Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power

Prime-time medical dramas have stamped the American mind with an indelible gallery of physicians. Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, and Marcus Welby are more widely recognized than any living physician, and in many cases are more trusted as well. In Playing Doctor, a colorful and highly perceptive history of TV medical series, Joseph Turow offers an entertaining inside look at how these shows were created. He provides a detailed history of the programs, an analysis of changing public perceptions of doctors and medicine, and an insightful commentary on how medical dramas have exploited and even shaped these perceptions.