also made some very entertaining bloopers in that episode - saying "the world is better off without me as a doctor" (he meant "actor"), and when he said he was hit by a "a bore" and quickly changed it to "a door."

Edited October 12, 2014 by DRW50

[safe]

Thanks. I've always wondered about that. Back then, a magazine praised Ilene Kristen (when she was Delia on Ryan's Hope) for being a smart cookie when re-negotiating for another year in late 1977 for making ABC promise to give her a role in a primetime movie of the week. I just have never been able to come up with what movie she would have been in at that time... now I see it's very likely she never got her primetime exposure.

[Susan Hunter]

Because these episodes have been so good, I decided to read summaries of what was happening on Days and AW at the time. If the summaries are any indication, both shows were showcasing some of their most classic stories at the time. It seems like NBC's soap block, during this period, was top notch. Truly a golden era.

[Matt]

When implored by the announcer to stay tuned to Another World, in color, this is what we'd be staying tuned for (according to the AW Home Page) after the last two aired episodes...

DECEMBER 28, 1967 (EP. #901)

Abandoned in the hallway after Lee ran off, Dru met Lahoma and quickly appreciated her sound sense. Alice showed Mary the wedding photos and related that the new couple were ecstatically happy. It was a blow to Mary when Russ revealed he gave Rachel a ring. Lahoma wouldn't break Lee's confidences by telling Dru about her invented emotional injuries, but filled him in on Sam and Lefty. When Ada worried about Sam, Rachel was glad she would soon be married and out of this whole business. When Mary worried he was still just an intern, Russ, who said he paid for the ring from the money his grandfather left him, felt Rachel would be reconciled to waiting for a more suitable time to marry now that she had a ring. Alice let Mary know that Rachel wouldn't be content with a marriage similar to hers and Jim's. Ada managed to formally congratulate Russ. Rachel offered to give a miserable Russ his ring back when he wouldn't agree to marry right away. When she tearily begged him to marry her, he agreed.

DECEMBER 29, 1967 (EP. #902)

Dru met Sam, who'd brought hamburgers for Lee. At the opera, Lenore fretted that Lee accused her of slumming when she visited, but Walter felt she was worth a battalion of Lee Randolphs. Sam and Dru impressed each other with their insights into Lee's character. At The Trip, Lefty apologized to Lee for arriving late, saying he was busy earning a little scratch. The camera panned past them and through as bizarre a collection of characters as the budget allowed to Sam and Dru entering the door. Sam and Dru peered at the bulletin board on which parents put photos of their missing children. A man got upset when a girl recognized his daughter's picture but refused to squeal on her. Lefty felt it was a big honor to meet one of the biggest lawyers in town, although Dru joked this was only true when he was standing sideways. Dru made Lefty self-conscious when he tried to impress everyone with what a big shot he was. In a dream sequence: Lenore wore a bridal veil and walked slowly down a surrealistic aisle; Fred officiated; Liz objected to the ceremony; Bill arrived, with a flower in his buttonhole like Walter at the altar, and said he didn't love Missy; Lee railed at her for her hypocrisy; Lenore's eyes shone as Bill told her he loved her; she happily married Bill only to find it was Walter she'd married. Lenore awoke in tears after everyone shouted she was a hypocrite and a liar.

[soapfave06]

Thanks for sharing that! I'll have to check those out for each day.

[amybrickwallace]

The only writer listed in the credits was Rita Lakin, but I do know they had medical professionals hired on as consultants.

[Paul Raven]

Rick Edelstein is listed as story editor. He became co-headwriter in 68.

Was it common practice on the 30 min shows for headwriters to actually write all the scripts or at the most have one sub writer?

[All My Shadows]

Was Gerald Gordon ever on Love of Life? There's that old 15-minute episode with Ben's disappearance, and every time Nick gets keyed up, he reminds me of the detective in that episode.

Love the girlfriend gab sesh about Carolee's first kiss. She really is a remarkable part of the show and adds a whole lot to balance out the high drama with the doctors. Same goes for Dr. Rice and Polly.

I just really enjoy the variety of stories we have going on. The central drama of Nick, Althea, and Liz; Karen's issues with being an intern again; the Winters and Danny; Polly; Carolee and Steve. It's such a tight core of characters with so many different storylines. I love it!

[safe]

The Doctors are mentioned in this 1977 article.

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Soap Opera Digest
September 1977


Females Are Often Women Too On The Soaps!

By Alan L. Gansberg

Years ago, soap opera females were very much like women in the rest of America. They cleaned houses, raised their children, and became involved in romantic affairs, On occasion, they suffered an incurable disease or an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

Times have changed now, but have our video women? Maybe they no longer wear pearls while they are cleaning, but prime-time TV women are still very often unaccomplished neurotics. Even Rhoda and her sister Brenda are still primarily concerned with hooking a man.

Critics of nighttime shows should take time to study the women presented during the daytime - where many of the females are now career-oriented...despite an audience which is still fundamentally composed of homemakers.

In the soap world there are women who fight for respect in male dominated professions. There are single parents trying to raise there children alone. There are women controlling there own bodies in matters of abortion and birth control...or lack of it. Of course, there area also women who are happy in the role of homemaker and those who suffer within the strict confines of their domestic worlds. But daytime dramas also present the real life situations that confront modern women today.

In rating the treatment of women on the soap operas, The Doctors earns many pluses. Women on this show have always been treated as real human beings. There are female doctors; an entertainer; a female head of nursing;females researchers, and, female hospital trustees.

Dr. Althea Davis is a shining example of a woman who has succeeded against all odds. She is respected as a doctor and was the first choice of most of the staff at Hope Memorial Hospital when a replacement for Matt Powers as Chief of Staff was needed. Althea has done a decent job of raising her once rebellious daughter Penny, by herself. If she has been unlucky in love, it is because she demands the same respect at home that she has achieved in the examining room.

Her friendship with Dr. Maggie powers is a case in point. When the film " Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore "was first released, critics praised it partly because of the camaraderie between Alice and Flo, the two heroines. The reviewers said it was the first time two women had been portrayed as friends - - real friends - - instead of rivals, conniving companions, or untrusting wenches.


Althea and Maggie were loyal and secure friends, though, long before " Alice " . They are so trusting of each other Maggie encourages - - and expects - - the friendship between her husband Matt and Althea. If Althea got along with her lovers as well as she did with Matt Powers, she probably wouldn't have had to undergo so many brain operations: each of her cranial mishaps was a by-product of her stormy romantic liaisons.

Even snobbish Mona Croft can be seen for her more positive side. Mona is the daughter of a bartender who obtained power the only possible way: by making brilliant marriages to weak, rich men. Mona is now the publisher of a newspaper and a hospital trustee. She continues to controls her own life and, unfortunately, the life of her weak son, Dr. Steve Aldrich.

Created by home and career-oriented Agnes Nixon, the women on All My Children also fare well as liberated ladies. Female professionals, homebodies, and even bitch-goddess Erica Kane - - played to perfection by Susan Lucci - - are credible, with reasons and motivations given for their insecurities and malcontent.

On All My Children we have seen weak willed Kitty Shea grow from wishy washy weasel into a self sustaining woman who has accepted marriage to Linc Tyler on her own terms. We have seen Nancy Grant forfeit her marriage in favor of her professional career. And, Mona Kane - unlucky in love with her ex-husband Eric Kane, a poor mother, and now " the other woman " - - is still a darned good secretary and a person who has survived by her own inner resources. Goodness knows she didn't get any help from Erica!

It must be remembered that no soap opera character can be judged from just one episode alone. Soap characters grow and progress, they change and mature.

The women on soap operas must be judged in terms of their men. They can only be as free to be themselves if their men are also free. The Doctors has relatively few sexist men - - except, perhaps for poor Jerry Dancy, whose insistence on dominating and supporting his wife Penny comes undoubtedly from his dependent upbringing.

Perhaps young Jerry can be excused - - at least for now- - but what reasons can the males on Days of Our Lives give for being caught in the coils of sexism? Men on Days try to possess their women. They do not put them on pedestals, but they order each and every detail of their lives as well.

The problem in Salem is that unliberated males are driven by latter-day machismo coupled with women who can't seem to say " no " . Greg Peters and Neil Curtis for example, took turns charging in and out of Amanda Howard' s apartment - - but she never had the courage to get a lock for the door. Salem " ladies " , as they are called - Julie Williams, Phyllis Curtis, and Maggie Horton - - need to be dominated.

It is no wonder that young Mike Horton thinks that manhood is being a Tarzan forcing himself on a Jane (Linda); and that bravery is protecting a woman (Trish) from the cruel outside world.

One could argue that the women on Day of Our Lives are designed to be glamorous. They are among the most beautiful on television...their hair, clothes, and their jewelry are absolutely gorgeous! Of course, they can afford these baubles because they never have to pay for their own means: a Salem woman who isn't wined and dined at least once a day at Doug's Place just isn't considered a proper " lady " . In any case, submission is not a prerequisite for glamour.

Several soap operas are quietly heralding a more equal view of sex roles. They are not radical and they do not go as far as some would like, but these soaps are ahead of both prime-time and big-screen films in celebrating the unlimited potential of women.

Girls growing up on a diet of soaps can see a somewhat well-rounded picture of the changing sex roles in the world around them. Now, when can the same be said for the boys?

 

 

[beebs]

Yes. It was essentially the practice for a long time for the show to hire the head writer, who would then be responsible to hire a team under them. I believe this changed after the 1981 WGA strike, as the production companies wanted to end what they saw as "the tyranny of the headwriter". There was an article from one of the soap mags in the 90s talking about this, and how it's basically meant all the soaps are written by committee and have lost all their individuality in the process. I'll see if I can track it down.

[amybrickwallace]

Yes, Althea and Maggie indeed have a wonderful friendship. I've only seen the relationship with Bethel Leslie as Maggie, so I wonder how it will play out when Lydia Bruce takes over the role.