This is How Movies Should Be Made

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The long-lost, long-forgotten E/R was based on a well known Chicago play produced by the Organic Theater Company. It was a delightfully cynical comedy as a play. As a TV series, it was probably a bit out of place. But at least it got a chance to air. And it gave a lot of people their first major TV screen time, such as the winsome Corinee Bohrer. The show came along at a time when TV execs were having a rare resurgence of creativity and okay'ing unusual shows like this one, Hot L Baltimore, and United States. Too bad such times (and such shows) don't last.George Clooney in E/R and ER? What a hoot!

Elliot Gould, of course, created the role of Trapper John, in the film, M*A*S*H. Wayne Rogers played a slightly different Trapper John on the television series, M*A*S*H. Why neither actor was offered the title role on TRAPPER JOHN MD will forever remain one of the great mysteries of semi-contemporary television. Supposedly, it was because the latter series took place thirty years after M*A*S*H, but then, Pernell Roberts, who played a completely different, mature and tranquil TRAPPER JOHN MD wasn't that much older than Wayne or Elliot.In any case, as soon as TRAPPER JOHN MD became a hit, the television series HOUSE CALLS debuted. This, of course, featured Wayne Rogers as a doctor character who was exactly like his interpretation of Trapper John. Then came this series, E/R, in which Elliot Gould played a doctor character who was exactly like his interpretation of Trapper John. Like I said, too many Trappers!

I was pretty young when I saw this show. I think it was one of the first shows on the Lifetime channel. I loved Elliot Gould and Mary McDonnell. It was the first time that I had seen George Clooney, if this was before he was on The Facts Of Life. This show was mostly a comedy, w/some dramatic parts, as ER is mostly drama w/ some comedic parts. It's too bad this show isn't shown in reruns anymore. I'd almost forgotten how funny it was.

I don't really remember the plots of the episodes, but I remember the continuing characters and I miss them. There was the beautiful little Filipina clerk who would suddenly snap at anyone who approached closer than the warning line that was painted on the floor, and I miss the adorable pediatric nurse who had a crush on the handsome doctor, and I miss the insouciantly fat lady, who was all about breaking the stereotype years before the fat lady lawyer did it on "The Practice," and I miss the Lou Rawls theme song. It was almost a parody of the way any theme song seems to be required to turn the title into a love metaphor: "I've got a real emergency here," he sang, but of course in the song the emergency is how smitten he is.