The Young Doctors
| The Young Doctors | |
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| Format | Drama |
| Created by | Reg Watson |
| Directed by | Alan Coleman Reg Watson Ian Coughlan Max Varnel David C Wilson Brian Faull Kendal Flanagan Chris Adshead |
| Starring | Michael Beecher Cornelia Frances Alfred Sandor Gwen Plumb Mark Holden John Dommett Peta Toppano Chris King Joy Chambers Tim Page Lyn James Judy McBurney Tony Alvarez Paula Duncan Lynda Stoner Bartholomew John Anne Lucas Diana McLean Rebecca Gilling Alan Dale Eric Oldfield Brian Moll Marty Morton |
| Country of origin |  Australia |
| No. of episodes | 1396 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nine Network |
| Original run | 8 November 1976 – 30 March 1983 |
The Young Doctors is an Australian early evening soap opera. The series was set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital and primarily concerned with romances between younger members of the hospital staff, screened on the Nine Network from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March 1983.
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[edit] History
The series was created and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and started a week earlier than The Sullivans. Channel 9 made it clear only one of the series would be kept after 13 weeks. The odds were somewhat stacked against their favour, as The Sullivans had a budget which was three times bigger than The Young Doctors. After a 13 weeks trial period, The Sullivans was the critical success, which resulted in the Young Doctors being axed. When this news was released, loyal fans protested to Channel 9, who bowed to public opinion and reversed their decision. However, the series was placed at the 18:00 "graveyard" slot.[1]
When the series ended after 1396 episodes, it held the record of Australia's longest-running television drama series, which was previously held by Number 96. This was later surpassed by A Country Practice and then Neighbours, which is the current record-holder of longest-running Australian series.
The Young Doctors holds the distinction, rare among long-running Australian dramas, of having never won any sort of television award. Alan Coleman produced the show for most of its run until being replaced by Sue Masters, shortly before the series finished production in late 1982.
[edit] Story and setting
Despite the medical setting, medical procedures rarely figured in storylines, with most of the stories focusing more on the personal life of the staff.
[edit] Original Air Dates
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[edit] Cast
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[edit] International screenings
The programme was acquired by 13 of the 14 weekday members of the ITV Network, Scottish Television never purchased the series. Most of the ITV regions initially screened The Young Doctors like Central at their own regional pace in their 15:30 slot on Mondays and Tuesdays with Sons and Daughters on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Granada Television and Border Television switched this broadcast pattern around, however, and screened The Young Doctors on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays instead.
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- Central Television pioneered the programme in their Tuesday and Thursday 12:30 slot in October 1982 (but was quickly moved to the 15:50 slot) while all the other ITV contractors were screening The Sullivans. This was then increased to a daily 15:30 slot until Sons and Daughters arrived in February 1983 and The Young Doctors shared the slot airing on Mondays and Tuesdays. This continued until 1988 when Central returned the programme to 12:30 to allow Sons and Daughters to be stripped Monday to Friday in the 15:30 slot. By January 1989, it was back to the daily 15:30 slot until Families began in April 1990, airing Mondays and Tuesdays. The Young Doctors was finally moved to 14:50, Monday to Thursday in 1990, and finished 15 August 1992. Central was the first region to complete the series.
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- Thames Television and LWT in London started screening the series initially at 17:15 on Thursdays and Fridays from 23 June 1983 until 1 September 1984, before switching the series to 3.30 slot, to allow Blockbusters the slot. From this point onwards only Thames broadcast the series. When Carlton Television took over in January 1993 the series was dropped for 6 months to allow backlog of Blockbusters episodes to be aired, The young doctors returned daily on the 7 June 1993 concluding the programme in December 1994.
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- TSW Started the series on 1 April 1985 Monday and Fridays at 17.15 until September, when it was moved to 15.30 slot. On Monday 17 October 1988 the series moves to 12.30 on Mondays and Wednesdays but due to network programming resulted in the show only shown 1989/1990, but returned to twice a week by the end 1990. Westcountry Television took over in 1993, and continued twice a week until early 1994 when it was increased to three times a week until 20 December 1994 when Ep1101 was broadcast. The series was never completed.
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- Years after most of the other regions Yorkshire Television started the series in October 1988, going out three times aweek. In January 1993 it had to skip 215 episodes to enable them to catch up to Tyne Tees Television as from January 1993 both regions screened exactly the same material.
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- The Young Doctors was also one of three Australian soap operas screened in the mid to late 1980s on Sky Channel before it became Sky1 in 1989 (the others being A Country Practice and The Sullivans). During the mid-to-late 1980s, it was transmitted at 17:00. From 1989 until 1992, The Young Doctors aired regularly at 10:00. When Sky purchased the newer Australian soap E Street in April 1992, they eventually cancelled The Young Doctors after around 600 episodes in July to accommodate an afternoon repeat of the American medical series St Elsewhere.
The show was aired on RTÉ Two
It was named Los Jovenes Doctores which had a brief stint on TVE1 shortly after the launch of Morning television in Spain. The series aired for a short while in a 09:30 weekday slot.
It was named Jeunes Docteurs) which was scheduled on France, second national-wide channel Antenne 2, at 08:30, from 21 March 1986.
The Series was also broadcast in Trinidad, Barbados, Angola, the Netherlands, and Canada.
[edit] Remake
In November 2007, the Nine Network announced plans to remake the series in conjunction with FremantleMedia. Originally, it was set to be broadcast in 2008 but due to script delays, the premiere date had been pushed back to 2009. The remake was set to be named Young Doctors (minus "The"). However, at the end of 2008, the Nine Network officially passed on the idea. The network decided against the remake, instead, confirming a second series of the popular Australian drama Underbelly. FremantleMedia is currently searching for another television station to contract the programme.[2]
[edit] DVD
Selected episodes of the serial were released on DVD in October 2006, under the title of The Best Romances. A second set of selected episodes, under the title of Classic Cliffhangers, was released in February 2008.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Young Doctors at the Internet Movie Database.
- The Young Doctors at TV.com.
- Aussie Soap Archive: The Young Doctors — Overview and Review.
- Classic Aussie Soaps: The Young Doctors
- The Young Doctors Unofficial Fan Site
- Documentary celebrating 30 year anniversary, with cast interviews
- The Young Doctors at the National Film and Sound Archive
