ER

Overview

ER follows the medical personnel and patients in the emergency room of Chicago's fictional County General Hospital. Created by best-selling author Michael Crichton ("Jurassic Park") and produced by John Wells ("The West Wing"), Christopher Chulack ("Third Watch"), David Zabel ("JAG"), and R. Scott Gemmill ("Jonny Zero"), the Emmy Award-winning series has completed twelve seasons as one of television's highest-rated dramas. The doctors and nurses of County's ER confront the daily challenges of a busy urban hospital, including overcrowded waiting rooms, staffing shortages, and the impact of life-and-death decisions. While they teach the next generation of doctors, each must tackle the demands of their personal lives, at times unsuccessfully. The staff is led by Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic, "Welcome to Sarajevo"), a gifted teacher who came from Croatia to Chicago, where he's built a new life and a new family, but is still followed by the shadows of a tragic past, and Dr. Kerry Weaver, County's Chief of Staff (Laura Innes, "Deep Impact"), a compassionate doctor and uncompromising administrator who must face some dramatic changes in her life. The ER is staffed by two new attending physicians: Dr. Gregory Pratt (Mekhi Phifer, "8 Mile") whose rebel days seem behind him as he matures into a new role, and former Chief Resident Dr. Archie Morris (Scott Grimes, "Band of Brothers") who faces the realization medicine may be his true calling. The backbone of the ER are third-year year residents Dr. Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney, "Newsradio") a former ER nurse turned doctor, who must balance a demanding career with a new family, and Dr. Ray Barnett (Shane West "A Walk to Remember") whose rock-doc days are finally behind him, along with feisty nurse Samantha Taggart (Linda Cardellini, "Brokeback Mountain") a tough single mother attempting to balance her difficult personal issues with her demanding professional life. Now in surgery, Dr. Neela Rasgotra (Parminder Nagra, "Bend it Like Beckham") makes a professional change as she recovers from the death of her husband, and new to the ER is intern Dr. Tony Gates (John Stamos, "Full House") a paramedic turned doctor who sees rules as made to be broken. Featured this season as recurring characters are Leland Orser ("Runaway Jury") as the ER's highly individual surgical attending, Dr. Lucien Dubenko, J. P. Manoux as surgical Chief Resident Dr. Damien Crenshaw, and a lively group of new interns and medical students. Guest stars for the first half of the season will include Sally Field ("Norma Rae") as Abby's bipolar mother, John Mahoney ("Frasier") as a club owner with an colorful lifestyle, and in a six-episode story arc as a patient who suffers a stroke in the overcrowded ER under Luka's care, actor/director Forest Whitaker ("Good Morning Vietnam".) The winner of 22 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Drama Series (1996), with 115 nominations, an industry record, ER has also won the George Foster Peabody Award (1995), and four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Drama Series. ER has been renewed by NBC through the 2007-2008 television season.