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ER - Season 15
The fifteenth and final season of the medical drama series ER which originally aired from NBC on September 25, 2008 and concluded on April 2, 2009. The season consists of 22 episodes. The cover memorializes many of the past and present physicians and nurses who have dedicated their lives to serving the overburdened ER at County General Hospital.
ER - Season 15
The final season opens up revealing Gregory Pratt is the victim of the ambulance explosion. Despite the rallying efforts of his workplace colleagues, he succumbs to his injuries and dies. The season introduces Cate Banfield as new ER chief, a woman with a seemingly mysterious past with County General. Luka Kovač and Abby Lockhart leave for a new life in Boston, Brenner must deal with issues surrounding his childhood, and he comes to a crossroads in his relationship with Neela, Samantha Taggart and Tony Gates' relationship suffers a major setback after an accident involving Alex Taggart while Neela Rasgotra is forced to make some tough decisions, both personal and professional.
The fifteenth and final season of the American fictional drama television series ER premiered on September 25, 2008, and concluded on April 2, 2009, in a two-hour episode preceded by a one-hour retrospective special. It consists of 22 episodes.
When ER signed off for good a decade ago with a two-hour episode that forced fans of the NBC hit to say goodbye to the fictional County General hospital for the last time, it did so as the reigning longest-running primetime medical drama in American TV history, sitting pretty at 331 groundbreaking episodes. (The show has, of course, since been supplanted, with Grey's Anatomy recently laying claim to that particular honorific with no signs of letting up and no real challenger coming up behind it.) And it did so with an ending that had, in some form or another, been in the works since as far back as the show's sixth season.
As Wells told reporters in the months leading up to the finale, he figured that the show wouldn't make it past season eight. "So I started doing some planning, and I still have those notes," he said. "They've gotten a little old and smudged, but one of the reasons Noah Wyle is coming back at the very end is we had always planned that the end of the series would involve Noah returning because he was so central as a character at the very beginning."
ER's final season almost ended a few episodes earlier, with NBC extending the show by three episodes when a production delay on its replacement, Southland (also from Wells), left a gap in the network's schedule. It was a good thing, too. "I probably had about 200 more pages to do to wrap up all the things we had coming. ... They clearly couldn't all get done in that episode," Wells told reporters. "When we actually started to get towards the end, there's this tremendous feeling of, oh, there's this one and there's that one that we haven't done, so it's actually very exciting."
Before he was Ornette Howard in the fourth season of NBC's beloved football drama, Cress Williams appeared in 18 episodes of ER as Officer Reggie Moore. And before he was Coach, Kyle Chandler played bomb squad leader Dylan Young in Grey's' season two post-Super Bowl episode. Only one of them literally blew up though.
Who doesn't love a Tony-nominated star of stage? In 1999, Martha Plimpton began a four-episode stint on the NBC drama as pregnant out-of-work waitress Meg whom Julianna Marguiles' Nurse Carol Hathaway tries to help get on her feet. Meanwhile, the legendary Bernadette Peters arrived on Grey's in 2008 for a two-part season five episode.
Before either would go on to have their lives ruined by Walter White as his wife Skyler and former student-turned-fellow meth cook Jesse Pinkman on the iconic AMC drama, Anna Gunn and Aaron Paul would pop up on NBC's medical drama in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Meanwhile, before Jesse Plemmons sent chills down our spines as he charming psychopath Todd Alquist in Breaking Bad's final season, he appeared in a 2006 episode of the ABC soap.
Another of the few actors to appear on both shows, Josh Radnor played the gay lover of a Chicago alderman who contracted syphilis in ER's ninth season. Meanwhile, he popped up on Grey's in 2018 as one of Meredith's ill-fated season 15 dates.
While we all know that Jessica Capshaw starred as the beloved Dr. Arizona Robbins for 10 seasons on Grey's Anatomy, she also holds the distinction of being the only series regular on either show to have guest starred on the other. The actress appeared in one 1999 episode of ER as Sally McKenna.
When ER needed someone to come in to play Maggie Wyczenski, the bipolar mother of Maura Tierney's Abby Lockhart, they turned to Oscar-winning legend Sally Field, who played the character in 12 episodes from 2000-2006. Similarly, when Grey's Anatomy needed someone to guest star in season 12 as the angry wife of a patient who shows up at the hospital wondering if her husband is dead yet, they looked no further than EGOT icon Rita Moreno. Sadly, Moreno's Gayle only appeared in the one incredible episode.
Two Roswells means two Lizs, and oddly enough, each of them have appeared on one of these shows. Shiri Appleby, the OG Liz who starred on the WB/UPN series from 1999-2002, actually appeared on ER twice in her career. Her first appearance, as a teen with ectopic pregnancy, took place in the 1994 series premiere, while her second, as intern Daria Wade, took place over the course of nine episodes in the show's final season. Meanwhile, Jeanine Mason, Liz in the CW's reboot Roswell, New Mexico, recurred as Dr. Sam Bello for 12 episodes of Grey's from 2017-18.
After 15 seasons, the ER is finally closing its doors. And though most of the doctors that ran the place over the years are gone, either through gruesome deaths or life-changing scenarios, the place has mostly remained the same. Sick people are fixed or die, relationships are forged and sometimes squandered, and the tension rarely lets up. Welcome to County General! Just watch out for falling helicopters.
Season Premiere: The 15th and final season of ER begins with the devastating repercussions of the ambulance explosion. As Morris and Neela do everything they can to save a wounded colleague, Abby treats a young girl injured during the blast.
Dr. Greene, who died of a brain tumor at the end of the 2002 season, appears in flashback scenes with former County General Drs. Kerry Weaver and Robert Romano (portrayed by Laura Innes and Paul McCrane, respectively).
Long-running medical drama ER, with its 15 seasons and 331 episodes, certainly covered a good deal of storytelling ground. The revolving staff of doctors, nurses, and staff at Chicago's County General fought to do their best for their patients while navigating joy, heartbreak, and any number of very real experiences that kept the series grounded, particularly in its earlier seasons.
ER really had a thing for the dramatic season finales, and the Season 11 closer was no exception. The episode was bookended with jaw-dropping moments, kicking things off with the type of large-scale property damage that would be remarkable in any other city in the world, but is par for the course in ER's Chicago. Ray and fellow doctor Archie Morris (Scott Grimes) attend a party that comes to an abrupt end when the balcony they're on collapses, turning the ER docs into ER patients.
The emotional crux of the episode, however, and the moment that feels shocking purely because it happened at all, is when ER mainstay Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) finishes his last shift at the hospital and walks out quietly into the night. This wasn't the first time Carter had left the hospital, previously taking several long stints at clinics in Africa, but knowing he would no longer be around after serving as the audience POV for 11 seasons left us staring at our TVs in disbelief.
With four long seasons between their breakup and their reunion, things weren't looking good for those of us invested in Luka and Abby's relationship, particularly when those four seasons weren't exactly filled with pining or longing looks from across the admit desk. It, therefore, came as a huge shock when, as Abby was distressed about losing a very young patient to something they should have prevented, Luka consoles her with a sudden, long, passionate kiss.
For 8 seasons, Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) was the moral center of County General. No matter who came through their doors, he expected that his ER doctors and nurses would give everyone the same standard of care, no matter what their personal feelings might be. That changes when Derek Fossen (Ted Marcoux) is brought in for treatment after going on a shooting rampage, killing nine people.
Stringfield portrayed Dr. Susan Lewis, one of the original characters, leaving after season 3 in 1996. She later returned in 2001 for season 8, but exited for good in 2005 after season 12. The actress starred in The Stepfather, Night and Day, Criminal Behavior, The Confession and Runaway. On the small screen, the Colorado native appeared on Under the Dome and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. The NYPD Blue alum was married to Larry E. Joseph from 1998 to 2006. They share two children: Phoebe and Milo. 041b061a72