ER (TV series)

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This article is about the medical drama series. For the sitcom, see E/R.
 This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (February 2009)
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ER

ER intertitle.
Format Medical drama
Created by Michael Crichton
Starring See below
Opening theme James Newton Howard
(1994–2006, finale)
Martin Davich
(2006–2009)
Country of origin  USA
No. of seasons 15
No. of episodes 331 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup Single
Running time 60 minutes (including commercials)
approx. 45 minutes (without commercials)
Production company(s) Constant c Productions
Amblin Television
Warner Bros. Television
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Picture format 480i (SDTV),
1080i (HDTV)
Original run September 19, 1994 – April 2, 2009
External links
Official website

ER is an Emmy Award-winning American medical drama series created by the late novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television Production, Inc. The show ran for 15 seasons, becoming the longest-running medical drama in primetime television history. It won 22 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series (1996), and received 123 Emmy nominations, the most of any television show in history.

The original cast included Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene, George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross, Sherry Stringfield as Dr. Susan Lewis, Noah Wyle as Medical Student (later Dr.) John Carter, Eriq La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton, and Julianna Margulies as Nurse Carol Hathaway. Later additions to the cast included Laura Innes as Dr. Kerry Weaver, Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday, Goran Visnjic as Dr. Luka Kovac, Maura Tierney as Nurse (later Dr.) Abby Lockhart, Mekhi Phifer as Dr. Greg Pratt, Parminder Nagra as Medical Student (later Dr.) Neela Rasgotra, Linda Cardellini as Nurse Samantha Taggart, Scott Grimes as Dr. Archie Morris, and John Stamos as Dr. Tony Gates.

Contents

Production

Conception

In 1974, author Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay based on his own experiences as a medical resident in a busy hospital emergency room. 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 that. The Crichton-Spielberg team then returned to ER but decided to film the story as a two-hour pilot for a television series rather than as a feature film. 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 made the Susan Lewis character a woman and the Peter Benton character an African-American, and shortened the running time by about 20 minutes in order for the pilot to air in a two-hour block on network TV.[1]

Locations

Due to a lack of time and money to build a set, the pilot episode of ER was filmed in the former Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles, an old facility that ceased operating as a medical center in 1990.[2] A set modeled after Los Angeles County General Hospital's emergency room was built soon afterwards 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.

Cast

Main article: Cast of ER

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 (later Dr.) John Carter, and Eriq La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton. Julianna Margulies guest starred in the pilot as Nurse Carol Hathaway before becoming part of the regular cast. Later additions to the cast included Laura Innes as Dr. Kerry Weaver, Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday, Goran Visnjic as Dr. Luka Kovac, Maura Tierney as Nurse (later Dr.) Abby Lockhart, Mekhi Phifer as Dr. Greg Pratt, Parminder Nagra as Medical Student (later Dr.) Neela Rasgotra, Linda Cardellini as Nurse Samantha Taggart, Scott Grimes as Dr. Archie Morris, and John Stamos as Dr. Tony Gates. The starring cast is augmented by a wealth of recurring characters and award-winning guest stars.

Crew

 This section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)
Main article: Crew of ER

Steven Spielberg left the show after one year in a producer's chair, but he made one critical decision with lasting effects: the Carol Hathaway character, who died at the end of the original script for the pilot episode, was retained.

Having created the series Michael Crichton was credited as an executive producer throughout its run. John Wells was the series other initial executive producer and served as show runner for the initial seasons. Wells was one of the shows most prolific writers and also 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 sixth season while Wells focused on the development of Third Watch. She left her executive producer position at the end of the sixth season but continued to write episodes throughout the series run.

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 succesful stint working on JAG. He was promoted quickly and became executive producer and show runner for the seventh season. He held this role for three seasons before leaving the series at the end of the ninth season. He was a frequent writer and also 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 for the twelfth season. Zabel was the series most frequent writer and contributed to 41 episodes. He also made his directing debut on the series.

Christopher Chulack was the series most frequent director and also worked as a producer on all 15 seasons. He became an executive producer with the fourth season but occasionally scaled back his involvement in later years to focus on new projects while continuint to serve as a consulting producer for ER. Other executive producers include writers Carol Flint, Neal Baer, R. Scott Gemmill, Dee Johnson, Joe Sachs, and Janine Sherman Barrois. The series crew were recognised with awards for writing, directing, producing, film editing, sound editing, casting, and music.

Broadcasting

ER premiered on Monday, September 19, 1994 from 9:00-11:00 p.m. (EDT) and moved into the 10:00 p.m Thursday night timeslot three days later, where it remained for all fifteen seasons. ER is NBC's second longest-running drama (after Law & Order), and, the longest-running American primetime medical drama of all time.[3] On April 2, 2008, NBC announced that the series would return for its 15th, concluding season.[4] It was originally scheduled to run for 19 episodes before retiring with a two-hour series finale to be broadcast on March 12, 2009,[5][6] but NBC announced in January 2009 that it would extend ER by an additional three episodes to a full 22 episode order as part of a deal to launch a new series by John Wells.[7] ER's final episode aired on April 2, 2009 for a two-hour episode preceded by a one-hour retrospective special episode.[8]

Format

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 where NBC was being broadcast digitally.[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 shows the widescreen versions of the episodes, including those episodes originally broadcast in 1.33:1 (full screen) format. The episodes also appear in 1080i widescreen when rerun on TNT HD, though the first six seasons still show in fullscreen on the digital TNT network. Only the live episode "Ambush" at the beginning of the fourth season and the opening credits for the first six seasons are in standard 4:3 aspect ratio.

Episodes

Main article: List of ER episodes

Among the memorable episodes of ER is a live episode, "Ambush," in 1997, with the NBC camera crew disguised as a PBS crew making a documentary film in the hospital. The actors performed the show again three hours later so that the West Coast airing would be live as well. This episode received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic), and won the Emmy for Outstanding Technical Direction/Camera/Video for a Series.

Most episodes center on the ER, with almost all scenes at the hospital, but usually include at least one scene outside of the hospital. In addition, most seasons included at least one storyline located completely outside of the ER, often outside of Chicago. One early such instance involved a road trip near Las Vegas, Nevada (Drs. Ross and Greene). Season Eight included a storyline in Hawaii (Drs. Greene and Corday); seasons Nine and Ten included storylines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Drs. Kovac and Carter); and Season Twelve included a storyline set in the Darfur region of Sudan (Drs. Pratt and Carter, with Noah Wyle appearing as a guest star in the season following his departure from the show).

Reception

Ratings

American seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of ER on NBC.

Note: 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 & Pacific time zones.

Season Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Viewer
Rank (#)		 Viewers
(in millions)
1st September 19, 1994 May 18, 1995 1994-1995 2[9] 19.08[9]
2nd September 21, 1995 May 16, 1996 1995-1996 1[9] 21.09[9]
3rd September 26, 1996 May 15, 1997 1996-1997 1[9] 20.56[9]
4th September 25, 1997 May 14, 1998 1997-1998 2[9] 19.99[9]
5th September 24, 1998 May 20, 1999 1998-1999 1[9] 17.94[9]
6th September 30, 1999 May 18, 2000 1999-2000 4[10] 25.0[11]
7th October 12, 2000 May 17, 2001 2000-2001 2[12] 22.4[12]
8th September 27, 2001 May 16, 2002 2001-2002 3[13] 22.1[13]
9th September 26, 2002 May 15, 2003 2002-2003 4[14] 20.0[14]
10th September 25, 2003 May 13, 2004 2003-2004 8[15] 19.5[15]
11th September 23, 2004 May 19, 2005 2004-2005 16[16] 15.5[16]
12th September 22, 2005 May 18, 2006 2005-2006 30[17] 12.3[17]
13th September 21, 2006 May 17, 2007 2006-2007 31[18] 11.5[18]
14th September 27, 2007 May 15, 2008 2007-2008 55 9.16 [19]
15th September 25, 2008 April 2, 2009 2008-2009 TBA 10.20 ^[20]
  • The series finale attracted 16.3 million viewers and a 6.0 demo in the 18-49 year old age group. [21]
  • ^ Not including the series finale.

Critical response

 Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (April 2009)

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by ER

The series has been nominated for 375 industry awards and has won 116. ER won the George Foster Peabody Award in 1995. In addition, the series has received 123 Emmy Award nominations, making it the most Emmy-nominated show in history.[22] The series has won 22 Emmy Awards. It also won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Television Dramatic Series" every year from 1995 to 2002. Over the years, it has been nominated for and/or won numerous other awards, including Screen Actors Guild Awards, Image Awards, GLAAD Media Awards, and Golden Globe Awards, among others.[23]

DVD releases

Warner Home Video has released ER on DVD in Regions 1, 2 & 4 for the very first time. Seasons 1-10 have been released in R1, Seasons 1-13 in R2 and in Seasons 1-12 in R4. Season 14 will be released in Region 2 on May 18, 2009.

Season Region 1 Region 2 (UK) Region 4 (AUS)
ER: The Complete First Season (1994-1995) August 26, 2003 February 23, 2004 April 28, 2004
ER: The Complete Second Season (1995-1996) April 27, 2004 July 26, 2004 July 15, 2004
ER: The Complete Third Season (1996-1997) April 26, 2005 January 31, 2005 December 16, 2004
ER: The Complete Fourth Season (1997-1998) December 20, 2005 May 16, 2005 April 27, 2005
ER: The Complete Fifth Season (1998-1999) July 11, 2006 October 24, 2005 November 15, 2005
ER: The Complete Sixth Season (1999-2000) December 19, 2006 April 3, 2006 May 5, 2006
ER: The Complete Seventh Season (2000-2001) May 15, 2007 September 18, 2006 October 3, 2006
ER: The Complete Eighth Season (2001-2002) January 22, 2008 July 16, 2007 September 6, 2007
ER: The Complete Ninth Season (2002-2003) June 17, 2008 October 29, 2007 October 31, 2007
ER: The Complete Tenth Season (2003-2004) March 3, 2009[24] January 28, 2008 May 7, 2008[25]
ER: The Complete Eleventh Season (2004-2005) July 14, 2009[26] April 21, 2008[27] May 7, 2008[28]
ER: The Complete Twelfth Season (2005-2006) TBA September 15, 2008[29] October 1, 2008
ER: The Complete Thirteenth Season (2006-2007) TBA November 3, 2008[30] TBA
ER: The Complete Fourteenth Season (2007-2008) TBA May 18, 2009 [31] TBA
ER: The Complete Fifteenth Season (2008-2009) TBA September 22, 2009 [32] TBA

The first six DVD box sets of ER are unusual in the fact that they are all in anamorphic widescreen even though these episodes were broadcast in a standard 4:3 format. Only the live episode "Ambush" is not in the widescreen format.

Other media

  • ER soundtrack released in 1996 with various compositions from seasons 1 and 2 episodes by Martin Davich and James Newton Howard.
  • ER video game for Windows XP and 2000 released in 2005 where the player takes control of a character in the series and treats patients.

References

  1. ^ Michael Crichton, commentary track, ER Season One DVD set
  2. ^ Linda Vista Hospital
  3. ^ http://www.erheadquarters.com/news/11/after11years_033105.htm
  4. ^ NBC PICKS UP CLASSIC, EMMY AWARD-WINNING 'ER' FOR 15TH AND FINAL SEASON
  5. ^ NBC veteran 'ER' will end its run next year - USATODAY.com
  6. ^ NBC FALLOUT: "KNIGHT" CUT, "ER" EXTENDED
  7. ^ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998243.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
  8. ^ http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/er-clooney-and-margulies-to-return-for-final-episodes/
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j (from May 2003), access on October 23, 2006
  10. ^ A Dramatic Achievement (Variety Magazine) – Maynard, Kevin: While cast revolves, auds stay involved (from May 2003), access on October 23, 2006
  11. ^ Quotenmeter.de: US-Jahrescharts 1999/2000, access on October 23, 2006
  12. ^ a b Armstrong, Mark (2001-05-25). "Outback in Front: CBS Wins Season". E! Online. http://cache.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,8327,00.html. 
  13. ^ a b "How did your favorite show rate?". USA Today. 2002-05-28. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/2002/2002-05-28-year-end-chart.htm. 
  14. ^ a b Ryan, Joal (2003-05-22). "TV Season Wraps; 'CSI' Rules". E! Online. http://cache.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11855,00.html?newsrellink. Retrieved on 2006-09-16. 
  15. ^ a b Ryan, Joal (2004-05-27). ""Idol" Rules TV Season". E! Online. http://cache.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14203,00.html. Retrieved on 2006-10-14. 
  16. ^ a b "2004-05 Final audience and ratings figures". Hollywood Reporter. 2005-05-27. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000937471. 
  17. ^ a b "2005-06 primetime wrap". Hollywood Reporter. 2006-05-26. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002576393. 
  18. ^ a b "Hollywood Reporter: 2006-07 primetime wrap". May 25, 2007. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/features/e3ifbfdd1bcb53266ad8d9a71cad261604f. 
  19. ^ http://www.abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=052008_06
  20. ^ http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=041409_04
  21. ^ http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/04/er-series-finale-ratings.html
  22. ^ 2005-2006 Facts and Figures from the Emmy Awards. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
  23. ^ "ER" (1994) - Awards
  24. ^ [1]
  25. ^ E.R. - The Complete 10th Season (Slimline Set) @ EzyDVD
  26. ^ http://www.amazon.com/ER-Complete-Eleventh-Noah-Wyle/dp/B001JAHQ0W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1238319495&sr=8-1
  27. ^ Play.com (UK) : E.R. (Emergency Room): Season 11 : DVD - Free Delivery
  28. ^ E.R. - The Complete 11th Season (Slimline Set) @ EzyDVD
  29. ^ Play.com (UK) : E.R. (Emergency Room): Season 12 (3 Discs) : DVD - Free Delivery
  30. ^ Play.com (UK) : E.R. (Emergency Room): Season 13 : DVD - Free Delivery
  31. ^ : E.R. (Emergency Room): Season 13 : DVD - Free Delivery
  32. ^ : ER - Season 15

External links

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