Where everything is stat (ER)

Member Name: MykReeve

Product:	ER
Date:	06/03/01 (550 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent scripts, direction and acting, one of the most consistently good television programmes out there at the moment

Disadvantages: Has started to rely on large-scale events to maintain audience interest in the show recently

'Emergency Room', or 'ER' for short, is easily one of the most consistently enjoyable programmes on television today. The show is currently entering its seventh season on UK television at the time of writing, and showing weekly on Channel 4 (terrestrial) and E4 (cable and satellite), and is one of the most successful syndicated television programmes of all time.

In the US, where the show airs on the NBC network, it has been bestowed with literally heaps of awards. The directors' guild of America gave it an award for achievements in direction three years running from 1995 to 1997. It consistently receives awards and nominations at the Emmy Awards (the awards for the American Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) – in 1995, it picked up 8 awards, and a further 11 nominations, for example. Every year since 1995, the show has been nominated for Best TV Drama Series at the Golden Globe awards, as well as receiving numerous other nominations. However, the only Golden Globe the show has ever received was for Anthony Edwards' performance.

And it's not just the critics that love the show. In the American Peoples' Choice Awards, the show has won the prestigious 'Favourite Television Dramatic Series' award every year from 1997 to 2001, as well as the 'Favourite Drama Series' award in the TV Guide awards in 1999 and 2000.

SITUATION

'ER' takes place in Cook County General Hospital, in Chicago, specifically in and around the emergency department of the hospital. Most episodes take place almost entirely within the emergency department, with only a few scenes following the major characters to other areas of the hospital (most often the surgery department) and around the city.

Probably the thing that most sets 'ER' apart from other shows is the incredibly fast pace of the action. Where 'Chicago Hope', which first aired the same week as 'ER' in the State
s, dwells on individual patients and their treatments, as well as dealing with the lives of the hospital's doctors, 'ER' reflects the frantic operation of a busy city hospital emergency department. Individual patients may only appear very briefly in 'ER', and a great number of patients might pass through the department in an individual episode.

In later series, the show seems to have relied more on dramatic (and consequently, less plausible) events, particularly at the beginning of seasons. Generally, despite the unlikelihood of the extreme events which seem to occur on a weekly basis in the emergency department, the quality of the show's writing and acting have been consistently strong enough to convince an audience.

The show's attention to medical detail is consistently exemplary, and although there are occasional goofs, the show is renowned among the medical profession for its accuracy. Part of this accuracy can be attributed to the involvement of Michael Crichton, who was one of the show's creators. Crichton graduated from Harvard Medical School, and worked at Massachusetts General Hospital, taking inspiration from some of the case histories he experienced there to produce his only non-fiction book to date, 'Five Patients'. Every script for the show accompanies the dialogue with extensive notes about the positions and actions the actors should adopt, and what the electronic displays around a patient should be showing.

The show's characters are consistently very well developed, and dialogue is extremely well written. Development of characters occurs continually throughout the series, rather than trying to keep individual characters' development confined to individual episodes.

GUEST STARS

In addition to having a consistently excellent core cast, 'ER' manages to attract an impressive range of famous and competent actors and actresses to play characters in the show.
William H. Macy appeared sporadically in the show for several years as surgeon David Morgenstern, and Alan Alda recently appeared as Gabriel Lawrence, a gifted emergency physician suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Other guest stars have included Glenne Headly, Ewan McGregor, Lucy Liu, Rebecca de Mornay (as Elaine, with whom Carter had a brief fling) and Kirsten Dunst.

The show has also attracted some of the finest directors working in the States today, including an episode in the first series ('Motherhood') directed by Quentin Tarantino, and featuring some of his directorial trademarks.

The first episode in the fourth series of 'ER', entitled 'Ambush', was broadcast live across the United States. In fact, it wasn't acted out just once, but twice, for both the West and East Coasts of the States. To explain the somewhat patchy appearance of the show, the plot was that a documentary crew had come to the hospital emergency room to document the occurrences for a public television special. It was essentially a gimmick to attract people back to the show, but both fans and new viewers were impressed by how well this seemingly idiotic idea was actually realised.

MY THOUGHTS

Anyway, that's pretty much it for my opinion of the show. 'ER' is one of the few television shows that I will go out of my way not to miss, and I have watched it ever since the first episode. Although over the same period of time, my interest in shows like 'The X-Files' and 'Friends' have waned, mainly due to a deterioration in the quality of plots and scripts, 'ER' has managed to remain consistently good, and remains an extremely watchable show.

For me, 'ER' scores highly over similar shows like 'Casualty' and 'Chicago Hope' due to the quality of the writing and the consistently frenetic pace throughout each episode. There's none of that frustrating waiting for t
he accident to happen that you get with 'Casualty' (providing the material for a game I like to call 'Spot the would-be corpse'), as our first glimpse of a patient is usually the same as that of the emergency department staff. Yes, at times the show can't resist tugging on our heartstrings, but it does it in a more plausible way generally than other shows, and the characters remain well written and believable. The medical accuracy is extremely meticulous, and although there are goofs, they are only seldom substantial ones – you can actually learn something about medicine from watching 'ER', which might be a bad thing for the hypochondriacs amongst us!

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THE CHARACTERS

As I mentioned earlier, character development occurs over the various series of the show, making starting watching the show, without having watched it from the start, extremely difficult. So, here, I'm hoping to provide enough of an introduction to each of the show's main characters for a completely new viewer to understand just what's going on.

 CURRENT MAIN CHARACTERS

- DR MARK GREENE (Anthony Edwards) 1994-present

Mark Greene is one of only three surviving characters to have been in the show since day one, and he's been through a lot over the last six years. In the first episode, when we are introduced to him, he is a fourth-year resident in the emergency department of the hospital, and married to Jennifer Greene with a young daughter named Rachel. In the second episode, Jennifer passes the bar exam, and during the first season she attends interviews for law firms across the country, much to Mark's irritation. When Mark agrees to take an attending position in the emergency department without consulting Jennifer, she retaliates by taking an offer of a job in Milwaukee.

The first season also presents mark with the biggest challenge of h
is medical career to date. In the episode 'Love's Labor Lost', Mark works frantically to save a pregnant woman and her endangered baby, when she initially presents with a seemingly benign bladder infection, though she in fact suffers from pre-eclampsia. Unfortunately, the mother dies in the emergency room, and in subsequent episodes, Mark is forced to explain his actions to a panel of other doctors.

By the end of the first season, Mark has moved to Milwaukee to spend more time with Jen and Rachel, and has taken the attending position in the emergency room. In the second season, Mark's extended hours working as an attending physician lead to him being unable to commute to Milwaukee every night, and instead he frequently stays at Doug Ross's apartment.

Later in the season, Jen is rushed into hospital in Milwaukee following a car accident, and when Mark goes to visit her, he discovers that the car was being driven by one of Jen's co-workers, with whom she was having an affair. Within a few episodes, Jen has filed for divorce, and gets Mark to break the news to Rachel. As if this weren't enough, in the second season, the hospital has agreed to pay damages to the husband of the mother who died under Mark's care in the emergency room last season, even though Mark feels that he didn't make any incorrect decisions.

By the end of the second season, Mark is beginning to enjoy the bachelor lifestyle, sharing Doug's apartment, and learns that Jen is about to remarry. At the start of the third season, Mark and Susan Lewis, begin flirting, and Susan asks Mark to accompany her on holiday. He refuses. When she returns from holiday, Mark struggles to think of an appropriate way to greet her. Mark and Susan's relationship grows when the two of them draw the helicopter flight rotation, working alongside each other. However, within a few episodes, Susan leaves Chicago forever. In the episode 'Union Station'
, a desperate Mark Greene launches a hopelessly optimistic last-minute bid to persuade Susan to stay in Chicago.

In the latter half of the third season, on the rebound after his unsuccessful attempt to form a relationship with Susan, Mark has a brief fling with Chuny, one of the emergency department nurses, before attempting to juggle several women at once. In a later episode, 'Tribes', Mark is accused of racism when he neglects to treat a black gunshot victim, concentrating his efforts on an initially worse off white gunshot victim, leading to the death of the black man. Several episodes later, in 'Random Acts', Mark is severely beaten by an unknown assailant, though it is suspected that a relative of the black gunshot victim was responsible. In the last episode of the series, we see Mark buy a gun to defend himself.

In the fourth season, Mark is on the receiving end of a malpractice suit from the relatives of the black gunshot victim, making him surer that his relatives were responsible for the attack. When Doug Ross learns that his father has died, Mark agrees to accompany him on a trip to California, and takes the opportunity to drop in on his parents in San Diego. Mark also undertakes a brief relationship with Cynthia Hooper.

Within a few episodes, Mark learns that the lawsuit against him has been dropped. Later in the season, Mark and Cynthia go to San Diego, to see his mother, who has been hospitalised with a broken leg. While visiting his mother, he learns that she has multi-infarct dementia, dementia caused by a series of small virtually undetectable small strokes. By the end of the season, Mark ends his relationship with Cynthia.

In season five, Mark learns that Jen and Rachel are moving to St. Louis, which will greatly affect his involvement in his daughter's life. He has a brief relationship with Amanda Lee, a new emergency department employee, who is shown to have lied about having any qualificati
ons, a few episodes later. He also turns down a job offer from NASA.

By the end of the season, things have begun to develop between Mark and Elizabeth Corday. They go to a conference together, an amusement arcade, and play racquetball. In the last episode of the season, Elizabeth reveals that she isn't in a hurry to start another relationship, but Mark says that he'd "hate to miss another boat."

In the sixth season, Mark takes time off to attend his mother's funeral, and his relationship with Elizabeth deepens. Greene's father meets Corday's mother, and the two of them hit it off too. Mark learns that his father suffers from inoperable colon cancer, and he dies by the end of the season.

- DR JOHN CARTER (Noah Wyle) 1994-present

Carter comes from a very rich family; his father is one of the wealthiest men in Chicago. In the first season of the show, Carter did a yearlong clerkship as a surgical student in the emergency department. In the second year he took a surgical sub-internship, and in the third season he became a surgical resident. By the end of the third season, he had changed over to become a resident in emergency medicine.

In the very first episode, we are introduced to Carter, and see him placed under the tutelage of respected surgeon, Peter Benton. We see him deal with the death of one of his first patients, and for much of the first season, he attempts to form a relationship with Susan Lewis, without success. We see Carter scrub up for his first operation, and his conflicts with another new medical student, Deb Chen. At the end of the first season, Carter has to choose his sub-internship; emergency medicine or surgery. Greene tells him that the emergency medicine position is his, if he should want it, however Carter decides to pass, and wait to see if he has got the surgery position. Unfortunately, it is offered to someone else, and Carter is left without a sub-internship, as the e
mergency department position has also been awarded to someone else. At the eleventh hour, Benton tells Carter that he has got the surgery sub-internship after all.

At the start of the second season, Carter returns to the hospital after a summer away, and he immediately begins flirting with Harper Tracy, a new medical student in the emergency department. However, when Carter learns that Harper has had a one-night-stand with Doug Ross, he is very upset. Nonetheless, Carter and Harper eventually end up together.

Carter also develops his skills at dealing with patients in the second year, frequently being called upon by surgeons Benton and Vucelich to convince patients to undergo experimental new techniques. Also, toward the end of the second season, he undergoes an interview to become a surgical resident, against some very tough competition. However, just as Carter is looking forward to graduation, he learns that his qualifications are lacking in paediatric medicine, forcing him to do a four-week rotation with Doug Ross.

As the season draws to a close, Carter and Harper part amicably, as she heads off to Dallas, and Carter misses his own graduation celebrations, electing instead to stay at the bedside of a young girl who needs a liver transplant.

In the third season, Carter begins his surgical residency, but is frustrated to find himself spending much of his time in the emergency department. He also assists Dr Abby Keaton, a famous paediatrician, who joins the hospital, and a blossoming relationship between Carter and Keaton is cut short when she announces that she is going out to Pakistan.

The third season also sees Carter receiving a severe blow when one of his friends, a fellow intern, Dennis Gant, commits suicide, partly due to pressures of work. Clashes with head of surgery, Anspaugh, lead Carter to rethink his career, and lead to him transferring to a residency in the emergency department.

The fourth season s
ees Carter beginning his residency afresh in the emergency department, and seems him being lumbered with an unenthusiastic medical student, George Henry. Carter also introduces Carol Hathaway, the emergency department's head nurse, to his grandmother, who agrees to fund a clinic for people who couldn't otherwise afford medical treatment.

We also meet Carter's cousin, Chase, in the fourth season, who is a heavy drug user. Carter and Anna Del Amico, another emergency department worker, attempt to detox him in his apartment. However, Chase is admitted to the hospital, a few weeks later, having taken an overdose of heroin, and is suffering from severe brain damage. Carol mentions to Carter that his grandmother's cheques funding the clinic seem to have dried up, so Carter approaches his grandmother, assuming that the funding has been stopped because of his failure to deal with Chase's drug addiction. His grandmother responds that the only thing Carter seems to care about is his family's money, and he storms out in frustration. Carter then has to cope with being poor.

The fifth season sees the introduction of a new medical student for Carter, Lucy Knight. The two initially clash, and when Carter leaves Lucy in charge of a dorm Hallowe'en party, she disappoints him by being very irresponsible. Carter tries to find a new place to live, and ends up moving in with Kerry Weaver.

Nonetheless, of course, Carter and Lucy become friends, after spending an evening chasing across Chicago in search of the father of a girl who was seriously injured in a car crash, because he's her 1 in 50 million blood match.

In season six, Kerry becomes permanent chief of the emergency department, and tells Carter that it would be inappropriate for him to continue staying at her apartment. Carter also encounters Elaine, who was brought in after a car accident, and recognises her as his cousin's ex-wife. The two of them end up sle
eping together. Elaine has breast cancer, and is scheduled for a mastectomy, but when she finds out that Carter knows this, she tells him to leave her. Carter nonetheless continues to pursue Elaine, and after her operation, she agrees to see him again, though still ultimately decides to travel abroad, leaving Carter behind.

Also in season six, Deb Chen returns to the emergency department, and immediately begins irritating Carter, as though she'd never gone away.

Toward the end of the season, Carter and Lucy are both stabbed by a mentally-ill patient while the rest of the emergency room staff are at a Valentine's party, and are eventually discovered by Weaver. Lucy dies, but Carter survives, and begins the long, slow journey toward recovery, moving back to his grandmother's house.

As the sixth season draws to a close, Carter has become impatient and overly aggressive in his dealings with others, and when Abby Lockhart notices Carter injecting himself with fentanyl, the staff are alerted to his drug problem. In the final shot of the sixth season, we see Benton taking Carter to Atlanta on a plane to go into detox.

- DR PETER BENTON (Eriq La Salle) 1994-present

A surgical resident in Cook County General Hospital, Benton has been with the series since day one. His actual role in the surgical department is somewhat ambiguous, since it seems he's been a surgical resident for over six years now without promotion or transferral to another hospital. Despite this lack of career advancement, Benton nevertheless remains a respected surgeon.

In the first episode of the show, we saw Benton introduced to his new student, John Carter. Benton comes over as a very tough, and unsympathetic boss, and it is some time before he allows Carter to assist him with an operation. During the first season, Benton's mother becomes very ill, and due to his work commitments, he can't spend as much time with her as he ough
t. He hires Jeanie Boulet, a physical therapist, to care for his mother, to delay putting her in a nursing home, and attempts to coax the married Jeanie to have a clandestine relationship with him.

Toward the end of the first season, his mother is admitted to hospital with a broken hip, and he is eventually forced to put her in a home. At the end of the first season, Benton's mother dies of a heart attack.

In the second season, Benton continues his pressure on Jeanie to leave her husband, but Jeanie is unenthusiastic. However, by the end of the first episode of the second season, they have slept together, even though Jeanie had to rush home to get there before her husband. They try to continue their relationship clandestinely for a few episodes, but when Benton tells her she has to confront her husband, Jeanie counters that she's not ready to walk out on her marriage yet.

Later in the second season, Benton learns from Carter that Jeanie has separated from her husband. When he asks her about it, she tells him that her marriage had a lot of problems, not all of them connected with him.

Professionally, in the second season, Benton wins the favour of top surgeon Dr. Vucelich, and together they attempt an experimental procedure on an elderly patient. His addition to Vucelich's research team earns Benton an invite to a dinner with prominent surgeons, and he invites Jeanie to accompany him. However, soon, Benton discovers that Vucelich has been excluding patients, upon whom the procedure was unsuccessful, from their studies in order to make their results more convincing, and decides to confront him about this. Vucelich responds by removing Benton from the surgical rotation for the day. Nonetheless, several weeks later, Vucelich nominates Benton for 'resident of the year', and makes an addendum in the paper acknowledging Benton's contribution to the study.

As the season ends, Jeanie reveals to Benton that
her husband tested positive for HIV, and that he should get himself tested. At the beginning of season three, we receive their blood test results – Benton's is negative, but Jeanie's is positive.

In season three, respected paediatrician Abby Keaton arrives in the ER, and Benton is determined to try to get an elective with her, but Keaton finds Benton's personality too abrasive for paediatric medicine. Also, Benton puts too much pressure on intern Dennis Gant, who is driven to suicide.

Benton's old girlfriend, Carla Reese, turns up, and the two resume their relationship. However, before long, Carla reveals to Benton that she is pregnant by him, and intends to carry the baby full term. Benton falls ill with appendicitis, and struggles to get back in contact with Carla. When he eventually meets her again, she assesses that he's thinking of the baby as a financial burden, and tells him that that she'll provide everything the baby needs, even a father figure. Peter makes more of an effort to be involved in his ex-girlfriend's life from then on, helping Carla with her gestational diabetes.

At the end of the season, Carla gives birth to her baby two months prematurely, and Benton keeps vigil at the side of the new-born baby.

In season four, Carla and Peter clash once again, this time over the name of the baby, eventually compromising on 'Reese Benton'. Peter struggles to help take care of Reese and complete his work. Benton also befriends and flirts with Elizabeth Corday, a British trauma specialist who has just joined the hospital's surgical team, however, Benton is forced to admit before long that he has a problem with dating a white woman.

Towards the end of the season, Benton and Morganstern undertake routine surgery, and Morganstern appears flustered at points during the operation. Benton shoves him out of the way, and proceeds with the operation, but is unable to save the patie
nt. A meeting to discuss what happened decides to conduct a formal inquiry into the incident, and suspends Benton. However, when Morganstern watches the video of the operation, he is forced to admit that he was at fault, and resigns, reinstating Benton. Benton tells Corday the news and the two of them sleep together.

However, Benton seems to be making no efforts to keep Corday, whose sponsorship is about to expire, at Cook County. As season four ends, Benton discovers that young Reese could have hearing difficulties.

In season five, the severity of Reese's hearing problems becomes clear, and he considers getting a cochlear implant, but rejects the idea after watching the operation carried out on a three-year-old. Benton's relationship with Corday cools significantly and comes to an end.

Towards the end of the season, Benton finds himself short of funds, and heads to Laverne, Mississippi, to act as their town doctor for a while. When he returns, he finds that Jeanie's health has deteriorated, and tells her he'll be there for her.

As the season ends, Benton learns that Carla has married, and will be moving to Germany. Benton tells her that this is unfair, as he wants to spend time with Reese. Benton takes Reese from Carla's apartment back to his own, and ignores Carla's calls.

As season six starts, Carla and Benton meet with a court-appointed mediator. Benton has got a restraining order to keep Reese in Chicago, and after much debating, Carla begrudging tells Benton that he's "won", and that she and her new husband will not be taking Reese to Germany.

Towards the end of the season, Benton begins to form a romantic relationship with Cleo Finch, the new emergency department paediatrics resident. We are also reminded of Benton's early involvement in Carter's career, when he escorts him to a detox clinic at the end of the season.

- DR JING-MEI "DEB" CHE
N (Ming-Na) 1994-1995, 2000-present

"Deb" Chen first appeared in the first season of the show, as a medical student, like Carter. She rejoins the emergency room staff some five years later, in the show's sixth season, as an emergency medicine resident.

In the first season, Deb and Carter were competing with each other to get the surgical sub-internship at Cook County General. However, Deb fled the hospital after attempting to insert an IV into a patient's jugular vein, nearly killing the patient.

When Deb rejoins the 'ER', toward the middle of the sixth season, she prefers to be known by her real name, Jing-Mei, rather than the nickname 'Deb'. She establishes herself as a very competent emergency medic, and after initially competing with Carter again, settles into the department well. There have so far been spectacularly few plots involving her.

- DR KERRY WEAVER (Laura Innes) 1995-present

Kerry Weaver joins the emergency department in the first episode of season two, taking the position of chief resident. Initially, the emergency department staff found her to be uncomfortably abrasive – in one second season episode, the rest of the emergency department celebrate Kerry having a day off! However, although Kerry's authoritarian style has softened slightly since, she is still very much driven by her work.

Kerry has a leg injury that requires her to use a crutch when walking around. Although the reason for this was debated by some of the emergency room staff in a sixth season episode, we never actually found out what happened to the leg. The actress, Laura Innes, has worked out an explanation for the character's injury with the show's writers, but is waiting for a good episode to work it into.

Kerry's position means that as well as treating patients, she has to deal with a lot of the political business of running the emergency room. For example, in the
third season, Mark and Kerry have to work out a policy for employment of HIV-positive staff, when Jeanie Boulet's HIV status becomes widely known.

Over the course of the show, we have learnt astonishingly little about Weaver's life outside the 'ER'. In the Christmas episode of the second season, 'A Miracle Happens Here', a man called Mlungisi arrives at the emergency room, and is enthusiastically greeted with hugs and kisses by Kerry. When she's asked about him later in the episode, Kerry replies "I had a farm in Africa..." recalling Meryl Streep's line from 'Out of Africa'. In the fifth season when Carter moves into Weaver's spare room, we learn that she often drinks alone in her apartment. Also, in the fifth season, Kerry tries to track down her birth mother, and in a later episode, overrides a DNR (do not resuscitate) order on a patient she suspects could be her mother, though it turns out not to be.

- DR ELIZABETH CORDAY (Alex Kingston) 1997-present

Alex Kingston very much had a case of "in at the deep end", joining 'ER' at the beginning of the show's fourth season, in the frantic live 'Ambush' episode. In the early fourth season, Corday has to deal with the differences of working an American emergency room, and the amorous advances of "Rocket" Romano, the chief of surgery at Cook County General.

When Romano gives Corday a very unfavourable evaluation towards the end of the fourth season, she turns to Benton for support, and a relationship begins to form between the two of them. However, there are initially minor setbacks when Benton reveals that he has a problem with dating white women. As the season concludes, Romano reveals that he has decided not to continue Corday's fellowship.

In the fifth season, Benton and Corday's relationship cools, and the two separate. Corday's father turns up, at the beginning of the
episode, and turns out to be an accomplished surgeon. When Romano meets him, and later, assists Elizabeth with a new piece of equipment that only she is qualified to use, he is forced to admit that he was wrong to discontinue her fellowship and allows her to continue as an intern.

In the sixth season, she continues to work at the emergency department, and has to care for a carjacking rapist, Dean Rollins, who is admitted to the hospital after being involved in a car accident. Due to his injuries, Rollins has to stay in the hospital for several weeks, under Corday's begrudging care, and she uses some fairly unethical procedures to find out where he left one of his victim's bodies.

As the sixth season progresses, Corday's mother appears in the series, and Elizabeth forms a romantic attachment to Mark Greene.

- DR ROBERT "ROCKET" ROMANO (Paul McCrane) 1997-present

In the fourth season, Romano didn't actually appear in the opening titles, only joining the main cast in the fifth season. His role in the fourth season was quite peripheral, as head of surgery, attempting unsuccessfully to woo newcomer Elizabeth Corday.

In the fifth season, Romano has to deal with a sexual harassment case brought against him by Maggie Doyle, but due to some skilful diplomacy by Kerry Weaver, the case is dropped. He also does a brief stint as acting head of the emergency department.

In the sixth season, Romano becomes the new chief of staff, as Anspaugh (who has been chief of staff for the last five years) moves on. Greene and Weaver are concerned about his appointment, but only Greene voices his concerns. In the season's Christmas episode, Lucy Knight pleads with Romano to come into the emergency room to carry out an urgent operation.

We haven't actually discovered much so far about Romano's personal life. We know that he's single, (and likely to stay that way for some time, if his atti
tude toward women is anything to judge from), and that he keeps dogs, but that's about it.

- DR CLEO FINCH (Michael Michele) 1999-present

Emergency paediatrics resident, Cleo Finch, first appeared in the first episode of the sixth season, and has really only had a peripheral role in the show since her arrival. This is probably just as well, as I honestly don't rate Michael Michele as an actress, though you'd have thought her experiences at 'Homicide: Life on the Streets' would have prepared her well for this series.

Basically, what we know of Cleo from the episodes to date is that she jogs four miles to work each day, and looks very good in spandex jogging outfits. Toward the end of the sixth season, she is beginning to form a relationship with Peter Benton.

- DR LUKA KOVAC (Goran Visnjic) 1999-present

Luka Kovac, is introduced to the series in the first episode of season six too. He has quite obviously been introduced to replace George Clooney as the show's main heartthrob, and is a Croatian doctor, moonlighting in the emergency department.

Over the course of the sixth season, a minor romance begins to develop between Luka and Carol Hathaway, but she still loves Doug Ross, and at Kovac's instigation, she leaves Chicago to go and be with Doug.

We don't learn much about Luka over the course of the season, other than that he lives on a boat. Presumably we'll discover more as the series continues.

- DR DAVE MALLUCCI (Erik Palladino) 1999-present

Dr. Mallucci, who insists on being called 'Dr. Dave', first appears in the second episode of season six, joining as a second year resident. He's not well received by Benton, and shows a lack of sensitivity when talking to patients. However, he proves himself later in the series, by showing surprising knowledge of a rare medical complaint.

Like Cleo Finch, we really haven't heard much abou
t Dr Dave yet...

- ABBY LOCKHART (Maura Tierney) 2000-present

Abby Lockhart joins the cast as a nurse in obstetrics in the eighth episode of the sixth season, 'Great Expectations', assisting at the birth of Carol Hathaway's twins.

There hasn't been much of a chance for Abby's character to develop yet. We know, however, that she is separated from her husband, and divorces him in the hiatus between the sixth and seventh seasons.

 MAIN CHARACTERS PASSIM

- CAROL HATHAWAY (Julianna Margulies) 1994-2000

Carol Hathaway was in the series since episode one, and has gone through her fair share of traumas during her time as a nurse in the emergency room. In the very first episode, she attempts suicide, and is admitted to the emergency department as a patient. In the original version of the script her character died in the emergency department, but due to bad reactions from test audiences, the script was rewritten so that she survived.

It soon becomes clear that Carol and paediatrician Doug Ross had a brief and unsuccessful relationship before her suicide attempt. Carol soon becomes involved with another worker in the hospital, John Taglieri. Several times during the first season, Doug attempts to woo Carol back, but without success. Mid-season, Carol announces her engagement to Taglieri.

When a woman brings in an adopted HIV-positive daughter, only to leave her at the hospital, Carol attempts to adopt the young girl, much to Taglieri's frustration. However, her attempt is denied when the adoption officials discover that she attempted suicide.

As the first season comes to an end, the date of Carol and Taglieri's wedding finally arrives, in the episode 'Everything Old Is New Again'. However, Taglieri decides at the last minute not to marry Carol, realising that she is not yet over Doug.

In the second season, Carol begins working with paramedics, a
nd becomes romantically involved with one, Ray Shepard. However, when Shep's partner, Raul, is fatally burned rescuing children from a burning building, it changes his outlook on the profession, and he refuses to treat what he considers to be "stupid people". Frustrated by Shep's increasing hostility, Carol ends the second season by walking out him.

In the third season, Carol considers taking the medical exam to become a doctor, and is encouraged to do so by Kerry Weaver. Carol and Doug's relationship begins to blossom again, beginning a series of "will-they-won't-they" episodes, as circumstances conspire to throw them together at every turn...

Also in the third season, Carol struggles in her role as head nurse to improve the nurses' working conditions, and accidentally kills a patient. When she leaks a story to the media, about how a patient died due to understaffing because the nurses were on a "sick-out" strike, Carol is suspended. In a mid-season episode 'The Long Way Around', which takes place almost entirely outside the emergency department, the suspended Hathaway becomes a hostage in a convenience store when a robbery goes horribly wrong. The following episode, Carol returns to work in the emergency room.

By the end of the third season, Carol and Doug end up back together, however, as the fourth season begins, Doug is already giving Carol cause to suspect him of cheating on her. Nonetheless, their relationship continues, and mid-season, Carol makes their relationship public. Also in the fourth season, Carol establishes a free clinic at the hospital, funded by Carter's grandmother.

In the fifth season, Doug and Carol's relationship continues, despite the fact that neither of them has much free time to devote to it. Professionally, they both treat Ricky, a young boy suffering from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), and make some inappropriate funding decisions to allo
w Ricky to go home from the hospital.

When Doug is investigated for his actions with regard to Ricky's treatment, he leaves for the West Coast, but Carol decides not to go with him. A couple of episodes later, Carol reveals that she's pregnant, and the staff find out about her pregnancy at the end of the season.

In the sixth season, Carol continues working in the emergency department, right up until the birth of her twins, Tess and Kate. She befriends Luka Kovac, and eventually decides to join Doug Ross in Seattle in the penultimate episode of the season.

- DR DOUG ROSS (George Clooney) 1994-1999

When Doug Ross bowed out of 'ER' it was a sad day for female fans of the show across the world. Paediatrician Doug Ross appeared in the very first episode of the series, and despite his tendency to break rules, he somehow managed to stay in the emergency department for five years.

As the first season opens, Doug reacts badly to Carol Hathaway's suicide attempt, and blames himself for it. Doug tries to patch things up with Carol, but she's now going out with another co-worker, John Tagliari. After giving up on Carol, Doug starts a relationship with a woman named Diane, who works in the hospital, but is concerned about the effect the relationship is having on her son, Jake. Also, in the first season, we meet Linda Farrell, an old flame of Doug's, who starts hanging around Doug. When Diane sees Linda and Doug together, she dumps him.

In the second season, Mark Greene and Doug clash over his treatment of a four-year-old HIV-positive Asian boy. When the boy eventually dies, it upsets Harper Tracy, who has been working on the boy with Doug, and he comforts her the only way he knows how... However, his breaking of hospital policy to treat the young boy leads to the cancellation of Doug's fellowship.

In the following episode, 'Hell and High Water', we follow Doug as he becomes a
media hero, rescuing a young boy from drowning, and making a dramatic dash back to the hospital with boy in the television helicopter. Needless to say, this gets Doug his job back at the hospital, though there is still tension between him and Mark.

Toward the end of the season, Doug receives a visit from his estranged father, and discovers that he's now a successful hotel owner. He meets his father's new girlfriend, Karen, and while his father's away, the two of them sleep together. Doug also realises that the money that his father gave him had been stolen from Karen's company.

At the start of the third series, Doug's womanising causes him significant problems, when one one-night-stand has a seizure when he's driving her home. He rushes her straight to the emergency room, but can't even give the other emergency department staff her name. When he gets back to his apartment, he finds the girl's epilepsy bracelet.

Throughout the third season, events conspire to push him and Carol Hathaway together, and by the end of the season, the two are together. Their relationship continues into the fourth season.

Early in the fourth season, Doug learns that his father was killed in a drink driving accident, along with his wife and the driver of the truck he collided with. He travels to California with Mark Greene, and they attend the truck driver's funeral. Mid-season, he and Carol make their relationship public.

In the fifth season, Doug spends much of his time on paper work. However, mid-season, he and Carol treat a young boy with adrenoleukodystrophy, and Doug breaks the rules in order to allow the boy to die at home, as well as using medication from a drug study to treat him. Doug's actions are investigated, and he announces his intention to leave and head to the West Coast.

Doug makes a last brief appearance in the penultimate episode of season six, when Carol flies out to Seattle t
o join him.

- DR SUSAN LEWIS (Sherry Stringfield) 1994-1996

Susan Lewis was in the show from day one as an emergency department resident. At the beginning of the first season, she's going out with a co-worker, Div Cvetic. However, Div soon lapses into depression, and begins showing hostility toward the patients, leaving Susan and the hospital mid-season. Carter attempts to woo Susan, but he's rebuffed.

Also in the first season, we are introduced to Susan's druggie sister, Chloe, and as the season end approaches, Chloe turns up pregnant at the emergency room, and Susan allows her to stay in her apartment. At the end of the season, Chloe delivers her baby, and vanishes, leaving Susan to care for her daughter, Susie.

In the second season, Chloe reappears, and Susan continues to hold the baby while Chloe studies at business school. However, it doesn't last, and Chloe abandons little Susie once again. When Chloe runs away for the second time, Susan attempts to find worthy parents for Susie, before deciding to attempt to adopt the baby herself. When Chloe discovers that Susan is trying to get full custody of the baby, she brings the case up before a judge, and Susan fails to adopt little Susie. To compensate for the loss, Susan throws herself into her work.

Kerry Weaver and Susan feud constantly in the emergency room, and Mark and Susan become more friendly, though nothing ever comes of it.

In the third season, Mark and Susan become increasingly friendly with each other, and Susan invites Mark to join her on holiday. Mark refuses. A few episodes later in the eighth episode of season three, 'Union Station', Susan leaves the series, despite Mark's last-minute bid to prevent her leaving.

- JEANIE BOULET (Gloria Reuben) 1995-1999

Jeanie's had a rough time of it too. Jeanie has been in the series since the first season, when Benton employed her to care for his sick mother. S
he is married to Al Boulet, who is cheating on her.
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At the start of the second, she and Benton are having a clandestine affair, though Jeanie still refuses to leave her husband for Peter, ending the affair early in the season. In episode six of season two, Jeanie joins the main cast of the series, appearing in the opening titles. Mid-season, Jeanie separates from her husband Al, but does not go back to Peter.

At the end of the second season, Jeanie learns that her estranged husband is HIV-positive, and tells Peter. They both take blood tests.

The results come back at the beginning of the third season, Peter is negative, but Jeanie's test is positive. She continues to assist in the emergency department despite her HIV-positive status, prompting emergency department policy to be rewritten to deal with the problems her health situation presents. She also experiences side-effects from the medication she's taking to combat the infection.

Jeanie helps Kerry Weaver with her experimental investigations, and finds herself attracted to someone treating her condition in the hospital, Greg, but doesn't want to form a relationship with him because of her HIV status. Jeanie also re-encounters Al, and is torn between returning to him, and her relationship with Greg. By the end of the season, Jeanie has decided to go back to Al.

In the fourth season, Kerry is told to sack Jeanie, and Al wants Jeanie to move with him to Atlanta. Jeanie doesn't want to leave, and she doesn't want to lose her job, so she approaches the chief of staff, Anspaugh, demanding to know if her dismissal is HIV related. Anspaugh eventually relents and lets Jeanie stay on in the emergency department. By the end of the season, Jeanie suspects her HIV is getting worse.

In the fifth season, Jeanie is asked out by Reggie, a policeman, and a relationship develops between them. However, mid-season, Jeanie is involved in a car acci
dent when Doug is driving the two of them to the site of a school bus crash. Jeanie is seriously injured, and contracts Hepatitis C.

In the sixth season, Jeanie treats an HIV-positive baby named Carlos, and attempts to foster him. Jeanie marries Reggie, and receive an unexpected wedding gift from Kerry Weaver and a social worker – baby Carlos! That's pretty much it for Jeanie, she leaves in the sixth episode of season six.

- HARPER TRACY (Christine Elise) 1995-1996

Medical student Harper Tracy only appears in the second season of the show. She assists Carter and Greene on a few cases, before assisting Doug with the treatment of an HIV-positive boy. She is very upset when the boy dies, and Doug consoles her with a one-night-stand (what is he like?). Carter and Harper briefly date. Harper disappears at the end of the second series, supposedly having moved to Texas.

- DR MAGGIE DOYLE (Jorja Fox) 1996-1999

Intern Maggie Doyle joins the emergency department early in the third season. She didn't have many major plot lines, though did accuse Romano of sexual harrassment. We didn't learn much about her personal life, although she did reveal to Carter that she's a lesbian. She never officially left the emergency department, and no explanation was ever given for why she stopped appearing.

- DR ANNA DEL AMICO (Maria Bello) 1997-1998

Anna Del Amico first appeared at the end of the third season, and stuck out until the end of the fourth season. She also didn't have many major plot lines, though we did learn in one episode that she is Catholic, when she attempted to talk a patient out of an abortion. Max Rosher, a televangelist, and Anna's ex-boyfriend shows up on the emergency department at the end of the fourth season. Before the start of the fifth season, Anna resigned and moved to Philadelphia.

- LUCY KNIGHT (Kellie Martin) 1998-2000

Medical student Lucy Knight join
ed the cast of the show at the beginning of season five. She initially finds it difficult to adjust to life in the emergency department, and Lucy makes a bad first impression on Carter. Nevertheless, the two of them spend a long period of time together searching for the father of a girl who was seriously injured in a car crash, as he would be a perfect blood match for her. Mid-season, Carter and Lucy end up together.

Toward the end of the fifth season, Lucy reveals to Carter that she has been taking Ritalin to help her cope with the pressures of work. He urges her to stop taking it, and when she does, the quality of her work deteriorates massively.

In the sixth season, Lucy makes an impassioned Christmas day plea to Romano to come to the hospital and perform an emergency operation. Later in the season, Carter and Lucy are both stabbed by a mentally-ill patient while the rest of the emergency room staff are at a Valentine's party, and are eventually discovered by Weaver. Through most of the episode, 'All in the Family', the staff of the emergency room struggle to save Lucy's life, but to no avail.

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CONCLUSIONS

Sorry, that last bit ended up being a lot more wordy than I'd expected... once I started looking back over old episodes, I just couldn't stop. Hope it's of some use to you!

Anyway, 'ER' is, for me, one of the most consistently good television programmes around at the moment, and I always try my best to ensure that I don't miss an episode. Let's hope they keep up their high standards in the seventh, and future series!

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