novo arrtigo sobre a seasion finale!
ER takes a graceful bow in 15th season
Alex Strachan , Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The lights have yet to go out on Stage 11. When they do, though, John Wells admits it will be a bittersweet moment. For 14 years, ER has moved an entire generation of TV viewers to laughter, anger and tears. That's not something you walk away from lightly, but Wells - who co- created ER with novelist Michael Crichton in 1994 - feels the time is right to pull the plug.
"We're walking away for sentimental reasons more than for story reasons," Wells said quietly, in an interview with Canwest News. "We've been doing this for a long time in the same place with a lot of the same people. We've been together for 20 years and there's the feeling that, rather than retool it again, it's time to take a graceful bow."
Stage 11, one of the oldest sound stages on one of Hollywood's oldest studio lots, has been home to some of Warner Bros.'s most culturally defining films and TV shows of their time, from the 1933 musical 42nd Street to Casablanca in 1942. Stage 11 was home to TV's The Streets of San Francisco in 1972 and the Academy Award winning film All the President's Men in 1976.
ER producer John Wells feels the time is right to pull the plug on the beloved medical drama. (NBC)
Since 1994, though, Stage 11 has been home to the fictional doctors and nurses of County General Hospital in Cook County, Chicago. ER holds the record for most Emmy nominations for a single program, with 122. ER punted George Clooney's acting career into the stratosphere, and boosted the careers of innumerable others, including Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Eriq La Salle and Toronto-born Gloria Reuben and Michael Ironside.
This season, ER's 15th, will be its last. It returns Thursday with a new chief of medicine, played by Angela Bassett. Maura Tierney and Goran Visnjic will return for several episodes before leaving for good. The main cast will once again revolve around Mekhi Phifer, Parminder Nagra and Linda Cardellini. The glory years of Clooney, Edwards, Sherry Stringfield, La Salle and Margulies are long gone, though. Wells says Edwards' Dr. Mark Greene will return in time for the series finale in late February, in a flashback. (Edwards' character died of an inoperable brain tumour at the end of ER's eighth season, in 2002.)
ER was originally intended to be a feature film - Crichton based his original script on his own experiences as a medical student. At the time, Crichton was working on a novel about dinosaurs and DNA called Jurassic Park. When filmmaker Steven Spielberg learned about Crichton's project, he dropped what he was doing and decided to make Jurassic Park as a movie.
Spielberg later learned about Crichton's other project, ER, and briefly considered it as a feature film, before deciding to help develop it as a TV series instead. Wells, who had served as producer and writer of the Vietnam-era medical drama China Beach, signed on as ER's head writer, senior executive producer and show runner.
Wells is still in regular contact with Crichton.
"I talk to him all the time, and we've had a lot fun," Wells said. "He's very involved. He still reads (the scripts) and talks to me about it. We had a show that we didn't think was going to make it, and it lasted 15 years. It's hard to think of a better experience than that."
The fictional ER has always been at the forefront of the real-life fight for health-care reform in the U.S., as TV historian and culture critic Steven Stark noted in his 1997 book Glued to the Set: The 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today.
"I would like to think we had some effect," Wells said. "I don't think you can point to any specific policy change that we helped effect. But we reached a lot of people - average, everyday working people. We've reached a crucial time now in our national dialogue where, as so often happens in America, economics have become so dire that the health-care system is once again at the forefront of an election campaign. I think there will be some changes. I certainly hope so."
Goodbyes are never easy, Wells admitted.
"The mood is good, though. We work in an industry where most people are freelancers, and this is the longest job they've had by, like, 15 years. Everybody's a little sad. We've known for a long time that it was coming, so that makes it a little easier. And we'll always have the memories of what it was like to be together for such a long period of time. That doesn't happen often in this business, and so when it does it's precious."
Wells cautions ER fans, devotees and shut-ins not to expect a spinoff.
"I'm proud of what we've done with ER, and I've always been reluctant to tamper with that in any way," Wells said. "In the early days, there were these constant conversations from the network about whether we should do a spinoff. There was a lot of - I don't want to say pressure - let's say, interest, from NBC that we do what CSI did and have ER: Seattle and ER: Miami. Michael Crichton's attitude was always that we had a good show, so why would we want to dilute it? I've honoured that over time, and I always thought that was the wise choice. I'm not about to change now that it's time for us to go."
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E.R. Chat #1
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Mas andando por ai eu acabei encontrando de novo, então vou colocar aqui pra gente começar um Chat de E.R. em geral... Então here we go.
E menções ao Gates...
