I can't believe it is the end of June! Where has this year gone?? I bet we are all saying this but continue with our days and doing exciting things like cleaning the house, going to work or doing the groceries. This week it is all about medical dramas and there are many to choose from but I picked the three below and hope someone has seen them and has not had any recent medical dramas of their own(which I know some of you have which sucks). Head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the others have chosen.
1. MARCUS WELBY M.D.-1969-1976
I haven't watched this for a long time but I still remember thinking that Marcus Welby was a doctor I wanted to have. He was the man whom everyone went to and I think, many people thought Robert Young was an actual doctor. A very young James Brolin played his straight laced partner who was nice to look at and kept learning from the senior. Every week, there was some crisis that got averted by the doctors and dealt with many hot topics. It created quite the controversy (rightly so) with their backward thinking about homosexuality. It was a huge hit and is still considered high quality.
2. ST. ELSEWHERE-1982-1988
God, I loved this show and it was comedic and dramatic and quite quirky. If it wasn't for this show, one wouldn't have had E.R., Chicago Hope or even Scrubs. This started the career of Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon. 3 elder doctors, at a teaching hospital which has seen better days, help young doctors learn their trade. You loved the banter of William Craig and the young nerd Ed Begley Jnr. Howie Mandel, who has big hair in this show also starred as a young doctor. There were the famous episodes with ZZ Top and the recurring character of that nasty lady who finally got squished by her bed. I love the crossover where the 3 heads end up at Cheers. The finale of the show created quite a stir. One of the heads of this show, Norman Lloyd, a great character actor, is still alive and working at 102.
3. GENERAL HOSPITAL-1963-PRESENT
Yes, I went there and am now admitting that I watch this soap every day and have done this since the 1970's because my mom watched it. It was the biggest soap at one time because of the Luke and Laura story line. Nowadays, we have good guy mobsters who always talk but never kill and the great Quartermaine family still making a stir in the business world but an episode doesn't go by without showing the hospital. There are emergencies, people recuperating from shotgun wounds, fires etc... they have dealt with AIDS, PTSD, rape, gambling, world domination, spies, aliens...well, it is a soap. This is my guilty pleasure...please forgive me:) Some of the actors have been on the soap since the 1970's!
What are your 3??
Never watched any soaps, but I did watch some of the first two. The ending to St. Elsewhere was classic. Until it started to derail, House was my recent favorite.
ReplyDeleteI love St. elsewhere and that ending was classic but controversial. I saw a couple of episodes of House which did look good
DeleteNever watched any of these, don't watch that much TV anyway, nor does Matt. Just started watching Poldark though. Happened to catch it the other night.
ReplyDeletePoldark is a good show...my hubby really likes it and so do I.
DeleteHaving worked in a hospital for ten years, I rarely watch medical dramas, but I did watch Dr. Kildare if only to make googly eyes at Richard Chamberlain (didn't know he was gay, lol). Saw a few episodes of Welby, but not the others.
ReplyDeleteDr. Kildare was so big and Richard Chamberlain's career got a huge jumpstart with this. He was quite the dreamboat especially when he was king of the mini series...remember the Thornbirds?
DeleteHi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteI have plenty to share about this one. Mrs. Shady and I love medical dramas and have watched many over the years. She is in the medical field and loves to point out mistakes made by doctors and nurses on the shows - like shocking people with paddles whenever they complain of a runny nose. :)
I watched Marcus Welby every week. Little known fact: doctors used to make house calls. :) James Brolin played the type of character we saw in countless medical and police dramas - the young, handsome, less experienced partner learning from the old master. Remember the MASH spin-off Trapper John, M.D.? Hunky, studly Gregory Harrison played "Gonzo," a young med professional who lived in a motor home "The Titanic" in the hospital parking lot.
St. Elsewhere is Mrs. Shady's all time favorite TV series of any kind but, for some reason, I did not watch it. However, I was a fan of G.H. almost from the start. I watched it in the early years when the soap focused on three main characters: former major league baseball player John Beradino playing Steve Hardy; Rachel Ames as Audrey; and Emily McLaughlin as nurse Jessie Brewer. I also watched the sudser during the Luke and Laura era and throughout the 1980s.
Thanks for the memories, dear friend BB!
I bet your wife would know and laugh at some of the things the characters do. I also believe that not every day is there some major emergency or weird thing that happens. I used to watch Trapper John all the time because I love MASH and I had wondered, at that time, what happened to Pernel Roberts. Suddenly he is in this hit show and doing well alongside hunk, Gregory Harrison. Glad you used to watch GH. Genie Francis is back on the show and so is Bobby and Scotty. Monica, Leslie Charleson, is still on and so is Finola Hughes...Anna Devane. It's amazing how many stay with the show after decades.
DeleteI had a crush on Holly Scorpio (Emma Samms)! :)
DeleteI haven't seen these, but I'm familiar with St. Elsewhere and their finale. That had to have been insane when it originally aired. Too bad the internet didn't exist yet.
ReplyDeleteIt was insane when the finale happened and most were glued to our tv's. When I watched that ending, I was like, WTF!!?? I felt cheated and didn't like that ending at all.
DeleteI haven't seen any of these. I wanted to check out General Hospital but there are too many episodes. What if I like it?
ReplyDeleteYou never look back and you can start up, feel lost for the moment and before you know it....you are hooked and enjoying every part...well almost every part. I do fast forward through certain parts
DeleteLove it that you still watch General Hospital. Watched it as a young adult. I rememer watching Ben Casey. Later ER. I did like Chicago Hope.
ReplyDeleteBetty
There's an old one...Ben Casey...I never watched it but it was big in its day. Never watched the other 2 and always thought ER was so sad because every time I saw it a kid was dying...totally depressing.
DeleteThe lovely Mark Harmon......sadly a series I missed but Dr Kildare was my favourite....still love medical dramas and watch most I can....sad ...what! Xxxxxxx
ReplyDeleteDr. Kildare is popular on my blog:) I'm glad it is getting mentioned. I have not watched many medical dramas recently but I know I would have liked Bones.
DeleteSeen a few episodes of the first two. Diagnosis Murder was the one I used to watch as it mixed things up a bit. Never a huge fan of medical shows though.
ReplyDeleteLove Diagnosis Murder...I always thought it was fun and thought he and Quincy must have gone to the same school
DeleteI watched relatively few of the Marcus Welby, M.D. episodes when they first aired. Wasn't aware of the controversial gay-themed episodes. Didn't Robert Young start dyeing his hair in the middle of the show's run?
ReplyDeleteSt. Elsewhere rocked! Too many cool things about it to mention here. I hope Norman Lloyd lives forever! It was only after I'd seen him on St. Elsewhere that I learned about his long and varied history in the entertainment field.
I've watched General Hospital off and on (mostly "off") during the last fifty or so years... In the mid-to-late 1960s when I was killing time waiting for Dark Shadows, in the late 1980s when my then-fiancee watched all of the ABC soaps, and in the early years of this century when I worked at a cable TV office where we had to have TV on during our business hours. The show's certainly gone through some changes.
It's kind of eerie to note that Elena Verdugo of Welby died recently, as did Stephen Furst of St. Elsewhere, and (as I just learned) Peter Hansen, who played Lee Baldwin on GH and passed away a couple of months ago at the age of ninety-five.
DeleteI bet there are a few episodes from Marcus WELBY that would be so off now. I watched one clip about how he told off someone who is overweight. I have to admit...I kind of liked it...so politically incorrect:) gosh...you are so right about the. 3 shows I picked and.3 Stars have passed away all within this month
DeleteThe year is certainly on a roll, a fast one at that. Those are interesting picks, not sure I've seen any of them though. I enjoyed watching House, and a bit of Grey's anatomy.
ReplyDeleteHouse has been mentioned this week and Grey's Anatomy is very popular. I never got into GA and there seemed to be a lot of backstage drama going on with that show. I did see a couple of episodes of Ouse which I liked
DeleteHouse, Grey's Anatomy and Nurse Jackie. Saw every episode of the first and marvelled at Hugh Laurie being some kind of sex symbol when I'd spent years laughing at him as Bertie Wooster and in Blackadder. Top marks for reinvention! Have seen him in concert singing and playing piano too. Stopped watching GA and NJ when they moved to channels we don't subscribe to and didn't miss them, though I expected too. Ah, I am so fickle! For an oldie, Dr Finlay's Casebook.
ReplyDeleteI saw a couple of episodes of House which I enjoyed. I never watched the other 2 even though GA is still on. NJ seemed to be very big and then just went away. I don't know the other one you mentioned though.
DeleteI didn't know that about St. Elsewhere. Scrubs was one of my favorite shows when it was out. Do you remember Dr. Kildare? I liked that one a lot, and not just because of cutie Richard Chamberlain. My third choice would be The Mindy Project with Mindy Kaling. Too bad that didn't last long.
ReplyDeleteLoved St. Elsewhere and I think I would have really like dScrubs but I only saw a couple of episodes. I never saw Dr. Kildare but know about it no how every woman swooned for Richard Chamberlain. I didn't watch The Mindy Project at all
DeleteI loved St. Elsewhere. I enjoyed House during the first few seasons, but then it kind of went downhill. I really like Nurse Jackie.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Glad you like St. E? I saw a couple of episodes of House and liked it. I never watched Nurse Jackie
DeleteHeard of all three, but haven't watched any of them.
ReplyDeleteSit-coms would have been easier for me, with Scrubs and Becker. Anyway...
Diagnosis: Murder - Dick Van Dyke as a doctor and his son, Barry, as a cop.
Crossing Jordan - Jill Hennessy as a forensic pathologist with the Boston medical examiner's office.
Tru Calling - Eliza Dushku as a medical grad student working at a morgue.
I saw a couple of episodes of Scrubs and found it funny but not Becker. I loved Diagnosis Murder with Penis Van Lesbian:) Crossing Jordan is really quite good and the actress is now in Rizzoli and Isles. I have no idea about Tru Calling.
DeletePenis Van Lesbian? Ha. Love how you referenced that joke.
DeleteMarcus Welby...that takes me back;)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it? Love to see some of these now and see what I think of it.
DeleteI've heard of your three, but never watched them. When I watched soaps, I watched GH's companions, All My Children and One Life to Live (both gone now).
ReplyDeleteIf I had to pick three, I'd go contemporary. Chicago Med. Night Shift. (It's a summer series. And pretty similar to Chicago Med in the beats it hits.) And if working at a morgue counts, iZombie (although that's really more of a mystery of the week show).
I didn't know General Hospital was still on. :)
ReplyDeleteLove that you went with General Hospital! I watched semi-regularly when I was a wee one because my grandmother watched, back in the Jessie Brewer days but only intermittently since but my sister is a regular viewer to this day.
ReplyDeleteI loved Marcus Welby, M.D.! I've watched a few episodes recently and am staggered at the level of guest stars that the show had. It makes sense since the show was an enormous hit and Young had been around forever so probably was able to recruit his buddies to guest. Plus all the rising stars that passed through. The attitudes are dated now but Robert Young keeps it entertaining.
I am really surprised that we matched this week but happy that it's St. Elsewhere that we agree on. Amazing cast, real life marrieds William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett were always entertaining and I loved Christina Pickles head nurse. Glad you mentioned the Mrs. Hufnagle story line which was perfectly played by Florence Halop. It was a show that could make you laugh and break your heart in the same episode. By the way I LOVED the series ending. Didn't see it coming and that made it all the better.
Aside from our match I went with two that I loved as a kid/teen.
St. Elsewhere (1982-1988)-Set in Boston’s financially strapped St. Eligius Hospital (the St. Elsewhere of the title so called due to its less than exalted place in the city residents hearts despite it being a teaching hospital), headed by Drs. Donald Westphall, Daniel Auschlander and autocratic Mark Craig (Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels respectively). The series follows the overlapping lives of many incoming residents, doctors and patients and their families, including something of a first for serial TV Westphall’s autistic son Tommy (Chad Allen). Critically acclaimed series that though never a big ratings success managed to run for six seasons as a prestige show for the network. This served as the launching pad for many stars including series regulars Denzel Washington, Alfre Woodard, Mark Harmon and Helen Hunt. Laced with an absurdist edge the show could be hysterically funny and also crushingly sad, sometimes within the same episode.
M*A*S*H (1972-1983)-Long running comedy/drama show based on Robert Altman’s film about life in a Mobil Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War featuring the travails, both funny and sad, of Dr. “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda), Head Nurse Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit)-both of whom stayed throughout the series run-and the various others surgeons & aides-Trapper John, B.J., Henry Blake, Colonel Potter, Radar O’Reilly, Charles Winchester, Frank Burns, the crossdressing Max Klinger and Father Mulcahy who passed through. Beginning as a light hearted comedy this morphed through the years into one of the finest dramedy series in history. What kept it vital aside from excellent writing was the flow of characters during the years allowing for fresh interactions and situations.
Medical Center (1971-1976)-Dr. Paul Lochner (James Daly-father of performers Tyne & Timothy) is the chief of staff at a large L.A. based hospital. Experienced and capable he is friendly with the young associate professor of surgery Dr. Joe Gannon (Chad Everett) but they often clash over medical procedures for the patients. Lochner favoring tried and true methods while Gannon believes in more experimental methods. Weekly different challenges present themselves to the doctors and nurses, overseen by Head Nurse Eve Wilcox (Audrey Totter).
Hi Birgit - I remember Dr Kildare and was hooked when I was able to watch ... as you mention Thornbirds was a magical story ... American soaps I rarely did watch and that still applies ... but they certainly entertain - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI was here earlier and had started a rather long comment about how I hadn't seen any of these medical dramas. Then lightening took out my electricity and I was left in the dark (literally and figuratively).
ReplyDeleteI won't even try to remember what I said before, but I wish I had known about St. Elsewhere. It sounds like a groundbreaking series.
Also, happy Canada Day tomorrow and here's to the 150th being a great year to celebrate.
I was reading back some of the comments and got to Elliptical Man and your comment to him. I hate to correct you, since you are SO much more knowledgeable about movies and TV than I, but Jill Hennessy, one of your fellow Canadians, originally of Law and Order fame was never in Rizzoli and Isles. Angie Harmon, also of Law and Order fame played Jane Rizzoli, while Sasha Alexander of NCIS fame played Maura Isles.
ReplyDeleteTru Calling is in my opinion, not a medical drama, but a supernatural drama. Tru Davies works in a morgue where dead people ask for her help. She then relives the day to try to prevent their death.
Eliza Dushku, who I feel is best known for her role as a vampire slayer on both Buffy and Angel series, was Tru and she just completed a three episode arc with the CBS drama Bull. There has been talk she may be back as a regular next season.
What I don't know could fill an ocean. What I do know, can fill a thimble (grin).
My mom used to watch Days of our lives ALL THE TIME. I knew almost all the characters simply from overhearing the TV and her.
ReplyDeleteI thought about picking Marcus Welby, myself, but I don't really remember much about it other than the fact it existed and was quite popular. I do remember watching St. Elsewhere off and on. That was a good show. And who wasn't into General Hospital at some point? For me, I was heavily into it during the early 80s heyday of the Luke and Laura saga.
ReplyDeleteHoly - General Hospital still comes on? I thought all the old soaps had given up the ghost. I used to watch that with my mom back in the 80s, but I honestly remember nothing about it.
ReplyDeleteI liked House when it was on but going back and watching it again I realize how inane and repetitive it was (definitely not meant for binge watching). We were into Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice for awhile but dear god I can't believe Grey's is still on.
I used to laugh when Marcus Welby came on because wherever he was, something bad happened. If he was at a baseball game someone would collapse. It was like he was the kiss of death.
ReplyDeleteI loved St. Elsewhere! Mark Harmon was to die for on there LOL. And Denzel! That show was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch General Hospital back in the 80s because of Luke and Laura, etc. I haven't watched it now in years but I just loved soaps for so long. I think it's a shame there are hardly any left on now. They were fun to watch.
FRANKENSTEIN.
ReplyDeleteYOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
(Hey, Comedy is serious bu$ine$$.)
GLEN OR GLENDA
Am I being serious? Yeah. But only with the third one.
~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Oops! Didn't notice the letters "TV" in the title until just now.
DeleteI guess that renders my earlier comment null and void.
But since I don't know any TV medical shows, I am redeemed.
~ D-FensDogG
[Link:) Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Happy Canada Day!
ReplyDeleteYou always teach me fun trivia. I had no idea Denzel Washington started on St. Elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd General Hospital? HIGH FIVEs, girlfriend. Luke and Laura and the ice princess and -my favorite couple on that show: Brenda and Sony. So hot. He's still on the show, right? I wonder what she's doing these days.
Keep a smile, Birgit.
Awesome show! Happy Canada Day!
ReplyDeleteHappy Canada Day!
ReplyDeleteI loved Marcus Welby and so wished to have a real-life doctor like him. Those are days of the past sadly!
ReplyDeleteDang. Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon. I should have watched St. Elsewhere!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was on USS America, a lot of the guys from my division would head up to the TV lounge to watch General Hospital ("GH" to the cool kids). In fact, I remember it as being the place where Richard Simmons first got national exposure (ooh, THAT doesn't sound good). A lot of people who are younger than me (the number grows bigger with each passing year) are quite surprised when I tell them Richard ran aerobics classes at Luke's disco.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten Marcus Welby, but it was a great show. I don't think we ever missed seeing it. I do remember Grey's Anatomy. It was one we watched until they writers just couldn't come up with fresh ideas. MASH, of course. I still watch those re-runs.
ReplyDeleteI blush to admit I never watched General Hospital either.
ReplyDeleteGeneral Hospital was always on when I was a kid, and it's amazing the things I can pick up and remember, even if I didn't actively watch it. I remember Luke and Laura. Mobster Sonny. The Quartermaine family.
ReplyDeleteIf only I was this good at remembering things that mattered.