Doctors, The

1 9 6 3 – 1 9 8 2 (USA)
5155 x 30 minute episodes

This long-running NBC soap actually started as an anthology series with rotating stories of three Doctors: – William Scott (a serious surgeon), Jerry Chandler (a happy-go-lucky intern) and Elizabeth Hayes (a 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 show’s 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 a grave robbery) which killed Mona Aldrich and a bizarre magic potion which transformed haughty rich sixty-year-old Adrienne Hunt into a vivacious twenty-something beauty.

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)
Luke Dancy
Frank Telfer
Tom Carroll 
Jonathan Frakes