What in tarnation has Happened to ER?!
 

ER, the long running medical drama, has certainly had it's major fall from grace. When has ER, as a series, stopped being interesting and has "Jumped the Shark"?

When did ER start to turn into the dull farce that it is now?

Season 6, Episodes 13/14 --"Be Still My Heart" and "All in the Family"

Lucy Knight is stabbed and killed. Carter is stabbed and becomes a drug addict.

I was practically all done with ER after Clooney left, but Romano's death was just ridiculous.

I stopped watching with the premiere of season 9... Romano having his arm chopped off by a copter? The show just got more ridiculous as time went on, and the second episode of Without a Trace was there waiting.

I liked the arm chopping. That was just crazy. I think its been downhill since Anthony Edwards left. Up until just shortly after that, I was enjoying it.

What was the thing with the helicopter?

I took a few years off from ER and just came back. My, how it has changed.

Ever since working at that hospital became more dangerous than smoking in a gunpowder factory.

which time?

It jumped when every episode became a VERY SPECIAL EPISODE, THAT YOU WILL NEVER FORGET.

rotfl rotfl rotfl

This is another example of a network stretching out a shows life just because it is a hit (X-files and Seifeld also come to mind). It should have ended about 5 years ago.

1. Romano got his arm chopped of by the blades, his reattached not properly working arm was a source of humor from their on until...

2. There was another incident and a helicopter crashed and fell on top of him and killed him.

Last episode - Clooney's surprise cameo. We cried and turned the set off there.

Ciao,
Smithsguy

If I got into without a trace earlier I'd ditch ER, but since there isnt anything else, by default I watch.

I bailed when rocket lost the arm, great writing there

About 5-6 years ago.

In my opinion, ER doesn't have a "jump the shark" moment... it's more like death by paper cuts.

I suppose it is only natural after having milked the show for so many years, but there is simply nothing good left to do with it. Unless I'm mistaken, there are NO cast members left from the early seasons and the focus clearly shifted from good medical stories (with a bit of melodrama between characters to make it interesting) to tons of melodrama (with a sprinkling of increasingly silly medical stories).

I suppose I need to give them credit for keeping it afloat this long. If you had told me a decade ago that ER would still be on the air, but *without* Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies, Sherry Stringfield, or Noah Wyle... :lol:

Did the actor who played Romano, play a ginger haired thug in Robocop and he had a equally silly death in that movie as well?

He was the guy who crashed his van into a giant vat of toxic waste, then he staggers around the place with his face and skin melting off moaning out "kill meeeee!", then he finally gets violently run over by a 2000-SUX and gets splatted all over the place.

Is that the guy that played Romano?

Yes.

I also think the show went downhill when they killed off Anthony Edwards character. The show lost a little when Clooney left, but it was still good. I always like to tell this story about ER. ER was my favorite show when I was a child. I was eleven when it debuted on tv and it was the only show that my mom and dad would let me stay up after 9:00 to watch. I always will have found of ER because of that even with all the blood squirting, vomiting, and helicopter accidents.

You can't really say ER jumped the shark at the losses of Clooney or Edwards. They left under normal plausible circumstances. Rocket on the other hand. :whofart:

I agree with X-Files, but I can't say the same about Seinfeld.

It's the constant turnover of faces that has made this show difficult to follow, IMO.

The last time I enjoyed the show fairly consistently was the 99-00 season. I lost interest during the next season and quit watching altogther, though I did catch "The Letter" and "On the Beach" in '02 because I wanted to see how Mark's storyline ended.