The Doctors was an NBC daytime soap that was on from 1963-1982. I think the show won the first Daytime Emmy for drama series. The show, along with General Hospital, suffered a huge slump in popularity in the mid-70's. GH survived; The Doctors did not.

Famous names who went on to appear elsewhere after this show included Liz Hubbard (Althea), Kathleen Turner, Katharine Harrold and Kim Zimmer (all Nola Dancy), Julia Duffy (Penny), Alec Baldwin (Billy Aldrich), and Armand Assante (Mike Powers).

I think this was also the show which had the infamous blooper where a character was supposed to say to a woman, "I just balled out your son in the hallway" and instead he said, "I just balled your son out in the hallway."

Did you ever watch the show? What did you think of Julia Duffy, Alec Baldwin, Liz Hubbard, Armand Assante, etc.? Or all the actresses who played Nola? At the time did you have any idea they would go on to become stars?

Virginia Vestoff, who was on Broadway (1776) and played Samantha Collins on Dark Shadows, filled in for Liz Hubbard during a maternity leave. Did you ever see her? I wish those episodes were available. I don't know how much of this is available. I remember seeing an episode from the early 80's on World of Soap Themes several years back.

Oh, yes, I watched "The Doctors" for years and years, thanks to my mother, who hated soap operas but watched that one because Bethel Leslie, the original Maggie, was a favorite actress of hers. She also found herself watching "Days of Our Lives," which preceded it, and "Another World," which followed it, all the while insisting that she hated soap operas, but I digress...

I remember all the actors you mentioned above, and it's fun to look back and see where so many good people got their start - and Alec Baldwin, for one, is always very open and grateful about his experiences on "The Doctors" and "Knots Landing". My favorite character was probably Nick Bellini, the mercurial neurosurgeon played by Gerald Gordon, who could never make his romance with Althea Davis work, but I always felt they were each other's great loves.

One of the things I remember about "The Doctors" with affection was that although they certainly had their share of glamorous characters/actors, most of the longterm leads were believably 'ordinary'-looking within television terms. For some years one of the core leading ladies was an actress named Carolee Campbell who started out as a bit player - they named her character 'Carolee' and didn't even give her a last name for awhile, that's how throwaway she was supposed to be - and she grew in audience affection, becoming one of the tentpole heroines, reforming the hospital bad boy, Dr. Steve Aldrich [David O'Brien] and all without ever appearing in a bikini. She wasn't unattractive, but it was a perky, cute, warm attractiveness rather than being drop dead gorgeous. And there was a lot of that going on at Hope Memorial Hospital.

It was also a tightly written, well-paced show that worked well within the half-hour slot and had a strong sense of continuity and family - with some exceptions, the core families at the end were pretty much the core families when I started tuning in years earlier....

I started watching The Doctors as a 10-year-old when I was home sick from school. My mother watched all the NBC soaps back then, which is funny because now she laughs at my soap habit. She now considers Court TV to be her "soaps".

I loved Alec Baldwin back then. I thought he was sooooooooo cute. Okay, I was in fifth grade. I don't consider him at all attractive now. lol

I agree. I remember that whole break-up-to-make-up thing with them and even as a kid wondering if they'd ever get it right.

Gosh, that was when adultery was cause for shock and the drama was melodramatizing real life situations. It was simpler and less gratuitous and racy and yet here I am, 38 years later, remembering it as a good show. Interesting.

I seem to remember a story with the actress Nancy Stafford, it was probably one of the first soap opera storylines to feature a science fiction aspect. NS's character was really an eighty year old woman who had taken a youth serum. NS went on to Saint Elsewhere on NBC.

The youth serum storyline was near the end of the show's run and I remember it vividly. Stafford did a great job, and the revelation that she was actually Adrienne's mother was a shocker. When, deprived of the serum, she began to age rapidly, she had to witness, from the shadows, her daughter [also played by Stafford] marry the man both women loved, I thought it had real emotional resonance, in spite of the science fiction trappings.

I started watching when Mike Powers returned from the dead. I was fascinated by the whole "who will Toni choose?" storyline - it was new to me then. There was a real question about what she would do, especially because she was pregnant by the man she'd married while Mike was 'dead'.

Funny story - years later I moved to New York and lived in a brownstone owned by none other than the actor who played Dr. Matt Powers. I passed him on the stairs the first day and without thinking said "hello Dr. Powers". He was nice enough to just say hi and keep moving.

I couple months ago I emailed SFM Entertainment, a company which has bought The Doctors. I surprisingly got this email back:



The Doctors only has 5,280 according to Wikipedia, so the fact that they have anything close to that is pretty amazing. This gives me hope that there are other soaps from the 60s/70s that people had the good sense to save. There aren't many episodes of this show among collectors so I'm sure many people thought it was lost.

I've never seen the show, but love the opportunity to see classic soaps and will definitely tune in when it returns to TV/DVD.

The Doctors was produced by Colgate-Palmolive throughout most, if not all, of its run, so that company might have made the decision to save the finished episodes for whatever reason. Most people are aware that Procter and Gamble produced a lot of soaps, but this is the only one I'm aware of that C-P did. Maybe they saved it because they were so proud of being able to do such a thing. :-) Since it was fading away at about the time I started getting into soaps, my experience with The Doctors is quite limited. But a few things....
I think this was the show's last-ditch attempt to draw attention (that is, ratings) to itself. Funny how everybody went "WTF was THAT?!?" back in 1982, but such a story today would not draw so much as a raised eyebrow.

Ooh, was that when Anna Stuart played Toni? Now THIS I would definitely like to see, because she is one of the greats.

I don't remember the name of the actress but she had dark hair and dark eyes. Looked good with Armand Assante.

I am so glad to see this thread! The Doctors was my favorite soap for a long time, and I was crushed when it went off the air back in 1982--with no resolution.

Nurse Carolee was my favorite character on the show -- and her relationship and later marriage to Doctor Steve was great to watch. When the original actress left, though, I never really warmed up to the replacement (Jada Rowland, I think)--for me, Carolee Campbell was Carolee. :) I always enjoyed the adult actors as well as the teens on the soaps--and especially liked the Matt and Maggie relationship. Wasn't Penny Althea's daughter? Didn't Nick Bellini save her life at one point? He used to talk about making pasta bisoule (sp?) for Althea. Ah, those were definitely the days - and most of the women on The Doctors were strong women, not these wishy-washy ones that the writers try to cram down our throats today. :(

I would definitely love to see the episodes come out on DVD, and would indeed purchase them.

I'd love to see this show again. I remember it from my teen's and early 20's.
Interesting tidbit....I went on a tour of New York City with my daughter's high school drama club a couple of years ago. Our tour guide was none other than Franc Luz, who played Dr. John Bennett. Neat, neat guy! Very enjoyable and knowledgeble. The kids adored him!

Thank you for posting this info Knots Landing. This sounds wonderful. I've never seen any episodes of the Doctors, but I loved soaps of that era and I would buy some of the episodes (I'd probably base my purchases on what fans of the show thought was the best) just to have a look at it. Heaven forbid that Soapnet would show any episodes. Where would they find the time what with viewers clamoring for more showings of The OC, One Tree Hill and Beverly Hills 90210. It's not like anyone can just buy those cheaply on DVD. <heavy, heavy sarcasm>

I watched The Doctors when it first came on TV. It was a daily show with complete story each day. Then it went to a complete story each week then eventually a true soap.

I loved Carolee and Steve and Nick and Althea. Yes Penny was Althea's daughter. I think at one point she was abit too flirty with Nick too!!

One thing about that show I will always remember is that so many scenes happened in the elevator. There must have been 0 budget for scenery. That elevator got to be a joke with me. I think Carolee even gave birth in the elevator. Obviously the show was all dialog and no "action". I think there were scenes outside of the hospital but the elevator and the nurses station were the 2 primary scenes.

Kathleen Turner's character was suppose to be a really good singer. Everytime they showed a scene with her singing all you saw was her opening her mouth to sing and then it went to a different scene altogether. You never got to see her sing. She was sort of the Bad Girl character.

Not sure I would be able to watch this again but it is fun to remember.

My favorite storyline was Billy and Greta's teen pregnancy story. Billy was the love of my elementary school life.

Oh, my, talk about memories! I was a new stay-at-home mom and I always looked forward to this soap. I had forgotten about some of the characters. I watched for years!

So happy to find other people who remember this show. My grandmother watched this and I would watch it with her when she would babysit me if I was out of school. I was thinking about this show the other night when I was watching 30 Rock( one of my favorites) and looking at Alec Baldwin who is still a handsome man but when he was on The Doctors I remember thinking he was not only handsome but really pretty...Those eyes....I hope this comes out on DVD. The people who write soaps now should watch this one to see how it's done.