Medical Center

I was in high school when this aired in 1969. I watched every episode. I sure do miss it and wish memorable entertainment TV, antenna TV, or inspiration channels would show it. Chad Everett did an episode of supernatural few years back playing older dean winchester. Few years later he died. Only other show I saw him in was the nanny, of all things, playing a doctor. I never knew where medical center was being filmed when I looked it up on www.IMDb.com. When I was scrolling down thats when I saw where it was being filmed. I forgot what the episodes where about but one. Think Robert Reed was in it and he wanted a sex change operation and only Dr Gannon would do the operation. I have a few web sites to watch TV shows but its not listed on any of them. I even went on www.youtube.com and not there either.

Not only did this show have a top notch supporting cast, a handsome, charming leading man, and outstanding "guest star" performances, but it took on issues and subjects and issues that were taboo on television until that time (some are still quite controversial even now). Male impotence. A lesbian doctor. Witchcraft. Drug overdoses. Gangs. Sex changes. Mental illnesses. Doctors practicing with no training. Racial issues. Feminisim. Child abuse.I still remember many of the episodes and even some of the dialogue. The issues covered in this groundbreaking series are still relevant to audiences today. This is a series that deserves more attention and needs a DVD box set made!

Not only were the topics that were discussed out near the edge, the weekly cast of guest stars were top notch. Many of those are on todays lists of entertainments "Who's Who". But one episode sticks out in my memory plainly as being way out beyond the edge for 1970's TV. The episode was " Ghetto Clinic", guest starring William Devane. In a scene where Chad Everette was scolding William Devane for not treating a street criminal mortally wounded in an altercation, allowing him to die, Devane explains simply "He was a scumbag"....I literally sat on my couch in shock. "Did I really hear that?" I thought. Friends at work the next day confirmed that I did'nt imagine it. To this day, I have yet to hear that term used on network TV. Medical Center raised the bar for TV drama. The stage was set for the next best, "St. Elsewhere"

Along side other doctor shows,Medical Center was one of the best. Chad Everett's character as Dr. Gannon was the George Clooney of his day. The show touch new ground on certain topics the were never discuss(or taboo)for TV back then,but its a rare opportunity to catch this seldom seen series being a milestone for others medical shows to follow.

I loved "Medical Center" as much as anyone else here. BUT... unless I missed an episode, it seems to me that everyone, every patient... survived and ended up walking out on their own two feet, more or less. I don't recall "Dr. Gannon" ever losing a patient. Unlike, say, on "ER", where they actually lose quite a few.

Also, "Dr. Gannon" is listed as "Professor of Surgery" at the fictional university medical center. And he did EVERYTHING. In one episode, he'd be doing General Surgery. In another, Neurosurgery. In another, Orthopedic... he was a Cardiovascular Surgeon, he was a Thoracic Surgeon! He even did Psychiatry (there was one episode involving a girl with what turned out to be "Hysterical Blindness"). This guy did EVERYTHING!!!!