'Dr., Dr., quick, we need to revive ER'

'Dr., Dr., quick, we
need to revive ER'

Tips for restoring vitality to a once-great drama

By David Brind

After eight years on the air, NBC’s “ER” is suffering, and the suffering has become all the more pronounced this year.
   The diagnosis is simple. Its writers and producers have drifted away from the formulas that accounted for its original success.
"ER's" tumble has been dramatic indeed.
   These days. "ER” consistently struggles in third place up against ABC’s “Primetime” and reruns of the CBS spy drama “The Agency.”
    One Thursday night in July, an “ER” rerun managed an overall rating of 4.4/8 while just an hour earlier a CBS rerun of “CSI” posted a 9.5/17.
   This is for a show that ranked as the No.1 drama for an unprecedented seven years in a row, until this year, and the No. 1 primetime show in the ’95-’96, ’96-’97, and ’98-’99 seasons.
This is for a show that has received 104 Emmy nominations and 19 wins since 1995, ranking it No. 3 as the most-honored TV show in history after “Cheers” and “M*A*S*H.”
   The title of No. 1 primetime drama now belongs to "CSI," earned in its rookie year, mind you, with the title of top-rated primetime show now belonging to "Friends," another show that began showing signs of aging several years ago but, unlike "ER' was able to reverse its decline.
   "ER" must be turned around quickly, facing as it does a pivotal season with “CSI” at 9 leading into CBS's new missing persons crime drama “Without A Trace” airing opposite “ER” and starring Anthony LaPaglia.
   The genius of "ER" was clear to anyone who watched the show in its early years: combining the suspense of a realistic medical drama with the interwoven lives of a group of heart-on-their-sleeves doctors and nurses viewers could relate to, while delving into the tension the characters felt between their demanding work lives and their lives outside of work.
    “ER” demystified America’s image of the cold, clinical hospital staffed by stoic doctors and nurses.
   Sexual sparks flew between doctors and nurses, doctors and patients, doctors and other doctors. Each new patient that was brought in provided a snapshot of an ordinary American life, from the gunshot wounds of poverty-stricken streets to the baby with the birth defect born to helpless yuppie parents.
   On “ER," the magnitude of facing death and illness and the powerlessness the characters felt made everyone equal. Yet doctors and medical staff rose to every occasion, fighting to salvage lives, then walked home tired to dingy apartments and tension-filled relationships that always seemed overshadowed by their work lives.
    It was hard not to fall in love with George Clooney’s idealistic pediatrician Dr. Doug Ross, his on-again off-again serious and emotionally vulnerable lover, Nurse Carole Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), and terrified but determined med student John Carter (Noah Wyle).
   Repairing "ER" is more a matter of nips and ticks that major surgery, and the fixes are summarized in the following bits of advice to the show's producers and writers.

1) Bring the drama back into the ER
   “ER” thrived when drama played out between the characters in the setting of ER itself.
   It was intense TV drama at its best: Clooney’s Doug and Margulies' Carol working side by side in the trauma rooms amid dying patients as they struggled with the conflicts in their relationship.
    Enhance the relationships between the doctors and nurses. Put those severed plotlines back together and bring the action back into the ER, allowing the actors room to play off one another instead of creating separate, unrelated story lines for each.

2) Decide who the regulars are and build up their roles
    Invest in a tight-knit core cast that is not only diverse but compelling, then keep them around.
   As the show is now, main and supporting characters come and go so quickly that even the writers seem to be unsure who’s on the roster from week to week.
   With the high-profile departures this past season of original cast members Anthony Edwards’ compassionate Dr. Green and Eriq LaSalle’s hard-ass surgeon Dr. Peter Benton, only Noah Wyle’s former med student and current resident Dr. John Carter remains on board.
    Other cast members, like Ming-Na’s feisty chief resident Dr. Chen and terrific Maura Tierney as former med student and current nurse Abby Lockhart, are terribly underused.
   Pay attention to your talent roster, and give them more to do.

3) No more death (except for the guest stars).
   Things are getting too melodramatic. There's too much senseless death.
   Killing off Kellie Martin’s annoying med student was acceptable, but Dr. Greene’s brain tumor hung around for so long it lost impact.
    Go ahead, inflict injury. Audiences like the suspense and they are quick to empathize with their favorite characters. But keep your stars alive.

4) Keep the depressing and bleak storylines to a minimum. Trust in the integrity of your characters to keep it real.
We’ve watched Dr. Weaver’s sexuality struggles, Dr. Greene’s health struggles, Dr. Carter’s family struggles, Nurse Abby’s family struggles, Dr. Lewis’ family struggles. Enough.
Unless you plan to start sending out Prozac along with your promotional materials, lighten up. Some introspection and reality are definitely warranted, just use them wisely instead of as a cure-all.

5) Bring back heroism.
    Watching George Clooney rescue little boys from a flood, or the entire ER unite around keeping a preemie alive made for riveting and emotional TV.
   The struggle to keep life alive is eternally thrilling, especially when the doctors and nurses invest themselves in their cases.
    Pay attention to the national mood. America is quite fond of hero worship, and cheering on those who fight against the odds.

-David Brind is a Philadelphia writer.

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