Medic,
U.S. television's first doctor drama to center on the skills and
technology of medicine, aired at 9:00 P.M. on NBC from mid-September
1954 through mid-November 1956. The half-hour drama became known
for an emphasis on medical realism that its creator and principal
writer, James Moser, brought to the episodes. Advertisements for
the series asserted that it "made no compromise with truth," and
journalistic articles about the show repeated that theme. A Look
magazine article in 1954 discussed Moser's "well-documented scripts,"
and emphasized that "details are checked, then double-checked."
TV Guide called the program "a new kind of TV shocker," and
added that it was "telling the story of the medical profession without
pulling any punches."
Medic
was not the first television series about medicine or physicians.
Both The Doctor and City Hospital had aired, on NBC
and CBS respectively, during the 1952-53 television season. Medic
is important because, much more than those two, it helped shape
the approach producers and networks took to doctor shows for the
next few decades. The program was in large part an anthology of
medical cases. They were introduced by Dr. Konrad Styner, played
by Richard Boone, who narrated the case and often participated in
it.
James
Moser had picked up his interest in the details of professions as
a writer on Jack Webb's hit Dragnet radio series, which prided
itself on presenting the facts of police cases straightforwardly.
Moser's interest in a TV series about medicine had been stirred
through a stint writing the Doctor Kildare radio show; through
his creation of an NBC radio pilot about medicine with Jack Webb
that did not go to series; and through watching his best friend,
an intern at LA County Hospital, make rounds on a wide array of
complex problems. He was aware of the strong popularity that medical
dramas such as Doctor Kildare and Doctor Christian had
enjoyed in the movies and on radio during the 1940s. He felt, however,
that those and other previous stories about medicine had not gone
deeply enough into the actual ways modern medicine healed.
Consequently,
the emphasis in Medic was on portraying physicians' approaches
to their patients accurately; subplots and nuances of characterization
were minimal. Because Moser wanted accuracy, and because the program's
first sponsor, Dow Chemical, gave the show a relatively small budget
that precluded fancy sets, he sought permission from the Los Angeles
Country Medical Association (LACMA) to film in actual hospitals
and clinics. In return for their commitment to open doors for the
show, LACMA physicians required that Moser and his executive producer
sign a contract that gave the Association control over the medical
accuracy of every script.
As
it turned out, Moser's positive attitude toward modern medicine
meant that LACMA did not have to worry about Medic's treatment
of health care's basic setting, characters and patterns of action.
Nevertheless, at a time of growing anxiety about physicians' power
in the larger society, the LACMA committee members insisted that
the physician's image in the show fit organized medicine's ideal
image. They even considered what a doctor drove and how he spoke
(the physician was almost always a man). Cars that were too expensive
and language with slang or contractions were ruled out. This close
involvement by organized medicine in the creation of doctor shows
was the beginning of a relationship between organized medicine and
doctor-show producers that lasted with few exceptions through the
1960s.
Medic's
first episode revolved around a difficult birth in which the mother
died and the child lived; an actual birth was filmed and televised.
Other stories dealt with such subjects as manic depression and corneal
transplants. Critics generally received the programs enthusiastically,
but the series got mediocre ratings against the hit I Love Lucy.
Two controversies in the second year, along with those mediocre
ratings, seem to have persuaded NBC executives to cancel the series.
The first controversy revolved around an episode that showed a cesarean
birth, incision and all. Learning about the episode before it was
broadcast Cardinal Spellman of the New York Archdiocese argued that
such subjects were not for exposure on television. He persuaded
NBC to delete the operation, much to Moser's public anger.
The
second controversy did not become public but further soured the
relationship between Moser and network officials. It centered on
a Medic episode about a Black doctor choosing between staying
in the big city where he trained or going home to practice in a
small Southern town. In an era still steaming with anti-Black prejudice
and crackling with tension over a recent Supreme Court decision
that mandated integration in schools and other places, executives
from Southern affiliates considered the Medic episode was
a firebrand. They told the network that they would not air the episode,
and NBC decided to shelve it.
Such
flare-ups notwithstanding, Medic impressed many television
producers and network officials of its day for its innovative blending
of documentary and dramatic traditions. Its legacy would be the
stress on clinical realism that medical series following it adopted.
In the 1960s, doctor shows melded that emphasis on realism with
a greater concern than Medic showed regarding the personality
of the physicians, the predicaments of their patients, and even
some social issues. James Moser's next show after Medic, Ben
Casey, contributed strongly to this evolution in television's
dramatic portrayal of medicine.
-Joseph
Turow
Turow, Joseph. Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and
Medical Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
