iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Medical Drama

A medical drama is a television drama in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. In the United States, most medical dramas are 1-hour in length, and more often than not are set in a hospital. Most current medical dramas go beyond the events pertaining to the characters' jobs and portray some aspects of their personal lives. For example, a typical medical drama might have a storyline in which two doctors fall in love. Popular medical dramas include E.R., House, St. Elsewhere, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs and Nip/Tuck.

Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, in his on the nature of media, predicted a big success of this particular genre on tv, because such medium "creates an obsession with bodily welfare".[1]

History

Dr. Kildare, which first aired in 1961, is generally considered to be the first medical drama. The show was a success, and soon medical dramas were a common phenomenon. The BBC series Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962-1971) is an early example of another common variant of the genre in which a medical practice is used as a focus for stories detailing the life of a (usually small) community. The long running Australian series A Country Practice (1981-1993) is a later example of this sub-genre. From 1969 to 1976, the series Marcus Welby M.D. and Medical Center were extremely popular for their both orthodox and unorthodox way of presenting medical cases. In 1972, the first episode of M*A*S*H aired; the show's tone was generally comedic, but dark, poignant moments emanating from the death caused by war were not uncommon. This trend of comedy with undercurrents of darkness in medical TV shows can also be seen in Doogie Howser, M.D. and Scrubs, a current-day medical sitcom on NBC.

List of TV medical dramas

United States/Canada

United Kingdom

Australia/New Zealand

References

1. ^ Marshall McLuhan >(1964) , chap. 31: "One of the most vivid examples of the tactile quality of the TV image occurs in medical experience. In closed-circuit instruction in surgery, medical students from the first reported a strange effect-that they seemed not to be watching an operation, but performing it. They felt that they were holding the scalpel. Thus the TV image, in fostering a passion for depth involvement in every aspect of experience, creates an obsession with bodily welfare. The sudden emergence of the TV medico and the hospital ward as a program to rival the western is perfectly natural. It would be possible to list a dozen untried kinds of programs that would prove immediately popular for the same reasons. Tom Dooley and his epic of Medicare for the backward society was a natural outgrowth of the first TV decade."
Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
..... Click the link for more information.
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.[1] It is derived from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek δράμα), derived from "to do" (Classical Greek
..... Click the link for more information.
hospital is an institution for health care, often but not always providing for longer-term patient stays. Today, hospitals are usually funded by the state, health organizations (for profit or non-profit), health insurances or charities, including direct charitable donations.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
ER is an Emmy-winning American serial medical drama created by novelist Michael Crichton and set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Cook County, Chicago, Illinois.
..... Click the link for more information.
House, also known as House, M.D., is a critically-acclaimed American medical drama television series created by David Shore and executive produced by Shore and film director Bryan Singer.
..... Click the link for more information.
St. Elsewhere was a weekly drama series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series was set in a decaying urban teaching hospital called St. Eligius Hospital (named for St.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
Scrubs

Scrubs title card
Created by Bill Lawrence
Starring Zach Braff
Sarah Chalke
Donald Faison
Neil Flynn
Ken Jenkins
John C. McGinley
Judy Reyes
Narrated by Zach Braff as J.D.
..... Click the link for more information.
Nip/Tuck is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. The show follows the lives of two Miami plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon).
..... Click the link for more information.
communication theory.

Other commentators suggest that a ritual process of communication exists, one not artificially divorceable from a particular historical and social context.
..... Click the link for more information.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan CC (July 21, 1911 - December 31, 1980) was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a communications theorist.
..... Click the link for more information.
Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and
..... Click the link for more information.
Dr. James Kildare was a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show.
..... Click the link for more information.
Dr. Finlay is a fictional character, the hero of a series of stories by Scottish author A. J. Cronin. The stories were used as the basis for the long-running BBC television programme, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, screened from 1962 to 1971.
..... Click the link for more information.
A Country Practice was one of the longest-running Australian television drama series. It ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from November 18, 1981 to November 22, 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping, Sydney.
..... Click the link for more information.
Marcus Welby, M.D. was a popular medical drama that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969 to July 29, 1976. It was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell. The pilot aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 26, 1969.
..... Click the link for more information.
Medical Center was a dramatic television series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.

The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett (Richard Bradford in the pilot) as Dr.
..... Click the link for more information.
M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, inspired by the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker (penname for H. Richard Hornberger) and its sequels, but primarily by the 1970 film MASH, and influenced by the 1961 novel Catch-22.
..... Click the link for more information.
Scrubs

Scrubs title card
Created by Bill Lawrence
Starring Zach Braff
Sarah Chalke
Donald Faison
Neil Flynn
Ken Jenkins
John C. McGinley
Judy Reyes
Narrated by Zach Braff as J.D.
..... Click the link for more information.
worldwide view.
A situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television, as one of its dominant narrative forms.
..... Click the link for more information.
Medic was television's first doctor drama to focus attention on medical procedures, establishing the style for later medical series.

Created by its principal writer James Moser, Medic
..... Click the link for more information.
Ben Casey was a medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its iconic opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman,
..... Click the link for more information.
The Doctors was a soap opera which aired on NBC from April 1, 1963 to December 31, 1982. There were 5280 episodes produced, with the 5000th episode airing in November 1981.
..... Click the link for more information.
General Hospital

General Hospital Intertitle
Alternate titles GH
Creator(s) Frank and Doris Hursley
Country of origin  United States
No.
..... Click the link for more information.
IMDb profile

Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. It was the most popular box office film of 1954 in Great Britain, made Dirk Bogarde one of the biggest British stars of the 1950s.
..... Click the link for more information.
Medical Center was a dramatic television series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.

The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett (Richard Bradford in the pilot) as Dr.
..... Click the link for more information.
Marcus Welby, M.D. was a popular medical drama that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969 to July 29, 1976. It was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell. The pilot aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 26, 1969.
..... Click the link for more information.
For the album by Thai singer Tata Young, see .


Temperatures Rising was an American television situation comedy that ran from September 12, 1972 to August 29, 1974 on the ABC network.
..... Click the link for more information.
'Emergency!'

1975 NBC promo slide for Emergency!
Also known as Emergency One!
(in original syndication
to distinguish re-runs
from first-run
episodes)
Created by Jack Webb
Robert A.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter