ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994, to April 2, 2009, with a total of 331 episodes spanning 15 seasons. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Television, in association with Warner Bros. Television. ER follows the inner life of the emergency room of Cook County General Hospital, a fictionalized version of the real Cook County Hospital, in Chicago, and the various critical professional, ethical, and personal issues faced by the department's physicians, nurses, and staff.
The show is the second-longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history behind Grey's Anatomy. The highest-awarded medical drama, ER won 128 industry awards from 442 nominations, including the Peabody Award, TCA Award for Program of the Year, and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. As of 2014, ER had grossed over in television revenue. It is considered one of the best medical dramas of all time, pioneering the field of medical fiction and setting a model for other contemporary medical dramas to follow.
Production
In 1974, author Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay then titled "EW" based on his own experiences as a medical student in a busy hospital emergency room. Producers were not interested in the screenplay, and Crichton turned to other topics. In 1990, he published the novel Jurassic Park, and in 1993 began a collaboration with director Steven Spielberg on the film adaptation of the book.After its release, Crichton and Spielberg then turned to what was now known as ER, but Spielberg decided to film the story as a two-hour pilot for a television series rather than as a feature film after considering the potential for various stories to be told in the setting. He passed the script on to a team at his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Anthony Thomopoulos, then head of Amblin's television division, got in touch with then CEO of Warner Bros. Television, Les Moonves, about the idea for the series and to send the script. Spielberg's Amblin Television provided John Wells as the show's executive producer.
Warner Bros. Television pitched ER to NBC, alongside Crichton, Spielberg, and Wells. Warren Littlefield, head of NBC Entertainment at the time, liked the project, but there was much debate and controversy among other executives at NBC, who were dubious about the nature of the series. NBC offered a chance to make a two-hour made-for-TV movie from the script, which was rejected. They then tried to get the show greenlit at rival networks before returning to NBC, who this time around ordered a pilot.
The script used to shoot the pilot was virtually unchanged from what Crichton had written in 1974. The only substantive changes made by the producers in 1994 were that a male character was changed to a female character and the Peter Benton character's race was changed to African-American. The running time was shortened by about 20 minutes in order for the pilot to air in a two-hour block on network TV. Because of a lack of time and money necessary to build a set, the pilot episode of ER was filmed in the former Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles, an old facility that had ceased operating in 1990. A set modeled after Los Angeles County General Hospital's emergency room was built soon afterward at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, although the show makes extensive use of location shoots in Chicago, most notably the city's famous "L" train platforms.
Littlefield was impressed by the series: "We were intrigued, but we were admittedly a bit spooked in attempting to go back into that territory a few years after St. Elsewhere. With Spielberg attached behind the scenes, NBC ordered six episodes. "ER premiered opposite a Monday Night Football game on ABC and did surprisingly well. Then we moved it to Thursday and it just took off," commented Littlefield. ERs success surprised the networks and critics alike, as David E. Kelley's new medical drama Chicago Hope was expected to crush the new series, airing directly opposite ER in the Thursday 10:00 pm time slot over on CBS.
Crichton was credited as an executive producer until his death in November 2008, and also posthumously for the final season. Wells, the series' other initial executive producer, served as showrunner for the first four seasons. He was the show's most prolific writer and became a regular director in later years. Lydia Woodward was a part of the first season production team and became an executive producer for the third season. She took over as showrunner for the fifth season while Wells focused on the development of other series, including Trinity, Third Watch, and The West Wing. John Wells continued to serve as the primary Executive Producer for the remainder of the series. Lydia Woodward left her executive producer position at the end of the sixth season but continued to write episodes throughout the series run.
Joe Sachs, who was a writer and producer of the series, believed keeping a commitment to medical accuracy was extremely important: "We'd bend the rules but never break them. A medication that would take 10 minutes to work might take 30 seconds instead. We compressed time. A 12- to 24-hour shift gets pushed into 48 minutes. But we learned that being accurate was important for more reasons than just making real and responsible drama."
Woodward was replaced as showrunner by Jack Orman. Orman was recruited as a writer-producer for the series in its fourth season after a successful stint working on CBS's JAG. He was quickly promoted and became an executive producer and showrunner for the series' seventh season. He held these roles for three seasons before leaving the series at the end of the ninth season. Orman was also a frequent writer and directed three episodes of the show.
David Zabel served as the series' head writer and executive producer in its later seasons. He initially joined the crew for the eighth season and became an executive producer and showrunner for the twelfth season onward. Zabel was the series' most frequent writer, contributing to 41 episodes. He also made his directing debut on the series. Christopher Chulack was the series' most frequent director and worked as a producer on all 15 seasons. He became an executive producer in the fourth season but occasionally scaled back his involvement in later years to focus on other projects.
Other executive producers include writers Carol Flint, Neal Baer, R. Scott Gemmill, Joe Sachs, Dee Johnson, Lisa Zwerling, and Janine Sherman Barrois. Several of these writers and producers had background in healthcare: Joe Sachs was an emergency physician, while Lisa Zwerling and Neal Baer were both pediatricians. The series' crew was recognized with awards for writing, directing, producing, film editing, sound editing, casting, and music.
Broadcast
Following the broadcast of its two-hour pilot on September 19, 1994, ER premiered Thursday, September 22 at 10pm. It remained in the same Thursday time slot for its entire run, capping the Must See TV primetime block. ER is NBC's third longest-running drama, after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order, and the second longest-running American primetime medical drama of all time, behind ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Starting with season seven, ER was broadcast in the 1080i HD format, appearing in letterbox format when presented in standard definition. On April 2, 2008, NBC announced that the series would return for its fifteenth season. The fifteenth season was originally scheduled to run for 19 episodes before retiring with a two-hour series finale to be broadcast on March 12, 2009, but NBC announced in January 2009 that it would extend the show by an additional three episodes to a full 22-episode order as part of a deal to launch a new series by John Wells titled Police, later retitled Southland. ERs final episode aired on April 2, 2009; the two-hour episode was preceded by a one-hour retrospective special. TNT also paid a record price of $1 million an episode for four years of repeats of the series during that time. The cost of the first three seasons was $2 million per episode and seasons 7 to 9 cost $8 million per episode.Cast and characters
The original starring cast consisted of Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene, George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross, Sherry Stringfield as Dr. Susan Lewis, Noah Wyle as medical student John Carter, and Eriq La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton. As the series continued, some key changes were made: Nurse Carol Hathaway, played by Julianna Margulies, who attempts suicide in the original pilot script, was made into a regular cast member. Ming-Na debuted in the middle of the first season as medical student Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen, but did not return for the second season; she returns in season 6 episode 10. Gloria Reuben and Laura Innes joined the series as Physician Assistant Jeanie Boulet and Dr. Kerry Weaver, respectively, by the second season.In the third season, a series of cast additions and departures began that saw the entire original cast leave over time. Stringfield was the first to exit the series, reportedly upsetting producers who believed she wanted to negotiate for more money, but the actress disliked the fame resulting from her appearance in the series. She returned to the series from 2001 until 2005. Clooney departed the series in 1999 to pursue a film career, and Margulies exited the following year. Season eight saw the departure of La Salle and Edwards when Benton left County General and Greene died from a brain tumor. Wyle left the series after season 11 in order to spend more time with his family, but returned for two multiple-episode appearances in the show's twelfth and final seasons. Maria Bello as Dr. Anna Del Amico, Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday, Paul McCrane as Dr. Robert Romano, Kellie Martin as medical student Lucy Knight, Goran Višnjić as Dr. Luka Kovač, Michael Michele as Dr. Cleo Finch, Erik Palladino as Dr. Dave Malucci, Maura Tierney as Nurse Abby Lockhart, Sharif Atkins as medical student Michael Gallant, and Mekhi Phifer as Dr. Greg Pratt all joined the cast as the seasons went on. In the much later seasons, cast additions included Parminder Nagra as medical student Neela Rasgotra, Scott Grimes as Dr. Archie Morris, Linda Cardellini as Nurse Sam Taggart, Shane West as Dr. Ray Barnett, John Stamos as Paramedic Tony Gates, David Lyons as Dr. Simon Brenner, and Angela Bassett as Dr. Cate Banfield.
In addition to the main cast, ER featured a large number of frequently seen recurring cast members who played key roles such as paramedics, hospital support staff, nurses, and doctors. ER also featured a sizable roster of well-known guest stars, some making rare television appearances, who typically played patients in single episode appearances or multi-episode arcs.