Ever since Ben Casey snarled at his boss and Dr. Welby made house-calls, the medical show on TV has been just what the doctor ordered.

Countless series have bandaged bloody wounds and performed last-minute surgeries to admiring audiences. One of the reasons hospital dramas are so healthy is executive producer John Wells.

Wells was the chief of staff on the now legendary “ER,” which ran for 15 seasons and introduced stars like Noah Wyle, George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. And now he’s back with “The Pitt,” HBO Max’s hit drama that swept the Emmys with five awards. The streaming show was named best drama, earned its star, Wyle, kudos for his acting, and has already begun production on its second season which arrives in January.

The reason the show is so popular, says Wells, is because everybody and his brother shares in an emergency experience. “I think we are concerned about what happens to us,” he says.“Honestly, we all have to intersect with the medical world in various ways. And we've all done it with our own families. And I think there's a feeling of wanting to know what's actually really going to happen,” he says.

“And it allows us in advance to live out our concerns and to see. ... You want these people to be the people that, when you get to the hospital, when you get to the emergency room, are actually going to take care of you — your family, your children, the people you love,” he says.

“I think people really want to have that experience. And I also think that we've got a thing that's going where audiences want to connect with shows and be able to come back to that family of people over a number of episodes. I love a good limited series, a short limited series, but I'm always, at the end of it, I want to spend more time with those people. So what we're trying in these 15 episodes is to really get you to know who all these people are.”

One of those memorable people is the character of Dr. Michael Robinavitch, resurrected and retooled by Wyle, who played a third-year medical student when he began on “ER” and has been promoted to senior attending physician on “The Pitt.”

Back in 1995 when “ER” had just begun, Wells said, “We spend a great deal of time trying to show the world very realistically. And I think that people respond to that. We don’t show the doctors as being infallible. At the same time we show them as being compassionate and caring and having real lives. I think that removes the idea of doctors as 'God' which is something we all have come to distrust in the last 25, 30 years.”

If he made it realistic then, he’s quadrupled that now. “The Pitt” is an uncompromising view of the chaotic condition of emergency care. And streamers are far more lenient than networks when it comes to the graphic depiction of injuries.

Today Wells says, “We're trying to make it feel as if you're right on the shoulder of someone. It's the version of a (police) ride-along but with emergency room personnel. And I have spent a lot of time in and around emergency departments over the years. And you can't really get across just the sacrifice of doing 12 hours where, day after day, moment after moment, you are experiencing what is — for most everyone else — one of the worst moments of their lives,” he says.

“And I think what we're trying to do is to gain more respect in the public. Like when you're sitting in an emergency waiting room for eight hours and you don't understand why you're still there. Why can't this be better? We're trying to say this is what these people are doing back there. We're trying to give you that sense. And we can do that on streaming because we can show the procedures.”

The procedures are literal and visceral on “The Pitt,” which is streaming now on HBO Max.“Here are these people who are dealing all day long with these very traumatic experiences. And this always sounds cliche, but they really are heroes, what they do every day, and the difference they make in our lives,” says Wells.

It took a while for Wyle to agree to don that white coat again. “The pandemic changed everything,” he says, “and I was getting a lot of mail from people, first responders, that was also confessional about how difficult their daily lives were and who was getting sick and who was getting treated. And I pivoted a lot of that to John and said, ‘There's something happening here that's probably worth talking about again.’

“And even though we didn't want to do this again, if John ever did want to do it again, I'd volunteer. And then we all had lunch and got scared of the idea and went away for a year and then came back together a year later and then had to wait because there was a 192-day labor strike. And then we got together again and here we are.”

Netflix exposes 'Monster' on Friday

Netflix jumps off a cliff with “Monster: the Ed Gein Story” premiering Friday, Oct. 3. This is the true story as told by horrormeisters Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Ed Gein was a soft-spoken fellow who lived in rural Wisconsin with a secret so horrible it’s been difficult to tell.

If anyone can tell it, it’s Murphy, who brought us the anthology series “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story.” He conjured these macabre tales for his longtime networks Fox and FX.

But Murphy scrambled over to Netflix, which apparently made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. “Monster” stars Charlie Hunnam as the horrendous Gein and luminous Laurie Metcalf portrays his weird mother. Metcalf, who earned kudos when she starred as Roseanne’s rational sister in the sitcom, “Roseanne,” tells me she began her career as a secretary.

“I’d always supported myself by being a secretary,” she says. “I was a very good secretary all through college then for the first few years that we were starting Steppenwolf (theater company) we were paying ourselves nothing and charging $3 a ticket, so we all had day jobs.

“So I was always a secretary. I was a very good typist when we needed to be. And I loved it. I loved being behind the desk and having your day’s work in front of you. And at the end of the day, you've done it and it’s over in this pile over here. There’s something really satisfying about it. I like it. There’s a groundedness to it that you don’t get in acting sometimes where you're at the whim of somebody else — either getting a job or being directed — you're not in control all the time like you can be behind a desk.”

Networks plan early Christmas

It may seem way too early for jingle bells and (ugh) fruitcake, but Great American Media doesn’t care as it kicks off its Christmas rush on Oct. 9 and 10. The famous “Great American Christmas” will begin streaming on Great American Pure Flix on Oct. 9 followed by Great American Family and GFAM+ on Oct. 10.

“A Wisconsin Christmas Pie,” a feel-good romance with a Christmas subplot, gets things going on Oct. 9 with a reprise on Oct. 11.

All the Great American networks are dedicated to Judeo-Christian values and ethics, emphasizing the power of positive elements in our lives, and they always feature happy endings. While endings in real life are not usually happy, it’s comforting to think that sometimes they might be, and these films are something the whole family can enjoy together.

“A Wisconsin Christmas Pie” is about a pastry chef who returns to her family farm for Christmas only to learn her land is being eyed by developers. She reconnects with her high school sweetheart and together they thwart the land snatch and, by the way, fall in love. The film stars Katie Leclerk (“Switched at Birth”) and Ryan Carnes (“Desperate Housewives”).

‘Paradise’ found in Cornwall

Fans of the British Caribbean crime show “Death in Paradise” will be eager to catch the spinoff “Beyond Paradise,” premiering on BritBox Oct. 14. Here DI Goodman (Kris Marshall) and his fiancée Martha (Sally Bretton) are solving crimes among the idyllic landscapes of Devon and Cornwall.

Murder most foul pervades the legendary scenery when a body is discovered in the river along the county border.

All this camaraderie is fumbled when Martha’s old beau (Jamie Bamber) shows up. The British Bamber is best known here for “Battlestar Galactica” and “Band of Brothers.”

He says he first became interested in acting because of his mother. “My mom had trained as an actress and she married my dad who was from Detroit, Michigan — a bit older than her and already had four kids. And her acting got very much put on hold. But she had trained in teaching as well, and she started a theater group in Paris when we lived there. And she directed plays for kids.

“So my first role — I think I must’ve been 5 or 6 — was as the Wicked Witch of the West — the best role of the piece as far as I'm concerned. It didn’t matter what gender I was at age 6. So she definitely ignited that in me because I'm not a natural extrovert,” he says.

“I'm not a natural performer. I don’t sing. I don’t dance. But she definitely showed me the release and the sense of living that can come from acting. As a result, I just auditioned for every school play because she encouraged me. So it became something I did at school. I was always in the school play. And the parts got bigger and bigger. And the fewer musicals we did the more prominent parts I would get, and it became a passion of mine.”

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