In a rebuttal to a tongue-in-cheek analysis in the "Canadian Medical Association Journal" ("CMAJ") which claimed that Dr. Nick from "The Simpsons" was a better role model than his competitor Dr. Hibbert, both which were published on the same journal in 1998, both doctors are cast aside for Dr. McCoy, "TV's only true physician" and "someone who has broken free from the yoke of ethics and practises the art and science of medicine beyond the stultifying opposition of paternalism and autonomy. A free and independent thinker and, indeed, someone even beyond role models".