From Marcus Welby, M.D. to The resident: The changing portrayal of physicians in TV medical dramas
Abstract Over the years, the way medical dramas represent health professionals has changed. When the first medical dramas were broadcasted, the main characters were good, peaceful, intelligent, competent, empathic, and successful physicians. One of the most famous, even outside the US, was Marcus Welby M.D. (1969-1976) of David Victor –which this year marks 50 years since its first emission. This depiction began to change in the mid-1990s. While maintaining the over positive image of medical doctors, TV series started to put more emphasis on their negative characteristics and difficulties in their interpersonal relationships, such as ER (TV) by Michael Crichton (United States) and House MD (TV) by David Shore (United States). In these series, physicians were portrayed as arrogant, greedy, and adulterous, and their diagnostic and therapeutic errors were exposed. The last two series are The Good Doctor (TV) by David Shore (United States), with a resident of surgery with autism and Savant syndrome, and The Resident (TV) by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi (United States), where serious institutional problems appear. These series can be useful as a method to discuss medical ethics through positive or negative examples, and also help to represent changes in the image of physicians in recent decades, discussing the reasons for these changes.
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Baños JE, Bosch F. Using feature films as a teaching tool in medical schools. Educ Med. 2015;16(4):206-11.
Baños JE, Cambra Badii I, Guardiola E. A physician with autism in a TV series. The Lancet Neur. 2018;17(10):844.
Cambra-Badii I, Baños J. ¿Un médico con autismo en la televisión? Enseñanzas de The Good Doctor. Rev Med Cine. 2018;14(4):273-83.
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Czarny M, Faden R, Sugarman J. Bioethics and professionalism in popular television medical dramas. J Med Ethics. 2010;36(4):203-6.
Foss K. “When we make mistakes, people die!”: constructions of responsibility for medical errors in televised medical dramas, 1994– 2007. Commun. Q. 2011;59(4): 484-506.
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Hirt C, Wong K, Erichsen S, White J. Medical dramas on television: a brief guide for educators. Med Teac. 2013;35(3):237-42.
Holoweiko M. Good news-the pedestal is gone. Med Econ. 1998; 75(20):54–56. 63, 67.
Kalisch PA, Kalisch BJ. Sex-role stereotyping of nurses and physicians on prime-time television: A dichotomy of occupational portrayals. Sex Roles 1984;10(7-8):533-53.
Lim E, Seet R. In-house medical education: Redefining tele-education. Teach Learn Med. 2008;20(2):193–5.
Malmsheimer R. Doctors only: The evolving image of the American physician. New York: Greenwood Press; 1988.
O’Connor MW. The role of the television drama ER in medical student life: Entertainment or socialization? JAMA. 1998;280:854–5.
Pfau M, Mullen LJ, Garrow K. The influence of television viewing on public perceptions of physicians. J Broad Electr Media. 1995;39:441-58.
Spike J. Television viewing and ethical reasoning: Why watching Scrubs does a better job than most bioethics classes. AJOB. 2008;8(12):11-3.
Strauman E, Goodier BC. Not your grandmother’s doctor show: A review of Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Nip/Tuck. J Med Humanities. 2008;29:127–31.
Taylor WL. Gauging the mental health content of the mass media. Journalism Mass Commun. Q. 1957;34:191 -201.
Trachtman H. The medium is not the message. AJOB. 2008;8(12):9– 11.
Turow J. Television Entertainment and the U.S. Health Care Debate. The Lancet. 1996; 347(9010):1240-3.
Wachter R, Shojania K. Internal bleeding: The truth behind America’s terrifying epidemic of medical mistakes. New York: Rugged Land; 2004.
van Ommen M, Daalmans S, Weijers A. Who is the doctor in this house? Analyzing the moral evaluations of medical students and physicians of House M.D. AJOB Empirical Bioethics 2014;5(4):61-74.
Weaver R, Wilson I. Australian medical students’ perceptions of professionalism and ethics in medical television programs. BMC Med Educ 2011;11(1):50.
White GB. Capturing the ethics education value of television medical dramas. AJOB. 2008;8(12):13-14.
Wicclair R. The pedagogical value of House, M.D. Can a fictional unethical physician be used to teach ethics? AJOB. 2008;8(12): 16–7.
Williams R, Evans L, Talal Alshareef N. Using TV dramas in medical education. Educ Prim Care. 2015;26(1):48-9.
Baños JE, Bosch F. Using feature films as a teaching tool in medical schools. Educ Med. 2015;16(4):206-11.
Baños JE, Cambra Badii I, Guardiola E. A physician with autism in a TV series. The Lancet Neur. 2018;17(10):844.
Cambra-Badii I, Baños J. ¿Un médico con autismo en la televisión? Enseñanzas de The Good Doctor. Rev Med Cine. 2018;14(4):273-83.
Cambra Badii I, Baños JE. A walk on the wild side of medicine: a review of The Resident. Educ Refl Prac. 2018;2:52-65.
Campbell A. The teaching of medical ethics. Med Teac. 2011;33:349–50.
Chory-Assad RM, Tamborini R. Television doctors: An analysis of physicians on fictional and non-fictional television programs. J Broad Electr Media. 2001;45:499-521.
Chory-Assad RM, Tamborini R. Television exposure and the public’s perceptions of physicians. J Broad Electr Media. 2003; 47:197–215.
Czarny M, Faden R, Nolan M, Bodensiek E, Sugarman J. Medical and nursing students’ television viewing habits: potential implications for bioethics. AJOB. 2008;8(12):1-8.
Czarny M, Faden R, Sugarman J. Bioethics and professionalism in popular television medical dramas. J Med Ethics. 2010;36(4):203-6.
Foss K. “When we make mistakes, people die!”: constructions of responsibility for medical errors in televised medical dramas, 1994– 2007. Commun. Q. 2011;59(4): 484-506.
Gerbner G, Gross L, Morgan M, Signorielli N. Special report: Health and medicine on television. N Eng J Med. 1981; 305(15):901-4.
Gerbner G, Morgan M, Signorielli N. Programming health portrayals. In Pearls D, Bouthilet L, Lazar J, editors. Television and behavior: Ten years of scientific progress and implications for the eighties, Volume 1. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health; 1982.
Goodman K. Medical education: Imagining doctors: medical students and the TV medical drama. Am Med Assoc J Ethics. 2007;9(3):182–7.
Hirt C, Wong K, Erichsen S, White J. Medical dramas on television: a brief guide for educators. Med Teac. 2013;35(3):237-42.
Holoweiko M. Good news-the pedestal is gone. Med Econ. 1998; 75(20):54–56. 63, 67.
Kalisch PA, Kalisch BJ. Sex-role stereotyping of nurses and physicians on prime-time television: A dichotomy of occupational portrayals. Sex Roles 1984;10(7-8):533-53.
Lim E, Seet R. In-house medical education: Redefining tele-education. Teach Learn Med. 2008;20(2):193–5.
Malmsheimer R. Doctors only: The evolving image of the American physician. New York: Greenwood Press; 1988.
O’Connor MW. The role of the television drama ER in medical student life: Entertainment or socialization? JAMA. 1998;280:854–5.
Pfau M, Mullen LJ, Garrow K. The influence of television viewing on public perceptions of physicians. J Broad Electr Media. 1995;39:441-58.
Spike J. Television viewing and ethical reasoning: Why watching Scrubs does a better job than most bioethics classes. AJOB. 2008;8(12):11-3.
Strauman E, Goodier BC. Not your grandmother’s doctor show: A review of Grey’s Anatomy, House, and Nip/Tuck. J Med Humanities. 2008;29:127–31.
Taylor WL. Gauging the mental health content of the mass media. Journalism Mass Commun. Q. 1957;34:191 -201.
Trachtman H. The medium is not the message. AJOB. 2008;8(12):9– 11.
Turow J. Television Entertainment and the U.S. Health Care Debate. The Lancet. 1996; 347(9010):1240-3.
Wachter R, Shojania K. Internal bleeding: The truth behind America’s terrifying epidemic of medical mistakes. New York: Rugged Land; 2004.
van Ommen M, Daalmans S, Weijers A. Who is the doctor in this house? Analyzing the moral evaluations of medical students and physicians of House M.D. AJOB Empirical Bioethics 2014;5(4):61-74.
Weaver R, Wilson I. Australian medical students’ perceptions of professionalism and ethics in medical television programs. BMC Med Educ 2011;11(1):50.
White GB. Capturing the ethics education value of television medical dramas. AJOB. 2008;8(12):13-14.
Wicclair R. The pedagogical value of House, M.D. Can a fictional unethical physician be used to teach ethics? AJOB. 2008;8(12): 16–7.
Williams R, Evans L, Talal Alshareef N. Using TV dramas in medical education. Educ Prim Care. 2015;26(1):48-9.
Cambra-Badii, I., Guardiola, E., & Baños, J.-E. (2020). From Marcus Welby, M.D. to The resident: The changing portrayal of physicians in TV medical dramas. Journal of Medicine and Movies, 16(2), 91–109. https://doi.org/10.14201/rmc202016287102
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