Pulling the plug on 'ER'
Posted: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 8:23 AM by Danielle Brennan
Filed Under:
Celebs, Meredith Vieira
From TODAY producer Stephanie Becker
They're pulling the plug on "ER" this week after 332 episodes, about 400 billion ccs of epi, cross-matched with type o-negative, with a Chem-7, tox screen and saline drip chaser. And just as importantly, treating those 4,675 romantic traumas. At least that's what it feels like to me. And I should know; I just spent the last week cooped up with my editor Mark watching hour upon hour of 15 seasons of "ER" episodes for our three-part ode to "ER." It's running today through Thursday. As a result, I think I need a butt-ectomy.
About a month ago I went with our Meredith for her Behind the Scenes tour of the "ER" set. I really was there, although if you blink you’ll miss my hidden cameo in our spot. But, I've made my mom happy. She’s probably re-running it on TiVo now to complain about my outfit.
We shot about five hours of tape, less than the time it takes to remove your appendix. So, what did we surgically remove? Alas, John Stamos being incredibly charming and gracious to everyone who wanted their picture taken with him. We also extracted everyone's choice in the time-honored tradition of taking something from a set. Stamos got the board where they write up all the patient information. Parminder Nagra confessed that she was already grabbing little stuff like nametags. "I'm actually the worst stealer of everybody, maybe I should go and get a couple of 'ER' doors?" She’s so tiny that if she did she'd definitely give herself a hernia.
I did take a pair of rubber gloves that John Stamos was wearing. I also swiped a piece of fake mail addressed to the Accounting Department at County General Hospital. Talk about attention to detail. I even thought about putting it all on eBay. Then I got a panic attack about being hauled in by our ethics police and going to producer prison. So I put them back. Really.
"ER" executive producer John Wells, who has been with the show since it's birth, says there wasn't anything he wanted. After all he said, "the great thing about building a set for an urban hospital like this is there's absolutely nothing worth anything." Unless of course you're counting residuals from reruns for the rest of eternity.
From my mercifully minimal time in actual hospital emergency rooms, the TV version does seem like it’s the real thing, right down to the snoring guy in the waiting room. (Was he stunt snoring or actually snoring? And how can I get that job?) The main difference may be that my real ER doctors weren’t nearly as good-looking as the ones on TV. Except for one time when one of our associate producers ended up at the hospital after getting T-boned. She got banged up pretty badly and needed me to pick her up, STAT! Not so much because she needed the help, but I just had to see her cute doctor. But, on Friday afternoon, in the summer, in L.A., on the 405 going south in bumper-to-bumper traffic, STAT! is a relative term. Two hours to travel about 20 miles. Then it was another two hours as doctors dealt first with the gunshot victim, then the stab-wound lady and then the heart-attack patient. Alas, even if her sedative-enhanced matchmaking skills weren't totally out of whack, by the time I got to see her, the doctor was gone. The only man wanting to make time with me was the guy in the waiting room with a dribbling eyeball and phlegmy cough, who wanted to know if I came here often. If only someone could have called a Code Blue on his breath. Boy, I miss George Clooney already.
