The 20 greatest TV medical dramas of all time

There’s a reason Grey’s Anatomy has been running for as long as it has. It got off to an incredible start, thanks to the work of Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, and company, and the Shonda Rhimes mega hit is an indelible part of the cultural fabric at this point. 

A medical drama needs quite a bit going for it to do well, with a good cast at the top of the list. And ER had just that. George Clooney, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, and Maura Tierney are just a few of the great cast members who helped the show win 23 Emmys during its run. 23. 

Another important part of a medical drama is a great premise beyond a doctor seeing patients. That’s what immediately set House apart, with the eponymous doctor being absolutely brilliant. Hugh Laurie’s performance was outstanding, too. 

Nurse Jackie could’ve gone on for 100 more seasons. Okay, that’s untrue. That character was a train wreck. But it made for good television. Edie Falco and Merritt Wever were fantastic separately and together on that series. 

Sometimes, you can tell from the very beginning that a TV show is an all-time great. Such is the case for The Pitt. Noah Wyle’s return to the fictional emergency room was welcome and terrific. HBO can do anything. 

The Pitt certainly isn’t HBO’s only good medical drama. Long before the station mastered the emergency room, Getting On delights viewers in the geriatric wing. Getting On is a comedic take on the medical drama format, but it’s good television nonetheless. 

The best medical dramas toe the line between emotional cases attended to at the hospital and gripping interpersonal relationships that grow outside of work. The Resident balanced those aspects perfectly, making it an all-time great medical drama. 

A really good medical drama can just keep going and going and going, and Chicago Med is proof. A TV series doesn’t gather a large, loyal fan base without doing something right. 

The medical dramas of the ‘90s were something special. While ER was gobbling up most of the Emmys, Chicago Hope was giving it a run for its money. Perhaps the secret to a good medical drama is being set in Chicago. 

Call the Midwife successfully combines medical and period drama with the joy of having a baby. It also shows the sometimes tragic side of birth, but it does so in a gentle, loving way that makes it impossible for viewers to want to stop watching.

For many, New Amsterdam was gone too soon. A true medical drama that had viewers just as invested in the doctors’ personal lives as their happenings while in scrubs. And, oftentimes, those two parts of the show mixed. 

Shonda Rhimes knows TV drama. After the success of Grey’s Anatomy, she took Kate Walsh and put her in the spin-off Private Practice. It’s rare for a spin-off to be so successful, but there’s no one more equipped for the task than Rhimes. 

Nip/Tuck might get the award for the sexiest medical drama in TV history. One of Ryan Murphy’s earliest projects, Nip/Tuck stood out among the other medical dramas of its time, securing quite the run and keeping audiences engaged the entire time. 

Audiences love it when doctors are really, really good at their jobs. The Good Doctor is a great example. Freddie Highmore did an excellent job of bringing a Savant surgeon to life. Fans were sad to see this series go. 

Scrubs is first and foremost a sitcom, but the writing was so good that it also fit the bill for medical drama. Zach Braff and Donald Faison were excellent together, and their supporting cast made the series shine. 

It was very, very smart for Diagnosis Murder creator Joyce Burditt to combine a medical drama with a murder mystery. It proved to be a gripping format, and it’s one that would be successful if done well again. 

Many of today’s finest actors have been on a medical drama. Some might even say there’s a pipeline from medical drama star to Oscar winner. Emerald Fennell and George Clooney are proof, as is Denzel Washington, originally of St. Elsewhere fame. 

Long before Scrubs was doubling as a sitcom and a medical drama, MASH was doing it, and it was pulling in millions and millions of viewers each week. It’s not easy to make people laugh while also showing the harrowing medical realities of war, but MASH proved it’s possible. 

Don’t automatically assume that a short-lived TV series wasn’t good. Freaks and Geeks and Arrested Development are just two great examples that that’s untrue, as is The Knick, an Emmy-winning period medical drama that was just superb. 

Grey’s Anatomy is the longest-running primetime medical drama in TV history, but General Hospital is the longest-running daytime medical drama in TV history, and it’s been airing since 1963. In many ways, General Hospital is the blueprint.