Classic Television Archives - Baumwoll Archives

How many of us watch Dr. Kildare with a very young Richard Chamberlain. My family and I never missed a Show. I fell in Love with Yvette Mimieux when I was about 10. I saw her on TV in Tiger Tiger. Her smile, her vulnerability, resonated with my soul. They went on to star in the film Joy In The Morning. Both are beautiful souls.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Kildare is an NBC medical drama television series which originally ran from September 28, 1961, until August 30, 1966,^[4] for a total of 191 episodes over five seasons.^[5] Produced by MGM Television, it was based on fictional doctor characters originally created by author Max Brand in the 1930s and previously used by MGM in a popular film series and radio drama. The TV series quickly achieved success and made a star of Richard Chamberlain, who played the title role. Dr. Kildare (along with an ABC medical drama, Ben Casey, which premiered at the same time) inspired or influenced many later TV shows dealing with the medical field.^[4]^[6] Dr. Kildare aired on NBC affiliate stations on Thursday nights at 8:30–9:30 p.m. until September 1965, when the timeslot was changed to Monday and Tuesday nights at 8:30–9:00 p.m. through the end of the show’s run.^[7]

Plot

Like the 1938–1942 MGM film series, the TV series initially told the story of young intern Dr. James Kildare (Richard Chamberlain) working at the fictional large metropolitan “Blair General Hospital” and trying to learn his profession, deal with patients’ problems, and win the respect of the senior Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Raymond Massey). In the series’ third episode, “Shining Image”, Gillespie tells the earnest Kildare, “Our work is to keep people alive. We can’t tell them how to live any more than how to die.”^[8] Kildare ignores the advice, which provides the basis for stories over the next four seasons, many with a soap opera touch. By the third season, Dr. Kildare was promoted to resident and episodes began to focus less on him and his medical colleagues, and more on the stories of individual patients and their families.^[7]

In order to create realistic scripts, the series’ first writer, E. Jack Neuman, spent several months working alongside interns in a large hospital. Episodes frequently highlighted diseases or medical conditions that had not been widely discussed on television, including drug addiction, sickle cell anemia and epilepsy. Episodes about venereal disease (personally requested by President Lyndon B. Johnson) and the birth control pill were written, but never produced due to network objections.^[9] Technical advice was provided by the American Medical Association, whose name appeared in the end credits of each episode.^[4]^[6]

The series was initially formatted as self-contained one-hour episodes, aired once per week. In later seasons, a trend towards serialized drama, inspired by the success of the prime time soap opera Peyton Place, caused the network to develop some Dr. Kildare storylines over multiple episodes and, in the final season, to air two separate half-hour episodes each week instead of a single one-hour episode.^[7]^[10]

Cast

An unsold and unaired pilot, directed by John Newland, was shot in 1960 featuring Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare and (Joseph) Joe Cronin as Dr. Grayson.^[11]^[12] As a younger man, Ayres had played the role of Kildare for many years in the earlier MGM film and radio series.^[13]^[14] Later, a second, successful pilot was made with Richard Chamberlain as Kildare and Raymond Massey as Gillespie.

Before the little-known Chamberlain was cast, the Kildare role was offered to William Shatner and James Franciscus, who both turned it down.^[15] (Shatner would go on to make several guest appearances on the show.) The role catapulted Chamberlain to fame.^[16]^[17] In 2006, Chamberlain reprised the Kildare role in a parody of Grey’s Anatomy (along with other famous TV doctors from Julia, St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H and The Love Boat) on the 2006 TV Land Awards.^[18]^[19]

Massey accepted the role of Dr. Gillespie thinking that it would last only one season, leaving him time to accept feature film roles. Instead, the time demands of appearing in a multiple-season hit series prevented Massey from appearing in any films for the duration of the series’ run.

Supporting cast

Supporting cast members with recurring roles included Ken Berry as Dr. John Kapish, Jean Inness as Nurse Beatrice Fain, Eddie Ryder as Dr. Simon Agurski, Jud Taylor (who also directed several episodes) as Dr. Thomas Gerson, Steve Bell as Dr. Quint Lowry, Clegg Hoyt as Mac, Sam Reese as Dr. Dan Shanks (first season), Jo Helton as Nurse Conant, and Lee Kurty as Nurse Zoe Lawton.^[7]^[11]

Guest cast

Over the years, numerous well-known or soon-to-be well-known actors appeared as guest stars, including:^[4]^[15]^[20]^[21]

Reception

The series quickly became a top ten hit in its first season and remained in the top 20 during its second and third seasons, drawing as many as 12,000 fan letters each week.^[25] Its success spawned a number of merchandising tie-ins featuring the likeness or endorsement of Chamberlain as Kildare, including novels, comics, toys and games, candy bars, and records of Chamberlain singing songs featured on the show. Chamberlain had a hit single, “Theme from Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight),” in which he sang romantic lyrics set to the music from the show’s familiar opening theme.^[16] Largely as a result of the show, Chamberlain became a teen idol during the 1960s.

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Richard Chamberlain

Yvette Mimieux

Richard Chamberlain

Yvette Mimieux

Richard Chamberlain

Yvette Mimieux

Yvette Mimieux continues her surfing. She and Kildare go to the beach at night and they “make out”. He is infatuated with her but cant get her to accept the epilepsy. She has many smaller siezures. Kildare meets all the beach bums and beatnicks of that time. Ultimately she goes for a surf, catches the wave off her life and has a grand mal siezure at the same time. She drowns and Kildare is there to pronounce her dead. GREAT episode with a sad ending.