History of the National Health Service Emergency Ward 10 was first broadcast in 1957 on ITV and ran until 1967 and followed the life and loves of the staff and patients of the fictionalised Oxbridge General. ITV later followed this up with General Hospital which borrowed much from Emergency Ward 10 in terms of its themes and focus. The idea of a medical hospital as a suitable and popular setting for a soap opera continued to take root in the 1980s. Casualty, set in an A&E department, was first broadcast in 1986 and has since become the longest running medical drama in the world. At a
The Doctors (1963 TV series) The Doctors (1963 TV series) The Doctors is an American daytime soap opera television series which aired on NBC from April 1, 1963, to December 31, 1982. There were 5155 episodes produced, with the 5000th episode airing in May 1982. The series was set in Hope Memorial Hospital in a fictional town called "Madison." "The Doctors" debuted as an anthology series rather than a conventional soap opera, a very ambitious concept for that time. Stories were originally self-contained within one episode and featured various medical emergencies. Because of the obvious burdens and expense of casting for separate stories each day