Breaking Point

Psychiatry has always been an iffy sell on television. It's tough to build in the life-and-death drama of medical series - unless, of course, the patient is absolutely bananas, with violent tendencies. "Breaking Point," a spin-off of the hugely popular "Ben Casey," lasted only one season. It's on-the-couch contemporary, NBC's "The Eleventh Hour," didn't do much better, running from 1962-'64.

But "Breaking Point" managed to combine good writing with topical subject matter to be a memorable series, however short-lived. Issues like race, the family unit and the modern malaise were nudged at in what was then a unique approach to television drama. And Paul Richards and Eduard Franz were first-rate, insightful actors. Topping it all off was some really quirky casting: In one episode, veteran bad-guy Henry Silva played a priest! Reading through the episode titles here at IMDb makes me wish I'd seen more of them. Have you ever read more clever, poetic TV titles?