"Cora and Arnie"

Description: A homeless couple face separation when the woman's impending amputation means show won't be able to care for her mentally challenged husband. A vacationing middle-class couple get a crash course in medical costs after a series of routine tests for an unexplained fainting. Beale tells Rhinehardt that he is fit for trial, and will be sent to prison. Fiscus treats a parolee whose back pains turn out to be a gunshot wound. Kochar feels homesick. Katherine McAllister dies, and her husband's grief turns deadly.

"Cora and Arnie" is the 4th episode of season 1 of St. Elsewhere.
Originally aired November 23, 1982.
Teleplay by Neil Cuthbert
Story by Joshua Brand & John Falsey and Neil Cuthbert
Directed by Mark Tinker 

St. Elsewhere Emmy Winners - Doris Roberts and James Coco for "Cora and Arnie", 1983

The first in a new series of videos featuring St. Elsewhere's Emmy winning performances and episodes.

Inspired by the article from On Call: The Official Newsletter of the St. Elsewhere Appreciation Club that told the stories behind St. Elsewhere's performance at the Emmy Awards, I am preparing video clips showcasing these great moments from the show's history.

The fourth episode of St. Elsewhere's rookie season turned out to be a special one--it featured two of the three acting performances that would be honored at the 1983 Emmy Awards (the third will be featured in the next post). Doris Roberts and James Coco, both veterans of stage and screen and old friends, played homeless couple Cora and Arnie. Their relationship comes to a crossroads when Cora learns that her feet need to be amputated, and she won't be able to look after the mentally ill/challenged Arnie anymore.

Doris Roberts & James Coco in "Cora and Arnie", Part 1:

Doris Roberts & James Coco in "Cora and Arnie", Part 2:

As was mentioned in the recent On Call post, there was an uproar from the St. Elsewhere camp come Emmy time because regular cast members were cut out of nominations and the win by guest actors who were featured for just a single episode. It wasn't until 1986 that the Outstanding Guest Actor categories were reinstated, but by that time, guest stars Roberts and Coco took home awards, guest Piper Laurie earned a nomination (in 1984), and Hill Street Blues guest stars Barbara Babcock (for Lead Actress, 1981) and Alfre Woodard (Supporting Actress, 1984) would win Emmys for St. Elsewhere's MTM competition.

If you're a fan, I highly recommend purchasing the official St. Elsewhere season one DVD release, which includes a commentary track of "Cora and Arnie" featuring Mark Tinker and Doris Roberts. The featurette and stories about Tim Robbins (in his first professional acting job) are worth the purchase price (to a fan like me, anyway).

I've never seen a clip of the awards ceremony, but according to Roberts, she won hers first, and gave her purse to her friend and fellow nominee to hold while she accepted it. When Coco was announced as the winner in his category shortly thereafter, he had no choice but to carry the purse with him and explain to the audience it wasn't his.

Here's Boomer!

The story behind Jack "Boomer" Morrison's nickname, which was inspired by NBC network executives.

Clancy (Helen Hunt) meets Boomer (David Morse).

In "Hello, Goodbye", the finale of season two, recently-widowed Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse), having just barely managed to qualify for the second year of the residency program at St. Eligius, spends a day on the town with his son, Pete. While out and about, he meets a pretty and charming college student named Clancy Williams (Helen Hunt), who is gathering signatures on a petition for nuclear disarmament. Jack asks, "What is this?", and Clancy replies, "What does it look like, Boomer? It's a petition." They begin a relationship that carries into season three, with a brief re-connection in season four. When Clancy meets the other doctors, she refers to Jack by her pet name for him, "Boomer". The staff picks up on it, and Jack gets referred to as Boomer on and off throughout the rest of the series.

In season three's "My Aim is True", repeat patient Mrs. Hufnagel (Florence Halop) introduces herself to a candidate for the position of Dr. Auschlander's assistant, and gives her the lowdown on what really goes on at St. Eligius. "Sodom and Gomorrah. You name it, the doctors at St. Eligius do it. That bleach-blond, Ehrlich, he used to get his jollies by tying up his ex-wife. There's no shame around here. They've even got a doctor here named 'Boomer'." The implication is that Clancy gave him the nickname because of his prowess in the sack. However, we've seen that she started calling him that before they knew each other in the biblical sense.

There's a behind-the-scenes explanation though, and it turns out "Boomer" is an inside joke. From the DVD commentary for "Cora and Arnie", with producer Mark Tinker and Emmy-winning guest star Doris Roberts:

The St. Elsewhere Time Frame

An unusual way to pass the time in a continuing television drama - one fictional year passes for every two in real life.

Some of season one's first-year residents: Ehrlich,
Chandler, White, Armstrong & Fiscus.

As St. Elsewhere begins, we meet a crop of first-year resident doctors--Dr. Victor Ehrlich, Dr. Wayne Fiscus, Dr. Jack Morrison, Dr. Philip Chandler, Dr. Peter White, Dr. Wendy Armstrong, Dr. Cathy Martin, plus a few others, including Dr. Jacqueline Wade and Dr. Steven Kiley, both of whom end up sticking around for the whole series.

Season two ends with the residents dealing with the pressure of taking their first-year exams, with the worst performers being dropped from the second-year residency program. This ends up including Jack Morrison, who scores low but returns because Wendy's spot opens up, and Peter White, who is dropped for very, very good reasons, sues to get his place back, but doesn't last long (karma's a bitch, ain't it).

So each television season covers half a year in the life of the residents. Season three starts with another crop of first-year residents, of which Dr. Elliott Axelrod is the only major cast addition, and season five starts with the next wave of first-year residents, with Dr. Seth Griffin and Dr. Carol Novino as the primaries, and new resident Dr. Susan Birch quickly getting the axe due in large part to Griffin's douchebaggery.

Towards the end of the series finale (at the end of season six), we briefly meet yet another first resident, Dr. Brandon Falsey (John Short), named after creators Joshua Brand and John Falsey, who left the show after season one. In Dr. Falsey's one scene, his youthful arrogance is undercut by a nurse pointing out that the dosage of the medication he just prescribed was ten times the recommended dose, and would have killed the patient.

New York Times Article on the VHS Boxed Set

From 1998, when the videotape boxed set The Very Best of St. Elsewhere was released.

Here's one from the New York Times archives, about how "St. Elsewhere Taught Us To Be Careful Watchers". In particular, this article refers to how season four viewers, watching "Cheek to Cheek", would have to remember how Mr. McAllister (Jack Bannon) ended up in prison for murdering his wife's killer, wannabe radical terrorist Andrew Rhinehardt (Tim Robbins, in one of his first professional roles), all the way back in the series' fourth episode, "Cora and Arnie". Those storylines will eventually receive posts of their own, unless I give this up.

Mr. McAllister (Jack Bannon) spots Footsteps of
Spring, not Johnny Jump-Up, on Dr. Westphall's
native plant poster.

More mention of Robert Thompson's Television's Second Golden Age, which had been published about two years before the boxed set came out. The "careful" watching referred to in the review's title was one of the things I enjoyed about St. Elsewhere when I started watching. Because of Prime's airing schedule in the 90's, I saw the seasons backwards, starting with 6, then 5, then 4, and then 1, 2 and 3. Though many people, when watching a TV show or reading a book, would hear a character refer to an event that happened before and be confused and therefore disenchanted, I've never had that problem. I'd just assume that I was the one who didn't know what was going on, make a reasonable assumption as to what they meant, and go on enjoying the story.

What made St. Elsewhere stand out, even compared to Hill Street Blues, was this awareness of its own history. I have an apparently freakish (I've been told) memory for details, so this kind of stuff really appeals to me. Upon this latest viewing, I've noticed that they don't really start with the references to past episodes until season 4.

Four seasons later, and Drs. Chandler and Kiley are
still debating: Johnny Jump-Up or Footsteps of Spring?

The example Thompson cites in his book is how on the episode following "Cheek to Cheek", Phil is buying flowers for Roxanne, and tells Kiley, "Roxanne loves Johnny Jump-Ups," to which Kiley replies, "too bad, those are Footsteps of Spring". In Cora and Arnie, after Katherine McAllister dies, Mr. McAllister is in Dr. Westphall's office, admiring the native plant poster Lizzie gave him because his office was too stark, and McAllister points at a flower and guesses, "Viola Tri-Color?" Westphall replies, "Johnny Jump-Up," and McAllister looks closer and reads that no, it's Footsteps of Spring. If you remember that scene, you're reminded of the drastic difference between the man then and now.

I received the Very Best of St. Elsewhere boxed set as a Christmas present in 2003, as it was the only legitimate video of St. Elsewhere on the market at the time. The selection of episodes was "Bypass" and "Cora and Arnie" from season one, "Drama Center" from season two, "My Aim Is True" from season three, "Time Heals (Parts 1 & 2)" from season four, "After Life" from season five, and "The Last One" from season six. This selection gives you two key episodes from the Rhinehart/McAllister story, plus the beginning, end, and aftermath of Peter White, ski-masked rapist.