1 9 6 3 – 1 9 8 2 (USA)
5000+ x 30 minute episodes
This long-running NBC soap actually started as an anthology series with rotating stories of three Doctors: – William Scott (surgeon), Jerry Chandler (intern) and Elizabeth Hayes (paediatrician).
Also seen was chaplain Reverend Samuel Shafer and Dr Matt Powers. By March 1964 the show had become a fully-fledged soapie, and Chandler and Shafer were edged out of the show.
New characters in the mid-sixties included Dr Kate Bartok, hospital custodian Pete Banas, Dr Steve Lloyd, Dr Althea Hamilton Hamilton Davis and brain surgeon Dr Nick Bellini.
Craig Huebing and Joan Anderson married on the show (and in real life) before leaving the series. The late sixties was dominated by the romantic entanglements of Dr Steve Aldrich, the 1970s carried on with much the same mixture as before but towards the end of the shows run (it ended in 1982) the Dancy family began to take centre stage.
When the show’s ratings began to fall in the late 1970’s various, often ridiculous, plotlines were tried including a plague (resulting from grave robbery) which killed Mona Aldrich and a bizarre magic potion which transformed a sixty-year-old into a twenty-something.
The show didn’t quite make it to 20 years on the box but it did win an Emmy in 1972 for Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Drama.
Dr William Scott
Jack Gaynor
Dr Jerry Chandler
Richard Roat
Dr Elizabeth Hayes
Margot Moser
Rev. Samuel Shafer
Fred J Scollay
Dr Matt Powers
James Pritchett
Dr Maggie Powers
Ann Williams (1)
Bethel Leslie (2)
Lydia Bruce (3)
Dr Althea Davis/Gibson
Elizabeth Hubbard
Dr Steve Lloyd
Craig Huebing
Dr Steve Aldrich
David O’Brien
Dr John Morrison
Patrick Horgan
Toni Ferra Powers
Anna Stuart
Billy Allison Aldrich
Alec Baldwin
Dr Alan Stewart
Gil Gerard
Eleanor Conrad
Lois Smith
Nola Dancy Aldrich
Kathryn Harrold (1)
Kathleen Turner (2)
Kim Zimmer (3)
Dr Jerry Dancy
Jonathan Hogan (1)
Terry O’Quinn (2)
Tom Carroll
Jonathan Frakes
