ER: the oral history

"Long before "Jurassic Park" was the embryo of an idea in Michael Crichton's mind, there was "ER." A medical student who dreamt of a career in Hollywood, Crichton did what any aspiring writer would: he mined his own life to create a script based on his time working in a high-octane hospital emergency department. Of course, nobody wanted it. It wasn't until Crichton turned his attention to dinosaurs and his 1990 novel Jurassic Park became a mega-hit - and a mega-movie franchise - that Steven Spielberg asked the former doctor what other ideas he was kicking around. Producers weren't interested in Crichton's feature film idea. But, they were looking for new television series programming and thought there might be something even bigger in the concept than a movie. And, thus, "ER" was born. Despite some resistance from NBC's top brass, the Warner Bros. Television drama became an overnight hit with its high-adrenaline storylines, realistic dialogue, and bona fide (not to mention hot) stars in the making in the cast, including Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards, and an actor who didn't end up amounting to much named George Clooney.