Before ER, The Cloon Was In E/R

[Primetimer]

It was a sitcom. Sarah D. Bunting is pretty sure she watched its entire original run. Mistakes were made in the '80s, people.

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[MarkBlankenship]

I watched this! I remember it as thing that existed! I also remember that when the other ER arrived, I assumed at first it was a remake, particularly since Clooney was back.

Also: At 2:07 in this sizzle reel, we get a scene with Clooney and a young, slender, hirsute Jason Alexander! Wonder of wonders!

[Thog]

I watched this, too! In fact, it's what I think of whenever I see most of these actors (maybe not Clooney, but certainly Corinne Bohrer, Conchata Ferrell, and even Mary McDonnell). Wow, special guest star Martha Quinn really dates it.

[Charlie Baker]

No, it wasn't good, and it wasn't much more than a stepping stone in the Clooney career, like Facts of Life or Sisters. But for those who might only know her from Two and A Half Men (ehh), Conchata Ferrell had more to do here and was excellent.

[Al Lowe]

I also watched this and had many arguments during the no-slash ER run about whether or not it existed and Clooney's jacket. <br /><br />I distinctly remember a hypochondriac, possibly homeless lady who was a regular? And maybe she was actually sick one time and died and Elliot Gould was super torn up about it?

[queenbee9b]

I used to watch this with my parents. I also loved him in Facts of Life. His hair was so pretty!

[Sienna]

I remember this! I don't think I watched the original run, but Lifetime showed the reruns for awhile. I think it was during the day, but I saw them over summer vacation, or something.

Speaking of weird shows Clooney was in, does anyone remember "Baby Talk", the "Looks Who's Talking" rip-off show from the early 90s? Season one had Julia Duffy (aka Stephanie from "Newhart"), and GC played a construction worker version of John Travolta's character.

Inexplicably, it was renewed, but when it came back, the main character had morphed into the aunt from "Life Goes On" (aka Mary Page Keller), and George Clooney became Scott Baio. Or something like that.

[LAFR]

I remember watching this too! For me though no early Clooney viewing is complete without Rosanne.

[WendyCR72]

I liked Clooney's Falconer with Sela Ward's Teddy in Sisters, too. That was just before ER #2. Glad Sisters finally made it to DVD.

[Megan in Seattle]

This is a genius-level entry for "Let's Go to the Videotape." I, too, watched this show when it was on, and kept trying to convince people it existed when he hit it huge on "the other" ER.

[jbrecken]

It also had a toupeed Jason Alexander as the boss.

[pucacodog]

This was on in daytime reruns sometime in the 1990s maybe? Along with "Day By Day," a forgotten Family Ties spinoff that starred Linda Kelsey and some guy from General Hospital as a couple who quit the rat race to open a day-care center, and their yuppie neighbor? friend? was played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus before she was on Seinfeld. That's when I discovered it.

[kwnyc]

I actually remember this. And, surprisingly, from the depths of my memory I pull up a really amazing monologue by Conchatta Ferrell, about domestic abuse. I have no idea why I remember this and cannot remember where I put my phone an hour ago.

[califred]

I watched this also. It's also how I remember Conchetta

[The Crazed Spruce]

This was one of the many, many, MANY one-season wonders that I've been sucked into over the years. (Seriously, it seems like just about every season there's at least one show I like that's cancelled after the first season. I'm honestly thinking about starting a blog about them....)

I'm pretty sure it was Clooney that got me into the show. I tend to follow "hey-it's-that-guy" actors that I like from role to role, and I remembered him from Facts of Life, Roseanne, and a few other parts.

[adam807]

I LOVED this show. Sue me, I was 10.

[Kromm]

Allegedly this is George's first TV appearance (he's one of the kids on the boat, apparently):  https://youtu.be/EVFHSgUKBVo

Inserted this as a link and not an embed because there are two people in the comments (if anyone cares) who claim they were there when this was filmed.

 

His substantiative debut was at age 17, in the 1978 minseries, Centennial, where apparently it was a bit role, but seemingly fun enough that if you google image search "George Clooney Centennial" you see lots of shots of him in a funny old timey hat fooling around on set.  Here's one of many of those:

 

Edited January 14, 2016 by Kromm

[FastLou]

I recently saw Clooney in an episode of Murder, She Wrote where he was so new he wasn't even listed as a guest star. The Ep had Buddy Hackett & Steve Lawrence in it.

[spaceghostess]

This was on in daytime reruns sometime in the 1990s maybe? Along with "Day By Day," a forgotten Family Ties spinoff that starred Linda Kelsey and some guy from General Hospital as a couple who quit the rat race to open a day-care center, and their yuppie neighbor? friend? was played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus before she was on Seinfeld. That's when I discovered it.

 

This!  Yup, I distinctly remember "E/R" being paired up with "Day by Day", which also featured a teenage son played by an actor who I seem to recall was in a bunch of stuff before disappearing completely. I also think of this whenever I see Conchata Ferrell in anything--to the point where I always expect her to play a nurse because of this show. I may not be the only one, as she's played a nurse at least five more times since "E/R." I must have watched this rerun pair-up when I was either in college or in the couple of years after graduation that I worked at night and was home during the day. I couldn't have seen it in its original run. (a) Because my father held no truck with such mediocrity--our home witnessed a sitcom drought during the years between the demise of "Barney Miller", "Mary Tyler Moore", and "Taxi" and the birth of "Seinfeld"--and the one decent TV for primetime viewing was his domain. And (b) The merest whiff of Charles in Charge stank--even from the end credits--would have scared me off but good. "Eight is Enough" was enough Willy Ames for me.

 

ETA: Apologies for quotes around show titles; can't get the italics function to work.

Edited January 14, 2016 by spaceghostess

[sinkwriter]

 

Yup, I distinctly remember "E/R" being paired up with "Day by Day", which also featured a teenage son played by an actor who I seem to recall was in a bunch of stuff before disappearing completely.

 

Ooh, freakish trivia that I can actually answer! 

 

His name was Chris Barnes (aka C.B. Barnes), and he was also on a TV series version of Starman (originally from the Jeff Bridges film), where the "starman" was played by Airplane's Robert Hayes. In the film -- spoiler alert -- the starman has a relationship with a human woman and at the end of the film she has his child. The TV series played on that tidbit by making Chris Barnes play that child as the now-teenager. 

 

He also played Greg Brady in the parody Brady Bunch movie, and he's the voice of Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid. Looks like he's still doing a lot of voice work for TV and video games. And in looking at his credits on imdb, it seems that he guested for a few episodes on 90210, Sarah! So you may be revisiting his work eventually.

 

I admit, I had a little crush on him back in the day, when he was on Starman and Day by Day. But I lost track of him. Shame on me. I'm a bad fan.

[Jeffurry]

I still say "Stay back of the white line!" ... and no one knows what I'm talking about. "I've got a real emergency here!"

[Dr.OO7]

On 1/13/2016 at 3:37 PM, WendyCR72 said:

I liked Clooney's Falconer with Sela Ward's Teddy in Sisters, too. That was just before ER #2. Glad Sisters finally made it to DVD.

That's when I fell in love with him. I couldn't watch ER's first season because I was so upset they'd killed him off.

[RedbirdNelly]

11 hours ago, Camille said:

That's when I fell in love with him. I couldn't watch ER's first season because I was so upset they'd killed him off.

Me too! so glad I am not the only person who loved him on Sisters. I was so sad when Falconer died--and the scene where Teddy holds his shirt and breaks down crying just gutted me.

I hate it how every time I see some "before ER" lookback for him, they always leave out Sisters. Every single time. I know he was on Roseanne. I get it. But he died as Falconer right before ER!!!

[Dr.OO7]

32 minutes ago, RedbirdNelly said:

. I was so sad when Falconer died--and the scene where Teddy holds his shirt and breaks down crying just gutted me.

Teddy was my favorite sister, so aside from the fact that I adored Falconer, I hated the writers for doing that to her--the woman's FINALLY happy after years of hell and it goes back to hell in about five minutes.

[RedbirdNelly]

agreed. I liked Teddy a lot. And then after Falconer leaves they pair her up with some doctor guy; the chemistry was not half of her plus Falconer.

[sue450]

On 1/13/2016 at 11:20 AM, queenbee9b said:

I used to watch this with my parents. I also loved him in Facts of Life. His hair was so pretty!

clooney aand sela ward were smokin hot on sisters!... ..and yes he went from "sisters" to ER 2....and so glad sisters finally came out on dvd and my kids got them for me for christmas! 

clooney was also in several episodes of  "rosanne"  and he was also on a few episodes of "the facts of life"

Edited April 18, 2021 by sue450

[RedbirdNelly]

i need to get those Sisters DVDs