[1] Beginning on March 2, 1964, The Doctors ceased its experimental anthology format and became a traditional continuing serial, like all the other daytime dramas on air at the time.

[3] The cast for the original daily concept, which lasted from the premiere on April 1, 1963, until July 19, 1963, was:[4] The early cast for the second, weekly concept, which lasted from July 22, 1963, until February 28, 1964, was:[4] In the program's early years, The Doctors was considered to be more bold in storyline choices than its primary rival at the time, General Hospital (which premiered on the same day, with a similar premise to TD).

The iconic theme song "Patterns", which was updated with a new version in 1977 and 1979, stayed with the program through August 1, 1980 and was composed by in-house musician Bob Israel at Score Productions.

The decline in ratings was partly attributed to two serials with which The Doctors shared its timeslot: ABC's One Life to Live and CBS's Guiding Light, which expanded to an hour in consecutive years; Guiding Light made this move in 1977, while One Life To Live along with fellow ABC soap General Hospital expanded in 1978.

In an unprecedented (and since unrepeated) move, NBC decided to extend Another World and make it the first serial to run for 90 minutes daily.

The new program, Texas, was picked up by NBC who envisioned it as a daytime version of CBS' hit primetime drama Dallas.

NBC needed to free up one hour of its schedule for Texas, and did so by cutting the runtimes of Another World (which reverted to its previous 60-minute slot) and The David Letterman Show by 30 minutes each.

The Doctors was once again displaced as a result of the move, being shifted to the only open spot on the network's lineup, the 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m. slot following Card Sharks.

The serial's competition on CBS originally consisted of the long-running Search for Tomorrow, which was also pulling in significantly higher ratings than The Doctors had been.

NBC tried to remedy the situation by cancelling two more of its game shows, Battlestars and Blockbusters, and using that sixty minutes to relocate Texas, which had not found an audience, to 11:00/10:00 a.m. on April 26, 1982, so it could serve as the lead in for the two veteran serials airing in the noon hour.

[citation needed] The ninety minutes freed up by the cancellations of The Doctors and Texas were filled by game shows beginning the following Monday.

[citation needed] In July 2014, Retro TV announced that it would begin broadcasting reruns of The Doctors in the latter half of the year, starting with episodes from December 1967.

[citation needed] Core characters during the series' run included: Many well-known actors and actresses had roles on The Doctors throughout its long run, including: Among the guest stars on The Doctors were Some notable writers, producers and directors of The Doctors: Henry Kaplan, Dennis Brite, Douglas Marland, Frank Salisbury, Malcolm Marmorstein, Rita Lakin, Elizabeth Levin, Gerald Straub, Orvin Tovrov, Allen Potter, Joseph Stuart, Robert Costello, Leonard Kantor, Eileen and Robert Mason Pollock, David Cherrill, Peter Brash, Doris Quinlan, A.M. Barlow, Heather Matthews, Kate Brooks, Ralph Ellis, James Lipton, Eugenie Hunt, William T. Anderson (Lighting).