I remember watching this series when I was a young boy. And I've always been dismayed that the series never made it to home video on either VHS, Laserdisc, or DVD. Fortunately, someone uploaded the entire two-season, 26-episode series in 480P to YouTube. And using Firefox download helper, I was able to download the entire series - which I'll shortly be converting to DVD format.
I've re-watched most of the episodes and am convinced this series was one of the best dramatic series of its time. That doesn't mean the content is always pleasing. In one episode, after his patient had undergone some drug therapy for an unreasonable fear of sunlight, Dr. Corder reassures his patient by telling him that "electro-shock therapy" will begin shortly. Yup, back in 1963, it was considered a viable treatment in the psychiatric community (now abandoned, thank goodness). But on the side of progressive thinking in a different episode, Dr. Corder didn't even bat an eyelash when a 62 year-old patient admitted that her guilt had come from a Lesbian attraction she experienced when she was younger. He treated her "guilt" as the problem, not her sexual orientation. And in 1963, the psychiatric community still considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder.
The writing was superb. The acting was superb. The settings and the stories were all very believable and, in many cases, riveting. You can't ask for much more than that in a dramatic series. If it's ever digitally remastered and released on DVD, I'll be one of the first people to buy it. Until then, I'll still enjoy the downloaded episodes on DVD - though some of them have a weathered look.
UPDATE!!! The complete series is being released on DVD but, so far, only in the U.K. The release is set for mid-June 2012.
