Daniel
Well-Known Member
This could probably go on one of the threads about being obsessed with something no one else knows about!
One of my enduring obsessions is my all-time favorite TV show, St. Elsewhere. Seems like only people older than forty remember this show (I'm 32), but it was an hour-long medical drama that ran Wednesday at 10 on NBC from 1982 to 1988, and it launched the careers of actors Denzel Washington, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, and David Morse.
It was set in a run-down teaching hospital in a bad Boston neighbourhood, and followed the resident doctors through their medical education. Ultimately, where most medical shows are about doctors saving patients' lives, this one was about a hospital where patients died. Even four of the doctors in the main cast didn't make it out alive, and never because the actor was leaving the show.
It was cast in the mold of Hill Street Blues, which revolutionized TV drama by featuring a large ensemble cast, soap-opera-style storylines that continued from week to week, and sophisticated writing that was as ambitious as a great novel. St. Elsewhere, originally pitched as Hill Street in a hospital, took the formula to the next level. Storylines would stretch over several seasons, characters developed and grew from the experiences they had on the show, and the writers assumed that viewers were smart and attentive, so they would fill the dialogue with intertextual references and postmodern touches that would be considered "meta" these days. This stuff is commonplace now, but in the mid-80s, it was way ahead of its time. It was also hilarious and heart-wrenching, and it earned seven Emmys for acting. At one point in the 90s, TV Guide even named it the greatest TV series of all time.
It was the kind of cult show that viewers get obsessed with, and the only show that I've been into as much as this one was Lost, and I've emotionally purged that one since it ended. But not St. Elsewhere.
St. Elsewhere also had, in my opinion, the second-greatest twist ending in TV history--the entire series turned out to take place in the imagination of an autistic child who projected the crazy antics at St. Eligius hospital onto the miniature building in a snow globe he stared into day after day, casting his father and grandfather as the hospital's administrators. Throughout the series, he had appeared as Tommy Westphall, the autistic son of Director of Medicine Dr. Donald Westphall, and he was television's first regular character with autism. (Btw, greatest series ending ever: Newhart.)
For those who love spotting details and have an encyclopedic memory of boomer-era pop culture, St. Elsewhere is incredibly addictive and fun. It's pretty obscure now, as it fizzled out quickly in syndication, and is being held prisoner on DVD by Fox Home Entertainment (only season 1 is available, and it's by far the weakest, not really hinting at the delights to come). You can watch it online in the UK, but not in North America. I even started a website to expound on the show called The St. Elsewhere Experience.
Anyway, that's one of my big obsessions, and I'm glad to have an outlet for it!
One of my enduring obsessions is my all-time favorite TV show, St. Elsewhere. Seems like only people older than forty remember this show (I'm 32), but it was an hour-long medical drama that ran Wednesday at 10 on NBC from 1982 to 1988, and it launched the careers of actors Denzel Washington, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, and David Morse.
It was set in a run-down teaching hospital in a bad Boston neighbourhood, and followed the resident doctors through their medical education. Ultimately, where most medical shows are about doctors saving patients' lives, this one was about a hospital where patients died. Even four of the doctors in the main cast didn't make it out alive, and never because the actor was leaving the show.
It was cast in the mold of Hill Street Blues, which revolutionized TV drama by featuring a large ensemble cast, soap-opera-style storylines that continued from week to week, and sophisticated writing that was as ambitious as a great novel. St. Elsewhere, originally pitched as Hill Street in a hospital, took the formula to the next level. Storylines would stretch over several seasons, characters developed and grew from the experiences they had on the show, and the writers assumed that viewers were smart and attentive, so they would fill the dialogue with intertextual references and postmodern touches that would be considered "meta" these days. This stuff is commonplace now, but in the mid-80s, it was way ahead of its time. It was also hilarious and heart-wrenching, and it earned seven Emmys for acting. At one point in the 90s, TV Guide even named it the greatest TV series of all time.
It was the kind of cult show that viewers get obsessed with, and the only show that I've been into as much as this one was Lost, and I've emotionally purged that one since it ended. But not St. Elsewhere.
St. Elsewhere also had, in my opinion, the second-greatest twist ending in TV history--the entire series turned out to take place in the imagination of an autistic child who projected the crazy antics at St. Eligius hospital onto the miniature building in a snow globe he stared into day after day, casting his father and grandfather as the hospital's administrators. Throughout the series, he had appeared as Tommy Westphall, the autistic son of Director of Medicine Dr. Donald Westphall, and he was television's first regular character with autism. (Btw, greatest series ending ever: Newhart.)
For those who love spotting details and have an encyclopedic memory of boomer-era pop culture, St. Elsewhere is incredibly addictive and fun. It's pretty obscure now, as it fizzled out quickly in syndication, and is being held prisoner on DVD by Fox Home Entertainment (only season 1 is available, and it's by far the weakest, not really hinting at the delights to come). You can watch it online in the UK, but not in North America. I even started a website to expound on the show called The St. Elsewhere Experience.
Anyway, that's one of my big obsessions, and I'm glad to have an outlet for it!
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