Top 20 TV Doctors
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With our list of top 20 TV doctors ever, we've got good news and bad news.
On the upside, there are no premiums to pay, no forms to fill out, no surprise bills to ambush you -- and, best of all, your practitioners are almost uniformly gorgeous, talented and caring. On the downside, they're not real doctors (though they played them on TV). Sigh.
Browse the best and brightest in our preferred provider network of the 20 best TV doctors of all time. -- By Jefferson Reid
Getty Images / CBS / Landov
20. Dr. Perry Cox
Show: 'Scrubs'
Played by: John C. McGinley
As Dr. Dorian's (Zach Braff) nemesis, mentor and verbally abusive father figure, Dr. Cox oh-so-maturely dubs Dorian a different girl's name every day. Dominated by his overbearing wife and (until the last season) his manipulative boss, Perry uses high octane banter as a defense mechanism and an offense mechanism, lashing out at all around him like 'M*A*S*H' doc Hawkeye Pierce on crack.
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Marissa Roth for AOL
19. Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Show: 'The Sopranos'
Played by: Lorraine Bracco
Proving she'd never shrink from the toughest cases, Melfi put mobster Tony Soprano on the couch: Hippocratic oath, meet hypocritical oaf. Tony's tales of murder, infidelity and dismemberment spewed forth until Melfi heard more than she wanted, including that Tony wants to hook up. Amazingly, she shot him down AND lived to tell the tale.
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HBO
18. Dr. Cliff Huxtable
Show: 'The Cosby Show'
Played by: Bill Cosby
Enjoying way more family time than most TV doctors, Dr. Heathcliff's sweater budget probably exceeded most docs' country club fees. Think of him as the super-caring Dr. Dad we probably all wish we'd had. Add in his hot lawyer wife Clair and brood of good kids and it's clear Cliff was living the dream.
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NBC
17. Dr. Richard Kimble
Show: 'The Fugitive'
Played by: David Janssen
Wrongly convicted of killing his wife, Dr. K escaped custody after a train wreck on the way to death row. The righteous medico went underground working menial jobs (and occasionally saving lives) while trying to find his wife's real killer, the one-armed man. It was appointment TV, early-'60s style, right down to the finale, seen by a record 72 percent of TV households.
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ABC / Retna
16. Dr. Julius Hibbert
Show: 'The Simpsons'
Played by: Harry Shearer
Surprisingly competent in the Simpsons' messed-up cartoon world, African-American Dr. Hibbert is one of the few non-yellow residents of Springfield. Wearing sweaters like 'The Cosby Show''s Dr. Cliff, he's best known for his nervous laugh: "Before I learned to chuckle mindlessly, I was headed to an early grave." Proving once again that laughter is the best medicine.
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Fox
15. Dr. James Kildare
Show: 'Dr. Kildare'
Played by: Richard Chamberlain
Chamberlain would later become the master of TV miniseries like 'The Thorn Birds.' But he first made his mark as the early-'60s teen-idol doctor who cared (while soaking up the wisdom of old doc Gillespie) at Blair General. Earnest, handsome and caring, with super-nice hair: Hello McDreamy 1.0.
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Hulton Archive / Getty Images
14. Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker
Show: 'The Love Boat'
Played by: Bernie Kopell
The 'Love Boat''s, four-times divorced ship's doctor obviously took the show's theme song to heart. An unlikely ladies' man, Doc took to chasing deckside skirts with abandon (when not dispensing seasick pills and hangover remedies). Now that's some serious cruising.
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Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
13. Dr. Kathryn Austin
Show: 'Chicago Hope'
Played by: Christine Lahti
She was a tough cookie who never crumbled. In the Pandora's Box of trouble that was Hope, Kate got sued for malpractice AND sexual harassment, meanwhile navigating personal challenges like hooking up with an electrician in the elevator and training to be an astronaut. One way or another, life was always a blast for this passionate heart surgeon.
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CBS / Landov
12. Dr. Robert Hartley
Show: 'The Bob Newhart Show'
Played by: Bob Newhart
As he did in his classic standup routines, Newhart dead-panned for comedy gold as a crazy world swirled around him. Psychologist Hartley seemed equally as befuddled by patients like dour crank Mr. Carlin as he was by his kooky circle of friends and family. Meanwhile, doctor Bob himself remains insanely normal.
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CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
Reader Comments (24)
VINCE EDWARDS at 10:18AM on Apr 2nd 2009
WHAT ABOUT BEN CASEY. HE WAS THE CHUCK BERRY OF T.V. DOCTORS. THERE WER NONE BEFORE HIM. PLEASE REVIEW YOUR MEMORIES AND JOIN WITH ME IN RIGHTING THIS OUTRAGE.
THANK YOU,
VINCE EDWARDS
gail at 6:36AM on Mar 30th 2009
Danzel is some actor. But, can he really allpear white to do Frazier?
MICHAEL at 6:42AM on Mar 30th 2009
DOCTOR "BONES"LEONARD McCOY.....KING OF THE DOCTORS AND IS THE BEST OF AL TIME IN MY BOOK AND ALWAYS WILL BE.
Bruce at 6:43AM on Mar 30th 2009
Ben Casey should be number one...but you didn't even include him on the list??? Worthless!
carol at 2:07PM on Aug 26th 2009
I agree! why is Ben Casey not on here and most importantly, why can't we purchase his tv episodes on DVD???!
Wayne at 6:58AM on Mar 30th 2009
It's hard to believe that neither Dr. Ben Casey from The Ben Casey Show or Doc Adams from Gunsmoke didn't make the list. Dr. David Banner from the series "The Hulk" could have made the list too.How soon we forget.
Karl at 7:22AM on Mar 30th 2009
While I agree with the Top 2, otherwise, This is THEE WORST TOP 20 LIST EVER!!! If you let the public choose the top 20, only 4 or 5 of these would make the list (Frasier, Greene, Hawkeye, Cox and maybe Simpsons Doc or Clooney). How could you put Dr. Ross, without including the man that his character was a carbon copy of: Dr. KELLY BRACKETT from "Emergency!". And while I love Cosby and would put him in the TOP 5 TV Dad's of all time, the fact that he was a Doctor was barely part of the show and was only selected so that there was a reason for him to be financially successful yet able to be home during much of the day. The biggest problem with this list is the all the PC PICKS! I cannot think of a single female Doc that should be in the top 20 of TV Docs; except maybe for Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, who wasn't mentioned. The only popular female TV docs are the hot ones, and it's not their MD that anyone likes about them. A GREAT TV DOC IS ONE YOU WOULD WANT AT YOUR BEDSIDE, NOT IN YOU BED! And the women you selected don't even fall into EITHER of those catagories.
Michigan Jim at 8:02AM on Mar 30th 2009
How can you leave outDoc Adams - Gunsmoke - 20 years of digging bullets out of Matt, Festus, Newly, Chester and the rest of the Gunsmoke gang.
And if you include a St. Elsewhere Doc it should have been Howie Mandel's Dr. Fiscus
Don Douglass at 8:13AM on Mar 30th 2009
Where is Ben Casey?
ruler777 at 8:12AM on Mar 30th 2009
What about that doctor that lived in the RV in the hospital parking lot and drank martinis while he sat on top of it in a lawn chair? I can't remember the name of the series.