St. Elsewhere

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

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About

From the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television originally published 1997

St. Elsewhere was one of the most-acclaimed of the upscale serial dramas to appear in the 1980s. Along with shows like Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and thirtysomething, St. Elsewhere was a result of the demographically-conscious programming strategies that had gripped the networks during the years when cable TV was experiencing spectacular growth. Often earning comparatively low ratings, these shows were kept on the air because they delivered highly desirable audiences consisting of young, affluent viewers whom advertisers were anxious to reach. In spite of its never earning a seasonal ranking above 49th place (out of about 100 shows), St. Elsewhere aired for six full seasons on NBC from 1982-88. The series was nominated for 63 Emmy Awards and won 13.

Set in a decaying urban institution, St. Elsewhere was often and aptly compared to Hill Street Blues, which had debuted a season and a half earlier. Both shows were made by the independent production company MTM Enterprises, and both presented a large ensemble cast, a "realistic" visual style, a profusion of interlocking stories, and an aggressive tendency to break traditional generic rules. While earlier medical dramas like Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, and Marcus Welby, M.D. featured godlike doctors healing grateful patients, the staff of Boston's St. Eligius Hospital exhibited a variety of personal problems and their patients often failed to recover.

St. Elsewhere's content could be both controversial and surprising. In 1983, for instance, it became the first prime-time series episode to feature an AIDS patient. Six years before NYPD Blue began introducing nudity to network television, St. Elsewhere had shown the naked backside of a doctor (Ed Flanders) who'd dropped his trousers in front of his supervisor (Ronny Cox) before leaving the hospital and the show. It was also not uncommon for principal characters to die unexpectedly, which happened on no fewer than five occasions during the run of the series.

As a medical drama, St. Elsewhere dealt with serious issues of life and death, but every episode also included a substantial amount of comedy. The show was especially noted for its abundance of "in jokes" that made reference to the show's own ancestry. In one episode, for example, an amnesia patient comes to believe that he is Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MTM Enterprises' first production. Throughout the episode the patient makes oblique references to MTM's entire program history. Later, in the series' final episode, a scene from the last installment of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is restaged, and the cat that had appeared on the production logo at the end of every MTM show for eighteen years, dies as the final credits roll.

St. Elsewhere proved to be a fertile training ground for many of its participants. At the start of the 1992-93 season, creators John Falsey and Joshua Brand had a critically-acclaimed series on each of the three major networks: Northern Exposure (CBS), I'll Fly Away (NBC), and Going to Extremes (ABC). Writer-producer Tom Fontana became the executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street with Baltimore-based film director Barry Levinson. Other St. Elsewhere producers and writers went on to work on such respected series as Moonlighting, China Beach, L.A. Law, Civil Wars, NYPD Blue, ER, and Chicago Hope. Actor Denzel Washington, virtually unknown when he began his role as Dr. Philip Chandler, had become a major star of feature films by the time St. Elsewhere ended its run.

St. Elsewhere also exerted a significant creative influence on ER, the hit medical series that debuted on NBC in 1994. While the pacing of ER is much faster, both the spirit of the show and many of its story ideas have been borrowed from St. Elsewhere.

-Robert J. Thompson

CAST

Dr. Donald Westphall.................................. Ed Flanders

Dr. Mark Craig....................................... William Daniels

Dr. Ben Samuels (1982-l983)....................... David Birney

Dr. Victor Ehrlich..................................... Ed Begley, Jr.

Dr. Jack Morrison .......................................David Morse

Dr. Annie Cavanero (1982-1985) ................Cynthia Sikes

Dr. Wayne Fiscus ....................................Howie Mandel

Dr. Cathy Martin (1982-1986) ...............Barbara Whinnery

Dr. Peter White (1982-1985) ......................Terence Knox

Dr. Hugh Beale (1982-1983)......................... G.W. Bailey

Nurse Helen Rosenthal .........................Christina Pickles

Dr. Phillip Chandler ..........................Denzel Washington

Dr. V. J. Kochar (1982-1984) ............................Kavi Raz

D. Wendy Armstrong (1982-1984).................. Kim Miyori

Dr. Daniel Auschlander .............................Norman Lloyd

Nurse Shirley Daniels (1982-1985) ....................Ellen Bry

Orderly Luther Hawkins............................ Eric Laneuville

Joan Halloran (1983-1984)....................... Nancy Stafford

Dr. Robert Caldwell (1983-1986) .................Mark Harmon

Dr. Michael Ridley (1983-1984)....................... Paul Sand

Mrs. Ellen Craig...................................... Bonnie Bartlett

Dr. Elliot Axelrod (1983-1998) ....................Stephen Furst

Nurse Lucy Papandrao.......................... Jennifer Savidge

Dr. Jaqueline Wade (1983-1988) .................Sagan Lewis

Orderly Warren Coolidge (1984-1988)..........Byron Stewart

Dr. Emily Humes (1984-1985)................... Judith Hansen

Dr. Alan Poe (1984-1985)............................. Brian Tochi

Nurse Peggy Shotwell (1984-1986)........... Saundra Sharp

Mrs. Hufnagel (1984-1985) ......................Florence Halop

Dr. Roxanne Turner (1985-1987)................ Alfre Woodard

Ken Valere (1985-1986)............................ George Deloy

Terri Valere (1985-1986)............................ Deborah May

Dr. Seth Griffin (1986-1988) .................Bruce Greenwood

Dr. Paulette Kiem (l986-1988)................... France Nuye

Dr. Carol Novino (1986-1988) .....................Cindy Pickett

Dr. John Gideon (1987-1988)......................... Ronny Cox

PRODUCERS

Bruce Paltrow, Mark Tinker, John Masius, John Falsey, Joshua Brand

PROGRAMMING HISTORY

NBC

October 1982-August 1983 Tuesday 10:00-11:00
August 1983-May 1988 Wednesday 10:00-11:00
July 1988-August 1988 Wednesday 10:00-11:00

FURTHER READING

Barker, David. "St. Elsewhere: The Power of History." Wide Angle (Athens, Ohio), 1989.

Feuer, Jane, Paul Kerr, and Tise Vahimagi, editors. MTM-"Quality Television." London: The British Film Institute, 1984.

Paisner, Daniel. Horizontal Hold: The Making and Breaking of A Network Television Pilot. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1992.

Tartikoff, Brandon, and Charles Leerhsen. The Last Great Ride. New York: Random House, 1992.

Schatz, Thomas. "St. Elsewhere and the Evolution of the Ensemble Series." In, Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976; 4th edition 1987.

Thompson, Robert J. Good TV: The St. Elsewhere Story. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996.

Tinker, Grant, and Bud Rukeyser. Tinker in Television: From General Sarnoff to General Electric. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Turow, Joseph. Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Highlights

Joshua Brand on doing research for St. Elsewhere, on the pilot for the show, and on working with Bruce Paltrow