In the 70s, we had Emergency and Medical Center. Anybody remember some 60s medical dramas like Ben Casey or Dr. Kildare?
It had great scripts….but it was too “serious” for me as a kid.
The pace was too slow, too.
Yeah, but James Brolin was hot. 🩺🔥
I was a big Marcus Welby fan, also loved Emergency! and Dr. McCoy on Star Trek. Went into nursing as a profession, even.
Can't express how disappointed I was to find out that real doctors are nothing like TV doctors, but gotta say, EMS and FD still have my undying respect.
You're not trying to tell me medical professionals don't spend all their time screwing in on call rooms and janitors closets?
Yeah, nobody I knew had time for that!
🤣👍
I went onto nursing school thinking the doctors in real life were empathic and sympathetic as on TV. All we nursing students found out fast that wasn't true. I wound up in accounting instead.
I had such a kid crush on Dr Welby
There's a clip on YouTube of Jimi Hendrix' first appearance on The Dick Cavett Show and sitting next to him is Robert Young ( Marcus Welby ).
Had an episode where he "cured" a gay man.
Times have changed. A little.
Marcus Welby gets the credit for my mom figuring out that 8 yr old me had an ulcer that was well on it's way to becoming a bleeding ulcer.
When I was a kid, I watched Emergency every week. Because of that show, I became a EMT and then a Paramedic.
Thank you Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, you are forever my heroes. 🤩
Emergency was actually my favorite.
I used to think I had brain surgery as a kid….and Ben Casey was a neurosurgeon.
Emergency! introduced the idea of the integrated EMT/paramedic service to the country. Before that, ambulances were called separately from fire services and weren't always run by the local government.
And that station call klaxon will be burned into my brain forever. AHHH OHHH EEEEEE
Yup, true this.
Before then, there really were a such thing as "ambulance drivers," often run by funeral homes, police services and whatnot.
But they came to the realization that people were still dying since they had no medical care on the way to the hospital. And the services run by funeral homes probably didn't care if you got there alive or dead! 😉
I have Squad 51's tones on my phone. I'll probably use it as my ringtone for the next convention I go to, since they're so loud. 😅
If you really want to be a boss, get the original Motorola Quik-Call pager for your home.
One of my forebears was in the business of building custom coach bodies. Depending on the paint and accessories, they could be either hearses or ambulances. Yep, they shoveled you into the thing & hoped you were still alive when you got to the hospital.
I LOVED Emergency. And Marcus Welby. Later, I got into Trapper John.
It’s funny how Trapper John was a prankster in MASH….but a majorly serious doctor in Trapper John.
I loved, and still do, any and all medical shows. I wasn’t aware of it back in the day, but watched as an adult The Bold Ones: the New Doctors. With EG Marshall and David Hartmann. What was interesting about it, was they explored “new” surgeries and treatments, like cardiac bypass, acupuncture, etc.
David Hartmann! David Hartmann! ;-)
I was traumatized by a Ben Casey episode where a girl is blinded after a metal pipe falls off a truck in front of her and goes through her windshield. I will NOT drive behind trucks full of metal pipes.
The woman in pain who had her nerves severed. Closing shot: her bare foot stepping on broken glass. Yow!
Back in the early '90's when I worked at a Level One Trauma Center, a little boy of about three years old was admitted to the floor I worked on. He suffered a terrible facial wound. And it was from a metal pipe that fell off of a truck and struck the car's windshield. Fiction sometimes becomes real life.
My wife doesn’t like driving behind ANY truck.
Ben Casey definitely was a “heavy” show.
Julia, 1968 to 1971. Single mom and nurse.
Loved this show.
I saw a few episodes as a kid. Remember Corey, especially.
Learned about the significance of it when I was a teenager.
Also Quincy MD loved that show!
I loved it the first time around, but rewatching it a couple of years ago, I realized Quincy was kind of an asshole.
He was sort of like Oscar Madison.
"Quincy" is running on GET (Great Entertainment Television), a cable TV channel.
I think Dr. Kildare ended up going to Japan to be a Samurai.
"Shogun" for the win. I loved that mini series!!!
Was that before or after he went to Australia?
Medical Center w Chad Everett!
They showed his personal, as well as his medical life.
Squad 51
Kmg 365
100%!!!!
Loved Dr. Kildare. As a young girl of about nine years old, I fell in love with Richard Chamberlain. And it also sparked my interest in the field of medicine. I became an RN.
I did not much care for Dr. Ben Casey. He was too serious.
Loved Marcus Welby, M.D. Everyone I knew wanted a family doctor like him.
I was scared of the intro to Ben Casey. It seemed like some sort of alchemy to me.
Yes, and the concept of infinity just blew my mind as a kid. Still does!
We watched Marcus Welby in the '60s.
Man. Woman. Life. Death. Infinity.
I remember!
Mars, Venus, Asterisk, Cross, Lazy 8 ;-)
I worked with his cousin, Scott Jaffe. Funny, he was a pharmacist. In the NYC area, I dont remember,somehow, Dr. Kildare being shown in reruns ever. Ben Casey however was shown on Channel 4 in the early to mid 70s right before sign off..Great show. Remember the last year where they ended the show 5 minutes early and went into the next weeks show?
Really the only 60s TV I remember is Star Trek and Laugh In.
Emergency because Randy Mantooth was 🔥. I had a big poster of him on my wall😆
But did you have a personally autographed photo and Bob Dylan's new unlisted phone number? As an american citizen you are entitled to.
My mum was a nurse and she loved all the medical shows
I vaguely remember Dr Kildare, and something called Dr Finlay's Casebook.
There was also Young Dr. Kildare in the 70s.
I remember a TV show called "The Nurses" (1962-1965) I watched with my mother (she was a nurse). I think it became a daytime soap opera after the third season. I believe the star of the show was named Zina Bethune.
There was a definite soap opera known as The Doctors, too.
Yep, my folks were into that one.
At the rsik of really showing my age...Rescue 8
I’m probably just as old lol…but I don’t remember Rescue 8.
I do remember Ben Casey from the early 60s.
I had a Ben Casey shirt, the kind that buttoned on the side of the neck.
I remember Marcus Welby, but I never really watched it. Too boring for my preschooler mind.
How about the shows, Dragnet, Adam 12, or the FBI? If you want to go back even further, how about Car 54? Which actually had Fred Gwynne, aka Herman Munster, as a policeman, it also starred Al Lewis, a.k.a. Grandpa Munster. I don't really remember watching that one but I do remember hearing about it.
I didn’t watch Car 54 as a kid….and it took place where I was born and raised. I enjoyed the show as an adult around 1990 when it was on Nick At Nite.
Of course I enjoyed Adam-12 and Dragnet. The intro to The FBI was absolutely iconic.
The medical shows did make quite a decent impact on me.
Quincy.
Quincy was good. Yes.
I don't recall watching it, but I remember Dr. Kildare. My mother liked Marcus Welby, MD, so we watched that when it was on.
I just wasn’t mature enough to get the full impact of Marcus Welby.
I only remember the 70s Young Dr. Kildare, but I do remember Ben Casey.
This is all I remember from Ben Casey:
♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞
Very memorable. It scared me as a little kid.
I saw it on YouTube, and liked it very much.
Very big, huge crush on Richard Chamberlain. Then he was in the Thorn Birds- mid 70’s I think- older but still good looking.
I loved those medical dramas
In grade school the big fad was Ben Casey and Dr Kildare doctor shirts with the buttons running down the side. Ben Casey shirts had the buttons on one side and Kildare shirts were the other side. I had the Ben Casey type. But the Kildare shirts were more popular and cooler.
The Kildare episode where Yvette Mimieux was a surfer girl. She had a seizure and fell off her surfboard and was diagnosed with epilepsy. I was so scared I would get that disease after that.
I remember Medic, starring Richard Boone before he became Paladin. I was only about 6 or 7 at the time, but the show about the last hours of Abraham Lincoln's life were unforgettable.
I don't ever remember seeing the Medical Center series on re runs. I'd love to see that again. They had some hot topics.
One of our local TV stations had a late night Saturday night program. They usually ran B horror movies, and filled in with silly skits. One of the skits was "Ben Crazy". It started with the same opening as the TV show...man, woman, birth, death, infinity. But instead of making the infinity sign he drew a $... followed by a cha-ching cash register sound.
I was 5 or so, and totally in love with Dr. Kildare.
My late grandmother, superannuated 1920s beauty and huge hypochondriac bless her heart, loved Dr. Kildare and General Hospital.
Station 51 covered all of Las Angeles county.
Julia—1968-1971. Diahann Carroll played a widowed mother who worked as a nurse in a doctor’s office. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_(1968_TV_series)
My first crush was on Chad Everett on Medical Center 1969-1976.
General Hospital every day. A full time three hour waster on ABC soaps.
One of the other networks came up with an Emergency-like show, called Firehouse. Probably only one season, but I ate it up. Had a great opening theme.
Not exactly doctors, but does anyone remember a show called Rescue 8?
I probably should….but I have no memory of it.
First-run from 1958 to 1960.
I have no memory of any reruns.
Medical Center focused on the relationships between the workers at the hospital, and the main doctor’s dating situations.
There was a show on in the early 70's called Police Surgeon. The reason I remember it is because the guy in the title role was a main cast member of a soap opera that my mom and grandma loved.
Don't forget this one -- Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television series that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to May 4, 1976.