6 hours ago, Efulton said:

Is the head writer information on The Another World Homepage or Somerset Register correct

http://anotherworldhomepage.com/spinoffs.html
 

https://web.archive.org/web/20130724045214/http://awinsomerset.com/production-credts.html

No I don't believe it is. Based on the magazine snapshot above that list Kubek as writer in May 76 I believe the homepage inadvertently switched. I distinctly remember seeing Kubek's name when the show was so awful after the wonderfully progressive Ellen/Dale and senior citizen stories. The show as so enjoyable at that time then Kubek came in and it was awful. I recall my granny being relieved when the credits showed the change to Russell with Salisbury doing scripts in the final six months. It was Russell who brought in the Buas I believe.

TV Guide May 3 1970

Exciting as an unbaked taco

That was Pamela Toll before group therapy by Robert Higgins

The actress—weighing about as much as a box of breakfast cereal—bounced upon a couch and ticked off a description of Liz Wilson, the part she played for three years on NBC's medicinal soap opera, The Doctors: “Liz was an ostrich; she didn’t want to know what was happening. She wanted desperately to be liked. Which wasn’t hard. Everybody liked Liz. But no one ever loved her. Or hated her. Liz was always trying to say, 'Look at me!' But she was really afraid of the attention. She wanted to be semi-invisible.”’

The girl doing the talking was Pamela Toll, 21. Settling enormous blue eyes on a listener, she said: "Liz wasn't there. Which is a state of being that I understand. Up until six months ago, I wasn't there either.” Pam's word for her old self: “Phony.”

Which, as self assessments go, takes you aback a bit But Miss Toll is the first to tell she doesn't fret about image: "If I say things or feel things I shouldn't, don’t worry. It’s not necessarily what I'll be feeling or saying 20 minutes from now."

True enough—professionally, anyway. Pam dumped The Doctors on March 26, to take a lead on NBC's Another World —Somerset. In it she's Pammy Davis, a 20-year-old sexpot from the other side of the tracks, determined to have her way (and a trip to the altar) with a boy from the right side. Not exactly the old listless Liz.

A talk with Miss Toll is, first off, a series of opinions delivered with conviction—e.g., Vietnam, the merits of musical drama vs. straight drama, marijuana ("I used to thínk it was a great way to relax. I don't now. You're wallowing in something, so you roll a joint. It’s just avoiding problems").

Problems, psychological ones, are very much on Pam's mind. They're hers, and she tells you about them: For years she ''felt she had to be loved by everybody" . . . "had no opinions" . . . was "intimidated by friends and relatives” . . . and on and on. Pam thanks her involvement in group therapy, 12 months of it so far, for making her knowledgeable in the ways she was "prefabricating" herself. "I was very much like Liz Wilson. I stifled 90 per cent of what I felt."

Her friends confirm this. One, Rochelle Parker, found the old Pam as exciting as an unbaked taco: ‘She was pretty, sweet, nice, pleasant, smiling Pam. She had no opinions about anything, including herself. She was just pleasant—so damn pleasant.”

Pamela began worrying when her Mary Poppins act seemed to be affecting her career: "I was a competent actress," she says, "but nobody  ever said, 'Wow! Look at that!’ l was nice, cute and harmless.”

Still, she worked. Since age 7, in fact, when her mother, an ex-model, began shuttling Pam from her native Paterson, N.J., to Manhattan to make TV commercials. Miss Toll's bio lists work on Broadway ("Venus ls”), in movies (two Disney pictures, “Brimstone the Amish Horse," ‘‘Rascal’’) and on TV (she harks back as far as Queen for a Day, where she modeled).

Viewer mail on Doctors was “very heavy for Pam," according to Doctors producer Allen Potter. ''Call it charisma," he said, "but Pam's got that extra something that makes people want to tune in tomorrow."

Viewers tuning in now are catching Pam as Pammy, suddenly loaded with frisky corpuscles.

 

Thanks @Paul Raven I still wonder just what happened as she seemed to go fairly quickly from Somerset. She probably should have stayed at The Doctors, although that part was clearly winding down.

Pamela Toll did have charisma on The Doctors. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she had it on anything else she was ever on. 

The Doctors should have made her character Matt's daughter or something, to tie her into the foundations of the show. It got to the point that it seemed hard to understand why her character was even on the show, other than to get some young viewers to tune in.  When she left, her character was forgotten, as she had no ties.

But then again, her character had a lot of ties on Somerset, and that didn't guarantee a long run, so go figure.

 

 

Edited September 9Sep 9 by Jdee43

On 7/25/2025 at 3:54 PM, Efulton said:

Is the head writer information on The Another World Homepage or Somerset Register correct

http://anotherworldhomepage.com/spinoffs.html
 

https://web.archive.org/web/20130724045214/http://awinsomerset.com/production-credts.html

Not to add more confusion to this question, but I believe the lists are correct.

I kept detailed scrapbooks of several of my favorite soaps in the 1970s (I had no life, obviously, LOL), and I recorded information in them which I had culled from watching the shows live.

According to my personal records, Russell Kubeck was Somerset's final writer.

Just for what that's worth.🙂

I'm never sure how I feel about sharing YouTube links directly, because I've heard that some creators are sensitive about that sort of thing.

But search - Somerset - November 7, 1972 (A.I. Upscaled + Enhanced)

And it is a remarkable, and entrancing watch.