6 Interesting Facts About 'St. Elsewhere'

While the known hospital dramas getting most of the accolades are Grey's Anatomy, these shows had the path made for them by another show; St. Elsewhere, which ran from 1982-1988. The series related the stories of the staff of St. Eligius, a dilapidated hospital in Boston. The staff struggle with professional and personal crises.

As a result of the show, many talents got early breaks. Names like Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington, David Morse, and Bruce Greenwood come to mind. Let's take a quick tour to read more facts about this legendary drama.

1. The cast was terrified by St.Elsewhere before the pilot was finished.

St. Elsewhere, co-created by John Falsey and Joshua Brand, was initially pitched as "Hill Street Blues in a hospital." The show, about a police department, became a hit for NBC in 1981. However, the pilot proved to be quite a task. Norman Lloyd, a venerable actor who soon rose to become the co-anchors of the said show as Dr. Daniel Auschlander, attempted to speak with something of an Austrian accent. Josef Sommer played Auschlander's friend (Dr. Donald Westphall), and David Palmer played Dr. Wayne Fuscus. 

After checking the recorded footage, the producer, Bruce Paltrow, wasn't comfortable with the outcome, so he recast both Fiscus and Westphall's roles, causing Howie Mandel and Ed Flanders respectively, to take them up. As a result, the remaining cast members were scared they might be fired next. However, none of them were. That said, the mortality rate was relatively high for characters in the show. All in all, the changes were fortunate, as NBC decided to pick up the series.

2. "Dr. Jack Morrison" was nicknamed after a dog.

David Morse, Dr. Jack Morrison in the show, got a chunk of the show's most complicated plot lines. He was assaulted, widowed, victimized, almost taken out of residency, and still maintained character as one of the show's biggest optimists. 

He got his nickname, (Boomer) from an NBC series, Here's Boomer. It featured a main character who was a dog. The producers thought Morrison's desire to always please was like a dog's and it became something of a joke.

3. Howie Mandel thought St. Elsewhere was a sitcom.

Howie Mandel was already established in stand-up comedy when he auditioned for St. Elsewhere. Seeing as it was produced by MTM (Mart Tyler Moore) enterprises, he naturally assumed it was a sitcom, simply with a hospital setting. “It went badly, I thought,” Mandel said to Entertainment Weekly in 2012. “I also thought: ‘Their new comedy? Not that funny at all!’”

4. St. Elsewhere had to carry a disclaimer for some episodes

In the show, when a large healthcare corporation acquired St. Eligius dubbed Ecumena, a natural healthcare giant Humana filed a lawsuit against them, claiming trademark infringement. 

Eventually, a judge gave a verdict that the show should provide a disclaimer at the end of episodes which was displayed as, thus, “Ecumena is a fictional company that does not represent any actual company or corporation."

5. Ed Flanders’s buttocks problem.

Right before leaving the show as a regular in 1987, Donald Westphall, played by Ed Flanders, resolves to inform Ecumena penny pincher Ronny Cox where he thinks the teaching hospital is heading. He pulled his pants down and said Cox “can kiss [his] ass, pal.” That particular scene was one of the few occasions bare buttocks had been seen on TV. Naturally, it caused a lot of discussion at NBC. However, they eventually allowed it. Ed Flanders had to shoot 20 takes to get it right.

6. William Daniels was running another successful show besides St. Elsewhere

William Daniels, who had the role of a troublesome-but-intelligent surgeon (Dr. Mark Craig), was nominated and eventually won an Emmy for his work in St. Elsewhere. However, that wasn't the only NBC series he appeared in. Daniels also voiced an artificially intelligent car in the show Knight Rider. Even though it wasn't impossible for him to be unrecognized as the car, his work in St. Elsewhere denied him that chance. He later spoke in 1988 about how surprised he was that the character got popular. “He yells at everybody, and they love it. Now, I even do that on the street. Personally, I'm slightly withdrawn and rather shy, so I found the best way to deal with this high visibility was just to play the character. People come up and I say, ‘What do you want? You want an autograph? Oh, all right, give it here.’ They just start giggling. They love it.”