Elders of Listnook (born last Millenium): was the show ER as well received as The Pitt is now?

Yes. It was actually a bigger deal because we had less options for programming.

It was an enormous hit and won a ton of awards 

Thursday night was THE night for TV. Seinfeld, Friends and ER.  A bunch of us in university residence would watch ER religiously. We were First Responder nerds too so we loved it!

Well you can f*** right off for referring to us as “elders” being born “last millennium” and while you’re at it get the hell off my lawn. I think I need a glass of Metamucil to relax after this

I was pretty young but I recall it being just as big, maybe bigger.

ER was much bigger than The Pitt is now. Look at it this way: For how huge someone like a Taylor Swift or an Adele is today, they’re mid-tier compared to how huge Michael Jackson, Elvis, or The Beatles were. It’s classic Big Fish/Smaller Pond when comparing the past to now.

It topped in ratings about every week in its time s***

Juggernaut. Borderline prestige TV before such a thing existed. NYPD Blue was the other big one.

it was a tour de force, an American classic 

Hear me out ER was better because it had those bongo drums. You knew shit was going down when the drums started playing Also half the cast made so much money in salary and syndication, they just stopped working

It was the most popular, talked about drama for years.

Both of them are appointment television series which is rare in of itself. ER had the advantage of being on the highly covetable Must See TV schedule (Thursday nights in NBC), started on a major broadcast network, and only had the one and done viewing in the sense you either watched in on Thursday or miss that week’s episode entirely and have to wait until summer. ER was, at the time, revolutionary. The medical dramas we had beforehand were few and far between (MASH and St Elsewhere come to mind). ER was more realistic at the time (take that with a grain of salt). All that to say, we were not spoiled for choice and ER was massive. Just huge in influence.

ER was a much bigger deal than The Pitt currently is, especially from a cultural standpoint.

Yes iirc

Well f*** I’m being called an elder now. I watched ER when it came out, it was definitely one of the hottest shows and very critically acclaimed. Back then there was really no internet and zero social media so there wasn’t the deep level of discussion re: medical accuracy and storylines amongst the general public. People loved it, critics loved it, it was a simpler time lol.

ER felt bigger but I think that's more about the way people watched TV back then compared to now. There weren't nearly as many options back then. So on Thursday night at 8 pm, you might only have the option of watching NBC, CBS, ABC, and a few others. We also didn't have social media back then so shows didn't get rabid, cult followings the same way they can now. It's hard to compare because the environment around each show is so different. Edit to add that Michael Crichton created it, and the Jurassic Park movie came out the year before ER premiered, so it was an especially big deal.

15 seasons 331 episodes! it did fall off though with the character turnover unfortunately but it's peak was very well loved. i still think it's the best medical drama personally.

In its first two seasons it was nominated for 15 Emmy Awards, winning 4 including one for Outstanding Drama Series. Over the course of its run it was nominated for 124 in total, winning 23. Until Game of Thrones, it was the most-nominated series of all time. Better received than just about any TV show you can imagine.

I would say iER was way bigger, partly because it was on a major network rather than cable, and partly because there was just less TV around then. Cultural impact was less spread around back then, so if you had a hit it was everywhere. ER was also a bit more soap-opera-like rather than prestige drama, so I think had crossover appeal too.

Abso f****** lutely. We had drinking parties every Thursday at 8pm central to watch the early seasons.

ER was way bigger than The Pitt

My parents were obsessed with it. I recently started watching and am on season 9 out 10. I completely understand the hype back in the day. Watching it today is a bit silly because it's just old, but it's also different from the pitt in the sense it followed the home lives of the characters as well as at work. I think it's with the watch and it's good but don't expect it to be like the pitt

Just look at how long it went on for. If it wasn't good it wouldn't get so many seasons.

ER was massive and kind of jump started another boom of medical dramas and dramedies. Also, Clooney probably would not have become such a star without it.

During it’s first 5 seasons is was either the #1 or #2 most watched show and at hrs peak it was averaging 30 million viewers per episode.

I'd say it was much bigger than The Pitt. We don't even have The Pitt here in the UK on any channel yet. ER was out only a few months after S01 started. I prefer The Pitt though. ER was a bit more soapy.

I was a kid when ER came on but I remember watching it the 90s. You didn't have a ton of options even with cable. It was huge for NBC then and it was must see tv. The show launched George Clooney's career and it was before he made Three Kings and From Dusk Til Dawn. Also, it was executive produced, created, and written by Michael Crichton who was a medical doctor and it was based on his experiences as a medical student so ER was also fairly medically accurate. That's to be expected though because Crichton has written Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, and WestWorld. I think both shows are good for different reasons and it that is unfair to compare them. They are from different eras but if you like medical dramas you can enjoy both series.

Way bigger, and it was on NBC on Thursday nights. From the mid-80s to the 90s that was the peak of "Must-See TV."

It was the hottest show on TV. In fact, we called it water cooler television because you had to douse yourself with water to cool down afterwards.

Received better than the Pitt in my opinion. In fact, when I started watching the Pitt I got three episodes in and started watching ER from the beginning instead. I havnt watched another episode of the Pitt since. Fun fact: ER is slated as being one of the least accurate medical shows. Fun fact number 2: Scrubs is considered to be the most accurate medical show. I’m going to restart the Pitt this evening after reading comments here.

ER was huge. At the time there were only like 4-5 channels that most people watched so you could bet on everybody talking about the show the next day.

Are you talking about the show that ran 15 seasons, won 128 awards out 442 nominations and was in the top 10 shows for the first 10 years? Nah, it wasn't talked about much.

It was one of the first big "This show is like a movie" for network tv. Huge guest stars and guest directors. A lot of the stars went on to do big things.

I am a big fan of The Pitt and hated ER back then. ER was like a soap opera happening in a hospital.

ER lasted 15 seasons. What do you think? It was an 'anchor' show on Thursday nights. Thursday night was the pinnacle of the viewing week with all the top shows fighting each other.