Does anyone know why they got rid of Morgenstern? I have been watching the earlier episodes on TNT and Morgenstern was a great guy on the show. No offense to any Romano fans but I like Morgenstern alot more than him. Morgenstern cared about people and didn't make wisecracks to his co-workers like Romano does.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), September 19, 2000

Answers

William H. Macy has had a very successful film career, including an Oscar nomination [win?] for Fargo. I think we can assume that he chose that path instead of sticking with ER.

-- John (lloydsouth@cs.com), September 19, 2000.

Wasn't William H. Macy an acclaimed actor even before he did his thing on ER?

-- samira (matb_west@chickmail.com), September 19, 2000.

The way I remember it is he was a good actor, maybe aclaimed even, but not as busy or successful as he became during his ER days. Fargo (which in my opinion is one of the worst movies ever made) certainly pushed his career along. His exposure on ER didn't hurt either.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), September 19, 2000.

William H. Macy is primarily a stage actor. Prior to ER, he did about one play a year, actually the number is 42. He has directed 16 plays, and wrote 3. While appearing on the stage in New York he made numerous guest spots on TV shows, and had parts in several independent movies.

Having a recurring part on ER gave Macy his biggest exposure to date. Being nominated for an Oscar during his time on ER, put his career in overdrive. With so many offers coming in, Macy couldn't commit to the 6 to 12 episodes a year. I believe he gave the producers of ER a year to wrap up his storyline.

Here is an excerpt of an interview with Macy from the New York Times;

For most of his adult life, William H. Macy has been a hard-working if relatively unknown stage and film actor. Then came Fargo, the 1996 Joel and Ethan Coen comedy-drama in which Macy played a scheming car dealer. His performance not only earned him an Academy Award nomination but placed him on a new career path as well.

"When I moved here in 1990 I was working pretty steadily, but I was the fourth guy, the fifth guy, the 10th guy in a movie," said Macy, 48. "Then Fargo kicked me up to the grown-ups' table."

With some understatement, Macy added, "I'm a pretty busy boy now."

Macy appears in A Civil Action, a drama that opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles. The film deals with an eight-year battle by working-class families in Woburn, Mass., who contended that two large corporations had contaminated their town's drinking water with chemicals and caused the deaths of five children and one adult.

Macy has a relatively small role in the movie. "I'll always take a great script over a huge part," he said. "My goal is to find a huge part in a great script." He recently starred in Psycho and the fantasy Pleasantville and has been in an array of other movies, including Boogie Nights, Wag the Dog and Air Force One.

In the new year, Macy will be making several films as well as starring in a Turner Network Television comedy-drama, A Travesty, adapted from a novella by Donald Westlake. Macy wrote the script for the film with his friend Steven Schachter.

"It's about a film critic who mistakenly kills someone," Macy said. "It's funnier than all get out."

For more information on William H. Macy go here; http://www.whmacy.com/

-- T Lem (t_lem@yahoo.com), September 20, 2000.

William H. Macy is great and I miss him as Morgenstern, but can understand why he would choose to leave the show. Right around the time that Fargo came out (94 or 95?) he was in MORE movies than ANY other actor in that year.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), September 20, 2000.