MDs [TV Series] on AllMovie

The ad copy for the ABC medical drama MDs promised "doctors who'll bend any rule and take on the system." The series looked and sounded a lot like M*A*S*H, the difference being that it took place in peacetime, and in contemporary San Francisco. William Fichter and John Hannah essayed the Hawkeye and Trapper John counterparts, here named Dr. Bruce Kellerman and Dr. Robert Dalgety. Though chronically irreverent and taking special delight in bucking bureaucracy and red tape at every opportunity, the two protagonists also happened to be brilliant and dedicated surgeons, investing an emotional interest in virtually all their patients ("Come on, you're not gonna die on me today!"). In its efforts to sustain a staunchly anti-HMO stance, the series admittedly stacked the deck a bit by drawing virtually all of its authority figures in broad, almost caricatured strokes: For example, Kellerman and Dalgety's chief nemesis was Mission General Hospital's bean-counting new administrator Pangborn (Leslie Stefanson), who had previously managed a theme park and who fainted at the sight of blood. MDs premiered September 25, 2002.