The year 1961 brought two outstanding medical dramas to television even though they aired only a week apart. One was "Dr. Kildare" that premiered over at NBC. The other was the medical drama series "Ben Casey" that premiered a week after "Dr. Kildare". "Ben Casey" upon its premiere on October 2,1961 became one of the biggest television hits at ABC spanning five seasons and 153 episodes all in black and white until March 21,1966. "Ben Casey" was just that...a gritty riveting medical drama that was so realistic that it brought on superior acting from it's guest stars not to mention the astounding writing and big production values made this show such a colossal hit and a ratings winner for ABC. Interesting note about this show...Actor Vince Edwards was discovered by Bing Crosby whose production company Bing Crosby Productions produced this series and was filmed at Desilu Studios. Vince Edwards took the character of "Ben Casey" and made him into one of the biggest television icons of the early-1960's. Vince Edwards appeared in all 153 episodes of the series. Veteran actor Sam Jaffe who played Casey's mentor and friend Dr. David Zorba appeared in 127 episodes of the series,and was replaced in the show's final season by Franchot Tone(Dr. Niles Freeland),and also by Harry Landers(Dr. Ted Hoffman). Actress Jeanne Bates(Nurse Willis) appeared in 42 episodes of the series from 1961-1966. "Ben Casey" came at a time when America was at a crossroads within itself especially with the subject of the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the confrontations in the Southern states against Jim Crow,and the sudden death of President John Kennedy.Given the support and assistance from the American Medical Association which was behind some of the scenes during production, the series "Ben Casey" was groundbreaking for it's era with some tough issues and hard hitting drama especially with some of the medical issues that each week Dr. Casey and his staff at fictional County General Hospital had to face. The success of "Ben Casey" brought 11 Prime-Time Emmy Nominations winning the Prime-Time Emmy in 1963 for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role(Kim Stanley),and also Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role(Glenda Farrell)Big time name directors ranging from Leo Penn, Irvin Kershner, Sydney Pollack, John Meredyth-Lucas, Mark Rydell, Arthur Hiller, Alvin Ganzer, Marc Daniels, Richard C. Sarafian, Alan Crosland, to Jerry Lewis, Gerald Mayer and even Joesph Pevney and Paul Wendkos contribute to some of the great episodes not to mention superior writing from the show's creator(James E. Moser for all 153 episodes),along with Jack Laird, Chester Krumholz, Don Brinkley, Alvin Sargent, Al C. Ward, Lester Pine, Wilton Schiller, Ken Kolb, Harry Julian-Fink, Dean Riesner, Norman Katkov and William Bast. Big name guest stars ranging from Peter Falk, Shelley Winters, Cesar Romero, Millie Perkins, Eddie Albert, Tom Bosley, Stella Stevens, Dick Clark, Mary Astor, Ricardo Montalban, Anne Francis, Davy Jones, Barry Sullivan, Bradford Dillman, Brett Somers to George C. Scott, Jerry Lewis, Roddy McDowell, Robert Culp, Greg Morris, Eartha Kitt, Percy Rodriguez, Antoinette Bower, Ellen Burstyn, Jack Warden, to Carroll O' Connor, James Best, Hari Rhodes, Peter Breck, Jack Klugman, Telly Savalas, Bruce Dern, Cliff Robertson, Beau Bridges, Sally Kellerman, Norman Fell, Neville Brand, Patricia Barry, Brooke Bundy, Suzanne Pleshette, Piper Laurie, and even Richard Basehart, Ray Walston, Larry Hovis, Ivan Dixon, Yvonne Craig, William Windom, Patricia Blair, Marlo Thomas, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Simon Oakland not to mention Tuesday Weld, Pippa Scott and James Caan and even Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis,Jr. made a special guest appearances.The best episodes from this Emmy award winning series starts with the pilot episode "To The Pure" to "I Remember A Lemon Tree", "The Sweet Kiss of Madness", "And If I Die", "A Little Fun to Match the Sorrow", "And Even Death Shall Die", "Behold a Pale Horse", "When You See An Evil Man", to the two-part "A Cardinal Act of Mercy". Other great episodes were "If There Were Dreams to Sell", "The Echo of a Silent Cheer", "A Certain Time, A Certain Darkness", "But Linda Only Smiled", "Courage At Three-AM", "A Woods Full of Question Marks", "Where Did All The Roses Go?", "Every Other Minute,It's The End of the World", "Dress My Doll Pretty", "In Case of Emergency,Cry Havoc","One Nation Indivisible" to "A Falcon's Eye, A Lion's Heart, A Girl's Hand", "The Fireman Who Raised Rabbits", "A Horse Named Stravinsky", "If You Play Your Cards Right,You Too Can Be A Loser", "Allie", "A Hundred More Pipers", "Between Summer and Winter,The Glorious Season", along with "Legacy from a Stranger" were some of the great episodes that this series produced during its astounding five season run."Ben Casey" premiered on ABC's Monday night schedule in Prime-Time from October 2,1961 until May 13, 1963. The network moved the series to Wednesday nights in Prime-Time from September 9, 1963 until April 22,1964 in favor of another produced Bing Crosby series "Breaking Point". "Ben Casey" went back to Monday nights on September 14, 1964 and remained until the final episode of the series on March 21,1966 after five seasons and 153 black and white episodes. When "Ben Casey" was canceled in the Spring of 1966, the series was replaced by the espionage British import series "The Avengers" on March 28,1966. In the fall of that year it would be replaced by the Western-adventure series "The Big Valley".

I used to watch this show (along with Dr. Kildare) which was on around the same era, and loved them both. This was in the 1960's. I just had to see Ben Casey show every week with the handsome Vince Edwards. Sam Jaffe as Dr. Zorba was also very good. I never watched Vince Edwards much after that, but to me he will always be Ben Casey.They should bring out some episodes of Ben Casey on DVD or VHS? They bring out lots of other DVD's not half as good as the Ben Casey show was on TV. There must be lots of us still around who were young in the 60's who would buy them. Great show. Loved it. Bring it out on DVD soon.

Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare were exact contemporaries, both doctor shows that began and ended in the same season and were the most talked about shows on TV when they debuted in 1961. People were always making comparisons between them and here is mine.One difference is that Casey was a resident, a full fledged doctor on staff at a hospital and a very prominent neurosurgeon. Kildare was an intern, a beginning doctor still learning the profession. If Kildare had been at the same hospital as Casey, Ben would have been bossing him around and making his life miserable.A bigger difference was what they represented. Kildare was a symbol of the early 1960's. We were a very proud and optimistic country at that time. We'd survived the depression, won the war, had the communists on the defensive and were beginning to explore space. Social changes were taking place as well. if we were going to be the Greatest Country in the World, how could we have poverty and injustice? We tended to look at our government and institutions as benevolent servants of the people. There were several shows from this period, (Naked City, The Defenders, Mr. Novak were others), where handsome young idealistic novices entered a profession to be guided by their wise, patient but firm elders in becoming instruments of the system. The big challenge was getting people to trust the system by not committing crimes, studying hard and taking their pills. And of course, it's hard to look at the young men in these shows, (Richard Chamberlain, James Franciscus, Paul Burke, Robert Reed), and not see our youthful, idealistic president of the time, John Kennedy.Casey was a precursor of the late 1960's. To him, the system was a monolith that existed for its own purposes and on its own momentum. You had to wrestle with it and with the mediocrity around you to get things done. Casey had a mentor as well, but Dr. Zorba often appeared to be more of a matador than a mentor, trying to tame Ben Casey, as he always called him, with a red cape and a sharp needle to puncture his ego from time to time.I'd rather wake up from surgery and see Dr. Kildare's smiling face. But I'd be more likely to survive if it was Ben Casey who had done the surgery.

Ben Casey is the chief neurosurgeon in County Hospital in a large city. He is surrounded by a well-trained staff of doctors and nurses. Each show focuses on a different aspect of life in the hospital. One show features Casey being sued for slander by an incompetent doctor. Casey is brilliant, but has an opinion about everything, so he stays in trouble with the front office.Sam Jaffe stars as Dr. David Zorba, Caseys mentor and friend. Zorba advises him in important matters both as his superior, and his friend.There are many guest stars seen over the years that this show ran. Jack Klugman, Brett Sommers, Franciot Tone, Ed Begley, Sr, Telly Savalas (with hair!) Cliff Robertson, Bruce Dern, just to name a few. The drama is well-told and engrossing.Not everything is pure drama. One episode has Casey helping out one night in the emergency room dealing with crackpot people with imaginary problems.Casey and Dr. Maggie Graham have an on-and-off relationship throughout the series.If you get a chance to see Ben Casey, try to catch it with show #1, where Casey gets stuck with a needle after it was used in a test on a girl with rabies! You will be hooked.