Friendship With Benefits

Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton developed motion pictures and television programs, notably the Jurassic Park franchise and the long-running ER series. The two men, who were dear friends working together, are a fascinating story of success.

Dinosaurs from “Jurassic Park”

An acquaintance, a high school teacher, told me about a time he showed his students the movie Jurassic Park. At the end of the film, some of his students thought dinosaurs were still alive on our planet. Not that the students were stupid. The movie was realistic enough to make the dinosaurs appear real in their minds’ eyes.

The movie’s detailed and realistic images of various dinosaurs, along with its story, acting, and sound, created a realistic world based on Crichton’s bestselling novel.

The original movie focuses on a devastating effort to produce and clone dinosaurs for an innovative theme park.

The franchise began in 1990 when Spielberg grabbed the rights to the unpublished book. Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment purchased the rights to the novel.

After four sequels, the franchise flourished, with the first two based on Crichton’s books, and it spawned tons of video games, comic books, and theme parks.

The franchise resurrected Richard Attenborough’s career and bolstered the careers of Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Lauren Dern, Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Jurassic Park’s motion picture franchise includes a water excursion at Universal Studios theme parks.

The franchise movies alone have grossed close to $ 5 billion worldwide.

Crichton and Spielberg Winning Team

The success of the Jurassic Park franchise indicates that Crichton and Spielberg made a winning team. They invested their good fortune in an American medical television series that proved just as fruitful as the dinosaur movies.

Under the umbrella of Amblin Television, Crichton and Spielberg’s team created the medical drama ER. The show lasted 15 years and won several prestigious awards, bringing together famed talents that I will mention later in the article.

If anything, ER is a lesson in producing an award-winning television show and practically keeping it on the air for years. I am sure students of film and television classrooms study this series in its entirety. They identify and highlight the factors that contributed to the show’s high ratings and large worldwide audience.

Emmy Award Winners

The show won multiple Emmy Awards, with 124 nominations and 22 wins, reflecting the caliber of work that stood behind and in front of the camera, launching the stellar careers of George Clooney, along with Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle, Julianna Margulies, and Maria Bello.

“ER”

Although I never watched the series as a whole, but as clips from different shows, I tend to shy away from medical shows. ER taps into the intimate workings of an urban training hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its vigilant emergency room.

Every week, fans glued themselves to the television and watched quirky and unique medical professionals save lives in a place where nothing is taken for granted or guaranteed. The emergency room doors open, and another distraught person or persons gets placed in their hands, life or death, within an hour’s worth of television programming.

Endless Series

Even though I didn’t watch the series, I watched the Collector’s Edition DVD of the 15th and final season, an all-time favorite of multiple emergency room drama shows.

The series lasted as long as it did because of the talented writers, as evidenced by the final season, particularly in the show’s ending. The arc ties into the earlier seasons, including Noah Wyle’s professional choices and personal life.

Now, Wyle is starring in HBO’s Emmy-winning The Pitt, very similar to ER, but set over one day in an emergency room in Pittsburgh.

Curtain Call

The final season is a curtain call for all the show’s lead characters. They returned one way or another, including those who died on the show.

One point of view about the medical drama is the large cast of major actors who left due to injury, death, firing, or disappearance. Like most long-running shows, I understand that cast members go in hopes of bigger and better careers.

The final season includes movie stars Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance. The main arc centers on Catherine Banfield, the ER’s medical director, played by Basset, and her husband, Russell Banfield, played by Vance. Both are intense and effectively support their respective sides of the issue.

The series ends well, and that is what matters to the fans. The finale is rewarding to those who faithfully followed the multiple storylines.

George Clooney

I am sure you’ll appreciate watching the episodes, knowing that you can watch them again and again since you own the DVD. The cast changing through the years might throw you off, but it is graced with guest appearances from Clooney and other original cast members.

If you still need an emergency room fix on television, there are similar shows that follow ER’s formula, which validates the series even more, such as Grey’s Anatomy, a long-running show as well.