St. Elsewhere: Season One

A medical soap opera that borrowed the Hill Street Blues formula of featuring a sizable cast of principals and interlacing each episode with multiple storylines, St. Elsewhere anticipated such subsequent hospital-set dramas as ER and Grey's Anatomy. While well received by critics when it debuted in 1982, the series was a ratings flop that NBC initially kept on the air to secure Emmy nominations, although it finally found an audience and lasted six seasons, earning 63 Emmy nods and 13 wins. St. Elsewhere also made a star of Denzel Washington, whose Dr. Phillip Chandler was just one of many interns staffing South Boston's St. Eligius, a somewhat less than state-of-the-art hospital that catered to the underprivileged and downtrodden. Other medicos on staff during the show's first season included Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders), Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse), Dr. Ben Samuels (David Birney), Dr. Annie Cavanero (Cynthia Sikes), Dr. Wayne Fiscus (Howie Mandel), and Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd). The latter's heartrending struggle against cancer formed one of the year's most memorable subplots. Another plot-thread, introduced at the beginning of the season, raised more than a few eyebrows in American homes: Ben's discovery that he had contracted a venereal disease, which spurred him to track down previous lovers. The multiplicity of situations arising from staff interactions made it difficult for individual storylines to stand out, but some did, including the episode “Cora and Arnie,” which gave plum roles to character actors Doris Roberts and James Coco, playing a bag lady and her mentally challenged husband; and “Remission,” in which a gang war in the inner-city streets resulted in an overflow of patients for Morrison and Chandler. Unusual for shows of this type, St. Elsewhere attained a level of excellence very quickly, as is readily apparent in this collection of 22 episodes from the 1982-83 season. DVD extras include two audio commentaries and four featurettes. Highly recommended. (E. Hulse)