Strong Medicine

• Director: Guy Green
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Release Year: 1986
• Country: UK/US
• Run Time: 160 minutes

Plot

This two-part, four-hour TV miniseries was adapted from the same-named 1984 novel by Arthur Hailey. Pamela Sue Martin headed the huge cast as Celia Gray, a young woman who rose from humble drug store clerk to become the head of a major pharmaceutical manufacturing firm during the 1950s and 1960s. Along the way, of course, Celia met with formidable opposition from the all-male medical establishment, and consequently, her private life was often a mess. Also on hand were two other TV stalwarts, Patrick Duffy as Dr. Andrew Jordan and Dick Van Dyke as Sam Hawthorne. Presented as part of the syndicated Operation Prime Time dramatic anthology (one of many pre-Fox efforts spearheaded by a consortium of independent TV stations to establish a "fourth network"), Strong Medicine was first made available on April 21, 1986, though most local markets did not run the property until May. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Ben Cross - Martin; Patrick Duffy - Andrew; Gayle Hunnicutt - Lillian Hawthorne; Pamela Sue Martin - Celia; Sam Neill - Vince; Annette O'Toole - Jessica; Alan Oppenheimer - Dr. Noah Townsend; Kristoffer Tabori - Michael Stein; Dick Van Dyke - Sam; Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - Eli Camperdown

Credit

Tim Hutchinson - Art Director, Phyllis Dalton - Costume Designer, Guy Green - Director, Bill Blunden - Editor, Keith Palmer - Editor, Frank Konigsberg - Executive Producer, Larry Sanitsky - Executive Producer, Stanley Myers - Composer (Music Score), Allan Cameron - Production Designer, Chic Anstiss - Cinematographer, Kelvin Pike - Cinematographer, Dickie Bamber - Producer, Rita Lakin - Screenwriter, Lisa McKenzie - Screenwriter, Arthur Hailey - Book Author