Trapper John, M.E.

(Can I get a whoop whoop for Monty)

Or
The Cartwright Boys, Together Again
(And yet another tip o’ the cap for Monty)
Pernell Roberts, the third most entertaining actor to play John McIntyre, MD, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 81. Best known as Adam, the bon vivant of the prairie, the wit of the wilderness, the heady eldest Cartwright boy on Bonanza, Roberts was the last surviving member of the show’s original family, but left the show at the peak of its popularity after battling producers about the lack of nonwhite cast and crew and the scripts he referred to as “Junk TV.” He was less concerned about the quality of content when he assumed the McIntyre mantle in the needless spin-off Trapper John, MD, where decades after Korea the womanizing troublemaker had turned chief of surgery at a San Francisco hospital. Ironically, Roberts replaced MASH’s Wayne Rogers, who had also left a hit show at its peak. Karmically speaking, this suggests that Rogers, not Jimmy Smits, should have been Sipowicz’s partner on NYPD Blue. Or taken up as a barmaid at Cheers.