The Doctors
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The Doctors was a soap opera which aired on NBC from April 1, 1963 to December 31, 1982. There were 5280 episodes produced, with the 5000th episode airing in November 1981.
Originally, The Doctors was not supposed to be a conventional soap opera. It first aired in 1963 for a trial run as an anthology series with self-contained episodes about medical emergencies. When the show was brought back in 1964, the show adopted a serial form of storytelling. For most of the series, storylines revolved around Chief of Staff Matthew Powers (played by James Pritchett).
The Doctors was considered to be more risqué in storyline choices than its rival, General Hospital (which premiered on the same day). While, for the most part, the doctors on General Hospital worked in harmony with one another and in some cases, were intimate friends, the physicians on The Doctors were much more cutthroat.
For example, Dr. Powers was put on trial for murder, was forced to rescind his Chief of Staff position, and became very depressed. Another doctor took over Powers's spot and immediately schemed to remove his allies, such as Dr. Althea Davis, from positions of influence in the hospital. In another storyline, one doctor's nurse found out that he killed his rival and made it look like suicide. When he discovered that she knew the truth, he tormented her every day at work until she committed suicide herself, allowing him to get away with the murder.
The show became very popular in the late 1960s when it was featured in advertisements for NBC's 90-minute soap bloc. The Doctors flourished when it was placed in the time slot in between Days of Our Lives and Another World, two soap operas who have always had an abundance of younger viewers.
In 1972 and 1974, the serial received a Daytime Emmy for Best Drama. In the years following, the announcer would inform the audience at the beginning of each transmission: And now, The Doctors: The Emmy-award winning program dedicated to the brotherhood of healing.
For most of its run, The Doctors was sponsored by the Colgate-Palmolive company.
Core characters
The five core characters during the series' run were:
- James Pritchett as Dr. Matt Powers
- Lydia Bruce as Maggie Powers
- David O'Brien as Dr. Steve Aldrich
- Carolee Campbell, and later Jada Rowland, as Carolee Simpson Allison Aldrich
- Elizabeth Hubbard as Dr. Althea Davis