ER (1994-2009) R.I.P.

And in the end...as so rightly titled it was, ER waves goodbye after fifteen years, twenty-three emmy's, hundreds of patients, doctors and nurses flying in and out and plently of drama that has been at it's very best.

It all started with a dark room, with the words 'Dr Greene' being spoken by a nurse, and all ended with 'Dr. Greene, you coming?, asked by Dr Carter to Dr Greene's daughter, now pursuing a career in medicine, as Mark Greene was woken up to the drama and traumas of county general hospital back in 1994.

I grew up and throughly enjoyed ER since the beginning, when I was just twelve years old. As I went onto university, I missed a large chunk of seasons, (episodes I'm looking forward to watching in re-runs, as well as the whole 15 seasons again) After graduating and getting back to it, I was throughly impressed to find that the drama hadn't lost any of it original magic.

There are so many things one could say about ER, and I think with the following example of George Clooney return said it best. Free from ego, a gentle and calm entrance, in new scenes away from county general and with his name credit the same as it always was, with no reference to special guest star, the 'Old times' episode of ER, showed that ER always chose realist drama, as opposed to having Dr Ross come rushing through county general doors, ready to save a patient's life, whilst pretending his life hadn't moved anywhere when in fact, him and Carol had now a new life with two kids, working in a organ transplant hospital in Seattle.

Below, I have pasted the second part of Doug and Carol's scenes together, which I feel is one of the best last scenes of ER's final season, as Susan Sarandon's character is asked about her grandson, now braindead, and if he was a generous person, who would donate his organs if he could, is classic ER.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvvca-HX2Bs&feature=related

ER was a show that inspired other TV shows, many of which are huge hits today. ER is from another time in TV, away from reality TV and grew older within this change.

To end, I would like to quote from a review that Stuart McGurk wrote a few weeks back...

'ER left us with a lot. It showed high-drama can mix with knockabout comedy, that you don't need to understand every sentence to know what's going on, and that TV can be just as visual and kinetic as film.'

R.I.P. ER, you were phenomenal

And in the end...