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 It's St. Patrick's Day and Dr. Mark Greene is asleep. Lydia wakes him up
to take care of a drunk Dr. Doug Ross. Mark takes care of him and then
goes back to sleep. Lydia continues to keep waking him up. Dr's Lewis and Benton
come in to work around 9 am. A building has collapsed and there are a lot
of injuries. By this time, Doug Ross is able to assist them. Benton takes one, his hand is only just attached, Benton assures him that it can be reattached.
After a while the patients have all been taken care of. All the docs are
in the lounge resting. Peter Benton fusses at Carol about the nurses
drinking all of the coffee up. She tells him to fix more. Rachel and
Jen Greene come to see Mark in the cafeteria. John Carter comes to
work. He is Peter's third year surgical student. He is wearing a tailored
doctor's coat. Peter gives him a "quick" tour. Carter has no
experience doing very much. He has only worked with Dermatology and one
other non violent office. Peter introduces him to Dr Morgenstern who is
the chief surgeon. Carter learns a quick lesson on how to do stitches and
how to put in an IV.
 He puts his first IV into a gun shot victim. It
only took him 3 times until he got it into the vein. Doug Ross also gets a new student
named Tracy Young. She is a third year student. Doug tries unsuccessfully
to get to know her better. We find out that Doug and Carol Hathaway,
Charge Nurse, used to be a couple. Mark grabs Carter to help him with a
baby delivery. This must be his first time and he seems to like it.
His look is worth a thousand words. Mark Greene interviews at a very nice
doctors office. He would make a lot of money, but does not seem to be
interested ( no wonder he and Jen don't make it too much longer). Susan
treats a man who might have lung cancer. She tells him that he might only
have 6 months to a year to live. He doesn't take it too well (of
course). Mark takes care of a rich weird older woman with a hang
nail. She is either a hypochondriac or needs a visit from Psych.
Mark keeps her updated about his family and how Jen studying for the Bar
Exam. The shift is ending and Carol goes home while the next crew of
people come in. Carter is stitches up a ladies foot after she wrecks her
father's new Cadillac. He reacts as anyone else would, but he takes it out
in the next curtain area and not on his daughter. Doug helps a little boy
and his mother. The boy has swallowed the house key and Doug and the
little boy find it amusing. Carter makes a good call on a girl with
an ectopic pregnancy, but it takes Peter Benton to convince her that she will
need surgery.
 Mark and Susan Lewis go in break to the Cafeteria. They are not there long
when he gets a page to go back down to the ER. Carol Hathaway is being
brought in following a suicide attempt by overdosing on barbiturates.
Everyone is standing by watching, whispering, and asking why. Her room
mate is there and they are asking her what Carol had taken. Mark tells Dr.
Morgenstern that it doesn't look to good. He replies to him that he sets
the tone of the E.R. Doug tells Mark that she seemed to be doing well
today. He is shocked about Hathaway. Carter gets sick after
witnessing a knifing victim and he has to go outside. Mark follows after
him to check on him. He tells him to keep his head down to make him feel
better. He said he went to school with Benton and he use to get sick all
the time and not to let him bother you about it. This made Carter
smile.  We hear that Carol is suppose to get married in June. She has been on dialysis for three hours, she is
comatose and unresponsive. Susan replies that she knew exactly what she was doing and what drugs to take.
A baby sitter brings in a little boy that has been beaten quite often. She
is afraid that some one is going to get in trouble. The child's mother and
her boy friend show up. She is a lawyer and does not like being accused of
child abuse by Doug Ross. Peter
takes care of a man with an aortic aneurysm. No one is available to
operate so Peter makes a call to start surgery on him. Everyone is
surprised. He finds the leak and holds it until Dr.
Morgenstern arrives. He tells Peter what a bad incision he has made and
comments on how a good veterinarian could have made a better cut then
that. He also tells Peter that he did a good job. This makes him
very happy. Doug gets snappy to Tracy Young, but later apologizes and they
go for coffee. Then we see Mark sleeping as we did at the beginning of the
episode and Lydia comes in to wake him up. Just another day in the
Emergency Room.
Reviewed by Tony Conner on 09-06-2000
 The
show’s two hour long pilot episode begins on St. Patrick’s Day with nurse
Lydia Wright waking Dr. Mark Greene and telling him that he has a patient.
This patient turns out to be Dr. Doug Ross, a good friend and co-worker of
Mark’s. Doug is drunk and sleeps it off in exam three. This irresponsible
behavior of showing up to work drunk shows exactly what Doug’s personality is
and how he acts in future episodes. After having gone back to sleep after this
disturbance, Mark is again waken up two times until he finally wakes for his
shift at 6:30A.M.
At 6:15 A.M. a building had
collapsed during construction, leaving two dead and twelve injured. Dr. Peter
Benton walks into his shift this morning to find out that Cook County General
will be receiving these patients, seven of them being critical. At this time
there is a small staff available and they gather everybody available to help
with the mass trauma.
The first patient is a Mr. Wilson who the E.R. frantically brings to the
trauma room. The man’s right hand is horribly injured; orthopedics is notified
of the patient and an O.R. is booked to save his hand. Other patients include
Mr. Jackson, who is gasping for air and an elderly women who coughs up blood
as the recently awaken Doug works to help her. Meanwhile, Benton, a surgical
resident, wishes to perform the orthopedic surgery, however is told he is too
inexperienced for this case. Instead Benton comes to help the elderly women
who’s condition continues to worsen; in the end she lives.
Mark now must inform Mr. Pinelli, who’s father had a heart attack, that he
died. This man is extremely distraught and even pushes Mark against a vending
machine as he begins to cry. At this time, the mass trauma has ended and the
E.R. slows down.
 Mark,
Benton, and Dr. Susan Lewis are in the doctor’s lounge as Benton gets upset
that the nurses have been drinking their coffee. He complains to the charge
nurse, Carol Hathaway as she enters the room. She is not sympathetic.
Mark is paged to the cafeteria where is wife Jen and daughter Rachel are
waiting for him. His wife is upset that between both of their demanding
careers (she is working to become a lawyer) they don’t see each other enough.
John Carter, a surgical med student, arrives to begin his rotation with his
intern, Benton. He is given a quick tour of the E.R. and meets staff members
including the chief of the E.R, Dr. Morgenstern. Carter must finish a suturing
job as Benton is called to a GSW. Carter is very excited after successfully
starting an IV on this GSW victim, who is Frank, a cop. Frank will in a later
episode become a desk clerk in the E.R.
We now learn that Doug and Carol had once dated. Carol tells Doug he had his
chance, he however is not over her.
A man runs into the E.R. shouting that a pregnant
women is in his cab giving birth. Mark grabs Carter and they go to perform the
birth, with the help of Doug, a pediatrician. Carter is overwhelmed by the
event.
Carter has finished the suturing jobs assigned by Benton who tells him to go
to lunch. After Carter says he’s fine and can keep working, Benton tells him,
“Don’t be a hero,” and to jump at a chance to eat because he’ll never know
when he will be able to take a break next.
Susan yells for help on a thirteen year old GSW suffering from five shots as
Mark leaves for an appointment at a private practice of Dr. Harris. He is
going just to make his wife happy, as it would be a less demanding job. Back
at County the GSW has just died.
Dr. Lewis is now with Mr. Parker. An x-ray has shown that he has something
abnormal within the structure of his lung. Susan explains that will have to do
further work to find out what it is, but he believes that it is cancer and
that she is hiding the truth from him. He is convinced he is dying of cancer
even after Susan continues to explain that they shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Finally she tells him he has six months to a year to live. As he breaks down
and cries she tells him that, “If there’s one thing you learn in my job, it’s
that nothing is certain. Nothing that seems very bad and nothing that seems
very good. Nothing is certain. Nothing.”
 Carol
is now leaving as her shift ends. She takes something from a locked up cabinet
and goes home. Carter is helping a very upset girl, Suzanne who has just
crashed her father’s brand new Cadillac that she wasn’t supposed to be
driving. She is sure he’ll kill her when he finds out. He is very angry, but
tells her it doesn’t matter.
Doug is treating a little boy, Jimmy who has swallowed a key. His mother
doesn’t know what to do because that is the only key to get into her house.
Doug laughs and apologizes as he and Jimmy laugh about it.
Carter must deal with a thirteen year old girl who tells her she isn’t
pregnant because she isn’t having sex. Carter is afraid she has an actopic
pregnancy. Benton then talks to her and to Carter’s surprise she admits to
Benton that she is having sex. Carter was right; Benton tells Carter she has
an actopic pregnancy.
 Mark
and Susan are eating and discussing his visit to Harris’ when they are paged
to the E.R. To every one’s complete shock, especially ex-boyfriend Doug, Carol
has attempted suicide. She has overdosed on the pills she had taken from the
E.R. earlier. Many staff members look on as her condition gets worse. When
Morgenstern arrives he questions if they should continue working on her. He
tells Greene, “The unit’s looking to you, Mark. You set the tone…You set the
tone Mark. You get the unit through this.”
After a GSW arrives to the E.R. Carter feels sick
and goes outside. Mark oversees what happens and follows Carter. Carter
apologizes and Mark tells him to never say he’s sorry. “See there’s two kinds
of doctors. There’s the kind that gets rid of their feelings and the kind that
keeps them. If you’re gonna keep your feelings your gonna get sick from time
to time,” Mark says to him. He tells Carter that helping the patients is more
important then how they feel. He also jokes that he was in med school with
Benton and that Benton used to get sick all the time.
Doug, still upset and feeling guilty about Carol’s condition, treats a baby
with numerous injuries, brought in by the babysitter. The baby has been beaten
so he calls child and family services. Once the mother arrives Doug yells at
her after she blames the babysitter. The lady wants to take the baby home and
acts shocked at the idea she hurt her child. She can’t explain the injuries.
“How dare you speak to me this way,” she begins to say as Ross interrupts her.
“How dare you treat you’re child like this,” he yells back. “He’s a little
kid. I try to be understanding in my job, but lady this just stinks.”
Afterwards, while still upset, he yells at his new med student ,Tracy Young,
about a lost chart.
Benton looks over a patient with a ruptured aneurysm and decides he needs to
be operated on right away. However there is no one around to perform the
surgery so he starts it by himself even though it is a surgery a resident
should not be performing alone. After performing the riskiest part of the
surgery, Morgenstern and others finally arrive to help. Even after saving the
man’s life, Morgenstern criticizes Benton’s incisions and takes over. He tells
him he was lucky but right to start the surgery and that he did good work.
Meanwhile, Carol still remains in critical condition, not getting any better.
Benton visits with Mrs. Harvey, the wife of the man he operated on earlier.
The man is doing fine post-op. The wife says she is grateful for Dr.
Morgenstern saving his life and that Morgenstern had said Benton did a lot
too. For some reason Benton replies that he just helped out a little bit.
Doug apologizes to his med student about yelling at her. They then go to get
coffee together.
Benton and Carter both rest after a long day. Mark tells Lydia to wake him at
6:30A.M. again and goes to sleep. The episode ends with Lydia waking him just
like she had at the very beginning of the episode. Mark is surprised because
it feels like he just went to sleep. This will be the start of a brand new day
in the E.R. for him.
Reviewed by heather b on 01-07-2004
NBC Review
In the pilot episode of 'ER'
(a two hour movie) overworked residents are the
heroes of County General Hospital as they make
life-and-death decisions on a daily basis. They
include Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), a
married chief resident who's being wooed by a
lucrative practice; Dr. Douglas Ross (George
Clooney), a charming, womanizing pediatrician
who suspects a mother of abusing her young son;
the down-to-earth Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry
Stringfield) who must console a fragile cancer
patient (guest star Miguel Ferrer); Dr. Peter
Benton (Eriq La Salle), an intense surgeon who
is forced into performing a delicate surgery
he's not prepared for; and John Carter (Noah
Wyle), an inexperienced medical student who
bumbles his way through the cauldron of the
emergency room. Julianna Margulies stars as
Nurse Carol Hathaway, whose personal crisis
takes the ER staff by surprise.
TV Guide Review
  September 19, 1994: Pilot Episode: Dr.
Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) considers
joining a private practice; John Carter (Noah
Wyle) arrives for the first day of his
internship; Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney)
comes to work drunk; and Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq
La Salle) performs his first operation.
Everyone is stunned when Carol Hathaway (Julianna
Marguiles) is brought in following a suicide
attempt.
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