Click photo to enlarge
Anthony Edwards' character Dr Mark Greene returns to County
General in the final season of ER. Photo supplied.
Anthony Edwards never expected he would pop up on
ER again.
"It's not like Grey's Anatomy, where you can do some
surreal thing and viewers just accept it," said Edwards,
whose character succumbed to a brain tumour after Season 8.
"I was dead."
The resurrection of physician Mark Greene takes place in
flashback scenes that shed light on why ER chief Cate
Banfield (Angela Bassett) returned to County General.
After 15 years, ER is closing shop, so story lines are
wrapping up and original cast members such as Edwards, Noah
Wyle and George Clooney will help send off the show in style.
Returning to the set brought back vivid memories of those
first days on ER, Edwards said.
He came in with a box office resume (Revenge of the Nerds,
Top Gun) but little TV experience.
Clooney liked to joke that he'd been in so many failed TV
projects that this was his second stab on a show titled
ER and set in Chicago.
But they all sensed that what they were doing could be
ground-breaking.
"NBC felt we were doing something different, too, because
they often said we were way too different for their comfort,"
executive producer John Wells said.
"But breakout hits only happen when you surprise the
audience, and I think we did that."
Edwards said the series constantly challenged the actors, and
he's proud of his work there, including an experiment in
which the show aired live twice - once for the East Coast of
the United States and once for the West Coast.
"I can point to a lot of those big episodes, like the live
one, with pride," Edwards said.
"But what I'm most proud of is the consistent quality of the
show."
When ER premiered in 1994, the series faced a
challenge from another new hospital series set in the same
city - Chicago Hope, which boasted a well-known cast
and a well-known producer in David E. Kelley.
But ER drew more viewers, quickly becoming part of
NBC's Thursday night juggernaut with established hit
Seinfeld and another freshman series, Friends.
In its first seven seasons, ER was television's most
watched drama.
"From the start, the series reflected the reality of the
emergency room with a visual, writing and acting style that
pays respect to that," Edwards said.
"You felt like you were watching a real world, with people
coming and going, and the audience rewarded that with
longevity."
