In Doc Hollywood young Michael J. Fox having completed his residency looks like he has his future by the short hairs. He's going into plastic surgery, much money to be made there and nobody dies. Usually the only thing that approaches a dearth in fatality like that is dermatology. But a traffic jam on I-95 and a couple of stray cows on the back road he's traveling gets him into a gentle jackpot of an accident. It just happens that he plowed into a freshly put up fence by the local judge Roberts Blossom.

For the first offense in the town of Grady, Florida Fox is given community service in the local hospital where crotchety old doctor Barnard Hughes is ready to pack it in. In their own hospitable ways the good citizens of Grady set out to make the man Hughes calls, Doc Hollywood welcome. There's one particular citizen played by Julie Warner who wants to offer the ultimate in hospitality even though her ever present steady boyfriend Woody Harrelson is around.

In many ways Doc Hollywood is an updated version of the Paramount classic Welcome Stranger with Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, and Joan Caulfield. In that one however, the town folks don't take to city boy Bing right away, here they're going out of their way to make Fox welcome as they know that Hughes will not be there forever.

One of the really nice things about Doc Hollywood is the impeccable casting of some of the rustic characters you might find in the Florida wilds. Two of the best are Eyde Byrde as Nurse Packer who runs the hospital like a drill sergeant, a kinder, gentler and black version of nurse Ratched. And it took me a while to realize the actor playing the rustic southern mayor was David Ogden Stiers, formerly Charles Emerson Winchester of Hahvard and the 4077 MASH unit. For those who best remember Stiers as Major Winchester, this performance will come as a very pleasant shock.

If you saw Welcome Stranger than you have a good idea of how Doc Hollywood turns out. I think it was one of the best films of the previous decade, a pleasant and gentle diversion of entertainment.

Dr. Benjamin Stone (Michael J. Fox) leaves the manic E.R. of Washington Presbyterian Hospital for the moneyed world of Hollywood plastic surgery. He's driving his 1956 Porsche Speedster when he gets lost on a detour. He crashes into a fence while avoiding cows in the road. The fence is owned by the judge and he gets sentenced to 32 hrs of community service at the hospital. He falls for ambulance driver single mom Lou (Julie Warner). Hank Gordon (Woody Harrelson) is her suitor. Mayor Nick Nicholson (David Ogden Stiers) is eager to talk Ben into staying with the elderly Dr. Hogue looking to retire.

This one follows the formula and I've never seen anything wrong with that from rom-coms. It relies heavily on the ample charms of Michael J. Fox and there's nothing wrong with that either. Julie Warner makes a memorable introduction. The town is filled with likable quirky folks and a pig. This is a solid fun affair.

Ambitious yuppie doctor Ben Stone (a supremely assured and affable performance by Michael J. Fox) completes his internship at a Washington hospital and rushes off to Los Angeles for a cushy high-paying job as a plastic surgeon. En route to California Ben finds himself stranded in the quaint small South Carolina hamlet of Grady, where he's forced to do 32 hours worth of community service. Ben plans on leaving town as soon as possible, but has second thoughts after meeting feisty and fetching ambulance driver Lou (a delightfully spunky portrayal by the deliciously lissome Julie Warner). Director Michael Caton-Jones, working from an amiable script by Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seamon and Daniel Pyne, keeps the pace bubbling along at a steady clip, gives the picture a gentle, folksy charm that never becomes too corny or sappy, maintains a pleasant, good-natured tone throughout, and displays a sincere affection for the colorful and likable salt-of-the-earth rural characters. Fox's ingratiating presence keeps the movie humming from start to finish; he receives fine support from Warner (her nude skinny-dipping introductory scene is a genuinely sexy corker),Woody Harrelson as shrewd, dashing life insurance salesman Hank Gordon, David Ogden Steirs as hearty, jolly Mayor Nick Nicholson, Barnard Hughes as cranky veteran physician Dr. Aurelius Hugue, Bridget Fonda as aggressively flirtatious man-hungry tramp Nancy Lee Nicholson, Frances Sternhagen as sour old maid Lillian, Roberts Blossom as crusty Judge Evans, Mel Winkler as laid-back, gregarious Melvin the Mechanic, and Eyde Byrde as stern, by-the-book Nurse Packer. George Hamilton contributes an amusing cameo as hotshot plastic surgeon Dr. Halberstrom. Michael Chapman's sunny cinematography gives the film an attractive sparkling look. Carter Burwell provides a tuneful, jaunty, countryish score. A sweet little winner.