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 episode proves that Dr. Cavanero is the worst.

Episode 3.10 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”

(Dir by Bruce Paltrow, originally aired on November 28th, 1984)

The struggle is real.

Seriously, I am thankful that someone uploaded St. Elsewhere to Daily Motion.  With the show no longer on Hulu and Prime only having the first season available, Daily Motion is pretty much the only place where I can stream the show.  That said, the sound quality is not great.  The sound quality wasn’t particularly good when the show was on Hulu either but at least then I could turn on the captions.  The Daily Motion uploads don’t have that option.  I had to strain to hear the dialogue and, as a result, this review is not going to be as in-depth as it could be.

What I can tell you is that Dr. Cavanero is now one of the least sympathetic characters that I have ever seen on a television show.  Last week, Dr. Christine Holz (Caroline McWilliams) told Cavanero that she was a lesbian.  This week, Cavanero blabbed that information around the hospital, leading to a lot of homophobic comments from certain members of the stuff.  (Not surprisingly, Victor Ehrlich was there to say something stupid.)  Cavenero admitted to Christine that she found Christine’s lifestyle to be “unnatural.”  Christine smiled sadly and left Cavanero’s apartment and left the show.  Keep in mind, Dr. Holz was portrayed as being a brilliant surgeon and bone marrow expert.  It probably would have been good to keep her around the hospital for a little while but nope.  Sorry.  Dr. Cavanero — who really hasn’t done anything of note since the first season — felt uncomfortable.

(Originally, Christine and Cavanero were supposed to have a romantic relationship but Cynthia Sikes, the actress playing Cavavero, objected to the storyline.  As a result, the story was rewritten and perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Cavanero comes across as being a bit of a homophobe.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Chandler was concerned when he discovered that a neighborhood woman (Beah Richards) was practicing medicine out of her apartment.  This storyline at least gave Denzel Washington more to do than usual, which was good.  St. Elsewhere, at least so far, has often tended to underuse both Chandler as a character and Washington as an actor.

Jack’s friend (John Schuck) insisted on doing an experimental kidney procedure to try to save the life of his daughter (Brandy Gold) and Dr. Auschlander finally gave his approval for it to be done.  I would say that was a good thing except for the fact that Jack’s storylines hardly ever have a happy ending.  There’s a reason why Morrison is the most depressed resident in the hospital.

Nurse Rosenthal continued her affair with Richard Clarendon, even though Richard’s wife (Beverly Sanders) is now working at the hospital.  Wow, that’s going to be awkward.  In fact, I hope it’s really awkward.  I’m tired of Nurse Rosenthal and her holier-than-thou attitude.

Dr. Craig testified at a city council hearing.  The poor sound quality kept me from fully understanding what the hearing was about but at Dr. Craig told everyone off.  It’s always fun to watch William Daniels tell people off.

Here’s hoping the sound will be a bit less muddy next week!