Marcus Welby, MD was a show that was a salute to a vanishing breed of men, the general practitioner. Robert Young who starred in the series had been America's role model dad in Father Knows Best. Now he became the role model doctor.
I liked Dr. Welby because of the way he treated his cases as individuals. Admittedly the job of a doctor can be routine, prescriptions and vaccinations and the dispensing of good commonsense advice of a general nature. But the episodes were of the cases that were unique and Welby treated them as such.
I could identify with him because back in my working days I tried to deal with a lot of claimants individually when I worked at NYS Crime Victims Board. There are some you just have to go the extra mile or two for. Welby did and I tried to. He had one indisputable advantage, Welby was his own boss. Try doing that in civil service where uniformity is a lifestyle.
Robert Young had young James Brolin at the beginning of his successful career. Young being a veteran of the old Hollywood studio system and Brolin one who developed his career on the small screen were two generations of actors. But they complemented each other well.
Completing the cast was another studio system veteran Elena Verdugo as the office nurse Consuela. She was very important because the one time starlet gave a voice and a face to working Hispanic women in the 40 something range.
I wish all the doctors were Marcus Welbys.
