Medical drama
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.
In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and set in a hospital. Most current medical dramatic programming go beyond the events pertaining to the characters' jobs and portray some aspects of their personal lives. A typical medical drama might have a storyline in which two doctors fall in love.
Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, in his 1964 work on the nature of media, predicted a big success of this particular genre on TV, because such medium "creates an obsession with bodily welfare".
History
City Hospital, which first aired in 1951, is generally considered to be the first medical drama. Medic, which featured Richard Boone, ran two seasons, from 1954 to 1956. The genre became a staple of prime time television with the enormous popularity of Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey, both debuting in 1961. 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 subgenre. 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., House, and Scrubs.
See also
