Original subtitles

The drama of it is intense, life-and-death stuff.

This world of medicine has been such a rich area.

Put your hand between her legs and hold the head in.

Keep breathing, ma'am.

"Groundbreaking"... People say that word a lot,

but this really was groundbreaking television.

The show is really about flawed heroes.

What do you think you're doing, the Sistine Chapel?

Finish her up, start an IV in room two.

It was real, and it was gritty.

Peter, it's over.

Hey, now, come on, Pete, it's over!

It's doesn't even make sense to me.

I'm going, "D5, lactated ringers, colloids,

O-negative blood, and intubation tray."

I'll get stat lytes, type and cross, 4 units of whole blood.

Medical shows, in particular, have always been popular.

"Pioneers of Television" was made possible by

contributions to your PBS station

from viewers like you.

They played the doctors and nurses we watched every week.

People used to come up to me all the time,

"Oh, my god, I work in a hospital.

The arrogant surgeon, you got that down."

Suddenly, I was doing "Dr. Kildare."

And it was amaz... I mean, it took right off,

all around the world, as a matter of fact.

Get an airway from my bag.

There's something so intrinsically compelling

about medical shows, especially about the ER.

What's the pulse?

Pulse is 140, pressure 60 over 40.

I was sure they had made a mistake.

When Howie came in, it gave a flip to the profession.

It was great.

I'm going to be totally honest with you now,

I've never done anything like this.

What is that thing, gall bladder?

Liver.

I hate liver. Unless it's covered with onions.

I think nurses are terrific,

and I was so proud to represent a nurse.

The relationships alone, both on screen and off...

I mean, we really became a family.

Dr. Carter, stat. Trauma line.

They shaped our understanding of medicine,

for better and worse.

I saw a guy on one show

actually listening to a patient's heart

with a stethoscope, and the earpieces were behind his ears.

You've got all these phone calls!

Dr. Blackburn wants to see you when you're free.

Received, noted.

It was the biggest innovation of medical shows I'd ever seen.

I just happened to be in it.

The world of it is inherently dramatic

and relates to the life-and-death experience

that we have as human beings.

Together, they built medical shows

into one of television's most popular forms.

They are the pioneers of television.

Clear!

Mr. Jackson, where does it hurt?

Where does it hurt, Mr. Jackson?

Does it hurt when you breathe in?

From the very first scenes, it was clear

that "ER" wasn't going to be a typical medical show.

When we first started, it was complete pandemonium.

- Do you have pain in your head? - No.

- How about your neck, any pain? - No.

All right, now, what I want you to do, ma'am...

I want you to tell me if it hurts you when you breathe.

We wanted these guys to feel and look and sound

like real emergency room physicians.

- Time? - Two minutes.

Come on, sweetheart.

Getting me just a little nervous here.

Okay, paddles. Let's go.

Clear!

Okay.

Is that a blip?

Recharging.

We have the respect of doctors

because they appreciated what we were trying to do.

What the producers of "ER" were trying to do

was create a medical show with a new sense of realism.

That meant using the language of real doctors,

even if the TV audience didn't understand.

65-year-old male with severe peripheral vascular disease...

"manifested by claudication of the left calf,

10 days post-op from Mercy General

after having an aortic bifemoral bypass.

Normal post-operative course till about six hours ago

when he began to experience the gradual onset

of lower-left quadrant pain

without palliative or provoking factors."

Take that!

Actor Noah Wyle's proficiency with medical jargon

was in sharp contrast to his character, Dr. John Carter,

who had no mastery of anything, at first.

That character started off as, basically, comic relief.

You know, I was the guy

that would spill trays of urine on myself

and sort of fall down and pass out at the sight of blood.

Thank you, doctor.

You're very welcome.

When do I come to have my stitches out?

Oh, uh... three weeks.

When my son had stitches in his foot, they said 10 days.

Really? Well, 10 days, three weeks... any time in there.

It takes a skilled actor to play an unskilled doctor.

And Noah Wyle knew just how to make it work.

It was this scene... which he also played in his audition...

That won him the role.

Ow! Look, doc, you don't mind my asking,

have you done this before?

Officer, I'd hate to tell you how often I've done this before.

I just knew that if I did this little bit

where, once I stuck him and the guy screamed,

if I just looked around to make sure I wouldn't get in trouble,

that I'd have the room in the palm of my hand.

Okay, you're going to feel a little needle.

Oww!

Come on, that wasn't that bad.

But we missed the vein.

Noah Wyle holds the record,

playing a doctor longer than anyone else

in a prime-time medical series.

He constantly changed and evolved.

If I'd stayed being the comic relief character

who was constantly screwing up, that may have been frustrating.

Uh...

But he kept growing as I kept growing.

Over the years, Carter faced addiction and rehab,

was stabbed and recovered, went to the Congo and returned.

While shooting in Africa, life imitated art

as actor Noah Wyle was pressed into real-life medical service.

We were shooting in the Kalahari Desert.

It was 123 degrees.

Between takes, the on-set medic passed out.

Wyle grabbed a working IV and didn't hesitate.

I stuck him with a 14-gauge needle

and revived him with a bag of saline,

and then I did three or four more that day.

And, uh...

You know, there was enough that we picked up through osmosis

that we could actually practically be of use

in certain circumstances.

In the early years,

John Carter's mentor was Dr. Peter Benton,

played by Eriq La Salle.

- John Carter. - Yes, sir.

In the scene where he meets Carter,

Benton's confidence is clear,

but for actor La Salle,

this first day on the job was a challenge.

This is the admitting desk.

If you need someone paged or a chart called up, do it here.

On the very first day of work, he had to deliver

what we used to call a "bullet,"

which is a huge, long monologue of medicalese,

as he gives my character a tour through the hospital.

Everybody gets an IV the minute they walk through the door.

Use an angiocath with a 16 needle.

You need a large bore in case they're bleeding

and you need to transfuse them.

- Do you know how to start an IV? - Uh, actually, no.

We're walking, we're talking, we're going through, you know,

this Steadicam is carrying us everywhere.

We're going in rooms, coming out of rooms,

going around in circles, doing all this.

And if the camera bumped into somebody,

at the very end of the scene, we had to start over.

So whenever you can, make sure

you go with the patients to x-ray.

Don't let them get scared, don't let them get hurt.

Ah! Here's Dr. Morganstern. He's the head of ER.

One take led to the next take, led to the next take,

and finally we got up to about 19 or 20 takes,

and I see the director and cameraman

started getting really nervous

because we were running out of film.

Your room will be down here, that's where you sew people up.

- Do you know how to suture? - Uh...

No. Okay, I'll teach you.

Not only was it the 22nd take, they were out of film.

So basically, we either got it or we didn't.

So everyone is holding their breath.

And, on the 22nd take...

I nail it.

- Do we have anyone in sew-up? - How would I know?

You know, I love this great spirit of camaraderie.

Everyone wants to help, you know.

George and Noah just look at me and they do...

And I'm like, what the hell is that?

And they go, "22."

We'll take her into two.

Doug, take the little girl into one.

The roving, uninterrupted shots were a signature of "ER"

and had to be expertly choreographed

to ensure dialogue, movement, and medical procedures

all went perfectly.

And 1, 2, 3, go!

Good. Type and cross match

6 units packed cell, CBC, chem 7.

Let's get moving now.

CHILD, IN DISTANCE: Mommy!

I need a chest tool tray. Come on, people, let's move.

This isn't a museum. Let's go, we've got work to do.

- Who else is on the floor? - Everybody's working.

Well, call the O.R., let's see what they can spare.

Mommy!

Can you cross-match four units?

If you can choreograph things where the camera's moving

and the actors are moving and you're revealing what you need,

you can get a lot done in a single take,

and we called those "oners."

Those long scenes, those long "oners,"

the one thing that you hoped wasn't going to happen

was that you would have the last line.

Because if you had the last line or the few lines

and you screw it up,

then it's on you.

I felt worse for the actors that had to make an entrance,

you know, seven minutes into one take.

Going, "Ahh, I don't want to drop this tray!"

"ER" won accolades for its medical accuracy,

but it was the characters that kept audiences coming back.

None more important than the head of the ER,

Dr. Mark Greene, played by Anthony Edwards.

Anthony Edwards was very much the lead actor on the show

and the public face of the ensemble.

- Dr. Greene. - What is it?

6:30, Dr. Greene.

This well-intentioned, overworked person,

who is always trying to do the right thing

and loves medicine.

The fact that he loved it so much

is what really attracted me to it.

And then realizing and seeing the storytelling

that then there was going to be probably every problem

put in front of him that he was going to have to face.

And that's what the adventure became.

In season seven, Anthony Edwards began

the longest death scene in television history,

two years from the time Dr. Mark Greene

learned he was terminal, until he actually passed away

from brain cancer.

I remember.

It was a horrible way to go,

but if you are going to go,

they let Mark Greene go in a way that was kind of beautiful.

Mark Greene's nice guy persona was a counterpoint

to the roguish bad boy, Dr. Doug Ross,

played by George Clooney.

Dr. Ross.

Hi. Tracy Young. I'm a third-year student.

Well, hello, Tracy Young, it's nice to meet you.

For the next few days, we're going to be working closely.

Not that closely, Dr. Ross, but I'll do my best to help you out.

Tell me what to do, I'll get started.

Just trying to be friendly.

I've got all the friends I need, thanks.

Shall we get started?

George Clooney had starred

in a long list of shows before "ER",

but it was this series that would launch him

to the next level.

We were shooting in Chicago and it was lunchtime

and George and I were on our way to grab something to eat.

We passed by an office building

and there were a lot of women.

These women literally came out and started running after us.

And George and I are like, you know...

And they're like, "Ahhh!" And we're like...

And we're running and we're trying to...

And we... I know it sounds...

We ducked into an alley.

Literally, it was like a cartoon.

We ducked into an alley, and this herd of women went by.

And we're in the alley, and we just look at each other,

and we're like, what the...?

And... and it was the beginning.

He's relatively attractive.

So, I think...

you know, it's not so bad.

Uh, so I think that...

Women love him. Guys want to be his friend.

George Clooney was much more than a pretty face.

He was a leader on the set and willing to stand up

for his co-stars when they were wronged.

For example, TV Guide repeatedly featured

"ER" 's white actors on its covers.

But the show's African American stars

did not receive equal treatment.

So George Clooney stepped in.

George had actually mounted a campaign.

He'd done a lot of research and he'd found out,

for instance, with TV Guide, at that time,

that, historically, they had

more cartoon characters on their cover

than they had had African Americans.

And that the only time

they ever put African Americans on the cover

was for the February month,

which is the shortest month and Black History Month.

It caused enough of a stink that Eriq got his cover

and we all learned the power of George's pen.

He writes a very good letter.

Early in "ER" 's run, George Clooney began

to get offers for major movies, like "Batman."

Hi, Freeze. I'm Batman.

For a time, Clooney was shooting "ER" during the day

and movies at night.

But he found clever ways to manage the workload.

And so he developed a technique

where he'd write the lines on a patient's bed sheet,

so he could just sort of look down and read.

We have a 5-year-old with known coarctation of the aorta.

She had a sudden onset of severe respiratory distress

about an hour ago.

Are you worried about congestive heart failure?

Resp's 40, BP's 80 over 100.

She's tachycardic, her rate is 180.

- Did you get blood gases? - Mm-hmm.

- Chest film? - Yeah.

Or he'd write his lines inside the medical clipboards,

so he could say, "Well, it looks like you're going to need

a CBC chem-7 cross-table C-spine...

And we're gonna get that for you as soon as we can."

He could have left earlier, too, but he stayed

and did what he said he was going to do.

You know, if there's anything George is

is he's true to his word.

George Clooney's first love interest on "ER"

was Carol Hathaway, played by Julianna Margulies.

Carol, are you sure that you don't have

a PKU card tucked away

in that special stash of yours?

Like this?

I can always count on you.

Even if you do prefer football players.

Had your chance.

Oh! I was young. I was a fool.

You're still a fool.

Originally, the writers planned to kill off

Margulies' character in the pilot.

But viewers wouldn't let that happen.

The reaction of test audiences

persuaded producers to keep her on.

As she lay on her death bed,

the looks and the energy that everybody else conveyed

about their feeling towards her

was so powerful that, when they tested the pilot,

her character tested way through the roof.

Let's go.

Call respiratory. We may need to intubate.

You know what she took?

I don't know, she just went into the medicine cabinet.

We've got a lot of stuff around.

The near-death of Margulies' character

was a rare opportunity for "ER" 's cast to show emotion.

- Why did she do it? - Doesn't matter why she did it.

We don't ask that about any other OD

that comes through these doors, we don't ask it about this one.

Most of the time, the actors tried to withhold

their character's feelings, like a real doctor would.

A policy that was enforced in weekly meetings.

Every night we aired,

we would get together and watch that show as a cast.

I don't know what the rest of them say about that experience,

but for my mind, we were pretty merciless on each other.

If there was a moment, like an extra emotional moment,

your job was to walk away from it.

If any character, any actor, took a moment to themselves

and sort of sighed or rubbed their neck or...

took a little kind of character moment,

we would be merciless, we would fire on that person

and tease them mercilessly.

'Cause doctors don't stop and think about

or emotionally take that time of like,

"That was the toughest patient of the day,

and I'm gonna hold for commercial."

You know, you just don't do that.

Because we wanted it to seem like,

no matter what, there's another patient to treat.

No matter what, you're needed someplace else.

The directors would get very frustrated

because they'd be like, "Please, stay a little longer."

We're like, "No, I got work to do."

And we'd pick up a chart and keep going.

"ER" storylines often ventured far

from standard medical show fare,

addressing the genocide in Darfur

or the ravages of Alzheimer's.

And the series shed new light on HIV

through the character of Jeannie Boulet,

played by Gloria Reuben.

There was someone very close to me

who was HIV-positive.

And, uh...

this story of Jeannie Boulet germinated from...

this person's story.

So, how this particular person was living his life

with a great deal of dignity...

You here for testing?

No.

You are HIV-positive?

- Yes. - When did you find out?

Yesterday. I'll come back later, all right?

Wait. You're already here.

Why don't you fill out a form and I'll make sure you get in

to see somebody, okay?

Top form is general information. Next few pages for insurance.

Thanks.

Without hitting somebody over the head with it,

you know, without preaching about it,

if one can display a certain way of being in the world,

even though dealing with

extremely difficult personal challenges,

I think that's a good thing.

In "ER" 's sixth season, Gloria Reuben left the show,

a path eventually taken

by every member of the original cast.

By the time the series reached its final episode in 2009,

the faces were all different.

But the ER was the same.

Check for singed nasal hair from smoke inhalation.

Set up for intubation!

As innovative as "ER" was, it did have a forerunner,

a series that prototyped many of the ideas

that "ER" would build on...

The long, roving shots, the interwoven storylines,

the doctors with very human frailties.

I mean, we killed a lot of people.

We should have saved maybe a few more people.

He's flatlined.

No!

Give it up.

4... 5...

I'll inform the family.

My hands are numb.

And I was proud that it was real

and that it wasn't all glossy and made-up and romanticized.

Designed as television's first realistic medical show,

"St. Elsewhere" began filming in mid-1982.

But after a few days, production was abruptly halted.

And half-way through the pilot,

Bruce Paltrow, who was the producer,

stopped

and said, "It's going the wrong way."

Overnight, several key actors were replaced.

Among the newcomers was a performer

who'd never acted before.

His only show-biz experience was doing this...

If you look at my early stuff, I didn't have an act.

Why are you laughing?

Does it look... No, does it look stupid?

And then I started going, "What? What? Tell me what?"

And that became my catchphrase.

What, what, what, what?

No, tell me.

And I didn't have anything to do and I have OCD

and I had gloves with me, and out of a lack

of anything else to do, I pulled a rubber glove on my head,

and that became a signature piece.

Okay, how many fingers am I holding up?

Howie Mandel had always hoped to land a sitcom.

And that's what he thought he was reading for

when a call came in for an audition.

I went home, and I remember telling my wife,

she goes, "How did it go?"

And I went, "I don't think it went real well."

She goes, "Do you feel bad?"

And I said, "You know, I don't feel terrible."

She goes, "Why?"

I go, "Because it wasn't funny."

I had no idea what I was reading for,

and it just wasn't funny.

This is the worst sitcom I had read in my life.

This torturous, not-funny sitcom.

It doesn't even make sense to me.

I'm going, "D5, lactated ringers, colloids,

O-negative blood, and intubation tray."

"Congratulations, you got it." What?

And there was a show called "St. Elsewhere."

You got x-rays... C-spine, chest, abdomen?

Yes. She's in sinus tach.

Give me a thoracotomy tray. Chest tube, 28 French.

I'll get stat lytes, type and cross 4 units whole blood.

Howie Mandel wasn't the only comic

destined for "St. Elsewhere."

After years in standup, Ed Begley, Jr.

Landed the role of Victor Ehrlich,

perhaps the most annoying doctor ever on television.

Ehrlich was a highly flawed individual.

Ahh!

The hours, oh, the hours.

I used to fantasize about sex, now all I dream about is sleep.

I'm losing my rabbit impulses.

He's one of those guys

that thought he was funnier than he was.

You know, trying to be the hospital class clown

and not really succeeding.

I wish I had a dollar for every metastasized cell in his liver.

How long you give him?

Six months, a year on the outside.

Ah, 20 bucks says he won't make it past May Day.

- You're on. - Hey, why don't we start a pool?

That's disgusting.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Ehrlich.

Why?

And they discovered this thing with Bill Daniels and I.

I was this tall, kind of goofy guy

that was very nervous around him and what have you,

and there was this Mutt and Jeff thing that they found was...

you know, that was good to write for.

Ed Begley, Jr...

and Billy Daniels

had one of the greatest moments in the history of art...

on "St. Elsewhere."

What's the mean flow?

Flow meter.

Ed Begley can't keep his mouth shut.

He's talking all through it as his assistant.

And at one point, they lean over the body

and...

Ed Begley says something.

Uh, 60 to 65.

Thought you'd get me a better vein than that.

Let's try it again.

Uh, yeah, 68.

Give me that.

And Billy can't take it anymore, and he bumps!

They're on the body, and he bumps his head

against Ed Begley's head...

by way of reprimand.

78!

Moron.

I thought that was the greatest moment I'd ever seen.

The cast of "St. Elsewhere" remains an unequaled mix

of experienced actors and up-and-coming stars.

Including Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington,

Ed Flanders, David Morse, Alfre Woodard,

Norman Lloyd, and Christina Pickles.

One of the memories I have was this very sweet scene

where I was massaging Denzel Washington's shoulders,

'cause he was having a hard time

and I was helping him through a hard time.

Being chosen Chief Resident is important to you.

The only reason I became a doctor

was because my father pushed.

He was a terrific actor to work with.

He was very present.

But at Brooklyn Jewish, I got a taste of administrating.

Leading other residents.

Finally found myself enjoying medicine for the first time.

Even today, I will get a call.

I don't care if it's 2:00 in the morning.

Denzel will call me from a movie set and say,

"Howie, how would you play this?"

And I'm more than happy

to help him and be there for him.

In an era when most medical dramas

featured just two or three main characters,

"St. Elsewhere" had more than a dozen.

But the innovations didn't end

with the unusually large ensemble cast.

Even more groundbreaking was the production technique

designed to mimic the look of a gritty documentary.

The camera roved the corridors,

moving from conversation to conversation,

without edits.

That meant extremely long takes that were not easily repeated.

I think we were the first show

to do these long, meandering shots,

where we would do like six pages of dialogue

all in one shot without a cut.

Are we doing rounds or what?

Don't tell me nobody ordered a Kosher plate.

We need a D.I. consult, 419, fast.

- I put her chart right there. - Big mistake.

And then we walked down that hall

and we'd go to a nurse's station,

or another pair of characters, and then they would go...

And then you'd come out of the room,

you'd be the last one in the sixth page,

with two lines.

If you got one word wrong, they'd go, "Cut! From the top."

And everybody had to go back to the top.

So, the pressure to be perfect was so incredible.

It's all got to work just right.

The crash cart has to go over here.

The amber bag has to come on there.

Ed Flanders comes in at this point, what have you.

The only time it gets difficult

is when you blow it or you drop the clipboard or something,

and everybody, the rest of the actors,

"Come on, get it right, for God's sake, would you?"

I got to talk to a doctor. I feel woozy.

Maybe it's chicken pox.

No, this ain't the chicken pox, I had the chicken pox.

It's a lot worse than the stupid chicken pox.

It's in good condition, huh?

Good condition? Mint condition.

I'm really not in the market for a car, Mark.

Not a car, a classic!

You did Lamaze, didn't you?

Yeah. It was all right the first time.

What do you mean?

By the time you get to your second kid,

you're gonna wish that the stork dropped it down the chimney.

It's all right: they don't start Lamaze till the seventh month.

The scariest thing was, two characters would meet,

then one would go off into the elevator

and then they'd go into the elevator

and two people would be talking in the elevator

while the crew was changing the outside

from second floor to third floor and the colors on the outside,

so when we walked out, it looked like a different floor.

I spent a lot of time studying my lines.

Because I was afraid to mess up.

And also because it was often unfamiliar sentences.

The name's Francine Delgado.

She, seven days ago, had a mitral valve replacement.

Well, what's her post-op course been like?

It was excellent till about 24 hours ago.

She started vomiting, started having diarrhea,

temperature went through the roof,

and in the last few hours,

she's been coughing without sputum production.

That style was favorable

to those of us who came from the theater.

Because in the long takes,

you got a sense of what you would do in the theater...

You would be playing a long scene.

No one on "St. Elsewhere"

knew more about acting for the theater than Norman Lloyd.

With a resume that includes performing

in the famed Mercury Theatre

with John Houseman and Orson Welles,

in the years before Welles created "Citizen Kane."

The best work Orson ever did was with Jack Houseman.

He needed that other voice that pushed him on.

They would get

in the most terrible arguments at rehearsals,

when we were at the Mercury.

They'd start screaming at each other.

I don't know over what.

Norman Lloyd also starred

in iconic films like

Alfred Hitchcock's "Saboteur."

Come on, quit stalling. Who are you?

I think I told you. A working girl on her day off.

Don't kid me!

What are you doing here?

The great thing about Hitch was, for example,

my scene on the Statue of Liberty.

Come on, Frye!

He expected you, as the character,

to bring the richness

and the personality and whatever the character was doing...

That's you as a professional actor.

He didn't go into any

deep, reasoning things,

which some directors took on.

On the set of "St. Elsewhere," Norman Lloyd regaled the cast

with his stories of old Hollywood.

I remember sitting around with Norman Lloyd and just, you know,

like with my jaw just dropped open,

just hearing the stories of, you know,

Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock.

I remember him saying things like,

"My dear, I was playing tennis with Charlie,"

meaning Chaplin.

You will be amused to know that when I was making

"Limelight" with Chaplin...

I overheard him...

talking to the cameraman.

And he asked Chaplin,

he said, "What do you want me to do in the scene, Charlie?"

And Chaplin said,

"Get me in the crosshairs and just stay with me."

So, he really knew how to shoot a picture.

Terri. I was just about to leave a note

and you're right about Palvera.

Have him see me in my office

in the morning before your audition, 9:30.

- He's all set for the part. - Wonderful!

You can't tell a story about Norman Lloyd

without becoming Norman, with his cadence.

"My dear, how are you."

And he's so sweet and he's so real.

He's not phony in any way, but you just become him

because it is so distinct.

Norman Lloyd's Dr. Auschlander had liver cancer...

and originally just a four-episode arc.

I can face the pain that goes with the injections,

the fever, the nausea, the diarrhea

that goes along with chemotherapy.

But what I hate is that, as the chemotherapy kills the cancer...

I will grow weaker and weaker.

But the producers kept him on,

creating television's first-ever cancer survivor.

It was just one of a long list of firsts

that "St. Elsewhere" brought to television.

We were the first in a lot of things,

but I think at the time we didn't even realize it.

We were just doing it.

Christina Pickles' character, Nurse Helen Rosenthal,

was television's first medical professional

with a drug addiction.

Mark Harmon's Dr. Caldwell was the first lead character

to contract AIDS.

And you haven't noticed anything?

I thought it was an infection.

Kaposi's Sarcoma?

I've got AIDS?

Tommy Westfall was the first character with autism.

And the series was decades ahead of its time

in addressing the cost of health care.

They went at

the cost of certain treatments and the inability

to get those treatments if you didn't have the money.

So, they attacked these social problems of medical aid head on.

"St. Elsewhere" was the first show that really got it right

about medical procedures, the way doctors lived...

The way they went through divorces

and cheated on their spouses and did all that stuff

and did drugs and were highly flawed.

Medical professionals praised all aspects

of "St. Elsewhere" 's realism

and often wanted to give input to the show's actors.

I had my first child in the midst of the "St. Elsewhere" run

and every doctor in the hospital wanted to come in

and share war stories or their favorite episode.

But they didn't just want to walk into the room

while my wife was in labor just to say that they were a fan,

so they wanted to seem useful.

So every doctor would walk in, put a glove on,

and while they were asking me about episodes,

would tell me how many, how dilated she was.

You know, after the fifth doctor,

it's like my wife was a puppet.

"St Elsewhere" 's most controversial moments

came in its final episode in 1989.

How's he been? He giving you any trouble?

In "St. Elsewhere" 's final scene,

the autistic Tommy Westfall stares at a snow globe

and it's implied that the entire series

was simply the product of his imagination.

Be careful with that, son.

Remember what I told you?

I don't understand this autism thing, pop.

He's my son.

I talk to him but I don't even know if he can hear me.

You go six years and you come up and say,

"Well, it's all in a little boy's mind."

I thought that was a cheat.

I thought it should have been a real experience of people.

I have no idea what it meant.

Now there are people say, "What a great idea!"

It's a cheat. It's a trick.

The show was above that, in my view,

and I think I was a minority of one.

So, I'm sorry, but that's the way I felt.

I thought it was great, and I think what was so great was

you can decide what you think.

Everybody can have their own opinion,

that was the genius of that.

I think we really hit

the right note

between very serious and very funny and very real.

Because life is pretty funny sometimes.

Go home. It's finished.

The year's over, your residency's over.

No, sir.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings.

♪ Ahhh... ♪

♪ Ah-ah-ah-ahhhh! ♪

Regardless of its ending,

"St. Elsewhere"... And later "ER"...

Changed medical dramas forever,

introducing ensemble casts...

frenetic pacing, and gritty realism.

It's a stark contrast to earlier medical dramas

that portrayed god-like heroes

who could heal every patient.

Heroes like Dr. Kildare.

In 1961, NBC made plans to launch

TV's first major medical drama,

"Dr Kildare."

In the lead role, they cast William Shatner.

But Shatner didn't want to commit

to the 16-hour-a-day rigor of a regular weekly series.

What isn't fun on a series is the isolation,

the eventual isolation of just you and the people

struggling to get through it, which is what it is.

The hours are so demanding.

When Shatner turned down the role,

the producers turned to a less experienced actor,

Richard Chamberlain.

In the first rehearsals, Chamberlain was shaky.

I'm no good at cold readings,

because it takes me time to find the character

and I always feel like I start from zero.

The series' more-experienced co-star, Raymond Massey,

had reserved the right to fire Chamberlain

if he felt the young actor wasn't right for the role.

So, as their first scene together approached,

the producers worried.

But when the film rolled,

everything clicked for "Dr. Kildare."

And we liked each other

right off the bat,

and he became a kind of surrogate father for me.

I didn't happen to get along very well with my own father,

and Ray was so, the opposite of my father.

He was so supportive and so interested

and so kind of non-judgmental.

I just don't know what kind of a future they can have.

I'll tell you a secret, doctor. They'll be all right.

When the time comes for Lucky Alcott to change his life,

he'll change it and he'll make the right decision because

instinctively he knows what is right for himself

and for those he loves.

It's rare to find a man who has

his own special kind of maturity,

who knows who he is and where he belongs.

I don't think a man like that can be beaten.

Even when I would screw up...

Especially in the early weeks, because I was so green...

He never twitched.

He never looked impatient, he just was with me.

And I will always remember that.

With Massey in his camp,

Richard Chamberlain pressed forward,

but it wasn't easy.

Medical dramas deal with life and death,

requiring a wide emotional range for the actors.

I had a couple of emotional scenes

and I found that, at that point in my life,

I was very out of touch with my feelings.

If I had to cry or something or get very angry in a scene,

it took me a lot of building up,

a lot of roaming the,

whatever part of the set was not being used,

going, "Oh god! What if my dog died?!"

You know, and things like that to try to work up the emotion.

When we get people around here like you, Mrs. Drussard,

we put them in restraints and we call the police

and have them removed to the hospital at City Jail.

Now, put that gown on and behave yourself.

"Dr. Kildare" was a big hit almost immediately,

largely because of Richard Chamberlain's

heartthrob appeal.

Meanwhile CBS had launched its own medical drama,

"Ben Casey," starring Vince Edwards...

Who had an appeal of his own.

Casey?

Casey!

Hold me!

Hold me! Hold me.

Women especially had a favorite

in one camp or the other.

Vince was a very different type.

He was dark and surly and hairy chested

and he'd have this thing... a lot of chest hair and stuff.

It was a darker show, I think, than ours.

And I was this '50s kid, you know,

all scrubbed and clean.

Both stars were so popular

that the merchandising machines kicked in,

selling Ben Casey board games, Dr. Kildare comic books,

and countless magazine covers.

Fans could even buy pillow cases

with a life-size image of Edwards or Chamberlain.

Ben Casey, of course, was opposite us

and we were neck and neck all the time, very competitive.

Enrollment in medical schools,

which had been going down, after our two shows were on,

it started to go up because all these young people

thought they were going to have these glamorous lives.

Real-life doctors and nurses both loved and hated

this first wave of medical shows.

On the plus side, the series often increased awareness

of important medical issues.

But many viewers assumed

what they saw on television was real,

creating a false expectation of the medical profession.

Some of these shows where the doctor

would come knocking at a person's door.

"You didn't make your appointment on Monday, Fred.

Are you feeling all right?"

And I don't remember a doctor ever knocking on my door

because I didn't make an appointment.

It was, you know, those kinds of shows.

The public's perception of doctors

was so influenced by television that many fans assumed

the actors actually knew medicine.

Ray would get into trouble with that sometime.

He was having dinner at Chasin's once

and somebody in a neighboring booth had a heart attack,

and people were very angry with him for not jumping in

and helping this guy, but Ray didn't know what to do.

Actor Raymond Massey didn't want people to think

he had medical expertise...

but Robert Young had no such reservations.

His willingness to blur the line between actor and doctor

would help make him television's

all-time best known physician...

Marcus Welby.

The psychiatry we know

is practiced sitting down.

Dermatologists don't

make house calls.

General practice is performed standing up,

sitting down, outdoors, indoors, wherever there's illness,

and that means everywhere.

Because, gentlemen, we don't treat fingers

or skins or bones or skulls or lungs.

We treat people.

Robert Young so relished playing a doctor,

he regularly gave speeches at medical conventions,

and offered health tips to cast and crew.

He was so enthusiastic with scalpels and needles,

he accidentally cut a fellow actor.

He got so carried away with the part, he cut him open.

There was blood all over the place.

Yes, Robert really did get into it.

For Robert Young, playing a wise doctor

helped him deal with his own personal insecurities.

Suffering from depression and alcoholism,

just getting through the day was sometimes a challenge.

He had his hangups.

If he had his problems, they were with alcohol,

probably at home,

but he never came on the set smelling of alcohol.

Ironically, in Robert Young's first big role on television,

he played one of the happiest people on TV...

The father on "Father Knows Best."

- Hi, brother! - I don't see why...

- Kathy. - Hello, Bud.

What did I do?

We're just glad to see you, son.

- Would you like some ice cream? - Or some milk?

After "Father Knows Best,"

Robert Young reached his lowest point

and finally sought professional help.

After a hospital stay and joining Alcoholics Anonymous,

he began to rebuild his life.

For Young, landing the role of Dr. Welby

would be the key step in his personal

and public rehabilitation.

But ABC didn't want him for the part.

Young pressed, even paying for his own screen test.

Finally, ABC agreed, and from the very first episode,

Marcus Welby became America's favorite doctor.

The part of Tina that wants to believe that

the best thing for her husband would be to commit him.

But there's another part... Her conscience.

You can't read it on a meter...

But you know what her conscience is telling her?

I'm her doctor, too.

Why do you think she wants my signature, not yours?

She doesn't want permission, she wants absolution.

Which you won't give.

Not until I've done everything I possibly can

for my patient's interests... As I see it!

And even then, only medical permission, not absolution.

I'm a doctor, not a priest.

Many medical professionals were not happy

with the "Marcus Welby" program,

thinking the portrayal was unrealistic.

Welby would sit with patients all night long,

invite them to dinner at his home,

drive them home from the hospital.

What are you prescribing?

Vitamins.

Also, I want you in my office next Monday morning at 11:00.

Robert Young didn't see the problem

and encouraged real doctors to be more like Welby...

and even offered medical advice in interviews.

Elena Verdugo, who starred as Welby's nurse,

was more responsive to the medical community...

and made sure her character stopped doing the one thing

that annoyed many nurses.

Coffee's hot. Want some?

Yes, ma'am. I'll take some black.

Thank you, Consuelo.

"Will you stop getting him coffee in the morning?"

- Here you are. - Thank you, ma'am.

"We're sick of it.

Now all of our doctors want us to get a cup of coffee for them

first thing in the morning."

And I said, "I got it, I got it. I will cut it down."

Elena Verdugo's Consuelo Lopez

was the first Latina character on television

to have a professional career.

They were looking for a Mexican girl,

and I said, "Well, forget it.

I'm not playing maids and housekeepers, you know."

That's all that they were showing.

Once she learned Consuelo was a nurse,

Elena took the role...

adding one more chapter to a family history

in Southern California that dated back to the 1700s,

when the Verdugo family owned all of what is now

Burbank and Glendale.

I'd say, "You're on my land... Off!"

It wasn't funny at the time, either.

Verdugo got her start on television in a sitcom

as the lead in "Meet Millie."

Oh, sweetie, what kind of problems have you got?

Well, how to cope with man's inhumanity to man.

How to achieve everlasting peace.

How to keep from falling off the roof.

Are you sure you didn't?

Verdugo brought her skill for comedy to "Marcus Welby,"

adding a lighter touch to a show

that could be overly serious.

Soon, she became a fan favorite...

and America's best-known nurse.

Why didn't you tell me?

Doctor, if I told you everything that goes on in the office...

If it concerns a patient, I want to know!

Yes, sir.

Mr. Whitehead came in and read his girlie magazine again.

Well, what do I care?

You just said that you wanted to know everything that goes on.

- Out! - You just said that you...

She was as American as apple pie.

But she had this Mexican...

a little bit of a fire underneath it all.

"Marcus Welby M.D." premiered on NBC

on September 23, 1969.

The very next day, CBS launched its own doctor series...

"Medical Center", starring Chad Everett

as surgeon Joe Gannon.

Have you ever had shortness of breath?

Nope.

Blurred vision?

Nope.

Nose bleeds as a kid?

Never.

But you have them now.

Mm-hmm.

We were a different cup of tea.

Scalpel.

We were medically correct.

We were required viewing for a lot of schools of nursing.

Exploring the left adrenal.

I find nothing.

Never did I not have

at least one technical advisor on the set,

or usually two or three, depending on the equipment

we were using on the procedures we were involved with.

- Blood pressure. - 80 over 40.

Better pump the blood in.

We used to have a laugh a minute watching

some of our peers in medical shows.

The guy would come in, he's all scrubbed,

he's gowned, he's masked, he's scrubbed, he's gloved.

And there is the patient's head.

Getting the shot?

And he goes, "Mrs. Brown, you're going to be fine.

Don't you worry now."

Pats her on the head and calls for a scalpel.

Staph infection! I mean it's a staph infection!

Despite the quest for accuracy,

this wasn't a show about operating procedures.

The producers of "Medical Center"

located the series in a hospital

mainly because it was the ideal starting point

for weekly life-and-death stories.

For the first year and half, Dr. Joe Gannon

valiantly kept all his patients alive.

Chad Everett wasn't satisfied.

I said, "Let me lose a patient.

That's where the drama is; I've got to lose a patient."

The producers agreed, but the writers

couldn't come up with a scenario Everett liked.

Don Green, our set decorator, comes up.

He sits down next to me, he says, "What's your specialty?"

And I said, "Well, open heart surgery.

I'm a thoracic surgeon."

Stand clear.

He said, "Why don't you crack her right there in a room

and do open heart massage?"

I went, "That is soooo good!"

Give me a scalpel.

She dies with her heart in my hand.

Joe. She won't come back.

"Medical Center" 's creators wanted to do more

than just entertain, they wanted to take a stand

on important issues.

When they learned that a woman

could be fired from her job for having a mastectomy,

they created an episode designed to help push through

a bill in the California legislature.

We did it in conjunction

with an Assemblyman named Albert Siegler.

Bill 1194.

Prior to that, in 1975... Nationwide...

It was lawful for an employer to discriminate

against a person for their medical history.

Since 1975 in California it's not.

And that's spread across the country.

All across United States now,

it is not lawful to do that.

Like "Dr. Kildare" and "Ben Casey,"

part of the appeal of "Medical Center"

was the handsomeness of its star, Chad Everett.

When the producers wanted to add a second leading man,

Everett politely objected.

So I went up to the producers and sat down with them and said,

"Gentlemen, there's only room for one stud in the barn."

Chad Everett's popularity points to a common thread

in all medical shows...

Viewers love doctors and nurses.

From Richard Chamberlain to George Clooney,

television's medical professionals portray

a goal to aspire to...

A model of knowledge, skill, and success...

an ideal that keeps viewers tuning in every week.

It's that primal thing that I think

draws people to medical shows.

I think we're here to show diversity.

This show is the forefront of that.

There'll always be medical shows 'cause it's a great way

to move a lot of stories along.

But ultimately, it's got to be about the people,

about the human stories, or you don't care about it.

Everybody ends up coming in the world in the hospital

and going out in a hospital, for the most part.

What an amazing discipline and training ground that was

for any of us who had anything to do

with "St. Elsewhere."

It's life and death.

I mean, uh...

while we're in it, we're about elongating it,

and then we all know we're gonna exit sooner or later.

Together they entertained us

and helped define our view of medicine.

They are the pioneers of television.

Then I get this phone call at my apartment one night.

It's Eriq, he says, "What are you doing this summer?"

Because we had two or three months to wait

to see if the show was going to get picked up.

I said, "I don't know. What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking about going to Spain; do you want to go?"

And I called George Clooney up and I said,

"Eriq just invited me to go to Spain."

He goes, "Don't go! Don't go! Here's what's gonna happen.

You're gonna fight, you're gonna hate each other,

have to come back and work together

every day for the next five years... don't go!"

I said, "Wanna come with us?" He goes, "Yeah."

For more insider features about your favorite TV stars,

stories you won't hear anywhere else,

visit pbs.org.