Original title
Ben Casey
Released
10/2/1961
Origin country
US
Genre
Drama
Production companies
Bing Crosby Productions
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
5
Number of episodes
153
Dr. Ben Casey is at odds with the medical board, particularly Dr. Zorba and Dr. Jensen, because of his manner toward interns. Under a reprimand, Casey tries to persuade the board to approve neurosurgery on nine-year-old Pete Salazar. After the first of three operations on the boy, Casey is accidentally jabbed with a needle while administering a rabies test to a female patient. During his thirty-day wait for a life-or-death prognosis, he is given permission to resume the surgery.
Little Cathy Reed is brought to the hospital for emergency treatment after an auto accident. Casey prepares a blood transfusion, but her mother won't consent.
Dr. Michael Waldman, a former professor of Casey's and a former colleague of Zorba's, comes to the hospital with a cardiovascular ailment diagnosed as fatal. Casey and Zorba want to try a new surgery on him, but the medical board is opposed.
Dr. Karl Anders is a brilliant surgeon, and Zorba wants to keep him on at the hospital. But Anders is concerned with illnesses of his own—he's addicted to morphine, and suffers from leukemia.
Casey has Walter Tyson for a patient, the president of a large corporation in difficulties, who makes treatment impossible by ordering him about. Zorba and Dr. Jensen try to dissuade him from withdrawing, because his patient is a big donor to the hospital.
Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.
Dr. Dave Taylor returns to the hospital to do research, but Dr. Casey diagnoses him as a ""hospital bum"" afraid of competition, and also treats a woman's hypochondria.
By degrees to the bare facts.
Orderly Nick Kanavaris' good friend Krikor Dakopian is committed by his family to the psychiatric ward. Dr. Casey, however, thinks the ailment is likely to be responsive to neurosurgery.
Dr. Alan Reynolds' mental state is not improved by constant pressure from his wife to be a successful neurosurgeon. The strain increases when he treats an abused 10-year-old boy. Dr. Casey forestalls an unnecessary operation, and tries to persuade Dr. Reynolds to receive treatment.
Expectant mother Ellen Parker loses her child after an auto accident. Casey examines her and finds that she is subject to chronic seizures, and these, not the accident, are responsible for the loss of her baby.
Dr. Casey operates on Billy Harris, a holdup man shot and paralyzed, but he's also concerned about the policeman, who may have been too keen and might be mentally hampered.
""The faith that looks through death."" (Wordsworth)
Recollections.
A clean, well-lighted place.
Between you, me and the nurse's station.
He's not quite himself, or is he?
Post-scriptum to a surgeon's operating life.
From another point of view.
A piece of baggage.
""And his name that sat on him was Death.""
A decorated aviator with an alias goes into surgery.
A consummation devoutly to be wished.
Souvenirs and trophies.
As time goes by.
A Texas rose.
A vision of loveliness.
Sorrow and pity.
Might and main.
Qualifications for the deed.
So oft it chances in particular men That (for some vicious mole of nature in them, As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin) By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit, that too much o'erleavens The form of plausive manners—that (these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star) Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault. The dram of evil Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, To his own scandal. Hamlet
The patient and the ill.
""But one thing is needful.""
It's a long shift that has no surgery.
A painstaking diagnosis.
How do you repay such a debt?
""Brave in his burning pride.""
To hell and gone.
Last straws.
The tautological imperative.
A gentle occupation.
""Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...""
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter's song—the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. Come! some of you! still be flooding The States with hundreds and thousands of mouth-songs fit for The States only. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Gr
""Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me.""
A sabbath diversion.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Lamentations
Dr. Casey tries to help a lawyer kick her morphine habit, but encounters resistance, lies and manipulation when she gets a guileless young man to smuggle dope into her hospital room. He is visiting his mother, who is in the hospital for treatment of injuries received in a beating. (Part 1 of 2)
The business has its allure.
He thought he saw an Albatross That fluttered round the lamp: He looked again, and found it was A Penny-Postage Stamp. ""You'd best be getting home,"" he said: ""The nights are very damp!"" ... He thought he saw an Argument That proved he was the Pope: He looked again, and found it was A Bar of Mottled Soap. ""A fact so dread,"" he faintly said, ""Extinguishes all hope!"" Lewis Carroll, The Mad Gardener's Song
Although he's still an intern, Jimmy Peabody is raising funds to finance a medical clinic of his own, and one of the sources he's depending on is wealthy Adam Garrett, an elderly patient at County General.
The great rouse.
""Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.""
An old dance.
The ones that got away...
A circle of admirers.
A wandering minstrel, he, with some disfigurement.
The occupant and the resident.
""Do not go gentle into that good night."" (Dylan Thomas)
The well-furnished habitation.
The Sparrow in the Zoo No bars are set too close, no mesh too fine To keep me from the eagle and the lion, Whom keepers feed that I may freely dine. This goes to show that if you have the wit To be small, common, cute, and live on shit, Though the cage fret kings, you may make free with it. Howard Nemerov
Homage to Millet's Angelus.
Castles in Spain.
A father assaults his son over a youthful fascination with Nazism.
The long arm of the law of nature.
""That's an old Spanish proverb.""
A character out of the movies.
If there were dreams to sell, What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy? A cottage lone and still, With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This best would heal my ill, This would I buy.
""Unfelt, unheard, unseen..."" (Keats)
""Love doth know no fullness nor no bounds."" (Keats)
Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land. So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of Eternity. So the little errors Lead the soul away From the paths of virtue Far in sin to stray. Little deeds of kindness, Little words of love, Help to make earth happy, Like the Heaven above. Julia A. F. Carney, ""Little Things""
Fear of the unknown.
Alice laughed. ""There's no use trying,"" she said: ""one CAN'T believe impossible things."" ""I daresay you haven't had much practice,"" said the Queen. ""When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."" Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass
""A fence around the void.""—Hawaiian saying
The title is reportedly the command of King Admetos in Gluck's Alceste.
Irreducible affinities.
From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. Swinburne, ""The Garden of Proserpine""
The indeterminate.
Those caissons go rolling along.
Dr. Ernest Farrow, a once brilliant neurosurgeon, is sent to County General for a refresher course. Learning that Farrow is paralyzed by self-doubt and recurring nightmares from the death of a patient, Casey attempts to assuage his colleague's fears and coax him back into the operating room.
A chip off the old block.
The imponderables of personality.
... whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Rare blood demands a coast-to-coast search.
Figments.
MRS. MALAPROP: You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you? Sheridan, The Rivals
Life and the ""stinking fist"".
Rx for a medico.
Isolation.
Wise in their own conceits.
A peculiar treatment plan.
The seed of Mustard is the smallest grain, And yet the force thereto is very great, It hath a present power to purge the brain, It adds unto the stomach force and heat: All poison it expels, and it is plain, With sugar 'tis a passing sauce for meat. She that hath hap a husband bad to bury, And is therefore in heart not sad, but merry, Yet if in show good manners she will keep, Onions and Mustard-seed will make her weep. The Englishmans Doctor. Or, The School of Salerne, Or, Physical observations for the perfect Preserving of the body of Man in continual health Sir John Harington, 1608
An original.
The good-humored M.D.s.
...and riseth up again.
The substance of things hoped for.
It being reckoned that Jesus was actually born in September.
From the wreck of my past, which hath perish'd, Thus much I at least may recall, It hath taught me that which I most cherish'd Deserved to be dearest of all: In the desert a fountain is springing, In the wide waste there still is a tree, And a bird in the solitude singing, Which speaks to my spirit of thee. Lord Byron
""There is a march of science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat?"" (Charles Lamb)
""The summer is over...""
The proverb put to the test.
The power of personality.
The punctuated forest. Autism and deafness in children.
A picture is most eloquent.
The classical Rx, yet Dr. Swanson fails to inspire respect.
L'amour et la mort.
The Freudian prescription.
""As to moral courage, he [Napoleon] had very rarely found it, he said, that of two hours past midnight; which is to say, courage unawares.""
The whirligig of 3/4 time.
The threshold of knowledge.
The parabolic return. A scientist from Australia on his last legs.
A romantic ballet.
Working in the hospital milieu.
Cleopatra and the clepsydra.
Looking Forward When I am grown to man's estate I shall be very proud and great, And tell the other girls and boys Not to meddle with my toys. Robert Louis Stevenson
Various strings and attachments.
Shadow and substance.
Dr. Green practices the best medicine, but Dr. Zorba and Dr. Casey are rather saturnine on his manner.
Modern medicine.
The key of mourning.
""To a close shorn sheep, God gives wind by measure."" (George Herbert)
Gen. 41:41
Euthanasia. ""Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Every wise man's son doth know.""—Twelfth Night
A change of management.
A son of the auld sod.
A memorable rapprochement.
A mount with a legendary moniker.
The surgeon's secret.
""Were I a nightingale, I would act like one."" (Epictetus)
Le Médecin Malgré Lui
A proverb of great pith.
An academic debate.
Introduction and variations.
Rules of the game.
A lifetime of hard work seems undesirable for an intern.
It couldn't be called ungentle, But how thoroughly departmental. Frost
Rich gifts wax poor, to the noble mind.
Another county heard from.
To see the night before.
""Like a patient etherized upon a table.""
""Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick."" (Twain)
""And let slip the dogs of war.""
Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death. King Lear
You can get there from here.
The agony and the estimate: trigeminal neuralgia, the tic douloureux.
Whistling in the dark.
Courts adieu, and all delights, All bewitching appetites; Sweetest breath, and clearest eye, Like perfumes go out and die; And consequently this is done, As shadows wait upon the sun. Vain the ambition of kings, Who seek by trophies and dead things, To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind. O you have wrought a miracle, and melted A heart of adamant: you have compris'd In this dumb pageant, a right excellent form Of penitence. John Webster, The Devil's Law-Case
The unmoved mover.
""No gardener has died within rosaceous memory."" (Beckett)
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Self-diagnosis.
""Fear in a handful of dust."" (Eliot)
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