Search - Medic:TV Series on DVD

1950s Television

Marivaux | 06/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are someone interested in early television, "Medic" is worth your time and investment. I used an episode of the series when I taught a "History of Television" college course. The show represented a programming trend in the 1950s of featuring a docudrama approach to medical subjects, much in the way police work was treated in "Dragnet". The show's creator James Moser managed to have many of the show's segments filmed in actual Los Angeles-area hospitals and clinics. The show also intercut actual surgery footage in the realistic depiction of medical procedures. The show also became embroiled in censorship battles. For instance, one show was to feature a cesarean birth (including the incision). However, the New York Archdiocese protested and NBC forced the elimination of the footage from the episode. Another show dealing with a Black doctor struggling with whether he should return to the South to practice medicine led to an uproar from Southern TV affiliates, and NBC again buckled and rejected Moser's demand that the episode be aired. The show is also noteworthy for featuring Richard Boone as Dr. Konrad Styner, who served as the show's narrator and an occasional character in the show's anthology-style episodes. Boone would later make a more indelible mark by starring as Paladin in the landmark western series, "Have Gun-Will Travel" (also worth your time and monetary investment)."