Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Here's the complete broadcast of an episode of Donahue on his then-home, WGN Channel 9, with his guest, Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn, author of the book "Mal(e) Practice: How Doctors Manipulate Women."

Includes:

Phil's long intro of Dr. Mendelsohn joined in progress, then he lets the doctor speak - about episiotomies, diagnosing diseases that don't exist, nerve damage from surgeries, infant deaths from incisions gone wrong, "tired eggs," role of X-rays viz babies with Down syndrome or leukemia, mammograms and cancer, role of X-rays vs. cigarettes in lung cancer, X-rays and shoes, rates of cancer for women vs. men, thyroid cancer from X-rays of tonsils, "tired housewife" syndrome and Valium, number of deaths from unnecessary X-rays, hysterectomies (and the origin of the word) and their side effects, breast cancer surgery, and "Mississippi appendectomies"

Commercials for:
Betty Crocker Potatoes
Birds Eye French Style Rice (voiceover by Danny Dark?)
Star Kist Tuna - "Natural Spring Water" (Herschel Bernardi as Charlie Tuna) (voiceover by Danny Dark?)
"Evita" at the Shubert Theatre

Segment 2: Call from Dr. Eggers (?) on chest X-rays in Chicago hospitals in a debate with Dr. Mendelsohn

Commercials for:
Lady Madonna (fashionable clothes for pregnant women)
True Value Hardware Stores - Tool Value of the Month: Master Mechanic Tool Set (voiceover by Lee Phillip)
Stouffer's Crepes
Allbee C-800 Extra Strength Vitamin Formula

Segment 3: Questions from audience members on patch tests for tuberculosis, one woman who had miscarriages after tumors were removed when she was 22, and the business of replacing tonsillectomies with tympanostomies, pills with IUD's, hysterectomies with tubal ligations (and even vasectomies and men with anti-sperm antibodies)

Commercials for:
Jungle Juice, Cactus Juice and Granny's Bloomers liquid plant food
Luvs diapers
Cubs and White Sox on Channel 9 (with Milo Hamilton and Harry Caray) (starting April 9th and 10th)

Segment 4: Call from a woman who had a bad experience in hospital from having a baby and is pregnant again and seeks to have the baby at home; an osteophytic physician/osteopath in the audience who delivered 2,000 babies over his career, and agrees with some of Dr. Mendelsohn's points but takes issue with others, leading to discussion on emergency care and chronic illness, and mortality drops during doctors' strikes; a nurse who worked with Dr. Eggers (?) and has three children asks about home delivery vs. hospital births; and a mother whose first four children were born in hospital and last two at home

Commercials for:
Booth Extra Crunchy Fish
Entenmann's Baked Goods
Quickie Nail Polish Remover
A&P - Walt Disney World Vacation promo (plus items on sale with ending voiceover by Merri Dee)

Segment 5 starts off with showing of Dr. Mendelsohn's contact address, then Phil takes a woman who insists she was "treated like a princess" when giving birth at hospitals; another woman takes issue with his views on home birth and correlating hospitals with drugs; a 46-year-old mother who had six Caesarians; and a pregnant woman who had five natural births and one Caesarian and is expecting her seventh child

Commercials for:
John M. Smyth's Homemakers Furniture (with Shelley Long)
Planters Cheez Balls
Stouffers - 7 New Pouch Side Dishes
Lip Quencher's New Chip Quencher Nail Polish

Segment 6 starts off with where to send for Donahue transcripts, then a woman opines about how operations should be left to the individual and patient, and another woman recommending hypnosis, as end credits run:

Phil Donahue's Wardrobe by Botany '500'
Hotel Accommodations Furnished by Hyatt Regency O'Hare (with 800 phone number)
Executive Producer - Dick Mincer
Senior Producer - Patricia McMillen
Director - Ron Weiner
Producer - Darlene Hayes-Tharpe
Producer - Sheri Singer
Produced through the facilities of WGN Continental Broadcasting Company

(with voiceover advising of services and promotional fees paid by Volvo and True Value Hardware Stores)

"The sexism in medicine is so strong..."

This aired on local Chicago TV on Thursday, March 12th 1981 during the 11am to 12pm timeframe.

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!