Police Surgeon started life under the title Dr. Simon Locke. Dr. Simon Locke was a medical series with a down-home flavour starring Jack Albertson as an ageing country doctor training young successor Simon Locke in Dixon Mills, USA. Although not broadcast on the entire CTV network, the first season did get broadcast by several individual stations in Canada. After the first season, the series was retitled to Police Surgeon as the character Simon Locke went from country doctor to big city police surgeon.