Marcus Welby, M.D.

Last updated

Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby Intro Screen.jpg
Marcus Welby, M.D. title card
Created by David Victor
Starring Robert Young
James Brolin
Theme music composer Leonard Rosenman
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons7
No. of episodes170 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer David Victor
Producer David J. O'Connell
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time60 minutes
Production company Universal Television
Original release
Network ABC
ReleaseSeptember 23, 1969 (1969-09-23) 
May 4, 1976 (1976-05-04)

Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television series that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to May 4, 1976. It starred Robert Young as the title character, a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, who made house calls and was on a first-name basis with many of his patients; James Brolin as his partner Steven Kiley, a younger doctor; and Elena Verdugo as Consuelo Lopez, Welby and Kiley's dedicated and caring nurse/office manager.

Contents

Marcus Welby, M.D. was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell through Universal Television, which was then an MCA company. The pilot, titled "A Matter of Humanities", had aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 26, 1969.

Overview

As with most medical dramas of the day, the plots often concerned a professional conflict between well-meaning physicians. Here, Welby's unorthodox way of treating patients was pitted against the more straight-laced methods of Kiley (Brolin). The catch with this particular program was that the roles were reversed in that Kiley was much younger than Welby. The opening credits of each episode reminded viewers of the generation gap between the two doctors, Welby driving his sedan and Kiley riding a motorcycle. Welby had served in the US Navy as a doctor during the war, and was a widower.

The doctors worked alongside each other in their private practice in Santa Monica, California, regularly working in conjunction with the nearby Lang Memorial Hospital. (This was later revealed in exterior shots to be the real-life Saint John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.) At the office, their loyal secretary-nurse and friend was Consuelo Lopez (Verdugo). Other characters that appeared throughout the series included Dr. Welby's frequent girlfriend Myra Sherwood (Anne Baxter), his daughter Sandy (originally Christine Belford, and later Anne Schedeen) and her son Phil (Gavin Brendan), and Kathleen Faverty (Sharon Gless), an assistant program director at the hospital, who worked closely with Welby and Kiley. Kiley met and married public relations director Janet Blake (played by Pamela Hensley) in 1975, at the beginning of the show's final season on the air.

Young and Wyatt on Marcus Welby, M.D. Robert young jane wyatt.JPG
Young and Wyatt on Marcus Welby, M.D.

In the episode "Designs", which aired on March 12, 1974, Young was reunited with his Father Knows Best co-star, Jane Wyatt; she played a fashion designer whose marriage to an embittered paraplegic led her to fall in love with the doctor while keeping her marriage a secret most of the episode.

Medical features

Its handling of many varied medical cases – some common, some uncommon – made it an instant hit for ABC. Story lines included impotence, depression, brain damage, breast cancer, mononucleosis, teenaged obesity, juvenile diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases, epilepsy, learning disabilities, leukemia, haemophilia, paraplegia, dysautonomia, rape, Alzheimer's disease, and addiction to painkillers, among others. At its second season (1970–1971), it ranked number one in the Nielsen ratings, becoming the first ABC show to top the list. The same year, both Young and Brolin won Emmy Awards for their work, as did the show for Outstanding Dramatic Series. Young won a Golden Globe in 1972 for his performance. Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians served as technical advisers for the series and reviewed every script for medical accuracy.

Politics

The 1973 episode "The Other Martin Loring" was about a middle-aged man whom Welby advised to resist his homosexual impulses. The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) zapped ABC, occupied its New York headquarters and picketed. [1] The next year, "The Outrage" was a story of a teenaged student who was sexually assaulted by his male teacher, associating homosexuality with pedophilia. Seven sponsors refused to buy television advertising time, and 17 television network affiliates refused to air the episode. [2] [3] This was the first known instance of network affiliates refusing a network episode in response to protests. [4]

In addition, an episode dealing with abortion was refused by San Diego area ABC affiliate XETV, a station licensed to Tijuana across the border in Mexico, due to that country's stance on the practice at the time. [5]

Episodes

Robert Young, James Brolin, Elena Verdugo (1971) Marcus Welby MD cast.JPG
Robert Young, James Brolin, Elena Verdugo (1971)
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
Pilot March 26, 1969 (1969-03-26)
1 26September 23, 1969 (1969-09-23)April 14, 1970 (1970-04-14)
2 24September 22, 1970 (1970-09-22)March 30, 1971 (1971-03-30)
3 24September 14, 1971 (1971-09-14)March 14, 1972 (1972-03-14)
4 24September 12, 1972 (1972-09-12)March 6, 1973 (1973-03-06)
5 24September 11, 1973 (1973-09-11)March 12, 1974 (1974-03-12)
6 24September 10, 1974 (1974-09-10)March 11, 1975 (1975-03-11)
7 24September 9, 1975 (1975-09-09)May 4, 1976 (1976-05-04)
TV films May 16, 1984 (1984-05-16)December 19, 1988 (1988-12-19)

Crossovers with Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law

During its run, Marcus Welby, M.D. had two crossover stories with its legal spin-off series, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law .

In "Men Who Care", Marshall defends the father of Welby's patient when the man is accused of murdering his daughter's boyfriend. In "I've Promised You a Father", Marshall defends Kiley in a paternity suit filed by a nurse claiming that Kiley is the father of her child.

Nielsen ratings

SeasonRankRating
1969–70 #8 [6] 23.7
1970–71 #1 [7] 29.6
1971–72 #3 [8] 27.8
1972–73 #13 [9] 22.9
1973–74 #29 [10] 19.5
1974–75 #53 [11] 16.6
1975–76 #43 [12] N/A

It was the first show in ABC's history to become the number-one show on television.

Ending of the series

By the mid-1970s, the popularity of medical dramas began to wane. Ratings for both Marcus Welby, M.D. and CBS's Medical Center began to drop, as did the ratings for daytime dramas General Hospital and The Doctors . Previous episodes initially went into syndication in the fall of 1975 as Robert Young, Family Doctor (to avoid confusion with the first-run episodes still airing on ABC). The show ended its run in 1976 after 169 episodes were made. On an awards show[ which? ] that year, Young joked publicly, "I knew that it was time to quit when I started taking time off to play golf!"

Television movies

In 1984, the reunion movie The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D. aired, with Young and Verdugo reprising their roles. The major conflict, aside from interactions with patients, centered around Welby being accused of being too old to retain his medical license safely. Though Brolin was unavailable to reprise his role as Kiley, a statement described as being from him was read before the board that would decide Welby's fate. Another movie was made in 1988, Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Holiday Affair. This last made-for-television film was the last acting role of Robert Young's career.

Home media

Shout! Factory (under license from Universal Studios) has released the first two seasons of Marcus Welby, M.D. on DVD in Region 1. [13] [14]

Mill Creek Entertainment released a 10-episode best-of set entitled Marcus Welby, M.D.: The Best of Season One on March 22, 2011. [15]

DVD nameEp #Release date
Season 126May 4, 2010
Season 224October 12, 2010

Related Research Articles

<i>Roseanne</i> American television sitcom

Roseanne is an American television sitcom created by Matt Williams which aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May 22, 2018. The show stars Roseanne Barr as Roseanne Conner and revolves around her family in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois. Receiving generally positive reviews for its realistic portrayal of a working-class American family, the series reached No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings from 1989 to 1990 in its second season.

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.

<i>ER</i> (TV series) American medical drama television series (1994–2009)

ER is an American medical drama television series created by Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994, to April 2, 2009, with a total of 331 episodes spanning 15 seasons. It was produced by Constant C Productions and Amblin Television, in association with Warner Bros. Television. ER follows the inner life of the emergency room (ER) of Cook County General Hospital in Chicago, and various critical issues faced by the department's physicians and staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Brolin</span> American actor (born 1940)

James Brolin is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and the husband of Barbra Streisand.

<i>Doogie Howser, M.D.</i> American medical comedy-drama television series (1989–1993)

Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life.

<i>Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law</i> American TV series or program

Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law is an American legal drama, jointly created by David Victor and former law professor Jerry McNeely, that starred Arthur Hill. The series was broadcast on ABC from 1971 to 1974; Victor and McNeely produced it under the "Groverton Productions" banner through Universal Television, then an MCA company. A two-hour pilot movie, titled "A Pattern of Morality," had aired as a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week entry prior to the beginning of the series run.

<i>Medical Center</i> (TV series) TV series or program

Medical Center is an American medical drama series that aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976. It was produced by MGM Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elena Verdugo</span> American actress (1925–2017)

Elena Angela Verdugo was an American actress who began in films at the age of five in Cavalier of the West (1931). Her career in radio, television and film spanned six decades.

<i>ABC Movie of the Week</i> American TV anthology series (1969–75)

The ABC Movie of the Week was an American weekly television anthology series featuring made-for-TV movies that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1975.

The Homosexuals (<i>CBS Reports</i>) Episode of CBS Reports

"The Homosexuals" is a 1967 episode of the documentary television series CBS Reports. The hour-long broadcast featured a discussion of a number of topics related to homosexuality and homosexuals. Mike Wallace anchored the episode, which aired on March 7, 1967. Although this was the first network documentary dealing with the topic of homosexuality, it was not the first televised in the United States. That was The Rejected, produced and aired in 1961 on KQED, a public television station in San Francisco.

The "lesbian kiss episode" is a subgenre of the media portrayal of lesbianism in American television media, created in the 1990s. Beginning in February 1991 with a kiss on the American L.A. Law series' episode "He's a Crowd" between C.J. Lamb and Abby Perkins, David E. Kelley, who wrote the episode in question, went on to use the trope in at least two of his other shows. Subsequent television series included an episode in which a seemingly heterosexual female character engages in a kiss with a possibly lesbian or bisexual character. In most instances, the potential of a relationship between the women does not survive past the episode and the lesbian or suspected lesbian never appears again.

<i>The Rejected</i> 1961 American film

The Rejected is a made-for-television documentary film about homosexuality, produced for KQED in San Francisco by John W. Reavis. Notable as the first documentary program on homosexuality broadcast on American television, KQED first aired the film on September 11, 1961. Later syndicated to National Educational Television (NET) stations across the United States, it received positive critical reviews.

"The Outrage" is a 1974 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., a long-running American medical drama on ABC. The episode tells the story of a teenage boy who is raped by his male teacher. The episode, which originally aired October 8, 1974, sparked controversy and anger for its equation of homosexuality to pedophilia. "The Outrage" was targeted for protests by LGBT rights groups and several network affiliates refused to broadcast it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Other Martin Loring</span> 22nd episode of the 4th season of Marcus Welby, M.D.

"The Other Martin Loring" is a 1973 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., an American medical drama that aired on ABC. It tells the story of a middle-aged man facing several health issues, which seem to stem from his repression of his homosexuality. The episode aired on February 20, 1973, and was met with concern and protests from LGBT rights activists for its equating of homosexuality and illness.

Flowers of Evil (<i>Police Woman</i>) 8th episode of the 1st season of Police Woman

"Flowers of Evil" is a 1974 episode of the American police procedural television series Police Woman. The episode features Sgt. Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson going undercover at a nursing home to investigate a murder. She uncovers a trio of lesbians who are robbing and murdering their elderly residents. The episode, the eighth of the first season, originally aired on November 8, 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jodie Dallas</span> Fictional character from the US sitcom "Soap"

Jodie Dallas is a fictional character from the 1977 American sitcom Soap. He was played by Billy Crystal. The son of central character Mary Campbell, Jodie works as a television commercial director. Jodie was among the first gay characters on American television. Despite being gay, Jodie fathered a child through a one-night stand, and many of his storylines throughout the series centered on his involvement with women. Jodie had relationships with two other women but maintained throughout the series that he was still gay. The series ended with Jodie, as the result of hypnotherapy, believing he was an elderly Jewish man.

References

  1. Capsuto, p. 92
  2. Capsuto, pp. 106–109
  3. Tropiano, pp. 18–21
  4. Alwood, p. 150
  5. Becklund, Laurie (October 29, 1978). "Broadcasters' Battle of the Border – a Lucrative Market Is at Stake". Los Angeles Times .
  6. "TV Ratings > 1960's". ClassicTVHits.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  7. "TV Ratings > 1970's". ClassicTVHits.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  8. "TV Ratings > 1970's". ClassicTVHits.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  9. "TV Ratings > 1970's". ClassicTVHits.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  10. "1973-74 Ratings History". The TV Ratings Guide. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  11. "1974-75 Ratings History". The TV Ratings Guide. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  12. "1975-76 Ratings History". The TV Ratings Guide. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  13. "Marcus Welby, M.D. – Shout! Factory Newsletter Announces Spring DVD for Season 1". Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  14. "Marcus Welby, M.D. DVD news: Announcement for Marcus Welby, M.D. – Season 2". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  15. "Marcus Welby, M.D. DVD news: Announcement for Marcus Welby, M.D.: The Best of Season 1". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.

Bibliography