Lew Ayres had played Dr. Kildare on radio and in a successful movie series for MGM. It made sense, then, at the time, for the studio to try out Ayres in a TV version of the series.
MGM filmed a pilot in 1960, a half hour drama instead of the hour long version that would come to fruition a year later with Richard Chamberlain. Take a look at the following pilot, and then, we'll see why they had to make a change.
I'm going to take a guess here, and say that this pilot did not sell anywhere because at the time, networks weren't as hot for "pre-sold" product as film studios are today. That MGM retrenched and tapped into the young adult demographic by casting Chamberlain as a younger Kildare shows that they had made the right call. Though uncredited, Robert Redford and Everyman character actor Olan Soule, whose resume by that point had included Captain Midnight, Dennis The Menace, and the original Dragnet, are easy to spot.
Rating: A-.
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