I'm Obsessed with The Doctors in Living Color on NBC

I have something I want to confess. This is difficult for me. Because I've only recently learned to embrace my geekiness. I used to hide it because I was embarrassed. But the truth is I am addicted to television.

My latest obsession is reruns of The Doctors on Retrotv. Not The Doctors talk show that is currently in syndication, but the original The Doctors soap opera that aired on NBC from April 1963 through December 1982. How many of you remember that show?

Fun fact: It debuted the same day as General Hospital on ABC and in the late 1960s and early 1970 was the higher rated of the two shows. Each of these shows were ABC and NBC's first real successes with the soap opera. CBS had dominated the soap genre since the early 1950s with its soaps. (Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life, Guiding Light, Secret Storm, As The World Turns, The Edge of Night).

Last fall, Retrotv started airing two episodes a day of The Doctors starting with late 1967. Right now they are into March of 1970 in the story. I don't get Retrotv but there are people who do who then upload the episodes to various on line outlets.

They are fascinating to watch. A) because they were kind of low budget; B) to see the hair styles and clothing; C) think about this. They had JUST switched from black and white to color! D) because every once in a while you'll see familiar face as an uncredited extra. Paul Michael Glaser was on a few episodes as an orderly and dancing in a nightclub scene. Kevin Dobson was an ER doctor in another. No lines, but there they are plain as day.

And who knew that Terry Kiser (Bernie in Weekend at Bernies) did soaps? And not as the comic relief! He plays a young doctor on the show.

Another reason I am fascinated with watching this show is this. In the mid-1960s soaps started to switch from live daily airings to videotape. From the late 1960s through the late 1970s, the tapes were all recorded over to save money because back then videotape was expensive. So virtually no soap opera episodes from the late 60s to mid 70s even exists. Dark Shadows was the exception. So the fact that these exist is huge! At least to a TV geek like me.

Also the process of videotaping back then was different. They recorded what they called live to tape. This means that they did not stop for retakes unless something went horribly wrong. So even though it was shot on tape, they went on as if it were airing live. As a result, you will hear offstage coughing, door slams, the occasional boom in the shot and flubbed lines. Remember, this was professional network television!

This was one of my mom's favorite soaps when I was a kid. But then, I think at one point she watched all the CBS soaps. I remember Search for Tomorrow with Jo and Stu. Jo's big love interest in the late 1960s was played by Robert Mandan who went on to play Chester on Soap. That one was on at lunchtime which is why I remember the characters. And Love of Life with Van and Bruce. Right before lunch.  The other shows I didn't watch but I remember the opening titles. Like the kind of eerie opening credits of The Edge of Night Dum Dum Da DUM. The Eeeeedge of Night!  (As the Cincinnati skyline fades to black.) Or the splashing waves on the rocky coastline of The Secret Storm. Eventually, as shows expanded to an hour and game shows became more successful, the soaps started getting cancelled so my mom moved over exclusively to the NBC soaps, Another World The Doctors and Days of Our Lives. She still watches Days to this day. The others have all died off.

I love the fact that back then there were around a dozen soaps that shot in New York City employing dozens of actors directors, costumers, writers, set designers etc. And so many actors were employed for years (decades in some cases) in one role. I mean the same job as an actor for years! Think about that. In what other genre does that happen? It doesn't. That has always fascinated me. Most actors go from job to job and have long periods of unemployment, but not soap actors
. Alas, there's an entire industry that no longer exists in New York City.

But back to The Doctors. It was the first soap to win a daytime Emmy for Best Daytime Drama in 1974. And again in 1976. Elizabeth Hubbard won for Best Actress in one of those years. I am familiar with her work years later on As The World Turns which I started watching in high school.  Its really interesting to see her as another character completely different from the one she played on World Turns. Her scenes with her main love interest are amazing. Their chemistry is undeniable. She plays Althea Davis, a well bred New England doctor who runs the clinic and she falls for the brash hot-headed brilliant neurosurgeon Nick Bellini played by Gerald Gordon. He flies off the handle every day. But my favorite character is Nurse Carolee Simpson played by Carolee Campbell. She is sweet and funny and endearing. Even when she is in a dramatic story line, she has quick little quips.

So every day, I watch the latest two episodes and then go on the forums to read other people's comments. And I am anxious to see how the story lines play out and see how the technology advances and budgets grow as we get into the 1980s. And oh yeah...some actor named Alec Baldwin joins the cast somewhere around 1980.

Damn Yankees and other classic musicals

This week I went to see Cabrillo Music Theatre's excellent production of Damn Yankees.  The next day I could not get the songs out of my head. Now, I should explain that I have been in two productions of DamnYankees so I know the songs pretty well.  So the songs were already in there (my head that is). This just brought them out.

It got me to thinking how much I love this show and many of the classic shows from Broadway's "golden age" (1943 to 1964).  Now to the part where I sound like a crotchety old man. Many younger people think these shows are old fashioned or dated. Maybe its a sign of my age but there's a reason these shows are classics. I have always considered this show among my favorites. Would Iplace in the same league as say Sweeney Todd? No way! I have categories of faves or classics. For instance this would fall under the category of fun or joyous shows a la Pajama Game, Guys & Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie. I like the big brassy funny shows, The Producers, Hairspray. Then there are the esoteric classics, pretty much anything Sondheim. Or groundbreakers like A Chorus Line (the IT show when I was in my teens) Rent, and now Hamilton.  What am I not a fan of? Pretty much anything Lloyd Webber, British mega musicals of the 1980s.  Younger folks tend to go for Spring Awakening, American Idiot, and the jukebox shows to which I go "Eh? I don't get it."

Am I old? Showing my age?  No. I love newer shows like Next to Normal, Avenue Q, Book of Mormon.  As an actor and because I am now older or an "adult", I've had a chance to re-visit some of the classic shows and let me tell you there is a reason those are classics. Last year I was in an excellent production of The Music Man. Now, some people might say it's hokey or old fashioned. But I can honestly say after working on it that I firmly believe this is one of the best musicals of all time.  That opening scene on the train? One of the best opening numbers ever written. The songs are classic and the story is great. Its a perfect show.

Back in the day, Broadway shows produced many hit songs. These songs, in turn,  became a part of our pop culture. When I was growing up, (after the classic era had pretty much come to end but still a part of our very recent past), we sang these songs in grade school music class and in chorus. All of them. From Wells Fargo Wagon to Hey Look Me Over to Oklahoma to I Won't Grow Up.  And when's the last time a song from a Broadway musical ended up on the pop charts? (Rent in 1996 maybe) And apparently Hamilton may land on the pop charts too. I'm hoping so.

My thoughts are this, the 1950s musicals were FUN! Great songs, amazing choreography by the masters, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Kidd, Onna White.  Maybe not the greatest books (I've always taken issue with the whole out clause, etc and Two Lost Souls limbo scene in Damn Yankees). But who cares with those songs and dances?

I suppose with the big effects musicals of the 1980s and the more recent musicals attempts to integrate more modern forms of music and dance, (which don't get me wrong, should be happening), younger generations consider the older stuff, well, old. Also the fact that these shows have been done by every high school and community theater in this country for 50 years have contributed to the belief by some that they are outdated.

But when you dissect them or see them done with a decent budget or in a first class professional production, you can see them for the true classics they are.

So forgive me if I go on about the "classics". I will take them any day. I want to leave the theater singing! I want to leave there wishing I could dance like that. I'd rather that than a helicopter or a barricade or a floating tire any day.

My point is this...you kids out there. Don't discount the classics. They're great shows.  They may be old fashioned to you but they stand up. I am all for newer styles of shows. We need them to draw in younger and more diverse audiences. It's very important. Its critical that they reflect the diversity of our country. They need to reflect the times, but there is still room for the old style Broadway belt, the 11:00 number.  And you'll forgive me for belting out the score of Gypsy over American Idiot. There's room for both on my plate.