Trivia / St. Elsewhere

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• Acclaimed Flop: The show never ranked above 47th place in the yearly Nielsen ratings but was a critical darling and won 13 Emmy Awards (out of 62 total Emmy nominations).
  • While the show’s overall ratings were middling, it had comparatively much stronger ratings in the advertiser coveted 18-49 demographic, which kept it on the air.
• Actor-Shared Background: Like their characters Mark and Ellen Craig, William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett met and fell in love at college and married soon after graduation.
• Adored by the Network: St. Elsewhere was NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff's favorite show, a fact which saved it from cancellation a couple of times as it typically had poor to middling ratings; it never ranked higher than 47th place in the yearly ratings (however it did have excellent ratings in the key 18-49 demographic).
• Billing Displacement: Denzel Washington is front and center on the Season One DVD box, despite being a supporting player.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Ed Begley Jr. auditioned for the role of Peter White but Terence Knox was cast instead. His performance impressed the producers and he was cast as Victor Ehrlich.
  • Bonnie Bartlett auditioned for the role of Helen Rosenthal but Christina Pickles was cast.
• Creator Backlash: Actor William Daniels admitted in an interview that much of the cast, himself included, was put off by the notorious twist ending.
• The Danza: In Season Three, Florence Halop plays Florence Hufnagel while Murray Rubin plays Murray Robbin (whose real name was Murray Rubin).
• Dawson Casting:
  • Practically none of the actors playing the interns in the first season were as young as their characters were supposed to be (roughly 25-29). Terrence Knox was 36 in the first season, while Ed Begley, Jr. was 33, and David Morse was 29. Knox and Begley were actually older than Cynthia Sikes, who played senior Resident (later Attending) Dr. Cavanero, a character who was considered one of the longest-serving female doctors at the hospital.
  • Tom Hulce was 29 when he played John Doe #12 (David Stewart), who is about 16 or 17, in "Graveyard", "Release" and "Family History". Dr. Philip Chandler repeatedly refers to David as a kid. He is played by Denzel Washington, who is one year younger than Hulce.
  • Eric Stoltz was 21 or 22 when he played the 15-year-old Eddie Carson in "Under Pressure", "Entrapment" and "All About Eve".
  • The 22-year-old Lycia Naff played the 14-year-old Maddy Holmes in the Season Three episodes "Saving Face", "Give the Boy a Hand" and "Any Portrait in a Storm".
  • In the Flashback heavy episode of "Time Heals" it's laughably impossible to buy Ed Flanders and William Daniels as 25 year old intern versions of Westphall and Craig.
  • Robert Romanus was 29 when he played the teenager Nick Meose in the Season Four episode "The Naked and the Dead".
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • Eric Laneuville (Luther Hawkins) directed 19 episodes from Season Two onwards.
  • William Daniels (Mark Craig) directed the Season Three episode "The Children's Hour". This is his only credit as a director.
  • David Morse (Jack Morrison) directed the Season Six episodes "Handoff" and "A Coupla White Dummies Sitting Around Talking".
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor:
  • Like his character Lee Tovan in "Hearing", Robert Daniels is deaf.
  • Ray Charles played the blind homeless man Arthur Tibbits in "Jose, Can You See?".
• Executive Meddling: A rare example with positive results. NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff was a huge fan of the show. His favorite character was Dr. Morrison, and he would frequently return scripts to the writers with "More Boomer!" written across them. This led to some of the most emotionally powerful moments on the show, as explained under Butt-Monkey.
• Fake Irish:
  • Eric Stoltz as Eddie Carson in "Under Pressure", "Entrapment" and "All About Eve".
  • Edward Herrmann as Father Joseph McCabe in "Time Heals, Part 1", "Time Heals, Part 2" and "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby".
  • Fredd Wayne as Pat McGroyn in "Up and Down".
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Only Season 1 has ever been released on DVD, and that was in 2006; for the rest, you'll have to make do with streaming. You'll also need a taping of the original NBC broadcast of "The Last One" to see the credits sequence where Mimsie dies, since the reruns, home video releases, and Hulu streaming version all use the regular sequence.
• Life Imitates Art: In "Fathers and Sons", Victor Bevine, the moving man, tells Dr. Westphall, "Dad says we're on the cusp of a complete monetary disaster. The problem with the banks and corporations is they got debts up the wazoo, no way they're ever gonna pay it off. If you think '29 was a mess says Dad, wait till you see the sidewalks of Wall Street in two years tops." This episode aired on September 25, 1985. Black Monday was October 19, 1987, so he was off by less than a month.
• The Other Marty: Josef Sommer and David Paymer were originally cast as Donald Westphall and Wayne Fiscus respectively in the unaired pilot but the roles were recast with Ed Flanders and Howie Mandel after several days. The relevant scenes were reshot.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • The real life married couple William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett played Mark and Ellen Craig on the series.
  • Sagan Lewis (Dr. Jackie Wade) was the wife of the producer Tom Fontana during the production of the series. They later divorced and remarried.
  • Blythe Danner, who played Paige Gerradeaux in "The Women", was married to the series' executive producer Bruce Paltrow. He also directed that episode, among many others.
  • Mark Harmon's niece Tracy Nelson played Jennifer Milbourne in "The Women".
  • The director David Anspaugh cast his daughter Vanessa as Dr. Auschlander's granddaughter Jessica in "Fade to White".
  • Deborah May and George DelHoyo, who played the recurring characters Terri and Ken Valere in Season Four, are married in real life.
  • Christina Pickles' then husband Victor Lobl directed six episodes in Seasons One and Two.
  • John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan, who played Harry Cragen and Sophia Pavlon in "To Tell the Truth", were married in real life. The two also appeared together in Psycho and The Fox and the Hound as well as an episode of Night Court, in which they played the parents of series regular Dan Fielding.
  • The real life married couple Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows played Victor Ehrlich's parents Lech and Olga Oseransky in "Russian Roulette", "Visiting Daze" and "The Abby Singer Show".
  • Shelly Gibson, who played Chaplain Claire McCabe in the Season Six episodes "Heaven's Skate" and "Split Decision", was the then wife of the producer and writer Channing Gibson.
• Real-Person Cameo: Then-Governor of Massachusetts (and later presidential candidate) Michael Dukakis limps into the St. Eligius ER after spraining his ankle during a morning jog. Dr. Fiscus doesn’t believe him when he identifies himself.
• Referenced by...:
  • In the Degrassi Junior High episode "Nothing to Fear", Doctors Donald Westphall, Annie Cavanero, Philip Chandler, Roxanne Turner, Seth Griffin, Carol Novino, David Domedion and Bruce Paltrow and Nurse Shirley Daniels are paged at St. Michael's Hospital. Dr. Westphall is paged again in "Sealed with a Kiss".
  • The NewsRadio episode "Daydream" ends with a parody of the show's ending, "revealing" that the events of the show were being imagined by Jimmy James looking into a snow globe.
  • In Red Dwarf, Lister tries to come on to Camille (who he perceives as a woman who reminds him of Kochanski, but dresses like himself) by pretending to be a doctor. When she tells him she suspects he's not actually a doctor, he claims that while he's not fully qualified, he has seen every episode of St. Elsewhere.
• Romance on the Set: Ellen Bry (Nurse Shirley Daniels) and the producer and writer John Masius met on set. They were married from 1986 to 1999.
• Similarly Named Works: Searching on YouTube for St. Elsewhere videos often leads you to recordings of a song by Gnarls Barkley, which has nothing to do with the show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In 2003, Walden Films announced that it was planning to produce a film adaptation. However, nothing came of it.
  • Hal Linden was the first choice for the role of Dr. Westphall — but he turned it down without ever reading the script, or meeting with the producers. After 8 seasons of Barney Miller (which was winding down just as the St. Elsewhere pilot was gearing up), Linden wanted a break from TV production schedules for a while.
  • Both David Paymer and Dwight Schultz auditioned for the role of Fiscus. Had Schultz gotten the part, it would have meant turning down the role of "Howling Mad" Murdock in The A-Team.
• Written by Cast Member:
  • The story of "Hearing" was written by guest star Robert Daniels, who played Lee Tovan in that episode.
  • Sagan Lewis (Dr. Jackie Wade) is credited for the teleplay of Season 6's "Their Town" as S.J. Lewis.
• You Look Familiar: Rae Dawn Chong played a hooker in the Season One episode "Monday, Tuesday, Sven's Day" and Nurse Billie Vaughn in the Season Two episodes "AIDS & Comfort" and "A Pig Too Far" and the Season Three episode "Whistle, Wyler Works".
• The iconic shot of the elevated train in the opening credits was the Washington Street portion of the MBTA Orange Line, which was torn down in 1987 and moved about a mile north. The first few episodes of the sixth season reference the demolition and lack of public transportation next to the hospital.

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