Chicago Hope Information

Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994 to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.

Premise

The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, a hot-shot surgeon with emotional issues stemming from the psychiatric condition of his wife (played by Kim Greist), who drowned their infant son. Adam Arkin plays Patinkin's colleague and best friend. Peter MacNicol and Hector Elizondo feature as the hospital's in-house attorney and director of medicine, respectively. Christine Lahti joined in the second season as a talented cardiac surgeon with a feminist chip on her shoulder, vying with Geiger for the chief of surgery position.

Cast

Reception

The pilot episode of Chicago Hope was broadcast the day before NBC's ER in a special Sunday, 8 p.m. time slot. After the first week, however, the two Chicago-based hospital dramas went "head to head" in their primetime 10 p.m. Thursday night slot. ER was the victor: its first season proved a ratings winner. Despite receiving critical acclaim, Chicago Hope was shifted to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and ultimately to Monday nights in 1995 in a bid for higher ratings, while ER remained in its time slot.

Chicago Hope remained in the Monday slot and performed well, with ratings peaking at 11.9, with a 20 share. In the second season, however, Kelley and Patinkin decided to leave the show. The show was moved to Wednesdays at 10 p.m. in 1997 to make room for the Steven Bochco drama, Brooklyn South, on Mondays. In 1999, both Kelley and Patinkin returned, with a revamped cast now including Barbara Hershey and Lauren Holly, but excluding Lahti, Peter Berg, Jayne Brook, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Stacy Edwards. CBS also moved the show back to Thursday nights, against NBC's Frasier and ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The show was canceled in May 2000.

Nielsen ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Chicago Hope.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Production

With the exception of some infrequent on-location scenes, the vast majority of Chicago Hope was filmed on sound stages at the studios of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, located in the Century City area of Los Angeles.

Awards

Over its six seasons, Chicago Hope was nominated for many accolades and won several, including seven Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Emmy awards

Episodes

Chicago Hope aired for six straight seasons and 141 episodes.

Crossovers

Fyvush Finkel and Kathy Baker appeared as their Picket Fences characters in the first season. Likewise, Mandy Patinkin and Hector Elizondo brought their Chicago Hope characters to Picket Fences that year. Both Adam Arkin and Lauren Holly had previously appeared on Picket Fences as a lawyer and as a deputy sheriff, respectively.

Mandy Patinkin appears in an uncredited role as Geiger in a 1994 episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Chicago Hope producer John Tinker shot this footage as a favor to his St. Elsewhere colleague Tom Fontana.^{[citation needed]}

Chicago Hope characters crossed over to Early Edition early in that show's run. Rocky Carroll, Jayne Brook, and Hector Elizondo all guest-starred in scenes taking place in the hospital.

Firsts

The series broke a network television taboo by showing a teenager's breast after her character underwent reconstructive surgery. This was generally seen as relevant to the subject matter and went relatively uncriticized.^{[citation needed]}

On November 18, 1998, Chicago Hope became the first regular series episode to be broadcast in HDTV.^[4] The episode was entitled "The Other Cheek".

The series was the first to use the word "shit" on network television, outside of documentaries. It was spoken by Mark Harmon's character after a meeting, in which he says "shit happens".^[5][6] ER would use the expletive several years later in the 2002 episode "On the Beach," when Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) is unable to pick himself up off the floor due to his brain tumor.

International airings

In the UK, seasons 1 and 2 originally aired on BBC One. More recently, all seasons of the show have been shown on ITV3. Starting on September 3, 2007, it began airing on Zone Romantica in the UK and Ireland. In Australia, the series originally aired on The Seven Network. In Germany the first seasons were shown in the 90s.

In popular culture

• In the South Park episode "The Brown Noise", Kyle Broflowski asks Eric Cartman if he knows what he is thinking, to which Eric Cartman replies "that they should bring back Chicago Hope for another season?"
• The show also appears once on Ally McBeal in the episode "Love's Illusions" when Ling Woo turns on the television and says "uh! Chicago Hope" after a failed attempt at sexual intercourse with Richard Fish.
• In the Early Edition episode "The Choice", as Gary picks up a hurt girl, a bystander (Eddie Jemison) tells him not to and asks "Don't you ever watch Chicago Hope?" The girl in the episode was played by Mae Whitman.
• Episode 5 of Season 3, "Liar Liar", took a nod to its rival medical series, ER, when a publicist hired by the hospital creates a promotional video that looks and sounds almost exactly like the opening credits of ER, but with "ER" replaced by "CH" and minus the actors' names.^[7]

Notes

1. ^ Times listed are Eastern time

References

1. ^ Classic TVHits.com: TV Ratings > 1900's
2. ^ Classic TVHits.com: TV Ratings > 1900's
3. ^ Classic TVHits.com: TV Ratings > 1900's
4. ^ CEA: Digital America – HDTV
5. ^ "Chicago Hope" in Deep S--t – E! Online
6. ^ CBS Allows Four-Letter Word on 'Chicago Hope'
7. ^ EpisodeGuides.com, Chicago Hope Season Three, 3.05 "Liar, Liar"

External links

• Chicago Hope at the Internet Movie Database
• Chicago Hope at TV.com

Categories: 1994 American television series debuts | 2000 American television series endings | 1990s American television series | 2000s American television series | American drama television series | CBS network shows | English-language television series | Fictional hospitals | Medical television series | Television series by Fox Television Studios | Television shows set in Chicago, Illinois

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