Dr. Simon Locke
Dr. Simon Locke is a Canadian medical drama that was syndicated to television stations in the United States from 1971 to 1974 through the sponsorship of Colgate-Palmolive. After the first season, the show was renamed Police Surgeon.
Plot
The series was initially a medical drama that originated from the fictional rural town of Dixon Mills, where a young physician, Dr. Simon Locke, yearning for more than the big-city medical environment, arrives in town to assist veteran physician Dr. Andrew Sellers, with some pushback and resistance from the local citizens to the new doctor. The plot lines were more fitting for a big city medical drama, including a typhoid epidemic, child abuse, and even a murder. The series co-starred Len Birman as Sheriff Dan Palmer and Nuala Fitzgerald as Nurse Louise Wynn.In 1972, Albertson left the show, and the series was renamed Police Surgeon, where Dr. Locke moved back to the city and worked for the police department's emergency unit, where he assists the cops in solving crimes that require medical research. The reworked series initially featured Len Birman returning in his role, now as Lieutenant Dan Palmer, but in the third season Larry D. Mann stepped into the role as Locke's superior, as Lieutenant Jack Gordon. Nerene Virgin played Ellie the Dispatcher in over thirty episodes of the reworked series, best known for her "3-M-D-9" radio call. The series also featured guest stars such as William Shatner, Leslie Nielsen, Donald Pleasence, Michael Ansara, Martin Sheen, and Keenan Wynn. Additionally, a then-unknown John Candy made his 1974 TV debut in episodes "Target: Ms. Blue" and "Web of Guilt".
Syndication/current airings
While this series appeared on some stations in Canada in syndication, CTV, which co-produced this series under network president Murray Chercover, did not offer this series to its affiliates until 1972, when the show became Police Surgeon.In December 2014, it was announced that the Retro Television Network would begin broadcasting reruns of Police Surgeon.
As of December 2023, the series was dropped from their schedule.
https://www.tvpassport.com/tv-listings/stations/retro-tv-network/14646/2023-12-30
Filming locations
Most of the filming of the original Season One episodes set in the fictional town of "Dixon Mills" took place in the village of Kleinburg, and surrounding Nashville and Vaughan areas of Ontario, often along more rural countryside roads. A number of episodes featured scenes filmed along Kirby Road and at the bowstring arch bridge by the Humber River in the Nashville Conservation Reserve. One episode "Crash" was filmed along present day Rutherford Road near Pine Valley Drive, another, "Two Points of a Pitchfork" used the Humber River bridge along Huntington Road north of Kirby Road as the checkpoint into town during a Typhus outbreak. "Hero" featured the Card Lumber yard in the Nashville area of Kleinburg. Rural patient visits were often to real farmhouses in the area, used for filming.Some episodes in Season One, notably the winter ones, were filmed in the Rouge Park/Scarborough area of Toronto. In those, the Valley Halla Estate house was featured as the doctor's office and residence building. One episode from season 1 was shot at the old Markham, Ontario water tower in a story involving a mute boy who dangerously climbs the tower. Other winter season 1 scenes were shot at Highland Creek in Scarborough, Ontario, and at the old ski hill on Twyn Rivers Road in Pickering, Ontario.
Starting in the second season when the series was renamed and moved to a big-city setting, the filming moved strictly to Toronto. Much of the filming took place in the Etobicoke area, usually in various Mimico and New Toronto neighbourhoods, plazas, industrial areas and train yards. A lot of the stock footage of the ambulance van driving on the highway was filmed along the Gardiner Expressway around Sunnyside and downtown Toronto. One episode featured scenes shot inside Westwood Theatre, another a ride on a Gray Coach bus along the Gardiner Expressway. Many of the street scenes were filmed along Lake Shore Blvd West around the motel strip area, including footage shot in and around the Westpoint Motor Hotel & Restaurant, and the Seaway Towers Motor Hotel. The train yard footage was taken in CN's Mimico train yard.