I recall watching this Richard Boone tv series as a youngster, but have little memory of it. Watching this episode featuring Charles Bronson 67 years later I was impressed with its unusual approach, if not influential but still fascinating given subsequent TV advancements.
With Boone introducing and carefully narrating the docudrama, a serious and quite educational format brigns to life an obscure historical story from the early 1800s. Ainslie Pryor gives a subtle yet forceful portrayal of a lowly-paid army doctor who treats Bronson for a serious shotgun accident which leaves the French-Canadian furtrapper with an open stomach wound that just won't heal.
Doctor Beaumont saves him from death and selflessly takes care of him for years, experimenting on giving him nourishment through this stomach directly. His work is foundtional in modern treatment of the stomach as he discovered many facts about the organ and digestion, all without remuneration.
Contrasting with the stoic but earnest doctor, Bronson's effective ethnic performance is typical of his expressiveness early in his career, and the 1/2-hour is gripping without the gimmickry (especially the gore-orientation of so many hit police-procedural shows) and sentimentality that permeates so many medical and "real-life" stories that became staples of TV programming in its wake. The sincerity of "Medic" and its writer-producer James Moser stands the test of time.
With Boone introducing and carefully narrating the docudrama, a serious and quite educational format brigns to life an obscure historical story from the early 1800s. Ainslie Pryor gives a subtle yet forceful portrayal of a lowly-paid army doctor who treats Bronson for a serious shotgun accident which leaves the French-Canadian furtrapper with an open stomach wound that just won't heal.
Doctor Beaumont saves him from death and selflessly takes care of him for years, experimenting on giving him nourishment through this stomach directly. His work is foundtional in modern treatment of the stomach as he discovered many facts about the organ and digestion, all without remuneration.
Contrasting with the stoic but earnest doctor, Bronson's effective ethnic performance is typical of his expressiveness early in his career, and the 1/2-hour is gripping without the gimmickry (especially the gore-orientation of so many hit police-procedural shows) and sentimentality that permeates so many medical and "real-life" stories that became staples of TV programming in its wake. The sincerity of "Medic" and its writer-producer James Moser stands the test of time.
