Clear! ‘ER’ gets a jolt of new life this season

IT’S only one thin and sinewy story thread out of hundreds stitched into the body of one of television’s longest-running and most successful prime-time dramas. In this Thursday’s “ER,” a stampeding holiday shopper doesn’t get the designer handbag she sought, but does leave with a soccer ball-sized ornamental star lodged in her right side.

Along with local anesthesia, the shopper receives a sniping lecture from a nurse at Chicago’s County General whose consumerism-run-wild rant serves as a veritable siren call to a Type A doctor. The gallows humor is an “ER” storyline staple, one which highlights one of the top-rated show’s most persistent undercurrents -- everyone, including on occasion a star, dies.

The show tied for the most Emmy nominations in television history may also hold the record for its highest body count. Nearly every week, at least one patient is killed off. The more mundane or freakishly random, the better. That’s life on “ER,” the founding principle of which was to offer up a documentarian’s view of a teaching hospital in a major urban area. Even the show’s doctors, who have been felled by brain cancer, roadside bombs and plummeting helicopters, are not immune from fatal calamity.

Everyone dies. That is, except the show itself. In its 13th season, “ER” has amazingly defied television’s cruel actuarial tables, which if anything in recent years have become even crueler. “ER” should have long since joined “Chicago Hope” and “City of Angels” in the medical show graveyard, but instead it’s acting like the teenager it is: vital, robust and fond of railing about the issues of the day. It’s a car crash with a social conscience -- some critics might say a bleeding heart -- but one in which a sizable audience isn’t ready to let go quietly into that good Thursday night.

“ER” is a reliable source of comfort food in a television and entertainment diet that is choking on hundreds of choices. And the show -- even given its bloody and chaotic make-believe environment -- might be a balm to the ever-changing bloody and chaotic real world.

“With the state of affairs within the country, I think we’re a place that feels safe for people,” said John Stamos, who became a show regular this season as a Gulf War paramedic who wants to become a doctor. “For a lot of people, it’s like coming back home.”

“We’ve been declared dead four or five times now,” said executive producer John Wells. “Initially, we really had to fight against this idea that audiences wouldn’t want grimy medicine. But I think ‘ER’ has shown they don’t want some sanitized version. They want the truth of it.”

For Wells, a revived “ER” continues to animate a prolific and stellar TV career that includes work on such shows as “China Beach” and “The West Wing.” As one of the program’s original executive producers and a frequent director, Wells can take special joy in its recent, perhaps mysterious, reentry into the American conversation these days. His highly touted, hugely expensive crime drama “Smith,” starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen, was canceled by CBS after just three episodes earlier this year.

The death watch

LAST season, it appeared that “ER” was once again nearing its literal end. And once again those rumors proved to be greatly exaggerated. Until just last month, NBC had planned to place the show on a three-month hiatus beginning in January to showcase a new drama called “The Black Donnellys” in the highly coveted Thursday at 10 p.m. time slot.

Certainly, NBC’s plans were not good news for a show that has amassed 22 Emmy Awards and 117 Emmy nominations, tying it with “Cheers” as the all-time leading nominee in any genre.

“We really felt like we were being put out to pasture,” said David Zabel, a former staff writer who became one of the show’s executive producers and now runs the show on a day-to-day basis.

To some, such a move was long overdue. Some critics were beginning to wonder if the medical drama was going to surpass the “Jaws” attraction at Universal Studio Tours for shark jumping. The Web’s “Television Without Pity” stopped recapping the show in May 2005, explaining: “Doug Ross left. Carol left. Mark Greene died. And now Carter’s gone.... It’s time to pronounce this one dead. Wait, is that a pulse? No. No, it’s not.”

But, thanks in part to riveting cliffhangers that closed last season and opened this one, the show’s pulse continued to beat as strong as that of an endurance athlete. This season the show usually ranks first in its time slot with original episodes, averaging around 13.9 million viewers (compared to 13.8 million last year).

That may not sound like much of a victory, but it is. Last year, the show’s lead-in was “The Apprentice” and despite losing it this season, it’s gained ground in a climate where merely holding it is considered a triumph. Indeed, on the strength of its strong performance, not only did NBC ditch the “ER” hiatus plan, but it also has ordered an extra Christmas episode.

Ask someone connected to “ER” what’s behind their winning their time slot again, they’ll rattle off a number of things. Consistently smart writing, skilled acting and an ongoing enthusiasm for the work. The show, despite a cast turnover that perhaps is only eclipsed by that of “Saturday Night Live,” has always been top-notch, and audiences are merely rediscovering it.

But what most observers believe is fueling the rejuvenation is that, to paraphrase the Nietzsche-inspired warrior cliche, that which doesn’t kill TV drama makes it stronger. When ABC announced last year it was moving its powerhouse “Grey’s Anatomy” to television’s most fiercely competitive night, more than a few blood pressures in the “ER” camp went skyrocketing.

“First, I’d been really shocked that we went as long as we did as the only successful medical show. Basically we had a 10-year period where we had the playing field to ourselves,” said Wells. “But when I heard ‘Grey’s’ was moving to Thursdays, I thought that would be the end for us. It’s a big hit show and who is going to want to watch two big medical shows on the same night?”

But “Grey’s Anatomy,” not to mention CBS’ 9 p.m. juggernaut “CSI,” only attracted more people inside Thursday’s television tent. With CBS’ decision to shift its hit “Without a Trace” from Thursdays to Sundays, that left “ER” to face down newcomer CBS’ “Shark” (whose star James Woods once guest starred as an ALS-afflicted science professor on “ER”) and, for a time, ABC’s “Six Degrees.”

So far, “ER” seems to be winning that battle. “Six Degrees” was bumped earlier this month from ABC’s schedule in favor of the Anne Heche comedy “Men in Trees,” which moves from Friday nights to Thursdays beginning Nov. 30. (ABC says “Six Degrees” will return in January.)

“ ‘Grey’s’ has been a great lead-in for ‘ER,’ ” joked Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC Entertainment. “What you’re seeing this year is the audience doesn’t like the new flavors being offered by our competitors. They’re finding the old flavor is pretty damn good.”

Of course, “ER” has always served up new flavors for viewers. None of the original major cast members remain from the first season. The show has thrived despite enduring the loss of more than a dozen main stars in its ensemble cast. The most life-threatening was when George Clooney, TV’s McDreamy of the ‘90s, left after the fifth season.

“People were extremely nervous when George was leaving. They thought this would be it for the show,” said Laura Innes, who began portraying Dr. Kerry Weaver in the second season, making her the show’s senior major cast member. “But when we survived that, everybody kind of said, ‘Oh, maybe this is a different kind of beast.’ ”

Turning to the next generation

THE revolving door of big-name exits forced the show to evolve or die, and that as much as anything may be responsible for its longevity.

The departure of the likes of Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Eriq La Salle and Noah Wyle ultimately enlivened the show’s storytelling palette, allowing for new plotlines involving Goran Visnjic, Maura Tierney, Mekhi Phifer, Linda Cardellini and Parminder Nagra.

A major story line that closed last season and opened this one revolved around Cardellini, who plays a tough-minded single mom and ER nurse. She and her son were abducted at gunpoint by her ex-husband, and she was later raped. Afterward, she could have escaped with her son while her ex slept. Instead she shot him dead.

“I couldn’t believe how unanimous [the support] was that I killed him. People were thrilled,” said Cardellini, who was 18 years old and just moving to Los Angeles to become an actress when “ER” originally began. “It makes me happy because it means people are following my character’s story and relating to her.”

In re-staffing its emergency room, the show’s producers have chosen to mirror the ethnic and racial diversity of medical staffs today. This decision was in stark contrast to the original Michael Crichton script, written for the movies in the early 1970s, where all the characters were white and male.

“It’s not just a social service to diversity,” said Zabel. “It’s a way to avoid getting stuck in the same old characters. If the show still had its original cast, I think it would have died on the vine years ago.”

The show’s latest, and some might say hottest, attraction is television veteran Stamos, who plays Tony Gates. The actor’s good looks aren’t going to go to waste.

“They brought me on to play these romantic arcs on the show,” said Stamos, who has been exploring Nagra’s anatomy. “I’m there to shake things up.”

With all the turnover, it’s easy to overlook the show’s one stalwart performer, and its heart and soul. “The key is to realize the show’s main character is the hospital,” said Innes, who parlayed what originally was supposed to be a six-episode run into a 12-year starring role and frequent turns in the director’s chair.

The show’s performers are, of course, delighted to be on radar screens again and drawing media attention. On the other hand, they reject the implication that the show’s ratings dipped because the show was somehow less interesting.

“We’ve all been laughing about it lately. Suddenly, people are saying, ‘Oh my God, “ER” is a great show,’ ” said Visnjic, who despite starring in his eighth season as Dr. Luka Kovac is often regarded as a newcomer. “But we’re like, we’ve been here all the time and the show has always been good.”

In 1994, “ER” took over the time slot once occupied by “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law,” and made the most of it. In its second season, it commanded an average audience of 32 million viewers.

Like other traditional media such as radio and newspapers, television has seen its audiences numbers eroded by a slew of tech-driven competitors such as cable, computers and iPods.

Last month, NBC Universal announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce and to scale back on its more expensive scripted shows in favor of cheaper reality-based programming in its 8 to 9 p.m. time slot. Industry observers predict the other networks will soon face similar belt-tightening decisions as well.

“It’s like the reverse of what’s happening in sports,” said Wells. “It’d be like to win the pole vault today, you only had to cross the bar a third of what it was 20 years ago. We’re all wondering where the bottom is or what the definition of the bottom is.”

But on the show’s Warner Bros. set, the prop master and special effects crew are more concerned with the impaled holiday shopper’s right side.

They dutifully refuel the blood and ooze between multiple takes, and touch up the actress’ prosthetic for the proper gory effect. Despite all the drama, the shopper is going to be all right, just like the show.

“Hey, at this level, as long as they want to produce them,” said Reilly, “we’ll keep making them.”

martin.miller@latimes.com