10 Comedies About Hospitals and Doctors That You Can Stream Right Now

1 Childrens Hospital and Medical Police (Tied)

Grey’s Anatomy was one of TV’s buzziest dramas when ex-Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry created Childrens Hospital, a broad spoof of shows in which sexy young doctors work out their interpersonal issues while barely paying attention to their patients. Corddry stars as Dr. Blake Downs, who is clearly aiming for a Patch Adams-esque clown persona to soothe the children he treats, but who is in fact doing so in the exact makeup serial killer John Wayne Gacy wore to entertain kids’ parties as Pogo the Clown. The cast is filled out by such alt-comedy all-stars as Ken Marino (Party Down), Megan Mullally (Bob’s Burgers), Jordan Peele (Key & Peele) and David Wain (The State). Michael Cera even lends his deadpan voice to Sal Viscuso, who makes announcements on the hospital PA (and is named for the actor who did the same on M*A*S*H, which — spoiler — also made this list). 

The show spawned three spin-offs. There’s Newsreaders, a parody newsmagazine that began its existence as a Childrens Hospital show-within-a-show. NTSF: SD: SUV::, satirizing shows like 24 and CSI, first launched as a faux promo during a Childrens Hospital episode. But the most direct spin-off is Medical Police, which finds former Childrens Hospital doctors Lola Spratt (Erinn Hayes) and Owen Maestro (Rob Huebel) traveling the world to find a cure for a mysterious virus. The one and only season dropped on Netflix January 10, 2020, and while a lot of the show revolves around the doctors’ various screw-ups, it still may have made viewers excessively optimistic about how a viral outbreak might be managed if such a thing ever happened in real life.

3 The Delivery Man

There are a lot of jobs that make logical sense for someone to try after deciding he no longer wants to be a police constable — correctional officer, security guard, private investigator. Matthew Bunting (Darren Boyd) decides to become a midwife. A lot of the humor does derive from expected premises — since Matthew is a cis man, there are aspects of the childbirth experience he can never know. But Boyd is a veteran of British comedy, from Smack the Pony to Spy to Green Wing, a long-running hospital sitcom that shares a lot of behind-the-camera personnel with this show. Geniuses Alex Macqueen (The Inbetweeners) and Aisling Bea (This Way Up) help keep this largely heartwarming show on the right side of treacly.

4 Doogie Howser, M.D. and Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. (Tied)

After surviving two bouts of leukemia, what should a kid do with the rest of his life? Become a doctor, like the dad (James B. Sikking) who diagnosed him early enough to catch the disease — and if the kid is a genius with a photographic memory, he doesn’t need to wait, which is how the titular Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris) becomes a fully licensed doctor at the age of 14. At work, patients are, quite reasonably, shocked to be treated by someone who, at the start of the series, is still in the throes of puberty; he also has to navigate relationships with colleagues for which he has no experience, and crises like a teen mother abandoning her baby with him. Outside the hospital, Doogie experiences typical teen problems, from arguing with his dad about whether he can buy a car to thinking about having sex with his longtime girlfriend Wanda (Lisa Dean Ryan). Guest stars including Mayim Bialik, Robyn Lively, Carla Gugino and Julius Erving also roll through. Because the show was created by Steven “L.A. Law” Bochco, there are also “hot-button” episodes on subjects like crime in Los Angeles and what to do, as a doctor, when a former patient hits on you. But while some episodes show their age more than others, it’s clear even from the first season that Harris is going places. 

Nearly 30 years after the Howser series finale, Disney+ launched a quasi-sequel, Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. Much like the new Matlock, the only connection to the original series is that it also exists in the reboot, with characters joking that medical child prodigy Lahela (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is just like the kid from the show. This version of the show takes place on Oahu instead of Los Angeles, and supplies Lahela with a couple of brothers to clash with at home. But otherwise, it has a lot in common with the original: Lahela also works with a parent who’s a doctor — this time, it’s her mother, Clara (Kathleen Rose Perkins); she also has to interrupt her driver’s test in the series premiere to assist in a medical emergency, just like Doogie Howser; and she also has a best friend — Emma Meisel’s Steph — with whom she sometimes clashes over the disparities between their lives since Steph is a high school student and Lahela is, you know, saving lives every day. On occasion, Lahela also has to deal with losing patients to whom she’s grown close. Most importantly, it shares the original’s sweetness, but still has enough edge not to make watching it with kids a chore for adults.

6 M*A*S*H

First, M*A*S*H was a 1968 novel about Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Frank Burns, Hot Lips Houlihan and Radar O’Reilly, all stationed at a mobile army hospital during the Korean War. Then, M*A*S*H was a pitch-black 1970 movie from Robert Altman, starring Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland. Two years after that success (which included Best Picture Oscar nomination and a win for Ring Lardner Jr.’s screenplay), M*A*S*H was reimagined as a TV series. But not just any series: Even though CBS’s M*A*S*H was officially set in the Korean War, its writers used it to comment on the Vietnam War, by then dragging on and causing increasing discontent and cynicism in the U.S. Over the 11 years the show was on the air — nearly four times the length of the Korean War — M*A*S*H won 14 Emmys from 64 nominations. The medical plotlines can be tough to watch — these are people who’ve mostly been injured in combat, after all — but Hawkeye and his sidekicks Wayne Rogers (as Trapper John) and B.J. (Mike Farrell) keep things as light as possible. Failing that, they just get drunk.

7 Northern Exposure

Queens native Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) always knew that, in exchange for having his medical school loans underwritten by the State of Alaska, he’d have to practice in the state for a few years. What he didn’t consider is that he might get assigned to practice in the remote town of Cicely, where most goods arrive by mail-order and an acceptable bagel is an impossible dream. Admittedly, this is less a story about healthcare than one about a fish out of water who happens to be a doctor — Cicely’s residents rarely experience medical emergencies, and when we see Joel at his office, he’s mostly reading magazines or talking at his taciturn receptionist Marilyn (Elaine Miles). But the show is a joy, and sets the template for other dramedies that take place in small towns where each resident has at least one noteworthy quirk, like Gilmore Girls and Hart of Dixie, the latter also about a big-city doctor who relocates to an adorable village in an unfamiliar region. Hot tip if you’re looking for something cozy: It’s perfect for marathoning in the wintertime.

8 Porters

Simon Porter (Edward Easton) has convinced himself that he can become a doctor if he just starts from the bottom and works his way up — the bottom, in this case, being a hospital porter. Obviously, this isn’t going to work, and it shouldn’t, since Simon is extremely squeamish and cowardly. He’s also smitten with nurse Lucy (Claudia Jessie), which drives some of his more outlandish attempts to push himself to bravery: for instance, Simon volunteers to be tested as a potential kidney donor once he hears the odds of matching this particular patient are basically nil, and, well, if you’ve seen a sitcom before, you can probably guess what happens next. Simon’s fellow porters, sardonic Frankie and philosophical Tillman, are played by legends Susan Wokoma and Rutger Hauer, and no less a sitcom eminence than Kelsey Grammer even makes an appearance in the short first season. Porters could hardly be called a celebration of the NHS; call it a fond but clear-eyed tribute.

9 Quacks

From Our Flag Means Death to Dickinson to Another Period and all the way back to Blackadder, period sitcoms let writers comment on the present while play-acting like they’re living in the past. The gag with Quacks is that the characters are Victorian doctors, and are pretty sure they’re living in an age when medicine has reached its apex. So what if surgeon Robert (Rory Kinnear) performs surgery wearing the same bloody apron he had on yesterday? What possible reason would he have to clean his instruments, or hands? Volunteer nurse Florence Nightingale (Millie Thomas) should quit hassling him about that stuff and mind her own business! Robert is joined in the profession by John (Tom Basden), a dentist who is busily learning about the applications of ether by trying it out a lot on himself; and by William (Mathew Baynton), whose current job title of “alienist” will be renamed “psychiatrist” in the years ahead. There are, however, still some common beliefs that have less scientific basis — like hypnotism, as practiced by Mr. Kapoor (Kayvan Novak of What We Do in the Shadows).

10 Scrubs

John “J.D.” Dorian (Zach Braff) may have finished medical school, but he still has a lot to learn in his internship at Sacred Heart Hospital. On his first day, he’s pretty sure cheerful Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins) will be his mentor, and gruff Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) is to be avoided at all costs. The first lesson J.D. learns is that Dr. Kelso’s chipperness is entirely superficial, and that he has no compunction about turfing a patient who isn’t insured; Dr. Cox, on the other hand, may disdain medical students, but his patients’ well-being takes precedence over everything else, including immoral hospital rules. J.D. is joined in his internship by his best friend Turk (Donald Faison), pursuing a career in surgery; and by Elliot (Sarah Chalke), instantly J.D.’s dream girl despite her many neuroses. Seasoned nurse Carla (Judy Reyes) keeps everyone in line — especially Dr. Cox. Creator Bill Lawrence’s follow-up to Spin City may have too many flights of fancy killing narrative momentum, and some early aughts humor that hasn’t stood the test of time, but overall Scrubs is a goofy good time.