![]() ![]() But the ER pilot is perhaps even more impressive today than it was back then. Revisiting the ER pilot all these years later, we expected to spot the kind of imperfections and stray hairs that pop up in all pilots, especially those from the mid-'90s, which tend to feel outdated in any number of ways. Bestowed with the kind of fanfare that the network premiere of a major motion picture would get at the time, NBC premiered the pilot to huge public reaction, then aired the second episode three days later in the 10 PM Thursday timeslot that would be ER's domain for the next 15 years. The two-hour pilot episode aired on Monday night, September 19, 1994, back when "Monday Night at the Movies" was still a thing on NBC. While the ER pilot was viewed with some skepticism by the networks in its script stages, NBC eventually signed on and the network got behind the show in a big way once it saw what it had on its hands. Produced by Steven Spielberg from a script written by Michael Crichton, the show arrived just a year after Jurassic Park chewed up the box office, thus at the absolute height of Crichton's powers in American popular culture. ER was the biggest new thing going into the 1994 fall TV season, and the only reason another show was even mentioned in the same breath was because the entertainment media tried to set up a rivalry narrative with CBS's Chicago Hope. This was not a little show that could, or an under-the-radar series that picked up steam as the American public gradually latched onto it. In this recurring feature at Primetimer, we look back at the first episodes of some of the most culturally sticky TV shows in recent memory and see how their initial offerings hold up.ĮR's hugely successful run didn't come as a surprise. Often written and filmed long before the rest of the series, and subject to tinkering by networks and creators before the show can continue, the TV pilot is a fascinating creature. Everything good has to start somewhere, and for beloved TV shows, that usually means the pilot episode.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |