Docteur Simon Locke

One of the lesser remembered or liked syndicated shows of the early 1970's.

I recall this show in it's guise as 'Police Surgeon', on American TV. Fairly typical 'The Doctor as Detective' plot line, with no major surprises. Different, as it was set in Canada, and not some big US city.

I read that Jack Albertson wanted out of this program as soon as he could be released. He complained about the cheapness of the show. Several 'History of TV' books just rake this show over the coals, as plain B-A-D!

Sam Groom has gone on to better things, and appears in a few 'Law and Order' episodes.

The first season came on in the afternoons in England and if you had just got in from an awful day at school it offered some sort of cosy sanctuary to be transported to a remote quiet town in Canada. Too young to have noticed production values you just accepted the images as they came. The pace was slow if I remember correctly but just right for a darkening winter's afternoon, and the caring, concerned, doctors Sam and 'wise old sage' Jack Albertson's characters represented were recognizable from real life of that time, but perhaps not today...Then the second season came and it had moved to the big city and called "Police Surgeon" it was now on steriods with flash,bang wallop titles and Dr. Locke was now some sort of 'Mannix' in a white coat, totally lost me as it was also now on late at night.

I watched this show in England in the seventies, and actually preferred it to many of the other American series of the period that were treated much less harshly by the critics. It was formulaic, so I was puzzled why I felt that way. Eventually I decided it was because it was only 30 -minute episodes. Most of the hour-format series seemed to take 30- minute plots and stretch them to approach an hour, so that copious commercial breaks wouldn't hurt. Taking an exactly similar plot and pacing it for 30 minutes (showing in England, without the monstrous commercial breaks) was better.

"Dr. Simon Locke" and the ensuing "Police Surgeon" were both admittedly made-on-the-cheap, Canadian television series! With a writing/directing/production team that comprised (in part) veterans of such series as "The Fugitive" and "Mannix" (Wilton Schiller, Chester Krumholz, John Meredyth Lucas, et al), and guest stars that were among the most popular American episodic television actors at the time, both incarnations of the series hardly lacked for talent, yet, apparently the miniscule budget showed the most in the inferior production values! The late, great Jack Albertson starred in the first season of the later-retooled series---and he allegedly left after balking over the insanely primitive working conditions, once even claiming that there were no dressing rooms, and that actors were left with the only option of changing clothes "in the bushes"! If true, there's cheap, and then there's CHEAP! Which is sad, because there was a lot of legitimate talent attached to the series! Perhaps if the production "purse strings" were a little more charitably open, the series could've had a longer run, and been more memorable for the right reasons!

Sam Groom carried this show all by himself. He was the kind of doctor we all wish we could find today -- kind, caring, benevolent, and respectful of your wallet. In other words, this show was Science Fiction -- OK I am kidding of course -- except for Sam Groom. He was cool. The last thing I ever remember him doing was commercials for AMC, plugging "The Tough Americans" in response to the Japanese automobile onslaught of the late seventies. Five-year-no-rust-through warranty. Oh -- he also did commercials for Quaker State motor oil -- "Bret Bodine finishes first" in North Wilkesboro -- I am dating myself seriously. Unfortunately, the "tough Americans" didn't play with the Howdy Doody generation. AMC is gone. But Sam Groom is still around somewhere. I wonder what he's doing these days. Sam, if you are out there, CHEERS.