You've probably heard the phrase, "I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV." But a new national advertising campaign is about to turn the tables on that phrase by putting a local eye doctor on TV. 

You've probably seen the commercials for the prescription dry-eye remedy Restasis before. The campaign has featured actress Janine Turner, from the popular television series "Northern Exposure." Only now a change in advertising is giving Dr. Alison Tendler a place in the spotlight, replacing "Northern Exposure" with a little national exposure for this Sioux Falls ophthalmologist through television commercials and print ads. 

Tendler was first approached by a local representative of Allergan, the company which makes Restasis eye drops, six months ago. Little did she know then that she would wind up being selected from a nationwide pool of potential candidates to become a celebrity of sorts. 

Tendler says, "I didn't know what to make of it. I was so excited I didn't know who to tell first, so I kept it to myself for a little while. And then I'm like, 'Okay, this has to come out. I have to let people know.'” 

Many more people will know beginning next week when one of four television commercials hits the airwaves nationwide and many women's magazines hit store shelves and KELOLAND mailboxes. And as exciting as the world of medicine can be, Tendler says she was still in for some surprises when it came to shooting the spots. 

Tendler says, "What surprised me was the amount of people that it took. It really took an army to get something as small as a commercial done. And how long it was. So we shot for five days and it was non-stop action, there was always something different going on." 

Even with all that glamour and excitement, Tendler says she's not ready to give up her day job as an eye doctor just yet -- though she does joke that she's already asked her business manager whether she could possibly be a doctor by day and a celebrity by night.