MYNDI
The first time I saw ER, I was an intern at the Cleveland NBC affiliate. I sat back and kind of thought, wow, here’s a show that just might resurrect NBC. Of course, that was the understatement of the century. ER resuscitated a network and reshaped a genre into something no one had ever seen before on television. And, really, there’s still nothing that is quite its equal in the realm of medical drama; argue all you want.
Sure, it’s had its peaks and valleys over the years. There was the supreme first season, which featured an episode called “Love’s Labors Lost” I simply can’t ever watch again, it’s so powerful and upsetting to me. There was the live show in Season 4 (done live for both east and west time zones) that was a calculated risk which paid off. The deaths of core characters by knife-wielding mental patients, cancer, and helicopter ranged from dramatic to ridiculous. The almost complete turnover of the show’s cast in the last six years or so sent many viewers running away, but those of us who stuck were rewarded with strong arcs for Drs. Greg Pratt, Abby Lockhart, Luka Kovac, Neela Rasgotra, Archie Morris, Ray Barnett, Tony Gates and nurse Samantha Taggert.
