I notice that some people think there is too many people on ER. Well "Chicago Hope" had to many characters and fired practically everyone last year. This year thy're ratings went down which may be because of "Millionaire" and now they are offically gone. They were cancelled last week. So maybe Er is afraid that that would happen to them if they got rid of some people. I doubt that would ever happen though. "Chicago Hope" was a bad show to begin with and it just got worse. I saw the next to the last episode of the series and this guy said that "everyone is special at Chicago Hope". I then thought "and they wonder why they're about to get the boot".

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), May 26, 2000

Answers

I have to say, that while there are a lot of characters on ER, I enjoy every plot and I love the different ways the writers present the characters. I think that since they've dumped Lucy and Carol, ER has got, like, a perfect number of people on it (I'm not saying I didn't like Lucy or Carol, I loved them!), and I appreciate the way they handle the plots.

-- Lauren (whateverchick@aol.com), May 26, 2000.

I think it has seemed so crowded this year because we had ALL the new people and ALL the old people on at the same time. (I guess except for Deb, who didn't really come on until January) I guess they had to introduce the new people when they did so we could get used to them. But I agree that, since Jeanie, Carol and Lucy all left this year, now they can start focusing on the others.

I guess it helps that they sort of rotate them, where a couple of characters won't appear in an episode, but they will be on the next week and then some others won't be on much the NEXT week. That is better than trying to fit *everybody* in the same show.

-- Melanie (msintn@hotmail.com), May 26, 2000.

You know - I never really totally understood why people complained about too many characters. That's probably because i only started watching during season six and i know a lot of people think that all the characters drain the actual show. But, i love ER, i think its great and I hope they don't change it too much (Except that i hope Cleo has a looooong brutal painful death - she pisses me off!!).

-- Vicki Baker (ms_peachy_pie@hotmail.com), May 27, 2000.

Melanie's response about there being people entering and leaving explains a lot about the over-crowding feeling. I want to add to it that TPTB have brought on some characters who've clicked almost instantly (Luka, for me) and some that haven't (Lucy for many, until she died at least). I think this has been the process to get to a cast that will click together...and I think they're almost there with Carter, Mark, Peter, Elizabeth, Luka, Abby, the supporting cast, Romano, guest appearances by Anspaugh, etc. One of the things they have to prepare for is the show going on if one of the "older" cast members leaves so they're building the "newer" cast as they continue with the "older" ones. I'm glad they're introducing them now and creating the continuity that will keep the show alive. For example, what if Laura Innes hadn't joined a year before Sherry Stringfield left? Because they were both on at the same time and Kerry had been established, she easily stepped up. Anyway, that's why I think we have so many new cast members, to integrate them with the entire ensemble while it's intact (and as Julianna and Kellie were leaving). BTW, I might have left out someone else in the list above unintentionally, but I intentionally left out Deb and Cleo. Either or both of them could be gone for all I care, with or without replacements. I've stated my reasons for Cleo before and so far I've not seen enough improvement to change those and I can't for the life of me understand why they brought Deb back in the first place. I was glad when she left the first time. Sorry to go on so long.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 27, 2000.