Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is an American Western drama television series created and executive produced by Beth Sullivan and starring Jane Seymour, who plays Dr. Michaela Quinn, a physician who leaves Boston in search of adventure in the Old West and settles in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[1][2]
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
- Jane Seymour
- Joe Lando
- Chad Allen
- Erika Flores (1993–95)
- Jessica Bowman (1995–98)
- Shawn Toovey
- William Olvis (theme music and all but 4 episodes)
- David Bell (5 episodes)
United States
English
6
150 (+2 TV movies) (list of episodes)
43–48 minutes (without including commercials)
- The Sullivan Company
- CBS Productions
January 1, 1993 –
May 16, 1998
The television series ran on CBS for six seasons, from January 1, 1993, to May 16, 1998.[1] In total, 150 episodes were produced, plus two television movies that were made after the series was cancelled. Dr. Quinn aired in over 100 countries, including Italy, Denmark (where it was aired on TV2), the United Kingdom, Poland, Romania, France, Canada (where it was aired on CTV throughout its run), Australia (on Eleven), Indonesia, and Bulgaria, where it was first aired on BNT and later aired on NOVA television. Since 1996, reruns have been shown in syndication and on Freeform (formerly ABC Family and several other previous names), PAX (now Ion),[3] the Hallmark Channel, CBS Drama, Up, Hallmark Drama, Pluto TV, fetv and INSP.
The most prominent player of the large supporting cast was Joe Lando, who portrayed Byron Sully, Dr. Quinn's most frequently featured love interest.
Plot[edit]
The series begins in the year 1867 and centers on a proper and wealthy female physician from Boston, Massachusetts, Michaela Quinn (Jane Seymour), familiarly known as "Dr. Mike". She was born on February 15, 1833, in Boston and attended the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. After graduation, she worked with her M.D. father until his death when she sets out west to the small wild west town Colorado Springs, to set up her own practice. She makes the difficult adjustment to life in Colorado, with the aid of rugged outdoorsman and friend to the Cheyenne, Byron Sully (Joe Lando) and a midwife named Charlotte Cooper (played by Diane Ladd). After Charlotte is bitten by a rattlesnake, she asks Michaela on her deathbed to look after her three children: Matthew (Chad Allen), Colleen (Erika Flores, later Jessica Bowman), and Brian (Shawn Toovey). Dr. Mike settles in Colorado Springs and adapts to her new life as a mother, with the children, while finding true love with Sully. She acts as a one-woman mission to convince the townspeople a female doctor can successfully practice medicine.
Production[edit]
Production notes[edit]
The pilot episode was shot in early 1992 and aired in a two-hour television special on New Year's Day 1993. CBS aired a second, hour-long episode the next night in order to attract and maintain the audience's attention. The pilot served more as a made-for-television movie – or mini-series suggestion – which could either be developed later into a full series or remain as a stand-alone two-hour movie. CBS ordered the show picked up immediately for the full season. However, the show made some imperative casting changes. Several pilot leads and a few of the supporting cast were replaced. Henry Sanders was recast as Robert E. in place of Ivory Ocean as a less folksy hard-nosed working man; Orson Bean replaced Guy Boyd as a more fatherly, cynically-comical Loren Bray; and Colm Meaney was replaced by Jim Knobeloch, a much younger, attractive, and contemptuously stoic Jake Slicker. Likewise, Larry Sellers's character, a Cheyenne brave called Black Hawk (listed under the closing credits as such) who played an auxiliary role as one of Chief Black Kettle's aides and spoke only their language, was quietly retooled into Cloud Dancing, Sully's blood brother and a major recurring character, who, in addition to aiding Black Kettle, plays a large role in quelling the tribulations of the Cheyenne and other neighboring tribes. He also acquired the ability to speak English, allowing him to act as a liaison alongside Sully. His character's name was never spoken on-screen during his first appearance, which can cause viewers to inadvertently re-interpret this look-alike as Cloud Dancing's first appearance before his formal debut.
Filming[edit]
Dr. Quinn was largely filmed at the Western set on Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. Fans of the show were able to visit the sets, talk to the actors, and watch episodes being shot during its six-year run. Since Dr. Quinn ended, the ranch has been used numerous times for other filming projects. Numerous buildings, including the church, Sully's homestead, the school house, and the Spring Chateau Resort, were leveled soon after the series was canceled. However, the entire town still remained.[4] Despite minor changes over the years, it was still recognizable as the Dr. Quinn set, and was a popular tourist attraction for many fans until the entire set was destroyed in the Woolsey Fire in late 2018.[5]
Other areas used throughout the series were the back lot at Universal Studios in Hollywood, including the New England street as the location of the Quinn family home; and the New York streets, doubling as the streets of Boston and Washington. The setting of Boston in the final movie was filmed in Canada, using various locations in Old Montreal.
Music[edit]
William Olvis wrote the underscoring music for the series,[6] except for a few episodes in season one (where he either alternated with Star Trek spin-off series composer David Bell, or co-scored with Bell) and the Revolutions movie.
In the episode "For Better or Worse: Part 1", the folk song "I've Been Working on the Railroad" was played by the brass band; the song was not written until 1892.
Casting[edit]
Veteran actress Jane Seymour, labeled a mini-series "queen", was a last-minute casting choice for Michaela Quinn, having read the script only a day before production was set to begin on the pilot. She was instructed beforehand to review the script and make a decision of whether or not she felt the role was right for her, and, if so, that she truly wanted to commit to the strict contract Sullivan had demanded for the title character. The next day she began the wardrobe fittings for the series.
In a 2015 feature on National Public Radio, Seymour said that she signed her contract for the show (including both the TV-movie/pilot and a five-year series commitment) because she had just discovered that her then husband/business manager had lost all her money and gotten her $9 million in debt. She had told her agent that to avoid losing her house and to protect her two young children, she would do any TV project available, no matter what it was, and Dr. Quinn was the first one offered to her.
Other media[edit]
Novels[edit]
There were several books based on the series written by as follows. Some of them were also released abroad, including in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Poland.
The books by Dorothy Laudan were originally released in Germany and have never appeared in an English version. However, it was these books that were most commonly translated into other languages. The series of nine covers most of the series, although the episodes on which they are based were shortened and some scenes were left out or were mentioned only briefly.
Funny or Die parody with original cast[edit]
In 2014, Jane Seymour, Joe Lando, Orson Bean and numerous other members of the series cast played their original roles in a brief parody of the series for the Funny or Die comedy website titled Dr. Quinn Morphine Woman in which Dr. Quinn has the whole town hopelessly addicted to morphine. The parody remains readily available for viewing online by searching "Funny or Die Dr. Quinn Morphine Woman".