Ambush (ER)

Inspiration for the episode came from production staffers having worked in documentaries, with Anthony Edwards and George Clooney suggesting to do it live.

During filming, chief of surgery and head of the ER David Morgenstern (William H. Macy) suffers a heart attack and gets hospitalized.

Newly hired British surgeon Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) joins the hospital, while John Carter (Noah Wyle) learns he has to repeat his internship after switching from surgical to emergency medicine.

The production crew hits a raw nerve with Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), and he refuses to being interviewed after inquiring on his assault from last season.

[4] Rehearsals for the episode began a week before, with executive producer John Wells having been quoted that the process was "more exciting than daunting".

[9] Caryn James of The New York Times was critical of the writing, calling the script "hackneyed", and overall summarized the episode as "terminally dull".

[11] Howard Rosenberg for the Los Angeles Times was critical of the episode and its live format, calling it a cynical gimmick to attract viewers and "hardly the dramatic breakthrough and courageous theater that you would have thought from the gaseous hot air advertising it.

"[12] Carol Flint and Thomas Schlamme would later write a rebuttal piece to Rosenberg's review, published in the October 6, 1997 issue of the LA Times.