Reality TV’s unlikeliest star has a big heart for rescuing animals
For rural veterinarian Dr. Pol, the drama all comes from his furry and feathered patients
He’s plucked countless porcupine quills from the snouts of dogs, delivered calves in snowstorms and castrated a petite house cat and a twotonne bull in the same day.
There isn’t much that rural veterinarian Jan Pol, 75, hasn’t seen or done in a half-century of practising animal medicine in and around his Weidman, Mich., clinic.
Reindeer with a head cold? Check. Dog with a chronic erection? Check. But even weirder than that case of the bovine with a fifth leg is the twist his career has taken over the last seven years.
While most of Pol’s peers have long since retired, the no-nonsense, Dutch American doctor who can fashion a goat’s leg splint out of parts from an old apple barrel has become a reality TV star of global proportions.
Now in its 12th season — there are two seasons per year — Nat Geo Wild’s The Incredible Dr. Pol surpassed the 100-episode mark last year and is still breaking ratings records at the same network that gave us the smash series Cesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer. The Incredible Dr. Pol (which airs in Canada Thursdays at 9 p.m.) remains Nat Geo Wild’s No. 1 watched series.
As recently as December, it delivered the network’s most-watched weeks ever with the holiday mara- thon 12 Days of Dr. Pol.
Pol met his wife, Diane, when he arrived in Michigan from the Netherlands as an exchange student in the 1960s. The two run Pol Veterinarian Services, which of course makes her a regular presence on the show. But she opts out of the frame more often than not and is the low-key yin to her husband’s gregarious yang. The cameras also follow their son, Charles, and vets on staff who include Dr. Emily and Dr. Brenda as they deliver puppies or perform surgeries on ailing pigs.
The Incredible Dr. Pol resonates with a diverse swath of viewers in ways that more targeted reality programming about loners roughing it in the Alaskan outback, rich house- wives fighting it out in the suburbs or Bigfoot hunters who find nothing week after week, have not.
“There was some talk that it might be too much for audiences, but it’s turned out to be OK,” noted Pol recently in Pasadena during the Television Critics Association tour. “Kids in particular are really interested in what we’re doing. It’s usually the dads who are upset.”
“And lucky for them, they aren’t also getting the smell,” says Charles, the show’s co-creator and producer, who isn’t a vet but often accompanies his father on farm calls.
Pol speaks around the globe about the care and treatment of animals, a theme that runs throughout his book Never Turn Your Back on an Angus Cow: My Life as a Country Vet.
Other Nat Geo Wild shows feature furry and feathered fare, but they don’t have Pol as a main point of entry and it’s clear what’s missing. His quick wit, years of experience, stubborn tenacity and generous heart are a big part of the show’s draw as he makes his way across bucolic green fields and bone-chilling winter blizzards to reach his patients.
Calves die unless they’re delivered on time, and even then there’s no guarantee. Sick horses are put down. It’s sad but also realistic, no artificial happy endings here.
The Incredible Dr. Polwas cocreated by Charles, one of three children the Pols adopted. He grew up watching his dad work miracles on the animals around them, but he was not compelled to follow in his father’s footsteps and instead wanted to make movies and TV shows. He moved to L.A. 10 years ago, where he worked at Nickelodeon in operations.
“There is a point where we all get in this business where you’re like ‘Why am I working for someone else?’ ” says Charles, who works on the show with Monica Austin and Jonathan Schroder. “So reality (TV) is one thing where you can just go out and do it like old-school, college filmmaking. You just need to find characters who are larger than life.
“And I said to my partners that the largest character I have ever met in my life is my father. His job has both drama and stakes: everything you want in television.”
A camera crew follows Pol’s team several months out of the year. The crew’s problem isn’t fabricating a story from nothing, it’s keeping up with Pol. He’s notorious among those who know him for driving and moving quickly. “I can’t stop for the cameras or do a retake,” he explains. “Once I pull that calf out, I’m not pushing it back in so they can get a better shot.”
Pol has felt the heat from showing it all. Another vet filed a complaint regarding Pol’s treatment of a dog on the show, in particular a Boston terrier named Mr. Pigglesworth. The dog was struck by a car and, during an emergency surgery to save him, the complaint contends that Pol didn’t wear sterile surgical attire and that Charles, who is not a licensed vet, assisted in the surgery. The complaint was eventually dismissed.
Another brush with the law, says Charles, happened when the police pulled over the camera crew for speeding and asked why they were in such a rush. They said that they were trying to keep up with Pol. “No one can keep up with Dr. Pol,” replied the cop.