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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-09-10
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REVIEW, Page 94TELEVISIONKindly Cuts
By RICHARD ZOGLIN
SHOW: The Human FActor
TIME: Thursdays, 10 P.M. EDT, CBS
THE BOTTOM LINE: A familiar prescription still produces
feel-good results.
"I've done over 500 of these procedures, and I haven't
lost a patient yet," snarls a brilliant surgeon to the lowly
medical student who has dared to offer a pre-op suggestion. What
happens next (as if you didn't know) is that because of his
arrogance, the surgeon almost loses a patient.
Such morality tales are part of the daily rounds in cbs's
new medical series The Human Factor, which debuts this week.
The show's guiding thesis is that doctors don't pay enough
attention to the emotional side of treating patients. Viewers,
however, may well glean another message: ban all senior medical
experts from your hospital-room door, and put yourself in the
hands of the first caring youngster you see roaming the halls.
Oh, well, who said TV medical shows had to make sense?
Executive producer Dick Wolf (Law & Order) at least
doesn't trivialize the well-worn subject. He avoids Bochco-like
comic subplots and focuses on weighty medical-ethical issues
rather than on hospital soap opera. Early stories range from a
boxer showing symptoms of Parkinson's disease to a couple who
refuse surgery for their young son because of religious
convictions. And John Mahoney, as a doctor who teaches a course
in humanistic medicine, is the best gruff-but-kindly TV
physician since Dr. Gillespie hung up his stethoscope.