Farewell, County General

from Independent, The; London (UK) ..

By Sarah Hughes

ER, America's longest-running hospital drama, is about to air its final season. Sarah Hughes bids a fond farewell to 15 years of medical mayhem - and gives a rundown of the most memorable moments

It began by chronicling naive young medical student John Carter's eventful first day at Chicago's County General Hospital. Now, 15 years later, America's longest running medical drama, ER, is edging towards to the end with a flurry of cameos from past favourites - including a rumoured appearance from the most famous of them all, George Clooney.

In truth, the final season of ER, which begins on More4 on 8 January, is perhaps overdue. We are a long way now from the show's heyday when Clooney's roguish Dr Doug Ross bantered with Julianna Margulies's neurotic Nurse Carol Hathaway up and down those County General corridors. And a long way, too, from the show's solid middle period when Goran Visnjic's soulful Dr Luka Kovic smouldered sullenly at Maura Tierney's troubled Nurse Abby Lockhart. We've said goodbye to the arrogant Peter Benton, the pragmatic English resident Elizabeth Corday and the perpetually worried Dr Mark Greene, and travelled far from Chicago's snowbetrodden streets to war zones in Darfur, the Congo and Croatia.

It was all so different when it began. In 1994, ER, the brainchild of the late Michael Crichton, who drew on his own experience as a teaching doctor, was that rare thing, a serious drama that was also seriously addictive. There had been hospital- set dramas before, but few had delved so deeply not just into the private lives of their doctors but, more importantly, actually into their patients. Gunshot victims were dissected in front of us, guts piled up on the table, suppurating boils were lanced as we watched behind the safety of our hands. And alongside the gruesome ailments of the week was a welcome streak of realism - patients weren't always saved, doctors were tired, they didn't always care and they weren't always right. ER was an eye-opener.

For ER made doctors seem exciting. Whether it was Benton effortlessly saving a patient's life while insulting his students or Ross discussing his latest case while casually shooting a few hoops in the basketball court at the back of the hospital, these people seemed cool. They rarely broke into a sweat, they quipped in the face of disaster and they managed to make hospital scrubs look like the last word in Nineties fashion. Small wonder that the show became 1994's biggest hit, shocking even the executives at NBC, who had expected it to gain little more than a cult following.

Since those heady days there have been countless imitators, both British and American, from the good (Bodies) to the bad (Grey's Anatomy) and the sardonic (House), but none of them have quite managed to claim ER's crown. Meanwhile, the original staggers on, a shadow of what it used to be, substituting accidents of the week for the organic character development that once made this show so compelling.

So what went wrong? In part, ER's ultimate collapse was the product of its success. As the show became a hit so the actors became well known, and quit ER for shiny new careers. When Noah Wyle, who played Carter, quit at the end of season 12, it broke the last link with the award-winning ER of old. And then came the deaths. As ER lurches into its final season it's hard to understand why any right-minded doctor or nurse would possibly want to work at County General. This is the hospital where doctors have their arms sliced off by helicopters and get blown up in ambulances, where students have been stabbed and residents have been tortured, where gunfire wounds are a weekly hazard. Small wonder that most of the staff appear to have spent the last few seasons heading as fast as they can for the world's war zones - Darfur probably seems almost peaceful when you've survived life in a Chicago ER.

Yet despite those flaws, those over-the-top plotlines and angst- ridden relationships, there is still something compelling about ER and never more so then in this final season now it is freed from the need to keep the ratings up. Instead of crazy accidents, the writers have gone back to the basics - the sharp writing and smart character interactions - that once made this show so good. Across the US people have been tuning in to find out how things finally end for County General's long-suffering staff. Will they go out with a bigger bang than ever before or will the doors simply, slowly, shut on the ER for one final time? As long as there are no helicopters in the vicinity they should be just fine.

BEST DOCTORS

Over the years plenty of memorable doctors have walked far too fast down County's corridors, from the ever-infuriated Dr Peter Benton (seasons one to eight) to the sharp-tongued Dr Kerry Weaver (seasons two to 13). But the best ER doctors were those who just cared too much, from Dr Doug Ross (seasons one to five), sacked for helping a mother give a lethal dose of medication to her terminally ill son, to Dr John Carter (seasons one to 12), who quit the ER to work in Darfur.

WORST DOCTORS

Not every doctor can make the County General hall of fame. Three of the worst were Shane West's Dr Ray Barnett, possibly television's first doctor/rock star hybrid, the dope-smoking sperm donor Dr Archie Morris (Scott Grimes) and Dr Dave Malucci (Erik Palladino), the cocky resident who was fired after accidentally killing a patient and then seeking comfort with a paramedic in a nearby ambulance.

BEST EPISODES

In its early days ER built up something of a reputation as a show prepared to take risks. Among the stand-out episodes are season one's "Motherhood", which was directed by Quentin Tarantino and, in a reference to Reservoir Dogs, featured a patient with her ear bitten off, season two's "Hell and High Water", in which Ross saves a little boy stuck in a culvert, "Ambush", the season four opening episode, which was filmed live, season six's "All in the Family", which saw intern Lucy Knight die after being stabbed by a schizophrenic patient, season eight's "On the Beach", in which Greene died of a brain tumour, season nine's "Hindsight", in which the episode's events were shown in reverse order and season 11's "Time of Death", which played out in real time.

MOST MEMORABLE ROMANCES

Forget the odd ailments and freaky injuries, ER was always largely about love. For many viewers the couple to end all couples remains Ross and Hathaway, who finally settled down together in Seattle with their twin sons. Matching Carol and Doug on the angst front were Luka Kovac and Abby Lockhart, whose on-off romance was the show's longest. Yet for all the melodrama of Kovac and Lockhart and the will-they/won't they anguish of Ross and Hathaway one of ER's best romances was also its quietest - the never quite consummated relationship between Greene and Susan Lewis.

BEST CAMEOS

A surprising number of stars have turned up in the emergency room, from Lucy Liu, who played the mother of a girl with Aids in season two to Ewan McGregor, who held up a convenience store with Hathaway in it in season three. Other memorable cameos include Kirsten Dunst, Friends star David Schwimmer, and West Wing hero Bradley Whitford.

BEST STUNT CASTING

Whether it was Ray Liotta, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of an alcoholic, or Sally Fields, also a winner for her role as Abby's bipolar mother, ER has always had a good eye for guest stars. Among the most notable: William H Macy, Alan Alda, James Cromwell, Don Cheadle and John Leguizamo. This year has seen Angela Bassett appear as Dr Cate Banfield, the ER's attending physician for the final season.

MOST OVER THE TOP EXIT

Among the more memorable departures are Greene, who died of a brain tumour, Michael Gallant, who died serving a second tour of duty in Iraq, Barnett, who ended up literally legless after a drunken collision with a truck, Gregory Pratt, who died as a result of injuries suffered following an ambulance explosion and, most infamously of all, Robert Romano, who died when a helicopter landed on top of him.

MOST UNBELIEVABLE MOMENT

Despite the above mentioned helicopter death, the single most ludicrous moment in this show's history came in "Twenty One Guns", the season 12 finale, when Kovac found himself injected with a muscle paralyser and strapped to a gurney while a gunfight broke out in the hospital.

'ER' begins on More4 on 8 January at 9pm

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