Mark Harmon Made Television History in ‘St. Elsewhere’ Before ‘NCIS’

NCIS star Mark Harmon first gained a measure of television stardom on the acclaimed NBC medical drama series St. Elsewhere in the role of Dr. Robert “Bobby” Caldwell, a handsome, womanizing plastic surgeon at the fictional St. Eligius Hospital in Boston. In 1985, after Harmon declared his intention to leave the series, the creative team behind St. Elsewhere decided to make Bobby the first ongoing heterosexual character in television history to be diagnosed with AIDS. Bobby learns of his HIV status in the fourth-season episode “Family Feud,” which originally aired on January 29, 1986, just a few days after Harmon was named People Magazine’s second-ever Sexiest Man Alive.

St. Elsewhere was groundbreaking with its realistic depiction of a busy hospital and the lives of the people who work there. This uncompromising approach is especially evident with the show’s matter-of-fact handling of Bobby’s AIDS diagnosis and its aftermath. However, this character arc is most elevated by Harmon’s powerful dramatic performance, through which Bobby transforms from a shallow sex symbol to a tragic victim of fate in the span of two episodes. Indeed, with “Family Feud” and Harmon’s subsequent final episode, “Family Affair,” Bobby traverses all the stages of grief, from denial to acceptance, before he’s gone forever.

Mark Harmon Attached a Heterosexual Face To AIDS

When Mark Harmon’s character, Dr. Bobby Caldwell, became infected with AIDS on St. Elsewhere in 1986, the AIDS epidemic was most clearly embodied within the public’s consciousness by the shocking sight of legendary Hollywood star Rock Hudson’s gaunt appearance alongside Doris Day at a now historic and infamous press conference in 1985. St. Elsewhere altered the perception of AIDS through the heterosexual Bobby’s diagnosis, in which the previously promiscuous Bobby recognizes the destructive behavior that brought him to this point. This includes a previous unsettling sexual encounter with a woman who slashed Bobby’s face with a razor blade. Following Bobby’s AIDS diagnosis, he visits the office of hospital administrator Joan Halloran, a former lover of Bobby’s, to inform her of his diagnosis so that she can get tested. Then Bobby has to figure out what he’s going to do with the time he has left.

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Harmon’s final episode on St. Elsewhere, “Family Affair,” features one of his best scenes as an actor. This scene begins with Bobby intending to kill himself by injecting himself with a lethal drug cocktail. However, just before Bobby injects himself, there’s a knock on his apartment door. He sees a neighbor’s frightened young daughter, who tells Bobby that she accidentally flooded her upstairs apartment. Bobby agrees to help her. At that moment, Bobby finds a reason to live, at least for one more day. What reason, if any, will Bobby find convincing enough to make him want to live out the next day, and beyond?

‘St. Elsewhere’ Is a Forgotten Television Masterpiece

The Medical Drama Features a Great Cast

St. Elsewhere was lavished with widespread critical praise during its original airing, and contemporary television critics and historians have consistently ranked the series as being among the best drama shows of its era. However, the serialized St. Elsewhere has been increasingly less visible through reruns and syndication over the past 35 years, and the series has become forgotten over time. To the degree that most people under the age of 40 are even familiar with St. Elsewhere, the show is most referenced as a footnote in the careers of Mark Harmon and Denzel Washington.

Despite receiving critical acclaim, St. Elsewhere failed to generate strong ratings throughout its initial run. While critics praised the show for its unflinching treatment of life-and-death issues, this proved too unsettling for many viewers. St. Elsewhere never took the easy way out, in terms of attaching easy answers and phony sentimentality to complex problems. This is especially evident with the show’s merciless treatment of Bobby Caldwell’s AIDS diagnosis.

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In Harmon’s final episode, “Family Affair,” Bobby, after foregoing suicide, decides to move to California to work at an AIDS hospice. Instead of a dramatic, tearful goodbye, the episode ends with Bobby calmly packing his belongings before slowly making his way out of St. Eligius Hospital, which coldly moves about its business all around him, as if he’s a ghost. Bobby appears in silhouette as he walks out of the hospital for the last time. Then life goes on. In the sixth-season episode “Heaven’s Skate,” Bobby’s former colleagues learn that Bobby has died from AIDS.

‘NCIS’ and ‘St. Elsewhere’ Turned Harmon Into a Television Icon

Mark Harmon has described his nearly three-season run on St. Elsewhere as a valuable learning experience in which he was surrounded by great acting teachers, referring to the veteran presence of co-stars William Daniels, Ed Flanders, and Norman Lloyd. Of course, Harmon also could have been referring to slightly younger co-star Denzel Washington, for whom St. Elsewhere became a stepping stone to big-screen greatness. Indeed, while Harmon left St. Elsewhere in 1986, Washington remained with the show until its 1988 finale.

After leaving St. Elsewhere to launch a feature-film career, Harmon found himself in the role of apprentice when he appeared alongside Sean Connery in the 1988 thriller film The Presidio, the first of a string of box-office disappointments that necessitated Harmon’s return to television. While Harmon’s quest for feature-film stardom was certainly hampered by poor material, Harmon ultimately failed with this transition due to his inability to translate his abundant television charisma into his big-screen characterizations.

The now 73-year-old Harmon became a teacher through his enduring portrayal of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS over 19 seasons. Just as the role of Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods transformed Tom Selleck’s legacy, Harmon’s portrayal of Gibbs has seemingly overshadowed his previous career, as if the haunting memories of Bobby Caldwell on St. Elsewhere are now attached to a different actor from a different universe. St. Elsewhere is streaming on Hulu.