Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph Ransohoff was a medical consultant for the show and may have influenced the personality of the title character.
2.8 / 5
Episode 1
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.
Episode 2
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.
Episode 3
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.
Episode 4
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.
Episode 5
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.
Episode 6
Tony Romano, a struggling nightclub comic, suffers a cranial seizure. Dr. Casey operates, but Tony is left a paraplegic.
Episode 7
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.
Episode 8
By degrees to the bare facts.
Episode 9
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.
Episode 10
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.
Episode 11
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.
Episode 12
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.
Episode 13
""The faith that looks through death."" (Wordsworth)
Episode 14
Recollections.
Episode 15
A clean, well-lighted place.
Episode 16
Between you, me and the nurse's station.
Episode 17
He's not quite himself, or is he?
Episode 18
Post-scriptum to a surgeon's operating life.
Episode 19
From another point of view.
Episode 20
A piece of baggage.
Episode 21
""And his name that sat on him was Death.""
Episode 22
A decorated aviator with an alias goes into surgery.
Episode 23
A consummation devoutly to be wished.
Episode 24
Souvenirs and trophies.
Episode 25
As time goes by.
Episode 26
A Texas rose.
Episode 27
A vision of loveliness.
Episode 28
Sorrow and pity.
Episode 29
Might and main.
Episode 30
Qualifications for the deed.
Episode 31
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
Episode 32
The patient and the ill.
