Walter Dishell

In his three-hour interview, Dr. Walter Dishell describes how he first got involved in television when he was approached (while a resident at UCLA Medical Center) to become the medical adviser for a television movie called U.M.C., which served as the pilot for the long-running drama series Medical Center. Dishell talks about his work as the medical adviser to this series and the various medical subjects it explored, including an episode that led to a change in real-life laws regarding employment discrimination of recovered cancer patients. He details his work on M*A*S*H, giving advice on medical procedures as they were in the 1950s during the Korean War. He describes the episode he co-wrote with star Alan Alda ("Life Time") that unfolds in real time and centers on an arterial graft operation. Dishell also recalls consulting for several other television series, including Trapper John, M.D.; House Calls; and Family Medical Center. B-roll consists of photos from U.M.C. (with Edward G. Robinson), Medical Center (including stills from the bill signing resulting from the cancer patient episode), M*A*S*H (including the script cover page of the "Life Time" episode), and a card from the game Trivial Pursuit which featured a question about the medical adviser on M*A*S*H. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interview on November 18, 2003 in Los Angeles, CA.