When
“ER” debuted, the impact was instant.
Ratings soared, critics raved, actors became stars. They
“went from traveling in coach to being unable to walk
through the airport without ... security,” producer John
Wells said.
Some people caught every episode; others hesitated. “I
remember thinking it was a very dark and sad show,”
actress Linda Cardellini recalled.
Back then, she was a bubble-faced California teenager,
with no reason to obsess on a show that includes death
and dismay. Now, 14 years later, she’s at the show’s
core.
She’s 32, with a career that has ranged from “Brokeback
Mountain” to “Scooby-Doo.” As Sam Taggart, she’s a key
part of an “ER” wrapup, with:
– The final two episodes of this season, Thursday and
May 15. Wells promises “a bit of a cliffhanger ... big
things will blow up.”
– The start of next season. In the first few episodes,
“ER” says farewell to Abby, played by Maura Tierney.
– The rest. There will be 19 hours next year, 20 if the
finale in February runs two hours. That will wrap up a
show that once dominated.
It “was this huge sort of phenomenon,” Tierney said.
It brings a sense of TV history, she said.
“There
are ... random moments when I’m on Stage 11 and go,
‘Wow, this is a very big deal.”’ Not as big as it once
was.
In its first season (1994-95), “ER” was second only to
“Seinfeld” in the Nielsen ratings. In three of the next
four years, it was No. 1.
And now? In its first new, post-strike episode, it was
an adequate No. 36 out of 116.
It keeps being renewed partly because it draws a
gold-plate audience, with high income and education.
This year, there was another reason: “ER” was given one
more season, because the strike slowed the development
of new shows. That will be the 15th season for “ER,”
pushing it past “Dallas,” “Knots Landing” and “Bonanza”
on the all-time list. Among hour-long dramas, only
“Gunsmoke” and “Law & Order” have lasted longer.
Part of the longevity comes from the nature of a
teaching hospital. “(Each) fall, the new interns and
medical students come into the ER,” Wells said.
And part is the fact that any workplace show can keep
making changes. It can lose a star – even a superstar,
in the case of George Clooney – and survive.
Some characters didn’t catch on, but a few did
powerfully.
In 2000, “ER” added Tierney as Abby Lockhart. She would
go from nurse to doctor, while struggling with
alcoholism, drugs and a manic-depressive mother. “She
sort of advances and learns a little, but no one’s ever
entirely sort of fixed,” Tierney said.
In 2002, it added Mekhi Phifer as Gregory Pratt. He
would become the emergency room’s steady, central force.
And in 2003, it added Cardellini and Parminder Nagra. It
was a key youth movement. Three years earlier,
Cardellini had played a teenager in “Freaks and Geeks.”
Now she was a nurse, single and raising a son. “She had
a co-dependency with her child,” she said.
He had troubles and was sent to boarding school. “You
could tell her loneliness, from not having her guy
around,” Cardellini said.
But there was a flip side. After work, Sam could play.
“It’s like having a delayed adolescence,” Cardellini
said. “She made so many wrong choices but she’s a
survivor.”
Earlier, she’d had a mismatched affair with Luka Kovak (Goran
Visnjic). Lately, she has moved on to Tony Gates (John
Stamos).
Meanwhile, Luka linked with Abby, his kindred spirit.
They are battered souls, in a show that seems to last
forever.
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