Some Blogger Praise for St. Elsewhere

Haven't done a "link" entry in a while, so here's one from a blogger rating it as their favorite TV drama.

Came across this post on a blog called Pseudo-Intellectualism. Titled "The Best TV Drama: St. Elsewhere", it consists almost entirely of a review from popmatters.com by a Mark Labowskie. It's from 2007, and I've noticed that there's a lot of content about St. Elsewhere from back then that spawned from the release of the first season on DVD, the only official release of the show other than the VHS Very Best of St. Elsewhere collection.

The review credits St. Elsewhere for "inventing the modern medical drama." There's a good explanation of what was innovative about the show, much of which we take for granted now.

Dr. Ben Samuels (David Birney) in on-call with Dr. Vijay
Kochar (Kavi Raz). At least Vijay keeps his job.

Nitpick... Kavi Raz lasts more than one season. He still gets screen time in season two. It's starting with season three where he only appears on a recurring basis. He even pops up in season six.

Re: the bit about David Birney: "Birney was a popular TV star in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, and may have thought that his lothario character was going to be the de facto leading man; as it turned out, he was outshined by nearly all of the supporting cast and was gradually phased out, to the extent that he barely appears in the last few episodes of the season." According to the biography of David Birney on Yahoo! Movies, he left the show due to "[c]onflicts with the producers [about] the direction and status of his role."

Re: the bit in the comments about David Duchovny as the patient in women's underwear in the E.R. on the first season episode, "Samuels and the Kid": it's not David Duchovny. It's Paul Lieber playing the jail-bound patient. How many of you know someone who always misidentifies actors in TV shows and movies? I'm thinking of the one I know right now. I'm not immune to it myself, I must admit.

Paul Lieber as the guy who made an unfortunate choice in
undergarments.

And just for the heck of it, here are some more links to stuff people out there have written about the show:

• A description of the series on www.skooldays.com, a collection of nostalgic memories.
• A snarky review of the series from ifrymineinbutter.com.
• A synopsis on British television site www.televisionheaven.co.uk.