ER is an American medical drama television series created by Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994, to April 2, 2009, with a total of 331 episodes spanning 15 seasons.

ER follows the inner life of the emergency room (ER) of Cook County General Hospital, a fictionalized version of the real Cook County Hospital, in Chicago, and the various critical professional, ethical, and personal issues faced by the department's physicians, nurses, and staff.

The show is the second longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history behind Grey's Anatomy.

In 1990, he published the novel Jurassic Park, and in 1993 began a collaboration with director Steven Spielberg on the film adaptation of the book.

The running time was shortened by about 20 minutes in order for the pilot to air in a two-hour block on network TV.

[citation needed] Because of a lack of time and money necessary to build a set, the pilot episode of ER was filmed in the former Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles, an old facility that had ceased operating in 1990.

[7][8] A set modeled after Los Angeles County General Hospital's emergency room was built soon afterward at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, although the show makes extensive use of location shoots in Chicago, most notably the city's famous "L" train platforms.

[9] Littlefield was impressed by the series: "We were intrigued, but we were admittedly a bit spooked in attempting to go back into that territory a few years after St.

She took over as showrunner for the fifth season while Wells focused on the development of other series, including Trinity, Third Watch, and The West Wing.

[12] Lydia Woodward left her executive producer position at the end of the sixth season but continued to write episodes throughout the series run.

Joe Sachs, who was a writer and producer of the series, believed keeping a commitment to medical accuracy was extremely important: "We'd bend the rules but never break them.

Orman was recruited as a writer-producer for the series in its fourth season after a successful stint working on CBS's JAG.

He became an executive producer in the fourth season but occasionally scaled back his involvement in later years to focus on other projects.

Other executive producers include writers Carol Flint, Neal Baer, R. Scott Gemmill, Joe Sachs, Dee Johnson, Lisa Zwerling, and Janine Sherman Barrois.

Several of these writers and producers had background in healthcare: Joe Sachs was an emergency physician, while Lisa Zwerling and Neal Baer were both pediatricians.

[17] The fifteenth season was originally scheduled to run for 19 episodes before retiring with a two-hour series finale to be broadcast on March 12, 2009,[18][19] but NBC announced in January 2009 that it would extend the show by an additional three episodes to a full 22-episode order as part of a deal to launch a new series by John Wells titled Police, later retitled Southland.

[22][24] The original starring cast consisted of Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene, George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross, Sherry Stringfield as Dr. Susan Lewis, Noah Wyle as medical student John Carter, and Eriq La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton.

Gloria Reuben and Laura Innes would join the series as Physician Assistant Jeanie Boulet and Dr. Kerry Weaver, respectively, by the second season.

Stringfield was the first to exit the series, reportedly upsetting producers who believed she wanted to negotiate for more money, but the actress did not particularly care for "fame."

[10] Season eight saw the departure of La Salle and Edwards when Benton left County General and Greene died from a brain tumor.

[27] Maria Bello as Dr. Anna Del Amico, Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday, Paul McCrane as Dr. Robert Romano, Kellie Martin as medical student Lucy Knight, Goran Višnjić as Dr. Luka Kovač, Michael Michele as Dr. Cleo Finch, Erik Palladino as Dr. Dave Malucci, Maura Tierney as Nurse Abby Lockhart, Sharif Atkins as medical student Michael Gallant and Mekhi Phifer as Dr. Greg Pratt all joined the cast as the seasons went on.

[25] In the much later seasons, the show would see the additions of Parminder Nagra as medical student Neela Rasgotra, Scott Grimes as Dr. Archie Morris, Linda Cardellini as Nurse Sam Taggart, Shane West as Dr. Ray Barnett, John Stamos as Paramedic Tony Gates, David Lyons as Dr. Simon Brenner, and Angela Bassett as Dr. Cate Banfield.

We had a bigger audience than a nightly newscast will ever see, making 25 to 30 million people aware of what was going on in Africa," ER producer John Wells said.

The series also focused on sociopolitical issues such as HIV and AIDS, organ transplants, mental illness, racism, human trafficking, euthanasia, poverty and gay rights.

"[65] The Daily Telegraph wrote in 1996: "Not being able to follow what on earth is going on remains one of the peculiar charms of the breakneck American hospital drama, ER.

29 in their list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" and said the best episode was "Hell and High Water" where "Doug Ross (George Clooney) saves a young boy from drowning during a flood.

[78] The DVD box sets of ER are unusual in the fact that they are all in anamorphic widescreen even though the first six seasons of the show were broadcast in a standard 4:3 format.

[81] In March 2012, Warner Bros. International Television announced that they would sell the format rights to ER to overseas territories.

[citation needed] In February 2015, Warner Bros. International Television and Medyapım announced a Turkish version of ER.

However, development of that series stalled due to issues with the estate of creator Michael Crichton, and in early 2024, Wyle was announced as starring in a new medical drama from Warner Bros. and original ER showrunner John Wells, The Pitt.