Strong Medicine

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the American television series. For other uses, see Strong Medicine (disambiguation).
Strong Medicine
Nestor Carbonell
ComposerDavid Bergeaud
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons6
No. of episodes133 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerWhoopi Goldberg
Running time43 minutes
Production companiesOne Ho Productions
By the Lake Productions
Columbia TriStar Television Distribution
(2000–2001)
(seasons 1–2)
Columbia TriStar Domestic Television
(2001–2002)
(seasons 2–3)
Sony Pictures Television
(2002–2006)
(seasons 3–6)
Original release
NetworkLifetime
ReleaseJuly 23, 2000 (2000-07-23) –
February 5, 2006 (2006-02-05)

Strong Medicine is an American medical drama with a focus on

Lifetime network from 2000 to 2006.[1][2] It was created and produced in part by Whoopi Goldberg, who made cameos on the series, and by Tammy Ader.[3] It starred Rosa Blasi, Janine Turner, and Patricia Richardson. It was the highest-rated original drama on basic cable in 2001.[4]

Overview

Strong Medicine brings together the worlds of two completely different doctors, Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado, and Dr. Dana Stowe. Lu is a single mother running a free clinic in the inner-city. Dana is a Harvard graduate and top female health specialist. The two come together when Dr. Lydia Emerson wants to combine Rittenhouse Hospital's practice with Lu's financially failing clinic to provide the best care for the patients of both doctors.

The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values. When Dr. Dana Stowe leaves, Lu's partners include Dr. Andy Campbell and Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.

Episodes

Main article: List of Strong Medicine episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
122July 23, 2000March 11, 2001
222July 15, 2001March 3, 2002
322July 21, 2002March 16, 2003
422June 15, 2003February 15, 2004
522June 13, 2004January 30, 2005
622June 12, 2005February 5, 2006

Cast and characters

Main

  • C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, the firemen arrived and called Dylan, who completed the C-Section, and Lu gave birth to their daughter, who was named Milagro (which means "miracle" in Spanish).[9]
  • Janine Turner as Dr. Dana Lee Stowe (seasons 1–3), an ambitious doctor and scientist seeking a cure for breast cancer; she is rigid and stoic, but cares deeply about her patients. Like her successor Andy Campbell, she was good friends with Jackson. She had a short-lived relationship with resident doctor Nick Biancavilla, which she broke up when he wasn't willing to have children. Her character left the show near the start of the third season after adopting two challenged children (an HIV-positive infant and her older sister), choosing to put her medical ambitions aside to pursue a successful motherhood.[10]
  • United States Surgeon General (which was also a stated ambition of her predecessor) at the end of the fifth season and left the show.[15]
Characters Dr. Dylan West and Dr. Luisa Delgado
  • Tucson in the middle of the fifth season, after graduating one year in advance.[8] He returned to Philadelphia due to a pregnancy scare with a former girlfriend, Olivia,[17]
    and again for Lu's wedding, and walked her to the altar.
  • streetwalker long since rehabilitated, she met Lu at the same bar Peter and his band were playing at. After a fire destroyed the bar and the owner rented the locale to Lu for her clinic, she gave Lana a job.[18] She has two sons, Harry, an officer in the Navy and Maurice, a con artist who once pretended he had a wife and son to trick his mother out of money. Hawkins is the hospital's eyes and ears, i.e. chief gossip, as well as matchmaker, and general benevolent schemer and rule-bender. Lana often refers to herself in the third person. Lana returned to school, earned her high school diploma and went to college, earning a degree in psychology. Afterwards, Lu enlisted her to consult for her women's group, as volunteer work towards her Master's degree
    . She was maid of honor at Lu's wedding.
  • Joshua Coxx as Peter James Riggs. A nurse practitioner, registered nurse, and
    holistic medicine. He is often a kindred spirit to Delgado. He grew up poor, with an abusive, alcoholic father.[20][18] He was in the Peace Corps, and has volunteered with the American Red Cross, his work taking him to impoverished countries, such as Nicaragua.[21] Often, Riggs' character makes a balanced sociopolitical observation that influences a positive action by one of the two doctors; other times he is the protagonist of action. He was also the nurse union representative.[22] When he met Lu, he almost ran over her with his van. He played the bass guitar in a band until his girlfriend Simone (the lead singer) dumped him during a fire, and Lu gave him a job in her new free clinic.[18] Often shown as a ladies man with several girlfriends (ironically, his mother is convinced he's gay due to his vocation), he finally has settled into a relationship with Kayla, to whom he proposes in the series finale.[9]
  • Philip Casnoff as Dr. Robert "Bob" Jackson (seasons 1–5). Chief of staff of Rittenhouse Hospital, he is the stoic, administrative figure and also ultimately in charge of decisions regarding funding, especially to the women's clinic. Jackson had once been a top surgeon but when a young girl died during surgery due to a mislabeled drug dosage, Jackson lost his nerve for the operating room and moved to administration.[23] Jackson considers himself a personal friend of Dr. Campbell (as he was with Dr. Stowe), but generally is more impersonal and sometimes butts heads with Dr. Delgado over financial or liability issues, and with Lana over administrative issues. He was married with two daughters, Lauren and Paige. A recurring subplot throughout the series was Jackson dealing with his wife Susan's advancing MS condition. He even briefly left her, but eventually returned to her. Jackson's character was laid off by hospital owner Octavian prior to the start of the final season.
  • Brennan Elliott as Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Biancavilla (seasons 1–4; guest season 6), an ER doctor at Rittenhouse who had a brief relationship with Dr. Stowe. He has four older sisters—one of whom is Francine Biancavilla, a lesbian whose life-partner he married in order to get her the critical medical care she desperately needed. Dr. Jackson found out, but Nick gave Francine a medical insurance plan as a wedding gift that covered existing illnesses. Nick left at the end of the fourth season when he transferred to Manhattan General, but returned for a guest appearance in the final season.
  • Chief Resident after narrowly missing it due to a complex emergency house call. We find out that she has a twin sister, Keisha (played by real-life twin sister Tia Mowry) who ends up needing 24-hour care for bipolar disorder
    .
  • Eileen Boylan), he never knew he had.[25]
    His relationship with his daughter is troubled at first, but slowly they get to know each other.
  • South American children to Rittenhouse for treatment, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement scandal at his company, bringing his fortune and stability into doubt. After discovering that Lana had stock of his company, he decided to sell most of his assets and pay the shareholders back a part of their money. He and Lu moved to his childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu convinced him to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, Dylan arrives to deliver their daughter.[9]

Recurring

Broadcast and release

Reruns formerly airs on the American over-the-air network

GetTV on Mondays to Fridays starting on November 1, 2021. TeleXitos
premiered the entire series on October 1, 2021, which will be dubbed in Spanish.

On January 10, 2006,

Strong Medicine: The Complete First Season, a 5-disc set. As of April 2021, the first two seasons of the show are available to watch on the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi in the United States, but is no longer offered April 1, 2023. While the complete series is available to watch in Canada on CTV
.ca's CTV Throwback hub.

Proposed First Response spinoff and international remake

Near the end of the 2004-2005 season, a special episode "First Response" aired, prominently featuring three new characters: Katie and Zack, both

EMTs
, and Dr. Vanessa Burke, head of the new Rittenhouse Trauma Center and adopted black sister of Katie. The TV Home website reports that this episode was meant as the pilot to a potential Strong Medicine spinoff series, Strong Medicine: First Response. Such a series would have been the first spin-off to an existing Lifetime original series. Lifetime did not order the new series into production after the ratings for the pilot were not what was expected.

There was a Russian remake in 2012.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "Breaking News - Lifetime Sends 'Strong Medicine' Into Retirement". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  2. ^ 'Medicine' running out at Lifetime
  3. ^ "Strong Medicine: Season 01 (2000) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  4. ^ Barraclough, Leo (2002-01-31). "Lifetime taking 'Medicine'". Variety. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  5. ^ a b "Rape Kit". Strong Medicine. Season 2. Episode 20.
  6. ^ "Pilot". Strong Medicine. Season 1. Episode 1.
  7. ^ "The Hero Heart". Strong Medicine. Season 4. Episode 1.
  8. ^ a b c "Goodbye Slash Rest in Peace". Strong Medicine. Season 5. Episode 6.
  9. ^ a b c "Special Delivery". Strong Medicine. Season 6. Episode 22.
  10. ^ "Discharged". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 6.
  11. ^ a b "Admissions". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 7.
  12. ^ "Contraindications". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 8.
  13. ^ "PMS, Lies and Red Tape". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 16.
  14. ^ "Fractured". Strong Medicine. Season 5. Episode 5.
  15. ^ "Cutting the Cord". Strong Medicine. Season 5. Episode 22.
  16. ^ "Misconceptions". Strong Medicine. Season 1. Episode 3.
  17. ^ "Body Mass Increase". Strong Medicine. Season 5. Episode 13.
  18. ^ a b c "History". Strong Medicine. Season 2. Episode 4.
  19. ^ "Outcomes". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 2.
  20. ^ "Blessed Events". Strong Medicine. Season 1. Episode 15.
  21. ^ "Hot Flash". Strong Medicine. Season 2. Episode 14.
  22. ^ "Shock". Strong Medicine. Season 2. Episode 18.
  23. ^ "Risk". Strong Medicine. Season 3. Episode 22.
  24. ^ "Touched by an Idol". Strong Medicine. Season 5. Episode 2.
  25. ^ "Paternity Test". Strong Medicine. Season 6. Episode 7.

External links

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