Joe Bogert was an older, kind-hearted New York City general practitioner who genuinely cared about his patients--whether or not they could afford to pay him. While loving his longtime wife Annie and married daughter Laurie, tossing mean-spirited barbs at his fussy son-in-law Fred and hanging out with pals Happy and Ben, Joe got involved with the lives of his patients the old-fashioned way. Later Joe started seeing patients at the Westside Clinic, dumped his family and began spending more time with the wacky clinic employees.