Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.  The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, it’s not just the patients who need to be stitched up.

Episode 4.6 “Lost and Found In Space”

(Dir by Robert Becker, originally aired on November 13th, 1985)

Bobby Caldwell lives!

Things were looking pretty bad for Bobby last week.  As you may remember, he picked up a waitress, took her to his Cape Cod home, and then ended up getting slashed across the face when she pulled a razor blade out from under her tongue.  This week, Bobby is wandering around the hospital with a huge bandage on his face and telling everyone that he had an “accident.”  It’s only to Dr. Turner that he confesses that he was attacked by the waitress.  Bobby claims that he responded by punching her and that he then called the police.

Bobby spends this episode in a truly foul mood.  Not only does he have a bandage on his face but he’s also been told that the Hospital Review Board doesn’t feel that he’s performing enough surgeries for the residents to really get the training that they need.  (“We’re a teaching hospital,” Dr. Craig explains.)  Bobby pressures an old man into getting a face lift that he really doesn’t need.  Even Victor thinks that the surgery is unethical.  I mean, when you’ve lost Victor Ehrlich….

Meanwhile, Dr. Westphall is finally released from the hospital after fainting due to the Malaria that he brought back from working abroad.  Westphall is depressed about the whole thing.  Westphall is always depressed.  Even when his daughter comes home to help out, Westphall is depressed to see her.  Cheer up, Westphall!

After weeks of trying to lose weight, Elliot discovers that he’s actually gained three pounds.  What’s worse is that his girlfriend, Marcy (Jeannie Elias), lost weight at the same time that Elliot was gaining weight and, when she sees that he’s just as heavy as ever, she dumps him.

Amongst the patients, Pru Dowler (Amanda Wyss) and Buddy Askew (Mark Baker) are two developmentally challenged teenagers who end up “procreating” (as Luther puts it) in Pru’s hospital room.  Dr. Craig takes it upon himself to discuss what happened when Pru and it’s just as awkward as you might expect.

Col. Chuck Cochrane (David Ackroyd) is an astronaut who collapses while giving a speech.  In the hospital, he has nightmares about being trapped in space.  The whole storyline brought to mind The Ninth Configuration, a film that perhaps not coincidentally starred the future Donald Westphall himself, Ed Flanders.

The highlight of this episode was undoubtedly William Daniels’s performance as Dr. Craig.  With Dr. Westphall recovering his illness, the day-to-day tasks of running the hospital fell on Dr. Craig and he was not at all happy about it.  On this show, William Daniels is always at his best when Dr. Craig is in a bad mood.  Before going on rounds, Dr. Craig predicted that Dr. Morrison would show up late and have some overly complicated excuse.  Morrison did just that and it was hard not to smile at Craig’s exasperation.  At the same time, it is made clear that the main reason that Craig is upset is because his granddaughter has been taken away from him.  It was hard not to feel bad for him, even when he was biting everyone’s heads off.

This was not a happy episode.  No one in the hospital seems to be doing well.  Bobby is bitter.  Dr. Craig is angry.  Elliott is feeling defeated.  And Westphall …. well, he’s just Westphall.  Fortunately, the strong cast and the smart writing made up for the fact that St. Eligius isn’t a happy place right now.

Seriously, I could watch William Daniels yell at people all day.