This is a definite throwback to the 1990s. I actually watched this show and, combined with Trauma: Life in the ER, was the reason I wanted to pursue medicine as a child. Although, sadly, Trauma: Life in the ER no longer exists on TLC (The Learning Channel). The only thing I learned from the Learning Channel is that that channel keeps making nobodies famous for stupid reasons, such as being overweight, being 40+ years of age and wanting to date younger men or having dozens of kids
Summary
-The lives and misadventures of the doctors and nurses at Chicago's busy County General Hospital
-Noah Wyle: John Carter
-Laura Innes: Kerry Weaver
-Maura Tierney: Abby Lockhart
-Goran Visnjic: Luka Kovac
-Anthony Edwards: Mark Greene
-Eriq La Salle: Peter Benton
-Alex Kingston: Elizabeth Corday
-Julianna Margulies: Carol Hathaway
-Parminder Nagra: Neela Rasgotra
-George Clooney: Doug Ross
-Gedde Watanabe: Nurse Yosh Takata
-Ellen Crawford: Nurse Lydia Wright
-Mekhi Phifer: Gregory Pratt
-Deezer D: Nurse Malik McGrath
-Ming-Na Wen: Jing Mei Chen
-During an interview on PBS for the series Pioneers of Television, Noah Wyle was in Africa, filming some of the storyline for his character Dr. John Carter. While there in the Kalahari Desert, the real medic on set passed out from the heat. Wyle (who had been simulating medical procedures for his role on ER), put these skills to use and actually inserted an IV and hooked up the medic to a saline drip, thus saving their life
-After producers were unable to come up with a proper Croatian name, Goran Visnjic named his character Luka Kovac after his nephew Luka and his best friend Kovac
-The front desk clerk, Frank, always talked about life on the "force" as a Chicago police officer. In the first episode, he played a police officer who was shot in the line of duty and treated by the doctors
-Doug Ross always appeared to have his head hanging low, appearing thoughtful, private or ashamed. This was because George Clooney had taken to the habit of writing his lines on sheets of paper and other props, especially when it came to the complicated medical terminology
-Despite being filmed mostly at Warner Bros Burbank studios, cast and crew flew to Chicago each season to shoot exterior shots and make it more realistic. The shooting would be done on Sunday mornings to avoid causing traffic issues
-In 1997, the baseball game that George Clooney was watching in the breakroom on the live broadcast that year was the Cubs-Astros game, which was also live broadcasting on TV that night
-Gloria Reuben, who played Jeannie Boulet and Erik Palladino, who played Dave Malucci, left the show after feeling their characters didn't appear enough and were under used. Kellie Martin, who played Lucy Knight, left the show because it became too hard and painful to work in a medical show after the death of her sister
-Dr. Chen is the only character who refers to Carter by his first name
-Anthony Edwards was the initial choice to play Dr. Mark Greene. At the time of the pilot for this show, he was filming a movie. By sheer luck, the film had been pushed back and he was able to film this show
-Two of George Clooney's family members appeared as guests in the two hour pilot episode. His cousin, Miguel Ferrer, appeared and his aunt, Rosemary Clooney (Ferrer's mother), guest starred in the second episode
-Julianna Margulies initially read for the part of Dr. Mark Greene's wife, not Carol Hathaway
-Anthony Edwards left the show near the end of the 2001-2002 season because his real life wife Jeanine Lobell gave birth to their daughter and he wanted to spend more time with family
-The basketball hoop in the ambulance bay of the ER was George Clooney's idea. He used that hoop to unwind between filming. As a result, it was put into an area of the Warner Bros lot in Burbank, California. It quickly became a part of the series
-Initially, the set for the pilot episode was supposed to be a rundown hospital in East Los Angeles because the crew couldn't afford to build a proper set. The rooms were small and required the use of the Steadicam, which has now become a trademark of the show. Real members of the public, such as punk gangs, pulled up outside, thinking this was a real, working hospital
-In Season Three, Episode One, "Doctor Carter, I Presume", the heard but not seen Dr. Karubian was played by David Schwimmer, who plays Ross on Friends
-Due to a lack of money, the pilot episode was filmed in the former Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles, an old hospital that ceased business in 1990
Dr. Carter's birthday and Noah Wyle's birthday are almost identical. Dr. Carter's birthday is June 4, 1970 while Noah Wyle's birthday is June 4, 1971
-The helicopter used on this show does, in real life, belong to the University of Chicago Hospital. It's a 1989 Aerospatiale SA365N-1 Dauphin. As of 2017, this helicopter is still being used by the University of Chicago Hospital
-Robert Carradine appeared in the episode "Sleepless in Chicago" in the first season as a psychiatric patient pretending to be a doctor until he's discovered. Ironically, he and Anthony Edwards appeared in the Revenge of the Nerds series of films. Edwards had chosen not to appear in Revenge of the Nerds 3 because he was shooting ER at the time
-In the novel that spawned this series, Dr. Lewis is a man, not a woman and Dr. Benton is not African American
-Whenever local news would be shown on TV, the local Chicago news station, WMAQ, was always used
-One of the possible choices to play Dr. Benton was Tony Todd, famous for the horror movie Candyman
-In the pilot episode, Miguel Ferrer's character is given a cancer diagnosis by Sherry Stringfield's character, Dr. Susan Lewis. Eerily, Ferrer died of throat cancer in 2017
-Gedde Watanabe is known for playing Chinese exchange student Long Duk Dong in the Chicago-set teen comedy Sixteen Candles. Years later, he appeared on ER, playing Nurse Yosh Takata
-Most of the cast used medical terminology when doing their scenes. If they used the term EPI, it stood for epinephrine. It's a medication used to jump start the heart after stopping or slowing down. Another term used was V-Tach, which means ventricular tachycardia. It's a condition that means the heart is pumping as it should during a heart attack
-The actor who plays Dr. Peter Benton's son Reese, Matthew Watkins, is deaf in real life
