ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television. ER follows the inner life of the emergency room (ER) of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and various critical issues faced by the room's physicians and staff. The show ran for 15 seasons, becoming the longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history. It won 23 Emmy Awards, including the 1996 Outstanding Drama Series award, and received 124 Emmy nominations, which makes it the most nominated drama program in history.^[1] ER won 116 awards in total, including the Peabody Award, while the cast earned four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Drama Series.^[2]

Production[link]

Development[link]

In 1974, author Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay based on his own experiences as a resident physician in a busy hospital emergency room.^[3] The screenplay went nowhere and Crichton focused on 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.^[4] Crichton and Spielberg then turned to ER, but decided to film the story as a two-hour pilot for a television series rather than as a feature film.^[5] Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment provided John Wells as the show's executive producer. 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 the Susan Lewis character became a woman and the Peter Benton character became an African-American, and the running time was shortened by about 20 minutes in order for the pilot to air in a two-hour block on network TV.^[6] Due to a lack of the 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Warren Littlefield, running NBC Entertainment at the time, 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."^[9] After Spielberg had joined as a producer, 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.^[9] ER's success surprised the networks and critics alike, as David E. Kelley's new medical drama Chicago Hope was expected to crush the new series.^[10]

Spielberg left the show after one year as a producer, having made one critical decision with lasting effects: the Carol Hathaway character, who died at the end of the original pilot episode script, was retained. Crichton remained executive producer until his death in November 2008, although he was still credited as one throughout that entire final season. Wells, the series' other initial executive producer, served as showrunner for the first three seasons. He was one of the show's most prolific writers 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 show runner for the fourth season while Wells focused on the development of other series, including Trinity, Third Watch, and The West Wing. She 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."^[9]

Woodward was replaced as show runner 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 promoted quickly and became an executive producer and show runner 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 show runner for the twelfth season onwards. 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, Dee Johnson, Joe Sachs, Lisa Zwerling, and Janine Sherman Barrois. Several of these writers and producers had extensive background in emergency medicine. Joe Sachs was a regular emergency attending physician, while Lisa Zwerling and Neal Baer had pediatrics backgrounds. The series' crew was recognized with awards for writing, directing, producing, film editing, sound editing, casting, and music.

Cast and characters[link]

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.^[9] 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, while Gloria Reuben and Laura Innes would then join the series as Physician Assistant Jeanie Boulet and Dr. Kerry Weaver, respectively, by the second season.^[11]

In the third season, the first of a series of cast additions and departures, that would see the entire original cast leave over time, began. Stringfield was the first to exit the series, reportedly upsetting producers who believed she wanted to negotiate for more money, but the actress did not particularly care for "fame." ^[12] She would return to the series from 2001 until 2005.^[9] Clooney departed the series in 1999 to pursue a film career, and Margulies exited the following year.^[9] Season eight saw the departure of La Salle and Edwards when Benton left County General and Mark Greene died from a brain tumor.^[9] Wyle left the series in order to spend more time with his family, but would return for two multiple episode appearances in the show's final seasons.^[13] Goran Visnjic as Dr. Luka Kovač, Maura Tierney as Dr. Abby Lockhart, Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday, and Paul McCrane as Dr. Robert Romano, all joined the cast as the seasons went on.^[11] In the much later seasons, the show would see the additions of Mekhi Phifer as Dr. Greg Pratt, Scott Grimes as Dr. Archie Morris, Parminder Nagra as Dr. Neela Rasgotra, Linda Cardellini as nurse Samantha Taggart, John Stamos as intern Tony Gates, and Angela Bassett as Dr. Catherine Banfield.^[11]

In addition to the main cast, ER featured a large number of recurring cast members. Though not billed as starring, these actors frequently played significant roles in numerous episodes. The most common of these roles were those of desk clerks, nurses, and doctors. ER also featured a significant roster of guest stars, many of whom were celebrities, who typically portrayed one of the many patients required for each episode.

Broadcasting[link]

Following the broadcast of its two-hour pilot movie on September 19, 1994, ER premiered Thursday, September 22 at 10:00. It remained in the same Thursday time slot for its entire run. ER is NBC's second longest-running drama, after Law & Order, and, the longest-running American primetime medical drama of all time.^[14] On April 2, 2008, NBC announced that the series would return for its final season.^[15] 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,^[16][17] 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.^[18] ER's final episode aired on April 2, 2009; the two-hour episode was preceded by a one-hour retrospective special.^[19] The series finale charged $425,000 per 30-second ad spot, more than three times the season's rate of $135,000.^[9]

Episodes[link]

A typical episode centered on the ER, with most scenes set in the hospital or surrounding streets. In addition, most seasons included at least one storyline located completely outside of the ER, often outside of Chicago. One early storyline involved a road trip taken by Dr. Ross and Dr. Greene to California and a season eight episode included a storyline in Hawaii featuring Dr. Greene and Dr. Corday. Beginning in season nine, storylines started to include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, featuring Dr. Kovac, Dr. Carter, and Dr. Pratt. “We turned some attention on the Congo and on Darfur when nobody else was. We had a bigger audience than a nightly newscast will ever see, making 25 to 30 million people aware of what was going on in Africa,” ER producer, John Wells said. “The show is not about telling people to eat their vegetables, but if we can do that in an entertaining context, then there’s nothing better.”^[10] The series also focused on social issues such as HIV and AIDS organ transplants, racism, human trafficking, and gay rights.^[10]

Other episodes used more creative formats, such as the 1997 live episode, "Ambush" performed twice; once for the east coast broadcast and again three hours later for the west coast,^[9] and 2002's "Hindsight" which ran in reverse time as it followed one character, Dr. Luka Kovac, through the tragic events of one Christmas Eve shift and the Christmas party that preceded it.

Format[link]

ER was filmed in 1.78:1 widescreen from the start, even though it was not broadcast in widescreen until the seventh season when it began appearing in the 1080i HD format.^{[citation needed]} Since the sixth episode of season 7, it has appeared in letterbox format when in standard definition. As a result, the U.S. DVD box set features the widescreen versions of the episodes, including those episodes originally broadcast in 1.33:1 (full frame) format. The episodes also appear in 1080i widescreen when rerun on TNT HD, though the first six seasons still run in full frame 1.33:1 on the digital TNT network. Only the live episode "Ambush" at the beginning of the fourth season and the title sequence for the first six seasons are in standard 4:3 aspect ratio.

Impact[link]

Ratings[link]

US seasonal rankings based on average total viewers per episode of ER on NBC are tabulated below. Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times mentioned in this section were in the Eastern and Pacific time zones.

The series finale attracted 16.4 million viewers.^[35] The show's highest rating came during season 2 episode, "Hell and High Water," with 48 million viewers.^[36]