St. Elsewhere Emmy Winners - Ed Flanders, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, 1983

A video clip featuring Ed Flanders' Emmy-winning performance from St. Elsewhere's first season.

I'll be getting back to the St. Elsewhere Appreciation Club newsletters soon, but I'm inspired to edit together clips again, and this time around we feature St. Elsewhere's other Emmy winner from the show's inaugural season--the late, great Ed Flanders, who received his third Emmy for his portrayal of hospital administrator Dr. Donald Westphall.

Dr. Westphall (Ed Flanders) stands up to Mr. O'Connor
(Dick O'Neill), local violent bigot.

I don't actually know for sure that this is the episode for which he was nominated; I'm actually judging by the selection of clips they chose for the fifth-season clip show, "Good Vibrations", which seemed to pay particular attention to the Emmy-winning episodes. Regardless, this episode always stands out to me as one of my favorite Westphall moments--where Donald really kicks some ass. Not literally, but he certainly would have...

These scenes are from the episode, "Monday, Tuesday, Sven's Day", which concluded a two-episode story arc about patient Kevin O'Connor (David Elliott), a high-school student who is admitted to the hospital with severe injuries from a beating. He and his older brother (Michael Madsen), claim that they were beaten by a group of black teens, and the incident touches off a wave of racial violence between local black and white youths.

However, guilt overwhelms the young O'Connor, who confesses that the story had been fabricated to protect their father (Dick O'Neill), a bigot who beat his son after learning that his progeny had befriended a young black girl at his integrated high school. When Westphall learns what happened, he knows he has no legal recourse to prevent the teenager from remaining under his father's care.

So when the elder O'Connor confronts Westphall about interfering in his family's business, Donald doesn't hold back. Here's Emmy-winner Ed Flanders, David Morse, David Elliott, Christina Pickles, William Daniels, Michael Madsen and Dick O'Neill in "Monday, Tuesday, Sven's Day".

People Magazine's Obituary for Ed Flanders

The obituary for St. Elsewhere star Ed Flanders, from the People Magazine archives.

Ed Flanders wins the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a
Drama Series, September 25, 1983.

As a companion piece to the On Call profile on the life and death of Ed Flanders, this is the obituary that ran in People magazine's March 20, 1995 edition.

As you may know, the man who gave St. Elsewhere its heart as Dr. Donald Westphall and built a long career as a highly-respected veteran of stage, film and television died on February 22, 1995 in an apparent suicide. The People article "From Elsewhere to Nowhere" as you'd expect, is pretty grim, especially compared to the tribute in On Call published here earlier. I knew I was going to post a link to this article eventually, so I was glad to see that the On Call profile was a bit rosier to provide a nice counterpoint.

These two articles provide a decent overview of Ed Flanders' accomplished acting career, as well as the issues that troubled him.

On Call, Vol. 1, No. 3 - Personnel Profile: Ed Flanders... "Salute to an Everyman"

From On Call: The Official Newsletter of the St. Elsewhere Appreciation Club, December 1997, volume 1, number 3.


Editor's Preface

As a club, one of our objectives is to celebrate ST. ELSEWHERE and to promote its continued re-broadcast. ON CALL is the vehicle that we use to help achieve that objective. ON CALL is not TIME Magazine or the National Enquirer, and as such, our articles are generally focused on the positive aspects of any given subject. But we remind our newer subscribers that SEAC's other mission is to promote health and social issues in the spirit of ST. ELSEWHERE, so that we too can acknowledge the contributions made in that regard by cast and crew, and that we might, by extension, help to heighten awareness of medical issues and promote prevention and early intervention through education. In a sense, then, Ed Flanders' life (and death) provide a cause for celebration and introspection, helping us to fulfill our dual mission.
St. Elsewhere was funny, and so was Ed.
St. Elsewhere was highly respected, and so was Ed.
St. Elsewhere dealt with life threatening problems, and so did Ed.

Charles Cioffi told us that there was nothing phony about Ed Flanders, and that Ed didn't tolerate phoniness in others...said Chuck, "Ed didn't suffer fools well." And so, had we merely glossed over the parts of Ed's life that defined his very existence, both creatively and otherwise, our phoniness, our foolishness wouldn't have been suffered by Ed.

It was at the urging of Bonnie, Christina, and Norman that we undertook this profile of Ed, and at times, the task was problematic. Bonnie told me "You've got a rough article to write," and she was correct. Nevertheless, the profile did come together, and in composing it, we honor Ed as one of America's greatest actors. This was indeed a labor of love.


Early Years

Edward Paul Flanders was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 29, 1934. He had two siblings, sister Rene, and brother Bud. From early on, Ed's first love was hockey.

Video: Interview with Norman Lloyd

Videos of an interview with Norman Lloyd about his career and his experience on St. Elsewhere, courtesy of the Archive of American Television and YouTube.

Norman Lloyd (Dr. Daniel Auschlander) discusses his long
career and his time on St. Elsewhere.

Here are some clips from an interview conducted from September 7, 2000, hosted at the Archive of American Television, and also divided into sections on YouTube. In the full version of the interview, Lloyd discusses his long and accomplished career, from studying with Eva Le Galienne (who came out of retirement to appear in the Emmy-winning episode "The Women" in season two), joining the Mercury Theatre, appearing in the title role of Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur and his long association with the legendary director, and much more. I haven't watched the whole thing (it's long), but I'll bet it's interesting. If you're looking for St. Elsewhere stuff, jump to six minutes into part six.

The following clips from YouTube are excerpts from this full version.

Network TV's First Full Moon

St. Elsewhere pushed the limits of nudity on TV with the first shot of bare buttocks on prime time network television.

Episode three of season six, "A Moon for the Misbegotten", which aired September 30, 1987, marks the final appearance of Dr. Donald Westphall as a regular character on St. Elsewhere. (He makes two more appearances during season six; in episode 17, "Their Town", and in the finale, "The Last One".) When season six begins, we learn that after the wrecker's ball struck the front of the hospital, the demolition was stopped due to a last-second offer to purchase St. Eligius from a corporation called Ecumena, and after a month off for renovations, the staff is asked to return to their old jobs. Ecumena puts their own man in charge, Dr. John Gideon (Ronny Cox), and Donald and Daniel (75 and suffering from cancer) are only allowed to continue working in figurehead positions with no real authority.

Mr. Collins from Ecumena (Dennis Patrick) has had enough
of Donald Westphall (and people like him).

Donald's personality and approach to running the hospital are completely out of step with the corporate types and their bottom-line approach to providing health care, and by episode three, after lobbying for an AIDS clinic and pissing off Gideon's boss from head office, Donald is fired. At the end of the day (around 8 PM, according to the screen clocks), Donald meets Gideon in his office, and Gideon offers him one more chance. They can run the hospital together, Gideon says, if Donald would only compromise and "adapt [his] point of view."

Donald tells Gideon that it's an interesting offer. He turns around, we see his back, he appears to be fiddling with something, and he says, "Let me try and tell you in terms I think you can understand." We see Gideon's reaction and hear the sound of pants dropping. The next shot shows Donald standing up, bare from the waist down at a 45-degree angle to the camera, full moon on display for Gideon, but upper body turned so Donald can address him--"you can kiss my ass, pal." Click here for the uncensored shots.