Hunky Docs

Handsome young doctors have been a TV staple since Ike was having heart attacks on the White House putting green. These days TV has more medical heartthrobs than aspirins in a bottle, but there was a time when Don Juan docs were a slightly rarer breed. So roll up your sleeves and let's scrub down for a very special Who2 loop on TV's old-school Hunky Docs.

RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN kicked off the 1960s as Dr. Kildare, a sensitive young intern learning the ropes in a big Los Angeles hospital. (Los Angeles has always seemed to be the favored locale for hunky doc-dom.) Chamberlain himself had attended LA's Pomona College intending to be an artist, but he turned out to be so incredibly handsome that he was more or less whisked onto the stage. Kildare ended in 1966; years later Chamberlain resurfaced as a Mature Hunk in 1980s miniseries like Shogun and The Thorn Birds.

Also set in Los Angeles was Medical Center, a show which was plenty popular in its day but somehow has failed to qualify for rerun glory. The star was CHAD EVERETT, a go-getter with a thick head of hair and a mod athleticism. The show's seven-year run (1969-76) made it the longest-running medical drama in prime-time history. His hunky doc days behind him, Everett has since carved out a respectable career as a sensibly handsome character actor.

At the same time that Richard Chamberlain was making hay as Dr. Kildare, VINCE EDWARDS was scoring big as Dr. Ben Casey. Casey was a little less naive and a little more brusque than Kildare, and he was a neurosurgeon into the bargain. Casey and Kildare went head-to-head in the dashing department from 1961-1966, the former on ABC and the latter on NBC.

ALAN ALDA stumbled into the role of a lifetime when he joined the cast of M*A*S*H as Capt. Hawkeye Pierce, the martini-mixing scalawag who was catnip to nurses in Korea. Alda was so popular that he grew to dominate the show, writing and directing episodes as well as playing the lead role from 1972-83. Sad to say, as the years passed Hawkeye slowly faded from fun-loving fox-hunter to preachy do-gooder. But he never stopped getting the girls.

Starting the same year as M*A*S*H, though never growing quite as famous, was Emergency (1972-77). The hunky doc: kinda-heartthrobby RANDOLPH MANTOOTH. Mantooth played John Gage, the young (Los Angeles!) paramedic with a horsey charm the ladies loved. Emergency proudly paid attention to the mundane realities of a paramedic's life -- giving Mantooth a chance to save cats as well as lives.

For the lives that didn't get saved, there was Quincy (1976-83). OK, so JACK KLUGMAN wasn't sexy and he wasn't young. But he was in Los Angeles. (The show allegedly was inspired in part by LA's real-life "Coroner to the Stars," Thomas Noguchi.) And who could resist the rumpled old Klugman as a rumpled old medical examiner? For a coroner he kept a pretty active love life, dating like mad and finally marrying a shrink in his final season.

The 1980s brought us GATES MCFADDEN as all-grown-up Doctor Beverly Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94). The sexy Crusher was distinctly older than most hunky docs, and she was probably the only dashing doc ever to have an on-screen child. Her son, weirdo whiz kid Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton), was proof positive that TV docs should remain childless.

Another older-than-average hunky doc was Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-98) -- and who would have believed a show about an Old West lady medico would be a hit in the go-go 1990s? A hit it was, with JANE SEYMOUR making major hay as Michaela Quinn, the sexy sawbones with the auburn curls. Quinn broke many a heart before settling down with Sully, the big-haired and big-hearted lug of her dreams.

In 1994 E.R. took a new tack by making practically everyone on the show a hunky doc. GEORGE CLOONEY had bounced through character roles for years before grabbing the role of Dr. Doug Ross and becoming People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. On the distaff side, JULIANNA MARGULIES and GLORIA REUBEN made strong claims for hunky doc-osity: Margulies as a strong-willed but sexy RN, and Reuben as a strong-willed but sexy physician's assistant. Remarkably, E.R. was set not in LA but in Chicago.

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