St. Elsewhere - Season 1
by Allan Arkush, Bethany Rooney, Bruce Paltrow, Charles Braverman, Kevin Hooks
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Actor: David Birney, Ed Begley Jr., Ed Flanders, G.W. Bailey, Terence KnoxDirector: Allan Arkush, Bethany Rooney, Bruce Paltrow, Charles Braverman, Kevin Hooks
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1081 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-28
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of St. Elsewhere - Season 1
DVD Review: Loved St. Elsewhere
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved all of the seasons of St Elsewhere. I especially liked to see "Boomer" played by David Morse, he was teriffic! Also, liked William Daniels and Howie Mandel. Can't wait to see seasons 2-6, hope it happens.DVD Review: The original ER
Summary: 5 Stars
So many of the cast of this first-rate 80's show have gone on to be big names - Denzel Washington, Howie Mandel, Alfre Woodard... St Elsewhere was so well written and never afraid to take on the hot topics of the day. They even had a main character die of AIDS. The episodes are filled with a mix of drama, humor (sometimes dark hospital humor...), great characters and good acting. Some of the best TV came from the 80's and St Elsewhere is definitely on the list of all-time greats. DVD Review: St Elsewhere DVDS a big birthday hit
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband requested St E for his birthday, and he was thrilled when he received it yesterday. We had to watch it an hour after he opened it. A great program.DVD Review: Good TV I had never seen before
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, I missed this when it was on TV, and I'd like to know where the rest of the series is. One season is not enough. It's so much fun to watch Denzel, Howie, and the rest in their early days, with those 80s clothes and hair-dos. And this show really tackled some tough material: Down Syndrome, abortion, mental illness, hostage-taking, Munchausen Syndrome, drug addiction, and more.
Come on, studios, get the rest of these out on DVD!
DVD Review: Falters early on, but quickly rises to meet two decades of high praise!
Summary: 5 Stars
Having watched St. Elsewhere when it was originally broadcast, I had been left with memories of a truly high quality series in every regard (acting, writing, and directing). Could it be as good as I had remembered?
The first episode doesn't disappoint, it's a great debut. But then, the writing stalls a bit. A suggestion for new viewers; don't bail out because of the "tweety and ralph" storyline, or because of uneven writing in the beginning few episodes. Once things begin to pick up, St. Elsewhere really does rise to meet the high praise it regularly receives. I'm happy to say that after watching season one, my memories of a "great series" were in fact correct! Truly one of the best of the 80's, and of all time.
I cannot end this review without mentioning the fact that I have never really liked E.R. or Chicago Hope, two series that perhaps owe a great debt to St. Elsewhere. A huge production and "big names" (producers, actors) do not always create a superior product. In fact, the simple low key approach taken by St. Elsewhere is what helps it to rise above the more "produced" efforts on TV.
Give St. Elsewhere a try! Don't give up after just a few episodes, watch the complete first season! I promise, you'll be yelling for the long overdue release of season two!
JM
Description of St. Elsewhere - Season 1
Over its six-season run, the ground-breaking, critically acclaimed St. Elsewhere was nominated for over 60 Emmy Awards, winning 13 of them! This remarkable series, with its unique blend of intense medical drama, off-beat humor and imaginative storytelling, paved the way for later TV classics such as E.R. and Chicago Hope, while introducing America to future superstars Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, and Oscar(r)-winner* Denzel Washington. Eccentric, insightful, and intelligent, St. Elsewhere is considered to be one of the best dramas ever to air on broadcast television.Beginning its six-year run in 1982, St. Elsewhere was neither television's first ensemble medical drama nor, heaven knows, its last. Yet this four-disc set of all 22 episodes from the first season is a reminder that this was, and still is, one of the very best. Even now, when "reality" programming blights the landscape like some biblical plague, doc, cop, and lawyer shows remain staples of the medium, and while the likes of C.S.I., E.R., and Grey's Anatomy have it all over St. Elsewhere in the sizzle department--the production values are much flashier, the content sexier, more graphic, and faster-moving, the technology both in front of and behind the camera light years more sophisticated--the older show, despite its somewhat cheesy '70s vibe, is the hands-down winner when it comes to the actual steak. That's because it does it the old-fashioned way: by relying on good writing, vividly-drawn, identifiable characters, and excellent performances by an eye-opening group of actors.
Co-creators Joshua Brand and John Falsey's pilot episode, which establishes the scene at Boston's St. Eligius Hospital (mocked as "St. Elsewhere" due to its rundown facilities and reputation as a "dumping ground" for the poor and disenfranchised), isn't especially promising. While we can see right away that the show sports a lighter, more humorous tone than others of its genre, the direction is static, the acting and dialogue are often stiff, and what passes for "chaos" is pretty tame. But it hits its stride almost immediately thereafter, as the characters (including Howie Mandel's wisecracking Dr. Fiscus, David Morse's driven, committed Dr. Morrison, William Daniels' egotistical, pompous Dr. Craig, and Ed Begley, Jr.'s nerdy Dr. Ehrlich) are more fully realized. The cast, in fact, may be the most impressive ever assembled for a TV program: in the first season alone, the list of actors with regular, recurring, and one-shot appearances includes future movie stars Denzel Washington (a regular, but his role is minor), Tim Robbins, Ally Sheedy, Christopher Guest, Laraine Newman, Ray Liotta, Tom Hulce, Michael Madsen, and Rae Dawn Chong. Sure, some of the multiple storylines are dated: the handling of issues like gun control, immigration, and terrorism seems almost quaint by today's standards, and a running gag concerning ladies man Dr. Samuels' (David Birney) having to inform his many lovers that he has gonorrhea comes off as tasteless and unfunny, notwithstanding that era's low awareness of AIDS and other STDs. But on the whole, this St. Elsewhere set (extras include audio commentary for "Cora and Arnie," plus four featurettes) is a reminder of episodic TV at its best. --Sam Graham
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