Dr. Kildare

I used to watch this series and would not leave the house "for anything" the night the show was on. I remember my older sister asking me if I wanted to go bowling with a bunch of friends, I declined. I had this teenager's fanaticism for the series and a crush in a good way on Dr. Kildare, Richard Chamberlain (The Thorn Birds). I guess Dr. James Kildare was a big heart throb those days. I remember his boss Dr. Leonard Gillespie, Raymond Massey (All my Darling Daughters) calling him Jim. That was a nice series. I clearly remember when they did a love story where Yvette Mimieux was his girl friend and Richard Chamberlain sang: "True Love!" I bought his record and sang along like a crazy teen. I think she died of cancer, I guess, in that episode. I have no recollection of Mimieux being nurse Zoe Lawton (1965-66). My guess is because I was raised abroad and by the time I watched the series it was ending in the States. The last of the series probably never got translated. The series was about this intern and his relationship with his boss and his patients. It was today's ER with fewer interns. Just one! Dr. Kildare! He was enough! It was my favorite doctor series and I remember it, fondly!

Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare were exact contemporaries, both doctor shows that began and ended in the same season and were the most talked about shows on TV when they debuted in 1961. People were always making comparisons between them and here is mine.

One difference is that Casey was a resident, a full fledged doctor on staff at a hospital and a very prominent neurosurgeon. Kildare was an intern, a beginning doctor still learning the profession. If Kildare had been at the same hospital as Casey, Ben would have been bossing him around and making his life miserable.

A bigger difference was what they represented. Kildare was a symbol of the early 1960's. We were a very proud and optimistic country at that time. We'd survived the depression, won the war, had the communists on the defensive and were beginning to explore space. Social changes were taking place as well. if we were going to be the Greatest Country in the World, how could we have poverty and injustice? We tended to look at our government and institutions as benevolent servants of the people. There were several shows from this period, (Naked City, The Defenders, Mr. Novak were others), where handsome young idealistic novices entered a profession to be guided by their wise, patient but firm elders in becoming instruments of the system. The big challenge was getting people to trust the system by not committing crimes, studying hard and taking their pills. And of course, it's hard to look at the young men in these shows, (Richard Chamberlain, James Franciscus, Paul Burke, Robert Reed), and not see our youthful, idealistic president of the time, John Kennedy.

Casey was a precursor of the late 1960's. To him, the system was a monolith that existed for its own purposes and on its own momentum. You had to wrestle with it and with the mediocrity around you to get things done. Casey had a mentor as well, but Dr. Zorba often appeared to be more of a matador than a mentor, trying to tame Ben Casey, as he always called him, with a red cape and a sharp needle to puncture his ego from time to time.

I'd rather wake up from surgery and see Dr. Kildare's smiling face. But I'd be more likely to survive if it was Ben Casey who had done the surgery.

This series was based on the movies about the same characters starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. I truly loved those old movies. If I am not mistaken I think Lew Ayres even appeared in one of the episodes. The series was my introduction to Richard Chamberlain. As I have followed his career - I have never been disappointed by the roles he has taken on. But it was as Dr. Kildare that I shall always remember him first. I must add though that he had a great singing voice as well - I used to own the only record he ever released - Dr. Kildare Sings - I believe was the title of the LP. I concur with other fans about wondering if any copies of the show still exist for release in a DVD format for us diehard fans. I would buy them in a heartbeat!!!

The two part Episode of Dr. Kildare that featured Yvette Mimieux was called "Tiger,Tiger." (The title of a famous poem) It was one of the highest rated shows of the year, which I believe was 1963. Miss Mimieux played a beautiful epileptic and she died having a seizure while surfing, which her doctor had warned her not to do.

Oh, the heartbreak! Oh the teenage hormones! Oh, how the ratings soared!

I just stumbled onto these comments, and it's great to see so many people who remember "Dr. Kildare." The show was one of the first that was socially aware, and its episodes included many touching topics: a man dealing with amputation of a leg (tremendous performance by comic Jack Carter); restoring hearing to a little deaf boy; Harry Guardino learning to speak again and calling his wife; and of course the classic "Tyger, Tyger," the surfer saga with then-heartthrob/epileptic surfer Yvette Mimieaux, complete with cheesy rear-screen footage of Yvette "surfing." I ask you fans out there: Is there any way we can get these shows onto DVD? I would love to own some of these episodes! Do we know who owns the rights to these shows? Can we get a write-in campaign going? I would like to hear some ideas out there; perhaps there are folks out there who are more experience than I have in such matters.