The best medical TV shows of all time

15. 'Chicago Med' (NBC, 2015- ): Many of the shows on this list aren't just some of the best medical dramas, but some of the best TV shows of all time. "Med" doesn't make the latter list, but when it comes to a reliably dramatic, lightly humorous and addictive medical procedural, the series, produced by Dick Wolf, delivers week in and week out. S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin and Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles, pictured.

14. 'Diagnosis: Murder' (CBS, 1993-2001): A delightful and adorable merge of the detective and medical genres, the long-running series was anchored by a mustachioed Dick Van Dyke (pictured in 2013) as Dr. Mark Sloan, a former Army physician who consults with the local police department on murder cases.

13. 'Northern Exposure' (CBS, 1990-95): You've got the biggest snob of a doctor, Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), and the most remote small town you can find (Cicely, Alaska), leading to the biggest cultural clash. But the series wasn't just about small-town jokes; it was a show about how we make our communities, all wrapped up in a warm fur parka. Barry Corbin and Morrow, pictured.

12. 'Getting On' (HBO, 2013-15): If you're going to make a show about aging, caregiving and death, a very good place to start is enlisting actresses like Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein, Niecy Nash and Mel Rodriguez, as this underrated HBO black comedy wisely did.

11. 'The Knick' (Cinemax, 2014-15): The hospital can be a place of abject horror, and no one understands that better than director Steven Soderbergh, who directed, shot and edited "The Knick." Andre Holland, Michael Angarano, Clive Owen, Louis Butelli, Eve Hewson and Eric Johnson in a scene from "The Knick."

10. 'This Is Going to Hurt' (AMC, 2022): Stuck in a crumbling, underfunded and under-appreciated system, OB-GYN Adam (Ben Whishaw) tries to keep the babies he delivers and their mothers alive.

9. 'House' (Fox, 2004-12): What if Sherlock Holmes was a doctor? It all seemed easy with Hugh Laurie as the prickly and enigmatic Dr. Gregory House, a diagnostic physician specializing in discovering which weird malady plagued the patient of the week. Jesse Spencer as Dr. Chase and Hugh Laurie as Dr. House treating a patient (John Cho), pictured.

8. 'Call the Midwife' (PBS, 2012- ): Set in an impoverished part of the city in the complex post-World War II era, "Midwife" explores topics besides healthcare, labor and delivery, becoming a social history of its time and place. Megan Cusack, Helen George and and Linda Bassett play nurse midwives delivering babies across London.

7. 'Nurse Jackie' (Showtime, 2009-15): A showcase for the always-impeccable Edie Falco, "Jackie" was a medical show with a hard edge. In "The Sopranos," Falco's onscreen husband Tony (James Gandolfini) was an antihero at the center of the story, but her pill-popping Jackie was as complex and flawed as any of the other 2000s boys of that trend.

6. 'St. Elsewhere' (NBC, 1982-88): Fast paced, unafraid to be sad, comedic and weird all in the same episode, "St. Elsewhere" starred Ed Begley, Jr (seen in 2024) and set the groundwork for decades of medical shows to follow.

5. 'The Pitt' (Max, 2025- ): The first post-pandemic medical drama to really understand the effects of COVID-19 and our current political era on healthcare workers, "Pitt" is about the way we live and care in the here and now, without sugarcoating the burned-out and strapped state of our healthcare system. Starring Noah Wyle, we'd expect nothing less than the smart, heart-stopping action and emotion "The Pitt" brings.

4. 'Scrubs' (NBC, 2001-08; ABC, 2009-10): Starring the irresistibly twee threesome of Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke (not pictured) as young doctors who grow up over the course of the series' long run, "Scrubs" was funny all the time and heartbreaking when it needed to be.

3. 'Grey's Anatomy' ABC (2005– ): What makes "Grey's" work is its unabashed soap-opera tropes and themes, and never trying to be snobbier than it is feeling. Early stars T.R. Knight, Patrick Dempsey, F.J. Rio and Ellen Pompeo, pictured.

2. 'M*A*S*H' CBS (1972–83): The way the series, starring Alan Alda and Mike Farrell, blended all these disparate elements into something not just coherent but transcendent was a stunning achievement.