House Calls 

Dating someone you work with can create problems, as Charley Michaels and Ann Anderson learned. He was a surgeon at Kensington General Hospital in San Francisco, a good doctor but less than... See full summary »

Creators:

Julius J. Epstein, Max Shulman

Stars:

Wayne Rogers, Ray Buktenica, David Wayne

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Wayne Rogers	...	Dr. Charley Michaels 57 episodes, 1979-1982
Ray Buktenica	...	Dr. Normon Solomon 57 episodes, 1979-1982
David Wayne	...	Dr. Amos Weatherby 57 episodes, 1979-1982
Lynn Redgrave	...	Ann Anderson 41 episodes, 1979-1981

Storyline

Dating someone you work with can create problems, as Charley Michaels and Ann Anderson learned. He was a surgeon at Kensington General Hospital in San Francisco, a good doctor but less than enthusiastic about conforming to hospital rules and regulations. She was the hospital's new administrative assistant, an English lady with a commitment to keeping the hospital running efficiently. They were romantically involved but often at odds.

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Plot Keywords:

bumbling | hospital | surgeon | english | glasses | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 December 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Visite a domicilio

Filming Locations:

Linda Vista Hospital - 610 S. St. Louis Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alex Winitsky / Arlene Sellers Productions,Universal Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (58 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lynn Redgrave left the series in 1981 in a very public dispute with Universal Television. The studio claimed that the dispute related to her salary, while Redgrave claimed that the studio refused to allow her to breast feed her newborn daughter in between takes on the set. Redgrave sued the studio, but lost when the litigation was dismissed thirteen years later.

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Connections

Referenced in Wonderland (2003)

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Soundtracks

Enjoy The Ride
by Bill Greer

User Reviews

A Good Transcription From the Large Screen to the Small Screen

In 1978 Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Art Carney, and Richard Benjamin appeared in a comedy about the medical profession in a big city hospital called HOUSE CALLS. It was a good comedy, and would lead to one of the film partnerships of Matthau's career - his two film partnership with Jackson. But it also was so well liked it was transformed into a briefly successful television show starring Wayne Rogers, Lynn Redgrave, David Wayne, and Ray Buktenica, and (when Redgrave left the show) Sharon Gless.

The television show was unique in it's way, not only from being a successful transcription from the movies. Matthau's Charlie was a man in his 50s, and the role was reduce by about 15 years for Rogers. Rogers, who made a name for himself as Dr. "Trapper John" McIntyre on the television show M.A.S.H. had left that show in 1978. Yet he was not hired to play an older version of the same character in TRAPPER JOHN (Pernell Roberts was - quite successfully too). Instead he ended up as Charlie. Redgrave, British born and raised, replaced Jackson, British born and raised. Buktenica replaced Benjamin. Of the leads, the most interesting change was Wayne from Carney. Dr. Amos Weatherby was usually senile and incompetent, but he had a mean, opportunistic streak occasionally. At first Wayne's character was written like that. The habit that Carney had of calling Benjamin's character by the wrong first name was continued by Wayne towards Buktenica. But it turned out that in one of the episodes, Buktenica (who was getting upset at this habit of Wayne's) discovered that it was meant well - Wayne's dead younger brother was like Buktenica, and that was why he called him by that name.

In short Wayne's character was allowed to show more humanity than Carney's. In later episodes his competence, while questioned, turned out to be far more realistic than Carney's. In one episode, when a supposedly botched operation took place Wayne is being forced to resign by the head of the Board of Trustees. It turned out that the wife of the head of the Board starts choking while Wayne is giving his resignation speech. Without stopping he walks behind her and gives her the correct Heimlich maneuver. Carney's Amos would not have done that.

The romance between Charlie and Ann continued, but more discreetly than in the film. In 1981 Lynn Redgrave left the show in a contract dispute. She was replaced in the last year by Sheron Gless. Gless did well in the part, but the audience used to Redgrave never quite caught onto Gless. The show ended in 1982, and Gless would soon find her niche in television history as Tyne Daly's second partner in CAGNEY AND LACEY.

There were also two other characters who popped up who were new to the story. There was Mrs. Phipps (Deedy Peters) and Conrad Peckler (Mark L. Taylor). Mrs. Phipps was the chief Candy Striper, a sickeningly sweet lady who got into the hair of the patients and doctors - but tended to be sharp when she wanted to be. Peckler became the bete noir of Rogers, Wayne (in particular Wayne, who never has any patience for him), Buktenica, Redgrave, and Gless (the latter two as office workers are under him - Peckler is the hospital administrator). Officious, business like, and totally without any sympathy for anything that does not benefit the hospital, Taylor's Peckler always was taught a lesson by the others. Usually it was Wayne who taught him the lesson.

The show was actually quite good - it certainly deserves a revival.