ER 

The lives, loves and losses of the doctors and nurses of Chicago's County General Hospital.

Creator:

Michael Crichton

Stars:

Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Julianna Margulies

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 153 wins & 364 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Noah Wyle	...	John Carter 254 episodes, 1994-2009
Laura Innes	...	Kerry Weaver 250 episodes, 1995-2009
Laura Cerón	...	Nurse Chuny Marquez 219 episodes, 1995-2009
Deezer D	...	Nurse Malik McGrath 190 episodes, 1994-2009
Maura Tierney	...	Abby Lockhart 189 episodes, 1999-2009
Goran Visnjic	...	Luka Kovac 185 episodes, 1999-2008
Yvette Freeman	...	Nurse Haleh Adams 184 episodes, 1994-2009
Anthony Edwards	...	Mark Greene 182 episodes, 1994-2008
Eriq La Salle	...	Peter Benton / ... 173 episodes, 1994-2009
Emily Wagner	...	Doris Pickman 168 episodes, 1994-2009
Alex Kingston	...	Elizabeth Corday 160 episodes, 1997-2009
Lyn Alicia Henderson	...	Pamela Olbes 149 episodes, 1995-2009
Sherry Stringfield	...	Susan Lewis 142 episodes, 1994-2009
Abraham Benrubi	...	Jerry Markovic 137 episodes, 1994-2009
Mekhi Phifer	...	Gregory Pratt 136 episodes, 2002-2009
Julianna Margulies	...	Carol Hathaway 136 episodes, 1994-2009
Parminder Nagra	...	Neela Rasgotra 129 episodes, 2003-2009
Troy Evans	...	Frank Martin / ... 129 episodes, 1994-2009
Lily Mariye	...	Nurse Lily Jarvik 127 episodes, 1994-2009
Linda Cardellini	...	Samantha Taggart 126 episodes, 2003-2009
Paul McCrane	...	Robert Romano 126 episodes, 1997-2008
Ming-Na Wen	...	Jing-Mei Chen 118 episodes, 1995-2004
Montae Russell	...	Dwight Zadro 117 episodes, 1995-2009
Ellen Crawford	...	Nurse Lydia Wright 113 episodes, 1994-2009
Conni Marie Brazelton	...	Nurse Connie Oligario 113 episodes, 1994-2003
Scott Grimes	...	Archie Morris 112 episodes, 2003-2009
George Clooney	...	Doug Ross 109 episodes, 1994-2009
Gloria Reuben	...	Jeanie Boulet 103 episodes, 1995-2008

Storyline

Michael Crichton has created a medical drama that chronicles life and death in a Chicago hospital emergency room. Each episode tells the tale of another day in the ER, from the exciting to the mundane, and the joyous to the heart-rending. Frenetic pacing, interwoven plot lines, and emotional rollercoastering is used to attempt to accurately depict the stressful environment found there. This show even portrays the plight of medical students in their quest to become physicians.

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Plot Keywords:

hospital | emergency room | sleeping | medical care | medical doctor | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

NBC Warner Bros.

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

E.R.

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Constant c Productions,John Wells Productions,Amblin Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min 60 min 55 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dr John 'Tag' Taglieri & Dr Greene both starred in Top Gun together as 'Slider' & 'Goose'

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Goofs

None of the doctors or nurses performs CPR correctly, but if done with straight arms and enough force to make a difference, it can (and often does) break the patient's ribs. Obviously it's better to go without a factually accurate portrayal of the procedure than to injure the actors in the name of realism.

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Quotes

Dr. Kerry Weaver: You know what? I'm really very flattered. It's just that I'm, uh... I mean... gosh, you're such a beautiful woman. You're... you're so beautiful. But I'm... I... I'm straight... I mean, I don't... I'm straight. Oh, God. Oh, my God. I don't know... I don't know what's...
[starts laughing, then stops abruptly]
Dr. Kerry Weaver: I mean, I'm sorry... I just... I don't... I feel very...
[exhales]
Dr. Kerry Weaver: ... I'm... You know what?... I... I just... I mean, I... I guess I never even really considered this.

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Alternate Versions

A way to determine the difference between time zone broadcasts of the 1997 live episode is to look at the scene with the man on the gurney who loses it and threatens people with a scalpel. In the east coast broadcast seen by most of the country, the scene went as scripted. In the second broadcast, the man accidentally knocks the instruments off the table and recovered by holding out his arms to keep the others away, still in character.

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Connections

Spoofed in MADtv: Survivor: MADtv (2007)

User Reviews

Wanna See What Made this Show Great? Buy the 1st Season DVD

ER in its present, 2003 form is a schizophrenic mess. For every one intelligent, caring episode comes four or five exercises in downbeat, melodramatic soap opera which sap all the energy out of the show's still-present technical mastery. This four-disc set is a welcome flashback to the show's humble beginnings, when it wasn't supposed to be the most heart-pounding show on television, and succeeded on will, not on hype.

The central characters in the first season are Chief Resident Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), ER Residents Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) and pediatrician Doug Ross (George Clooney), Head Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Marguiles), Surgical Resident Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq la Salle) and his protégé, third-year med student John Carter (Noah Wyle, the only actor to remain on the show through the entire run). They brought a fresh edge to the oft-repeated world of medical drama, helped greatly by the first television show, in my estimation, to ever put actual intelligence into the presentation. On ER, the cameras move, the people move, the consistent hustle and bustle of an actual environment is palpable, and not simply a setpiece. It's interesting to note that although the show was never broadcast in widescreen until 2001, in the middle of it's seventh season, these first episodes are all presented in the wider format. At first it might seem like hubris, but most of them fit the frame very well, with shots composed and staged for the wider picture - it's not `cinematic' just for its own sake.

Standout episodes from the season include the exposition-heavy `Pilot' which still found time for drama; `Blizzard' which was a tour-de-force of film, editing, and cutting edge medical realism; `Hit & Run' & `Sleepless in Chicago' which dealt with the heavy burden of juggling personal & professional medical care, as well as Carter's development as a doctor; and `Love's Labor Lost', an absolute masterpiece from every angle: drama, directing, scripting, staging, scoring, every cosmic tumbler clicked into place for this episode centered around Greene's tragic triumph in the case of a pregnancy gone bad.

The show took a few (deserved) knocks for being shamelessly convenient in its storylines and ignoring the realities of daily hospital structure in favor of sensationalism. This is exaggerated a little, but still a valid point; rarely an episode goes by without something in the line of an unexpected pregnancy, a suicide attempt, a violent skirmish between doctor and patient, or (in one outrageous case) a 12-year old gang member brining his Glock into a trauma room to try and finish another 12-year old off. Still, the show displayed remarkable resilience in almost always rising to become greater than the sum of its parts. Naturally, that ability has waned and virtually disappeared, but these episodes are no less enjoyable as a result of that.