Post by sissa on Nov 14, 2008 2:57:01 GMT 10
‘ER' doc returns in flashbackEdwards helping drama wrap up its final season
Jay Bobbin
Published: November 13, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Anthony Edwards’ return to “ER” proves anything is possible.
The founding cast member portrayed Dr. Mark Greene on the NBC medical drama from 1994 to 2002, then made a tear-inducing exit when the character was diagnosed with brain cancer. In the show’s 15th and final season, its producers are promising special moments – and for anyone who wonders how the now-deceased Greene could reappear now, think “flashback.”
That’s how a new episode justifies Edwards’ guest stint tonight. Interestingly, his segments are linked to one of the series’ latest cast additions: Angela Bassett, playing Dr. Cate Banfield, the attending physician whose efforts to adjust to Chicago’s County General key the newly filmed sequences involving Edwards as Greene.
“I think everyone knew I had happily moved on,” the amiable, New York-based Edwards says of being approached about his “ER” reprise. “This past summer, (executive producer) John Wells called me from Hawaii and said, ‘We’re all sitting around, trying to figure out how to wrap up 15 years and get everybody back in.’ They’d come up with a way of getting Mark Greene back and asked if I’d be up for it.”
Edwards assures viewers, as much as he wanted the assurance himself, that Greene “will not be a ghost” as he turns up again.
“It ties in nicely with Angela Bassett’s character,” he says, “so I’m really lucky in that way.”
Although that actress is new to “ER,” many co-workers Edwards encountered were quite familiar to him.
“The truth is that you spend so much time with that crew, they’re really as much a part of it as any of the actors were,” he says. “For me, it was like going back to your favorite class in high school and being able to play again.
“You can be nostalgic about a period, yet that period’s gone. The truth is that everyone was still there doing it, so I was able to just kind of come back in. And I was there long enough; I didn’t just go in for a day and leave, so I was really able to spend time with some old friends. That was really nice.”
Dr. Mark Greene also was an old friend to whom Edwards didn’t need much reintroduction.
“It was kind of bizarre,” the actor allows. “Once you’re back in those scrubs and you’re on that set ... I’d done 190 episodes, so it’s definitely part of me, and it really came back. Since my character is dealing with cancer treatment at the time, it didn’t matter if I looked six years older. Actually, I’ve changed less in the last six years than from the time I went on the show to when I left.”
The makers of “ER” hope to have other alumni return before the final signoff. An offer is out to George Clooney, of course, and Edwards says he’s kept in touch “a little bit” with some of his former on-camera colleagues.
“Julianna (Margulies) lives here in New York, so I run into her,” he says. “Noah Wyle has had some kids, so I check in with him, and I see Maura Tierney. As with anyone who spends that much time in one place, you just pick up where you left off.”
Edwards admits he hasn’t kept up with “ER” itself, explaining that he’s “been busy doing so many other things, but the fact that they have kept going and have kept an audience for all these years is such a tribute to the actors, the writers and all the other creative forces.”
One of Edwards’ current priorities dictated whether he would agree to his “ER” resurrection.
“My first instinct was, ‘What can I get out of it for Shoe4Africa?’ I’m the chairman of this organization that has taken on a big challenge. Eighty percent of the kids who die in Africa do so without seeing a health-care provider, and the Kenyan government asked us to help build the largest children’s hospital there.
“It’s only going to cost $15 million, and I thought this would be a great way to kick it off, because ‘ER’ is still really big in Kenya. I told John Wells, ‘Rather than have Warner Bros. Television (the studio behind the series) pay me, let’s just have them make a contribution to the hospital.’ They came up with $125,000, then Steven Spielberg (also an ‘ER’ executive producer) heard about it and very graciously kicked in another $125,000.
“Also,” Edwards says, “John Wells’ family put in $50,000. It was very moving for me, because this is something that’s really important to me.
“When I was there in August, I told the chairman of the hospital that I was doing this. He said, ‘We love it! Dr. Greene has come back to life to build us a hospital!’ It really makes sense to me in kind of a great, poetic way.”
For information on the organization, see www.Shoe4Africa.org.
www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/ENT03/811130357
On life support: Despite return of show’s stars, ‘ER’ beyond resuscitation
By Mark A. Perigard / Review
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Where’s George?
It’s the question that hangs over the final season of NBC’s “ER.”
Producers have all but put a bounty on getting original player George Clooney back in scrubs before the medical show shutters its doors forever after 15 seasons.
Noah Wyle - who is set to return later this season as Dr. John Carter - recently told reporters that he believes Clooney will clock in for another shift at County General.
Clooney’s camp isn’t talking - which means it’s all but certain Clooney will pop up before the series ends in May.
Thursday night you’ll have to settle for Anthony Edwards’ homecoming as Dr. Mark Greene. Greene died of a brain tumor in 2002.
Fans of the show probably know that Edwards appears in flashbacks Thursday night. What they probably don’t know is that he’s joined by three other long-absent, much missed (at least in this quarter) “ER” players from the show’s glory days. (No, not Clooney, nor Julianna Margulies’ earthy nurse Carol Hathaway.)
I wouldn’t dare spoil the surprises, but here’s a major hint: One of the other characters also was later killed off.
A 3-year-old girl is pulled from icy waters, and as Dr. Cate Banfield (Angela Bassett) battles to keep her alive and understand her baffling symptoms, she is distracted by memories of her greatest heartache, the moment her young son collapsed and was treated by Greene.
For all the hoopla over Edwards’ appearance, this is Bassett’s episode. The current crisis forces her uncompromising doc to confront a grief that is poisoning her marriage. For continuity buffs - and the producers obviously know there are many out there - the episode is set just as Greene was beginning chemo for his brain tumor.
The other “ER” returnees don’t get more than a few lines, which is a shame because they’re much more interesting than Greene and Banfield combined.
The parade of familiar faces does nothing to endear the current cast, most of whom seem like shadows of familiar characters. Thursday night an intern who seems to be an even more earnest Carter ticks off Neela (Parminder Nagra), who seems to have inherited Benton’s grumpiness.
As a viewer, I pinpoint the moment “ER” started to show symptoms of acute tediousness to when sad sack Abby (Maura Tierney) joined the series.
Clooney left the show in 1999. He returned for an unexpected and beautiful cameo a year later to help usher off Margulies’ character.
He, along with all of “ER’s” former stars, are being called upon for a medical miracle, to remind viewers why they used to care about a series that creatively flatlined years ago.
news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/reviews/view.bg?&articleid=1131969&format=&page=1&listingType=tvrev#articleFull
Jay Bobbin
Published: November 13, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Anthony Edwards’ return to “ER” proves anything is possible.
The founding cast member portrayed Dr. Mark Greene on the NBC medical drama from 1994 to 2002, then made a tear-inducing exit when the character was diagnosed with brain cancer. In the show’s 15th and final season, its producers are promising special moments – and for anyone who wonders how the now-deceased Greene could reappear now, think “flashback.”
That’s how a new episode justifies Edwards’ guest stint tonight. Interestingly, his segments are linked to one of the series’ latest cast additions: Angela Bassett, playing Dr. Cate Banfield, the attending physician whose efforts to adjust to Chicago’s County General key the newly filmed sequences involving Edwards as Greene.
“I think everyone knew I had happily moved on,” the amiable, New York-based Edwards says of being approached about his “ER” reprise. “This past summer, (executive producer) John Wells called me from Hawaii and said, ‘We’re all sitting around, trying to figure out how to wrap up 15 years and get everybody back in.’ They’d come up with a way of getting Mark Greene back and asked if I’d be up for it.”
Edwards assures viewers, as much as he wanted the assurance himself, that Greene “will not be a ghost” as he turns up again.
“It ties in nicely with Angela Bassett’s character,” he says, “so I’m really lucky in that way.”
Although that actress is new to “ER,” many co-workers Edwards encountered were quite familiar to him.
“The truth is that you spend so much time with that crew, they’re really as much a part of it as any of the actors were,” he says. “For me, it was like going back to your favorite class in high school and being able to play again.
“You can be nostalgic about a period, yet that period’s gone. The truth is that everyone was still there doing it, so I was able to just kind of come back in. And I was there long enough; I didn’t just go in for a day and leave, so I was really able to spend time with some old friends. That was really nice.”
Dr. Mark Greene also was an old friend to whom Edwards didn’t need much reintroduction.
“It was kind of bizarre,” the actor allows. “Once you’re back in those scrubs and you’re on that set ... I’d done 190 episodes, so it’s definitely part of me, and it really came back. Since my character is dealing with cancer treatment at the time, it didn’t matter if I looked six years older. Actually, I’ve changed less in the last six years than from the time I went on the show to when I left.”
The makers of “ER” hope to have other alumni return before the final signoff. An offer is out to George Clooney, of course, and Edwards says he’s kept in touch “a little bit” with some of his former on-camera colleagues.
“Julianna (Margulies) lives here in New York, so I run into her,” he says. “Noah Wyle has had some kids, so I check in with him, and I see Maura Tierney. As with anyone who spends that much time in one place, you just pick up where you left off.”
Edwards admits he hasn’t kept up with “ER” itself, explaining that he’s “been busy doing so many other things, but the fact that they have kept going and have kept an audience for all these years is such a tribute to the actors, the writers and all the other creative forces.”
One of Edwards’ current priorities dictated whether he would agree to his “ER” resurrection.
“My first instinct was, ‘What can I get out of it for Shoe4Africa?’ I’m the chairman of this organization that has taken on a big challenge. Eighty percent of the kids who die in Africa do so without seeing a health-care provider, and the Kenyan government asked us to help build the largest children’s hospital there.
“It’s only going to cost $15 million, and I thought this would be a great way to kick it off, because ‘ER’ is still really big in Kenya. I told John Wells, ‘Rather than have Warner Bros. Television (the studio behind the series) pay me, let’s just have them make a contribution to the hospital.’ They came up with $125,000, then Steven Spielberg (also an ‘ER’ executive producer) heard about it and very graciously kicked in another $125,000.
“Also,” Edwards says, “John Wells’ family put in $50,000. It was very moving for me, because this is something that’s really important to me.
“When I was there in August, I told the chairman of the hospital that I was doing this. He said, ‘We love it! Dr. Greene has come back to life to build us a hospital!’ It really makes sense to me in kind of a great, poetic way.”
For information on the organization, see www.Shoe4Africa.org.
www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/ENT03/811130357
On life support: Despite return of show’s stars, ‘ER’ beyond resuscitation
By Mark A. Perigard / Review
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Where’s George?
It’s the question that hangs over the final season of NBC’s “ER.”
Producers have all but put a bounty on getting original player George Clooney back in scrubs before the medical show shutters its doors forever after 15 seasons.
Noah Wyle - who is set to return later this season as Dr. John Carter - recently told reporters that he believes Clooney will clock in for another shift at County General.
Clooney’s camp isn’t talking - which means it’s all but certain Clooney will pop up before the series ends in May.
Thursday night you’ll have to settle for Anthony Edwards’ homecoming as Dr. Mark Greene. Greene died of a brain tumor in 2002.
Fans of the show probably know that Edwards appears in flashbacks Thursday night. What they probably don’t know is that he’s joined by three other long-absent, much missed (at least in this quarter) “ER” players from the show’s glory days. (No, not Clooney, nor Julianna Margulies’ earthy nurse Carol Hathaway.)
I wouldn’t dare spoil the surprises, but here’s a major hint: One of the other characters also was later killed off.
A 3-year-old girl is pulled from icy waters, and as Dr. Cate Banfield (Angela Bassett) battles to keep her alive and understand her baffling symptoms, she is distracted by memories of her greatest heartache, the moment her young son collapsed and was treated by Greene.
For all the hoopla over Edwards’ appearance, this is Bassett’s episode. The current crisis forces her uncompromising doc to confront a grief that is poisoning her marriage. For continuity buffs - and the producers obviously know there are many out there - the episode is set just as Greene was beginning chemo for his brain tumor.
The other “ER” returnees don’t get more than a few lines, which is a shame because they’re much more interesting than Greene and Banfield combined.
The parade of familiar faces does nothing to endear the current cast, most of whom seem like shadows of familiar characters. Thursday night an intern who seems to be an even more earnest Carter ticks off Neela (Parminder Nagra), who seems to have inherited Benton’s grumpiness.
As a viewer, I pinpoint the moment “ER” started to show symptoms of acute tediousness to when sad sack Abby (Maura Tierney) joined the series.
Clooney left the show in 1999. He returned for an unexpected and beautiful cameo a year later to help usher off Margulies’ character.
He, along with all of “ER’s” former stars, are being called upon for a medical miracle, to remind viewers why they used to care about a series that creatively flatlined years ago.
news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/reviews/view.bg?&articleid=1131969&format=&page=1&listingType=tvrev#articleFull
You all know who's my favourite is... 
We are all hoping that Abby will pop back in... but I doubt it... 
