Cosmetic MD Nation: SMAC's Dr. Wagner on BBC's Whicker World

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

SMAC's Dr. Wagner on BBC's Whicker World

Alan Whicker is a very famous television host in Britain, hosting the BBC travel program Whicker's World from 1959 to 1990. In the days before mass travel, he'd go across the world, bringing the lives of the rich and famous into millions of English households.

Long before he joined SMAC in Boca Raton, Dr. Kurt Wagner and his wife Kathy were two of Whicker's interview subjects when he came to Beverly Hills in 1973. The interview was so popular in Britain that Whicker (now in his eighties) came to Boca Raton recently to film a new interview for his upcoming "where are they now" series. Dr. Wagner's new interview was mentioned in the UK newspapers the Daily Mail and Guardian, while Wagner's 1973 interview was included in Whicker's greatest hits DVD collection.

Looking at his widespread media exposure, Dr. Wagner was a trailblazer and diplomat who turned plastic surgery into a mainstream topic worldwide. In this and his several appearances on the Merv Griffin Show in the 60s and 70s, Dr. Wagner discussed topics in plastic surgery that seem tame and commonplace by today's standards, but at the time were revolutionary and novel. Was he the original Dr. 90210?

For example, even though it still pops up in the media as a new concept, TIME magazine broke the story of "men getting cosmetic surgery" in 1971, with quotes from Dr. Wagner.

Below is a three part series of Dr. Wagner's appearance on Whicker's World. The new interviews will come out sometime in March.