A popular and groundbreaking medical melodrama, Marcus Welby, M.D. aired on ABC for seven seasons, from September 1969 until May 1976, with Robert Young in the title role. A star of the silver screen and well-known for his role as Jim Anderson on Father Knows Best, the sixty-two-year-old Young returned to television after a seven-year retirement to play Welby.

The plots of the hour-long weekly series revolved around the medical cases of Dr. Marcus Welby, a kind-hearted family doctor who ran his office out of his home in Santa Monica, California, and was associated with the Family Practice Center at Lang Memorial Hospital. Welby had an old-school work ethic and treated his patients with respect. After suffering a mild coronary, Welby hired a younger associate, Dr. Steven Kiley (James Brolin), to help him with his workload. Unlike the conservative Welby, Dr. Kiley was...