Island Son is a CBS television medical drama during its 1989-90 schedule. Island Son marked the return to regular weekly series television of Richard Chamberlain, who had not so appeared since his Dr. Kildare series almost 25 years earlier. In the interim he had enjoyed a somewhat successful career in feature films, and had become widely known as "The King of the Miniseries" due to his success in that format. Chamberlain once again portrayed a dedicated medical doctor, Dr. Daniel Kulani. Kulani was born in Hawaii and practiced on the mainland for many years prior to his return to work at the fictional Kamehameha Medical Center in Honolulu. Kulani's complicated life involved his stressful work environment; his adoptive parents, Tutu and Nana; his 18-year-old son, Sam; and his love interest, high school drama teacher Nina Delaney. Dr. Kulani's complicated life was never resolved to the satisfaction of the viewers because the program was canceled in March 1990.
2.5 / 5
Episode 1
Daniel witnesses a drunken accident that leaves a little girl severely injured.
Episode 2
Metzger suspects an elderly patient's family of abuse; Daniel's son visits and decides to make it permanent.
Episode 3
Daniel's son falls for a patient facing a fatal prognosis; a resident falters before his prominent mother's determination that he follow her into cardiac medicine.
Episode 4
A tourist protests the age of her physician when Caitlin gets her case, and Daniel's budding romance is nipped by illness and her past.
Episode 5
Daniel suspects the new head of cardiology is addicted to pills, and an orderly's illiteracy nearly kills a patient.
Episode 6
Daniel tries to protect his patient, a convicted rapist, from the media mob surrounding the hospital; Sam falls for a crafty hitchiker.
Episode 7
A doctor has Daniel's father arrested for performing a Hawaiian healing ceremony in the hospital; Caitlin worries about a furtive admirer.
Episode 8
Fushida becomes a difficult patient when he develops a dangerous infection; Daniel battles to have a patient admitted for critical surgery despite insurance problems; a diabetic friend of Sam's risks his health.
Episode 9
Veronica returns with a proposition, but Daniel's distracted by his patients: a dying talk-show host and a paraplegic fighting to keep his home.
Episode 10
Sam is paralyzed with caison disease after lying his way into a deep sea diving job with his uncle, which touches off a bitter fight between the brothers; racism cripples Metzger's romance with a Japanese-American.
Episode 11
A group of men dressed as elves are admitted with symptoms of plague; Dr. Fushida is adamant that he wants a natural son despite the diagnosis that a pregnancy would kill his wife.
Episode 12
Metzger's confidence is shaken when he disastrously misdiagnoses a patient; Daniel tries to reconcile the estranged Fushidas; Sam befriends an elderly man.
Episode 13
A pilot refuses to be tested for the source of his blackouts; a teenager resists his girlfriend's decision to put their baby up for adoption.
Episode 14
A teenage volunteer attempts suicide after confiding a terrible secret to Sam. Increasingly unable to cope with terminal cases, Margaret betrays a patient when he returns to the hospital after a recurrence of his cancer.
Episode 15
Daniel's former wife stirs up trouble when she arrives to celebrate their son's birthday. Parents of a dying infant worry that a doctor whose child has an identical health problem will receive preferential treatment in an organ donor program.
Episode 16
Daniel discovers that Tess's little friend is HIV-positive; Margaret tries to help an ailing former movie star.
Episode 17
A serial killer who targets prostitutes poses a threat to James's fiancé, a former call girl; Fushida's disapproval of Margaret's office romance hurts their working relationship.
Episode 18
Nina hesitates when Daniel proposes, a man uses his illness to blackmail his daughter, and Caitlin murders a patient when she disagrees with his family's decision to fight his liver disease.
