1971–74 (Warrick) marry, 1971. After a
nervous breakdown following a devastating breakup, the sororal niece of protagonist
Joe Riley (
Lee Patterson),
Julie Siegel (Lee Warrick), meets Llanview newbie
resident physician Dr. Mark Toland of
Texas in February 1971. Mark and Julie soon marry months later on May 5, but their marriage is soon strained as an emotionally unreceptive Julie rebuffs her husband's sexual advances. Mark and Julie seek
couples therapy in 1972 with no avail in the bedroom. By May 1973, Dr. Toland begins to seek romantic solace in newly arrived
Dr. Dorian Cramer (
Nancy Pinkerton). Her emotionally unstable sister
Melinda (Pat Pearcy), jealous of Mark and Dorian's affair, sought everything she could to break the two apart, eventually stabbing Mark's hand and leading Dorian to
institutionalize her sister in 1974. In 1974, while romancing one another in the workplace at Llanview Hospital, Dorian and Mark engage in a tense argument which leads Dorian to erroneously mark the chart of a
terminally ill patient and beloved friend to
Dr. Larry Wolek (
Michael Storm),
Rachel Wilson (
Nancy Barrett). The mistake causes Mark to prescribe an overdosage of Rachel's medicine, leading to her
desired death. Suspicion is soon cast on Larry, who is arrested for Rachel's suspected
mercy killing, no one aware of Dorian and Mark's involvement. Both Mark and Dorian agreed to keep quiet on their complicity in the patient death.
1974–75 Wrought with grief and guilt, Dorian advises Mark of her decision to inform hospital chief-of-staff
Dr. Jim Craig (
Nat Polen) of her complicity in Rachel's death. The news frightens Mark who, afraid of criminal
manslaughter charges and revocation of his medical license, attempts to flee as Dorian chases him down a flight of stairs. Dorian clumsily tumbles down behind Mark, leading to a concussion which causes her to fall into a brief coma. Determined, Mark continues on his way and escapes to South America. Eventually, Dorian emerges from her coma and testifies to the police, exonerating Larry but resulting in her being charged with
medical malpractice by the Llanview Hospital board of directors. Dorian is suspended by a near unanimous vote in December 1974, save for board member
Victoria "Viki" Lord Riley (
Erika Slezak), whom Dorian mistakenly assumes was the deciding vote—and on whom she swears revenge. Mark continues on his getaway to
San Francisco while a jobless Dorian in Llanview goes about
courting ailing Llanview media magnate and Viki's father
Victor Lord (
Shepperd Strudwick), in part to spite Viki for the termination she believed the media heiress caused. After moving into the
Llanfair, Dorian uncovers news that the newly arrived
Tony Harris (
George Reinholt) was Victor's long-lost son and desired male heir. Concurrently, Mark incidentally meets Viki's maternal aunt
Dorothy Randolph, who divulges that her son Tony Harris is Victor's first-born child. Mark plans a return to Llanview to blackmail Victor for information on his long-sought male heir, but is shot dead in May 1975 by a jilted woman who mistakes him to be her cheating husband, leaving Julie (Leonie Norton)
widowed. ==Reception==