Post by loopyallie on Mar 22, 2009 17:34:51 GMT 10
Post-mortem: The cast and creators remember 'ER'
By Bill Carter
THE NEW YORK TIMES
03/21/2009
In the long tradition of cultural touchstones forged from ignored or rejected television scripts, the story of "ER" stands out. "Every network had passed on it, twice," John Wells, the show's original and longtime executive producer, recalled. "It had all these characters and medical dialogue, and they found it utterly impossible to follow."
At the time -- the early 1990s -- "ER" was labeled a "trunk job," a script that had languished in some forgotten slush pile for years. And indeed it had, somewhere in the dark reaches of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment production company. Written in 1974 by Michael Crichton, who died last year, the original version of the show included a scene in which a few doctors, working in a Boston hospital, were listening to a basketball game with Bill Bradley playing for the Knicks and Tommy Heinsohn playing for the Celtics.
Then, in 1993, the project attracted new interest when the Warner Brothers studio, which had gained the rights, began pitching the series anew, using Spielberg and Crichton as inducement. (The two had just collaborated on the enormously successful "Jurassic Park.") After an initial round of rejections, NBC -- given the big names attached -- reluctantly agreed to produce a pilot and put it on the schedule.
In hindsight the early doubters, as they often do, missed a transitional moment in television history -- not to mention a blockbuster hit. In the mid-1990s "ER" attracted more than 30 million viewers a week, at its very peak in 1998, 47.8 million. By comparison today's most-watched dramas rarely reach 20 million viewers. It was the most-watched show in television for three seasons, and even now remains the second-most-watched drama on NBC (after "Law & Order: SVU").
The show's end has been predicted each year for at least the past three; early this season NBC executives still talked of possibly renewing it for one more September. But Wells and Warner Brothers studio chiefs decided the show should go out while it still held a respectable audience. The final episode is set for April 2.
This oral history includes many performers who became closely identified with "ER," but starts with Wells, the show's driving force from its outset.
IN THE BEGINNING
JOHN WELLS: George ((Clooney)) was the first to be cast. I knew him from seeing him around the lot. Les ((Moonves, now the CBS chief executive, then the head of Warner Brothers studio)) had made a cast contingent deal for a crime show with George, but George showed up in my office and said he'd heard about our show, and he liked the part better than the legal show. He had a scene memorized, and he did it, and it was terrific. I said we'd love to have him. But George had to convince Les because the other was a lead role and this was a supporting role. George just told him: I want to do this one. Then as now George was very aggressive and very smart about managing his career.
ANTHONY EDWARDS: I was not getting great roles in movies. But I was supposed to be directing this children's movie, so I told John Wells I probably can't do it. Then I went home, and my wife and my manager slapped me around and said this is Crichton and Spielberg. This is a big deal.
WELLS: Julianna Margulies was just a day player. She agreed to do a small part because she was leaving town. She left town thinking she died in the pilot. Eriq La Salle we didn't cast until three or four days ahead of the pilot. Noah Wyle was like 13 years old and was waiting tables. We brought him in because you were always supposed to bring two choices to the network and we wanted the other guy. But he kept getting better and better, and then he got the part. A lot of it was pure luck.
LANDING A SLOT
WELLS: There are so many versions about what happened at the pilot screening for NBC, but this is what I remember. Warren Littlefield ((the president of NBC Entertainment)) came out and said, "We're never going to put it on the air." Les went crazy and started yelling, saying we were going to test it ourselves. We called NBC after we tested it, and they didn't believe our results. So we suggested a focus group. That went so well they then tested it. I was shocked at the results. It was the best-testing show they'd ever had.
PETER ROTH: I was at 20th Century Fox, and we were bursting with pride because we had "Chicago Hope." I was staying at the St. Moritz Hotel in New York for the upfronts in 1994, and I got a call from Warren Littlefield saying, "Would you mind if I got a look at `Chicago Hope?' We've got this show called `ER.' I'll trade shows with you." So I agreed, and I remember I was watching an NBA game in my room. The NBA was on NBC then, and I start seeing these promos: "For 20 years the home of the greatest drama on television is NBC Thursday night at 10. First `Hill Street Blues,' then `L.A. Law' and now the next great drama series, `ER."' And I saw those clips, and I thought: We're cooked.
NOAH WYLE: The first time any of us had seen the clips we were at Avery Fisher Hall for the upfront, and there was this eruption of applause.
ERIQ LA SALLE: I invited everyone to my house to watch the pilot together the night we went on the air. Rod Holcomb, who had directed the pilot, came over early, and he and I tried to fool with the sound or something. Anyway we wound up somehow putting the television into sleep mode. So every 15 minutes it shut itself off. George kept saying I had timed it so it happened every time one of his scenes came on.
ABRAHAM BENRUBI: I said to George it was going to be the No.1 show in television by the fifth episode. He said no way. We wound up betting on it. It was No.1 after the fourth episode and George still owes me that $5. Maybe if he reads this he'll pay me.
A HIT, WITH IMPACT
CHRIS CHULACK: We took seriously the idea that we were also an action show. We would have 60 or 70 extras in the background, but our extras always had a purpose. Sometimes we would shoot a five-page scene without an edit. The actor that had the last line was under huge pressure because if he broke we'd have to go back to the beginning.
WYLE: It changed the form of storytelling on television. It did not have the classic A-B-C, three-act structure. You often came in at the end of a story or somewhere in the middle.
WELLS: Our battles with NBC were all about blood and the fact that a lot of people were dying. The convention in earlier hospital shows was not to show a lot inside the hospital because people didn't like going there. People died in hospitals. As soon as the ratings came in, those complaints went away.
WYLE: Alan Alda told us about something they had done on "MASH." They called it a gut check. Every Wednesday or Thursday the cast would have lunch in John Wells' office to screen that week's episode. Everyone took everyone else on. It could really get cruel if you hammed it up or took a moment to move your neck muscles or something. You were never supposed to stop moving until you earned the moment. I didn't ever want it to be me. I was moving around like an alley cat.
WELLS: Of course everyone was getting calls from new agents and managers. George and Tony did not allow any silliness. They had both seen a lot already in their careers. George, with all work he'd put in on things that hadn't worked, and of course he also had the show-business experience from his family. Tony had seen what happens in a film career. They kept everyone grounded.
LA SALLE: I also think the time was right. We came on just as the health care issue was breaking through, with Hillary Clinton out front of it.
EDWARDS: It was the beginning of the era when the emergency room became primary care for most of America. People were coming into the ER for things they should have seen a doctor about long before.
WYLE: The scenes with Eriq and me were comic relief. I saw my character as out of "Henry IV." He was a blueblood, but he had chosen to work in an inner-city hospital with vagabonds, thieves and drunkards.
CHANGING THE ROTATION
WELLS: People leaving the show wound up contributing to our longevity. Of course when George left after five seasons, I was really worried. I thought the show was definitely going to end in Year 8 when Tony Edwards left.
MAURA TIERNEY: I was the first of the second wave. I did eight seasons, and people still thought of me as one of "the new ones." They didn't have a handle on the character at first. I was supposed to be either a med student or a nurse depending on whether Julianna left. She stayed one more season, so I was a med student; then she left, and I became a nurse.
LINDA CARDELLINI: John Wells hired me on a Wednesday, and I was working on Monday. I had no idea what I was getting into. The first day on that set I was floored. You have all this movement and then the technical dialogue, which is like a foreign language. You could have three different sets of cues. The doctor on the set could also call cut. It was the only show where somebody besides the director could call cut. Some days we'd do 12 pages. When I shot the "Scooby-Doo" movie, we'd do one page a day.
PARMINDER NAGRA: I was a fan of the show as a teenager in England. I was in L.A. to do publicity for "Bend It Like Beckham" when I met with John Wells, and he made me an offer. I had no idea how my life was going to change.
WELLS: I had seen Parminder in "Beckham," and I realized that we had never had an Indian or Pakistani doctor even though they are many in ERs around the country.
NAGRA: I'm very proud of my Indian heritage, but I didn't want it to become a cliche. I wanted them to be clever about it. The challenge was to make me grow as a character, and I think I did. They put me in so many relationships. I think I set the record on the show for hookups.
JOHN STAMOS: I had never seen it. When I went in to meet them, I had this idea that maybe they could get my character together with Maura Tierney, because I thought she was really hot. I didn't know she was already with Goran ((Visnjic, who played Dr. Luka Kovac)), and they had a baby already. I actually had been asked on the show before, and I didn't do it. But I saw George Clooney in the commissary on the lot one day, and he said to me: "Do `ER.' It's a great show and it will change your life." I wonder what ever happened to that guy.
TIERNEY: It's different being a TV actor, especially in a hit show. You're in people's homes; they know you in a way that's more intimate and familiar. People would just come up to me and say hi. When my character was cheating on Goran, people were angry with me. And when my character fell off the wagon, we were in Chicago shooting on location, and some of us went out to a bar afterwards. I was having a glass of wine, and people came up to me and said, "You shouldn't be having that wine."
A GOOD DEATH
WELLS: It's very odd to say, but it really was time to end. It's ending at a time when we're all still very proud of it. At the same time it means the loss of a lot of close friendships. There will be a dedication on a plaque above the stage -- they are renaming the stage for "ER."
STAMOS: I think they're canceling it prematurely. I still have a lot of energy for the show. I think you could keep doing it as a spinoff. WYLE: My first day on the set was March 17, 1994. My last day will be March 18, 2009. In between there's been marriage and children. There was this tearful goodbye after my farewell episode after the 11th season. I came back to the lot the next week because Clint Eastwood was casting for "Flags of Our Fathers." I drove up and the guard, who I had seen every day for years, asked me for ID. After I told him why I was there he sent me across the way to the visitor's lot. Then I went in and put my name on a long call sheet for actors. It just hit me: Back to Square 1.
EDWARDS: I know it will always be my middle name. I'm OK with that. I'm very friendly with Richard Thomas and he knows no matter what he does he will always be associated with "The Waltons." But he said to me, "It's OK to be stereotyped as long as you were good in it."
IN ON THE CONSULT:
(Dates refer to actors' status as full-time cast members.)
JOHN WELLS Executive producer (1994-2009)
ANTHONY EDWARDS Dr. Mark Greene (1994-2002)
PETER ROTH President, Warner Brothers Television (since 1999); president, 20th Century Fox Television (1994-1996)
NOAH WYLE Dr. John Carter (1994-2009)
ERIQ LA SALLE Dr. Peter Benton (1994-2002)
ABRAHAM BENRUBI Jerry Markovic (1994-2009)
CHRIS CHULACK Director, executive producer (1994-2009)
MAURA TIERNEY Abby Lockhart (1999-2008)
LINDA CARDELLINI Samantha Taggert (2003-2009)
PARMINDER NAGRA Dr. Neela Rasgotra (2003-2009)
JOHN STAMOS Dr. Tony Gates (2005-2009)
Source: New York Times / St Louis Today
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/peopleinthenews/story/B4B1B575A019B57B862575810007687A?OpenDocument
