MEDICAL CENTER: CARE IS NO CURE (TV)
Summary
One in this series of medical dramas about the cases of Dr. Paul Lochner, chief of staff at a Los Angeles university hospital called Medical Center, and his friend and colleague, Dr. Joe Gannon, a young professor of surgery.
In this episode, Joe is frustrated by several cases. The first is that of a young boy whose religious parents, the Rinaldis, refuse to accept his need for heart surgery; the second concerns a young man dying of leukemia. Paul urges Joe to take some much-needed vacation time. Joe agrees and heads to Mexico, where he immediately hits it off with vivacious concierge T.J. O'Hara. As their romance blossoms, T.J. is injured when she tumbles from a moving cab; a concerned Joe rushes her back to the States for treatment at Medical Center. She admits that she has been suffering strange abdominal pains for several months. When Paul recommends exploratory surgery, Joe requests that Paul himself perform the procedure. T.J., however, begs Joe to do it, as she has come to trust him; though he admits that he has fallen for her and therefore cannot be "impersonal," he agrees to do the operation.
During the surgery, Joe is shocked to find evidence of widespread cancer. Though he tries to reassure T.J. that her diagnosis is not yet definitive, Paul observes that she has a Wilms' tumor, a serious condition usually found in children, and urges Joe to tell her the truth. Joe, however, knowing that T.J. has no family on which to rely, downplays her condition and implies that a few months of treatment will cure her. The two declare their love, and when Joe sets her up at a beach house near the hospital, Paul tells him to join her there as often as possible, aware that she does not have long to live.
Later, Joe is called back to the hospital to treat the Rinaldi boy. T.J. urges him to go, assuring him that they have "a whole lifetime together." The Rinaldis finally sign off on their son's life-saving surgery. Joe briefly returns to the beach house in the early morning, where T.J. reveals that she has researched Wilms' tumors on her own and now understands her grim fate. Upset, the two agree to try to make the most of their short time together. Still, Joe returns to the hospital to operate on the boy. The Rinaldis decide that their prayers for their son were answered in the form of Joe's medical skills rather than a miracle cure. Joe then receives a note from T.J., suggesting that she has left him in order to preserve their memories of happy times together. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: November 30, 1999 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:15167
- GENRE: Drama, medical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical; Romance; Cancer
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1969-1976
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Frank Glicksman … Executive Producer, Created by
- Al C. Ward … Producer, Created by
- Mel Epstein … Associate Producer
- Charles S. Dubin … Director
- Don Brinkley … Writer
- Alexander Courage … Music by
- Lalo Schifrin … Theme Music by
- Chad Everett … Cast, Dr. Joe Gannon
- James Daly … Cast, Dr. Paul Lochner
- Shelby Grant … Cast, T.J. O'Hara
- Stephen Brooks … Cast, Dr. George Casman
- Walter Mathews … Cast, Mr. Rinaldi
- Dolores Mann … Cast, Mrs. Rinaldi
- Julian Rivero … Cast, Manuel
- Tani Phelps … Cast, Nurse Oberly
- John Sarno … Cast, Attendant
- Annette Molen … Cast, Ward Nurse
- Chris Hutson … Cast, Surgical Nurse
- Daniel Silver … Cast, Anesthesiologist
- Richard Stuart … Cast, Assistant Surgeon
- George F. Bryson Jr. … Cast, Bait Boy