Prime Time Chiropractic

by William D. Esteb

The medical model of health has permeated our culture to such a degree, most doctors of chiropractic fight an uphill battle to get patients to understand how chiropractic differs from medicine. Some doctors have given up and don't even try anymore. Good communication skills are necessary and it takes time and energy to conduct this effort patient by patient. A new patient orientation lecture and report of findings are likely to be insufficient to do the complete job. An entire lifetime steeped in the medical approach isn't replaced in a couple of chiropractic visits, even with excellent clinical results.

Just inspect TV Guide during prime time television for the last 30 years! Look what's inside the hidden recesses of the cerebral cortex of your next 43-old low back patient. Imagine how strange chiropractic philosophy must appear to patients who have been trained so well by television.

Although a few medical doctor shows appeared in the 1950's, Ben Casey started airing in 1961 and in its five year run, set the stage for medical drama. Played by Vince Edwards, his good looks and medical expertise thrilled an entire generation of patients. How many of your patients, who as teenagers, had crushes on this attractive man who seemed to have an answer for everything?

Also airing in 1961 was Dr. Kildare, set at Blair General Hospital. Richard Chamberlain played the title role for six years. Again, the casting and storyline put medicine into a glamourous light, replacing westerns and providing a new source of heroes for a growing baby boom generation. Difficult health problems, often the result of a lifetime of neglect, were wrapped up neatly with a bow in an hour. No wonder every mother's dream was to have her son grow up to become a doctor. A real doctor.

Happy endings were the trademark of another popular doctor show that premiered in the fall of 1969. Robert Young began starring in the lead role of Marcus Welby, M.D. It became one of television's most successful medical dramas, running for seven seasons on ABC. This gentle father figure was so attractive to viewers and the apparent line between reality and mythology so vague, Young received thousands of letters each month requesting medical advice!

Before Marcus Welby left the air, the irreverent M*A*S*H began airing. A black-comedy, based on the movie and successful book, this popular show always featured at least one operating room sequence. With few exceptions, these doctors were able to find the problem, correct it, and send the patient back to the states or back to the front line. While many of the themes in this successfully syndicated program poked fun at the military, the horrors of war, or explored the personality flaws of those under stress, the "doctor in charge" attitude permeated every show. And while it was entertaining to watch the doctors' unusual or humorous antics, somehow the patient pulled through or there was a warm feeling created by the all knowing doctor righting a wrong or solving a difficult problem.

This same "medical doctor in control" image was exhibited in the Six Million Dollar Man, a story about a human with manmade parts. Here, the medical model saw its finest hour, subverting the minds of millions of viewers so that they believed medical intervention not only could repair the body, but also could somehow improve human function! Sound effects and dramatic slow motion sequences emphasized these inhuman qualities. Ultimately every Ken doll needs a Barbie and the Bionic Woman joined the medical marvel to solve crime and do things the rest of us couldn't do. Every week the opening sequence of this popular prime time entertainment taught us that medicine could make us more complete.

More recently, St. Elsewhere, Quincy, China Beach, and Doogie Houser, M.D. and others have used the medical setting to do everything from solve crimes to provide an entertaining vehicle to explore relationships. Add to these, the countless emergency medicine "911" shows and the sappy daytime soap operas, and you have hours of television programming that directly sanction and endorse the medical model of health.

And it's not just the medical setting. Because of the time restraints of television and the desire to leave viewers with every loose end accounted for, even the most tragic health care problems find painless resolution. In 22 minutes plus commercials, everything from cancer to drug addiction has a happy ending. It's clean, controlled, and sterile. Medicine seems to have the answer for any human shortcoming. Apparently health solutions come from the test tube, the hypodermic, good timing, finding a caring doctor, or the surgeon's hands. Not from the patient's own innate healing ability.

That's just the programming. The real soap operas are the ones lasting thirty seconds, promising relief from headaches, backaches, and every other ailment even remotely socially acceptable to discuss in a prime-time setting. The mind-numbing frequency that ads for these analgesics are seen by your patients is enough to give them the conditions they are designed to treat! (Funny, the same chiropractic doctors who complain the loudest about this medical clutter in prime time are often the same ones who allow magazines in their reception room to advertise the very same products!)

So how about a prime time chiropractic television show?

Ignore for a moment the medical advertisers that would prevent a show devoted to chiropractic from ever seeing the light of the phosphorous screen. What would a dramatic one-hour TV show look like that endorsed the chiropractic philosophy?

Fade up on a rain-slicked city street at night. Over dramatic theme music, super title: "Doctor, Doctor" to which is added: "The Silent Killer." Zoom into chiropractic office late at night. Music continues as we see the doctor working late, dictating a report at his desk. Music fades under as the doctor gets up from his desk and continues his dictation as he walks to the X-ray view box. Lighting from the X-ray view box gives the rugged lines and chiseled features of the doctor's face a wise, but approachable demeanor.

Cut to family in station wagon coming home from shopping. Headlights cut into the camera lens and we hear the sounds of laughing children. Cut to drunk driver weaving down the road in same direction. Cut back and forth between both drivers and approaching stop sign. Music builds tension as the station wagon pulls up to the stop sign and the mother is unaware of the drunk driver bearing down upon her from the rear. Cut to fast cuts of slow motion footage of the cars colliding as we see the driver and children suffer serious whiplash injuries.

Cut to busy chiropractic reception room the next morning. The telephone rings and it is answered by the receptionist, "Smith Relief and Wellness Clinic, this is Nancy, may I help you?"

See where this plot line is going? The mother and children survived the automobile accident but are going to need a generous amount of Initial Intensive Care and the real drama is whether they have uninsured motorist coverage and how large their deductible is! The subplot involves a skeptical husband who was in an accident and the pain went away on its own after a couple of days. No high technology solutions. No untested miracle drugs. Just 20 or 30 visits that last about five minutes and look amazingly the same from visit to visit. Where's the compelling life or death drama? Since chiropractic patients are reminded that they are doing the healing, not the doctor, the team of surgeons struggling to subdue the evil forces of disease are absent.

Maybe a half-hour sitcom would be a better format instead.

Fade up on busy reception room as exam doctor pops his head into the doctor's private office as he is completing a narrative. "Hey Bob, Mrs. Johnson's X-rays are in the processor and she's ready in adjusting room two. Oh, by the way, did I tell you the one about the lawyers and the tooth fairy?" Cut to disinterested doctor folding patient file and getting up to take down a set of X-rays from view box. Cut to wide shot of both doctors as exam doctor continues with his joke. "Well, there's these three guys sitting around a table, an expensive lawyer, an inexpensive lawyer, and the tooth fairy." Cut to doctor's "oh-no-here-we-go-again" reaction shot. Exam doctor continues. "On the table is fifty bucks. Suddenly, the lights go out for just a few seconds. When they come back on, the fifty dollars is missing." The doctor has taken down all the X-rays, put them in the file, and is leaving the room to the front desk. The exam doctor tags along behind the doctor and continues with his joke. "The question is, who took the fifty bucks?" "I don't know, who took the 50 dollars," says the doctor disinterestedly as he turns to the receptionist, "How many do we have scheduled this afternoon Nancy?" The exam doctor explodes with the punch line, "The expensive lawyer of course, because we all know there's no such thing as the tooth fairy or an inexpensive lawyer." Laugh track is heard as we see several patients react as they look up from reading their magazines. Theme music up as show title supers over live action.

Or how about a chiropractic based game show?
Naw.

Somehow the intuitive, non-linear aspects of chiropractic don't translate easily into the format we're accustomed to seeing on television. Showing a cervical chiropractic adjustment on television is more difficult to understand and appreciate than drugs, surgery, or even physical therapy. In fact, demonstrating an adjustment is often counter-productive because it looks more traumatic to the viewer than it is to the patient. The 10% or so of the population familiar with the procedure would understand, yet that's hardly enough viewership to build a television audience.

Instead, we have amateurs creating chiropractic television commercials. These 30-second attempts at new patient solicitation help form the image of chiropractic for millions of people. Juxtaposed among the high-budget McDonald's commercials and other national spots, chiropractic advertising often projects a sleazy, low-bid unprofessional image. And it's too bad. Because it won't be until chiropractic can effectively penetrate and exploit the media of television or film that it will be able to assume its rightful place in the healing arts.

Buy the book
My Report of Findings
Originally published in 1993
240 Pages
US $24.95

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