Re-posted by N.S.
Dr. Kildare, starring the just departed Richard Chamberlin (at 90!) ran from 1961-1966, and the theme Jerry Goldsmith composed for it, with bells in the background, suggested that medicine was a holy vocation, like being a priest.
Only days later, a rival medical drama in the same vein (a passionate, headstrong young physician and his old-salt mentor, both based on the Dr. Kildare 1930s radio show and 1940s movies), Ben Casey, starring Vince Edwards, began its five-year run.
Ben Casey had an even more brilliant musical theme, by David Raksin, who recycled and expanded a riff from his grand movie score to The Bad and the Beautiful (1951).
That's a SYMPHONY in a tv theme song. Amazing. The country was great back then in almost all departments--except politics.
ReplyDelete--GRA