CABLE Lifetime's 'Strong Medicine' presents its 100th episode

The show doesn't lack for star power in its guest stars.
By DAVE MASON
SCRIPPS HOWARD
"Strong Medicine," the Lifetime series about hospital physicians, marks its 100th episode at 9 tonight with a story about parenthood.
Rosa Blasi and Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement") star as two doctors and friends who won't hesitate to disagree with each other. The 100th episode of the Whoopi Goldberg-produced series features Camryn Manheim of "The Practice" and Sara Gilbert of "Roseanne" guest-starring as two mothers fighting for custody of a child.
Fran Drescher of "The Nanny" plays a dying cancer patient who goes to court to stress the importance of early detection. She's suing because the proper tests weren't done soon enough to help her.
Manheim said she was glad to guest-star. "I've always been a fan of Lifetime, and Whoopi's a great friend of mine."
Manheim's character is an adoptive mother who may lose her child to the biological mother, played by Gilbert. The biological mother, a recovering drug addict, never signed the papers giving the baby up for adoption, and now, several years later, she wants the child back.
In one scene, Manheim's character pushes Gilbert's.
"The lioness in her comes out," Manheim said. "What makes this such an incredible drama in that everyone can understand both sides," she said. "They want what's best for the child. In some cases, the biological parent has the most to give. I would have to say [in this story] that I would stick with the adoptive mother, party because I'm playing her."
The story clearly shows which mother can provide the best care for the child, Manheim said.
"I have a son who's now 3 1/2, and, thankfully, I was able to give birth to him and raise him on my own. I could not imagine how much I could love someone."
Personal issues such as motherhood remain a key part of "Strong Medicine." Even so, Blasi, who plays Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado, said she hadn't counted on the series, now in its fifth season, lasting this long because it's hard for any show to endure on television.