ER

Because it wasn’t as good as St. Elsewhere.

It was no Love Boat. Did Charo ever guest? I don't think so.

I rewatched during lockdown and really enjoyed it. It’s so much better than that egregious Frau fest Grey’s Anatomy.

I think ER is too smart and requires too much attention from these Gen Zers. Great show though, especially the classic first few years.

I rewatched it when it started streaming on Hulu and got addicted to it, even though I remembered some of the more irritating side plots (always involving crazy relatives of the doctors) from watching it as a kid. Just an incredible show.

Elizabeth Regina was a tv show?

as a kid...lol

WHET Eriq LaSalle?

*does Eriq La Salle move from the ER credits*

Without a doubt the episode where a psycho patient stabs 2 of the doctors in the ER and no hears them calling for help because they're having a party outside the cubicle where they lay dying.

Also the one where the bald doctor dies, I think his name was Mark.

I loved the first few seasons, admittedly in large part because of Noah Wyle. I think it is being rediscovered.

I loved ER up until Dr. Green died. But it was in syndication for so long I think my generation just got tired of it.

Maybe you young folks will make it popular again.

Incentive

Noah Wyle was my first crush

One of the best TV shows ever produced IMHO. Rewatched the whole series over lockdown. Was good until Corday left, and then pretty good when Carter went to Darfur. The final seasons were underwhelming.

Foreskin lost in the basement kitchen...

I heard that Noah Wylie is a huge asshole in real life - entitled, snobby, stuck up.

Remember the episode where one of the doctors got jumped in the restroom by a Black patient?

I never watched it....

What was the deal with George and Noah?

Old DL threads detail they went on a European vacation together shortly after they first met. When it got out about their little holiday, George's reps said Eriq went along too to make it seem like a guys' trip. According to these oldie but goodie DL threads, George paid Noah's rent and gave him a car until the show began airing and paychecks started rolling in. George appears to have left a string of broken young male hearts wherever he went in the 90s/early 2000s. I don't think Marky Mark ever recovered.

Why would this generation care about ER when Grey’s Anatomy is still currently on after 17 years? Not saying it’s better, but there are only so many hospital shows a person can watch at once since they’re kind of similar.

I've never even watched Gray's Anatomy. Am I missing anything?

R22 it’s a soap opera version of the later seasons of ER, when helicopters were always crashing into the basketball court.

I've been watching it on TNT or whatever and the last couple of seasons were unwatchable. Everybody wanted to fuck Neela and what was the point of having all the side drama with the kids? Stereotypical street kids, somebody's illegitimate blond daughter, that nurse's son who burned the house down and had to go to boarding school. I got to thinking that they realized inherently that none of the later seasons' characters had any substance so they had to bring in a platoon of Cousin Olivers. The only character worth anything in the late seasons was Angela Bassett.

I found it dark. And too hetero.

I think Nurse Jackie was what ER was trying to be.

Even Scrubs was better.

I only saw it when I went to my friend's house and I had no pot on Thursday? nights.

R10 Mark Greene was the first bald doctor to die.

Rocket Romano also dies.

I've rewatched some seasons on Hulu. Pop also airs reruns.

I am sure it was a great show but I never got into it in the day, because I couldn’t stand Julianna Margulies and Laura Innes. Once I turned in the TV and saw Innes whining to her long lost mother about her inability to accept her as a lesbian. She wasn’t selling it at all.

It's POP that shows it, not TNT. And now they've started season 1, with that loathsome Sherry Stringfield. She fucking makes my skin crawl. And I hate the mutant kid actress that plays Greene's daughter.

Laura Innes' character annoyed the hell out of me. Maria Bello's character was also annoying.

It started streaming on HBO Max.

The first four seasons are the best. In Season 5 they introduced the Kellie Martin character but didn’t know what to do with her. Carter the student became Carter the mentor , and as a mentor he was kind of an asshole.

And that GODDAMN Maura Fucking Tierney. They had definitely run out of steam those seasons she was on, because they gave her so much to do. I despise her.

Carter's addiction story arc was one of their better ones, and I never get tired of watching the intervention scene.

Greene/Hathaway/Ross and Carter/Benton had great chemistry/dynamics. That’s what made the show. I liked the rotating side characters who worked in the hospital too. I didn’t like the show as much when Clooney left. I also thought him leaving pregnant Hathaway was out of character at that point. When Mark/AE left it lost its heart. I stopped and started watching at various points after that. The last couple of seasons weren’t bad. But the Neela worship by every man she encountered was ridiculous. I found Abby a bit annoying too.

I hated how they repeated the story of Sherry Stringfield’s mentally ill sister through Sally Field playing Maura Tierney’s mentally ill mother. Enough already!

I feel guilty for this, but I thought Jeannie Boulet was such a wet blanket of a personality.

I loved early Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes). She could be a bitch but she displayed a wry sense of humor at times, and was the perfect foil to Susan and Mark. And she was an unlikely ally to Jeanie when she found out she was HIV positive.

I've crushed on Anthony Edwards my whole life. Unfortunately, he has looked like absolute garbage for a number of years now, and I've heard forever that he's an asshole in real life. That shouldn't bother me. I also once crushed on Richard Dreyfuss (circa "American Grafffiti").

I guess I'm a masochist on some level.

I enjoyed until shorty after Romano and the helicopter. I loved Sherry Stringfield and was glad when she and Ming Na rejoined. I couldn't stand it when they aged up Greene's daughter and turned her into a cunty cuntface. I also loved Kelli Martin and Maura Tierney. I was sad that Kelli bought it.

I absolutely can't stand Mariska Hargitay as Cynthia. They made her character so incredibly stupid and Mark was such a whiny annoying bitch during that run of episodes. Though I did enjoy the scene where he tries to get her back and she all but tells him to go fuck himself.

Finally what they did to Jeannie when she came back was just mean. They couldn't allow her poor character one sliver of happiness.

Stringfields’ sister wasn’t mentally ill, she was a drug addict. That was pretty sad when had to give the baby back. Jeannie was dry, but I liked her.

My comment just reminded me 🤣 f an SVU episode I watched recently where Edwards guest started as a rapist and Olibea's first partner and when I saw it the thought be er occurred if how they had worked together before until just now

I forgot about Ming Na. She was fantastic, as were Goran Visnjic and Alex Kingston.

I actually thought Mariska was great as Cynthia. She was written as a messy, flaky character and Mariska played her perfectly. Unfortunately I don’t think she could play that kind of flawed character anymore. She is permanently stuck playing crabby faced perfect Oleebia for the rest of her career.

R44 I think it may be partly that I am too much like Cynthia that makes me hate her.

Mariska showed early promise as a comedic actor.

Ming Na giving up her baby was so sad. I love the episode when Carol has the twins during a Chicago snowstorm.

I liked Kellie Martin’s character too, thought they could couple her up with Carter down the line. Shame they cut her so quickly. I did not like Carter baby/mama storyline. I liked Luka a lot and Elizabeth.

I watched it a few months ago. It was good, but I started to lose interest about half way thru season 3.

I don’t know why it hasn’t been rediscovered. I think possibly because a lot of the storylines weren’t serialized and millennials expect everything to be super serialized.

I loved William H Macy in this, early on.

I think they killed her off because she wasn't getting along with Noah r48. That episode (with that song) was fucking intense.

ER had its moments but frequently it was just plain stupid. Like what they did with Paul McCrane's character Robert "Rocket" Romano. He was considered to be a "bad" character but it was obvious he had a heart, as evidenced by his fury and sorrow at being unable to save the life of Lucy Knight. First they had his arm cut off by a helicopter. Then they had him get crushed to death by a helicopter. Now what are the chances of THAT happening? If they intended to make the character suffer and eventually get killed off that was an incredibly stupid way to do it. It was just bad, really bad, writing.

Nightmare fuel

I hadn’t heard about KM relationship with Wyle not being great. The company line seemed to be she wasn’t connecting with the audience. I remember people didn’t like her. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was because of NW though.

R52, some of those mid seasons were OOT, that’s why I prefer the early ones.

[quote]t was arguably the best drama of the 90s (maybe tied with Homicide)

No argument about it. Homicide was the better show. ER was a medical procedural that wasn't ever as good as St. Elsewhere.

[quote] ER had its moments but frequently it was just plain stupid.

The show had different phases, of different quality -

Seasons 1 - 5: classic cast, A+ show

Seasons 6 - 8: second phase cast, some fantastic episodes (Carter and Lucy attacked, Dr. Green cancer), A- or B+ quality

Seasons 9 - 15: decline in quality, seems to be a major disaster every week, Carter leading the show, B/C quality

In the seventh season the show went to letterbox format and all humor went out the window. Up until then it was a drama - but it has comedic storylines blended in almost every episode to balance it out.

One of the changes that accompanied the dramatic shift in tone was that the actors playing the nurses and desk clerks (who in the earlier seasons had storylines of their own which often brought much needed levity to the show) were pushed almost completely to the background. They were still featured in the procedural scenes but they were lucky if they got to say two sentences per episode.

I heard Lucy was going to be a love interest for Carter, but Noah Wyle didn’t want that so they scrapped it. And he has admitted he wasn’t the nicest to Kellie Martin, idk if it was because he didn’t like her, or jut didn’t want a Lucy/Carter hookup. Noah has said he was kind of a jerk during that time.

I liked the nurses- Haleh, Lydia, Malik, Yoshi and definitely missed them when their screen time was reduced.

I was sad to see the actor who played Malik died during COVID.

Vanessa Marquez who played nurse Wendy also died recently. She had some mental health issues and metoo'd Clooney.

Aw not Deezer D!

Sherry Stringfield- what an epic HW story. Her leaving when she had a red hot love story was shocking.

I won’t go into why she left since we’ve all done that to death, but they brought her back and did NOTHING with her. She left again to no fanfare. Her and Green barely interacted from what I remember. Then he died. Why didn’t they do anything with her when she returned? It was so sad because she was a great addition to the original ensemble.

[quote] ER was a medical procedural that wasn't ever as good as St. Elsewhere.

We heard you the first 500 times, dear.

I stuck with it till the end but did lose interest after Carter finally left.

Abbey & Lukka's dramas got a bit much in the latter seasons, though.

A young Zac Efron is in one of the episodes as well.

One of the world's longest running soap operas, [R6]. Interesting cast of characters, too.

r64 Nope, not me D-Fagto.

Sherry left Guiding Light when it was surging in the ratings (it got to #2) and she was in a huge storyline.

Sherry left NYPD Blue after one season when it was the hottest show on TV.

Sherry left ER when it was a phenomenon and she was in a hugely popular storyline.

Hollywood was stunned by the ER move. She didn’t want money, or more story (she was main cast in a prominent story), and didn’t ask for time off to film a movie. Just wanted out. They’ll make a movie out of it someday

R68 why did she always do that?

"Friends" is great for nostalgia, because if you want to think of that era as a happier, simpler time, the show is a reflection of that -- six people living a charmed life in New York despite being not-rich or downright poor, with lots of free time, and no big problems beyond their wacky relationship drama. Not realistic for sure, but "ER" wasn't anything like a real ER, either. With COVID, reports of Karens in hospitals, etc, etc, people might not have the appetite for watching crap go down in the hospital.

[quote] Noah has said he was kind of a jerk during that time.

After seeing interviews Noah Wylie has done I'd say he was a jerk ALL of the time. He comes across as a real dick.

I thought a lot of the pairings on the show were really dumb. Elizabeth and Mark? Abby and Luka? The actors in those pairings had no chemistry at all with each other. It was also dumb the way they had some females on the show depicted as irresistible to men. Carol Hathaway, for instance. Her poor fiance Tag was madly in love with her. The paramedic Ray Shepard was madly in love with her. Luka immediately fell madly in love with her. And of course she was the womanizing Doug Ross's One True Love. It was bewildering because there wasn't anything THAT great about her. The same thing was done with Neela; she was beloved by Michael Galland, Ray Barnett and Tony Gates (they fight over her) and some promiscuous doctor whose name I can't remember. And of course Abby, who despite being plain and always having a hangdog expression on her face, is listed after by at least four men that I remember, two of them being Carter and Luka, who compete for her. It was all very ridiculous.

The dildo convention episode was at least funny.

Dawson’s Creek was like that too with Katie Holmes. Everybody fell in love with Joey Potter.

R69 No one the fuck knows.

[quote] Hollywood was stunned by the ER move. She didn’t want money, or more story (she was main cast in a prominent story), and didn’t ask for time off to film a movie. Just wanted out. They’ll make a movie out of it someday

She’s a flake. Nothing deeper than that or biopic worthy.

She hasn’t worked since 2017 according to IMDB but probably has enough $ from ER to have a nice comfy retirement.

Here is a photo of her from 2019.

R75 She is a flake. True. But it was the talk of HW for a long time and the story is a bit more interesting than she’s just a flake. She gave it all up, for her boyfriend/husband, and I believe got burned badly.

Why didn’t they use her better when she returned? Anyone care to guess? It was just…..stupid they didn’t. She was like a guest star, but she was still main cast. They gave her no real story which is, I guess, why she left again.

[quote] Finally what they did to Jeannie when she came back was just mean. They couldn't allow her poor character one sliver of happiness.

I agree. It was kind of disappointing as the network promoted the one episode return quite a bit.

Jeanie was nice but she seemed anachronistic to the show somehow, like they picked a real nurse and stuck her into the middle of a tv drama. She was just so low-key. I was shocked when I watched the ER reunion and she said she toured as a backup singer with Tina Turner!

The first few seasons were good, but after that the show just repeated itself.

I liked all of the female characters through Season 4.

Anna (Maria Bello) was a bit of a stock character but I was interested in where her and Carter’s relationship was heading and wish she stayed. At the time I thought it was crazy that she would choose James LeGros over cute Dr. Carter…though LeGros has actually aged a lot better than Noah Wyle.

Corday was fun when she was paired with Benton. After she hooked up romantically with Mark, she turned into a creaming harpie (and they had no chemistry).

Susan was my favorite in those early years and very relatable. Her scenes with Kerry Weaver were always great. When she came back years later it was nice to see her at first, but she quickly became a supporting character to Maura Tierney who got all of the decent storylines.

Loved Jeanie and her HIV related storylines, plus her relationship with Anspaugh’s terminally ill son 🥲.

I know Julianna Marguiles isn’t popular here but she was fantastic and completely believable in her role. She was wise to leave when she did, before they could ruin her character.

What happened to Jeanie when she came back? I think I stopped watching by then.

I also liked Corday and Benton together. She was funny when she first got there. Sometimes I think of the scene where she was in surgery with this old doctor and she said quietly to someone (maybe Peter), “I knew he was old, but I didn’t know he was so short.” And the doctor asked, “What?” And Elizabeth said louder, directly to him, “I knew you were OLD, but I didn’t know you were so SHORT”. And it always makes me laugh.

Did Luka and Abby end up together?

The show ran on NBC for far too long. And the characters that kept coming on just became less and less compelling. I can watch up until Greene's passing, but the show started circling the drain with the increased focus on the Abby Lockhart character and her crazy family. At one point, it seemed like half the season was focused on Abby's relationship with the Sally Field character and the actor who played her brother.

Who was the Indian women towards the end, who practically kept killing people in every episode through her own incompetence but still managed to keep working there? Those last few years were dreadful.

[quote]Vanessa Marquez who played nurse Wendy also died recently. She had some mental health issues and metoo'd Clooney.

I don't think she MeToo'd him, I believe she posted on SM that he is Gay and a closet scientologist.

The Gay part is plausible as she probably witnessed whatever went on between him and Noah Wyle and then Waldo. Wasn't Waldo a hair stylist on ER?

The Scientology part is rubbish.

She had very severe mental problems and was even on Intervention at some point. The things she said about Clooney were rumors mixed with gibberish.

It was ridiculous at how unsafe a workplace the ER became over the years. Bombs! Helicopter crashing! Monkey pox! Stabbings! And more bombs! And at least three of the main characters died on duty throughout the series run - Lucy, Romano and Pratt. (Not including Mark Greene who died of natural causes or the black guy who died after he returned to the military).

And Omar Epps’s character. That was another shocking episode.

I stopped watching after the helicopter crashed, killing Dr. Romano. Too on the nose for me.

Remember when the paramedics brought in a jumping shark on a stretcher?

Pratt and Gallant died? Damn.

Yeah, Dr. Gant’s death was tough. The part where they are paging him to get to the ER and the patient’s beeper goes off and someone says about the patient, “Oh my god, I think that’s Gant.” and then everyone stops and looks at him and Carter says, “Dennis?” So sad. He definitely jumped in front of the train.

Notable how much plastic surgery Margulies has had done since those early days.

Juliana Margulies was so naturally beautiful in ER, and didn’t look like anyone else, but was also believable as a nurse living with her mother and struggling with depression. A perfect match of actor and character.

What was the show where that guy had that thing?

[quote] Did Luka and Abby end up together?

They ended up married and had a baby. They were one of the worst pairings on ER. The actors had no chemistry at all.

It’s weird because i thought that Noah Wyle and Maura Tierney had great chemistry at first when their characters were just friends and they had a light flirtation thing going on. As soon as they got together, the chemistry was out the door.

Love Sally Field, but I thought she was terrible on ER, chewing the scenery left and right. And yes, there was a long period where the bulk of every episode seemed to be focused on the trials and tribulations of Abby Lockhart.

Abbeeee! Drink your juice!!!!!!

Dramas don't age well.

Comedies do

[quote]I've crushed on Anthony Edwards my whole life. Unfortunately, he has looked like absolute garbage for a number of years now, and I've heard forever that he's an asshole in real life. That shouldn't bother me. I also once crushed on Richard Dreyfuss (circa "American Grafffiti"). I guess I'm a masochist on some level.

R39 I forget when this was, I guess in the late 90s - Anthony Edwards was in a play at the Williamstown Theatre Festival (summer theatre at Williams College, Williamstown MA). After a performance (maybe opening night?) the audience was invited to hang out with the cast at the hotel on campus. I was in my 20s, kind of shy but wanted to talk to A. E. I stood next to him for a while - while he talked to some friends - there were a lot of people there - finally I bummed a cigarette from him hoping that would start a conversation. But he just gave me a cigarette without a word. He wasn't exactly an asshole, but he was ignoring me. So after a while I left.

I loved Maura Tierney. For me, she saved ER. I was about to stop watching, but curious when they brought her on as she had just finished in the recently canceled Talk Radio. I agree she was mismatched with Goran Visjnik, I thought he was much better matched with Lindsay from Freaks and Geeks - (who aged from15 to 30 in two years!).

I love Sally Field, but thought she was miscast as Tierney's mom. OMG - it should have been Patty Duke!!

I think the best shows for syndication are ones in which each episode is self-contained and someone doesn't need to learn or know the back story on all of the main characters. (Because people don't watch syndicated shows in the same way that they watch continuing dramas on TV, where they dedicate a certain night of the week to a particular show). Hence the popularity of Golden Girls, Frazier, Friends, Star Trek NG, Law and Order, etc in Syndication. How would you syndicate a show like Dallas? It would be very difficult.

Same reason St. Elsewhere isn’t. No need. Medical dramas are all the same. Greys fills the needed role.

R101 is too stupid to live.

ER was a garbage melodrama. It provided cheap thrills when it ran in prime time but is not pleasurable or interesting to revisit.

Grey's Anatomy is a shitty sub- soap opera.

St. Elsewhere had vastly superior acting, writing, characterizations, storylines. The best medical drama of all time. It's never been surpassed. I rewatched the whole series during the pandemic on Hulu. Check it out; it's surprising how modern and relevant it feels.

I think the first four seasons are definitely worth watching again.

What was so fascinating about those early years was that it focused equally on the characters’ career development, and the pressure of always having to compete with the other students/residents - in addition to having to juggle an often messy personal life.

It wasn’t until later that it became a soap opera, and a rather dreary one at that.

The OGs were the best ensemble in actors and characters. They meshed so well. I always wondered why Susan and Halloway never interacted much.

I believe Susan was actually a bridesmaid at Hathaway’s aborted wedding to Tag (Rick Rossovich). That actually annoyed me at the time, like didn’t Carol have a cousin or close gal friends outside of work?

And there was that famous S1 episode directed by Quentin Tarantino where he had them both sun bathing on the roof together. In fact, it might have been that scene when Carol asked Susan to be a bridesmaid lol

I think it’s because Hathaway was the manager for the nurses (right?) so she wasn’t dealing as much with the doctors day to day, except in discussions about general management. Susan wasn’t in management for the doctors, she was working more with the nurses who were staffing the patients. Carol had the key to the pill closet, I do remember that.

I liked how in the early seasons the characters felt like a family unit. They butted heads often but they always felt connected (Mark-Doug, Carter-Benton, Weaver-Jeanie, etc) and like a dysfunctional family.

^ I think that tone was exactly right for a high-pressure, low-sleep workplace, and they did a good job showing that when it goes wrong it REALLY goes off the rails (Doug feeling emboldened to do whatever he wanted, Omar Epps’s death).

I loved Randi (Kristin Minter).

[quote] Mark was such a whiny annoying bitch during that run of episodes. Though I did enjoy the scene where he tries to get her back and she all but tells him to go fuck himself.

That was Season 4 when Mark was dealing with all the post trauma effects from an assault. Mark was surly and difficult to deal with but I thought it was a great story arc for the character, and Anthony Edwards should have won the Emmy that year.

Towards the end of that season he organizes a dinner to thank everyone for their patience for having to put up with his bullshit. The catering goes awry and the house band he hires is awful, but everyone ends up having a wonderful time…even cranky Weaver.

Julianna Margulies was supposed to die in the first episode. They liked her so they kept her. It’s sort odd SS was the only woman in the main cast originally. Glad they kept Carol/JM, she could be a pill, but she was believable and had great chemistry with Clooney.

Carol didn’t take shit from anyone when doing her job, and I liked that about her.

Susan was like that too and wouldn’t play politics with Kerry Weaver and couldn’t suppress her annoyance at Weaver trying to micromanage her. Unfortunately when she returned in Season 8 she was kind of flaky (plus about 15-20 lbs heavier).

It does seem like they had no idea what to do with Susan after bringing her back. After the initial fanfare she quickly faded into the background. I think the fact that they went back to her crazy sister for drama was proof they hadn't clue as to how to use her.

R113 It doesn’t speak well of the writers that they couldn’t think of story for one of the originals, Susan, who came back after leaving in a shocking way. It still pisses me off. I believe she stayed for 4 seasons and was basically a recurring character. Egregious.

Does anyone remember when they did an entire episode live? I remember that well because Clooney was supposedly bad at learning his lines (I think Anthony Edwards had complained about it publicly) and people were watching to see if he'd screw up. As I recall he and everyone else did great.

I really enjoyed the live episode. That was Elizabeth Corday’s first appearance on the show, I believe.

Carter’s patient dies and the documentary crew films Mark coming down hard on him. At the very end, Mark secretly pulls the film crew aside and tells them he will agree to be interviewed about his assault on the condition that they remove the footage that showed Carter in a negative light. Mark really was the greatest 🥲.

Or at least he was until a later season when he lets a patient who threatened to murder his family die on the ER table.

I still think about “you set the tone” all the time in my work.

Carter failed at setting the tone. He was no Mark Greene.

I do wonder how a Susan/Mark romance would have played out. SS and AE had great chemistry and the writing was top notch.

As opposed to his pairing with Alex Kingston with whom he had zero chemistry. Corday belonged with Benton.

Ugh. Too bad AE was on his way out when SS came back. They could have tried them again.

While the show did nothing with Kellie Martin, she wanted off the show because her sister died from lupus. Allegedly, working in a hospital set series was tough on her. Wyle admitted he was tough on her. He also asked the characters not be romantically involved because he felt Carter wouldn’t cross that line with a student.

Eriq LaSalle was receiving fan mail that lamented his characters lack of a of a healthy relationship with a black woman. Considering he was the most notable black actor in television at the time, he thought that Benton having a healthy relationship with Corday was not sending a good message.

I still remember this episode but not the details - one of the episodes about Greene and his dysfunctional relationship with his parents, where at the end of the episode both Green and his dad end up in the ER (near the parents' home) for anxiety attacks/chest pains.

^ I think that was one of the episodes where the characters leave the ER and the entire episode was shot on location. Doug Ross goes on the trip with him and the two characters reconnect after having been at odds with each other all season.

Not one of my favorites (I never cared for the “solo” episodes and hated the Carter in Africa episodes).

For some reason I remember them using Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” in the soundtrack during the characters’ long drive to see Greene’s parents. Now I always think of ER when I hear that song.

It started when they went to claim Doug's dead father's things then they take a side trip to where Greene's parents live nearby and crazy ass Cynthia shows up. I didn't mind this episode too much but I preferred when they started at the hospital. I did enjoy Benton's trip down south though.

[quote] I did enjoy Benton's trip down south though.

I enjoyed that. I liked the subplot of him dealing with a pregnant patient's bigoted father. It was handled well. I remember the nurse character who became Benton's sidekick in that episode.

I was in high school at the time, I watched ER every week with my parents. I can't remember a damn thing about it.

R126 wasn't it Celia Weston. I love it anytime she pops up on anything.

Lesbian with a cane!

[quote]She is a flake.

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember reading that Stringfellow had anxiety issues or something like that and the demanding schedule just freaked her out. But good for her for moving on if that's not what she wanted to do. Her early storylines with the addict sister Chloe were quiet good. The episode in which she's speaking to a therapist, talking about empty her life has become without baby Chloe and her career just isn't enough was a tearjerker.

One of the things I liked bout the ER was the petty workplace politics that went on with *all* the staff, not just the doctors. The nurses don't like Jeanie when she starts because she was a doctor's assistant, rather than a nurse, the nurses strike, racial divisions that would occasionally emerge. Also, some of the realistic scenarios doctors face when the humane thing is to let a patient die. Before they relied on silly gimmicks like helicopter crashes, it really was more a bit all these small dramas that filled this crazy workplace.

R130, I have two siblings that are exactly like Chloe, a brother and a sister. I don't bail them out, they're both adults and I wasn't put on this earth to shovel money out when they make mistakes. I've never liked Stringfellow or who ever the fuck she is so I don't have any sympathy for her problems.

R128 Yup, it was her. She's one of those lovable character actresses.

R130 Stringfield was on Guiding Light for 3 years with an equally if not more rigorous schedule. She had to memorize 50-80 pages a dialogue a day and work 4-5 days a week 12-16 hour days. Michelle Forbes, speaking of her time on Guiding Light, nearly had a nervous breakdown due to her intense storyline (one of the best ever) and her workload. Stringfield left to be with some loser.

Loved the benzene spill episode in Season 4. It was a solid “crisis” episode - very suspenseful without going way over the top.

[quote]Loved the benzene spill episode in Season 4. It was a solid “crisis” episode - very suspenseful without going way over the top.

Yes, that was good; once people start dropping, they all start yelling at each other over who is at fault; as a side story to the medical drama, they spend the whole episode looking for some elusive binder that contains disaster protocols.

You just know Abby had the time of her life deep throating on Dr Luka Kovac's big Croatian cock.

Luka-pray for me!

Goran and Maura were fucking towards the end of their run on the show, after Maura’s husband came out as gay. It ended when Goran ended up with an adopted kid and a love child with his hometown mistress, literally within weeks of each other. Such a sleaze.

Carol got over her suicidal depression by the next episode

We’ll never know the truth about why Sherry left ER when she did (mid-season no less), but Susan was a bad ass character. It was a huge loss regardless, but especially considering her storyline at the time.

[quote] Goran and Maura were fucking towards the end of their run on the show, after Maura’s husband came out as gay. It ended when Goran ended up with an adopted kid and a love child with his hometown mistress, literally within weeks of each other. Such a sleaze.

Wait - are we talking about their characters on the show or is this real life? Maura’s ex husband is a homosexual?

[quote]We’ll never know the truth about why Sherry left ER when she did (mid-season no less), but Susan was a bad ass character. It was a huge loss regardless, but especially considering her storyline at the time.

Aside from her personal messiness, one of the things I liked about the Susan character was that unlike GA, she wasn't interested in fucking the other doctors and the nurses were kind of hard on her; they expected high handed behavior from a male, but not a woman. For it's time, ER writers developed some pretty complex characters that dealt with touchy race and gender issues

I only watched the first few seasons. I liked Lisa Nicole Carson’s character but she was too good for Benton!

^ Who is GA? Did you mean GC/Doug Ross?

GA- Grey's Anatomy

They overdid the guest star arcs, like the Bob Newhart one, the Ernest Borgnine one and I'm watching one now with Red Buttons and the Wife Who Refuses To Die.

Yes - way too many “old people pulling at my heartstrings” storylines. Although that’s probably representative of the population of an ER.

I thought they did a pretty good job handing stories about addicts and homeless / mentally ill people too.

I liked the Alan Alda one as the former mentor/arrogant jerk surgeon that Mark recognizes as suffering from early stage dementia

"Euphoria" kind of reminds me about an ER episode in which a young woman keeps OD'ing (and they keep bringing her back) while her father begs the ER staff to help him with her addiction when there is nothing they can do but keep pumping her stomach.

So - do you think ER jumped the shark, and if so, when did it?

I loved ER back in the day, until it overstayed its welcome by a couple of seasons. Yet I have no interest in going back to rewatch it. I guess the length of the run plus the heaviness of the subject matter make it seem an…exhausting prospect. It’s a shame the show seems all but forgotten now. I never managed to get into any other medical drama.

[quote] So - do you think ER jumped the shark, and if so, when did it?

I remember at the time this episode aired many people proclaimed it as the jump the shark episode.

Carter, Susan, Abby and Kovac are made to attend a sexual harassment training. It was very “Breakfast Club”, with Carter and Kovac literally dueling for Abby’s attention 🙄.

It was also the time I started disliking Carter. He was such a great character in the early seasons when he was in ‘student’ mode, and Noah Wyle was fantastic at juggling the dramatic and comedic aspects of the role. As he rose up the career ladder, Carter really became unlikable. As opposed to Anthony Edwards/Greene he came across as condescending and dismissive in his ‘teacher/mentor’ mode.

The Big Three networks ruled in the 90s. Those days are never coming back. I don't know anyone who watches network tv shows anymore except my older relatives.

It's on HBO MAX.

It's also on POP.

[quote]So - do you think ER jumped the shark, and if so, when did it?

Actually, not unlike a lot of shows, once it became a hit & Clooney became a "stah" and it stopped being an ensemble, I think it lost the early magic. But the real "jump the shark" moment was Dr Greene's very long goodbye. I agree that Carter grew into a snide jerk who lacked the talent or compassion of the other doctors

To Clooney’s credit, he did not ask for more screen time as his movie career was taking off. If anything he was less featured.

On the other hand, I hated it when it became The Abby Show starting with Season 7.

The characters became a little less nuanced after season 5 or 6. Ugh, the Abby show and her hound dog face 24/7.

The last great season was the one with the Carter stabbing, and the last great episodes was when Dr. Green dies (and the scene where the news travels to the ER, and eventually other stuff accumulates on the notice board).

Susan should’ve hooked up with Carter when she came back. He had a crush on her early on. He was cute.

R159 yes! And they had chemistry.

Susan and Carter would’ve worked. Deb Chen and Carter had chemistry too.

Susan and Carter did hook up in Season 8, however it was a quick thing that only lasted a couple of episodes because they were already planning on making Carter/Abby a thing. Their last scene as a "couple" ends with them kissing and realizing they feel nothing for each other.

[quote] and the last great episodes was when Dr. Green dies (and the scene where the news travels to the ER, and eventually other stuff accumulates on the notice board).

I remember Corday faxed Mark’s final letter to the ER staff to the hospital. I thought it was odd even back then that someone would send something that intimate via fax!

The Susan Is So Hot Everyone Wants To Fuck Her storyline is as ridiculous as when they gave Neela that storyline.

Also Carol and Doug not being at Mark’s funeral. I mean they couldn’t superimpose them or something?

[quote] The Susan Is So Hot Everyone Wants To Fuck Her storyline

I don’t remember this. Carter had a crush on her as a student which was very plausible. And she had the psychiatrist boyfriend who went ape shit. And Mark. She was cute back then. When she came back to the show she was paired up with Donal Logue who wasn’t exactly a stud.

But yeah I agree the men falling over Neela was a joke.

R141 Yes, Maura’s ex-husband Billy is gay.

I have to admit it, I love the Abby show. I did not like Carol Hathaway at all. Julianna’s real-life cuntery shone through.

I thought Maura Tierney was pretty good. I didn’t like a lot of the later cast additions, though, including Neela, Archie and a few others whose names escape me right now. I liked that Jerry and a lot of the same nurses remained to provide continuity with the early seasons.

I forgot how Noah Wylie became so unlikable. I did like him at first and thought he was very cute. But by the end I couldn't really stand him. Also I think a little Noah Wylie might just be better than a lot of Noah Wylie. Some actors are not better the more you see of them, the opposite can be true.

R164 Sherry did have a certain something and she wasn’t exactly ugly. She was attractive. She had an attitude I can see males being attracted to.

I thought I remembered Susan and Carter getting together briefly. It would have worked if they went for it. They did have chemistry.

When they finally got together on Sherry’s return, she looked like his mother and they had zero chemistry (Carter was at his most sufferable)

“Neela, you’re so beautiful!”

“Neela, you’re so beautiful’l

“Neela, you’re so beautiful!”

I saw ER way back when. I don't think I watched all 15 yrs but a lot. Now I started again, I'm up to season 1, episode 3 and I'm already bored. I'll never make it binge watching the entire series. Also I keep thinking some of the characters are characters I saw playing medical ppl of some kind on Grey's Anatomy. Am I imagining things or were there some actors on GA that were also on ER? I mean ER seems realistic and all and the actors can all act so I don't know why I'm finding it boring.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Ron Eldard (as the paramedic, Shep), who was very big for a while. Don't really know what happened to him.

I think he appeared in a baseball ep after Carol dumped him and was never seen again.

Ron fucked Julianne Marguiles for several years, then he got fat.

[quote]Ron fucked Julianne Marguiles for several years, then he got fat.

Not only that, but he showed up in a bit role on "Justified" with some unfortunate plastic surgery. DL was abuzz at the time about what exactly happened to him & the consensus was drugs

Apparently she reads him for filth in her book, though I’m not sure I would rely the word of Ms Cuntiness

What gossip does JM tell?

The reason I brought up Ron Eldard was because he was the only guy (regular or recurring) I can think of who I was attracted to on ER., other than Noah Wylie in the earlier episodes. The only guest actor I recall being attracted to was Ewan McGregor.

This scene made me cry when the episode originally aired, and it still makes me misty 🥲.

Hour-long dramas are rarely syndicated the way sitcoms are after their original run is completed. It's especially hard when there are serial narrative elements to them so you have to watch them consecutively.

[quote] The reason I brought up Ron Eldard was because he was the only guy (regular or recurring) I can think of who I was attracted to on ER., other than Noah Wylie in the earlier episodes.

Taglieri in Season One was the hottest ER doc in the history of the show.

R183, you forgot about Rick Rossovich, he was fucking sex on a stick.

Regarding Carter, he's very self involved. I'm watching the episode where they're attending Gant's funeral and when he meets Gant's father he said something about feeling Gant's death was all his fault. He also did that when they had the funeral for Red Buttons' character's wife, and Red said "This day is not about you."

R186 Thanks. He wasn't my type. I remember him from Top Gun. He did have a good body, but I guess I like faces too and his looked like an old overshoe.

Ron Eldard was hot asf.

Unfortunately he now resembles a blond Gerard Depardieu

What happened to his career, exactly? (Eldard)

He landed a plum role in House of Sand and Fog and was the only actor of the four leads to receive bad notices. Film career never recovered. This was also around the time he broke up with Julianna Cuntulies, his weight plummeted and he looked extremely strung out…so, drugs is the most likely answer

Eldard was terrible in Deep Impact. The scene at the end when he says goodbye to his family is excruciating to watch.

Yeah, he was a pretty bad actor. I thought that from the start. Though I've seen some bad ones do surprisingly well.

It was crap, plain and simple. No one wants to see that again.

R14- He looks like a mature version of Wil Wheaton.

They brought in Glenn Howerton (Always Sunny in Philadelphia) to do several episodes of ER as a resident…and then he just disappeared. This was in one of the later seasons after Anthony Edwards left.

He showed off his nice furry chest in this scene.

R198 was he there long enough to tell everyone how he wanted to fuck Neela?

I can’t remember if he wanted to fuck Neela or Abby. I know it wasn’t Carter.

Wow, I’d forgotten about Ron Eldard until I googled him. Haven’t watched ER since it’s original run, but I remember now having the hots for him big style. Far hotter than George Clooney who I always found a bit smug and off-putting. Eldard isn’t so hot now, alas. Someone needs to tell him the He-Man hairstyle is not flattering, on anyone.

Watching an episode on POP where Sam's stupid kid drove a car in the snow and almost killed himself. They should have written him out of the show years before.

Angela Bassett was in the final season and had a storyline where she adopts a baby abandoned by his teen mother played by Rooney Mara. Rooney's character later returns and agrees to an open adption.

Coincidentally, a lot of the original crew of producers and writers had worked on “China Beach”.

Some of the cases they came across were so interesting and I wanted to see them developed but … the show was about the ER so we didn’t get a lot of follow-up.

One case was a guy who could not stop hiccuping. He and his fiance found it funny until it was revealed it was a symptom of an HIV infection. And we were left with the fiancé wondering about his fidelity and her own health.

It's one of those shows I liked to watch when it was new but have no desire to revisit.

R44, Mariska is going to be Olivia forever. Just like Aniston is forever going to be Rachel. That goes double for Mariska since she's been playing Olivia for a quarter of a century now (which is insane to think about).

ER is currently running on free-to-air in Australia (no, DL wags, not its first run here).

Homicide: Life on the Street is also running on the streamer of one of the free to air stations, so, also for free. All seven seasons and the movie. Whoever said dramas don't hold up well upthread hasn't seen that one lately.

Someone said dramas don't hold up well? That's dumb. In movies and tv, comedy ages the worst since humor is very reliant on the context of the times. And humor changes dramatically every decade or so, maybe more.

When I studied history I was taught to read the hit comedies of the era if you really wanted a feel for the place. Historians can spin the story whichever way they will, depending on what evidence they use or leave out (or don't even know yet), but if you know a lot of people laughed at a political joke or a joke about society, you can be pretty sure it hit the nail on the head.

So in one way, the acknowledgment that comedy ages poorly as things change can be a good thing, and we should always make sure the original is preserved somewhere for posterity even if it offends us now.

R210, that's a really interesting point that I never thought of!v

My favorite ER doc was played by gay DL fave Julian Morris. I hadn't been watching, then caught up on his episodes later. I wasn't a big fan of ER, even from the beginning, when I preferred Chicago Hope.

Regarding Bassett's turn as ER chief or whatever. I was reminded of one scene where she noticed some doctor that was doing something that wasn't protocol. So she's like fifty feet away from whatever it is the doctor's doing yet she's asking EVERYONE ELSE why he's doing it. Yet she doesn't storm over with her permanently pursed lips and judgmental glare to ask the doctor. Bitch, ask him yourself if you're so goddamned concerned.

R70- Friends was a mediocre show.

R183- There we’re a couple a very good looking medical students on the show but both only appeared briefly- one first appeared at the same time as the red haired Glen Howerton . I don’t remember his name but he was an arrogant good looking yuppie and he had some kind of an asthma attack or something and I had to pull off his shirt and had a nice chest There was another medical student who had a beard and he was hot for the patty duke Nurse who eventually became a doctor and then he was written out of the show -he was very good looking too.