ER: Season 1

Throughout most of the late 80s and early 90s, drama was essentially dead on television. Most of the line-ups were sitcoms. Popular shows were Cheers, Cosby Show, and Seinfeld. Many of the popular dramas of the early 80s were all but gone or nearing their end. In 1993, NYPD Blue came a long and cracked things open, but in 1994, ER exploded on the scene. I still recall seeing the pilot episode for the first time. Somehow I knew right away that I was watching television history in the making: this show was going to not only be around for a long time, but I knew it was also going to have a large audience. Those of you, like me, who have grown a bit complacent and tired of ER in recent years may have forgotten the original cast, the stories, and excitement that started it. I had forgotten just how good this show was. I hadn't seen the first season since it aired, with the exception of one episode that I'd taped (Love's Labor Lost). Another medical drama, Chicago Hope, made its debut the same year that ER did. There's a big reason that ER won out. While Chicago Hope had interesting stories, it was still using the old stationary motion from the dramas of yester-year. ER revolutionized dramatic television. In fact, many dramas today credit ER with its almost constant movement. Rather than have its characters standing still, they moved. They walked corridors at the brisk pace that ER doctors might. Cameras whirled around a trauma patient as four or five doctors and nurses worked on the patient. The camera movement alone created excitement and the good kind of tension that made you wonder what kind of emergency would come through those ER doors next. Watch these earlier episodes, and you'll notice quickly that whenever there is a trauma, the music kicks in and cameras speed up their pace and movement. For audiences were grew tired of the dull stationary cameras, this was new, fresh, and a whole lot of fun! ER's original cast simply can't be topped. Many actors and actresses have walked and continue to walk the halls of ER, but there's only one Dr. Mark Greene, played superbly by Anthony Edwards. He plays Greene with a reserve and confidence of someone who makes everything look easy. As the Chief Resident, he runs the ER, and he does it both smoothly and proficiently. He's also a man conflicted between his job which he loves and his family. Season one sees him trying to find a resolution between leaving the job he loves or risk losing his family. Then there's womanizer, Dr. Doug Ross. George Clooney plays Ross with all the charm and boyishness that seems to win women over with a look. He's unable to commit, and he leaves a trail of emotional baggage a mile long. Perhaps his former girlfriend nurse Carol Hathaway describes him best with the line, "Doug is a little boy who wants what he can't have." Sherry Stringfield has wonderful as Dr. Susan Lewis. She's cute and vivacious, and gives these elements to Lewis. Lewis also has a problem standing up for herself. She's generally a pleaser who is afraid of losing the affection and faith of those closest to her. Perhaps her biggest nemesis is her own sister who is all but inept. She and Greene are close friends, and one had to wonder if anything might come of it. Eriq La Salle was a perfect choice to play the arrogant, driven, and extremely talented Dr. Peter Benton who is a second-year surgical resident. Benton is devoted to his job and little else. Someone can lose count of the number of times we hear him yell at the nurses, "Come on, let's move people!" La Salle makes Benton move at light speed. He's always in motion, and even when he's stationary, you can see the energy that La Salle gives to Benton, that standing around is his least favorite thing. Who has forgotten the great charm and clumsy character of the first year for Dr. John Carter played by Noah Wyle? Before he became the proficient doctor we see in later seasons, we forget that Carter was a young medical student trying to survive his first year under Dr. Benton's instruction. Carter was a slightly nerdish, always wearing suspenders and expensive shirts, and yet he's always at the center when a laugh is needed to break the tension. Everything seems to happen to him. He's peed on, vomited on, and another med student hands him the cardio paddles with the wrong end, thus sending three hundred volts of electricity into the unsuspecting Carter and sending him unconscious to the floor. The stories are crisp and strong in this first season. Quite possibly one of the best single episodes of ANY series I've ever watched is here. Love's Labor Lost was an Emmy Award winning episode. It's an incredible episode featuring Dr. Greene attempting to deliver a baby until things go horribly wrong. Anthony Edwards was nothing short of perfect in this episode. Try watching this one without feeling the stress and tension that Greene feels. It's nearly impossible. So, if you're anxious to recapture some fond memories with the original cast of ER and remember why this show started off so well, then you can't go wrong with the first season of ER.

My beginning to watch the show ER on DVD is just a tad less rewarding than Sir Walter Raleigh's finding the Lost City of Gold, since in spite of its running as a highly rewarded and well received series for 15 seasons, I watched but one episode, the final one in 2009. Somehow, it never fit into my life on Thursday evenings. And, by the time I watched that one episode, it was long past being a very tired cast, crew, and format. But, seeing it as it premiered in 1984, with a cast that was probably surpassed only by "The West Wing", it was crackling with life and excitement and humanity. Compared to it, the 2012 series "Monday Mornings" was a highly mannered, pretentious shadow of the real thing which was "ER". I could not keep my eyes off the screen, and I ordered Seasons 2 and 3 almost immediately. I can now look forward to several weeks of viewing the entire series at the rate of three to four episodes per night. The main cast is quite good, but it goes to new heights when the show is peppered with some outstanding guest appearances such as ER chiefs played by William H. Macy and Michael ironside, and cardiac surgeon, CCH Pounder, plus brother in law Ving Rhames. At first, I'm surprised at the brusque treatment and "guidance" 3rd year medical student Noah Wyle gets from his 2nd year surgical resident, Eriq La Salle. This is about as close as "ER" ever gets to the prima donna characterization of a doctor on "House". In all other ways, it is the demonstration that "House" is a surreal abstraction of hospital behavior, far removed from reality. One almost senses that the level of activity in the average day in the "ER" is exaggerated. I've been in very few Emergency Rooms in my life, and they tend to be relatively quiet. But then again, this is in downtown Chicago, and a teaching hospital, which probably has the mandate to turn down no one. In one episode, at night, during a heavy snow storm, we see for a small part of one episode, what the ER looks like when it is not busy. That didn't last long. I have not yet seen any following seasons, but like "The West Wing" (same producer, John Wells), this show takes off from the opening scenes of the first episode, and never once drops the ball.

Wow incredible the first season of ER is finally coming to DVD with all of the special features that will be incredible to see. The episode entitled Love Labors Lost is a very heartfelt episode. To me the fact that you have a great episode just focusing on one doctor trying his best to deliver a baby and is unsuccessful delivering and doing the surgery and saving the baby. Then losing the mother in the end that was the saddest part of the episode. Another episode is The Gift that ended the first half of the season is really good but is also sad in the fact that they had a patient coming in with brain damage and is brain dead. They came in to harvest his organs and she did not want to have them harvest his organs. But anyways the first season of ER was awesome because the fact that they won over Chicago Hope the first season was very good and they have been on ever since. Chicago Hope was the only hospital show to get cancelled and not be shown again because the fact it kind of stunk were as ER every week they had a new and exciting episode and they brought in new cast member. This year they brought back and original cast member Sherry Stringfield to reprise her role as Doctor Susan Lewis. That was a very good move for NBC to bring her back because she and Anthony Edwards were the only two cast members to be on their for a while till Anthony Edwards character of Doctor Mark Greene was killed off in 2002 of brain cancer. This is a must have collecters edition DVD for anyone go buy it because they will be flying off the shelves in the ladder part of August.

First season of a classic show. All of them look so young and the weekly guests are often big names who were not yet famous. See George Clooney before he was a movie star.

Love er have all the seasons. Of course now it streams

It's probably unfair to compare this with other hospital TV series, but it's inevitable--at least, it is for me. For the most part this is an excellent series, but not quite as good as "Grey's Anatomy," because I didn't identify as closely with the characters. Anthony Edwards is fine in the lead, and George Clooney is surprisingly good. The one character I found distasteful was the one played by Eriq La Salle. I don't think it was the actor's fault. He didn't write the lines, nor was he the director. It's just that his character is always negative and makes all sorts of contorted, smirking faces to show his displeasure at everything, and with everyone. The story lines are quite good, and most of the characters feel exactly right. The sets couldn't be better. As an aside, however,I can't imagine why anyone would want to work in the emergency room of a hospital. I have, alas, gone through emergency rooms as a patient, and it's amazing that doctors and nurses there can keep some semblance of sanity. I did feel tense in watching the chapters of this dvd set. It's bloody sometimes. There are tragedies and very little happiness. Will I watch subsequent years? Probably not. It's just a bit more graphic than I find entertaining.

Ordered dvd set. Product arrived super fast in perfect shape!! Thank you so much!!

I began watching this show when I was little, around 12 years old. I LOVED it! I watched it ever season afterward and they only got better. But one of the episodes that I always remembered was Love's Labor Lost. It won five Emmy Awards and back when I saw it for the first time, I thought, "Wow! That was incredible!" I had the same reaction seeing it 17 years later. Anyway, I watched ER every season it was on the air. This started it all and is an incredible show! Buy it and enjoy it. If you've never seen ER before, you're in for a treat.