Bru Wiley, a college football star up for Heisman honors and a top pro career, ignores his failing health.
Although the father of a 7-year-old with severe internal injuries insists the child fell off an embankment, Dr. Gannon suspects the child was beaten.
Focuses on the psychological interplay between two patients in serious shape.
The question of a therapeutic abortion divides Nora Caldwell (Barbara Rush) and her husband Dan (John McMartin).
A Vietnamese war victim (France Nuyen) is being treated at the medical center.
A story about drug addiction.
Jenny Webb (Brooke Bundy), with a hemorrhaging kidney and a baby on the way, is rejected by her angry father and uncaring boyfriend.
An intradepartmental dispute pits Gannon against the new acting chief of surgery (John Marley).
Dr. Gannon tries to prove that the suddenly violent behavior of student Greg Soreson stems from an organic ailment.
A U.S. ambassador (Walter Pidgeon) has a heart condition that could jeopardize a crucial meeting.
A patient (Lee Grant) learns a lesson about life from a little boy (Fabian Gregory).
Gannon stakes his reputation on the integrity of a student nurse (Belinda Montgomery).
Interns Steve Seagren and Katherine Kenter are both being considered for a much-prized residency.
A student facing kidney failure gets no comfort from her alienated family or her disinterested ex-husband.
Dr. Lochner's emotions conflict with his professional judgment when he faces a crisis concerning his own daughter.
Dr. Gannon tries to bridge a gap between a 17-year-old and his gruff immigrant father.
A blind student's recovery depends on recalling the horrible event that caused her loss of sight.
The director of a foundation for teenage parolees lays his life on the line to save one of his charges.
The story of a dedicated head nurse (Mercedes McCambridge).
A sensitive story about Gannon's love for an incurably ill woman (Shelby Grant).
A former gridiron idol (Forrest Tucker) finds living with his own legend unbearable.
A research specialist (William Shatner) clashes with Gannon over a possible cancer cure.
A story about the need to treat venereal disease as a medical problem divorced from social stigma.
Dr. Martin Lambert is blind to the fact that his older son suffers from a muscular disorder and that he has neglected his younger son.
An ambitious black resident (Georg Stanford Brown) is convinced that Gannon is preventing him from performing surgery.
The story of a marriage tormented by lack of children.
A surgeon's (George Grizzard) career may be ended by multiple sclerosis.
A story about the feelings of parents whose teenagers are drug addicts.
A brooding young doctor (Gary Lockwood) is suspected of murdering a woman on hospital grounds.
A woman doctor (Vera Miles) battles male prejudice.
William Devane guests as the maverick director of a free clinic.
The problems of parents with mentally disabled children are explored in this episode.
The problems of a doctor who has trouble adjusting to civilian life after serving in Vietnam.
Modern medicine clashes with black magic as Gannon tries to save a girl afflicted with Addison's Disease-and a belief in the all-pervading, healing powers of Satan. (60 mins)
The problems of a patient who may face radical surgery.
Blinded in an attack, Gannon is still being stalked by a would-be killer.
A hallucinating patient accuses Gannon of fathering her unborn child.
Gannon is accused of shielding a seriously injured cop who allegedly shot a student without provocation.
A brash, long-haired surgeon (Gary Lockwood) runs afoul of his colleagues.
Gannon tries to save the life of a seriously ill Indian chief and enroll the chief's son in a physician's-assistant training program.
An intern who thinks his fiancee is "wholesome" doesn't know she contracted syphilis before they met.
A deadly story of sibling conflict.
A missing radium implant could contaminate the entire hospital.
A mentally disabled teenager (Pamela Franklin) has been abandoned by her mother.
The story of a troubled former vaudeville star (Jack Carter).
The high cost of hospital care is dramatized.
An insight into Lochner's personal life with his ex-wife (Dina Merrill) and daughter (Charlotte Stewart).
A once-brilliant surgeon (Richard Kiley) has become totally withdrawn.
An aging doctor mistakenly believes that his medical practice is as good as ever.
A fugitive (William Windom) is torn between freedom and love for his anemic son.
A character study of an ambitious surgeon (Steve Lawrence).
A highly respected country doctor's (Forrest Tucker) long career as a bogus physician is about to be exposed.
Artificial insemination plays a part in the story of a heart patient who risks her life to protect her sterile husband's pride.
Character studies of two critically ill patients who are jeopardizing their lives.
A distinguished surgeon (Barry Sullivan) is losing the use of his hands.
A troubled husband (Bradford Dillman) is being treated for psychological impotence.
A drama about mental retardation.
An iron-willed lady (Jo Van Fleet) is determined to spend her life in a wheelchair.
A surgeon's (Earl Hilliman) past comes back to haunt him: the once-convicted sex offender is now charged with child molesting.
A student nurse (Susan Strasberg) is plagued by a bad marriage and a mysterious respiratory illness.
Medical quackery is the target of a drama in which a charming fraud (George Maharis) is risking the life of a young patient.
A lung-cancer victim (Suzanne Pleshette) is determined to keep her nightmare a secret.
An 11-year-old orphan's chance for adoption is threatened by a mysterious illness.
Change-of-pace suspense drama about Gannon's involvement with an ailing tycoon and his conflict-ridden household. First of two parts.
Dr. Lochner's sister is the prime suspect in the conclusion of a murder story.
Gannon's romance with a woman doctor is plagued by a secret past.
Bubonic plague is the villain in a medical conflict over the unidentified victim.
A doctor (Michael Callan) is driven back to alcoholism by the fear of losing his dying wife.
A doctor (Monte Markham) is torn between a career in hospital administration and a return to surgical practice.
A surgeon is offered a grim choice: his kidnapped wife will be saved if he can arrange the death of a certain patient.
A car-crash victim (Craig Stevens) awakes from a three-year coma to a nightmare: the crash killed his daughter and left him with an unforgiving wife.
A woman (Ida Lupino) mysteriously turns against Gannon after he saves her husband's life.
A rape-murder mystery takes a grim twist with a confession by a young intern's fiance.
A doctor (William Windom) has a premonition that his wife will die in surgery.
A woman refuses an emergency operation for fear it will endanger her pregnancy.
The story of a growing attachment between an injured teenager and his critically ill roommate.
A drama about deafness and family strife.
Tragedy for a 42-year-old intern: he's fallen in love with a critically ill patient.
A hospital volunteer (Geraldine Page) has a horrifying secret.
A drama about an unemployed man married to a doctor.
The ugly-duckling story is no fairy tale to a patient who thinks she's so second-rate that she wants to die.
Superstition vs. science as a critically ill woman refuses medical help.
A brilliant researcher is taking great pains to conceal his past.
A nun has secrets that are hindering her recovery from a beating and rape.
Problems for a college football hero include a drug habit, a serious illness and a disabled wife.
A doctor's puzzling spells of fatigue are hampering her work.
A tortured relationship evolves between a lonely widow and the doctor who blames himself for her husband's death.
The success of a new surgical procedure is threatened by the surgeon's worry over his wife's erratic behavior.
A woman convict's bitterness is threatening her success in a medical training program.
The story of a desperately lonely hospital volunteer (Ruth Buzzi).
A high-wire performer's illness might kill her if she continues her career.
A surgeon's new procedure might save his dying wife, if he can conquer his drug addiction in time to operate.
Drama about the future of an illegitimate child whose father has been critically injured.
A famous doctor's (Celeste Holm) own vital surgery must be delayed to help a man with a live bomb lodged in his chest.
An ailing boy's divorced parents can't agree whether to permit surgery.
A woman (Stefanie Powers) refuses to admit symptoms of a serious illness.
Dr. Lochner's one-time fiancee has a beautiful daughter who's gravely ill.
A young woman is stricken with hysterical paralysis after seeing her mother with a lover.
An emergency call to a mountain community leads Gannon to a patient guarded by mysterious, gun-toting townsfolk.
Bent on proving his virility, an aging surgeon becomes involved with a young patient.
A lesbian psychiatrist is plagued by prejudice against her life style.
The horror of crib death is explored in this story about a couple who lose their 4-month-old child.
Romance ends for Gannon when his girlfriend's husband, missing for six years in Vietnam, comes home to reclaim his wife and son.
A champion diver is ignoring an illness that could end her career.
A wounded child from war-torn Northern Ireland baffles Gannon by showing no desire to get well.
An idealistic young resident falls in love with an ailing prostitute.
Compulsive gambling is ruining the life of a once-fine surgeon.
Gannon is receiving bloodcurdling murder threats that contain only one clue: the would-be killer is someone on the hospital staff.
A derelict fakes her way into the hospital for free room and board, unaware that she is suffering from a serious disease.
An arrogant young resident refuses to submit to authority.
Sparks fly when Gannon and the newly-appointed chief of surgery begin to clash on medical opinions.
A proud man must decide whether to live with a dangerous illness, or submit to surgery which might cause impotence.
Gannon's patient needs a kidney transplant, and her only hope of a compatible donor is her father — a convict who is serving time for murder.
A seriously ill surgeon tries to hide his condition long enough to perform lifesaving surgery on his ex-wife.
While investigating conditions in a mental hospital, Gannon falls in love with an amnesiac whose blinding headaches have gone untreated by the staff.
Determined to save a critically ill patient, a surgeon is hiding his own serious malady from his colleagues.
A young genius becomes the center of a custody battle between his critically ill mother and a wealthy, would-be benefactress.
An accused rapist may not live to see a fair trial. The victim's boyfriend has already beaten him severely, and is waiting to finish the job.
An impoverished ventriloquist may lose custody of his orphaned nephew when the boy develops a serious heart condition.
A staff doctor thinks a patient's baffling symptoms are the result of a voodoo curse.
A critically ill scientist is determined to attend an important European conference, despite Gannon's warnings that the trip might kill her.
After learning that his wife is a pornographic-movie star, a gifted surgeon wants to leave the hospital.
A cancer patient doesn't know whether to believe her faith-healer husband's assurances that he can cure her.
A patient refuses to divulge information about herself that might prevent a deadly epidemic.
A husband anguishes over the responsibility he feels toward his ill wife and the love he feels for her best friend.
A mechanic is oddly reluctant to consent to an operation for his wheelchair-bound daughter (Deborah Winters).
A former priest (Tim O'Connor) is captivated by a second-rate nightclub singer (Rita Moreno) who faces a dangerous operation.
A convict who agrees to participate in a cancer-research experiment tries to sabotage the project.
A socialite (Vera Miles) tries to bribe a handsome tennis pro (Peter Coffield) into romancing her dying daughter (Pamela Franklin).
Job and social discrimination against cured cancer patients is the theme of this story about a woman (Shirley Knight) who undergoes a mastectomy.
A Jewish researcher is harassed by young anti-Semites who are led by a hospital orderly (David Macklin).
A heart patient's recovery is endangered when she falls in love with a mentally disabled young man.
A pregnant young widow (Brooke Bundy), arrested for unlawful midwifery, learns that she has cervical cancer.
A conniving young patient (Belinda J. Montgomery) tries to drive a wedge between a wealthy woman (Kim Hunter) and her clinging son (David Soul).
An adolescent girl needs surgery, but she won't help Gannon locate her parents so he can get their consent.
An orphan's need for open-heart surgery may frighten away prospective parents.
A former movie star's will to live is undermined by a failing marriage and ill health.
A pregnant nurse dosen't want to raise a second child without the help of her errant husband.
A European princess (Suzy Kendall) escapes her bodyguard and winds up in Gannon's arms.
The ailing and neglected wife of a charismatic politician asks Gannon to keep her presence in the hospital a secret.
A convicted child molester will be granted parole only if he takes a drug that might cause impotence.
Camaraderie turns to rivalry when 12 medical students compete for seven internships.
A hospital explosion traps Gannon and five others in the basement.
A woman is torn between her desire to live with her lover in Greece, and her duty to her brother, who needs transfusions of her blood.
A rock star, secretly deaf in his left ear, refuses a risky operation on his right.
A famed surgeon (Robert Reed) shocks family and colleagues by requesting a sex-change operation. First of two parts.
A noted surgeon's request for a sex-change operation is denied.
On his 36th birthday, Gannon is suddenly beset by peculiar emotional and physical symptoms.
A delirious war veteran accuses a doctor of slaughtering women and children in Vietnam.
Gannon's new girlfriend makes impossible demands on his time.
The teenage daughter of a busy surgeon turns to prostitution in a bid for attention.
The son of a wealthy Arab shows unusual concern over the plight of an ailing Jewish boy.
Learning that he is suffering from a terminal disease, a brilliant surgeon abandons medicine to live out his unfulfilled dreams.
Lochner's former sweetheart (Roberta Peters), a celebrated singer, enters Medical Center suffering from unexplained fainting spells.
An 18-year-old girl needing a critical operation is the key to bringing a doctor's son out of a catatonic state.
A young woman confined to a nursing home encourages her elderly fellow inmates to rebel against the home's poor conditions.
An aging surgeon who has begun to make serious mistakes plans to operate on his granddaughter.
One of Gannon's patients desperately needs blood, but the only possible donor is a fugitive from justice.
A hospitalized tennis player is attracted to an unhappy girl who is facing heart surgery.
A lonely nurse stubbornly refuses to press charges against a man who brutally beat her.
Gannon is attracted to a Soviet doctor (Victoria Fedorova) visiting Medical Center on a special assignment.
Gannon treats a childlike teenager who's the mother of a baby with a congenital heart defect.
The adoption of a Vietnamese orphan is complicated when the real mother shows up.
The hospitalized victim of a mysterious attacker suffers from a domineering mother and recurring headaches.
Gannon treats a young doctor blinded in a shooting accident.
The mother (Totie Fields) of a dismissed young resident refuses to have a lifesaving operation unless her son is reinstated.
An Army doctor (Lois Nettleton) searches for answers when her assistant suffers an inexplicable seizure.
A misanthropic con artist and an awkward innocent share an offbeat relationship while being treated at the hospital.
A much-needed clinic is threatened with closure because the doctors refuse to turn wounded street fighters over to the police.
PILOT-Edward G. Robinson heads an all-star cast in the life-and-death medical drama Operation Heartbeat, co-starring Kim Stanley, Maurice Evans, Kevin McCarthy and Shelley Fabares. Lawsuits fly when a widow (Stanley) believes a gifted surgeon (Richard Bradford) allowed her husband to die so his heart could be transplanted into the doctor's ailing mentor and friend (Robinson). Operation Heartbeat was the pilot movie for the TV series Medical Center. And while James Daly would continue as chief of staff Dr. Paul Lochner, Chad Everett would replace Bradford as UMC's brilliant professor of surgery Dr. Joe Gannon. The seven-season Medical Center would tie Marcus Welby, M.D. as the longest-running medical drama in TV history until the 15-season-run of ER took the crown.
Between 1970 and 1971, the producers of Medical Center took part in an unprecedented behavioral experiment on the effects of mass media. To that end, three different story scenarios were developed for the episode Countdown, one negative, one positive, and one neutral. Most of the nation would view the positive episode in which anti-social behavior is punished. A select group would see these other endings.
