Strong Medicine is an American medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict that aired on Lifetime from July 23, 2000, to February 5, 2006. It was created and produced in part by Whoopi Goldberg, who made cameos on the series, and by Tammy Ader. It starred Rosa Blasi, Janine Turner, and Patricia Richardson. It was the highest-rated original drama on basic cable in 2001.
Contents
Overview
Strong Medicine brings together the worlds of two completely different doctors, Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado, and Dr. Dana Stowe. Lu is a single mother running a free clinic in the inner city. Dana is a Harvard graduate and top female health specialist. The two come together when Dr. Lydia Emerson wants to combine Rittenhouse Hospital's practice with Lu's financially failing clinic to provide the best care for the patients of both doctors.
The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values. When Dr. Dana Stowe leaves, Lu's partners include Dr. Andy Campbell and Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.
Cast and characters
Main
Rosa Blasi as Dr. Luisa "Lu" Magdalena Delgado, born November 18, 1970. Delgado runs the free clinic (first the South Philly Health Clinic and, since the pilot, the Rittenhouse Health Center), and hosts a support group. Both as a friend and a doctor to many lower-class patients, Lu regularly comes face-to-face with bitterly ironic situations involving the difficulties of the lower class with government, debt, drug abuse, and exploitation. Her character exhibits a perennial cleverness which allows her to wheedle or persuade positive outcomes from seemingly hopeless cases of victimization. After her mother died of breast cancer when she was ten years-old, she was raised by her grandmother, Isabel Santana, who now lives in Puerto Rico. Lu has a son, Marc, who she had when she was 16 and raised alone. Until recently, Delgado has had no luck with a relationship. Her first boyfriend, Jack (Jeffrey D. Sams) a construction worker, dumped her, because he wasn't ready to get involved in a fatherly (or even father figure) relationship with Lu's son Marc. Lu's next boyfriend, radio show host Harry Burr (Don Michael Paul) had to leave her because his ex-wife was using their relationship to gain custody of his daughter Erin, who was also her son Marc's girlfriend. Soon after, she survived being raped by the Rittenhouse's new Head of Surgery, Dr. Randolf Kilner. She lost her first serious boyfriend, fireman Miguel "Mickey" Arenas (Julien Acosta), to a murder perpetrated by one of her patients, forcing her to face her moral objection to the death penalty. Ironically, in an earlier episode, Lu thought Miguel had died on the job, when there was a fire at the local mall. It turns out the only reason he didn't die, is because he switched duties with friend and ended up driving the fire truck. Lu later becomes involved with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show), an administrator brought on after Rittenhouse is bought by a health care conglomerate, Octavian Systems. Sanderson later left to be reassigned to a facility in Miami. He asked Lu to come with him but, after thinking about it, she refused because her patients are there, and the constant travel makes it difficult to put down roots. Soon after, she became involved with Jonas Rey (Nestor Carbonell), a local self-made millionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation. In the final season, she and Jonas get married, and Lu struggles to get accustomed to a wealthier life, while trying to reconcile it with her inner-city loyalties. After Lu discovered she was pregnant with Jonas' baby, Jonas is plagued by an embezzlement scandal at his company, bringing his fortune into doubt. In the series finale, they decided to move to Jonas' childhood home, but while he was showing it to Lu, they were affected by an explosion and got caught in the ruined basement. Lu was injured and her placenta detached. She asked Jonas to perform an emergency C-Section to save her and the baby, but she fainted during the procedure. Luckily, the firemen arrived and called Dylan, who completed the C-Section, and Lu gave birth to their daughter, who was named Milagro (which means "miracle" in Spanish).
Recurring
Whoopi Goldberg as Dr. Lydia Emerson
Grant Show as Ben Sanderson
Gregory Harrison as Dr. Randolf Kilner
Julian Acosta as Miguel Arenas
Richard Biggs as Dr. Milo Morton
Morgan Flynn as Lizzy Campbell
Michelle Horn as Jesse Campbell
Matthew Yang King as Dr. Matt Linn
Brian Kerwin as Les Campbell
Broadcast and release
The American over-the-air network Start TV currently airs the show, re-adding it on September 30, 2024, airing every morning at 6am ET.
On January 10, 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Strong Medicine: The Complete First Season, a 5-disc set. As of 2025, it's the only season to have a media release as no other seasons have been released on DVD.
In April 2021, the first two seasons of the show were available to watch on the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi in the United States, but is no longer offered as of April 1, 2023. Sometime later in 2025, it has been re-added on Tubi and on The Roku Channel streaming service, and is streaming all six seasons, except for a few episodes are missing from seasons 5 and 6, due to licensing agreements, content rights shifting, or providers rotating shows in and out. The complete series was also available to watch in Canada on CTV.ca's CTV Throwback hub, until it was recently removed.
Proposed First Response spin-off and international remake
Near the end of the 2004–2005 season, a special episode "First Response" aired, prominently featuring three new characters: Katie and Zack, both EMTs, and Dr. Vanessa Burke, head of the new Rittenhouse Trauma Center and adopted black sister of Katie. The TV Home website reports that this episode was meant as the pilot to a potential Strong Medicine spin-off series, Strong Medicine: First Response. Such a series would have been the first spin-off to an existing Lifetime original series. Lifetime did not order the new series into production after the ratings for the pilot were not what was expected.
There was a Russian remake in 2012.
