Dr. Kildare (TV series)


Dr. Kildare is an NBC medical drama television series which originally ran from September 28, 1961, until August 30, 1966, for a total of 191 episodes over five seasons. 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 inspired or influenced many later TV shows dealing with the medical field.
Dr. Kildare aired on NBC affiliate stations on Thursday nights at 8:30-9:30 PM from September 28, 1961 until September 1965, when the timeslot was changed to Monday and Tuesday nights at 8:30-9:00 PM until the end of the show's run on August 30, 1966.

Plot

Like the earlier MGM film series, the TV series initially told the story of young intern Dr. James Kildare 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. 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." 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.
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 and the birth control pill were written, but never produced due to network objections. Technical advice was provided by the American Medical Association, whose name appeared in the end credits of each episode.
The series was initially formatted as self-contained one-hour episodes, aired once per week. In later seasons, a trend towards serialization, 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.

Cast

An unsold and unaired pilot was shot in 1960 featuring Joseph Cronin as "Dr. Kildare" and Lew Ayres as "Dr. Gillespie". As a younger man, Ayres had played the role of Kildare for many years in the earlier MGM film and radio series. 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. The role catapulted Chamberlain to fame. In 2006, Chamberlain reprised the Kildare role in a parody of Grey's Anatomy on the 2006 TV Land Awards.
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 as "Dr. Thomas Gerson", Steve Bell as "Dr. Quint Lowry", Clegg Hoyt as "Mac", Jo Helton as "Nurse Conant", and Lee Kurty as "Nurse Zoe Lawton."

Guest cast

Over the years, numerous well-known or soon-to-be well-known actors appeared as guest stars, including:
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. 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," in which he sang romantic lyrics set to the music from the show's familiar opening theme. Largely as a result of the show, Chamberlain became a teen idol during the 1960s.
The show's influence was so great that viewers would sometimes write to Chamberlain asking "Dr. Kildare" for medical advice. According to Mort Fleischmann, a former promotions executive for NBC, at one point the network promoted the show by having "Dr. Kildare" paged as if he were a real doctor on the public announcement system in airports, train stations, and bus stations across the United States.
In the later seasons of the series, a decline in ratings led to the series' cancellation in 1966. Despite its cancellation, the Dr. Kildare series continued to influence many later television medical dramas.

Home media

has released all five seasons on DVD-R in Region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. These are Manufacture-on-Demand releases, available via WBShop.com & Amazon.com.
DVD NameEp #Release Date
The Complete First Season33April 16, 2013
The Complete Second Season34January 28, 2014
The Complete Third Season34June 3, 2014
The Complete Fourth Season34April 28, 2015
The Complete Fifth Season58March 8, 2016

The unaired 1960 pilot episode starring Lew Ayres was also released on DVD by Warners as an extra included with the DVD release of their "Dr. Kildare Movie Collection" via Warner Archive Collection in 2014.
The DVD release of "Dr. Kildare: The Complete First Season" included, as an extra, the original never-aired pilot episode for the 1962 psychiatric medical drama series The Eleventh Hour, in which Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie appear assisting "Dr. Theodore Bassett" in diagnosing patient Ann Costigan. The episode was initially meant to air as an episode of Dr. Kildare, but was instead reworked to cut out Chamberlain and Massey's parts and remove all Kildare and Gillespie references before airing on October 3, 1962 as the debut episode of The Eleventh Hour TV series, entitled "Ann Costigan: A Duel on a Field of White."

Music

The series theme was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. In 2009 Film Score Monthly released a three-disc set of original music from the series, featuring Goldsmith's theme and his scores for the pilot and four season one episodes, plus further scores by Harry Sukman, Richard Markowitz, Morton Stevens, Lalo Schifrin and John Green. The album also includes music from the original unaired 1960 pilot adapted by Alexander Courage from Bronislau Kaper's theme for The Power and the Prize, and Richard Chamberlain's recording of "Three Stars Will Shine Tonight."

Related series

A second television series, titled Young Dr. Kildare, premiered in first-run syndication in 1972. Starring Mark Jenkins as Dr. Kildare and Gary Merrill as Dr. Gillespie, it lasted for only one season of 24 episodes.