Post by loopyallie on Mar 29, 2009 16:50:27 GMT 10
'ER' Closes Doors
By WALT BELCHER
wbelcher@tampatrib.com
Published: March 29, 2009
TAMPA - When the curtain closes Thursday night on County General Hospital, it will be another hectic day in the emergency room where so much drama has taken place.
Executive producer John Wells says it's fitting that the last "ER" will be a continuation of the life-and-death stories that have carried the series for 15 years.
"The only way to really do justice to the show is to continue what has worked on it, which is we just sort of showed up on one day in 1994 as an audience and caught what was happening that day," Wells said in an interview on the set in January.
The series comes to an end with "And In the End ...," a two-hour episode beginning at 9 p.m. A special "ER" retrospective will air at 8 p.m. during which the cast and crew will reflect on the show's 15 seasons.
On the finale, Dr. Gates (John Stamos) works on a teenager brought in with alcohol poisoning after playing a deadly drinking game with friends. The storyline was inspired by Wells' 17-year-old niece, Shelby Lyn Allen, who died in December after a night of binge drinking with her friends in Redding, Calif.
Meanwhile, Dr. Carter (guest star Noah Wyle) opens a new medical facility for the underprivileged in Chicago and some old friends from County General come to show their support.
It's birthday time for Sam (Linda Cardellini), and Alex (Dominic Janes) and Gates surprise her with a special gift. Meanwhile, Carter works with an intern to save a mother in labor with twins. Parminder Nagra, Scott Grimes, David Lyons and Angela Bassett also star. Many "ER" alums return, as well. Guest stars include Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") and Ernest Borgnine.
"ER" was created by the late Michael Crichton, who based it on a movie script he wrote in the 1970s. He was inspired by his own internship and an overburdened hospital.
The pilot was rejected by almost every network before its 1994 launch. NBC took it only because the doctor-turned-novelist teamed with Steven Spielberg to back the production.
Nominated six times for best drama, "ER" won the Emmy in 1996 and remained in Nielsen rankings' top 10 for a decade. At its peak, the series reached 47.8 million viewers. It remains NBC's second-most watched drama behind only "Law & Order: SVU."
Wells says that over the 15-year run there have been 26 regular cast members. Many have come and gone. Among the most memorable are George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Maura Tierney, Sherry Stringfield, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies, Gloria Reuben, Kellie Martin, Laura Innes, Wyle, Stamos and Nagra.
"They were and have been just an extraordinary group of actors that we've gotten to work with," Wells says. "Viewers were tied into the world and the characters, and we were able to introduce characters slowly so that we didn't have to have actors who came in and had to replace someone."
Transcending Entertainment
On one level, the series worked as an intense medical drama that followed the cases of the patients as well as the personal lives of the emergency room staff. There were lovers and losers, survivors and those who didn't make it.
On another level "ER" transcended its entertainment value.
"When we started, we were trying to say something about the nation's health care system," says Wells, recalling a 1994 Newsweek cover of the cast with the headline "A Healthcare Plan That Really Works"
"This was during the Clinton attempts to reform health care and we thought the system was in decay then," Wells says. "We were showing a financially strapped public hospital where the staff was doing its best to cope.
"But now 15 years later, the health care system is worse," he notes. Of the major industrial nations, we're somewhere, depending on the year, ranked between 20 and 50 as far as the quality of our health care.
"We're the only industrialized democracy that doesn't provide health care for everyone within the country in some form," he adds. "And to close down emergency rooms simply because there are too many people trying to use them is unconscionable."
"ER" is set in Chicago but filmed in Los Angeles.
The shabby appearance is purposeful: The pilot was shot at a similar looking closed hospital in Los Angeles.
"It was the only one that we could get that would let us shoot in it, and we didn't really make a choice," Wells says. "We had a pickup for the show very late and needed to turn in a pilot in the first couple of days in May."
A Learning Experience
Joe Sachs, a writer and medical doctor who is the "ER" technical adviser, says the show has "always been current and accurate with our medical information, and because we are current and accurate, as a side effect, people learn."
Public health organizations have studied the show's impact through surveys of viewers, he says. Half of them reported learning health information; a third learned something that helped them or family.
When Dr. Mark Green (Anthony Edwards) had a brain tumor, he had a seizure. When the tumor returned after treatment, his symptoms were more subtle. He bit his tongue because he couldn't control it and his tongue protruded to the side.
"About a year after that episode was written, I got a letter from a young woman in Texas who was having terrible headaches, and none of the doctors were taking her seriously," Sachs says.
She had seen "ER" and insisted on a CAT scan. It revealed a tumor 1 millimeter from her spinal cord.
"Two weeks later she would have been dead," Sachs says. "She had surgery and survived. We actually flew her and her kids out to be extras."
As a bigger example, he recalls a story about patient navigators, a program at a Harlem hospital that provides an "advocator" to guide disadvantaged people through the health care system.
That episode was shown to U.S. lawmakers in 2005, and helped the passage of a $25 million bill putting patient navigators in inner-city hospitals all across the country.
"So from the very small to the very big, people pay attention," Sachs says. "But again, it's a side effect of the show. Our intention is to tell good stories with good drama, but because we're accurate, education happens."
www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/29/tr-er-closes-doors/life/
).....
and NOT A SINGLE CLUE AT A GUY CALLED Goran V.I.S.N.J.I.C , the hot guy with the cute European accent who attracted thousands of viewers from all over the world for more than 8 YEARS...........and formed such an amazing couple with Maura Tierney... that some crazy people from all over the world created LUBY forums to share their feelings about their complicated relationship, their smoking chemistry and how they were each other's compass..... 
.................
..............who had such zero chemistry with Parminder that TPTB had to change all their storyline, ( he had the hotness of an umbrella 
).......... if they didn't want to see more hordes of faithful viewers run away for good. 
who'll be able to find a pic showing that Goran isn't on the other side of the galaxy, or doing something so bloody important that he can't be here with his friends to celebrate 8 YEARS of his life.
just joking... but as a long time viewer, I loved the way they showed that Doug and Carol are happy... So why can't they do that for Luby? I mean they focused a lot on them in the last seasons... I think if it wasn't for them, ER wouldn't have made it to the 15th season... although I loved Maura her acting in season 14... Abby wasn't the only one suffering... I think we deserve some Abby AND Luka... I need some Luka blue in the finale episode!! 
best tv quote ever!! 
(even rossandrachel seems crap to me now...)
.... can't tell you what they'll put in it or I'll be banned .... ) 
