From Julia Baker and Margaret Houlihan to “Three’s Company’s” Terri Alden, we celebrate TV’s most beloved caretakers.
By Donald Liebenson, ReMIND Magazine
When it comes to television, nursing is among the oldest professions, along with the doctor, the cop and the cowboy. Medical shows have long been a TV staple. The first, City Hospital, premiered in 1951. And while Julia Baker, Consuelo Lopez and Carol Hathaway may not have the name recognition of James Kildare and Ben Casey, these and other of TV’s most memorable nurses are just what the doctor ordered when it comes to embodying the qualities that portrayed their profession in the most positive light.
Let’s start with the pioneers. Ella Raines starred as Janet Dean, Registered Nurse (1954-55), considered to be the first TV series whose main character was a nurse. Dean, a private duty nurse, traveled the country administering to those in need. One of TV’s longest-tenured nurses was gruff but compassionate Lucille “Sarge” March on General Hospital. Lucille Wall portrayed this iconic character from 1963-76, and then again in 1982. In the mid 1970s, she was honored with a special Emmy.
In Julia (1968-71), Diahann Carroll was the first African-American woman to play a lead non-domestic character in a TV series. Julia Baker was a middle-class single mother who was hired by the crusty Dr. Chegley (Lloyd Nolan), for whom race was not an issue.
Elena Verdugo held her own with Robert Young’s Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-76) as office assistant and nurse Consuelo Lopez, a character said to be the first working-class professional Latina on a TV series. When real working-class women complained because their bosses expected them to pour coffee just like Lopez did, Verdugo became a hero as she cut back on the coffee pouring.
Another groundbreaking character was head nurse Helen Rosenthal on St. Elsewhere (1982-88). Five-time Emmy nominee Christina Pickles portrayed Rosenthal, one of the ensemble’s most popular characters, who, in the series’ final season, was the first medical professional on TV to struggle with a drug addiction.
The gritty St. Elsewhere paved the way for ER (1994-2009) and Carol Hathaway, the emergency room nurse manager portrayed by Emmy winner Julianna Margulies. Her initially suicidal character was not intended to survive the pilot episode, but she tested so well with audiences, she was spared.
From down-to-earth to the final frontier, we find Christine Chapel, head nurse on the USS Enterprise on the original Star Trek (1966-69), played by Majel Barrett. Chapel is perhaps best known for her unrequited feelings for Spock. The landmark episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” renowned for its interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura, featured the first human-Vulcan kiss between Chapel and Spock.
Two of the most decorated nurses on television were two-time Emmy winners Dana Delany as Colleen McMurphy in the Vietnam War-set China Beach (1988-91) and Loretta Swit as Margaret Houlihan, the head nurse formerly known as “Hot Lips,” on M*A*S*H (1972-83). Over the series’ run, Houlihan grew from punchline to a more independent and respected equal with the doctors of the 4077th (check out the episode “Hot Lips Is Back in Town” from Season 7).
But if you really needed someone to tend to you in an emergency, call Dixie McCall, portrayed by torch singer Julie “Cry Me a River” London on Emergency! (1972-77), the pioneering series about a paramedic rescue unit.
By its sixth season, Three’s Company (1977-84) needed a transfusion of new talent. Enter Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden, a dedicated nurse who broke the show’s mold of ditzy blondes as previously embodied by Suzanne Somers and Jenilee Harrison.
Nurses have come a long way on television and have become more empowered and more duly noted for their abilities. But sometimes, the hotshot doctors need to be reminded. Carol Hathaway spoke for all her colleagues when she told one doctor that if he stepped off his pedestal, “you would realize it’s the nurses that make this place run and not you.”
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