lordwow

SERIES Finale. 15 Seasons (1994-2009), 331 Episodes.



Rumored "Old" Cast Members Appearing:


8 PM - 9 PM: Retrospective
9 PM - 11 PM: Finale

chuckd21

tommyp007

I haven't watched in years, except for the one a couple of weeks ago with Clooney....but I'll watch tonight.

Septemberbaby

nateman

I've been watching ER since day one. I'm really going to miss the show. They have done a really good job with bringing back original cast members this season and Thursdays are never going to be the same again.

I grew up with ER. My grandma and I always watch it together. When the DVDs came out I watched them over and over. It's one of the greatest shows in the history of television and I don't think it can ever be replaced. This is going to be a sad night.

lordwow

I've seen most of the episodes (I sort of gave up around the end of last season), and I own the DVDs. This show was really something special, and it'll probably be remembered as one of the... if not THE greatest television drama of all-time. The cast has been all-star since day 1, the writing was amazing (well at least for the first 10 seasons or so), and the whole production design was so well done between the effects and the ridiculous steadycam shots they had in nearly every episode.

I'd say my top 5 moments, not in any particular order would be:
- Mark Greene's Death (really all of Orion In The Sky/The Letter/On The Beach)

- Carter/Lucy stabbing (All in the Family... as someone mentioned Benton coming to help Carter... what a moment)

- Greene's bathroom assault and subsequent freakouts

- Kovac's "confession" about his wife and daughter

- Love's Labour Lost (I think This article from the Boston Globe today says it best)

Arthur Dent

I stopped watching about 5 years ago, but I'll tune in for this.

rfduncan

Wow. Long overdue. Should I be surprised that NBC is devoting THREE HOURS to this tonight? They are really crying for ratings.

Renee

The show ran for 15 years and had a loyal following. I think it deserves a 2 hour finale and an hour retrospective. According to Noah Wyle on "Jimmy Fallon" last night- the Finale will mirror the 2 hour Pilot in some ways. (wow, who could have predicted 15 years ago that John Carter would be appearing on "The Jimmy Fallon show"!)

I'm already sad, just thinking about never seeing a new episode of one of my favorite shows of all time.

grip

Love's Labour Lost - remember watching it with my fiancee (now wife). Wow did that hour hit us.....hard. We had just been talking about kids and long term plans prior to that episode and we sat in stunned silence for at least 15 minutes after the show not believing what occured.

I was able to sit through this episode once more and marveled at the pacing, writing and acting. The build up to the climax and subsuquent fallout has to be one of the most outstanding pieces of work in television history.

Unfortunately, the delivery of both of our children were very difficult and dangerous for my wife and don't think that that episode did not cross my mind. Luckily the outcome was much better for us x 2.

We have watched ER consistently since that time, being shocked/amused/horrified/ and hating the last few seasons but watching nonetheless simply because we feel a bond with the show since that episode.

It was both painful and joyful for us to see Mark Greene for that episode recently, because I still feel the pain of LLL and our own real history. Probably and especially because of the episodes subject matter.

Obviously, we will miss the show, but it is time to move on.

lordwow

I think what I appreciate most about the episode, when I went back and watched the first season again on DVD, Mark Greene really is like invincible the whole first half of that season. He never makes a mistake, he's always there to save someone else from screwing up, he's like the knight riding in on his horse most episodes... and then everything falls apart in that one episode.

Probably the most amazing thing to me, upon original viewing, was that feeling that he would figure it out. When she went into seizures it was like "woh, Greene really missed something there" and then by the time he started cutting into her for the c-section it was really like "What the hell is he doing?!?" And even despite all that I was still saying "well it probably was just something he couldn''t have fixed" and then we find out that he missed something huge on the ultrasound.

It was really unfathomable that he could fall from grace like that, and I think the entire audience was shook to its core upon the series of events, and the final shots of Greene speaking with the father and him breaking down on the train are still ingrained in my mind... and it was definitely with me when my son was born as well.

madcougar

That has always been my favorite episode of ER. However, My wife was pregnant at the time with our first child and let me tell you, I didn't sleep well for weeks afterwards.

aktick

I watched the first 5 seasons or so, not really at all since. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but I graduated and went to college (in 2001), and didn't watch after that. But the years I watched it, it was always one of the few shows we sat down and watched as a family.

I'll record all 3 hours tonight for old time's sake.

rfduncan

Well M*A*S*H had a THREE hour finale after only 11 years so no argument there. Just saying that it is so apparent that NBC is trying to milk every last ounce out of this series (see also all NBC talk show promotion, TODAY show spots, etc.).

lordwow

I mean, it's front page news here at least, it had half the cover of the Boston Metro this morning showing most of the major cast people from the past 15 years.

riley_dude

San Francisco Chronicles take on ER.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DD0E16PKCC.DTL

Double_Oh_7

That's the whole reason why they did that episode. He was TOO perfect and they wanted to show he was as flawed as everyone else.

lordwow

While I think that no one would disagree ER overstayed it's welcome, it was never clear to me personally why it retained it's coveted 10 PM Thu slot (*cough*NBCidiots*cough*). I don't think it really tanked until early in season 10. The writer there writes it was all over by season 5, but I think seasons 6-8 were the "prime" years for this show, even without Clooney, every episode was a hit until Greene left.

JeffTheAlpaca

I never watched the show but it looked like a quality show compared to the crap on FOX and I respect what they did and it should be a big deal.

I remember it started when I left high school and started college around 1994 and it makes you feel old that now the show is ending.

lordwow

Old intro

kstublen

I used to watch this show religiously years ago. I stopped watching at some point (it wasn't after the major cast changes, but at some point after that). I continued to watch it sporadically and in syndication on TNT/TBS. I am absolutely watching the Series Finale though. I just hope one day they release the complete series on DVD; would definitely pick that up as I'd like to revisit the episodes I saw and see some new episodes too.

Patman

If they could have kept David Lyons (Simon) out of the opening intro, it would have been truly great. Lyons is the one that just didn't seen to fit with the rest of the cast.

Double_Oh_7

This is really dragging. Could have easily been a one-hour finale.

RichC2

This is a really dull finale. They're trying way too hard to sapp it up.

Patman

I'm glad Rory Gilmore decided to give emergency medicine a try.