The Doctors

The Doctors may refer to:

See also

Doctors (TV series)

Doctors is a British medical soap opera which first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 26 March 2000. Set in the fictional Midlands town of Letherbridge, defined as being in the city of Birmingham, the soap follows the staff of a doctor's surgery, and their families.

History

Doctors is produced by BBC Birmingham and is screened on BBC One, with the first episode broadcast on 26 March 2000. It was created by Chris Murray, with Mal Young developing it and Carson Black the original producer. The show has been shown at lunchtime since its inception, originally at 12.30pm as a lead-in to the BBC's One O'Clock News. After it was temporarily moved to allow for extended news coverage of the 11 September 2001 attacks, its regular slot changed to 2:10 pm, following directly after Neighbours, after ratings rose to a 25% audience share. When the BBC lost Neighbours to Channel 5 in January 2008, it moved into the Australian soap's old slot of 1:45pm. For a brief trial period in Summer 2000, selected episodes from the first series were shown on Fridays at 7 pm and from 16 February 2009, the show began transmitting in high definition on BBC HD at 4:00pm the same day.

The Doctors (soap opera)

The Doctors is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC Daytime from April 1, 1963, to December 31, 1982. There were 5280 episodes produced, with the 5000th episode airing in November 1981. The series was set in Hope Memorial Hospital in the fictional "Madison," located somewhere in New England.

From anthology to serial

The Doctors debuted as an anthology series rather than a conventional soap opera, a very ambitious concept for that time. Stories were originally self-contained within one episode and featured various medical emergencies.

Because of the obvious burdens and expense of casting for separate stories each day and due to ratings being lower than expected, on July 22, 1963, stories were expanded to weekly arcs with a new plot introduced every Monday and concluding that week on Friday. This, however, was only marginally successful than the daily anthology format had been.

Beginning March 2, 1964, The Doctors ceased its experimental anthology format and became a traditional continuing serial, like all the other daytime dramas on air then. For most of the series, storylines revolved around Hope Memorial Hospital and its patriarchal Chief of Staff Dr. Matthew "Matt" Powers (played by James Pritchett), who started on the program on July 9, 1963, although Pritchett originally appeared on the series during its weekly anthology period, in another role.