I was 3 years old when Dr. Kildare hit the airwaves in the Fall of 1961. As it came to the final season in 1966, I remember the show but my parents were watchers of Ben Casey instead. Now in my mid 60's, I enjoy classic TV from decades ago & recently bought the entire DVD set of the 5 seasons it aired. I watched every episode the past 3 or so weeks.
As it's been said, this TV show was made after the popular movies done in the 1930s/40s with Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare & Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Season 1 & 2: Dr. Kildare, the intern. In my opinion, these two seasons were the best with the most realistic storylines. Fictional Blair General Hospital was as much of an important character as were recurring roles with fellow medical employees as Drs. Agurski (Eddie Ryder), Gerson (Jud Taylor), Kapish (Ken Berry), and Nurses Fain (Jean Inness) & Conant (Jo Helton), among others. Dr. Kildare was always learning and looked to Dr. Gillespie for guidance. Dr. Gillespie was strong willed & showed very good leadership as Blair's Chief of Staff. Dr. Gillespie wasn't shy about giving his opinions of Dr. Kildare's actions but thought highly of him throughout the series & provided him with the leadership he needed to become a better doctor.
Seasons 3 through 5. Obviously, Dr. Kildare can't be an intern forever, so the third season finds him becoming a resident doctor at Blair. There's a little less hospital scenes starting with the 3rd season & more scenes with the guest stars of that week & their own storyline surroundings away from the hospital a bit more. For the most part, seasons 3 & 4 still had believable storylines but there were a few in season 3 that were a little over the top. One was titled If You Can't Believe The Truth where Barbara Eden plays an over-the-top Southern Belle nurse who is there just to find a rich husband (she does). Another, titled Goodbye, Mr. Jersey, has Suzanne Pleshette's character bring a sheepdog that was hit by a car to the ER & the doctors fix him up in one of the ER rooms. There is also an intern in this episode that is so much of a hypochondriac, that he wants the doctors to keep examining him to make sure he's okay & can't believe they are taking care of a dog in the ER (which I find a bit hard to believe too). His traits are so over the top that he would never get this far in medicine in real life. Thankfully, most episodes didn't stray too far from a more realistic storyline.
Season 5. Instead of having a self contained one hour episode, they change the format to two 30 minute episodes each week. This is the only season in color. Peyton Place was a successful night time soap opera & Dr. Kildare seemed to go in this direction also. The recurring staff of previous seasons were pretty much gone now & Nurse Lawton (Lee Kurty) was the only other recurring staff. In my opinion, the storylines became silly. The episodes would contain the same storyline for four or five episodes. After that storyline ended, another would begin for the the next 4 or 5 episodes. This lasted until the series end. Nurse Fain did appear in several episodes of the last season but her calm & professional abilities as a nurse in previous seasons changed a little. To keep with that more soap opera type programming, she was a bit less professional & a little gossipy. Nurse Lawton admitted to Dr. Gillespie that she was in love with Dr. Kildare & you would see their flirtation in the episodes but Dr. Kildare would also be dating the guest star of the week in some episodes. I'm not sure what we were suppose to think. Did the good doctor & nurse have a future or not? Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles provided technical support for the series the first 4 seasons as shown on the closing credits but was not listed at all for the last season. I wonder if they felt the series was straying from medicine & didn't want their name associated with the series anymore.
If you're a collector of classic TV DVD sets, I would buy this. If one's budget doesn't allow the entire series, I would definitely get Seasons 1 & 2. They were the best, in my opinion.
As it's been said, this TV show was made after the popular movies done in the 1930s/40s with Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare & Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Season 1 & 2: Dr. Kildare, the intern. In my opinion, these two seasons were the best with the most realistic storylines. Fictional Blair General Hospital was as much of an important character as were recurring roles with fellow medical employees as Drs. Agurski (Eddie Ryder), Gerson (Jud Taylor), Kapish (Ken Berry), and Nurses Fain (Jean Inness) & Conant (Jo Helton), among others. Dr. Kildare was always learning and looked to Dr. Gillespie for guidance. Dr. Gillespie was strong willed & showed very good leadership as Blair's Chief of Staff. Dr. Gillespie wasn't shy about giving his opinions of Dr. Kildare's actions but thought highly of him throughout the series & provided him with the leadership he needed to become a better doctor.
Seasons 3 through 5. Obviously, Dr. Kildare can't be an intern forever, so the third season finds him becoming a resident doctor at Blair. There's a little less hospital scenes starting with the 3rd season & more scenes with the guest stars of that week & their own storyline surroundings away from the hospital a bit more. For the most part, seasons 3 & 4 still had believable storylines but there were a few in season 3 that were a little over the top. One was titled If You Can't Believe The Truth where Barbara Eden plays an over-the-top Southern Belle nurse who is there just to find a rich husband (she does). Another, titled Goodbye, Mr. Jersey, has Suzanne Pleshette's character bring a sheepdog that was hit by a car to the ER & the doctors fix him up in one of the ER rooms. There is also an intern in this episode that is so much of a hypochondriac, that he wants the doctors to keep examining him to make sure he's okay & can't believe they are taking care of a dog in the ER (which I find a bit hard to believe too). His traits are so over the top that he would never get this far in medicine in real life. Thankfully, most episodes didn't stray too far from a more realistic storyline.
Season 5. Instead of having a self contained one hour episode, they change the format to two 30 minute episodes each week. This is the only season in color. Peyton Place was a successful night time soap opera & Dr. Kildare seemed to go in this direction also. The recurring staff of previous seasons were pretty much gone now & Nurse Lawton (Lee Kurty) was the only other recurring staff. In my opinion, the storylines became silly. The episodes would contain the same storyline for four or five episodes. After that storyline ended, another would begin for the the next 4 or 5 episodes. This lasted until the series end. Nurse Fain did appear in several episodes of the last season but her calm & professional abilities as a nurse in previous seasons changed a little. To keep with that more soap opera type programming, she was a bit less professional & a little gossipy. Nurse Lawton admitted to Dr. Gillespie that she was in love with Dr. Kildare & you would see their flirtation in the episodes but Dr. Kildare would also be dating the guest star of the week in some episodes. I'm not sure what we were suppose to think. Did the good doctor & nurse have a future or not? Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles provided technical support for the series the first 4 seasons as shown on the closing credits but was not listed at all for the last season. I wonder if they felt the series was straying from medicine & didn't want their name associated with the series anymore.
If you're a collector of classic TV DVD sets, I would buy this. If one's budget doesn't allow the entire series, I would definitely get Seasons 1 & 2. They were the best, in my opinion.