Dr. Kildare (1961-1966) Tv series (1 Viewer)

[ufffa]

Hello to everybody,

I'm trying to find out who owns the tv rights of the tv series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966).

I've talked to MGM and they told me they don't have them, they said to talk to Warner

I've talked to Warner and they said they don't have them.

So now I don't know who do I have to call.

Can anybody help?

Thank you

Chicca

 

[Sylvia*ST]

Call KTLA. They ran an episode during their 50th or 60th anniversary day.

 

[Carabimero]

I decided to resuscitate this very old thread rather than start a new one.

I just finished the penultimate season of DR. KILDARE (with one-hour episodes). I'm about to start the final season, which appears to contain half-hour shows.

DR. KILDARE is one of those handful of shows I never saw until buying the first season from Warner Archives a few years ago. I then bought the multi-disc soundtrack set. I love the series. Hate to see it ending but plan to enjoy the final season, despite having the sinking feeling that the best episodes are behind me.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

The reason the final season is made up of half hours is because the previous season (1964-65), ABC had great success with "Peyton Place," which was basically a nighttime serial, shown as two half hours twice a week. NBC decided to try the same gimmick with "Dr. Kildare", Mondays and Tuesdays at 8:30 EST.

I believe the stories continue over 2, 3 or 4 episodes. Whatever it is, it didn't work out very well and the show was canceled.

 

[rwd11954]

I have the whole series on DVD and can see why it was cancelled after the lost season. The writing and acting were weaker and the story arcs covering 4-6 episodes were too drawn out.

 

[Carabimero]

I have the whole series on DVD and can see why it was cancelled after the lost season. The writing and acting were weaker and the story arcs covering 4-6 episodes were too drawn out.

Yes, but I suppose I should see the season--and who knows, maybe there will be a nugget or two in there somewhere...

 

[Carabimero]

I just finished the first four episodes of season five (30 minute)--not bad at all. A little talky and drawn out but it's still the characters I love.

According to the back of the box, I think Kildare is about to become a teacher. I wonder if the next story will be four parts as well?

 

[Neil Brock]

I've always felt that Dr. Kildare pales in comparison the Ben Casey. Just nowhere near as good of a show and the Casey character is great while Kildare is just so bland. Just my opinion.

 

[Jack P]

To me the last season of Kildare showed a series that was running out of gas. Chamberlain's boredom with the role is more evident, plus they also made the mistake of giving us a new recurring character, a potential love interest nurse for Kildare who unfortunately is played by a terrible actress whose presence in any episode is not welcome. Some of the story arc episodes showed some of the old magic but this final season of Kildare is a textbook example of how a hit show eventually runs its course and can't go on any longer.

 

[Carabimero]

I have finished the first disc. It's honestly not as bad as I had feared, at least so far. I love the Kildare/Gillespie relationship, and that is definitely being developed, so I am enjoying that.

I also find it amusing that Dr. Richard Kimble's younger brother has decided to try and follow in his older brother's footsteps (becoming a doctor, not a convicted murderer). Same actor, same character, almost to a tee. And here he is aspiring to be a doctor....

What I don't like is the loss of screen time for Kildare and Gillespie. They are hardly in the episodes for a minute or two. I hope that trend does not continue.

 

[Neil Brock]

Maybe I need to watch more of the hour episodes, but I just started watching the color half hours and I'm really liking them a lot. I don't know why but the hour ones haven't thrilled me. Maybe its just because I compare Kildare to Casey and I love Casey. In comparison, I find Kildare to just be a bland, WASP pretty boy.

 

[Tom.W]

I've watched more of the hours and still haven't done much of the half hours which I'll get to soon. Probably some nostalgia with the hours since I liked them when I was around 10 years old watching them in first run.

Casey was more of a hard ass and the writing was probably more realistic. Friends who were older when Casey was on preferred it for those reasons. Now I like them both but I can see that Casey was more true to life. I liked the mentor relationship between Gillespie and Kildare. I recently watched A Place Among the Monuments, dealing with drug addiction which I thought was good.

 

[Jack P]

I've started watching S1 of Casey, the first time I've ever seen that show and by contrast, I find I prefer Kildare by a mile. He's much more personable than Vince Edwards' Casey whose constant chip-on-his-shoulder attitude after sustained viewing starts to get off-putting. I also prefer the chemistry of the relationship between Kildare and Gillespie whereas by contrast I've noticed Sam Jaffe wasn't in every episode, which shows how the Casey-Zorba thing is less important to the series than Kildare-Gillespie is there (and given how easily irritated I can get by Casey's attitude, a Zorba-free episode has sometimes been harder to sit through).

 

[Purple Wig]

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

Yet, Larry, Hank, and Artie somehow managed to work together on some late night talk show, The Larry Sanders Show!

 

[Gary OS]

Maybe I need to watch more of the hour episodes, but I just started watching the color half hours and I'm really liking them a lot. I don't know why but the hour ones haven't thrilled me. Maybe its just because I compare Kildare to Casey and I love Casey. In comparison, I find Kildare to just be a bland, WASP pretty boy.

Neil, I'm going to recommend you watch the hour-long episode, "Season to be Jolly" sometime in mid-December. I think you'll love that one.

 

[Neil Brock]

I've watched more of the hours and still haven't done much of the half hours which I'll get to soon. Probably some nostalgia with the hours since I liked them when I was around 10 years old watching them in first run.

Casey was more of a hard ass and the writing was probably more realistic. Friends who were older when Casey was on preferred it for those reasons. Now I like them both but I can see that Casey was more true to life. I liked the mentor relationship between Gillespie and Kildare. I recently watched A Place Among the Monuments, dealing with drug addiction which I thought was good.

I also like the fact that Casey lost a good number of patients, which was also far more realistic.

 

[Jack P]

I got through the entirety of Casey S1 and while its not the worst thing I've seen, my overall feeling was one of "eh". The key stumbling block for me is Casey's attitude which reminds me too much of Jack Klugman's "Quincy" with an "I'm always right!" bit of arrogance and not a drop of humility *ever*. By contrast, Chamberlain's Kildare often had to go through humbling learning experiences of his own (in an early Season 1 episode he actually loses a malpractice case in court even though he was truly innocent) and because he was a doctor in training, it made him more easy to relate to whereas with Casey we're supposed to take for granted from the get-go he's justified in being a total Mr. Know-It-All. We get little to nothing of his personal background or anything that softens him up. In short he might as well be just a younger handsomer version of Klugman's Quincy or Edmond O'Brien's Sam Benedict. That harmed my perceptions because I could have enjoyed some of the episodes more with a different approach (and maybe a different actor). There weren't too many episodes I remember disliking on general principle (one that I disliked intensely was with Eddie Albert as an executive who flips out at a board meeting and kills his friend the board chairman and we learn he has a serious form of epilepsy. The problem with the episode is it became one of those cliched "successful executive never had time for his family because of his career ambition to rise to the top" episodes and shockingly the matter of the victim became brushed aside. Without even so much as exploring whether Albert had to confront the family of the victim which would have been a LOT more interesting and compelling).

Kildare was far from a perfect show and had its share of clunkers (I recently revisited the Season 5 arc with Darren McGavin because I was doing a Patricia Barry marathon and it landed with a thud for me) but in terms of template, I think it was the clear winner.

 

[Neil Brock]

If you dislike Ben's grouchy demeanor, then I don't think you would change your feeling on the show in subsequent seasons. However, they did improve the level of guest stars later on. I think that once the show became a hit for ABC, they perhaps increased the budget. The early episodes don't have many well known performers but that changed as the series went on.