ER, the good ol days

Okay! I was going to figure out a blog for today after I watched my Thursday night tv of “The Office” and “30 Rock.” But do you know what I learned while watching those two shows? It’s the “ER” where all the old doctors come back, the doctors from the glory days of “ER.” All the commercials showed Eriq LaSalle doing that karate move that he used to do on the original opening credits! Hooray! So I thought I would live blog it because then I don’t have to feel bad for watching “ER” instead of doing other things. I guess you shouldn’t keep reading if you have tivo’d ER or if you care about how this episode shapes up or whatnot.

The commercials are trying to be all coy about whether George Clooney will show up, but they just had his name in the opening credits. That’s good, cause let’s be honest, if I watch an hour of ER and George Clooney doesn’t show up, I will be PISSED. That was in fact going to be whole gist of this blog…will George Clooney show up? When? At the last five minutes? And will he have his hair cut in that Caesar style that was so popular in 1995?

Let’s talk about my history with the show ER. I started watching it at the end of the first season, because do you remember how critically acclaimed it used to be? Unfortunately, I think now it’s overstayed its welcome, and people take it for granted, and even Uncle Jesse is on it now, and so people don’t remember how amazing that show was when it first started. Then I watched it through all the George Clooney seasons, and probably a little bit after he left. Actually, definitely after he left, because I remember when Julianna Marguiles left the show, and she went out to Seattle to be with him. He was in the last five minutes. He was sanding a boat. Dear God, please don’t wait til the last five minutes to show me George Clooney on ER again.

You can tell this is a special episode because other guest stars include Susan Sarandon and Ernest Borgnine. Unfortunately, I fear this doesn’t leave much time for George to do his thing. From what I can tell of the plot, Noah Wyle is deadly ill and so I guess all his old friends will have to come back to say goodbye. Or maybe for his kidney operation.

Okay, at just 10:09, we have Julianna Marguiles! A minute later we have George! Oh my god, they work at the University of Washington now! Between this hospital and the Grey’s Anatomy hospital, Seattle is full of really hot doctors. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS WHEN I LIVED IN SEATTLE???????

Man, this is going to be so super touching. J-mar and G-Clo are waiting to get organs that will go to Noah Wyle! But Susan Sarandon is the grandmother of the boy with the organs in question and she’s not ready to let go yet! ONCE THEY FIGURE OUT THESE ORGANS ARE GOING TO NOAH WYLE THERE IS GOING TO BE A SCENE THAT WINS EVERYONE A FUCKING EMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now I have to kill time with these characters I don’t know. I looked up some stuff on the internet, but now we have George again. Unfortunately, and I’m not quite sure how this happened, but Juliana Marguiles said “Spokane” wrong. AWKWARD. I guess George and Julianna are still together? They talk about their kids but it’s unclear if they all live together? Now George and the Chicago people are comparing names. The fact that they don’t know any of the same people is a testament to how many frickin’ characters have been on this show. But they didn’t compare Noah Wyle’s name. OMG missed opportunity. Do you think it bothers John Stamos that he’s the poor man, the very poor man’s George Clooney on this show?

Now Eriq La Salle is back and he is having a talk with Noah Wyle. What a great coincidence that Eriq La Salle works at this very hospital where Noah Wyle is waiting for a transplant. As it turns out, they don’t have all that much to talk about. I guess too much time has passed. And they are both strong men who can’t show emotions. Imagine if you were about to have a life-saving surgery and all the co-workers from your first job showed up? I think that would be bizarre. I wouldn’t want it filmed for a television show.

This is a very touching show about organ donation. How much longer til Doug Ross discovers that he is saving John Carter’s life? AND WHEN WILL THE GHOST OF ANTHONY EDWARDS APPEAR TO THEM ALL?

Actually, I think he already did his return episode, didn’t he? I think I read about it in Entertainment Weekly. Man, I bet Anthony Edwards regrets coming on too early, though maybe he didn’t want to get too upstaged by George Clooney. Maybe he doesn’t care about what’s going in Darfur and so they have horrible on-set fights. That’s just a conjecture.

All sorts of other random things are going on. A baby was abandoned. An old lady married to Ernest Borgnine wants to die at home. The organ transplant ladies from the ER hospital lost their plane and now I guess they are hitchhiking back? Maybe I should be paying closer attention. Eriq La Salle is having another talk with Noah Wyle, and now they are bonding over…wait hold up, now the scary ER music is playing and they are taking Carter away so I guess something dramatic will happen! But George Clooney is still in Seattle and I don’t want this to happen without him! Also there is an adorable little girl whose mom will get a new heart!

Wait, is the message of this show that doctors don’t even know whose lives they save in the course of their jobs, and it just turns out that sometimes they save their friends without even knowing? That would make me sad. But there’s only 15 minutes left so I fear that such a situation might be underway. I just don’t like George Clooney being deprived of this information about Noah Wyle. Noah Wyle would be all alone if Eriq La Salle weren’t there, and even though that is somewhat poetic since they used to be such rivals, I just want the whole staff there! I’m not sure if Gloria Reuben ever died from AIDS on this show, but if she’s still kickin’ I want her to come back too! And maybe Sherry Stringfield can work in the coffee shop that they all go to for ice cream?

I just checked Wikipedia, and Gloria Reuben’s character did not die. According to Wikipedia, “she is one of the only regular characters in American television history to contract the HIV virus without eventually being killed off by the writers.” Sorry I implied as much, Gloria Reuben.

Eriq La Salle just taught all the doctors doing the transplant surgery an important lesson in preparedness, just like lessons that he used to teach Noah Wyle!

The other people’s plotlines are boring and depressing me all at the same time. But without giving too much away, Noah Wyle is okay. George Clooney and Susan Sarandon live in ignorance of the unbelievable coincidence that they were a part of today. All George and Julianna know is the kidney went to “some doctor.” But don’t worry, we got a shot of George Clooney shirtless and sleeping in bed, and those were always my favorite ER scenes anyways.