ER/Trivia

• Dawson Casting: In 1995, Rachel Greene celebrates her sixth birthday. Assuming a birth year of 1989, Rachel would have been exactly thirteen by 2002. Yvonne Zima, who had played Rachel up to this point and who was exactly thirteen, was replaced by the then-fifteen year old Hallee Hirsh.
• Development Hell: The Pilot was written in 1974 and filmed 20 years later. Despite the huge time gap, few changes were necessary, aside from making at least one of the doctors (Lewis) a woman instead of a man, and another a black man (Benton) instead of a white one.
• Dueling Shows: With Chicago Hope.
• McLeaned: Carla Reese; see Role-Ending Misdemeanor below.
• The Other Darrin: Several supporting characters were played by different actors. Al Boulet was played by a different actor before being played by Michael Beach starting Season Two. Hathaway's mother was played by different actresses. Perhaps most notably Rachel Greene was originally played by Yvonne Zima, and then replaced by Hallee Hirsh for the rest of the series. Rather egregiously, Roger McGrath (Carla Reese's husband) was played by Victor Williams in all of his appearances until the eighth season, where he was suddenly played by Chicago Hope's Vondie Curtis-Hall.
• Reality Subtext: Benton's brief, troubled relationship with Elizabeth is partly because Benton can't get over his discomfort with dating a white woman, thus echoing his portrayer's sentiments.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Lisa Nicole Carson, who played Carla Reese (the mother of Benton's child) had concurrent roles on both ER and Ally McBeal. She was fired from both for drug use, erratic behavior as well as being in and out of mental hospitals. The ER producers in particular were tired of her 'unpleasant attitude'.
• Star-Making Role:
  • For George Clooney. Also counts to a lesser extent for Julianna Marguiles, Noah Wyle and Mekhi Phifer.
  • This was true for most of the original main cast (though none of them reached the heights Clooney has). Anthony Edwards was the exception; he was fairly well-known before the show even though he became the major star for several years.