The Eleventh Hour

"The Eleventh Hour" is now a period piece. Like its parent series, "Dr. Kildare", physicians were presented as caring professionals, not dysfunctional antiheroes as on "House M.D." and "Heartbeat". The lead, Dr. Theodore Bassett (Wendell Corey) establishes his character the first time we see him in the pilot episode. He steps out of the elevator into the psychiatric ward where he bumps into a panicked mental patient. The sight of Bassett's stern face brings the patient out of his panic; Bassett looks at him compassionately and mutters, "Poor damned soul."

That mix of pragmatic understanding and mercy is what Bassett brings to the cases who are referred to him. The original concept, as presented in the pilot, was for Bassett to be a forensic psychiatrist. It seems that idea couldn't be sustained and Bassett's practice was widened to the then-emerging field of psychiatric therapy.

Also like "Dr. Kildare", Bassett is mentoring a younger psychologist, Paul Graham (Jack Ging). In the few episodes viewed on Warner Archive streaming video, Graham appears to serve little purpose than be a sounding board for his mentor.