St. Elsewhere - General Discussion

[libgirl2]

2 hours ago, Kyle said:

Yep. They had lost a number of people in season 3 and 4 - Peter White, Shirley Daniels, Annie Cavanero, Bobby Caldwell, Joan Halloran, et. al. And they didn’t really bring on new people during that time, so by midseason of year 4, after Mark Harmon left, the intro to the show was looking really depopulated. At the beginning of season 5, they seemed to realize this, so we saw the intros of Seth Griffin, Carol Novino, Paulette Kiem, Jamie Rose’s character (whose name escapes me).

Dr. Birch, I googled it because it was going to bug me. 

[Egg McMuffin]

In addition to Lucy, Jackie Wade - who had also been there from the beginning - got a bigger role in season 5 and her portrayer even graduated to the opening titles for the final season. But that was one tenure-based promotion I didn’t agree with, since I found Jackie’s dull earnestness a bit grating.

[Hiyo]

Quote

The second time was because Eriq LaSalle didn't want his character to end up with a woman that wasn't black. 

No, he just didn't want that the only healthy relationship his character was in up to that point was with a white woman.

[Raja]

On 9/16/2021 at 4:58 AM, Kyle said:

The other thing I loved was all the in-jokes to other MTM shows (St E was produced by MTM). Like Warren Coolidge from “The White Shadow” winding up working at St E. In one episode he sees a character played by Tim Van Patten (Salami on TWS) in the elevator and yells, “Salami! It’s Warren!” And Van Patten’s character says, “You got the wrong guy, pal.” There’s another episode where a mental ward patient thinks he is Mary Tyler Moore. Betty White is guest starring in another story in the same episode as an army major. The patient finally sees her toward the end of the episode and shouts, “Sue Ann Nivens, the Happy Homemaker! It’s me, Mary!” LOL

My mind was blown when he introduced himself as Coolidge who lost a basketball scholarship at Boston College due to a career ending injury. From there the Tommyverse really expanded

On 9/20/2021 at 6:38 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

 

Now Dr Morrison...he was my least favorite character.  He was such a drip..and I read that the actor started darker characters to avoid being typecast.

 

If my memory is correct coming out of the first episode I thought David Morse was going to be first among the stars not just another doctor in an ensemble.  From here to a henchman on The Rock.

[sugarbaker design]

10 hours ago, Raja said:

If my memory is correct coming out of the first episode I thought David Morse was going to be first among the stars not just another doctor in an ensemble.  From here to a henchman on The Rock.

Don't forget Morse's character had the nickname of Boomer.  NBC execs reviewed the show Boomer (a Benji and Lassie copycat) and gave notes to the producers saying essentially "more Boomer".  So when the same NBC execs reviewed SE and gave notes to the producers "more Morrison", the writers wrote in Jack's new nickname Boomer.

[Blergh]

6 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Don't forget Morse's character had the nickname of Boomer.  NBC execs reviewed the show Boomer (a Benji and Lassie copycat) and gave notes to the producers saying essentially "more Boomer".  So when the same NBC execs reviewed SE and gave notes to the producers "more Morrison", the writers wrote in Jack's new nickname Boomer.

Ah, the irony! Boomer was once among Silverman's fave .. .pets yet has almost been entirely forgotten even by those of us who were living viewers at the time- and by the time St. Elsewhere ended, Mr. Morse's character of Dr. Jack Morrison was barely a recurring background character despite the initial high hopes. I guess it wound up that Dr. Morrison had so many bad things happen to him (1st wife accidentally drowning while exhaustingly  bathing their infant son in a tub, Dr. Morrison getting raped by a prisoner, his young son going missing then later found before winding up 'accidentally' fatally shooting the vengeful escaped rapist prisoner,etc.) that it got to be too much for viewers to keep rooting for the character. 

[Blergh]

12 hours ago, patriciahelenkit said:

I really hate the snowglobe ending and the Tommy Westphall Universe. 

Yep, it was as though the writers and producers gave us audience members one big RASPBERRY for having cared about the show and its characters for six years! Still, who'd have thought it would wind up being less infuriating than how Lost wound up (and I'll leave it at that)! 

[SnarkShark]

On 5/13/2022 at 9:34 PM, Blergh said:

Yep, it was as though the writers and producers gave us audience members one big RASPBERRY for having cared about the show and its characters for six years! Still, who'd have thought it would wind up being less infuriating than how Lost wound up (and I'll leave it at that)! 

I appreciated the creativity, and don't think it invalidates anything.  For a Medical drama this show had a lot of hyper-real content over the years where it spun into fantasy mixed in with reality, and while I don't think that was part of a deliberate plan towards that ending, I think it eventually set up that ending.  The ending isn't necessarily supposed to be taken literally, anymore than them having a strange serial killer in their staff, them hanging out in the Cheers bar, them having an actual "Fat Lady" Opera Singer summon that ending, etc. were to be taken seriously.   In fact, I've occasionally seen the show referred to as a Dark comedy instead of a Drama.  

 

Think how weird it is that THIS exists:

 

 

 

 

[Blergh]

19 hours ago, SnarkShark said:

I appreciated the creativity, and don't think it invalidates anything.  For a Medical drama this show had a lot of hyper-real content over the years where it spun into fantasy mixed in with reality, and while I don't think that was part of a deliberate plan towards that ending, I think it eventually set up that ending.  The ending isn't necessarily supposed to be taken literally, anymore than them having a strange serial killer in their staff, them hanging out in the Cheers bar, them having an actual "Fat Lady" Opera Singer summon that ending, etc. were to be taken seriously.   In fact, I've occasionally seen the show referred to as a Dark comedy instead of a Drama.  

 

Think how weird it is that THIS exists:

 

 

 

 

To each one's own, but I'd have preferred for TPTB to have thanked us few but loyal viewers for watching instead of said raspberry!

[txhorns79]

On 9/22/2021 at 6:00 PM, Egg McMuffin said:

I also didn’t like Morrison’s Brady perm.

I was watching the Season 2 episodes on Hulu where Alan Arkin essentially spends two episodes screaming at the staff (and then calms down considerably in the third episode) over his wife's (Piper Laurie) care.  First off, Arkin drives his freaking car through the ambulance bay into the hallway of the ER, no care at all for whether or not he harmed anyone with his actions.  His wife has had a stroke (why he needed to smash his car into the hospital to get her there is never explained), he tries to take over her care, and puts her through what I would call abusive rounds of physical therapy (he keeps her food out of reach as a therapy exercise, then tries to get her to walk by herself which leads to her crashing to the floor).  She finally gets fed up and bans him from her room.  Morrison then bucks up the husband, telling him his wife's recovery is moving quickly thanks to him and the nursing staff tells the wife how lucky she is to have such a caring husband.  It's just awful.