Marcus Welby, M.D.

I was a big fan of this show from the first episode. Back in the early 70's, everyone wished they had a doctor like Marcus Welby. The way he treated patients and took a interest in their personal lives is what made the show so good. I think it was one of the first medical programs that dealt with serious medical issues and took a realistic approach in each show. One of my favorite episodes was about a small boy with autism, something that was just not talked about 35 years ago. Today, the family doctor is just about extinct with managed care and HMO's. Marcus Welby, M.D. reminds us of the good old days. I think the time has come to get these shows out in DVD so we can get to enjoy them all over again.

Marcus Welby, MD was a show that was a salute to a vanishing breed of men, the general practitioner. Robert Young who starred in the series had been America's role model dad in Father Knows Best. Now he became the role model doctor.

I liked Dr. Welby because of the way he treated his cases as individuals. Admittedly the job of a doctor can be routine, prescriptions and vaccinations and the dispensing of good commonsense advice of a general nature. But the episodes were of the cases that were unique and Welby treated them as such.

I could identify with him because back in my working days I tried to deal with a lot of claimants individually when I worked at NYS Crime Victims Board. There are some you just have to go the extra mile or two for. Welby did and I tried to. He had one indisputable advantage, Welby was his own boss. Try doing that in civil service where uniformity is a lifestyle.

Robert Young had young James Brolin at the beginning of his successful career. Young being a veteran of the old Hollywood studio system and Brolin one who developed his career on the small screen were two generations of actors. But they complemented each other well.

Completing the cast was another studio system veteran Elena Verdugo as the office nurse Consuela. She was very important because the one time starlet gave a voice and a face to working Hispanic women in the 40 something range.

I wish all the doctors were Marcus Welbys.

Why can't we buy more than two seasons? They filmed 7. I haven't seen these since I was a kid and would love to watch the entire series. What a refreshing change from all of the garbage in the mature ratings now.

I enjoyed watching this show as a child. I often wondered though if Welby only had a few patients since he had time to do home visits and become godfather to one of his patient's baby. He also seemed to moralize a lot. He would go into these lengthy monologues about morality and human behavior. It is also interesting to watch him tell a pregnant woman that drinking a glass of red wine in the evenings would be good for her nerves. How times have changed.

Before there was "St. Elseware","Doogie Howser,M.D.","ER", and "Chicago Hope", there was Marcus Welby,M.D.

It was a TV show from 1969-1976, starring the late Robert Young (Father Knows Best) as a Southern California doctor with Dr. Steven Kiley (James Brolin) with Consuelo the nurse (Elena Verdugo).

It was a TV classic.

I give it *****.