Ah... pop culture lists. Every so often, St. Elsewhere gets a little love on one. In response to the news that NBC will be producing a new version of another MTM comic drama that debuted in the 1982, Remington Steele (which featured recent St. Elsewhere Emmy-winner Doris Roberts, who was hilarious as secretary Mildred Krebs), the New York Post has published a list of five classic television series that they would like to see remade.
The first one on the list (even though it's in no particular order)? St. Elsewhere. They applaud the show's "first-class" cast, citing William Daniels, Ed Flanders and Ed Begley, Jr., and found it cool that the ensemble included a young Howie Mandel and Stephen Furst, who is legendary for his portrayal of Flounder in National Lampoon's Animal House. They like that it never got sappy like Grey's Anatomy. However, something would have to be done about the ending.
(My suggestion for now--the pilot starts with Chad Allen as grown-up Tommy Westphall in a replica of the apartment from "The Last One", and Norman Lloyd's there too as his grandfather. Tommy picks up his old, dusty snowglobe from the top of an old TV (make it a model from 1988), gives it a shake, and stares into it. Cut to an exterior shot of St. Eligius, and it's snowing. Begin series, and it's present day in Boston. That's how you get around the snow-globe ending.)
The other classic series on the list:
- Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere's MTM competition (the list of actors cited for playing memorable characters omits double-Emmy-winner Michael Conrad; come to think of it, you'd think the Elsewhere list would mention Denzel)
- Thirtysomething (whose starring role for Patricia Wettig prompted the departure of her St. Elsewhere character, Jack Morrison's second wife, Joanne)
- Friends (which featured Christina Pickles as Judy Geller, the mom from hell)
- The Larry Sanders Show (which featured Deborah May, a.k.a. yuppie fertility patient Terri Valere, as ice-cold network executive Melanie Parrish)
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