History Main / ImNotADoctorButIPlayOneOnTV

* Gene Simmons (as Dr. Love) and Dr. Dre.

* The ''Webcomic/AmazingSuperPowers'' strip depicting a flight stewardess asking if there were any doctors onboard as the pilot had just had a heart attack. A man says "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV". The air stewardress replies "good enough". The last panel is a cover of a TV magazine mourning the tragic death of the star of the comedy series "Dr Oops".

* In the early ''{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Heart Attack", Jerry's stance toward "alternative medicine" is made clear when he thinks "you're not a doctor, but you play one in real life".

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* The sitcom ''The Grinder'' is based on this trope. An actor who played a lawyer on a long-running TV series decides to take up the practice in real life, without ever having gone to law school, much to the chagrin of his brother, an actual lawyer, whose case he hijacks in the process.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* Dr. Wattage from ''{{Wildguard}}'' is not a doctor, but the name sounds cool.
* In the 1990s ''Comicbook/{{Superboy}}'' series, Kon reacted to a couple of medical emergencies with "I'm not a doctor! I don't even play one on TV!"

* In the early ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Heart Attack", Jerry's stance toward "alternative medicine" is made clear when he thinks "you're not a doctor, but you play one in real life".

* A Kermit-the-frog-themed parody of Five for Fighting's "Superman" that opens with the verse: "I can't stand to swim / Swamp soaks right through me / I'm not amphibian / I just play one on TV."

* The AmazingSuperpowers webcomic strip depicting a flight stewardess asking if there were any doctors onboard as the pilot had just had a heart attack. A man says "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV". The air stewardress replies "good enough". The last panel is a cover of a TV magazine mourning the tragic death of the star of the comedy series "Dr Oops".

<<|CommercialsTropes|>>

Trope named for a commercial from the 1980s in which Chris Robinson, who played a physician on ''GeneralHospital'' opened his pitch for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup with this very line, which became a pre-Internet MemeticMutation. (How does ''playing a doctor on TV'' give someone any authority to prescribe actual medicine?)

* Used as a plot point in the Michael Douglas movie ''Film/TheGame'': Douglas' character sees [[spoiler:the CRS representative that signed him up for The Game in a drug commercial and realizes he's an actor. He then makes a series of phone calls pretending to be a guy interested in hiring him so he can get his whereabouts.]]

!Examples:

--->Khordib: He is Jaffa.
--->O'Neill: No. But he plays one on TV.
* Sam [[QuantumLeap Quantum Leaps]] into a TV-Doctor who gets kidnapped by an insane fan who believes him to be the character he plays on TV. He forces her to admit he is not a real doctor by having her husband fake a heart attack while he acts like he is about to perform OpenHeartDentistry on him. (Interestingly, Sam actually ''was'' a doctor himself, and presumably could have performed the procedure if necessary.)
* Johnny's new gimmick, once ''WKRPInCincinnati'' changed to a rock and roll music format, is this.

* The third season of ''RoyalPains'' has lead actor Mark Feuerstein begin a heart disease PSA with "I'm not a doctor, but I--" before co-star Reshma Shetty cuts him off with "You're not really going to say it, are you?". He settles for "Take it from a guy who ''plays'' a guy who knows what he's talking about."

* Odd real life example tied into ''Royal Pains''. Reshma Shetty was out shopping when someone near by collapsed. She immediately went into "work mode" and started telling people to call 911, helping the guy out, getting his history, etc. She was able to give a very good medical history to the [=EMTs=] who arrived and had to explain to everyone she wasn't a doctor, but played a physician's assistant on TV.

* Odd real life example tied into ''Royal Pains''. Reshma Shetty was out shopping when someone near by collapsed. She immediately went into "work mode" and started telling people to call 911, helping the guy out, getting his history, etc. She was able to give a very good medical history to the EMTs who arrived and had to explain to everyone she wasn't a doctor, but played a physician's assistant on TV.

* Odd real life example tied into ''Royal Pains''. Reshma Shetty was out shopping when someone near by collapsed. She immediately went into "work mode" and started telling people to call 911, helping the guy out, getting his history, etc. She was able to give a very good medical history to the EMT's who arrived and had to explain to everyone she wasn't a doctor, but played a physician's assistant on TV.

* Creator/DavidTennant has and wears a t-shirt that says "Trust me, I'm a [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]]"

* Subverted in a Jack in the Box commercial where a guy in a lab coat rattles off a bunch of preposterous health claims about cheesy fries on a tv screen being watched by the Jack character and a suit. When Jack asks the suit where he found this guy, the suit replies, "[[StealthCigaretteCommercial Tobacco company.]]"

* DavidTennant has and wears a t-shirt that says "Trust me, I'm a [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]]"
** Given to him by BilliePiper herself.

* Basketball player Dr. J has started doing Dr Pepper commercials, concluding with "[[TrustMeImADoctor Trust me, I'm a doctor.]]" Ditto with Gene Simmons (as Dr. Love) and Dr. Dre.
** Most recently, retired American football player Michael Strahan has been doing "Trust me, I've ''sent'' people to the doctor".

* One of the cut-away commercials in ''{{Robocop}}'' parodies this type of advertisement with an advert for an artificial heart.

* Parodied in the episode "Fallen" of ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', when Teal'c said that he wasn't the First Prime of Apophis as he was introduced to the nomads.

* David [=McCallum=] isn't a doctor, but has spoken at forensic conventions. He does the research.

* An episode of ''ThePuzzlePlace'' in which the characters spend all day watching TV featured a commercial for the [[BrandX "Global Express"]] credit card in which a puppeteer opens with "Hi. I'm not a puppet, but I play one on TV." The fact that all of the characters on this show are puppets, and everything they've been watching stars live-action humans, makes this either particularly surreal or [[FridgeBrilliance brilliant]].

[[quoteright:338:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/os_tvdoctorprint_copy_copy_2548.jpg]]

!!Examples:

The solution: dress an actor up in a white lab coat, and give them a stethoscope. Even if he is a dentist. If possible, put them in a set that looks like a waiting room, pharmacy, or hospital. As long as you don't say they're really a doctor, you aren't going to get in trouble, and you still get the subliminal boost in believability that comes from associating the ''trappings'' of real medicine with your product.

Contrast: TrustMeImADoctor

Not to be confused with PlayingDoctor. See ButIPlayOneOnTV when its a fan who assumes an actor is actually the character he plays.

[[caption-width-right:338:Trust him, he's a doctor[[hottip:*:on TV]].]]
->You're a credulous git, Mr. Pepperdyne; a stethoscope and a plausible manner do not make a doctor.
-->-- ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie''

!!Examples

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