Line #15 Series/DrKildare


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ray_and_dick.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:325:From left to right: Dr. Gillespie (Creator/RaymondMassey) and Dr. Kildare (Creator/RichardChamberlain)]]
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4	->''"Our work is to keep people alive. We can't tell them how to live any more than how to die."''
5	-->-- '''Dr. Gillespie'''
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7	The prior success of the ''Dr. Kildare'' character in literature, [[Film/DrKildare film]], and radio inspired Creator/{{MGM}} to bring the franchise to television, which resulted in one of the most popular {{Medical Drama}}s of the '60s.
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9	''Dr. Kildare'', which aired on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1961–66, starred Creator/RichardChamberlain as Dr. Kildare and Creator/RaymondMassey as Dr. Gillespie. Though inspired by its previous incarnations, the TV series was more or less InNameOnly. The series centered around James Kildare, a gifted young intern specializing in internal medicine at fictional Blair General Hospital under the guidance of senior doctor Leonard Gillespie. Throughout the series, Gillespie warns Kildare to not get personally involved within his profession, but the handsome young doc always managed to ignore his mentor’s advice. In the third season, Dr. Kildare becomes a resident, and from there, he continued to develop from naïve intern to confident physician.
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11	One of the first major hits from MGM Television (it was in the Nielsen top 20 for its first 3 seasons), it catapulted the then-unknown Richard Chamberlain to instant stardom and TeenIdol status. ''Dr. Kildare'' was among the first medical series with mainstream popularity (alongside Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Ben Casey''), and helped to spread awareness of various medical subjects and diseases, many of which were never represented on television before. A myriad of major Hollywood guest stars would also pay a visit to Blair General Hospital during its five-year run.
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13	For its final season, in an effort to boost its sagging ratings, the show was [[{{Retool}} retooled]] from an hour-long black-and-white drama, into a [[TelevisionSerial twice-weekly half-hour serial]] produced [[MediaNotes/SwitchToColor in color]]. It also introduced a new series regular, Nurse Zoe Lawton (played by Lee Kurty), as a potential love interest for Kildare. All of these changes led to some LaterInstallmentWeirdness, which the show never recovered from. The series was cancelled in 1966. Nevertheless, the TV adaptation of ''Dr. Kildare'' significantly influenced every medical TV series that came after it.
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16	!!This series provides examples of:
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18	* AbledInTheAdaptation: Dr. Gillespie is not bound to a wheelchair like he is in the film series.
19	* BornInAnElevator: A woman gives birth in an elevator on Christmas Eve In "Season to Be Jolly."
20	* TheBoxingEpisode: “The Middle of Ernie Mann.” A boxer with a severe ulcer refuses to take Dr. Kildare’s advice to quit boxing.
21	* CareerEndingInjury: Averted in a fifth season story arc when nemesis of Kildare and DrJerk, Maxwell Becker (played by Creator/JamesMason), becomes paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident. Dr. Becker almost commits suicide at the thought of being crippled for life, until [[InterruptedSuicide Dr. Kildare stops him just before he shoots himself]]. In the end, Dr. Becker successfully performs a complicated surgery using a specialized chair, which helps him to continue his career and accept his fate.
22	* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed:
23	** Notably averted, with the show candidly featuring episodes dealing with substance abuse, alcoholism, diabetes, breast cancer, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, obesity, diverticulitis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and various mental disorders, among many others.
24	** That wasn’t always the case, though. Reportedly President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson requested that the show cover an episode about venereal disease. A script was written for the episode, which was also intended to be a {{Crossover}} with MGM series ''Mr. Novak,'' but the network refused to let it be produced.
25	* DramaticHalfHour: Season five only.
26	* DownerEnding: Many, particularly in season 3. In contrast to Season 4 which was LighterAndSofter, possibly due to this.
27	* EverybodySmokes: Not surprising for its time. Though it did calm down in the later seasons, and you rarely ever saw Kildare with a cigarette in his hand.
28	* EvilTwin: The episode "The Dark Side of the Mirror." Polly Bergen plays a set of twins, [[BillyNeedsAnOrgan a homely “good” twin who needs a kidney transplant]] and an “evil” twin, a glamorous AlphaBitch who won’t give a kidney to her sister.
29	* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Dr. Kildare falls deeply in love with his beautiful, free-spirited patient Pat Holmes (Creator/YvetteMimieux), a surfer girl suffering from epilepsy, in the series' highest-rated and most famously remembered episode, "Tyger, Tyger."
30	* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: Lyrics were written for the theme so that Richard Chamberlain could record a single, which became a #10 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Three stars will shine tonight/One for the lonely/That star will shine its light/Each time that someone sighs..."
31	* GutFeeling: Kildare relies on his a lot when dealing with patients.
32	* IJustWantToBeBeautiful: Carolyn Jones plays a woman who is desperate to have plastic surgery on her unusually large nose in "The Mask Makers."
33	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dr. Gillespie started out as this, like his film series counterpart, before softening up and being [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] into a borderline AesopEnforcer.
34	* LocalHangout: Mac’s Bar and Grill is the usual setting for the characters when not at the hospital.
35	* MercyKill: Subject of the tear jerker, “For the Living.”
36	* MusicalEpisode: Season four’s “Music Hath Charm,” which had the hospital staff [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow putting on a musical variety show.]] This also acted as a humorous BreatherEpisode.
37	* NearDeathExperience: A memorable story arc in the fifth season in revolves around an atheist who flatlines for two minutes and wakes up claiming to have talked to God during that time, turning him into a believer.
38	* NiceGuy: Dr. Kildare, obviously. Though he is also full of wit, and [[BewareTheNiceOnes can be quite a badass]] when the situation calls for it.
39	* TheObiWan: Dr. Gillespie is this to Dr. Kildare.
40	* PatientOfTheWeek: Often a CelebrityStar.
41	* PrettyBoy: Dr. Kildare’s dreamy blue eyes, blond hair, dashing smile and killer cheekbones can make any girl’s (or guy’s) heart race.
42	* PutOnABus: The recurring characters Dr. Agurski, Dr. Gerson and Dr. Kapish were rarely seen after season two. Ken Berry, who played Dr. Kapish, left the show entirely after season 3 to go on to star in ''Series/FTroop''.
43	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As shown in the series’ controversial unaired episode (which is now available), "Night of the Beast".
44	* SpecialGuest: Amongst those who made guest appearances were Creator/FredAstaire, Creator/MaryAstor, Creator/RobertRedford, Creator/LaurenBacall, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/AnneBaxter, Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/DouglasFairbanksJr, Creator/RonHoward, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/LeeMarvin, Creator/JamesMason, Creator/WalterMatthau, Creator/RicardoMontalban, Creator/WilliamShatner, Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Creator/ClaudeRains, Creator/BasilRathbone, Creator/GloriaSwanson and Creator/RobertYoung.
45	* TitleOnlyOpening: Each episode begins with a ColdOpen, with the title of the series and each star’s credit superimposed over freeze frames of the scene as it commences. These frames are usually accompanied by a motif of the ThemeTune (written by the great Music/JerryGoldsmith). A longer version of the theme tune is played during the ClosingCredits.

Context Series / DrKildare