Sacred Heart Hospital

Double Rush

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

Double Rush was a short-lived sitcom on CBS that aired from January to April 1995.

Stephen Nathan and Diane English created the show.

Its setting was familiar -- the workplace.

Cheers had the bar in Boston where everybody knows your name.

WKRP in Cincinnati had a rock and roll radio station in the Queen City.

And
Double Rush had a bicycle messenger service in Manhattan named Double Rush.

The owner is would-be rock musician Johnny Verona, played by Robert Pastorelli.

Pastorelli earned the respect, laughter, and loyalty of fans of
Murphy Brown as Eldin Bernecky, the house painter who constantly created new projects for Murphy’s home.

Corinne Bohrer plays the practical-minded Harvard Business School grad Zoe Fuller, a good complement and potential love interest for Johnny.

There is a dynamic between dreamer Johnny and intellectual yet unfulfilled Zoe that is reminiscent of Sam and Diane on
Cheers.

Double Rush
was funny. Its characters were well-defined. And its supporting cast was solid.

D.L. Hughley, Adam Goldberg, and David Arquette play bike messengers.

Sam Lloyd plays dispatcher Barkley. You may know him as Ted Buckland, the attorney for Sacred Heart Hospital on
Scrubs.

Veteran comedic character actor Phil Leeds plays veteran bike messenger
The Kid.

In the pilot, we learn that Johnny won’t sell
Double Rush to a competitor because if he does, the competitor will lay off the messengers.

We also learn that Johnny’s loyalty is inherent. Twenty-five years prior, Johnny had the opportunity to sign with a record label. But the label only wanted Johnny, not his band mates.

Johnny wouldn’t sign without them, so he continued his bike messenger job to pay the bills. Eventually, he bought Double Rush.

Despite the cast and writing,
Double Rush did not live to see the Fall 1995 lineup.

TV Doctors

by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com

A medical situation forces you to seek the insight of a doctor.

In the televerse, you have many choices.

For a heart problem, you might go to St. Eligius Hospital in Boston and meet with Dr. Mark Craig. Egotist. Patrician. And an expert cardiac surgeon who even developed his own version of an artificial heart.

Perhaps you will go to San Francisco Memorial Hospital and seek the advice of Trapper John, M.D. John McIntrye has been battle tested in surgery, in a matter of speaking. He operated on Korean War soliders at the M*A*S*H 4077th.

If it’s a kind father figure with a good bedside manner you seek, then Marcus Welby is your man. I you think the exterior to his home and office looks a lot like the exterior of the home of Wally and Beaver Cleaver, you’d be right. They’re identical because the houses are one and the same.

You may want a doctor’s practice with a one-stop-shopping approach.

Look no further than the Oceanside Wellness Center in Santa Monica.

Formerly of Seattle Grace Hospital, Addison Montgomery is an OB/GYN and a neo-natal surgeon.

You’ll also find an alternative medicine specialist who used to work in the Doctors Without Borders program, a fertility specialist, an internal medicine specialist, a psychiatrist, and a pediatrician.

The aforementioned Seattle Grace Hospital is home base for one of the country’s leading neurosurgeons -- Dr. Derek Shepherd. By the way, his paramour is Dr. Meredith Grey. Dr. Grey’s mother was a groundbreaking doctor.

If you are in south Florida and you need a children’s doctor, you may want to visit Dr. Harry Weston, pediatrician and neighbor of Blanche, Rose, Sophia, and Dorothy, a.k.a. the Golden Girls.

In an emergency situation, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better team than the one at Rampart Hospital in Los Angeles.

Starting with paramedics Roy DeSoto and John Gage of Engine 51, the team consistently shows how to perform successfully in pressure situations. Engine 51’s Rampart Hospital counterparts consist of Dr. Joe Early, Dr. Kelly Brackett, and the incomparable, beautiful, and inspiring Dixie McCall, nurse extraordinaire.

Also in southern California are young Dr. Joe Gannon and his mentor, Dr. Paul Lochner. They work at a university hospital. We just say they work at Medical Center.

You will find the young doctor / senior doctor paradigm a constant in the televerse. Trapper John and Gonzo Gates at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Dr. Ben Casey and Dr. David Zorba at County General. Dr. James Kildare and Dr. Leonard Gillespie at yet another large metropolitan hospital.

Dr. Perry Cox leads a team of dedicated, sometimes goofy doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital in an unnamed metropolis.

But don’t let Dr. Cox’s crass treatment of the younger doctors throw you off balance. He treats them with toughness because he wants them to be as good as he is, if that’s possible. So he rides them hard.

For the extremely intricate diagnosis, you will want to visit Dr. Gregory House at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and his team of younger doctors.

Dr. House specializes in the seemingly impossible diagnosis, though his all-around blunt, sometimes caustic manner may throw off patients and doctors alike, even those who are his friends.

But his commitment to treating the patient and defeating the condition, illness, or disease is unparalleled.

In Chicago, you can visit a group of talented, unappreciated, and undervalued emergency room doctors at Cook County General Hospital -- Dr. Peter Benton, Dr. John Carter, Dr. Doug Ross, Dr. Mark Greene, Dr. Kerry Weaver.

Also in Chicago, you can visit the smaller ER staffed by Dr. Howard Sheinfeld and Dr. Eve Sheridan at Clark Street Hospital or the glossier Chicago Hope Hospital.

No matter what your ailment, you will find doctors throughout the televerse.

They are experts.

They are dedicated.

And they might even tell you that laughter is the best medicine.