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ER - The Complete First Season
Director: Brett Fallis
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Retail Price (not our price): $27.98
Release Date: 2003-08-26
Theatrical Release Date: 1994-09-19
Studio: Warner Brothers Home Video
Run Time: 1179 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Discs: 4


Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) Amazon.com
Inspired by creator Michael Crichton's experiences as a medical student in a hospital emergency room, ER quickly became one of the most compelling shows of the 1990s, each episode a whirlwind of intense and involving drama, gritty realism, and offbeat humor. Heading the staff at the inner-city Chicago hospital is Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), a doctor so good at providing care to the downtrodden, helpless, or just plain quirky patients that his career blossoms even as his personal life crumbles. Greene is the soul of the cast, but the heart is Julianna Margulies's nurse Carol Hathaway. Her character was intended only for the pilot episode, but she ended up capturing viewers with her palpable empathy for patients and her troublesome romance with womanizing pediatrician Doug Ross (George Clooney). The rest of the central cast consisted of compassionate Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), Peter Benton (Eriq Lasalle), whose prodigious talent nearly matches his ambition, and his fresh-faced student, John Carter (Noah Wyle). Other key characters included ER heads Morgenstern and Swift (William H. Macy and Michael Ironside, respectively), overachieving student Deb (Ming Na), who returned later in the show's run, attending physician Angela Hicks (CCH Pounder), and physical therapist Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Rueben). The remarkably strong first season showed off its sharp ensemble cast through a variety of compelling story lines both personal (Carter's conflicts with Benton, Lewis's struggles with her no-account sister, Chloe, played by Kathleen Wilhoite) and professional (a holiday blizzard and especially the harrowing tale of a pregnancy gone bad, "Love's Labor Lost," which won five Emmy Awards). When Carter is pondering whether his future includes the ER, Green jokes, "It's not bad: Stress, late nights, hard work, no pay--it's hard to beat." It's hard to imagine people choosing to work under those conditions, but they do, and in the process these very human people perform superhuman feats as they face life and death as part of their daily jobs. DVD features are fairly generous for a TV series box. There are two commentary tracks on the pilot episode, including one by Crichton, and crew commentaries on "Sleepless in Chicago" and "Love's Labor Lost." A new 39-minute documentary discusses the show's genesis, casting, and the "Chicago hospital drama smackdown" with Chicago Hope through interviews with Crichton, executive producer Steven Spielberg, other crew members, and the principal cast members other than Eriq LaSalle. Also included are a very watchable featurette on the show's realism (ever wonder why Ross is always looking down?) and another on post-production, a list of characters (including patients by episode, but why no actor credits?), three minor deleted scenes, outtakes, and a glossary of frequently used medical terms. Particularly notable is that the episodes are shown in anamorphic widescreen. ER was one of the first network shows broadcast in widescreen, but that was years after these episodes, which are shown in widescreen for the first time. --David Horiuchi

2) Description
The lives, loves and losses of the doctors and nurses of Chicago's County General Hospital. Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the most watched and honored drama of the last decade. Loaded with extensive special features including two new documentaries featuring Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, John Wells and George Clooney created exclusively for this release.DVD Features:Additional ScenesAudio Commentary:Audio commentary on three key episodes by series producers and crewDeleted ScenesDocumentaries:Prescription for Success: The Birth of ER; First-Year Rotation: Caring for ER; On the Cutting Edge: Medical Realism on ER; Post Operative Procedures: Post Production in the EREaster EggsFeaturetteInteractive MenusOuttakesScene Access:Audio commentary on three key episodes by series producers and crew

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

1) ER Season One WOW!   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
The first season of ER is one of my favorite, followed only by Season 4. This is a great show with great writing and great characters, and if you love the show, you have to see where it all started!

2) Great Product   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I can't wait to get the second season! Great picture quality and suround sound!

3) Fun to Watch Again   [Rating: 4 out of 5]
ER is a good ( not great ) show. It was fun to watch these old episodes again.

4) ER has a structure that sets it up for the long-term   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Some TV shows have a structure such that you can tell almost from the beginning how long the show has to live. As much as I love "Scrubs", that show is built around a few core characters, and once their stories are played out, that will pretty much be the end of that show. "Cheers" basically had a double length of life due to the fact it was actually two shows instead of one - the first 5 seasons with Diane and the last 6 seasons with Rebecca as the female lead. "ER" is different. It has a large cast of constantly revolving characters, and the storylines will always be there as long as there is controversy in medicine to merge with the personal drama. Early in ER's history, things were different. George Clooney's character, Doug Ross, was really the star of the show, although they did spread the stories around so that there was quite a bit of focus on the other characters too. This was a successful formula, but once Clooney became a star and a heartthrob he quickly tired of television and longed for the big screen. Thus, starting in season four, he is absent more and more as he goes off to make action films and the show began to look like it was going to suffer from "Welcome Back Kotter" syndrome, where John Travolta's success on the silver screen killed that show. After Clooney actually did formally exit stage left, the show changed the formula to its current one of spreading the action around with nobody in particular having the spotlight. I guess my point with all of this is, with ER already in its thirteenth season, this show could easily go on for years. The bundles of ER seasons are overpriced, so collecting this show season by season is probably your best bet. It's interesting to look at how season one was set up and look at the show today and see how it still holds up over time. At least, that is my humble opinion.

5) tv program   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
it was a gift and the person who received it stated it was excellent.