PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: MEDIA AS ENTERTAINMENT: ER CELEBRATES THE BIG 300! {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media's Media as Entertainment events. Held at The Paley Center in Los Angeles, this evening honors “ER,” a drama series about a Chicago hospital emergency room that has earned the highest number of Emmy Award nominations in television history and reached 300 episodes in December 2007. Becky Levikow (assistant director of development, The Paley Center for Media in Los Angelos) offers opening remarks and introduces moderator Stuart Levine (managing editor, Daily Variety), who then brings executive producer and showrunner John Wells to the stage. Wells then introduces an “avid cut” of the show’s 300th episode, “300 Patients,” which is screened in its entirety. (For synopsis and credits, see ACCNUM 102222.)
Following the episode, Levine introduces the panelists: Scott Grimes (Dr. Archie Morris); Parminder Nagra (Dr. Neela Rasgotra); Mekhi Phifer (Dr. Greg Pratt); Linda Cardellini (Nurse Sam Taggart); John Stamos (Dr. Tony Gates); Maura Tierney (Dr. Abby Lockhart); executive producer Christoper Chulack; executive producer David Zabel; and Wells.
The discussion touches on such topics as: creator Michael Crichton’s original script from the 1970s and how it was originally intended to be a film; the process of its becoming a series; interviews with medical military veterans and the process of updating the medical elements of the script; competition with the popular hospital show “Chicago Hope” in the show’s first years; the challenges of the first year and its 23 Emmy nominations; the rapid popularity of the show and problems with crowd control when shooting outside in Chicago; whether the current cast were fans of the show before joining; technical challenges of shooting in the rain and other tough environments; the increasing speed of the episodes’ plots over the years; how each actor came to be on the show, including their past works; guest actors turning into regulars; whether the addition of “Full House” veteran Stamos increased ratings; the show’s propensity for cast transitions; Tierney’s experience on the show “NewsRadio” and recent “angst” of the character of Abby; the technicalities of “hitting marks” and of “oners” (long scenes done in one take); the challenge of medical lingo, and Stamos’ attempts to avoid having to learn it; the show’s impressive list of guest stars and their “running tally” of people they’d like to bring on; how ideas for characters change depending on the guest actors they hire, including Peter Fonda’s character and Forest Whitaker’s; the importance of balancing emotions within the plotlines; the narrative usefulness of County General being a teaching hospital; the cast’s favorite scenes, including funny and emotional moments with guest stars Sally Field, Ray Liotta and James Woods; the show’s future in relation to the writers’ strike and deals with NBC; and competition from other, newer medicals shows, such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House.”
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics: the challenge of working with babies onscreen; whether Busy Philipps’ character of medical student Hope Bobeck will make a comeback; the “mantra” of “more medicine” and less focus on the doctors’ personal lives in the plots; the unlikelihood of bringing back George Clooney’s character of Dr. Doug Ross; Clooney’s commitment to the show during his five-year run; the contrast of actors asking to leave versus being let go; how the cast rotations echo the “rhythm” of a real ER; and the quirky supporting character of intern Dr. Harold Zelinsky (Steven Christopher Parker).
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: December 3, 2007 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:45:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:90617
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Becky Levikow … Host
- Stuart Levine … Moderator
- Scott Grimes … Panelist
- Parminder Nagra … Panelist
- Mekhi Phifer … Panelist
- Linda Cardellini … Panelist
- John Stamos … Panelist
- Maura Tierney … Panelist
- Christopher Chulack … Panelist
- David Zabel … Panelist
- John Wells … Panelist
- George Clooney
- Michael Crichton
- Sally Field
- Peter Fonda
- Ray Liotta
- Steven Christopher Parker
- Busy Philipps
- Forest Whitaker
- James Woods