The Big Picture

• Noah Wyle's long tenure on ER as Dr. Carter allowed the character to evolve, becoming more confident and skilled.
• Wyle's real-life medical emergency experience during filming showcased the impact of working on ER .
• The character of Dr. Carter served as a way for viewers to live through thrilling journey of working in an ER.

In the mid-90s, Michael Crichton and John Wells redefined hospital drama with the seminal television show ER on NBC. The combination of complex and compelling characters, tackling timely social issues, and well-researched and believable medical vernacular provided thrills that had not been seen before in a hospital setting. Other successful medical dramas that followed, including Grey's Anatomy, House, and Chicago Med, used parts of the blueprint that ER had established almost thirty years ago. It was a launching pad for some of Hollywood's biggest A-list names, including George Clooney, who played pediatrician Doug Ross, and Julianna Margulies as head nurse Carol Hathaway.

Noah Wyle, however, who initially joined the series as its youngest cast member, stuck it out for the longest ride as a main character for eleven seasons of the show's incredible 15-year run. Wyle's Dr. John Carter started the series as a third-year surgical med student, and later rose to become one of the most experienced and respected physicians in the world of ER. Before his career playing an emergency room doctor ran its course, Wyle found himself in a scary situation where real life imitated art, and he had to apply what he had picked up on set in an actual medical emergency while filming the show.

ER

The lives, loves and losses of the doctors and nurses of Chicago's County General Hospital.

Noah Wyle Brought a Different Energy to 'ER' as John Carter

From the time Dr. John Carter walked through the door in the pilot episode of ER, "24 Hours," Wyle brought a wonderful blend of wide-eyed naïveté and winsome intelligence to the character — and the experience he desperately needs comes at him fast in the first season. Carter is behind the curve in just about everything, and his first few weeks in the ER are eye-opening on more than one level. He witnesses the joy of seeing his first birth, almost passes out at the sight of a bloodied incoming patient, brings a man back to life with a defibrillator, and experiences the sobering feeling of what it's like to watch a human being die on the operating table. The death hits him particularly hard as it is a young man who is close to the same age and "was kind of a nerd... like me," he says.

By Episode 4 of Season 1, "Hit and Run," Carter is already in the position of having to inform devastated parents about the death of their son. Through it all, however, he always tries to remain upbeat and quick on the uptake. From the perspective of the viewer, Carter is the most relatable character in the cast, often capturing the emotion of the moment that the average layperson watching at home would feel under such stressful and unforgettable situations. Carter was a character who led the audience through the ups and downs of working in an ER. As the show continued for many more seasons and Carter became a seasoned professional, it very much felt like we had taken the same thrill ride right alongside him.

Noah Wyle Had to Save a Man's Life While Filming 'E.R.'

They say that sometimes life imitates art. That axiom couldn't be more accurate than the instance where ER took the show to Africa during Season 9 for the episode titled "Kisangari." The storyline revolved around the crisis in Darfur and the Congo and was filmed on location primarily in South Africa in the Kalahari Desert. The episode itself cost $7 million to shoot, becoming ER's most expensive episode ever. In it, Dr. John Carter is a savvy and salty veteran who is now applying everything he has learned over the first 12 seasons and is taking the lead in administering vaccinations to a remote populace. But the brutally hot conditions while filming the episode caused an on-set medic to pass out.

Per PBS, Wyle described his knowledge about exactly how to treat the unconscious medic. “I stuck him with a 14-gauge needle and revived him with a bag of saline, and then I did three or four more that day." When discussing how working on ER led to him being able to evaluate and remedy the dire situation, the actor also shared, “There was enough that we picked up through osmosis, so I could actually, practically, be of use in certain circumstances.” That may successfully answer one of the longest-running watercooler questions fans have had about whether members of the ER cast could practice what they performed every week on the show.

Noah Wyle's Tenure on 'ER' Prepared Him for a Real-Life Crisis

At the beginning of the show, Carter was green and lacking confidence. He didn't even know how to administer an IV, suture a wound, or perform an intubation. The Season 1 version of the character would never have had the knowledge or the confidence to address such a traumatic situation. As Wyle became more comfortable in the role, you could see a similar progression in the character taking place, hand-in-hand. As Wyle remarked to PBS, “He constantly changed and evolved... If I had stayed being the comic relief character who was constantly screwing up, that may have been frustrating. He kept growing as I kept growing.”

The Season 9 version of Noah Wyle's Dr. John Carter was more than prepared for such an event on the set of ER, and he proved it by saving a man's life. So sometimes life does imitate art, and sometimes actors step up to the plate and do something remarkable.

ER is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

Watch on Hulu

ncG1vNJzZmibn6G5qrDEq2Wcp51ksrN5069krKCfrHqvu8ChZLCxnJp8