YOUNG DR. KILDARE
TCM, 12:30 p.m. ET
Richard Chamberlain, long before he became King of the Miniseries as the protagonist of such massively popular long-form TV dramas as Shogun and The Thorn Birds, shot to stardom as the dashing young heartthrob star of Dr. Kildare, which aired on TV from 1961-66. Yet many years before that – in fact, many decades before that – that same character and premise first appeared on film in the 1938 movie Young Dr. Kildare. Lew Ayres (pictured) stars in the title role, Lionel Barrymore plays the gruff but brilliant Dr. Gillespie, and Monty Woolley, today’s much less famous star of the day on TCM, has a supporting role as another of the hospital’s doctors.