Walter Dishell
Encyclopedia
Walter Dishell, M.D. is a plastic surgeon who served as a medical consultant on several long-running TV shows, including Medical Center
, M*A*S*H, Trapper John, M.D.
, and Knots Landing
.
Dishell's surgical specialty includes cosmetic surgery of the eye
s and nose
.
Dishell first began using his medical background in entertainment when, soon after he completed his residency in plastic surgery at UCLA, CBS asked him to be a medical adviser for the show Medical Center in the 1960s. Like many other similar shows, Medical Center focused on physician-patient relationships instead of the actual medicine itself. Dishell said that "the disease itself didn't matter... [CBS] would give me a dramatic story and then I would build the medicine around it.”
One challenge Dishell faced as a medical consultant for M*A*S*H was always making sure that the medicine Alan Alda and his fellow actors and actresses practiced was not too advanced. Dishell consulted medical textbooks from the 1950s and professional publications like the Journal of War Surgery to ensure the show’s historical accuracy.
Dishell was also the medical reporter for NBC News from 1983–1985, and frequently appeared on ABC's A.M. Los Angeles as a medical consultant. In 1986, he established the Aesthetic Surgery Associates of Encino, California.
Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...
, M*A*S*H, Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....
, and Knots Landing
Knots Landing
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...
.
Dishell's surgical specialty includes cosmetic surgery of the eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
s and nose
Human nose
The visible part of the human nose is the protruding part of the face that bears the nostrils. The shape of the nose is determined by the ethmoid bone and the nasal septum, which consists mostly of cartilage and which separates the nostrils...
.
Dishell first began using his medical background in entertainment when, soon after he completed his residency in plastic surgery at UCLA, CBS asked him to be a medical adviser for the show Medical Center in the 1960s. Like many other similar shows, Medical Center focused on physician-patient relationships instead of the actual medicine itself. Dishell said that "the disease itself didn't matter... [CBS] would give me a dramatic story and then I would build the medicine around it.”
One challenge Dishell faced as a medical consultant for M*A*S*H was always making sure that the medicine Alan Alda and his fellow actors and actresses practiced was not too advanced. Dishell consulted medical textbooks from the 1950s and professional publications like the Journal of War Surgery to ensure the show’s historical accuracy.
Dishell was also the medical reporter for NBC News from 1983–1985, and frequently appeared on ABC's A.M. Los Angeles as a medical consultant. In 1986, he established the Aesthetic Surgery Associates of Encino, California.