Medic

Medic

1954
Medic
Medic

Medic

8.1 | NR | en | Drama

Medic is an American medical drama that aired on NBC beginning in 1954. Medic was television's first doctor drama to focus attention on medical procedures. Created by its principal writer James E. Moser, Medic tried to create realism which would typify medical shows from then on. Moser had previously written for the radio shows Dragnet and Dr. Kildare. He went on to write the television series Ben Casey.

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Seasons & Episodes

2
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EP31  This Strange Ending
Aug. 27,1956
This Strange Ending

Promising 19-year-old ballerina Laurie Allen's 1947 death from cancer becomes a personal obsession for newspaper reporter Joe Bailey, who conducts a series of interviews that he hopes will reveal the true story behind her untimely demise.

EP30  She Walks in Beauty
Aug. 06,1956
She Walks in Beauty

It's summer vacation and Jenny is a 12 year old girl with a club foot. Her parents are worried about her "ugly deformity" as they refer to it, and whether anybody will marry her when she's older. They take her to see a specialist to see if he can surgically repair her club foot.

EP29  Till the Song Is Done, till the Dance Is Gone
Jul. 09,1956
Till the Song Is Done, till the Dance Is Gone

This is the story of a young girl named Mary. She has a weak heart due to a defective heart valve. Doctors race to operate on her after she collapses at a dance she attended with her classmates.

EP28  Reach of the Giant (2)
Jun. 18,1956
Reach of the Giant (2)

After sending his wife away, Jim falls again and his condition worsens to the point where he decides to undergo experimental surgery on his spine.

EP27  Reach of the Giant (1)
Jun. 11,1956
Reach of the Giant (1)

A man develops a crippling arthritic spinal condition.

EP26  The Good Samaritan
May. 31,1956
The Good Samaritan

Dr. Styner stops to help a married couple involved in an automobile accident, but finds himself on trial for medical malpractice when the wife subsequently and surprisingly becomes addled and partially paralyzed on her left side.

EP25  To the Great, a Most Seldom Gift
May. 24,1956
To the Great, a Most Seldom Gift

Navy surgeon saves life of sailor injured in sea explosion.

EP24  Someday We'll Laugh
May. 07,1956
Someday We'll Laugh

A father, grateful to a doctor for saving his daughter's life, offers to finance the much-needed equipment for his office.

EP23  The Inconstant Heart
Apr. 23,1956
The Inconstant Heart

Although resigned to the fact that he had an incurable heart ailment, a man is badgered by his wife into going to a doctor. Tonight's story concerns radiology, and viewers see the UCLA medical center and its cancer-treating cobalt bomb.

EP22  Don't Count the Stars
Apr. 09,1956
Don't Count the Stars

An arrogant and self-aggrandizing singer's relentless drive for success is unceremoniously halted when he learns that his hoarseness is not due to vocal overwork, but to a potentially malignant cancer of the larynx.

EP21  Awake to Spring
Mar. 26,1956
Awake to Spring

An old man is the only family left for his crippled grandson. He's worried about his ability to carry on, and after a painful heart incident, he's convinced he'll soon be dead and his helpless charge will be doomed, so he decides they should go together and leaves the gas pipe open as they sleep.

EP20  My Best Friend, My Guilty Friend
Mar. 19,1956
My Best Friend, My Guilty Friend

This is the story of years of research to discover the cause of blindness in prematurely born infants.

EP19  The Glorious Red Gallagher
Mar. 12,1956
The Glorious Red Gallagher

A troubled woman has given birth to a baby by Caesarian section and has lost the will to live. She is put in the care of nurse Clara Mary Gallagher, who is retiring the next day after 39 years of service.

EP18  Who Search for Truth
Feb. 27,1956
Who Search for Truth

This is the story of Alexis St. Martin, a young fur trapper who was shot in the side and was used by Dr. William Beaumont for research into the function of the human digestive system.

EP17  The Homecoming
Feb. 13,1956
The Homecoming

Leprosy victim Allan Connolly is finally pronounced healthy and fit to resume a productive life in normal society, but he and his wife are unprepared for the rejection and irrational fear evinced by their friends and neighbors.

EP16  If Tomorrow Be Sad
Feb. 06,1956
If Tomorrow Be Sad

A successful photographer's model is told she is a victim of multiple sclerosis. Her unsympathetic husband decides he now wants a divorce.

EP15  Just Like Your Father
Jan. 23,1956
Just Like Your Father

An elderly judge who has no close relatives is taken seriously ill. After he collapses, his ailment is diagnosed as a pancreatic tumor.

EP14  The Laughter and the Weeping
Jan. 15,1956
The Laughter and the Weeping

Due to circumstances at home, a young man needs to help take care of his mom and ailing father. He can't finish college and resorts to Professional Wrestling to make money. Can he restore his appearance and his dignity?

EP13  A Time for Sleep
Jan. 02,1956
A Time for Sleep

The story of the contribution of the anesthesiologist to medicine. An elderly woman must undergo a thyroid operation. A large part of the success of such an operation is in the deft hands and decisions of the anesthesiologist.

EP12  The World So High
Dec. 26,1955
The World So High

During World War Two, pilots are able to take aircraft higher and higher, but they keep fainting out when parachuting out. A young doctor proceeds to do experiments back in the states on the most likely of these pilots to falter. Controlled high altitude simulations prove dangerous, but necessary.

EP11  Pray Judgement
Dec. 05,1955
Pray Judgement

A county coroner's investigation will exonerate or incriminate a distraught spinsterish woman who was alone with her younger sister's baby boy when the infant died suddenly and unexpectedly.

EP10  Glass of Fear
Nov. 28,1955
Glass of Fear

Comic strip artist Dick Hooper does a nationally syndicated feature called "Salty", but he can't make his due dates for finished cartoons because he's become obsessed with germs and various muscle and stomach pains that doctors can't locate. He's become a raging hypochondriac that's about to lose his wife and career.

EP9  Black Friday
Nov. 21,1955
Black Friday

Little known but true story about an Army doctor who tried to save Abraham Lincoln's life. Dr. Charles A. Leale was in the audience at Ford's Theater when John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal shot at President Lincoln. For 12 hours Leale and two other doctors worked desperately against death.

EP8  Candle of Hope
Nov. 07,1955
Candle of Hope

A citrus farmer gets married at age 45. He then wants a son but is unable to have one. He visits the doctor to get help.

EP7  When Mama Says Jump
Oct. 31,1955
When Mama Says Jump

Dr. Styner offers advice and support when a 17-year-old track star develops severe acne and chronic fatigue due to stresses caused by his demanding mother's determination to see him achieve his father's dream of Olympic stardom.

EP6  When I Was Young
Oct. 24,1955
When I Was Young

When Gwen Kellogg becomes depressed, modern treatment helps restore her to health

EP5  A Room, a Boy and Mr. Bodine
Oct. 10,1955
A Room, a Boy and Mr. Bodine

A young boy, neglected by his wealthy parents, builds a dream world of his own with the help of his tattered teddy bear, Mr. Bodine. This aggravates his asthmatic condition, as he is allergic to the teddy bear.

EP4  And Then There Was Darkness and Then There Was Light (2)
Oct. 03,1955
And Then There Was Darkness and Then There Was Light (2)

After unsuccessfully attempting to kill her baby, Frances Dunbar voluntarily admits herself to a state psychiatric institution where she receives treatment that slowly helps her to realize the reasons for her troubled mental state.

EP3  And Then There Was Darkness and Then There Was Light (1)
Sep. 26,1955
And Then There Was Darkness and Then There Was Light (1)

Immediately after giving birth to her fourth child, Frances Dunbar develops a severe case of postpartum depression and becomes convinced that she can (and will) violently murder the baby.

EP2  Walk with Lions
Sep. 12,1955
Walk with Lions

Unaware that he has developed diabetes, a struggling young prizefighter who is also a gifted artist endangers his life by continuing to push himself in order to earn the money needed to further his education.

EP1  All the Lonely Night
Sep. 05,1955
All the Lonely Night

Pretty, young Helen has a collapsing colon. Unless she consents to surgery to open up a new elimination canal and container bag, she will die. But what will that mean to a young woman's self-image and life style. Daring topic for its time.

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8.1 | NR | en | Drama | More Info
Released: 1954-09-13 | Released Producted By: Medic Productions , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Medic is an American medical drama that aired on NBC beginning in 1954. Medic was television's first doctor drama to focus attention on medical procedures. Created by its principal writer James E. Moser, Medic tried to create realism which would typify medical shows from then on. Moser had previously written for the radio shows Dragnet and Dr. Kildare. He went on to write the television series Ben Casey.

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The tv show is currently not available onine

Cast

Richard Boone

Director

Worthington Miner

Producted By

Medic Productions ,

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Reviews

mrb1980 "Medic" is a top-drawer medical drama that ran from 1954 to 1956. The series took the same anthology approach that was later adopted by "Twilight Zone" and other shows: each episode had established and up-and-coming actors in a different medical drama each week. The steady Richard Boone starred as Dr. Konrad Styner, who narrated each show and acted in several. The show was well-directed, compact, and compelling.Lots of past and future stars appeared, including Claude Akins, Beverly Garland, Hugh Beaumont, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, and many others. The show was remarkably frank for its period and portrayed medicine in a no-nonsense fashion. The series may appear rather technically crude now, but it's a lot better than most shows today, which include inane and suggestive dialogue, swooshing sound effects, screaming laugh tracks and really childish stories. I highly recommend considering the DVD set for an excellent mid-1950s TV experience.P.S. You sure can tell this was made in the 1950s. After a particularly tricky delivery of a newborn, Dr. Styner and another doctor start smoking cigarettes outside the delivery room!
Jeff Sultanof "Medic" is one of the finest shows ever produced for television. The grandfather of 'modern' medical shows, in many ways it is styled as a documentary; each segment deals with a specific medical issue and all bets seemed to be off - breast cancer, epilepsy, diabetes mental illness, tuberculosis, muscular dystrophy, leprosy, poor parenting, and hearing loss were all covered and more. During a time when one couldn't use the word pregnant on television, the series presented the story of a woman who dies while giving birth, and the birth is shown. It is often graphic and surprisingly candid, many times quite serious. Voice-over narration gives many facts and explanations about diagnoses and procedures.This series is a time capsule of where medicine was in 1954-6, which makes it invaluable as a teaching tool for those studying medicine, especially since each episode is packed with information about the illness being dealt with (imagine seeing what a polio sufferer went through). This series was overseen by doctors, and many appear in the series.The producer was Worthington Miner, who was responsible for Studio One, one of the greatest live dramatic anthology series in the history of television. The 'host' of the series is Richard Boone, an exceptional actor, director and teacher. He appears in every episode, but only acts in a few of them (one of them is one of the best in the series, about a possible atomic bomb attack). He is so convincing as a doctor that many viewers did not think he was an actor, and when it came time for him to audition for "Have Gun, Will Travel," the producers were initially not sure that he would be convincing. Overall, the acting is exceptional, with such actors as a very young Dennis Hopper, Vera Miles, Bobby Driscoll, Beverly Garland, Lee Marvin, Warren Stevens and more.Music was written by Victor Young, and orchestrated by Sidney Fine. This is one of the last projects composed by Young (he died in 1956) and it beautifully supports the action. Many of the scores are just plain gorgeous, and it's a pity that Young did not record an album of some the themes he wrote for the series (thankfully, many of the scores he wrote exist, donated to UCLA).Such a series was doomed from the start due to its subject matter and its seriousness; this would be a hard series to watch as a marathon. Immediately branded 'controversial,' it was scheduled at the same time as "I Love Lucy" and was frequently preempted for other programming. It managed to hang on for two years and 59 episodes, of which Timeless Media has made 44 available (reportedly, acceptable prints of the missing 15 could not be located).Still not well known, Medic deserves to be celebrated as the important series it is. If you collect classic early television, the Timeless set is a must-buy.
Joseph Harder James Moser was one of the outstanding writing talents in Television history. Sadly, he is almost forgotten and is, probably, quite unknown. He graduated from a Catholic college in California, then booked ship as a sailor on a tramp steamer headed to Australia. After working a variety of jobs in Australia, including journalism, he returned to the states and started writing for Radio. Jack Webb noticed his talent and hired him to be head writer on Dragnet. Moser wrote a wide range of teleplays in the fifties, including a dramatization of the life of Charles Proteus Steinmitz. Moser came up for the idea of an intelligent, realistic medical drama, that would star Richard Boone as Dr. Conrad Styner. To make sure the show was authentic, Moser worked as an orderly in a Los Angeles hospital for nearly two years. Medic, while critically acclaimed, lagged in the ratings, and was canceled after several years. Moser later came up with an idea for an even better, equally hard-hitting medical show, Ben Casey. Later Moser created another superb show that flopped in the ratings, Slattery's People. In 1965, he was the first person to receive The Gabriel Award from The Catholic Academy of Broadcast Professionalws for creating "shows that uplifted the human spirit." Of Course, NONE of them can be found on DVD.
Robin Cook I'm waiting for the other DVD's, so I've watched four episodes of this series thus far. I remember when I was young when this show came on the air, but was too young to appreciate it or understand it. The episodes I've watched are, My Brother Joe (6); The Wild Intruder (11); Break Through the Bars (20); and General Practitioner (27). These short half hour episodes (B&W) were actually very good even in comparison with the forensic flashiness of CSI's and terminology crazed Bones series. Richard Boone's appearance as only the introductory narrative was disappointing since I was hoping he would be starring in the episodes, but that disappointment was cast aside as I watched each show. Each episode was instructive with various situations of both medical and family topicked issues. These issues were very well addressed to teach the public ... and were not done in in the push-down-your-throat kind of way, which gave this series more class than most of what I've seen today. I must admit I laughed a few times when the camera focused on some old forensic equipment as state of the art, but I did wonder if they did use actual medical equipment for this series.I did not find this series as a nostalgic view, nor did I find it corny or creepily old-fashioned or melodramatic. This show had class of an upper crust that I believe would be good to run re-runs on television today (if they haven't already done so).Naturally, technology has changed since this series aired, but these episodes I have viewed, their content is timeless and still applies to today's perspectives. For example, in Break Through the Bars episode, Lee J. Cobb stars as a man in a bank who suddenly undergoes depression and manic episodes. Social stigma was stronger at the time this episode aired, but I don't believe it has changed that much today for mental illness. In the episode The Wild Intruder, the subject of breast cancer still remains a mystery and one that is hard to treat, plus the personal hardship of having a breast removed ... and, at the end of the episode there is Richard Boone narrating a summarization in a medical scheme of basically informing the public that such is the sacrifice to continue living.This series addresses some very tough issues other than medical. So, if people can get past the black and white versus color mental block, I sincerely believe they'll enjoy watching this good oldie series.