ER nurses deserved more....

Starting off I want to say that I have yet to watch the final episode of ER as I'm saving it for a time that is right, but I have watched the hour show that was shown prior to the finale. That gave me my blog entry. Granted that was probably put together quite quickly, and without Michael Crichton, the writers might have been sad and boohooing, but I have to complain here for a minute.

I was not one of the original ER television viewers. I came along later. Since ER and Chicago Hope debuted the same time and both were set in Chicago I think I just ignored both of them figuring they would cancel each other out and be long gone before the end of the TV season. My mother watched both of them, told me they were good shows, and somewhere along the line, I began watching Chicago Hope. I loved it. I decided I would be dedicated to it. But then Mandy Patinkin got too big for his britches and the whining started, and I jumped into watching ER. I got hooked.

The show has always been a consistent, well-written television drama that kept me coming back each week. There were times I went to bed depressed at the storyline, but because the writers threw in humor the depressing scenes were manageable. The writers also made sure not to kill too many people in successive weeks. Even the so-called "baddies" in ER had tender sides to them that were shown in rare moments that made them likable. Once actors got bored with their roles and left the show, the producers still managed to find great actors to fill those empty spots. While I would lament the demise of one of my favorite characters (Dr. Green), I would learn to love his replacement. Just a great show all around.

Which brings me to my annoyance. So many regulars have come and gone on this show, and many of them returned this season as a tribute. All fine and dandy. I enjoyed seeing old favorites and several of the episodes brought tears to my eyes. But that hour show retrospect should have included those actors that have been on the show since the beginning. Yes, there were actually actors that started on the show and never left! Unfortunately, these actors were the nurses of the ER and were never given more of a role than that of cleaning up vomit and blood, calling for a surgeon, escorting people out of the trauma rooms, patting doctors on the backs, and just performing general emergency room procedures. We never saw them with their own storyline. We never saw their lives outside the ER. We never even knew if they had lives outside the ER. I never understood why those actors weren't given more of a storyline. Why the producers felt the need to keep them in the background.

There are three actors that come to mind:

1. Laura Ceron, who played Chuny Marquez, apparently didn't come on to ER until 1995, but she logged the third highest amount of episodes behind Noah Wyle and Laura Innes with 219 episodes. Chuny was the nurse who was always called to translate whenever a Spanish speaking patient came into the ER.
2. Deezer D who logged 188 episodes from 1994 to 2009 and comes in 5th place of most episodes acted. Deezer played nurse Malik McGrath who had a great sense of humor and brought the brawn when it was needed.
3. Yvette Freeman who played nurse Haleh Adams. Remember her? She was heavy, then she lost tons of weight (which was briefly mentioned in one show), and now she is heavy again. Yvette acted in 185 episodes from beginning to end.

I guarantee that these three actors had tons of memories and loads to say during that one hour reliving of ER. The fact that they were not included is an injustice that is flat out wrong. Instead, we had to listen to Steven Spielberg and actors that haven't been on the show since the mid-nineties. I just felt it was wrong. The three actors above did more than anyone and received less than anyone on that show.
They deserved mention. I'll miss them.