Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Medical TV (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 2015

This week on Sawbones, Dr. Sydnee hands the reins to Justin as they explore the history of medical TV, and explain why most of TV doesn't actually exist. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! Hello everybody and welcome to Saw Bones, a marital tour of misguided medicine. I'm your co-host Sydney McRoy and I am your other co-host Justin McRoy So Justin yes, I

Understand that for this week's episode for this very special episode You decided to research a medical topic. Yes, I told you I would do this. Max Fundreve is here and I thought as a special treat that I could step out of my typical role as sort of the dumb one to show you sort of my medical expertise and I could kind of stretch my legs from that perspective. And Justin was very insistent that he understood how to research a medical medical

topic. Yes. And that he would do a good job. A great job is what I say. Very thorough. Pretty sure he has a great job. And that his lack of any background in the medical field would not in any way hinder him from completing this task.

Right. Yes, correct. So, I mean, did you do this? Did he? I did, I did. And to say that I have zero medical background is not fair. I watched every episode of scrubs

and I've watched most of house. And so I have a little bit of medical background. Well, I mean, clearly we all know that that's, I mean, medical TV shows hardly qualify as like, you know, medical background or like. Well, they qualify. Medical in any real way. I mean, they're attainment.

And the topic you decided to talk about is medical TV shows. Then they call five very nicely, thank you. Wait, the research you did was into medical TV shows? Yes, we are gonna explore, here's how Racheva Vane this was. You know how sometimes you rush through like whatever, syphilis or another medical disorder in like one.

I rush through. In one episode. I actually, this is a two-parter. I don't know what I'll do the second part, but I feel like the proper history of medical television should be split up into pre-ER and post-ER. So that is sort of what I have done here. So the medical topic you've done is television.

Television, correct. That's correct. Now, Sydney, here's the way I'm thinking that we can work this. I'm going to tell you about some of the landmark medical TV shows, and you can kind of tell me how closely that sort of feels to your day to day. OK.

Does that sound good? I have an inkling. The very first medical television show was called City Hospital. It was not very focused on procedures. It was more about the lives of the people in the hospital. When was this now? 1953.

Oh my gosh. I know. So the city hospital was sort of the staging for drama. Here's a notable thing about city hospital. During rehearsal in 1953, a man ran into the studio, shattered a picture over the head of one of the actors and stabbed a camera operator. And that caused the cancellation of the episode

that was supposed to be on that night. But they were fine. They were fine. Because they were in a city hospital. Right. After that was a show called The Doctors, which was another sort of anthology series, also in 53. Then in 54, 56, we really have the first show

that focuses on medical procedures, okay? Okay. It's called Medic and it ran for two years in 54 and 56. The episodes were narrated by Richard Boone, who was playing kind of named Dr. Conrad Steiner. Conrad Steiner. That's that cool doctor. Who sometimes appeared in the stories. I also see here that Conrad is filled with a K. Yeah, Conrad is, so you know he's working outside the lines.

1961, I think what you could consider the first sort of like big hit for medical TV. And this is, I think probably the first name that some people may have actually heard. Is Dr. Kildare. I've heard that name. Right, the name. I know nothing.

That's it. Kind of a long running character. Sure as a film based on the life of, based on Dr. Kildare, who was played by Richard Chamberlin, who went on to be in the foreign birds and a few other series. Was he dreamy? Is that his thing? He was a teen heart throb actually.

When he was playing Kildare who was working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital while trying to learn his profession. Now Sidney, was he a resident? Yeah, he was a resident. When you were a resident, did you have a lot of time to look, to focus on your dreaminess? Are you saying I didn't look dreamy? I thought you always looked at it.

At some point in a marriage, was there some time where you thought I looked kind of like I was found her to then? No, dear, I was just curious if there was time when you had to put work into it because it never seemed like a way to make it. You know, yeah, in residency, when you have pulled a 24 hour call shift and then there's always some extra hours for you to like finish up all your work or do more work or whatever

else is required, and you've been there all night sleeping in the hospital, it's weird how gross, and you've been awake a lot of the time. So it's not like that sleep grossness, you know, when you wake up and you're all like kind of sweaty and yucky from sleep. I don't know. You weren't in your brain grossness. And like I would, like I'd wash my face so many times and I felt like it was never not greasy and they described it in a book that I love.

The House of God, which is a book about residency. They describe it as they feel smelly and green after a call shift. That's exactly how you feel. So no, I didn't feel very heart throbby. We got another heart throb here in the form of Ben Casey. A lot of good names, don't you think? A great names.

What did Ben Casey do? Ben Casey was on from 61 to 66. Start Vince Edwards as a medical doctor. And Ben Casey, who is a young and intense but idealistic surgeon at County General Hospital. Isn't that every TV doctor? Yes, but not every TV doctor develops a romantic relationship with a patient who had just emerged from a coma after 13 years

as did Jane Hancock, as played by Stella Stevens. Doesn't that happen all the time on soap operas? Yes, but- That's what I feel like. But Ben Casey was not so proper, it was just Ben Casey doing his thing. Falling in love with patients.

Falling in love with patients that just came out of a coma. That's great though, that's a good look. Cause like, think about all the movies that they miss, that they miss, that you can watch together. You can be an expert on. There's whole swaths of presidents that they can, you can catch them up on. For any medical students who are listening, that's an ethical violation. You should not have a romantic relationship with your patient. There's, there's a question on your board that I just answered for you agree to disagree So one place where I bet that role was not held to was the doctors

Not the doctors the doctors that are on now, but the doctors the old time either doctors They ran from 63 to 1982 How was that on that long and I've never heard of it? Well, there were 5,280 episodes produced which which should tell you that it was a soap opera. Oh, okay. And it ended the year before I was born. It did the year before you were born, so yeah.

There were the 5,000th episode aired in November, 1981, so about a year after I was born. So I did not recall this one either. This is not even on my... You weren't watching this when you were. No, this was not in my sphere of awareness. Here's one, a factoid for you about the doctors. It was set in Hope Memorial Hospital in the fictional Madison,

that was just located somewhere in New England. It featured a young Alec Baldwin in referral. And there was a sped off called the nurses. Also. Okay. Now this was when he was dreamy and not funny. Yes, this is pre-funny. During when he was young. And it seems like a lot of these shows that you're talking about seem to focus a lot more on the doctors. And not so much on like the medicine, is that fair to say?

Yes, I think that that's very fair to say. A lot of soap operas. Which it's nice that people think we lead these exciting romantic lives as doctors. That's not really true. We're working all the time. We don't have a lot of time for this kind of passion. Now, Sid, we come to a real heavy hitter. Welcome to the fray, same year of premieres, the doctors, but still hanging in there, general hospital. That is crazy.

Isn't that wild? General hospital is the third longest running scripted series currently in production on the planet. That's wild. The archers and coordination street, both UK shows. Are the longest? That's what I was about to ask you. What are the longest?

Archers and coordination street have been running for longer. But yeah, General Hospital is the third longest running series and the longest currently in production. It has had sort of a tumultuous up and down. And now I think episodes are just streaming of General Hospital. Like you can just get up. You know, I've never watched a single episode.

I bet it's pretty hard to like get on board. I would think, I mean, unless you want to like be a complete a single back to 1963, like the first episodes. Right. I wonder if it's like comic books. So they have recesses. I'm going to quit my job and just do that. I do that.

Do they have resets of the universe? Do they like re-launch the universe at some point? Wipe the continuity? I don't know. Because I mean, I used to jump in and out of all my children when I was younger and I found you couldn't do that. But if you missed a little bit, you were really lost. Now, probably the biggest mainstream, like crossover for general hospital, like the thing that if you were to point to something that most people would know of for

is Luke and Laura. Have you you heard of Luke and Laura? There are a super couple which is actually a soap opera terminology. Luke and Laura are so omnipresent in the sphere of soap operas. They're actually just usually abbreviated to L and L on soap operas forums because Luke and Laura is like such a touchstone. Okay, okay, wait. How many soap operas are you?

All of them, Sydney. All of them, Sydney. Do is this what you do? Most don't unturn pro research, courtesy of your husband. What? Secret gift? Light under a bushel the whole time. Who do you use so thorough and smart? Non-turn pro research Cursey of your husband. I've see a gift. I don't know, bushel the whole time. Who do you so thorough and smart?

We got to win on our hands, folks. I see, I never quite understood what you do, like as a job on the internet. And you and Grandpa Dan. So maybe I've finally uncovered it. You spend your whole day on soap opera forums. Does your boss know this? No, I didn't know anything. Now Here's my favorite bit of trivia about General Hospital

the Luke from Luke and Laura fame was played by Anthony Geary who most of you will remember as Philo the mad scientist from UHF huge departure for Anthony Geary. He was really excited that they didn't want him to play a heightened version of Luke from from General Hospital. Almost didn't take the audition because he'd been shot down so many times. But yeah, Anthony Geary from General Hospital was a file over in you, Jeff. As, as most of you or as five of you, remember. Okay. All right. There. Um, there were also some cool people on that show.

Sometimes, right? Yeah. I remember when James Franco, James Franco was on Elizabeth Taylor was a guest star. Rosanne Barr was a guest star. Um, that's a weird list. Did you just, how? Let me ask you this, Cindy. How, within the hospital, how like soapy does it get?

How often are there like dramas that are playing out before your eyes? Well, I will say this. It's everybody is there a lot. So you kind of have this concentrated little microcosm and people are sleeping there all the time and like we spend more time at work than home when we are in residency, I think you would attest to that. So it does, you are kind of all up in each other's business. So I don't know the kind of plots you see on soap operas are actually happening,

but there is a lot of drama just because everybody tends to know everything about everybody else and you're bored because you're there all the time. And so what else do you have to talk about? So there is a lot of gossip that goes on, I will say. Another huge touchstone in the medical field, not the medical field. Definitely not.

Definitely not the medical field. So 1969 and 1976 as Marcus will be MD. I don't know why I feel the need to read descriptions of these shows. Like I'm, I don't know, doing the Injured of Berks Law, but like Marcus will be in D-Star Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner. James Brolin as the younger, he often worked with.

Now, Marcus Wobby MD had sort of a twist on the regular formula where like, the old guy is sort of straight laced and the young guy comes in with his brash new techniques and rocks the boat. But in the world of Marcus Wobby MD, the older guy was sort of like off his rocker. He had a boat, he was a widower, he was like,

he had unconventional bedside manner, and James Brolin was sort of more buttoned up and straight-laced and the two of them sort of clashed. Most of us kindly family practitioners are secretly loose cannon. Which, well let me ask you this, what is actually, like would you say that generally speaking, the older doctors, like not older doctors, but non-residents, the attending physicians

and, and, and up are you more closely to like procedure? Or would you say it's the younger doctors that are more? Now, I think the younger doctors do. I think that once you've been in practice longer, the more experience you have with it, the more comfortable you are. I don't want to say breaking rules because when it comes to medical standard of care, we don't break rules. But when it comes to things like bedside manner and the way that you approach different problems, once you've had more experience, I think you do feel comfortable kind of deviating a

little bit and being a little looser with it. Whereas I'd say that the younger doctors probably just to be on the safe side until they until they kind of get their feet, you know, get their sea legs. Now here's an interesting, here's an interesting fact about Marcus Welby MD. Twice it ran a foul of gay activists. And keep in mind, this is like early 70s, right? 73, they showed an episode called The Other Martin Lording about a middle-aged man who will be advised to resist his homosexual impulses. The gay activist alliance started picketing.

And then the next year, there was an episode called the Outrage that Spartan nationwide demonstrations because the story of a teenage student being sexually assaulted by his male teacher conflated homosexuality with pedophilia. That's Marcus Welby, MD. Now here is, this is really interesting, right? So this is our protests.

People were gay activists and other groups were really pissed off about this because it's that sucks. Seven sponsors refused by advertising time. 17 television network affiliates refused to air the episode and it's the first known instance of network affiliates refusing to refusing a network episode in response to protests. Wow. Yeah. That's cool that they did that though. Yeah, it was, it was, it's not, and it's like, it's weird, it's like, I tend to think of, I think I tend to think of like,

not just like gay rights, but like the sort of broader, you know, I feel like that tide has just recently turned. So it's interesting that like, that long ago, that long ago would be listening to Gaelic's test. Which is really cool, because you have to imagine that that was, that the,

their voice was much quieter at that time. And so it wasn't like they were responding to pressure from the majority who would stop watching their television shows. And, you know what I mean? They were responding to the unrecognized minority at that time. So that's really cool. Now, also, they could have just been not willing to air it in part because it's about pedophilia and it's a little hot topic for them.

Yeah, and not what I would call fun television. Not like good time television. The next show is more, is probably more of a historical footnote. I just thought the story of this show was so crazy that I had to share it. It's called Temperature's Rising. It's about James Whitmore plays a no nonsense chief of medicine. He was the boss of Clevon Little, these are both the actors, of course. Clevon Little was an intern who was raised in, and I'm quoting here, the ghetto,

and worked as a bookie at the hospital in addition to working as an intern. So like street smart, street smart, Cleveland Little clashed with the upper echelon of administration. No, no, that happens all the time. That happens all the time, so it's good. No, no, that happens all the time. That happens all the time, say, I'm sure. Okay, so here's the crazy thing.

And I love that you could just do this. They ditched Whitmore after a season, Whitmore left, and they ditched the whole rest of the cast, except for Cleve on a little. They apparently love that thread. That thread was cracking. The rest of the show was not so great. They brought in Paul Lind to replace James Whitmore.

Paul Lind, fresh off the failure of the Paul Lind show, was brought in as the new chief of medicine to replace James Whitmore. And they changed the name of it to the new Temperatures Rising show. From Temperatures Rising to the New Temperatures Rising Show. I love that. Why didn't they put show at the end?

Why did they put show at the end? Why did they have to say? Like it's, I mean, clearly it's a show. It's a show. I know it's a show. It didn't last to me like another eight episodes. Yeah. Uh, uh, yeah. So that's pretty, pretty wild, temperature's rising.

Um, one more biggie before we have to take a break, emergency. I'm sure you've heard of that one, right? Emergency. No. It's got an exclamation point. Now, I'm assuming this was about like emergency medicine? Yeah, and it's kind of cool actually because it's not, I guess I had always thought of paramedics as like a thing that are,

I mean, I've always known paramedics to be a big deal like to exist right um but the creation of paramedics uh uh in California at least governor ronald ragan at the time signed of the wet'sworth towns and act which allowed the creation of paramedic units and it was actually that like thing that kicked off emergency, which is about two specially trained firefighters who formed squad 40-51, part of a, it was part of the field of paramedics, which was like just getting started at this time period. The Webtooth Townsendact was 70, I believe, and then emergency started in 72. The first episode of emergency was actually called the Wedsworth Townsend Act, which is an actually

maybe think that like paramedics might be an interesting episode at some point because I kind of thought they were always a thing, but apparently that was, this is a fairly recent development of paramedics. So in an actual medical topic. Yeah, which would be a nice change of pace for this one I assume. So the emergency was sort of a medical mix with like action adventures.

You can imagine, you know, at the time the idea of paramedics seemed very, I guess, romantic. So it wasn't just like showing up at a fat person's house to carve them out. It was like, you know, there's a rock slide and like their paramedics are are there to say today. It's an emergency. They would do that too. What? I mean, they do that too. I'm saying it's like not, I think we have probably a more realistic appearance. I listen, don't get wrong. I have paramedics are crazy and rad. Like, I know, yeah, a huge amount of respect for what pair of medicine. Absolutely. But like, I just think it's funny that like this new idea we were so smitten with that we just assumed that there are these adventure, these medical adventures waiting in a moment's notice,

to jump into a burning building. And it is a good point to make that, I've told Justin this before, you know, I have taken some courses in like wilderness medicine and stuff. So if I were to see a car accident and there was nobody there, I would probably stop and lend a hand. I think most doctors would. Most people would, hopefully.

But if the paramedics are already there, they don't need me. It may seem like I would have more training because I went to medical school and residency and all that stuff. No, no, in the field, in that kind of situation, you want a paramedic calling the shots, you don't want a doctor running around messing with stuff. So just FYI.

Spin-offs. Oh, also I should mention in emergency, they passed almost sort of like a law in order of vibe. They passed off to a hospital that had its own recurring staff. So it was like you followed them through. Yeah. Emergency was spun off from Adam 12, which itself was spun off from Dragonet, which is kind of a, um, I watched Dragonet. Yeah, I remember a connected tissue. Speaking of spin-offs, emergency had a spin-off. It was an animated series called emergency plus four, where teens helped out the, uh, people from emergency.

And that's not a joke. That's totally okay. Like, we usually do that in the medical field. In the listings. Just grab random teenagers and like say, hey, put pressure on this. Don't let them bleed to death. And that kind of thing.

Like they just, they wander around outside the hospital and we grab them whenever we need them. Folks, I wanted to take a quick break here, Sydney, if I could. I'll allow it. Thank you. And you know what, I'm going to talk a lot, but this is our second week of the Max Fund drive, Sid. And every year, we're probably the Max Fund network. As you know, every year, we come to you hat in hand and say, if you like the stuff that the network is

doing, if you like the stuff, sobans is doing, we would really appreciate it if you could pledge the support us and help keep those shows going. You know, they're not free. We have to take time out of work and to do them and we have to take time and edit them and then cost for equipment and hosting and all that stuff. And just a little bit of cash from you can help to keep those shows going. The benefits are of course that you keep more shows coming. We've had such a great response to the drive this year. We actually passed our initial goal. We have a new goal of 4,000 new and upgrading members.

And if we get that, every show is gonna put out to bonus episodes, to more bonus episodes throughout the year. So that's pretty exciting. Now, but- And I'll actually take care of those. I won't, yeah, I won't. Bonus episodes you say? Yes, bonus episodes.

Sydney, if I pledge just $5 a month to the max fund drive, I go to maximumfund.org for a slash donate. What do I get out of that? What do I get from me? You get all this exclusive bonus content that we've been talking about. Like, what kind of stuff? What could they expect from me? You get all this exclusive bonus content that we've been talking about. Like what kind of stuff? What could they expect from solbons?

There's two bonus episodes from solbons that they get last year's and this year's. Do you remember what last year's was? Last year's we talked about things, medical things that we're doing now that we think in 100 years. People will send in Justin and the future will laugh about. And this year.

In the great departure. people will Sydney and Justin of the future will laugh about. And this year, in the great departure. This year we did a, so we narrated the final episode of Two and a Half Men. Yeah. You can download that. Commentary track, listen right along. Listen right along.

Yeah. If you're a fan of that show or not. We had some people who actually took that trip, took the ride. Bob, they took it, took the ride, bought their ticket, took their ride. I think people enjoy it. It went on a journey. It's different.

It's a departure from our typical. If you donate $10 a month, you're going to get that stuff, but you're also going to get a drive exclusive tote bag. $20 a month, you get the tote bag and the bonus episodes, which the bonus episodes aren't just saw-bones, folks. You get over 50 hours of bonus content, videos, songs, my brother and my brother are many, it's another show that I want.

We've got like seven bonus episodes in there. There's a ton of content. Yeah, so there's tons of stuff, secret stuff. Secrets. At 20 bucks a month, you're gonna get a mobile device charger, collapsible water bottle, anti-bacterial wipes, and little plastic pilot wings, all with the Max Fun logo, It's the in flight power pack.

And if you can pledge $35 a month, you get all of that stuff, the tote bag, the power pack, the bonus content, and you get a pair of rocket engraved shot glasses with max fund logo. Very cool. Very, very cool stuff. We need you to help our network keep going. You are the reason we've been able to grow. You're the reason we're able to do more live shows. You're the reason that we can take time out of our week

and away from our baby. Steve, you know how hard that is for me? No, hard that is for us. Do you know what it all that takes on our arc? You're robbing a childhood years. And you can pass back by going to Max, no, but there's any price that would maximum fund out of work for a size of donate.

So, yeah, it's the ad drive you go to. So, go to the ad address, if you can, sign up, become a member, donate, and if you're already a member, think about upgrading. Why not? Do you like it more? Do you like it more? Hopefully. You listen more shows than it work? At least you don't like it less. You don't like it less and there's inflation and

Think about it inflation and we have a baby now and we did last year so think about that Think about that. Okay, so said one more time that address give it to me Maximum fun.org forward slash donate now. I'm to take a little break here so you can tell me about Mash, which ran from 1972 to then. Mash is the best television show I've ever been on television. Okay. What else do you want to know?

What was it? What was Mash? Mash was a TV series that ran from 1972 till 1983, the year that I was born. So it ended as I began. So I like to think of myself as the spin off from Mash. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Mash was a wonderful television show set during the Korean War.

And it was about mobile army surgical hospitals, so like doctors, surgeons on the front lines of the Korean War taking care of our fighting men and women. And the best thing about the show is Alan Alda, Hawkeye Pierce, who is a surgeon, but he's, you know, you kind of talked about like, people who are not status quo, like Dr. Shoe were kind of against the grain, you know, not all buttoned up. And he was, I think, probably the epitome of that.

The show was also kind of politically outspoken. It was about taking care of our soldiers, but also it was an anti-war kind of message. I think was also kind of politically outspoken. It was about taking care of our soldiers, but also it was an anti-war kind of message. I think you could get a lot. It was a lot more commentary on Vietnam, although it was not set there. And it's funny and it's moving and it's beautiful. And everybody should watch all of it. And some that's on Mash now. Now Mash had a few spin-offs. It had after mash, which is a pretty good name, honestly, kind of sounds like after math. Yeah, it's pretty good, which did not go very well. It had a pilot, a produced pilot that wasn't picked up by any networks called,

you know this? No. Walter, it's about radar. Oh, about radar. Joining a police soldier. Little radar, he was called radar because he could hear the helicopters before anybody else. When the choppers came in with the patients that they had to take care of. Now the most successful. Stop listening to this and watch it now. The most successful spin off from Mashwa's Trapper John MD, which was actually set in the more modern era, right? So it was set in the in 79 when it actually started, which was 28 or 30 some years after

The events of mash and it started pernell Roberts as trapper john md. Now sit who was trapper john md Trapper john was one of the other surgeons that worked with Hawkeye in the mashing it Another jokester, you know another john interesting about trapper john the Md the show, the character was played by Pernell Roberts, who actually ended up playing him for like six years, seven years, which is about twice as long as the original actor who played Trappercone. Yeah, because Trappercone left and BJ Honeycutt took his place.

Yeah, and now Trappercone actually was in MASH, the movie that it was based on the TV series was based on edition of the novel and Elliott Gould was trapper-chan in the movie. And I'm just going to say that the movie, this is going to be blast for me for some people, is not nearly as good as the TV show. So there it is, sorry. Now, from your favorite topic in this episode, to my favorite topic in this episode, Saint Elsewhere. I've never watched Saint Elsewhere.

Meaning it. Don't get me wrong. It was a, it was gritty, kind of a black comedy vibe, but more realistic than a lot of these shows. And it's sort of inextricably linked with Hill Street Blues, just sort of the cops version of Saint Elsewhere. Now, these two shows were important

from a TV perspective, because they were the two shows that really integrated the idea of multi-threaded stories. A lot of these series to this point had been focused on a single thread, you know, and maybe a B story, similar to a sitcom where you're A and your B story. St. L. Square and Hill Street Blues had a multi-threaded narrative that sometimes would go over episodes and they really laid the groundwork for not only medical shows like ER and Chicago Hope but like you can make the argument that shows like the sopranos for example most of our modern dramas like would not look the same way they do without the St. elsewhere and Hill Street Blues.

That's really interesting. But the most important thing about Hill Street Blues is, or St. elsewhere rather, don't read ahead, Sydney. You're gonna spoil it. Sorry, I happen. St. I'm really excited.

Okay, St. elsewhere because, do you know how St. elsewhere ended? You probably would have even if you hadn't read ahead. Yes, yes, no, I've heard of this ending. So the whole show really was something that was imagined by a young man with autism, correct? Correct.

Looking in a snow globe last episode turns out the entire thing have been happening in his mind, or at least that's the impression that you're giving. Right, right. But Sydney, stop looking at the screen. Look at me, because I don't want you to read it ahead. It's so good.

Okay. So, St. elsewhere had been a dream in this child's mind. Right. Fine, big twist, right? But because of this single decision, St. elsewhere willed a huge portion of TV history out of existence. How so?

Because characters from St. Elsewhere crossed over onto other series. So, St. Elsewhere, characters from St. Elsewhere appeared on, for example, homicide. Okay. Okay. from saying elsewhere, appeared on, for example, homicide. Okay, so homicide, by extension, we must conclude to place inside a child's dream. Okay. John Munch from homicide appeared on X-Files Law and Order, Law and Order SVU.

Those are gone, those are out. Those don't exist anymore in the child's dream. Which is a huge problem because X-Files is coming back. Yes, it's coming back inside a child's dream. Law and order characters have appeared on Law and Order Criminal Intent. That's gone. If you want to count cartoons, X-Files characters have been on the Simpsons, so the Simpsons are inside a child's dream.

But that's fair, I mean that's okay. Same elsewhere characters appeared on cheers. Cheers, child's dream. Frazier, child's dream. Where else did those crossover wings? Caroline in the city. Not Caroline in the city. You don't care about Caroline in the city, but Caroline in the city what's crossed her with friends? Friends is gone. No. Which crossed her with Mad About You. Mad About You is gone. And that crossed her with Seinfeld is gone. No. Which Crossed her with Matt about you, Matt about you is gone. And that Crossed her with Seinfeld and the Dick Van Dyke Show.

God, God, God, they're both gone. And also, say elsewhere, shares continuity with MASH. So MASH after MASH, Trappagron, MD, none of it happened. It's all inside a child's dream. Say elsewhere. The all, as I heard somebody put it, the only thing that has ever actually happened on TV is a child staring in with snow glove. Everything else has been extreme.

I could go on, looking to this theory because it's freaking amazing. It's called the Tommy Westfawling Universe. That's Westfawl Ph.A.L.L. The Tommy Westfawling Universe is a theory that is pretty great. Now finally said we're going to get to what everybody's been waiting for. E slash R. E slash R. E slash R. Because it's emergency room. Yes, emergency room. So there's a show called ER. Do you know about ER? E slash R. Oh no, this is different. Stop reading ahead.

That's not how it works. Well, no, I just realized the year. Stop looking at it. This is my note. I don't do this to you. This is how it feels. Look at me. I worked very hard.

Stop looking at this screen. E-S-R. Night's 84 to 85. It was a sitcom that lasted for one year. No, I don't know about this. It started Kanchada Farrell from the, she played a nurse called Thor, and actually ended up thinking Concata Farrell's name

was Thor for a very long time, including while we were recording our bonus episode, because Concata Farrell was the maid on two and a half men. So that's why it's already in this Thor. Okay, okay. But the other crazy thing is that the show also included George Clooney in the cast. He was on another show called ER,

as was Mary McDonnell slash, I mean, most notably President Laura Rosalind, let's get right into this next video. Okay, okay. Who was also on ER. So that's weird. It's weird, right? Also has a really good theme song,

so my Lurals very smooth very very enjoyable. E.R. Ranfer. Uh it's based on a play of the same name. How did you do a play about an E.R.? I have no idea. I mean was it set in an E.R.? Yeah. How he was. Okay. That would just be the lead of of E.R. Okay. That would just be really difficult. I think unless you're gonna, like a lot of special effects, I mean, unless you don't have any patients, unless like nobody's sick, you're just waiting. Just hanging around the nurses station talking,

it's like a Sunday night. Okay, so we got a few more of these to get through. I know we're running along, but hey, it's a Max Fundrave episode. Who cares? 1989 to 93, Dugi Houser MD. Arguably the most realistic of all the Doctor program there have been real life doogie's recently. There's a man from Singapore that really finished in by the time he was 18

another one for 20 Year old you trying to blow up my spot. You have trouble saying that I didn't finish fast enough real life doogie's so Tell me about tell me what you know about doggie house. That's pretty much the whole thing. Yeah, he was like a like a 16 year old doctor. And it most importantly started and we forget about this stuff. In pH, in pH, in pediatric care. In pediatric care.

In pediatric care, that's sort of his first, you know, obviously big thing that people do him for. I would assume. Literally for like a decade afterwards or so. Right. But it almost didn't happen. He was the first actor that the show staff found that could play a teenage actor convincingly, but ABC didn't like him and they didn't want him.

But Steve Botchko is the creator of the show and like so many others, and why PD Blue somebody else. His contract had a huge penalty that they had to pay if the series, if it didn't go to series. So they had to go ahead and like go with Harris. And when they did, it was like he was so right. He was so right. It was a huge reaction. Because everybody loves NPA.

And ABC Greenland it because test screens went so well. Yeah. Here's another one that I don't know if you ever, did you ever watch Dr. Quinn medicine woman? You know, I never watched it, but. It's 93 to 98. I was, I was once told that I looked like her. That I looked like Dr. Quinn medicine. I can see you.

Um, Dr. Quinn was about a rich female physician from Boston. Uh, Michaela Quinn was her name. Most people called her Dr. Mike. She was sent to a Wild West town of Colorado Springs to start her own practice. She met a guy named Byron Sully who was a friend to the Cheyenne and her rugged out dorseman. That's literally what his character says. I don't know.

And she had a midwife named Charlotte Cooper. Charlotte got bitten by a rattlesnake and died and left her three kids to be looked after by a. Quinn. So it's about her indomitable spirit in Colorado. As you said, I feel like this movie or this show would like drive with me. Yeah, I think it was one of those, it was a weird, one weird thing about it is that the demographics for this show

start skewing up and up and up. It turned into sort of like the the Matt lock of its time and they try to make it or murder she wrote I'm sure I feel like and so they try to make the six season this show darker but nobody liked it There are also a couple TV movies after that Chicago Hope. Did you watch Chicago Hope? No Chicago Hope will probably in in the annals of history always be resigned to being an also ran because it aired literally the Sunday before ER started. Oh, yeah, Chicago hospital similar in a lot of ways to ER had

You know the interweaving lives of the doctors on the show, Mandy Patinkin was the lead. He was a hot shot surgeon. Now, if only they could have just taken Mandy Patinkin and put him over on ER so I could keep watching Mandy Patinkin. Yeah. I think that's the only problem. Also, so he was a hot shot surgeon with emotional issues because his wife had a psychiatric condition

and made her drown their infant son. So, it's it out of America. We got a TV show for you. They both aired competing against each other for a few seasons, 39 to 10. Speaking of ER, oh, one other quick note, characters from Chicago hope have appeared on homicide life in the street. So Chicago hope didn't happen.

It was inside a child's dream. Well, that's okay. I never watched it anyway. So. ER ran from 1994 to 2009. And this is not e-slash-ar. Does not e-slash-ar. Dot-r, dot. Right.

Or that's a period, I think. Uh. I think that's what we call it in the post-roations circles. Oh, all right. Iran for 15 seasons, 331 episodes. So many, like, it's the longest-running medical drama in American television history. No question. Uh, had so many, like, cast turnovers.

And were there any, like, constants said that ran through the entire like from the very beginning from the very beginning to the end. I mean it almost everybody took like time off. I know I like know I like eventually left. Yeah, I think he mind. I don't think anybody from the beginning. Yeah. People came back later. Eric, um, the guy who did Kung Fu in the end. I don't, maybe he hates, I don't mind.

He might have made it. Anyway, I don't, I fell off after a while. What was the, what was the ER? ER was a show about a bunch of docs and nurses who work in an emergency room. And again, I mean, it's about like the patients they took care of. And I think they always like to,

I think ERs are good fodder for television shows because you get the sense that we see lots of crazy stuff in the emergency room, you know, because people come in in the middle of the night with all kinds of bizarre problems that sometimes they've created for themselves. And so it's funny. Well, it's not funny, but TV makes it funny.

But it was also about like the relationships, I think, between the the docs and the nurses and romance and drama and all that. And people with drug problems and people with alcoholism. It seemed the most realistic to me as an outsider, but I don't know if... I mean, I think my main problem with a lot of these shows is that it also shows the doctors as having like tons of free time. And they also at work seem to have lots of free time to just stop and have like conversations and fights and go do it in a closet. And there's not time like that at work, especially in an emergency room. You're much too busy to do that kind of thing.

I want to make a quick special mention. Now, I was going to stop there, but I wanted to talk briefly about scrubs, which ran from 2001 to 2010, nine seasons. It is, it was, if you've never watched it, it starts Zach Braff as, he started it out as an intern, and then sort of rose up the ranks. He was an internal medicine.

Yes, he was an internal medicine. Working at Sacred Heart, he had, it was sort of a, I would say, mash was a fairly close like comparison of the blend of like drama and comedy. Yeah. Yeah. And, but it was a little more, I think it was pretty much more whimsical. It had sort of like fantasy cutaways, not like you'd see on family guy or what have you. But you said, and I thought it was really interesting, you said that scrubs was probably the closest to realistic in your experience. Now, I mean, again, glamourized television, like everybody in

the hospital does not look as hot as everybody on scrubs, that kind of thing. But as far as the lives of the residents, how busy they were, how poor they were for a while, like living together and trying to make ends meet, and then kind of some of the cliches about the different medical specialties and what it's like to be a resident, and they have a lot of like medicine, versergery kind of battles, that kind of stuff. I think a lot of that, they had somebody on the advising staff for this show who really knew what they were, really knew what they were talking about, who really knew how to

speak Dr. resident language. I will say scrubs, like the not the TV show, the actual things we wear, the clothing, garment, scrubs, never fit as well as the scrubs do on those characters. They look like they had some tailors. Yeah, I would give anything to have scrubs that looked like that on me. I thought they always looked like that on Usweetheart. Thank you, Johnny. Interesting thing about scrubs, if you baileded and this actually kind of sucks. Scrubs had a fantastic

series finale that just didn't happen to be the series finale because it was at the end of season eight. Yes. There was a big relaunch actually of scrubs where they got rid of all the cast except for his act-brass, his friend Donald Faeson. That was not his name in the show that's the actor played and John C. McGinley who was his sort of hard-nosed boss Dr. Cox. What was Donald Face on his name? I'm blanking his friend. Terc. Yes.

Yes. Sorry. I've watched literally every episode. We need to start watching. Scrubs again. That's a problem. We'll be going back to watch Scrubs again. They relaunch with a new class of interns

in the ninth season. Zach Braff was in sixth the episode, then he dipped. And students. Yeah. They were teaching at the medical school and they had students this time. Which would have been really interesting because, you know, and that's a question I have for you,

Justin, why are people so interested in shows about doctors? You think it's medical students or it's that? Well, I think that would have been an interest. I mean, who's making a show about medical students? Though they're just reading all the time. Well, I mean, at first, and then they're all wondering around the hospitals. And it's crazy.

They're reading the hospitals. No, but why does everybody want to make shows about us? I don't know. That is a general question. Oh, about doctors. I think it's because there's so many obvious opportunities for drama because I think on the one hand, I think you're playing against the fact that doctors have, and I think this is shifted, but have classically sort of had a very revered place in society, and I think that that is always

a center of captivation for people. And I also think that like honestly, the, for me at least, watching how much you know, and like, and I think the medical education stuff that we covered last week, there is so much you have to learn that it, I think it is kind of like fantastical, a little bit, like it has a bit of allure there because you just know so much about a specific topic.

Also, a lot of easy opportunities for drama in a hospital. People die and people have in babies, you know, that kind of thing. That's a good point. And I will say, I appreciate all these shows you've mentioned about doctors because I think that they've made us a lot more interesting in the, like kind of in the public perception of us

than maybe we actually are. Because I mean, that's the thing. We really do have to spend a lot of time reading and studying and working. So I appreciate shows like Scrubs for making us look a lot more fun. At some point, we will do the rest of medical TV history. There was just too much to talk about,

because I like TV. Before we go though, this is our last push. This is our last chance, your last chance, while you're listening to this show, to donate to the Max Fun Drive and help support solbums. When you pledge an amount per month, 30% of that goes to help run the network. Helps to go run maximum fun, administration. We have a great team that helps sell ads and helps make sure we actually put out episodes every week. So that's where some of that money

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And a few hours away from my exciting life at the hospital where I am just having crazy romantic relationships with all the other hot doctors. Yeah. That's, that's, that's real. That's definitely what we do. Thanks to the taxpayers for letting us use their song medicines. Thanks to you for listening. We'll be with you next.

Well, let's just start calling the Wednesday. I think everyone feels good to everybody. We say slash Wednesday. It will be with you next Wednesday. It depends on how well Charlie sleeps at night, really. I'm Dustin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. As always, don't drill a hole in your head.

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