The National Enquirer, date unknown
...TV Doctors Tell What They Think About Real-Life MDs
Your favorite TV doctors have some eye-opening opinions about their real-life counterparts
By Brian Walker
Brian MItchell, who plays Dr. "Jackpot" Jackson on "Trapper John, M.D." declared: "People don't want to know that their doctor isn't a god. They don't want to be told that he's human and that he accidentally dropped a scalpel inside a patient while operating."

They don't want to know that he can leave a sponge inside someone by mistake."

The public doesn't want that much realism in their doctor shows. They want to be entertained. They don't want to know that while a doctor is operating, he's talking about his golf game or listening to rock music."

But that stuff happens, because you're dealing with human beings - not gods."

Charles Siebert, who plays Dr. Stanley Riverside 2nd on "Trapper John, M.D." said: "Doctors really are high priests in this country. I think they tend to be happy to feel that role, but I think we demand it of them, too." Mark Harmon, who stars as plastic surgeon Bobby Caldwell on "St. Elsewhere," said: "After standing in on a lot of surgeries, I've come to respect what the plastic surgeon offers."

Putting someone back together who has fallen off a motorcycle and gone 35 yards on his face is what plastic surgery is about - not just cosmetic surgery."

Terence Knox, who played Dr. Peter White on "St. Elsewhere," said emphatically: "I don't think I could be a doctor in real life. There's so much integrity, dedication, and sacrifice involved in a medical career."

And it doesn't have the sort of feedback and reimbursement that acting does."

And Ellen Bry, who stars as Nurse Shirley Daniels on "St. Elsewhere," declared: "On our show we've done storylines about the fact that a lot of doctors and nurses are are drug abusers or addicts. I just hope when I'm operated on that the guy is straight. Hell, that worries me!"

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