| St. Elsewhere | |
|---|---|
Main title card |
|
| Format | Medical drama |
| Created by | Joshua Brand John Falsey |
| Developed by | Mark Tinker John Masius |
| Starring | Ed Flanders William Daniels David Birney Ed Begley, Jr. Denzel Washington Bonnie Bartlett Christina Pickles Mark Harmon David Morse Cynthia Sikes Howie Mandel Norman Lloyd Kim Miyori |
| Theme music composer | Dave Grusin |
| Composer(s) | Dave Grusin J.A.C. Redford |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 137 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | CBS/MTM Studios, Studio City, California |
| Running time | 45–48 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural (Seasons 1-5) Stereo (Season 6) |
| Original run | October 26, 1982 – May 25, 1988 |
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood. The show starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels all as teaching doctors, who gave interns a promising future in making critical decisions.
The hospital's nickname, "St. Elsewhere", is a slang term used in the medical industry to refer to lesser-equipped hospitals that serve patients not wanted by more prestigious institutions, and (to the further detriment of St. Eligius' reputation) also used in medical academia to refer to non-teaching hospitals in general. In the pilot episode, Dr. Mark Craig informs his colleagues that the local Boston media have bestowed the derogatory nickname upon St. Eligius since they perceive the hospital as "a dumping ground, a place you wouldn't want to send your mother-in-law." In fact, the hospital is so poorly thought of that its shrine to St. Eligius is commonly defiled by hospital staff and visitors, and is referred to by Dr. Wayne Fiscus as "the patron saint of longshoremen and bowlers." As a medical drama, St. Elsewhere dealt with serious issues of life and death, though episodes also included a substantial amount of black comedy.
Although the series never ranked higher than 49th place in the yearly Nielsen ratings, it maintained a large enough audience to last six seasons and 137 episodes, and the show's famously provocative ending is frequently mentioned in discussions about television series finales. It was produced by MTM Enterprises, which found success with Hill Street Blues around the same time. The shows were often compared to each other for their ensemble casts and serial storylines. The original ad for the series quoted a critic that called the series "Hill Street Blues in a Hospital."
The series was filmed at CBS/MTM Studios, which was known as CBS/Fox Studios when the show began. Coincidentally, 20th Century Fox wound up acquiring the rights to the series years later.
In 1997, the acclaimed two-part episode "Time Heals" was ranked #44 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[1] In 2002, St. Elsewhere was ranked #20 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[2]
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The series had a large ensemble cast, a "realistic" visual style, and a profusion of interlocking stories, and could be regarded as something of a "serial" for its ongoing storylines that continued over the course of many episodes, and sometimes multiple seasons. Its influence can be seen in Northern Exposure, another Brand-Falsey series, as well as in other medical dramas, such as ER and Chicago Hope. The series was well regarded by critics and received 13 Emmys during its six-season run.
The producers for the series were Bruce Paltrow, Mark Tinker, John Masius, Tom Fontana, John Falsey and Abby Singer. Tinker, Masius, Fontana, and Paltrow wrote a number of episodes as well; other writers included John Tinker, John Ford Noonan, Charles H. Eglee, Eric Overmyer, Channing Gibson, and Aram Saroyan.
In addition to established actors Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels, St. Elsewhere is also noted for a strong ensemble cast that included David Morse, Alfre Woodard, Bruce Greenwood, Helen Hunt, Christina Pickles, Kyle Secor, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Furst, Howie Mandel, Mark Harmon and Denzel Washington. The series is credited with helping propel the careers of several St. Elsewhere performers, such as Begley, Hunt, Morse, Mandel, Harmon and Washington, to greater heights of film and television stardom, which they enjoyed subsequent to the show.
The show's main and end title theme was composed by famed jazz musician and composer Dave Grusin. Noted film and TV composer J.A.C. Redford wrote the show's score. No soundtrack was ever released, but the theme was released in two different versions: the original TV mix and edit appeared on TVT Records' compilation Television's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3: 70s & 80s, and Grusin recorded a full-length version (4:13) for inclusion on his Night Lines album, released in 1983.
The first season aired Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m. and the rest of the series aired Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m.
The final episode of St. Elsewhere, known as "The Last One", ended in a context different from every other episode of the series. As the camera pulls away from snow beginning to fall at St. Eligius, the scene changes to Donald Westphall's autistic son Tommy, and Daniel Auschlander in an apartment building. Tommy is playing with a snow globe. Westphall arrives home from a day of work, and it is clear that he works in construction from the uniform he wears and from a conversation in this scene. "Auschlander" is revealed to be Donald's father, and thus Tommy's grandfather. Donald laments to his father, "I don't understand this autism thing, Pop. Here's my son. I talk to him. I don't even know if he can hear me, because he sits there, all day long, in his own world, staring at that toy. What's he thinking about?" Tommy shakes the snow globe, and is told by his father to come and wash his hands. Donald places the snow globe on the family's television set and walks into the kitchen with Tommy and Auschlander. As they leave the room, the camera closes in on the snow globe. Inside it is a replica of St. Eligius.[3] NewsRadio paid homage to this scene at the end of the third season fantasy themed episode "Daydream".
One of the more common interpretations of this scene is that the entire series of events in the series St. Elsewhere had been a product of Tommy Westphall's imagination, with elements of the above scene used as its own evidence.[4][5] One of the results of this has been an attempt by individuals to determine how many television shows are also products of Tommy Westphall's mind because of shared fictional characters: the "Tommy Westphall Universe".
While the series made a habit of incorporating television and film references, the final episode was particularly replete with them. Among them were The Fugitive (Dr. Kimball is said to be chasing a one-armed patient on the loose); The Mary Tyler Moore Show (the famous group hug from that series' finale is reenacted, including the shuffle to the tissue box); M*A*S*H (a patient #4077—Henry Blake—is said to have been injured in an aircraft crash); The Andy Griffith Show (a barber is referred to as Floyd); and the cliché, "It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings" (Dr. Fiscus makes the comment immediately before an injured and obese opera singer dressed as a Valkyrie sings an extended note, ending the hospital story and leading into the Tommy Westphall scene).
The episode's closing credits differed from those of the rest of the series. In all other episodes, the credits appeared over a still image of an ongoing surgical operation, followed by the traditional MTM Productions black-backgrounded logo, featuring Mimsie the cat in a cartoon surgical cap and mask. The final episode's credits appeared on a black background, flanked by an electrocardiogram and other medical equipment, with Mimsie lying on her side at the top of the screen; at the end of the credits, the electrocardiogram "flatlined", indicating Mimsie's death.
The series finale brought in 22.5 million viewers ranking as the seventh most-watched program that week and attracting a 17.0/29 rating/share.
In 2011, the finale was ranked #12 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.[6]
After struggling in syndication, the reruns had cable runs on TV Land, Bravo and currently, AmericanLife TV.
On November 28, 2006, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the complete first season of St. Elsewhere on DVD in Region 1. It is unknown if the remaining 5 seasons will be released at some point.
In Region 2, Channel 4 DVD released the first season on DVD in the UK on April 2, 2007.[7] The remaining episodes have been made available on Channel 4's UK on-demand internet stream 4od (4 On Demand) in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, as Channel 4 rescreened the series in 2009-10.
Currently, episodes from season 1 are available on Hulu.
The series was noted for its unusually large number of in-jokes and oblique pop culture references.
Peabody Award (1984)
Television Critics Association Award for Drama Series (1988)
St. Elsewhere was the first medical drama to ever have an African-American doctor on "staff". This honor established Denzel Washington's place in cinematic and television history.