TV: ER! Clooney! Old ER beloved characters return!

[Miss Mary]

ER is ending its impressive 15 year run. Yes I know, many people are stunned ER is still on the air. But if you're curious, tune in tonight, @ 10 pm. You'll see several former characters return. Beloved doc John Carter came back several weeks ago, he's on a kidney transplant list and currently a patient at Northwestern (not County General! But he was treated in County's ER last week). For more info:

http://www.tvguide.com/

All from TV Guide's website, taken from several links, including a Q/A section:

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Where are my favorite ER supporting cast members, like Haleh and Jerry? Will they be back before the finale? — Timothy
MICKEY: Does anyone else remember the sexy desk clerk that SVU's Mariska Hargitay played? Well, she won't be back. But Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies and Susan Sarandon all appear in Thursday's episode (as will George Clooney, though NBC still declines to confirm anything officially). As for Haleh and Jerry, both of whom showed up in the Anthony Edwards flashback, my ER mole tells me that the final four episodes are "for the longtime fans." As such, eagle-eyed viewers will spy many familiar faces.

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Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, no one can accuse Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle) of having had an easy ride since becoming a doctor.

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Season 15, Episode 19
Episode Synopsis: As he awaits the delivery of his donor kidney, Carter gets a surprise visit from Dr. Benton (Eriq La Salle). Meanwhile, Neela and Sam are stranded at the airport with transplant organs; and Banfield connects with an abandoned child. Original Air Date: Mar 12, 2009

[Miss Mary]

Okay, I am bumping up MY own topic.

They're certainly billing tonight's ER episode as something you don't want to miss.

It was supposed to be ER's series finale but recently NBC ordered 3 more episodes (finale is now April 2).

So critics and fans are thinking it will be an awesome episode. I have the DVR and VCR programmed. LOL!

I started watching this show way back in 1994. My kids were 4 and 7 (uh, they're both in college now, do the math!). Let's see, I hadn't received my first gray hair yet and had great eyesight (could still read the phone book, menus in restaurants, LOL).

It's been a long ride - thanks ER for the memories.

Best part about tonight's episode? CLOONEY BABY!

He'd better give fans that killer smile, sexy head tilt and mention my favorite ER character, Mark Greene.

Then I'll be one happy ER fan.

[AnnularCane]

I thought that show ended years ago!

[Miss Mary]

A common misconception!

[Brent]

I thought that show ended years ago!

It should have.

My mom still watches, she is literally drooling at the prospect of Clooney being back(which NBC for some reason hasn't confirmed but it's obviously true). She thought the finale was tonight.

[Miss Mary]

Originally the finale was to air tonight. NBC ordered 3 more episodes so the finale is April 2. With a 1 or 2 hour retrospective as well.

As for it should have ended long ago.

At first you want to say that but then you realize the current and even more recent cast list has put in excellent performances. Not the mention the writing has remained as high as it ever was.

So no I don't think it should have ended long ago.

Now last year was supposed to be its last season but then they quickly said no, we'll end at Season 15.

Similar to what Friends did, their 9th was to be their last season. Until the 9th got going. Then they realized, why not end at 10.

All in all, I didn't mind that Friends went 10 seasons.

And I don't mind at all that ER went 15 seasons.

Quite honestly, I'm going to miss this show. It's held my interest each Thursday night at 10 pm. For a dag-gone long time!

[Stephanie]

I haven't really been involved with ER for the past few years, especially after Anthony Edwards left. The best characters were in the first several years. After a while, the characters, one by one, I really didn't like or feel anything for them.

We're taping this show. We watched the one where Anthony Edwards was back several weeks ago.

[Miss Mary]

Yes the show was never quite the same after Edwards quit but I continued watching and actually began to notice the writing content was still as good as always. I missed Mark though, still do to this day. Excellent episode last night. You will like it Steph. Didn't quite feel like a series finale but then again, it felt real and what all these storylines would have been like in real life. Perhaps that's fitting, bringing in 3 former cast members had to be believable and seemless. Turns out, they accomplished this, in all 3 cases. I'm actually surprised Clooney, Julianana and LaSalle's storylines came off as if they belonged in this episode all along. Not hurriedly added or fit in to please long-time fans. Great job writers!

[Stephanie]

I loved the episode - like you said, Miss Mary, it was seamless. It was almost as if they never left. I love how they tied the different stories together and I almost forgot that was what ER did all the time. I loved watching Eric LaSalle being the stickler and protector that he always was in that operating room. It really was like he never left. Julianne and George always had chemistry together and they picked up right where they left off. I'm getting chills just thinking of it again.

[Miss Mary]

Steph - glad you liked it as well. I've been reading posts on the TV Guide website and responded a few times myself. There seems to be two camps of ER fans - those that quit watching when Mark Greene died and those that continued to watch. Wait, there's possibly a third, a younger generation just now catching up with DVDs and reruns. They seem to like all of the younger characters on right now (Daria, ugh!). But most long time ER fans are divided, either they stayed with the show after Mark died or they just stopped watching. And they also assume many people stopped watching when they did. Wrong! Wrong! While my heart was broken when Mark died, I stuck with it. Thinking oh it would go one or two more seasons. ha! Hard to believe it's been on 15 years though.....

I am definitely watching this episode again, when the house is empty and I can have my George Clooney hour.

Here was my favorite scene from last night's episode - when Doug sat down with the grandmother and asked her one simple question - what was your grandson like? In that precise moment Doug Ross WAS back. Oh yes. That is exactly what Doug Ross was so good at - his excellent rapport with families. You could see the storyline shift when he listened to her talk about her grandson. I had chills watching that scene.

[Stephanie]

Here was my favorite scene from last night's episode - when Doug sat down with the grandmother and asked her one simple question - what was your grandson like? In that precise moment Doug Ross WAS back. Oh yes. That is exactly what Doug Ross was so good at - his excellent rapport with families. You could see the storyline shift when he listened to her talk about her grandson. I had chills watching that scene.

We didn't put it on until around that time. We do have the show taped so we will watch it again.

That was the way Doug Ross would reach out to families to get them to do the right thing. He'd make them think about the person and what they would want to do. Yes, that was Doug.

[Miss Mary]

Hey all.....whatcha doing on Thursday night?

If you have nothing to do and at one time might have watched ER or still continued to watch (I did, never gave up on this show.....), ER concludes this Thursday, April 2nd. Two hour finale, airing at 9 pm.

BUT there's a restropective one hour special airing at 8.

Yes, that's right, NBC has devoted 3 full hours to ER's swan song Thursday night.......so won't you join me? I'm getting the tissues ready.......when the doors close at County, I will so sad.

I have watched this show for 15 years. 15! Things were so different back in 1994.....when it premiered. I had been missing a medical drama (St. Elsewhere fan here.....) so I thought, why not give this new show a looksee. Glad I did. I was hooked - from the riveting pilot on. Oh yeah baby. Didn't hurt that George Clooney was the original McDREAMY! That head tilt, that smile, those eyes.

And yet he hasn't portrayed my favorite ER character of all time - that sole title and devotion goes to Anthony Edwards. Oh how I cried when his beloved character - Dr. Mark Greene - died. Cried like a baby!

So thanks for the memories ER......I will miss you! Even though you changed casts so many times.....

Mary

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

I've got my box of tissues ready beside the couch too Mary.

Like you we enjoyed watching St. Elsewhere, then ER and thankfully now there's Gray's Anatomy. Thursday nights just aren't going to be the same anymore.

I must admit I too enjoyed the early years of ER the best though......some of the others were good but some just didn't have the draw that those first characters did.

[Miss Mary]

I did enjoy the early years of ER best as well. I hung in there after AE left but after a while the writing still continued to be excellent and core characters took the forefront or new characters grabbed my attention. I never gave up on it.

But the first 2 or 3 seasons are superb.

I still get goosebumps when I watch Season 1's finale, where Carol was supposed to marry Tag. That episode was just so good. The last scene at her wedding reception when the music is playing, she sees that Doug came to it after talking with her in the church, she's dancing, everyone is smiling and such a tight knit group, extremely supportive of Carol, just clinched it for me. It was then and there I knew ER would be one of my all time favorite dramas.....

My favorite episode is still Love's Labor Lost but Carol's wedding reception is among my oh Top 5 ER moments.

ER was just so different, it blew viewers away I think. I will sorely miss it.

[Stephanie]

I agree - I think that the first 3 seasons were probably the best. I've had many favorite moment and shows, but they've all got caught up in memory snapshots. I think that the one that will always haunt me is the Carter/Lucy attack.

I didn't get into St. Elsewhere as much as I got into Hill Street Blues. That was probably the beginning of all of the weekly dramatic, somewhat real life shows. You fell in love with all of the characters and cared so much about them. To me, it seemed that ER dropped a lot of the ones we cared about too quickly, almost like 24's Jack Bauer's co-workers and friends. I know that George Clooney left in search of stardom, I forget why Sherry Stringfield left originally, but each time one left, they were replaced with someone else I didn't really care for as much (like Carrie). It's like the mean people came into ER. Anyway, old news on my part.

Thank you ER for all of your wonderful memories, stories and introductions to many talented actors!

[Miss Mary]

If I remember correctly Sherry Stringfield was worn out from working non-stop, they logged over 14 or 16 hour workdays when she was a regular cast member. Recently I read an interview with her (I think it was the excellent reflective ER article TV Guide had an issue or two ago). She said she was living in LA, filming ER and missing NYC, her home. She just needed a break. You got the impression she regretted leaving though.

I had a hard time warming up to Kerry. She was not endearing, not at all. Near the end I grew to respect the character but not really like her at the same time.

Remember the episode with a chemical spill of some sort? HASMAT was called in and Carter ending up taking charge? They were moving patients to the cafeteria and treating them there. Near the end Carter is stripped to his underwear for the shower the paramedics gave him - LOL. I remember my daughter saying - Carter wears briefs! Plaid ones to boot.....LOL He's her favorite BTW. I loved that energy charged episode. But at one point Kerry succumbs to the fumes and is a patient herself. She wakes up to be wearing a patient gown. Next to her is another patient, a kind man whom she had been treating as her patient before the spill. He filled her in on what all happened. I love the part when he says - they removed all your clothes....the look on Kerry's face! Priceless ER moment......LOL

[Stephanie]

I don't remember that episode Miss Mary. It sounds like it was funny though.

[Miss Mary]

I think it was an episode from Season 4. TNT is airing reruns right now and I think they are in the first or second season. If I see it listed soon I'll remind you to watch it. Carter just takes control, when the ER is in chaos (more than usual!). You see a glimpse of the awesome doctor he would become.

Found this quiz on TV Guide's main page today:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/ER-Trivia-Quiz-1004639.aspx

Interview with Marilu Henner, who guest stars in the ER finale:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Marilu-Henn ... 04628.aspx

NBC has devoted a page to ER as well:
http://www.nbc.com/ER/remembered/

[Stephanie]

It was good. I loved the new Joshua Carter clinic.

[Miss Mary]

Steph - here's a really nice ER tribute article, from a TV Critic out of Tampa Bay. He covered ER the entire time it was on the air.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2009/03 ... en-up.html

March 30, 2009
Why this critic still loves ER, years after everyone else has given up

As a professional TV watcher, this is something I’ve always been reluctant to admit, whenever talk turns to NBC’s second-longest-running drama series.

I still watch ER.

Not in a professional, see-who’s-on-this-year kind of way. I watch every week because -- after the departure of original stars such as George Clooney and Anthony Edwards, outlandish stunts like a missile tearing through the emergency room and a doctor squashed by a falling helicopter, and a steady thrashing by upstarts such as Private Practice and Without a Trace – I’m still a fan.

It’s tough to remember back 15 years ago, when ER’s two-hour debut set a new standard for TV drama. Based on scribblings novelist Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) set down in 1974 when he was in medical school, NBC’s hospital drama crashed into prime time with swooshing, MTV-inspired camera shots and a breathless narrative pace.

I remember former star Alex Kingston (Dr. Elizabeth Corday) getting angry during a 2002 on set interview after my fourth question on whether this was the year ER would lose a ratings battle to the competition.

But, the truth is, eventually, the rest of TV caught up. Everyone from CSI to The West Wing copped the rushing walk-and-talk scenes that seemed so fresh and energetic back then (a recent re-view of the pilot reveals a too-long episode that feels way slower now than it did back in the day).

With Lost bopping back and forth through time and 30 Rock drafting everyone but Michael Jackson to make cameo appearances, suddenly ER’s creative storytelling arcs (new co-star Angela Bassett’s character had a flashback this season allowing Edwards’ dead character Mark Greene to reappear) and star turns don’t feel so special.

Still, I’m one of the hardy few who are going to miss old County General when NBC folds its tent for good on Thursday. Here’s a few reasons why ER remains one of TV’s most compelling shows for me:

The characters -- Okay, the cast does include John Stamos these days. But Parminder Nagra’s Neela Rasgotra has grown before our eyes – from uncertain student to grieving widow and assured surgeon. The list of standout characters and singular performances stretches way beyond Clooney and Edwards: Laura Innes’ repressed gay administrator Kerry Weaver; Maura Tierney’s tough, damaged nurse-turned-doctor Abby Lockhart; Mekhi Phifer’s brusque, streetwise Greg Pratt (watching Pratt die slowly of injuries from an explosion was enough to wring tears from any cynic). And there are few shows that did a better job showing how people of color live in America, at times reflecting, sidestepping or ignoring their culture.

The guest stars – If the mainline cast isn’t enough, remember the guest stars, from Sally Field as Lockhart’s bipolar mother to Alan Alda’s Alzheimer’s-stricken doctor Gabriel Lawrence, Danny Glover as Pratt’s long unknown father, a pre-Law & Order Mariska Hargitay (left) as Greene’s ditsy post-divorce girlfriend, a pre-CSI Jorja Fox as gay doctor Maggie Doyle to Clooney’s aunt, jazz singer Rosemary Clooney, as a singing, unknown Alzheimer’s patient. Even if the regular cast irritates, there’s always a cool guest waiting in the wings, most recently, Ernest Borgnine and Susan Sarandon.

The storytelling – Four years before 24 would turn a real-time drama into ratings gold, ER did it first with a 1997 live episode filmed from the perspective of a PBS crew taping at the hospital. There were the social issues tackled, from heterosexual AIDS transmission to the crisis in Darfur, the way the poor depend on emergency rooms for health care and the maddening bureaucracy of the modern health care system. And for a time, ER was one of the grittiest, most realistic dramas on TV, with patients who didn’t always live and storylines that didn’t always resolve neatly.

*

Posted by Eric Deggans at 4:18:03 PM on March 30, 2009