Chicago Hope was an American medical drama television series created by David E. Kelley,[1] that aired for six seasons on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000, with a total of 141 episodes.

[2] The show starred Mandy Patinkin as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, a hot-shot surgeon with emotional issues stemming from the psychiatric condition of his wife (played by Kim Greist), who drowned their infant son.

Thomas Gibson played Dr. Daniel Nyland, a promiscuous ER doctor and trauma surgeon who was later suspended due to his having an affair with a patient's family member and later was injured in a car crash.

Peter MacNicol, Alan Rosenberg, and Héctor Elizondo feature as the hospital's in-house attorneys and chief of staff, respectively.

Christine Lahti joined in the second season as Dr. Kate Austin, a talented heart surgeon with a chip on her shoulder, vying with Geiger for the chief of surgery position.

The doctors viewed that Wilmette didn't know how to run a hospital and cut too many costs that involved patient care.

In Season 2, Geiger resigns from Chicago Hope after trying to save Alan Birch from a deadly gunshot wound to his heart.

Likewise, Mandy Patinkin and Héctor Elizondo brought their Chicago Hope characters to Picket Fences that year.

The series broke a network television taboo by showing a teenager's breast after her character underwent reconstructive surgery.

[7][8][9][10][11][12] The pilot episode of Chicago Hope aired the day before NBC's ER in a special Sunday, 8 p.m. time slot.

Despite receiving critical acclaim, Chicago Hope was shifted to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and ultimately to Monday nights in 1995 in a bid for higher ratings, while ER remained in its time slot.

The show was moved to Wednesdays at 10 p.m. in 1997 to make room for the Steven Bochco drama, Brooklyn South, on Mondays.

In 1999, both Kelley and Patinkin returned, with a revamped cast now including Barbara Hershey and Lauren Holly, but excluding Lahti, Peter Berg, Jayne Brook, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Stacy Edwards.

In 2008, former co-stars Rocky Carroll (Dr. Keith Wilkes); Mark Harmon (Dr. Jack McNeil) and Lauren Holly (Dr. Jeremy Hanlon) worked together on the series NCIS.