ER was one of my favorite shows, and I still get upset when I remember it's not on Netflix. I don't understand why the streaming network won't bring on the iconic medical drama, but that's a different story for a different day. What I'm more curious about now is whether or not they'll decide to reboot ER like they've done with so many other iconic shows.
Julianna Marguiles, who played nurse Carol Hathaway for six seasons alongside George Clooney, spoke with Us about a potential reboot for the show. She admitted that while she might be open-minded towards it, she's not going to do it for just anything.
“I just got to see Erik [Palladino] last weekend, and we were texting pictures to George of us sitting at the Polo Lounge,” Margulies laughed. “I mean, we’d all love to do something. It just has to be the right thing.”
The Good Wife actress also said that that the circumstances would have to be pretty extreme for them all to come back and bring their characters back to life.
“It was such an iconic show that people just see us as those characters when they see us together, so I feel like we’re either going to have to wait until everything completely falls to the ground, or just have to do something that’s brilliantly written. I mean, they’re my buds.”
Margulies has been open in the past about not wanting to do a reboot of ER, saying that it can start to get dry when you have to come up with story lines over and over.
"I really loved being on ER, and I loved being on The Good Wife. But to constantly come up with new ideas for the same role over and over again, year in and year out, can get really challenging," Margulies admitted. "I love the format of a six-episode in and out. Not only do you really get to explore the character, but then you can put it to bed and walk away and do something else."
Noah Wyle, who played Dr. John Carter alongside Margulies, has been very adamant that a reboot of ER isn't in the cards.
“Never going to happen,” he put bluntly. “As tempting as it is to go for that low-hanging fruit and say, ‘What would Dr. Carter be doing now? Did Dr. Ross and Nurse Hathaway stay together?’ There’s something sort of cheap about it, too.”
That being said, Wyle revealed there were opportunities to make spinoffs of ER, which would have elongated the life of the show. He also acknowledged that showrunner John Wells has been approached about rebooting the show.
"You could have taken a couple of our characters and started another hospital, but John Wells, to his credit, didn’t want to franchise it out," Wyle admitted. "He could have done ER New York, ER Los Angeles, ER San Francisco, and our show would have been the perfect launching pad for it, but he didn’t want to dilute the impact of the show we’d made. I know he’s been approached in subsequent years to reboot ER and he’s resisted the temptation for reunion shows.”
Personally, I'd love to see the show rebooted, but I realize that it wouldn't be the same as what I grew to love all those years ago.
