Medstar Television Inc. is a television production company based in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...

History and founding

Medstar was incorporated in the state of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1981 by Paul Dowling and William Ferretti to produce medical news and health information. From the start, Medstar financed, produced and distributed all of its own productions.
Health Matters: Independents Prescription Works

Productions

One of its first was ''Health Matters'', a program on health and lifestyle issues, produced in cooperation with hospitals throughout the United States, which sponsor the program in their local areas with local and national content, along the same lines as ''

PM Magazine ''PM/Evening Magazine'' is a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States. In most areas, ''Evening/PM Magazine'' was broadcast from the late 1970s into the late 1980s. Origi ...

''. ''Health Matters'' was syndicated to various commercial and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

stations during the 1980s. Medstar later expanded to produce two medical news products, "MedstarSource" and "MedstarAdvances" syndicated to commercial television stations in the United States. Production of these segments ended in August 2011. In 1990, Medstar began to produce programming for cable television including the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

. In 1995, the company created the ''Medical Detectives'' series on

forensic science Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...

, which premiered on TLC in April 1995.IMDB program listing
/ref> It was the first reality-based forensic series on television and used a 'murder mystery' approach to documentary storytelling. In 2000 the Medical Detectives series moved to the CourtTV network (now

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...

) where it was re-titled ''

Forensic Files ''Forensic Files'', originally known as ''Medical Detectives'', is an American documentary television program that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness. The show was origi ...

'' and quickly became the networks highest rated television series. Internationally, the series was sold to stations and networks in over 142 countries where it remains enormously popular. Peter Thomas narrated the series, with more than 400 episodes. In 2002, ''Forensic Files'' would appear on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

as the first prime time television series originally produced for cable to air on a commercial network, as a summer replacement series.

References

External links

Official site

Paul Dowling on Twitter
{{Authority control Companies based in Allentown, Pennsylvania Television production companies of the United States American companies established in 1980 Health information television series Academic works about medicine 1980 establishments in Pennsylvania