Can Laughter Cure Illness?
By JUDY BERGERON
Want to attract a wide audience to a medical show? Add a little humor.
So was Discovery Health’s thinking when it came up with “Doctor*ology,” a new program that’s part documentary, part slapstick humor.
Having made his comedic mark on the big screen, veteran actor Leslie Nielsen is out to make modern medicine a laughing matter, but only where appropriate. Those familiar with Nielsen from movies including “Naked Gun,”"Airplane” and “Spy Hard,” know it’s all about the slapstick and the one-liners.
When discussing the differences between a PET scan, and a CAT scan, Nielsen says in his matter-of-fact style, “So a cat is not a pet, and a pet is not a cat.”
Nielsen plays the uncle opposite David Lawrence as the nephew, who’s attempting to learn from his uncle’s medical wisdom and get some hands-on learning experiences. He gets more than he bargained for, as he is poked and prodded, becoming the hospital’s guinea pig. The doctors they encounter are all real medical physicians and that’s where the documentary part comes in. Each episode deals with a particular field of medicine, the first episode being neurology.
Experts at an ALS clinic discuss how the neurodegenerative disease is diagnosed and treated and which high-tech machines are used, along with other diseases such as Parkinson’s, and conditions including epilepsy and depression. The experts break down all the jargon, long-winded terms and complicated explanations into words the average viewer can understand. But it’s obvious Nielsen has rubbed off on them.
In detailing a complicated procedure involving placing electrodes into a man’s brain, Dr. Ted Wein throws in, “Don’t try this at home, and if you do, wear gloves.”
Maybe laughter really is the best medicine.
“Doctor*ology” will air in two back-to-back, half-hour episodes at 7 p.m. Saturdays beginning July 14, on Discovery Health (cable Channel 61).
Worth a look
ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS: 7-9 tonight-Friday, TV One (digital cable Channel 216). The network is airing this continuation of the “Roots” saga in celebration of the original miniseries’ 30th anniversary. This series starts in the post-Civil War era and goes to the 1960s, when author Alex Haley’s genealogical search for his roots led him to Africa.
FURIA A BAHIA POUR OSS 117: 7:30 tonight, TV5 Monde USA (digital cable Channel 270). Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is France’s answer to James Bond. The channel is airing a month of Bonisseur adventures, and in tonight’s installment, a political crime wave has hit South America and Bonisseur is sent to unravel the mystery. The Bond woman in this case is actress Mylene Demongeot, who plays Anne- Maria.
SPIELBERG ON SPIELBERG: 7 p.m. Monday, TCM (digital cable Channel 210). The 90-minute special offers exclusive and detailed interviews with the director himself, who’ll discuss his rise to success in Hollywood and the more than three decades of films which took him there. Following the special, TCM will air “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which earned Spielberg his first Oscar nomination; and “Jaws,” his first blockbuster.
INTO ALASKA WITH JEFF CORWIN: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Travel Channel (cable Channel 67). The new, eight-part series has the wildlife expert and anthropologist heading into Alaska, one of the last untouched wildernesses on Earth. He’ll show viewers all that the frontier has to offer to tourists.
BUILD IT BIGGER: 9 p.m. Tuesday, Discovery Channel (cable Channel 46). Architect Danny Forster is the host for this new series which highlights the ultimate construction projects, from Shanghai Tower in China, to the Bank of America Tower in New York. On-site architects, engineers and the building crew will give insight on the complex construction techniques that go into creating these super structures.
Television stations with news about on-air reporters, personalities or special programming should send the information to: Judy Bergeron, television editor, The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821; fax to (225) 388-0351 or e-mail to jbergeron@theadvocate.com. Photos are used on a space-available basis.
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