"I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV"

[Garson O'Toole]

Thanks to Jon for mentioning this template, and thanks to Arnold for
pointing to the four Language Log posts. The first instance I could
locate of a near-match for the template and the idea that animates the
template is dated 1981. The wording employed here differs from the
common template: "I'm only an actor but I play a doctor on TV". This
phrase occurs in the tabloid Weekly World News in a scenario that
attempts to humorously contrast an actor with a real doctor:

Cite: 1981 March 31, Weekly World News, "Has-been athletes commit a
foul by becoming sports announcers on TV" by Rex Winston, Page 30,
Published by Weekly World News. (Google Books full view)

How'd you like to be wheeled into surgery and look up to find Jack
Klugman sharpening his scalpel?
"Hey, you're only an actor — you aren't a doctor," you would scream.
"Yeah. I'm only an actor but I play a doctor on TV," comes Klugman's
reply. "So just lie there quietly and let me take out your appendix."
Anybody in his right mind would agree that playing a doctor on TV
doesn't make someone a qualified surgeon, right?

http://books.google.com/books?id=iO8DAAAAMBAJ&q=appendix#v=snippet&

Several individuals mentioned in the Language Log posts contend that
the template was used in the 1960s or 1970s, and some specifically
point to the actor Robert Young who played Marcus Welby as an early
wielder of the nascent snowclone.

I was unable to find evidence for this, but my searching was limited
because I know of no database of transcripts for TV commercials. On
the other hand, the texts of many magazine and newspaper
advertisements are searchable. Here is the copy of a 1977 ad featuring
Robert Young. It  occurs beneath a smiling picture of the actor in a
suit with a coffee cup in his hands:

Cite: 1977 February 02, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sanka advertisement
with Robert Young, Page 3-B, Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

"I think it's important that we take care of ourselves. That's why
doctors have advised millions of caffein-concerned Americans, like me,
to drink SANKA Brand Decaffeinated Coffee. There's no cafein to make
me nervous or tense, so I really feel good. SANKA Brand is the one
coffee I can feel good about." - Robert Young

The actor is not explicitly identified as a doctor nor is he
identified as an actor who once played a doctor on television. The
connection is implicit, and it relies on the memory of the reader. The
phrase "like me" refers to "caffein-concerned Americans" in a surface
analysis of the text, but it may also activate the reader's memory as
a trigger phrase. Some readers will envision Marcus Welby the caring,
ultracompetent physician when Robert Young says "like me".

Garson

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 1:34 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 16, 2010, at 10:08 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
>> I'm still hearing jocular allusions to this TV line from nearly a quarter
>> century ago. The most recent was this morning. They take the form of "I'm
>> not an X but I play one on TV." Fred wisely included it among the undated
>> "Advertising Slogans" in YBQ.
>>
>> The original aired in 1987:
>>
>> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x36pho_vicks-44_ads
>>
>> GB offers 200 exact cites, surely making this one of the best-known
>> quotations in current use.
>
> Language Log postings on the Play One snowclone:
>
> AZ, 10/12/05: Playing one:
>  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002537.html
>
> AZ, 10/13/05: Playing one 2:
>  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002541.html
>
> AZ, 10/16/05: Playing one 3:
>  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002550.html
>
> AZ, 10/19/05: My big fat Greek snowclone:
>  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002557.html
> (on playful allusions vs. snowclones proper)
>
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>

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