Before ‘ER,’ George Clooney Was on ‘E/R’ — Here’s Who Else Worked on Both Shows
This week 40 years ago, the TV show E/R, which was set in a Chicago emergency room and eventually starred George Clooney, debuted on CBS. This week 30 years ago, the TV show ER, which was set in a Chicago emergency room and initially starred George Clooney, debuted on NBC.
E/R, premiering on September 16, 1984, was a sitcom that only lasted one season, perhaps because it was an “awkward mixture of gag comedy and serious illness” at the fictional Clark Street Hospital, in the words of TV historians Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh. (Scrubs would eventually crack the medical-comedy code.)
ER, premiering on September 19, 1994, was a drama that lasted 15 seasons, a critical hit about critical care at the fictional County General Hospital. Clooney was the only actor to star in E/R and ER, though an IMDb search reveals that 26 other actors — and at least one crew member — worked on both in some capacity. Here they all are.
George Clooney
Clooney, then in his early 20s, played an inexperienced physician named Ace at the end of E/R’s first and only season. “I came in late, they wrote Ace for me,” the actor told WVXU. “I learned from everyone involved.”
But he became a household name — and racked up two Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe noms — playing Dr. Doug Ross in ER’s first five seasons.
Mary McDonnell
McDonnell, known for Dances With Wolves and Battlestar Galactica, starred in E/R, playing no-nonsense hospital boss Eve Sheridan. Years later, she earned a guest-actress Emmy nomination for her five-episode stint on ER as Eleanor Carter, the emotionally distant mother of Noah Wyle’s John Carter.
Conchata Ferrell
Ferrell, renowned for her Emmy-nominated run on Two and a Half Men, was another E/R star: The late actor played head nurse Joan Thor on the show. (“She was a really good nurse, and she had a husband who was crazy about her,” Ferrell told AV Club in 2014. “That was really interesting, because he would write country songs for her. She was fun.”)
In 2001, she guest-starred in the ER Season 8 episode “Four Corners,” playing Mrs. Jenkins.
Sam Anderson
Anderson, who had a fan-favorite supporting role on Lost, played Mr. Dobbs in the E/R episode “All’s Well That Ends.” He later played Dr. Jack Kayson, a hospital board member and the chief of cardio, across 20 episodes of ER.
Frances Bay
Bay, who played memorable grandmothers in Happy Days and Happy Gilmore, took the role of Mrs. Gordon in the E/R episode “A Cold Night in Chicago.” And in the ER Season 7 episode “Witch Hunt,” she played Georgia, an elderly fortune teller who predicts her own death.
K Callan
Callan, who starred as Superman’s mom on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, also appeared in E/R’s “A Cold Night in Chicago,” playing Gail Parker. Much later, she played Kelly Robinson, an elderly victim of assault, in the ER Season 14 episode “Owner of a Broken Heart.”
Richard Kline
Kline, who had a longtime supporting role in Three’s Company, guest-starred as Mr. Halbrook in the E/R installment “All Tied Up” and as risk assessment expert Arnie Nadler in ER Season 10’s “Impulse Control.”
Candice Azzara
Azzara, who recurred on Who’s the Boss? and Caroline in the City, was going by the first name Candy when she played Laura in the E/R episode “Both Sides Now.” More than a decade later, as Candice, she guest-starred as Mrs. Roth in the ER Season 7 episode “Rescue Me.”
…and 20 others
Also joining the full-timers of both shows (some of whom are pictured above) were actors Tom Towles, Dennis Burkley, Allan Miller, Viveka Davis, Luis Avalos, Judy Kain, Jeff Doucette, David Byrd, Steven Anderson, Ian Patrick Williams, Susan Krebs, Lois Foraker, Drew Snyder, James Lashly, George McDaniel, James Gallery, Erica Yohn, Naomi Serotoff, and Viola Kates Stimpson, plus hair stylist JoAnn Stafford-Chaney.
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