Product Description

The lives, loves and losses of the doctors and nurses of Chicago's County General Hospital. Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the most watched and honored drama of the last decade. Loaded with extensive special features including two new documentaries featuring Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, John Wells and George Clooney created exclusively for this release.

DVD Features:
Additional Scenes
Audio Commentary:Audio commentary on three key episodes by series producers and crew
Deleted Scenes
Documentaries:Prescription for Success: The Birth of ER; First-Year Rotation: Caring for ER; On the Cutting Edge: Medical Realism on ER; Post Operative Procedures: Post Production in the ER
Easter Eggs
Featurette
Interactive Menus
Outtakes
Scene Access:Audio commentary on three key episodes by series producers and crew

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4066 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-08-26
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 1179 minutes

Features

• The lives, loves and losses of the doctors and nurses of Chicago's County General Hospital.Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the most watched and honored drama of the last decade. Loaded with extensive special features including two new documentaries featuring Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, John Wells and George Clooney created exclusively for this release. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: 

Amazon.com
Inspired by creator Michael Crichton's experiences as a medical student in a hospital emergency room, ER quickly became one of the most compelling shows of the 1990s, each episode a whirlwind of intense and involving drama, gritty realism, and offbeat humor. Heading the staff at the inner-city Chicago hospital is Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), a doctor so good at providing care to the downtrodden, helpless, or just plain quirky patients that his career blossoms even as his personal life crumbles. Greene is the soul of the cast, but the heart is Julianna Margulies's nurse Carol Hathaway. Her character was intended only for the pilot episode, but she ended up capturing viewers with her palpable empathy for patients and her troublesome romance with womanizing pediatrician Doug Ross (George Clooney). The rest of the central cast consisted of compassionate Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), Peter Benton (Eriq Lasalle), whose prodigious talent nearly matches his ambition, and his fresh-faced student, John Carter (Noah Wyle). Other key characters included ER heads Morgenstern and Swift (William H. Macy and Michael Ironside, respectively), overachieving student Deb (Ming Na), who returned later in the show's run, attending physician Angela Hicks (CCH Pounder), and physical therapist Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Rueben).

The remarkably strong first season showed off its sharp ensemble cast through a variety of compelling story lines both personal (Carter's conflicts with Benton, Lewis's struggles with her no-account sister, Chloe, played by Kathleen Wilhoite) and professional (a holiday blizzard and especially the harrowing tale of a pregnancy gone bad, "Love's Labor Lost," which won five Emmy Awards). When Carter is pondering whether his future includes the ER, Green jokes, "It's not bad: Stress, late nights, hard work, no pay--it's hard to beat." It's hard to imagine people choosing to work under those conditions, but they do, and in the process these very human people perform superhuman feats as they face life and death as part of their daily jobs.

DVD features are fairly generous for a TV series box. There are two commentary tracks on the pilot episode, including one by Crichton, and crew commentaries on "Sleepless in Chicago" and "Love's Labor Lost." A new 39-minute documentary discusses the show's genesis, casting, and the "Chicago hospital drama smackdown" with Chicago Hope through interviews with Crichton, executive producer Steven Spielberg, other crew members, and the principal cast members other than Eriq LaSalle. Also included are a very watchable featurette on the show's realism (ever wonder why Ross is always looking down?) and another on post-production, a list of characters (including patients by episode, but why no actor credits?), three minor deleted scenes, outtakes, and a glossary of frequently used medical terms. Particularly notable is that the episodes are shown in anamorphic widescreen. ER was one of the first network shows broadcast in widescreen, but that was years after these episodes, which are shown in widescreen for the first time. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Previously on ER
Finally, Season One has arrived on DVD! If you are familiar with ER you know all the adjectives used to describe this unique show; Gripping, Stunning, Amazing, etc.

So what does this DVD offer? Well, as the title states, the complete first season. It also includes the 1 1/2 hour pilot. In addition there are behind the scenes, bloopers, the making of, commentaries on three episodes, and more.

As a real fan of ER I have waited for this DVD for some time now. The shows are wonderful to revisit. I am reminded of 'old friends' who have long since left the ER.

I gave up on TV a number of years ago and do not have cable or watch any TV. A family member records the current ER episodes for me and I devour them each time. It is simply outstanding entertainment. The actors, story, music, editing, camera work and sooo much more combine to bring out the very best in entertainment.

The only downside to this DVD comes with the packaging. The DVDs are double sided so you cannot set the DVD down without possibly scratching it. Also, because there is no label on each DVD you need to read the very fine print near the center hole to identify which DVD is # 1, 2, 3, or 4. And the print is even smaller to figure out which side is A/B.

My 5 star rating is based on the quality of the episodes. The extras included with the DVD deserve 4 stars, and the packaging would be only 1 star.

One of the few series I would buy on DVD
ER is one of the best shows I've ever seen. I've been watching it from the airing of the Pilot and I've been hooked ever since. If you are looking for an emotional high this is the show to watch. The writers and actors are amazing. Each episode makes me laugh, cry, and gets my adrenaline pumping. This show confronts extremely controversial, contemporary issues and even though I'm not in the medical profession I believe that it is very realistic. Anyone who works with a lot of people day in and day out can relate to what it is like to be pulled in several different directions at once and still try to maintain a professional facade, which I think this show pulls off beautifully.

Quite simply the best TV drama series ever!
Having seen so many dire hospital dramas ("Casualty" and the like) I must admit I never thought I could possibly get into a series like "ER". That is until two friends insisted I watched an episode one Friday night on Channel 4 and within 30 mins I was hooked. Since then I've probably missed no more than 3 or 4 episodes and every one I've watched has been streets ahead of the competition.

I hope people won't take offence when I say that US shows often run the risk of drifting into over-sentimentality. They do. But ER's greatest strength is the ability to handle the most emotional of story lines without it ever feeling that the line has been crossed. It's blend of realism and top-draw performances from the whole cast delivers TV that's right on the edge. It's quite simply the best show I've ever seen.

If anyone reading this is a Warner Bros executive, please please please release some box sets of the show. I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who'd buy up the lot straight away!