User Reviews

...which I remember pretty vividly for something I haven't seen since its original air in 1975. There were two parts to this episode, but I'm pretty much reviewing both parts here. I was 17 at the time and had to go to a friend's house to see it. There was no way that my Baptist parents in 1975 Texas were going to let this on the TV screen in their house! I didn't even tell them why I was going to my friend's house or , even at 17, I would have been sent to my room! The whole thing was handled so sensitively. Robert Reed, who turned out to be a privately (at that time) gay man, plays a doctor at the Medical Center who identifies as a woman, and decides he wants sexual reassignment surgery so he can live out his life in the body of the sex with which he identifies. Unfortunately he has a wife of about 20 years and a teenage son. Both feel rejected as a result of his announcement. The wife feels like she must be a failure as a woman or this wouldn't be happening. The son feels like he is losing a dad.

Chad Everett, as Dr. Joe Gannon, is as sympathetic as he could be, and even winds up patching things up between Dr. Caddison and his wife after the surgery is done, right before Caddison leaves Medical Center as a woman. Robert Reed gave a great performance, and although being trans-gendered and being gay are two entirely different things, Reed probably used his experience of feeling like he had to live two lives to give such an authentic portrayal. Of course Medical Center leaves out the fact that this procedure is just not operative, but involves months of hormonal treatment prior to the operation, but I will cut them some slack on that for having the guts to tackle this subject on prime-time TV over forty years ago.

The oddest thing I remember about this episode? There was another, I think prior, episode of Medical Center- early 1970s - in which a childless married couple decided that they wanted permanent medical sterilization. There was more wringing of hands, multiple panels of doctors, and probing psychological evaluations involved in the decision of two adults of sound mind deciding that they wanted to be permanently child free than there was in the decision of a person in their 40s deciding to change genders! Just shows you how much times have changed even considering this is the swinging 70s we are talking about!

I just turned 20 when this episode aired. Robert Reed played the character so well I wondered if he was homosexual himself (the word gay was scarce in '75) Those last few moments when Reed is seen as a woman, reminded me of a classic movie, of some famous female actress, perfect make-up and wig. Who would have guessed all those years later Reed turned out indeed to be gay. He played the near perfect Brady dad but in real life was gay. As for Medical Center, I was 20 years old then, and remember gay guys in college who were starting to become sick with an illness which turned out to be AIDS. As for the program, I to would like to watch these two episodes again. I've never seen them on any DVD. Todays generation would appreciate the contents.

I was 18 years old when I saw this episode and was shocked and dismayed that a doctor on tv was setting such an example for others to emulate by sympathizing with someone who wanted sexual assignment surgery enough to actually go ahead with performing it! I felt betrayed by the actor Chad Everett for playing such a role, although I see that some people considered him heroic and groundbreaking for doing it. To me at the time it seemed the epitome of what we now refer to as politically correct.