Julia Hoffman, M.D.: Early Role Model for Jennifer Melfi, M.D.?

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey gang,

I'll just bet that as a twelve-year-old, Jennifer Melfi ran right home from Our Lady of Taormina Grade School in Verona, NJ to watch Dark Shadows every weekday at 4:00 PM on WABC-TV in New York City.

Of course, Jennifer must have been engrossed (as we all were), watching Barnabas Collins battle a veritable "murderers' row" of assorted supernatural bad guys and gals on the program.  However, I wonder if young Jennifer also first considered a career in medicine after seeing the redoubtable Julia Dr. Hoffman in action?  Yes, it was always Dr. Hoffman, so unfailingly cool in the clutch, who was there to assist Barnabas with, not only her expert medical knowledge, but with her wise counsel as well.  No doubt, Jennifer chose to pursue a medical degree in the field of psychiatry after observing how Dr. Hoffman was able to help so many people and make a positive difference in their lives.

Perhaps Doctors Hoffman and Melfi might have even become close colleagues and friends later in life, with Julia becoming Jennifer's professional mentor/big sister?  No doubt, both doctors would have extended to each other, the professional courtesy of attending to each other's patients during times of vacation.  In fact, I can envision Dr. Hoffman, utilizing her trusty diamond bracelet, in an attempt to relieve the almost-crippling anxiety attacks that one of Dr. Melfi's most challenging-patients,  a much-harried waste management disposal executive, was suffering from.  As Dr. Hoffman skillfully and gently urges the Jersey junk man to gaze into the center of the bracelet, the man pauses momentarily and then says, "For Christ's sake, will you cut that out lady!?! I ain't paying three-hundred bucks an hour to have you twirl that lousy trinket in my freakin' face!" 

(So, Dr. Julia Hoffman dutifully records in her notes, that one Mr. Anthony R. Soprano of West Caldwell, New Jersey is her most "challenging" patient to date, ever since she treated one Mr. Jeff Clark of Collinsport, Maine for his own anxiety attacks/delusions of decapitation.)     

[jennifer]

Julia with Tony S the old boy would have quite the time anyway been out of the loop for a while Bob
glad to see your witty posts again


jennifer

[Patti Feinberg]

Like Jennifer, I'm soooooo glad to see you Bob_the_Bartender.

Who's Jennifer Melfi?

Patti

[Raineypark]

Who's Jennifer Melfi?

She's the psychiatrist who treats Tony Soprano on HBO's "The Soprano's"  She's played by the actress Lorraine Bracco.

[Gothick]

Thanks for explaining this, Rainey.  I didn't have a clue!

Steve, the one with no cable

[Sandor]

Had Grayson Hall lived, I think she would have made a great Livia Soprano (Tony Soprano's acidic mother on the 1st season of "The Sopranos"). No knocks to the fabulous Nancy Marchand, who portrayed Livia, but Grayson might have been an equally memorable choice for that role.

[Gothick]

Well, it wouldn't have been the first time Grayson filled Nancy Marchand's pumps.  As all Hall-o-holics could recite in their sleep, GH took over from Marchand in the starring role of the Madam/Queen in the 1960 off-Broadway production of The Balcony.

I always wondered what the two actresses thought of one another.

G.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Of course, if Dr. Hoffman were unavailable to treat cable televison's most famous waste management disposal executive, perhaps the estimable Dr. Eric Lang, Dark Shadow's own absent-minded mad scientist extraordinaire, could have pinch-hit for his colleague?

Can you imagine the first time that Dr. Lang met his new patient?  The good doctor would probably mess-up his last name by calling him "Mr. Castrato" instead of "Mr. Soprano."  ( And, wouldn't that entirely innocent faux pas have scored points with Big Tony right off of the bat?)   

No doubt , Dr. Lang would have offerred Tony the same possibility of an entirely "new life, in a new body" that he originally offerred to Barnabas.  However, since the vapid and vacuous (yet, perfectly coiffed) Jeff Clark's head would no longer be "available," maybe Dr. Lang would offer Tony the vapid and and vacuous noggins of either the abstemious actor Colin Farrell or that of Farrell's fellow actor (?) Nick Lachey (perhaps, formerly, better known as "Mr. Jessica Simpson") ?  Now, that's an offer that even Big Tony could not refuse!