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This ER trivia quiz has 45 free questions with answers and covers all fifteen seasons of NBC's medical drama, from Michael Crichton's 1974 script and the 1994 pilot to the 2009 finale that finally showed the outside of County General. Questions take in the original cast and their arcs, the live episode 'Ambush', 'Love's Labor Lost', Lucy Knight and Carter's stabbing, Mark Greene's last days in Hawaii, Robert Romano's helicopters, Clooney's secret return, the ratings peaks, the record 124 Emmy nominations and the Third Watch crossover. It is written for anyone who watched Thursday nights in the 1990s and 2000s or has since binged the show on streaming: easy questions on the cast, harder ones on episode details and production history. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
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Q 01Which best-selling author created ER, based on a script he had written in 1974?
Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton, a Harvard-trained doctor, wrote the ER pilot script in 1974 drawing on his own training; it sat unproduced for twenty years before NBC picked it up.
Q 02Which director's company, Amblin Television, co-produced ER after steering it toward TV?
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television co-produced ER with Crichton's Constant c Productions and Warner Bros. Television; Spielberg had read the script while working with Crichton on Jurassic Park.
Q 03ER premiered on NBC on 19 September of which year?
1994
ER premiered on NBC on 19 September 1994 with a two-hour pilot and ran for fifteen seasons, ending on 2 April 2009.
Q 04Which ER character was played by William H. Macy?
Dr. David Morgenstern
William H. Macy played Dr. David Morgenstern, the surgeon heading County's emergency department in the early seasons, who tells Greene in the pilot, 'You set the tone.'
Q 05ER is set in the emergency room of which fictional Chicago hospital?
County General
ER is set at County General Hospital, a fictional public hospital in Chicago; the series finale ended on a wide shot of its exterior as a mass-casualty call arrives.
Q 06Which actor played Dr. Mark Greene, the lead of ER's first eight seasons?
Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards played Dr. Mark Greene, the steady centre of the show's first eight seasons, and left in 2002 when Greene died of a brain tumour.
Q 07George Clooney's character Doug Ross was a doctor in which specialty?
Paediatrics
Doug Ross was County's paediatrics specialist, a paediatric emergency fellow and later attending whose devotion to child patients repeatedly put him at odds with administrators.
Q 08At the end of which year of the show did George Clooney depart as a regular?
Fifth
Clooney left at the end of the fifth season in the 1999 two-parter 'The Storm', then made an uncredited cameo in the season 6 finale 'Such Sweet Sorrow'.
Q 09Julianna Margulies played which nurse?
Carol Hathaway
Julianna Margulies played nurse Carol Hathaway, whose pilot-episode overdose was meant to be fatal until test audiences objected; she and Clooney returned together in 2009's 'Old Times'.
Q 10Noah Wyle's John Carter starts the series as what?
A third-year medical student
John Carter arrives in the pilot as a third-year medical student assigned to a demanding surgical resident; Noah Wyle's 254 episodes are the most of any ER cast member.
Q 11Which patient stabbed Carter and medical student Lucy Knight on Valentine's Day in season six?
Paul Sobriki
Paul Sobriki, a schizophrenic patient, stabbed Carter and Lucy in 'Be Still My Heart'; Lucy died of a pulmonary embolism in 'All in the Family', and Carter later fought a painkiller addiction.
Q 12Which actress played the ill-fated medical student Lucy Knight?
Kellie Martin
Kellie Martin, formerly of Life Goes On, played medical student Lucy Knight from season 5 until the character's death in February 2000.
Q 13Which country did Carter travel to for humanitarian work, where he met Kem Likasu?
The Congo
Q 21How does Mekhi Phifer's Dr. Greg Pratt die in the season 15 premiere?
Injuries from an ambulance explosion
Angela Bassett joined the same season as new ER chief Cate Banfield.
Q 22Laura Innes played which crutch-using ER chief who appeared from season 2 to season 13?
Kerry Weaver
Laura Innes played Dr. Kerry Weaver, the limping, crutch-using administrator who rose to chief of staff; Innes also directed several episodes and returned for the finale.
Q 23Gloria Reuben's physician assistant Jeanie Boulet dealt with which storyline before leaving in season 6?
Carter joined a relief mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, first seen in 'Kisangani', and met Kem Likasu there; in season 15 he returned to County needing a kidney transplant.
Q 14The live season-four premiere was framed as what?
A PBS documentary crew filming the ER
Thomas Schlamme directed with 11 cameras; the episode also introduced Alex Kingston as surgeon Elizabeth Corday.
Q 15Which five-Emmy season 1 episode sees Greene lose a mother during an emergency delivery?
Love's Labor Lost
'Love's Labor Lost' (March 1995) follows Greene's failed management of a routine delivery that kills the mother; Lance Gentile won the writing Emmy and Mimi Leder the directing Emmy.
Q 16What condition did Greene miss in the pregnant patient in the Emmy-winning season 1 delivery episode?
Eclampsia
Greene treated Jodi O'Brien for a urinary tract infection and missed her pre-eclampsia; she seized with eclampsia, and an emergency caesarean could not save her.
Q 17How did surgeon Robert Romano lose his arm in the season 9 premiere?
A helicopter rotor severed it
In 'Chaos Theory' Romano's left arm was severed by the tail rotor of a helicopter on the hospital roof; a season later in 'Freefall' a falling helicopter killed him.
Q 18Which actor played the abrasive Dr. Robert Romano?
Paul McCrane
Paul McCrane, earlier seen in Fame and RoboCop, played Dr. Robert 'Rocket' Romano from 1997 until the character's death by falling helicopter in 2003.
Q 19Eriq La Salle played which ambitious surgeon who left the show in season 8?
Peter Benton
Benton left to spend more time with his son Reese and returned for the finale.
Q 20Which Croatian actor played Dr. Luka Kovac, whose family was killed in the Balkan war?
Goran Visnjic
Goran Visnjic, born in Sibenik, Croatia, played Luka Kovac from 1999 to 2008; Kovac had lost his wife and children in the Croatian War of Independence.
Living with HIV and adopting an HIV-positive child
The show was praised for its handling of HIV at a time when few dramas touched it.
Q 24Which Full House star joined ER in its later seasons as paramedic-turned-doctor Tony Gates?
John Stamos
John Stamos, Uncle Jesse on Full House, joined ER in 2005 as paramedic Tony Gates, who became an intern and then a resident at County.
Q 25How many Primetime Emmy nominations did ER receive over its fifteen seasons?
124
ER earned 124 Primetime Emmy nominations across its run, winning 23 of them, and received a Peabody Award in 1995.
Q 26Which ER doctor was played by Ming-Na Wen?
Jing-Mei Chen
Ming-Na Wen played Dr. Jing-Mei 'Deb' Chen, first as a medical student in season 1 and again as a resident and attending from season 6 to season 11.
Q 27Which actor played desk clerk Jerry Markovic?
Abraham Benrubi
Abraham Benrubi played Jerry Markovic, the hulking ER desk clerk, in the early seasons and again from season 8 to the 2009 finale; Troy Evans played fellow clerk Frank Martin.
Q 28What was the title of ER's two-hour series finale on 2 April 2009?
And in the End...
'And in the End...', written by John Wells and directed by Rod Holcomb, takes its title from the Beatles' 'The End' and reunites Carter with Benton, Weaver and Susan Lewis.
Q 29Which Hollywood veteran earned an Emmy nomination for playing a dying woman's husband in the ER finale?
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine, then 92, played Paul Manning, who sits with his dying wife in the finale; the role brought him a Guest Actor Emmy nomination in 2009.
Q 30Which fellow John Wells series crossed over with ER in a 2002 storyline about Susan Lewis's missing niece?
Third Watch
The story began in ER's 'Brothers & Sisters' and finished in Third Watch's 'Unleashed'.