Strong Medicine
Encyclopedia
Strong Medicine is a medical drama with a focus on feminist politics
, health issues and class conflict
. The television series aired on the Lifetime
network from 2000 to 2006. It is distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
. The series was created and produced in part by comedienne and activist Whoopi Goldberg
, who made a couple of cameos in the series, and Tammy Ader
. The show employed a variety of regular and guest writers.
On November 1, 2005, Lifetime TV announced the cancellation of the series. The final episode of the series aired on February 5, 2006.
, largely involving the operations of the ER and a free women's health clinic, run by inner-city success story Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado. The urban facility receives a diverse mixture of patients, from upper- and middle-class patients, which generally allows the hospital to finance the free clinic, and lower-class or poor patients, who come to take advantage of Dr. Delgado's hospital-funded services.
The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse
. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values—this role has been filled by various characters, most recently Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.
) Born November 18, 1970. Delgado runs the free clinic
(first the South Philly Health Clinic and, since the pilot, the Rittenhouse Health Center), and hosts a support group (most 2003 and 2004 episodes open with a scene from these meetings). Both as a friend and a doctor to many lower-class patients, Delgado regularly comes face-to-face with bitterly ironic situations involving the difficulties of the lower class with government
, debt
, drug abuse
, and exploitation
. Her character exhibits a perennial cleverness which allows her to wheedle or persuade positive outcomes from seemingly hopeless cases of victimization. She was raised by her grandmother, Isabel Santana, who now lives in Puerto Rico
, and had a son, Marc, when she was 16, whom she raised alone. Marc has been at college since the 2004–2005 season.
Until recently, Delgado has had no luck with a relationship. Her first boyfriend, Radio show host Harry Burr (Don Michael Paul
) had to leave her because his ex-wife was using their relationship to gain custody of his daughter Erin, who was also her son Marc's girlfriend. In fact, shades of Lu's past came back to haunt her when Marc and Erin faced a pregnancy scare. Soon after, she survived being raped by the Rittenhouse's new Head of Surgery, Dr. Randolf Kilner.
She lost her first serious boyfriend, fireman Miguel "Mickey" Arenas (Julian Acosta
), to a murder perpetrated by one of her patients, forcing her to face her moral objection to the death penalty. Ironically, in an earlier episode, Lu thought Miguel had died on the job, when there was a fire at the local mall. It turns out the only reason he didn't die, is because he switched duties with friend and ended up driving the fire truck. Lu later becomes involved with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show
), an administrator brought on after Rittenhouse is bought by a health care conglomerate, Octavian. Sanderson later left to be reassigned to a facility in Miami. He asked Lu to come with him but, after thinking about it, she refused because her patients are there.
Soon after, she became involved with Jonas Rey (Nestor Carbonell
), a local self-made millionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation. In the 2005–2006 season she and Jonas get married, and Lu struggles to get accustomed to a wealthier life, while trying to reconcile it with her inner-city loyalties. After Lu discovered she was pregnant with Jonas' baby, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement
scandal at his company, bringing his fortune into doubt.
In the series finale, they decided to move to Jonas' childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu was injured and her placenta
detached. She asked Jonas to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, the firemen arrived and called Dylan, who completed the C-Section, and Lu gave birth to their daughter, whom was named Milagro (which means "miracle" in Spanish).
) Replacing Dr. Campbell's role is Dr. Dylan West, a male women's health specialist. His gender raises initial eyebrows, especially with Delgado, who has also had past negative experiences with him as a resident. He has his own troubled past and seems to be seeking to redeem himself from something in his past. He is a diabetic, which becomes a recurring plot device. Dylan has tremendously bad luck in romance. One such former love interest arrives at Rittenhouse needing a new heart to survive; West is unable to save her life, but gains a teenaged half-Japanese daughter, Araya (Eileen Boylan
), he never knew he had. His relationship with his daughter is troubled at first, but slowly they get to know each other.
and believes in the principles of holistic medicine. He is often a kindred spirit to Delgado. Often, Riggs' character makes a balanced sociopolitical observation that influences a positive action by one of the two doctors; other times he is the protagonist of action. He was also the nurse union representative.
When he met Lu, he almost ran over her with his van. He played the Bass Guitar
in a band until his girlfriend Simone (the lead singer) dumped him during a fire, and Lu gave him a job in her new free clinic.
Often shown as a ladies man with several girlfriends (ironically, his mother is convinced he's gay due to his vocation), he finally has settled into a relationship with Kayla, to whom he proposes in the series finale.
) Hawkins serves as the front receptionist for the RWHC, or the Rittenhouse Women's Health Center. A former drug addict and streetwalker long since rehabilitated, she met Lu at the same bar Peter and his band were playing at. After a fire destroyed the bar and the owner rented the locale to Lu for her clinic, she gave Lana a job. She has two sons, Harry, an officer in the Navy
and Maurice, a con artist who once pretended he had a wife and son to trick his mother out of money.
Hawkins is the hospital's eyes and ears, i.e. chief gossip
, as well as matchmaker, and general benevolent schemer and rule-bender. Lana often refers to herself in the third person. Lana went back to school, earned her high school diploma and went to college, earning a degree in psychology
. Afterwards, Lu enlisted her to consult for her women's group, as volunteer work towards her Master's degree
. She was maid of honor at Lu's wedding.
) A new doctor and young medical prodigy, Thornton is a fast study at Rittenhouse, entering residency in the beginning of the 2004–2005 season and becoming a depended-upon ER regular by the end of that season, despite occasional disbelief by patients that she is a qualified doctor. As she becomes a main character to the show, her personality can be compared to that of a young Dr. Delgado with her ambition and hard work. She decided to become a doctor as a young girl when a brother was shot in the chest by a friend when playing with a hunting rifle. While the friend ran for help, Kayla cradled her dying brother. The nearest doctor was 25 miles away, so therefore Kayla's brother died in her arms. She then decided to become a doctor.
Throughout the medical drama's seasons, Thornton rooms with various fellow staff members in her search for affordable housing. First she moves into Dr. Campbell's house, where she spends some of her time helping with Andy's two daughters. After Andy's departure, she rooms with Lana. She was later on selected as Chief Resident after narrowly missing it due to a complex emergency house call. We find out that she has a twin sister, Keisha (played by real-life twin sister Tia Mowry
) who ends up needing 24-hour care for a schizophrenic
mental disorder, because she felt that Kayla always had a perfect life and had a depression when they were younger.
) A local self-made billionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation. He first appeared on Rittenhouse when his mother was brought to ER due an accident. While his mother was in the hospital, he saw Lu interacting with several of her patients. Even before he exchanged a single word with Lu, he told his mother he'll marry her.
He met and pursued Lu until she agreed to date him. They got married in the middle of the 2005–2006 season. After personally bringing sick South American children to Rittenhouse for treatment, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement
scandal at his company, bringing his fortune and stability into doubt. After discovering that Lana had stock of his company, he decided to sell most of his assets and pay the shareholders back a part of their money. He and Lu moved to his childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu convinced him to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, Dylan arrives to deliver their daughter.
), an ambitious doctor and scientist seeking a cure for breast cancer; she is rigid and stoic, but cares deeply about her patients. Like her successor Andy Campbell, she was good friends with Jackson. She had a short-lived relationship with resident doctor Nick Biancavilla, which she broke up when he wasn't willing to have children.
Her character left the show at the end of the 2001–2002 season after adopting two challenged children (an HIV-positive infant and her older sister), choosing to put her medical ambitions aside to pursue a successful motherhood.
) A former military doctor with the rank of Colonel, Campbell came on the staff during the third season to replace the much more ambitious and strict Dr. Dana Stowe. Her patients tend to be upper-middle-class, and often include minor local celebrities and professionals. Her character ostensibly lives the almost typical suburban nuclear family lifestyle, aside from her status as breadwinner. She has two teenage daughters, Jesse and Lizzie.
Campbell kicked out her husband, Leslie, after he hit her during a domestic dispute, forcing her to examine domestic abuse issues as well as single motherhood
. Campbell and Leslie had been married for thirty years without any violence in the home, and Leslie is presented as changing from a loving husband to a violent maniac over the course of a single episode. She later becomes involved with another doctor, cardiac surgeon Dr. Milo Morton but he dies in a car accident (a development forced by the death of actor Richard Biggs
due to an undiagnosed heart condition).
Campbell was named United States Surgeon General (which was also a stated ambition of her predecessor) at the end of the fifth season and left the show.
) Chief of staff of Rittenhouse Hospital, he is the stoic, administrative figure and also ultimately in charge of decisions regarding funding, especially to the women's clinic. Jackson had once been a top surgeon but when a young girl died during surgery due to a mislabeled drug dosage, Jackson lost his nerve for the operating room and moved to administration. Jackson considers himself a personal friend of Dr. Campbell (as he was with Dr. Stowe), but generally is more impersonal and sometimes butts heads with Dr. Delgado over financial or liability issues, and with Lana over administrative issues. He was married with two daughters, Lauren and Paige. A recurring subplot throughout the series was Jackson dealing with his beloved wife Susan's advancing MS
condition. He even briefly left her, unable to watch her succumb to the illness, but eventually went back to her. Jackson's character was laid off by hospital owner Octavian prior to the start of the sixth season.
), an ER doctor at Rittenhouse who had a brief relationship with Dr. Stowe. He has four older sisters, one of them (Francine 'Frankie' Biancavilla) a lesbian whose girlfriend he married to get her the medical care she needed. It didn't work because Dr. Jackson found out, but he gave his sister a medical plan as "wedding gift" that covered existing illnesses. She promised she'd pay it herself once she got promoted. He left at the end of season 4 when he transferred to Manhattan General.
. He left for college in the middle of season 5, after graduating one year in advance but returned once for Lu's wedding, and walked her to the altar.
released Strong Medicine: The Complete First Season, a 5-disc set, on 10 January 2006. It is unknown if the remaining 5 seasons will be released at some point.
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, health issues and class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
. The television series aired on the Lifetime
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
network from 2000 to 2006. It is distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
. The series was created and produced in part by comedienne and activist Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, who made a couple of cameos in the series, and Tammy Ader
Tammy Ader
Tammy Ader, now Tammy Green, is an American television writer, director and producer. She began her writing career in medical school while attending Brandeis University. She is close friends with Whoopi Goldberg, and is a fan of Michael Hauge....
. The show employed a variety of regular and guest writers.
On November 1, 2005, Lifetime TV announced the cancellation of the series. The final episode of the series aired on February 5, 2006.
Background
The show centers on the staff of fictional Rittenhouse Hospital in PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, largely involving the operations of the ER and a free women's health clinic, run by inner-city success story Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado. The urban facility receives a diverse mixture of patients, from upper- and middle-class patients, which generally allows the hospital to finance the free clinic, and lower-class or poor patients, who come to take advantage of Dr. Delgado's hospital-funded services.
The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values—this role has been filled by various characters, most recently Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.
Dr. Luisa "Lu" Magdalena Delgado
(Rosa BlasiRosa Blasi
Rosa Blasi is an American actress.-Early life:Blasi was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Rocco and Joyce Blasi. Blasi is classically trained as a mezzo soprano. She also comes from a strong theatre background; ranging from the esteemed Piven Performance Company, as well as The Second City, to...
) Born November 18, 1970. Delgado runs the free clinic
Clinic
A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...
(first the South Philly Health Clinic and, since the pilot, the Rittenhouse Health Center), and hosts a support group (most 2003 and 2004 episodes open with a scene from these meetings). Both as a friend and a doctor to many lower-class patients, Delgado regularly comes face-to-face with bitterly ironic situations involving the difficulties of the lower class with government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
, drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, and exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
. Her character exhibits a perennial cleverness which allows her to wheedle or persuade positive outcomes from seemingly hopeless cases of victimization. She was raised by her grandmother, Isabel Santana, who now lives in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and had a son, Marc, when she was 16, whom she raised alone. Marc has been at college since the 2004–2005 season.
Until recently, Delgado has had no luck with a relationship. Her first boyfriend, Radio show host Harry Burr (Don Michael Paul
Don Michael Paul
Don Michael Paul, is an actor, director, writer and producer.He starred in the movie Heart of Dixie and "Rich Girl " with Jill Schoelen. He wrote the screenplay for Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. He was one of three brothers in the short-lived 1992 CBS detective series The Hat Squad...
) had to leave her because his ex-wife was using their relationship to gain custody of his daughter Erin, who was also her son Marc's girlfriend. In fact, shades of Lu's past came back to haunt her when Marc and Erin faced a pregnancy scare. Soon after, she survived being raped by the Rittenhouse's new Head of Surgery, Dr. Randolf Kilner.
She lost her first serious boyfriend, fireman Miguel "Mickey" Arenas (Julian Acosta
Julian Acosta
Julio "Julian" Acosta was a versatile minor league baseball player who won 96 games as a pitcher, collected at least 749 hits as a batter and spent time at first base and in the outfield. He also spent several years pitching in Cuba and was a manager for a couple of seasons.He began his career as...
), to a murder perpetrated by one of her patients, forcing her to face her moral objection to the death penalty. Ironically, in an earlier episode, Lu thought Miguel had died on the job, when there was a fire at the local mall. It turns out the only reason he didn't die, is because he switched duties with friend and ended up driving the fire truck. Lu later becomes involved with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show
Grant Show
Grant Alan Show is an American actor best known for his role on Melrose Place as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997.-Early life:...
), an administrator brought on after Rittenhouse is bought by a health care conglomerate, Octavian. Sanderson later left to be reassigned to a facility in Miami. He asked Lu to come with him but, after thinking about it, she refused because her patients are there.
Soon after, she became involved with Jonas Rey (Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Carbonell
Nestor Gastón Carbonell is an American actor, known for portraying Richard Alpert in ABC's drama Lost and Mayor Anthony Garcia in the film The Dark Knight...
), a local self-made millionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation. In the 2005–2006 season she and Jonas get married, and Lu struggles to get accustomed to a wealthier life, while trying to reconcile it with her inner-city loyalties. After Lu discovered she was pregnant with Jonas' baby, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
scandal at his company, bringing his fortune into doubt.
In the series finale, they decided to move to Jonas' childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu was injured and her placenta
Placenta
The placenta is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply. "True" placentas are a defining characteristic of eutherian or "placental" mammals, but are also found in some snakes and...
detached. She asked Jonas to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, the firemen arrived and called Dylan, who completed the C-Section, and Lu gave birth to their daughter, whom was named Milagro (which means "miracle" in Spanish).
Dr. Dylan West
(Rick SchroderRick Schroder
Richard Bartlett "Rick" Schroder, Jr. is an American actor and film director.He debuted in the 1979 hit film The Champ, going on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons...
) Replacing Dr. Campbell's role is Dr. Dylan West, a male women's health specialist. His gender raises initial eyebrows, especially with Delgado, who has also had past negative experiences with him as a resident. He has his own troubled past and seems to be seeking to redeem himself from something in his past. He is a diabetic, which becomes a recurring plot device. Dylan has tremendously bad luck in romance. One such former love interest arrives at Rittenhouse needing a new heart to survive; West is unable to save her life, but gains a teenaged half-Japanese daughter, Araya (Eileen Boylan
Eileen Boylan
Eileen April Boylan is an American film and television actress. She stands 5'1" and is of Filipino and Irish descent.- Biography :Boylan was born in Acton, California, the daughter of Merlie Baris and Frank Boylan...
), he never knew he had. His relationship with his daughter is troubled at first, but slowly they get to know each other.
Peter Riggs
(Josh Coxx) A registered nurse and midwife, Peter is generally progressive, open-minded, and an eager advice-giver. He practices BuddhismBuddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and believes in the principles of holistic medicine. He is often a kindred spirit to Delgado. Often, Riggs' character makes a balanced sociopolitical observation that influences a positive action by one of the two doctors; other times he is the protagonist of action. He was also the nurse union representative.
When he met Lu, he almost ran over her with his van. He played the Bass Guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
in a band until his girlfriend Simone (the lead singer) dumped him during a fire, and Lu gave him a job in her new free clinic.
Often shown as a ladies man with several girlfriends (ironically, his mother is convinced he's gay due to his vocation), he finally has settled into a relationship with Kayla, to whom he proposes in the series finale.
Lana Hawkins
(Jenifer LewisJenifer Lewis
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis is an American film and television actress and singer.-Early life:Lewis was born in Kinloch, Missouri, to a nurse's aid mother and a factory worker father. She attended college at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri...
) Hawkins serves as the front receptionist for the RWHC, or the Rittenhouse Women's Health Center. A former drug addict and streetwalker long since rehabilitated, she met Lu at the same bar Peter and his band were playing at. After a fire destroyed the bar and the owner rented the locale to Lu for her clinic, she gave Lana a job. She has two sons, Harry, an officer in the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and Maurice, a con artist who once pretended he had a wife and son to trick his mother out of money.
Hawkins is the hospital's eyes and ears, i.e. chief gossip
Gossip
Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others, It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts and views, but also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and variations into the information transmitted...
, as well as matchmaker, and general benevolent schemer and rule-bender. Lana often refers to herself in the third person. Lana went back to school, earned her high school diploma and went to college, earning a degree in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. Afterwards, Lu enlisted her to consult for her women's group, as volunteer work towards her Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
. She was maid of honor at Lu's wedding.
Kayla Thornton
(Tamera MowryTamera Mowry
Tamera Darvette Mowry-Housley is an American actress. She first gained fame for her teen role as Tamera Campbell on the ABC/WB sitcom Sister, Sister...
) A new doctor and young medical prodigy, Thornton is a fast study at Rittenhouse, entering residency in the beginning of the 2004–2005 season and becoming a depended-upon ER regular by the end of that season, despite occasional disbelief by patients that she is a qualified doctor. As she becomes a main character to the show, her personality can be compared to that of a young Dr. Delgado with her ambition and hard work. She decided to become a doctor as a young girl when a brother was shot in the chest by a friend when playing with a hunting rifle. While the friend ran for help, Kayla cradled her dying brother. The nearest doctor was 25 miles away, so therefore Kayla's brother died in her arms. She then decided to become a doctor.
Throughout the medical drama's seasons, Thornton rooms with various fellow staff members in her search for affordable housing. First she moves into Dr. Campbell's house, where she spends some of her time helping with Andy's two daughters. After Andy's departure, she rooms with Lana. She was later on selected as Chief Resident after narrowly missing it due to a complex emergency house call. We find out that she has a twin sister, Keisha (played by real-life twin sister Tia Mowry
Tia Mowry
Tia Dashon Mowry-Hardrict is an American actress. She first gained fame for her teen role as Tia Landry on the ABC/WB sitcom Sister, Sister...
) who ends up needing 24-hour care for a schizophrenic
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
mental disorder, because she felt that Kayla always had a perfect life and had a depression when they were younger.
Jonas Rey
(Nestor CarbonellNestor Carbonell
Nestor Gastón Carbonell is an American actor, known for portraying Richard Alpert in ABC's drama Lost and Mayor Anthony Garcia in the film The Dark Knight...
) A local self-made billionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation. He first appeared on Rittenhouse when his mother was brought to ER due an accident. While his mother was in the hospital, he saw Lu interacting with several of her patients. Even before he exchanged a single word with Lu, he told his mother he'll marry her.
He met and pursued Lu until she agreed to date him. They got married in the middle of the 2005–2006 season. After personally bringing sick South American children to Rittenhouse for treatment, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
scandal at his company, bringing his fortune and stability into doubt. After discovering that Lana had stock of his company, he decided to sell most of his assets and pay the shareholders back a part of their money. He and Lu moved to his childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu convinced him to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, Dylan arrives to deliver their daughter.
Dr. Dana Stowe
(Janine TurnerJanine Turner
Janine Turner is an American actress who starred on the prime time television show Northern Exposure from 1990 to 1995. From 2000 to 2002, she appeared on the Lifetime original series Strong Medicine...
), an ambitious doctor and scientist seeking a cure for breast cancer; she is rigid and stoic, but cares deeply about her patients. Like her successor Andy Campbell, she was good friends with Jackson. She had a short-lived relationship with resident doctor Nick Biancavilla, which she broke up when he wasn't willing to have children.
Her character left the show at the end of the 2001–2002 season after adopting two challenged children (an HIV-positive infant and her older sister), choosing to put her medical ambitions aside to pursue a successful motherhood.
Dr. Andy Campbell
(Patricia RichardsonPatricia Richardson
Patricia Castle Richardson is an American television and film actress best known for her portrayal of Jill Taylor on the sitcom Home Improvement.-Early life and education:...
) A former military doctor with the rank of Colonel, Campbell came on the staff during the third season to replace the much more ambitious and strict Dr. Dana Stowe. Her patients tend to be upper-middle-class, and often include minor local celebrities and professionals. Her character ostensibly lives the almost typical suburban nuclear family lifestyle, aside from her status as breadwinner. She has two teenage daughters, Jesse and Lizzie.
Campbell kicked out her husband, Leslie, after he hit her during a domestic dispute, forcing her to examine domestic abuse issues as well as single motherhood
Single parent
Single parent is a term that is mostly used to suggest that one parent has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver...
. Campbell and Leslie had been married for thirty years without any violence in the home, and Leslie is presented as changing from a loving husband to a violent maniac over the course of a single episode. She later becomes involved with another doctor, cardiac surgeon Dr. Milo Morton but he dies in a car accident (a development forced by the death of actor Richard Biggs
Richard Biggs
Richard T. "Dick" Biggs was an American television and stage actor, best known for his roles on the television series Days of our Lives and Babylon 5.-Life:...
due to an undiagnosed heart condition).
Campbell was named United States Surgeon General (which was also a stated ambition of her predecessor) at the end of the fifth season and left the show.
Dr. Robert "Bob" Jackson
(Philip CasnoffPhilip Casnoff
Philip Casnoff is a Golden Globe Award nominated, Theater World Award winning, American actor, known for his roles in TV series and on Broadway.- Theatre :...
) Chief of staff of Rittenhouse Hospital, he is the stoic, administrative figure and also ultimately in charge of decisions regarding funding, especially to the women's clinic. Jackson had once been a top surgeon but when a young girl died during surgery due to a mislabeled drug dosage, Jackson lost his nerve for the operating room and moved to administration. Jackson considers himself a personal friend of Dr. Campbell (as he was with Dr. Stowe), but generally is more impersonal and sometimes butts heads with Dr. Delgado over financial or liability issues, and with Lana over administrative issues. He was married with two daughters, Lauren and Paige. A recurring subplot throughout the series was Jackson dealing with his beloved wife Susan's advancing MS
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
condition. He even briefly left her, unable to watch her succumb to the illness, but eventually went back to her. Jackson's character was laid off by hospital owner Octavian prior to the start of the sixth season.
Dr. Nick Biancavilla
(Brennan ElliottBrennan Elliott
Brennan Elliott is a Canadian actor. One of his first screen appearances was in the music video to Tom Cochrane's 1991 song Life is a Highway.He is best known as Dr. Nick Biancavilla in Lifetime's Strong Medicine...
), an ER doctor at Rittenhouse who had a brief relationship with Dr. Stowe. He has four older sisters, one of them (Francine 'Frankie' Biancavilla) a lesbian whose girlfriend he married to get her the medical care she needed. It didn't work because Dr. Jackson found out, but he gave his sister a medical plan as "wedding gift" that covered existing illnesses. She promised she'd pay it herself once she got promoted. He left at the end of season 4 when he transferred to Manhattan General.
Marco Antonio "Marc" Delgado
(Chris Marquette), Lu's teenage son, whom she had when she was a teenager. He lived with his mother, but saw his father Bill (who was married with young twin girls) regularly. He once saved his great-grandmother Isabel Santana's life with a bone marrow transplantBone marrow transplant
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cell or blood, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells, or umbilical cord blood...
. He left for college in the middle of season 5, after graduating one year in advance but returned once for Lu's wedding, and walked her to the altar.
Season 1 (2000–2001)
| Episode Number |
Original Air Date |
Episode Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 23, 2000 | "Pilot" |
| 2 | July 23, 2000 | "Preexisting Conditions" |
| 3 | August 6, 2000 | "Misconceptions" |
| 4 | August 13, 2000 | "Second Look" |
| 5 | August 20, 2000 | "Performance Anxiety" |
| 6 | August 27, 2000 | "Drug Interactions" |
| 7 | September 3, 2000 | "Do No Harm" |
| 8 | September 10, 2000 | "Miracle Cure" |
| 9 | October 8, 2000 | "Dependency" |
| 10 | October 15, 2000 | "BRCA1" |
| 11 | October 15, 2000 | "BRCA2" |
| 12 | October 29, 2000 | "Brainchild" |
| 13 | December 3, 2000 | "Second Opinion" |
| 14 | December 10, 2000 | "Side Effects" |
| 15 | December 17, 2000 | "Blessed Events" |
| 16 | January 7, 2001 | "Fix" |
| 17 | January 14, 2001 | "Maternity" |
| 18 | January 21, 2001 | "Complications" |
| 19 | February 18, 2001 | "Childcare" |
| 20 | February 25, 2001 | "Drugstore Cowgirl" |
| 21 | March 4, 2001 | "Wednesday Night Fever" |
| 22 | March 11, 2001 | "Mortality" |
Season 2 (2001–2002)
| Episode Number |
Original Air Date |
Episode Title |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | July 15, 2001 | "Donors" |
| 24 | July 22, 2001 | "Adverse Reactions" |
| 25 | July 29, 2001 | "Gray Matter" |
| 26 | August 5, 2001 | "History" |
| 27 | August 12, 2001 | "Attachments" |
| 28 | August 19, 2001 | "Relief" |
| 29 | August 26, 2001 | "Impaired" |
| 30 | September 9, 2001 | "Rebirth" |
| 31 | September 16, 2001 | "Control Group" |
| 32 | October 7, 2001 | "Zol Zein Gezint" |
| 33 | October 14, 2001 | "Systemic" |
| 34 | October 21, 2001 | "Accidents" |
| 35 | November 11, 2001 | "Silent Epidemic" |
| 36 | November 18, 2001 | "Hot Flash" |
| 37 | December 2, 2001 | "Bloodwork" |
| 38 | December 9, 2001 | "Black 'n' Flu" |
| 39 | January 6, 2002 | "Precautions" |
| 40 | January 13, 2002 | "Shock" |
| 41 | January 20, 2002 | "Type & Cross" |
| 42 | February 17, 2002 | "Rape Kit" |
| 43 | February 24, 2002 | "Trauma" |
| 44 | March 3, 2002 | "Recovery Time" |
DVD release
Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentSony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
released Strong Medicine: The Complete First Season, a 5-disc set, on 10 January 2006. It is unknown if the remaining 5 seasons will be released at some point.