#St. elsewhere series#
#St. elsewhere tv#

Jack Morrison William Daniels' insufferably egotistical heart specialist without a heart, Dr. Philip Chandler David Morse's empathetic, tousle-haired resident, Dr. Elsewhere's enormous ensemble cast was probably bigger than its audience, but a few standout performers quickly rose to the top: Denzel Washington's ambitious but compassionate Dr.

The show's consistently low numbers (highest Nielson rating: 49) kept it hovering on the critical list, its tenuous life-support system subsidized by upscale sponsors who coveted the show's small but affluent viewership. Elsewhere was an armchair sociologist's wet dream, brimming with hidden non sequiturs, homages to pop-culture icons (keep a keen ear open for familiar names over the hospital PA), and sly in-jokes that flew right under NBC censors' radar ('she placed her tulips on my organ').

#St. elsewhere tv#

In addition to claiming one of the all-time great theme songs (the Eighties were the golden age of TV tunes), St.

#St. elsewhere series#

Elsewhere would last for six stellar seasons, growing increasingly surreal until finally imploding with one of the most controversial series finales in broadcast history, complete with a flatlining MTM cat logo. A few savvy critics noted the show's debt to Hill Street Blues, which had premiered one year earlier. Elsewhere premiered in 1982, initially befuddling the curious few who tuned in: Was this a comedy series? A medical drama? A soap opera? Elsewhere's layered storylines 'arcs' in the parlance of the Eighties were a near-flawless assemblage of diverse subgenres surgically joined together by a vision that was simultaneously bleak, humanistic, and often seriously skewed. The brainchild of Joshua Brand and John Falsey (who would later conjure the equally cultish Northern Exposure), St. Elsewhere: That's where deportees from the city's more prestigious medical centers find themselves diverted. The decrepit old teaching hospital on Boston's South Side is better known as St. Like visitors to a Roach Motel, patients may check in, but they seldom check out. Eligius Hospital, because the harried staff there probably won't. 20th Century Fox, $39.98 God save the luckless souls who find themselves admitted into St.