 Ben Casey
1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 6 (USA)
153 x 60 minute episodes
Most popular of the
early medical dramas (top show on ABC in the 1961 - 1952 season) Ben
Casey was set at County General Hospital. Dr
Ben Casey made female hearts go pitter-patter as they hadn't in a long
time. Nobody quite knew why, and despite the heart palpitations it
created, Ben Casey had the assistance of the American Medical
Association in its preparation.
More than $50,000 was tied up in
medical equipment, with each show costing around $115,000. The
show was the brainchild of James E. Moser, who created the memorable
Medic series on TV in 1954. He was quoted as saying,
"One day I was walking through Los Angeles General Hospital and I
came upon a redheaded neurosurgeon. He was snapping into a
telephone, 'Damn it. Stop having hysterics!' I knew that I had found a
new type of hero for a medical show."
Comparisons were inevitable
between Dr. Casey and Dr Kildare (played
by Richard Chamberlain) were inevitable. But while Kildare
seemed like the hygienic chairman of the junior prom, Casey
belonged in a black leather jacket on the back of a motorcycle.
When Vince Edwards heard the
rumors circulating around the studio lots about a feud between him and
Chamberlain, it began to get under his skin. He said;
"Mostly, a little success breeds a feud, or the feud is bred by a
lot of loud mouths looking to put the knock on the two guys involved. Let's
say that competition is good for a long healthy life. If you want
to call Dick competition, that's alright with me, because knowing he's
got a good show only makes me want to try harder to come up with one
of my own that lives up to the Ben Casey seal of perfection. I
feel a kinship with him."
 Dark-haired
Vince Edwards was discovered by Bing Crosby (the show was made by
Crosby's company) and put through a lightning course in handling
scalpels and forceps to play the brooding and intense neuro-surgeon. He
never had the boyish charm of Richard Chamberlain's Dr Kildare, but he
did have sex appeal (well, he had hairy muscular arms). The
series was seen as harder-edged, capturing the round-the-clock strains
of dedicated doctors in a city hospital. It tackled some controversial
subjects, darting into close-ups during operations.
Like the Kildare series, Ben
Casey became soapier with age (but unlike Dr Kildare, the series was not split
into half-hourly shows). Stories ran on from week to week, and Casey
was even allowed to fall in love with a beautiful patient who awoke
from a 13 year coma!
"man . . . woman . . .
birth . . . death . . . infinity".
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