Author Leo Rosten based the character of Captain Josiah Newman on his friend, Captain Ralph Greenson, a U.S. Army psychiatrist who worked with traumatized airmen during World War II, and was one of the first to identify the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following combat.
The TV pilot, Captain Newman, M.D. (1972), starred Jim Hutton and Joan Van Ark. It aired in August 1972 by ABC but was not picked up as a series.
Ralph Greenson, the real life psychiatrist on whom Captain Newman was based, was Marilyn Monroe's psychotherapist after the war.
Eddie Albert actually served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was recognized with a Bronze Star for heroism at the Battle of Tarawa.