Thoughts about "The Doctors" - October 1974

Another month's worth of episodes of "The Doctors" has aired on RetroTV. Below are my thoughts on what has aired for the month of October 1974.

Yet another month, and no sightings of Toni's son Michael Paul. She allegedly sees him in the hospital, and he is to come home soon, but not yet. Alan wants Toni to marry him, but she can't due to her feelings about Mike. She believes he could still be alive, though everyone else thinks it is guilt. Matt and Maggie want to host Toni and Alan's wedding ceremony, but Toni doesn't want to do it. If Toni and Mike hadn't eloped, they would have wed there, so I can see her point of wanting another location. Meanwhile, Alan is in Hawaii seeing Margo. He wants a divorce, and she said she would do it in Hawaii. She'll tell the court, she never planned on staying with him on the mainland, and was only visiting. (The regular actress in the part Mary Denham was out on leave, so we have a temporary recast.) Alan returned and asked Toni to marry him again. She said yes, and Alan was relieved. He didn't care if Michael Paul's name remained Powers.

Mike's new face was revealed and he looks a lot more like Matt than he used to, he isn't used to this look and is upset. He told the nurse that people tend to like him more when they don't know him very well, which was both sad, and humorous.

Steve went to Germany to meet with Karen and Rolf. He brought along a picture of what Erich looked like around the time of Karen's plane crash. (Obviously not an accurate photo, as at that point, he was played by someone else.) Karen didn't remember anything, and their history was explained. Carolee worried about Karen wanting the boy, and thought about taking him away to save him from his biological mother. Karen agreed to let Steve keep the child, and he returned to the US. If Karen remembers Erich, she can meet him, but without her memories it would be too confusing for the boy. Steve, Carolee and Erich had a happy homecoming. He wants his family to be together, while Karen had a flash of a memory of arguing with Steve about their son.

Ann left her doctor friend and went back to the US via London. She got sick, and probably infected her new friend Iris. Iris's late husband died at Hope Memorial due to exploratory surgery of some sort. Nick and Ann reunited and became engaged again. Ann was doing better, but then had a seizure in the last moments of October 1974.

Hank and Lauri spent some more time on their honeymoon, and then came home. He didn't tell the hotel owners' that one of their employees shot him while on drugs. They didn't have a place to go, so Carolee offered them the apartment above the Aldrich garage. The only negatives about the place were the lack of furniture and other finishing items. Also since Erich loves Lauri, they may get the occasional visit from a nearly seven year old boy.

Martha and Cadman went to the bowling alley together, though we only saw the aftermath. Martha knew nothing about the sport, and her studies weren't perfect. Ernie figured it out, but appreciated that Martha made the effort. Martha helped Nick prepare for Ann's homecoming.

Penny was away back in California with her father, while Althea moved on with her life. Luke called her, and she rebuffed a potential date. Althea took a new job, being the person in charge of the intake of patients from the clinic. This meant that Maggie now was the full time chief of the clinic. Althea also agreed to take over Steve's old position of staff doctor. (She was with Ann when she as admitted, after being passed out on Nick's floor, but later was missing when Ann became even more ill.)

Those were the highlights of October 1974. This month there was one episode (October 1 that was too degraded to air) and two preemptions (October 8 & 9). I can't believe we still haven't seen Michael Paul, and wonder if we do see him if he will be a blanket or a doll instead of an actual baby. Gil Rogers (known to All My Children fans as Ray Gardner (Tad and Jenny's abusive father) and Hawk Shayne on Guiding Light) did a guest stint as a patient of Althea's who didn't want to be admitted to Hope Memorial.