Forty years ago this week, the Chicago emergency room-set TV series E/R, which eventually starred George Clooney, debuted on CBS. Thirty years ago this week, the Chicago emergency room-set TV series ER, which initially starred George Clooney, debuted on NBC.
George Clooney on the Original E/R Sitcom
E/R, which premiered on September 16, 1984, was a sitcom that lasted only one season, perhaps because it was an "uneasy mix of screwball comedy and serious illness" set in the fictional Clark Street Hospital, in the words of television historians Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh. (Scrubs would eventually crack the code of the medical comedy.)
Premiering on September 19, 1994, ER was a 15-season drama that was a critical hit about intensive care units at the fictional County General Hospital. Clooney was the only actor to appear in both E/R and ER, though an IMDb search reveals 26 other actors — and at least one crew member — appeared in both films in some capacity. Here's 'em all.
Clooney, then in his early 20s, played an inexperienced doctor 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."
