TV | Can a show outlive its cast? Sometimes.

The original cast of ER.

Sure. It’s been known to happen. Not often, but occasionally. And in fact, it’s happening right now.

Come September you won’t be able to welcome back Carter.

On May 19, 2005, ER’s Noah Wylie finally exits the long-running series, and will become the very last original cast member to do so. (To be fair, the show briefly resurrected Susan Lewis (played by Sherry Stringfield) a few years ago, but Wylie is the only actor who remained throughout.)

How will the folks at County General survive without him? Pretty easily.

ER is a powerhouse, and at this point, it’s been on so long, new-seeming characters have become the old guard, but there’s more to it than that.

The question is what, exactly? What do shows like ER and Law and Order do that allows them to energizer-bunny it into the future, even as the actors drop off and drop out? We may have figured out the secret (or rather, the three secrets) that make it possible.

Single-episode plotlines.

When playing willy nilly with characters, a show can’t be cumulative. Viewers have to be able to jump on board at anytime (and be able to follow the plot). History can play it’s part, but it’s got to be more icing than meat. A show doesn’t have to be a procedural, but if there’s a lot of overarching stuff that matters, a well-paced show will tap into that for just a few minutes per episode, and will focus on the day players the rest of the time.

It works. We’ve all seen it work.

Consistent style.

If characters are transient, viewers can get the comforting regularity they crave in stylistic details like the theme song, the pacing, and the storytelling formula. When you know what to expect in some areas, it’s easier to accept radical changes in others. In this arena, a procedural drama will thrive. Give me a hospital, a law office, cops. It’s not even really about the procedures themselves (although they do help). Formulaic storytelling is comforting without being entirely restricting, and it gives a showrunner room to bring in new faces for fresh drama, without alienating the base.

Willingness to change.

When your audience knows their favourite characters can’t leave or die, they get bored. Sure, it’s safer to let an audience get attached to a single star and then ride that attachment out, FOREVER, but doing so can set you up for failure. I know I was frustrated by the end of The X-Files, for example. (Scully and Mulder needed to either kiss, or one of them needed to die. STOP TOYING WITH ME, ASSHOLES.) There’s a reason “kill your darlings” is a perrennially popular bit of writing advice. It’s fairly fool-proof.

ER got its audience used to new blood and the regular axing of seemingly-key characters right from the beginning. That sort of fearlessness created ongoing suspense, and is directly responsible for their long running success.

Season 12 of the long-running medical drama, ER, will premiere September 22, 2005.

An extremely short, edited version of “Can a show outlive its cast?” appeared in Dose, May 15, 2005 and can be seen below. More TV and film pieces are here.

Published in Dose, May 16, 2005.