St. Elsewhere
an Episode Guide
by Donna Lemaster
and TVFan
Last updated:
Sat, 14 May 2005 03:00
St. Elsewherean Episode Guide
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| aired from: Oct 1982 to: May 1988 | 137 eps | NBC | 60 min | mono / stereo | ________________ |
regulars:
recurring characters:
St. Eligius Hospital is located in a low-income area of Boston. Rundown for years, the facility earned the nickname St. Elsewhere because of a reputation as a dumping ground. Under stressful conditions, the staff tries their best to sort out patients and their own busy lives.
St. Elsewhere is, to me, the finest television show ever produced. A mixture of laughter, tears, grit, intelligence, and realism that no other program has managed to combine. Major characters went through changes that were rooted in years of history and behavior. Some died, and not always those expected to. Veteran characters were respected, instead of being shuffled away in favor of vapid newcomers. History was used to enhance future stories; these were not heroic doctors who had no past and only the brightest future.
The guiding influences in the first year were Joshua Brand & John Falsey; they produced a diverse, fascinating cluster of episodes that stand out as some of the best the show has to offer. They left after the first year (but are given an ironic tribute in the series finale). Former scriptwriter and story editor Tom Fontana (along with John Masius) took over around season 2 or 3, mixing the most extreme aspects of humanity. Good and evil were represented in all their forms, sometimes in the same episode. A typical example would be "Cheek to Cheek", with a scene of a doctor reading a tender goodbye present given to her by a cartoonist patient, immediately followed by a scene of another doctor being brutally raped. Fontana also established an actor base and wealth of in-jokes that he still uses today.
When Masius and Fontana took a lesser role in season 6, others stepped up to the plate, resulting in a few bad stories and some that were incredibly powerful. That was the miraculous thing about St. Elsewhere it never experienced the transformation from superb to wretched most long-running dramas do. When writing problems emerged, they worked themselves out. Irritating stories evolved, or simply ended. As the closing credits for the last episode rolled, most of the characters were still intact, as complex and absorbing as ever. St. Elsewhere was one of a kind. It stands out as a beacon of quality. Nearly 20 years since the pilot, and there are few signs of dating. Some of the storylines are more groundbreaking than anything on network television currently. Amazingly enough, the show never won an Emmy for Best Drama Series, but several performers did. Awards: St. Elsewhere (1982) lists many of the awards and nominations wracked up over the 6 seasons.
The cable/satellite channel Bravo ran the series until recently; there's a good chance they will resume airing the episodes at some point.
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Bruce Paltrow
Producers: Mark Tinker, John Masius, John Falsey, Joshua Brand
Associate Produer: Beth Hillshafer
Created by: Joshua Brand & John Falsey
Developed by: Mark Tinker & John Masius
Story Editor: Tom Fontana
rc: Auschlander, Jackie, Cathy, Luther, Lucy, Shirley
Morrison fights to keep control of a dysentery patient; Cavanero loses a large, dangerous patient; Fiscus meets pathology resident Cathy Martin; and Dr. Samuels tries to backtrack his social life when he learns he has a venereal disease.
b: 26 Oct 82 pc: 2313 w: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Thomas Carterrc: Auschlander, Cathy, Lucy, Wendy
Morrison treats the obnoxious bank bomber; Mr. MacAllister arrives to find his wife in a coma; Dr. Craig holds a news conference and badgers a patient into a surgical consent; and Dr. Samuels tries to teach Dr. Beale how to swim.
b: 9 Nov 82 pc: 2301 w: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Thomas Carterrc: Auschlander, Cathy, Shirley, Wendy
Cavanero tries to counsel a couple expecting a Down's syndrome child; White makes a near-tragic mistake in the E.R.; Martin and Fiscus are caught in a stalled elevator; Morrison learns his wife is pregnant; and Dr. Beale visits the bomber.
b: 16 Nov 82 pc: 2304 w: Tom Fontana s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey and Tom Fontana d: Mark Tinkerrc: Cathy, Luther, Wendy
Morrison tries to help a bag woman and her retarded husband; Fiscus admits a relatively healthy woman who had fainted for some very expensive tests; V.J. feels homesick; and the bomber and his victim both leave the hospital.
b: 23 Nov 82 pc: 2305 w: Neil Cuthbert s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey and Neil Cuthbert d: Mark Tinkerrc: Auschlander, Ellen Craig, Cathy, Luther, Shirley, Wendy
Dr. Samuels becomes attached to a boy in for leg surgery; Fiscus surprises Martin with a romantic gesture; Chandler challenges a veteran nurse's competency; Dr. Craig receives his coveted `Surgeon of the Year' award; and Cavanero's weekend away is interrupted by a patient delivering her baby at home with just a teenage boy to help.
b: 30 Nov 82 pc: 2303 John Masius s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey and John Masius d: Thomas Carterrc: Auschlander, Jackie, Cathy, Luther, Myra, Shirley, Wendy
Dr. Westphall investigates suspicious deaths in Ward Five; Martin shocks Fiscus by breaking off their affair; Cavanero has to deal with a very hostile nurse; and White goes to desperate lengths to raise the money to replace his on-call beeper.
b: 7 Dec 82 pc: 2306 w: Charles Rosin s: Charles Rosin and Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Mark Tinkerrc: Cathy, Lizzie, Lucy, Luther, Shirley, Wendy
Dr. Westphall risks his job by creating an isolation floor to stem the spread of the suspected Legionnaire's Disease; Dr. Beale learns that Tweety got pregnant while in the hospital; Fiscus is assaulted in the E.R.; and Dr. Craig decides to sell his car.
b: 14 Dec 82 pc: 2309 w: Joel Surnow s: Joel Surnow and Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Thomas Carterrc: Ellen Craig, Luther, Shirley, Wendy
The search continues for the source of the Legionnaire's Disease; Cavanero befriends a young woman facing a hysterectomy; Tweety makes a decision about her future; and Ellen Craig deals with the elusive Dr. Barnum.
b: 21 Dec 82 pc: 2307 w: Elizabeth Diggs s: Elizabeth Diggs and Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Mark Tinkerrc: Auschlander, Jackie, Luther, Myra, Shirley, Wendy
Morrison regrets making a couple of house calls for an insistent old man; Fiscus has another run-in with a gang member; Ralph takes up eating garbage; White's daughter eats some mothballs; and Dr. Craig bawls Ehrlich out for spraining his little finger.
b: 4 Jan 83 pc: 2308 w: Tom Fontana s: Tom Fontana and Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Hsurc: Auschlander, Jackie, Lucy, Luther, Shirley
Ralph masquerades as a doctor; an obese woman gives birth unexpectedly; an old friend of Dr. Samuels joins the staff; and Ehrlich faints during surgery.
b: 11 Jan 83 pc: 2310 w: John Masius s: John Masius and Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Mark Tinkerrc: Luther
Dr. Samuels breaks up a late night poker game to perform emergency surgery on a gunshot victim; Morrison lets a Chinese couple perform a folk healing ritual on their dying son; and Ralph's manic stage reaches a crescendo.
b: 18 Jan 83 pc: 2302 w: Joshua Brand & John Falsey and John Masius s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Loblrc: Auschlander, Cathy, Jackie, Wendy
A sadistic doctor orders White to get his first autopsy consent; an old friend of Dr. Craig's checks in a sex-change operation; Chandler takes over the case of the John Doe gunshot victim; and Drs. Samuels and Paxton argue over the care of a patient after renewing their intimate relationship.
b: 1 Feb 83 pc: 2311 w: Tom Fontana and David Assael s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Loblrc: Myra, Shirley, Wendy
Craig continues to regret his friend's sex-change operation; John Doe #12 becomes sullen and uncooperative when his real parents arrive to take him home; White's reconciliation falls through; and Armstrong delves deeply into a man's medical and family history to find out why he has persistent nose bleeds.
b: 8 Feb 83 pc: 2312 w: Andrew Laskos s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Kevin Hooks NOTE: As Craig and Beale look at slides, Craig references a photo of Hawkeye. G.W. Bailey acted opposite Alan Alda on M*A*S*H around the same time.rc: Auschlander, Jackie, Lucy, Shirley, Wendy
A lady flasher enlivens the halls and rooms of St. Eligius; Fiscus moves in with Ehrlich; Cavanero faces a difficult choice about a fellowship; Dr. Auschlander's cancer remission appears to be ending; Morrison and Chandler try to help a young man injured in a street beating whose brother is determined to get revenge.
b: 22 Feb 83 pc: 2314 w: Lee Curran s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Mark Tinkerrc: Auschlander, Cathy, Ellen Craig, Jackie, Kylie, Luther, Myra, Shirley, Wendy
Samuels operates on a hooker, who invites all her friends to visit her; Myra White gives her husband some news; the racial tensions reach a climax when the truth about O'Connor's beating surfaces; and Ehrlich makes a fool of himself by drinking too much at a party given by Dr. Craig.
b: 1 Mar 83 pc: 2315 w: John Masius & Tom Fontana s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Bruce Paltrowrc: Ellen Craig, Lucy, Wendy
Cavanero helps hide her patient, a porno movie star, from a process server; Armstrong worries about the ethics of a surgeon who does unnecessary heart surgery for kickbacks; Ehrlich and Fiscus nearly come to blows over their living arrangements; and Dr. Craig considers moving.
b: 8 Mar 83 pc: 2316 w: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Kevin Hooksrc: Auschlander, Myra, Shirley
A fisherman lobbies Dr. Westphall to let his brother die in peace and dignity; Fiscus substitutes for Ehrlich on a date with Shirley Daniels; and Helen's stress mounts as the hospital suffers computer glitches and she faces a radical mastectomy. Peter celebrates his birthday.
b: 15 Mar 83 pc: 2317 w: Mark Tinker and John Tinker s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Mark Tinkerrc: Auschlander, Jackie, Lucy, Luther, Shirley
Helen returns to work following her mastectomy; Fiscus and Daniels visit his aunt Sirca; a pregnant woman invades the OR and holds Ehrlich and Dr. Craig hostage while demanding to see the doctor who performed her husband's vasectomy.
b: 22 Mar 83 pc: 2318 w: John Ford Noonan s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Loblrc: Auschlander, Shirley
Morrison tries to reason with a patient determined to drink himself to death; Chandler faces a malpractice suit after a patient dies unexpectedly in an elevator; White goes crazy with jealousy; and Dr. Craig enjoys the company of a visiting Hungarian surgeon.
b: 5 Apr 83 pc: 2320 w: Dennis Cooper s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Bruce Paltrowrc: Auschlander, Ellen Craig, Jackie, Shirley
Dr. Craig continues to enjoy Dr. Anya's companionship; Morrison worries over White's erratic behavior; and Chandler becomes upset over the casual attitude everyone seems to taking towards his malpractice suit.
b: 12 Apr 83 pc: 2321 w: Steve Lawson s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Lobl NOTE: This is David Birney's last episode. Ben's last scene is strangely similar to Annie Cavanero's two seasons later.rc: Auschlander, Cathy, Jackie, Kylie, Lucy, Luther, Shirley, Wendy
White attends a drug rehabilitation program; Morrison becomes suspicious that his patient may be a surgery addict; Dr. Craig grapples with an inner-city medical scholarship group; Martin tries to arrange a double date with Daniels and Fiscus; and a deranged bag lady tries to assault Daniels in the E.R..
b: 19 Apr 83 pc: 2319 w: David Assael and Paul Schiffer s: Joshua Brand & John Falsey d: Victor Hsurc: Auschlander, Cathy, Jackie, Luther, Myra, Shirley, Wendy
Morrison's wife goes into labor; White falls under suspicion when drugs are stolen; Dr. Craig's son Steven arrives for a period of observation and cause problems for Ehrlich; Martin casts her spell over Fiscus again; and Dr. Auschlander and an old friend get into a fist fight as they reminisce about the past.
b: 3 May 83 pc: 2322 w: John Masius & Tom Fontana d: Mark Tinker| Back to TOP of Page |
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