If you are as much a fan of ER as I am (and if you're not, you are in the wrong place) you have spent at least a small part of the last five months anticipating the season premier. My question is this, have we been letting all this anticipation raise our expectations to a level that cannot be satified by even the most talented of ER writers?

Imagine that season six had ended with Carter and Lucy bleeding on the floor of Curtain Area 3 in "Be Still My Heart". What if we had been forced to wait for five months for "All In The Family" instead of just one week? Would it still have seemed as good an episode as everyone professed it to be? Or would such a long wait have built our expectations to a point that even AITF would have seemed anticlimactic.

I have seen the previews for the first episode several times. It looks as though they are going to throw a riot, an explosion, and a mass trauma into the hour in an attempt to satisfy us, the fans. I'm not sure it can be done. But I'll be there on Thursday night, hoping for a good episode, but probably willing to be satisfied simply by the fact that the new season has started.

-- N Wilson (nwilson@wko.com), October 09, 2000

Answers

I see your point, but are you kidding?!? This will definitely satisfy ER fans! (I am a HUUUGGGGEEEEE one!) Not just the episode but the fact that ER is back on now. This is going to be great! I just saw the commercial as I was typing this!

-- Stephanie (ERGirl22@aol.com), October 09, 2000.

I, too, have been eagerly anticipating the season premiere. I will trust that the writers are going to do a great job (until they prove otherwise). As for your point about "AITF," yes, I think the show would have lived up to my expectations if it had been the season premiere. It had everything that is needed for great drama: a great story line, characters we care about in perilous situations, and, of course, terrific acting and direction. I almost wish it *had* been the season prmiere. Look at all the buzz "The West Wing" got because of its cliffhanger. Oh, well. I guess we only have to wait a couple more days to have our questions answered :). I can't wait!

-- Katrina (cattrek2@hotmail.com), October 10, 2000.

As always TPTB won't satisfy all fans, however hard they try. I'm really looking forward to the premier, but even more I'm looking forward to tuning into a new episode each week. In the past the premiers have often seemed a little wierd (primarily season 4 & 5 premiers...not that I didn't enjoy them, but it was a couple episodes before episodes got back into the swing of things). I'll be really interested to see this premier particulary if it follows a different timeline than previous episodes/premiers.

-- Emma (webbef@hotmail.com), October 10, 2000.

By the time we finally get the new series in the UK I will just about be tearing my hair out with anticipation (get the violins out, poor hard done by British girl on-line). There are so many things that I want to see happen in this series, and I don't think I've ever anticipated a new season so much. So yes, I think there is a serious danger that I will feel let down if the first few eppys don't pack a real punch and then continue in the same vein.By *punch*, I DON'T mean lots of action,explosions and mayhem, but character revelations and insights as well as a few home truths being realised.

-- Tori (MarieTori@aol.com), October 10, 2000.

I'm just happy we only have 2 days left until the premiere!! And N.Wyle will be on Leno Wednesday evening. That is satisfaction enough for right now :)

-- anne (sapphire_172@hotmail.com), October 10, 2000.

Ahhh! I actually thought today was Thursday! It's Tuesday, not Thursday. LOL! Can you tell how excited I am? Thursday is going to be a VERY long day!

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 10, 2000.

And after watching Noah on Leno, we can all switch over to CBS and watch Alex on Craig Kilbourn. :-)

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), October 10, 2000.

I didn't know Alex was going to be on Craig Kilbourn. How come noone mentioned this until now? Thank you for telling us JLS. The next two days are going to be very long indeed. I wonder if the WB Message Boards will ever be fixed. It's still going very slow and alot of people will be very unhappy if they can't get on it after the premiere.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 10, 2000.

You guys need to make sure you post dates of cast appearances in a message of its own. I almost didn't see these. BTW, where do you get this info?

-- Stephanie (ERGirl22@aol.com), October 10, 2000.

Since this is a forum for ER & not ER actors, as Mike Sugimoto has pointed out several times, another thread about upcoming appearances will just be deleted. Understandable, but just an FYI... Totally forgot about Alex being on Craig Kilborn - yippee!!

-- anne (sapphire_172@hotmail.com), October 10, 2000.

Alex being on Craig Kilbourn was posted on the newsgroup, which I had advised people to join several times if you want information like this (or other newsflashes about the actors) since we're not supposed to post such things on these boards.

Plus, its in the TV Guide.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), October 10, 2000.

Well I for one appreciate being able to hear about appearances on here, I didn't even know about NW being on Leno. So could someone please let me know what this newsgroup is and where to go to find it so that I can hear about appearances more? Thanks anyone! I am pretty excited because I *this* time NW will be talking about ER. (though I enjoyed his Fail Safe plug too)

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), October 11, 2000.

If you're on AOL, just type "news:alt.tv.er" in keyword. If not you'll have to use Deja, which sucks in my opinion:

http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ap]/topics_if.xp?search=topic&group=alt.tv. er&GRPP=967079381.1405878280&title=Related&query=

Alex may nor may not be on Kilborn tonite. Some schedules have her listed, some don't. So who knows. Maybe she cancelled.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), October 11, 2000.

First thing I thought of this morning: ER will finally be back!!!!!! Followed closely by it's Thursday and I'm only working half a day tomorrow.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 12, 2000.

I don't think Alex Kingston was on...I turned to some CBS talk show and I think it was the right one, but I only saw the girl from "Meet the Parents" and Violent Femmes were on. Unless she was on earlier and I missed it in the first half, but they didn't mention it. Anyways, NW on Leno was great!

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), October 12, 2000.