NBC (Monday, April 23, 9 p.m. ET)
Ragtime's Howard Rollins Jr. plays a concerned doctor whose devotion to old patients jeopardizes his marriage and career. Art Carney is one of his charges, a kindly gent who seems to be going senile until Rollins finds that it's medication, not age, that's erasing Carney's memory. The show has the feel of Medical Center or Dr. Kildare. That's fine. It's entertaining enough and even instructive as it champions the cause of the elderly. "You're a good doctor," Carney tells Rollins. "I know you are because you look at me like I'm still alive.... Lemme tellya something, being old is no game for sissies." It's good to see Carney back on the screen so soon after Terrible Joe Moran. It's especially good to see Rollins again. Doctor's Story is not, however, meaty enough to challenge his considerable talents; he has more oomph than he can show here. The fact that we haven't been treated to Rollins more often is the clearest evidence that there aren't enough good roles for blacks in Hollywood.
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