In the 50s, the solution to faltering TV ratings was to create a new Western program, and that’s exactly what MGM was looking to do.  So, when producer Norman Felter decided to bring back the popular medical drama of 30s and 40s film and early 50s radio, Dr. Kildare, it’s needless to say they were surprised, and perhaps a bit weary.  Sure, you could hear about sick people, you could see a film here and there about them, but to tune in every week to see more sick patients just didn’t figure to be a winning idea.  None the less, the show Dr. Kildare got made, and changed the course of television by sparking a number of other medical dramas, both daytime and primetime,  throughout the decades.

The character of Dr. Kildare was based on a real-life urologist by the name of Dr. George Winthrop Fish.  He inspired the writings of Frederick Schiller Faust, who wrote fiction under the pseudonym, Max Brand.  Since most people knew him from the Kildare films, which were generally lighter fares than the TV series would prove itself to be, the character was a familiar one; one that could easily be latched onto by audiences familiarizing themselves with a weekly medical drama. 

At the start of the series, Kildare was an intern at Blair General Hospital.  The sensitive doctor struggled to please his superiors happy, most notably Dr. Gillespie.  By the third season, Dr. Kildare was made a resident, allowing the show to move from medicine into more human drama, though there would always be something medically going on.  By the fourth season, however, the story changed in such a way that it became a soap opera, of sorts, running as two half-hour programs a week instead of the full hour once a week, and it ran this way until the end of the series’ run. 

The role of Dr. James Kildare proved to be the breakthrough role for a young Richard Chamberlain, who had beat out Robert Redford for the part.  Along with becoming a teen idol, appearing on the covers of magazines, he also was a burgeoning pop star, even recording “Three Stars Will Shine Tonight,” the theme to the series which found moderate success on the pop charts.  Chamberlain was so identified with the role that beyond the piles of fan main he’d receive each week, people passing him on the street would stop him to ask for medical advice. 

NBC’s Dr. Kildare ended its run in 1966 at the same time its rival medical show on ABC, Ben Casey, wrapped.  Soon, a slew of other medical dramas started popping up in primetime slots, some successful, others less so.  Yet, it seemed as though the public was thirsting for more Dr. Kildare, so in 1972 came the series Young Dr. Kildare, which only lasted a single season.