Line #76 Series/StElsewhere


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/st_elsewhere.jpeg]]
2
3	''St. Elsewhere'' is a MedicalDrama series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey that aired on Creator/{{NBC}} from [[TheEighties 1982 to 1988]]. The series revolved around the staff, and to a lesser extent the patients, in the rundown Boston teaching hospital St. Eligius (sardonically nicknamed "St. Elsewhere"). The EnsembleCast of these characters was led by Creator/WilliamDaniels, Ed Flanders and Creator/NormanLloyd, and also included early prominent roles from actors such as Creator/DenzelWashington and Creator/HowieMandel.
4
5	The show was {{Soap Opera}}tic at times, with frequent doses of BlackComedy, and had numerous {{Very Special Episode}}s. It was the first prime-time medical drama series in almost a decade to use {{continuity}} for CharacterDevelopment, and became [[FollowTheLeader a model for many shows that followed it]], including ''Series/{{ER}}''. Through its six-season run, it was written well enough for the most part that people got attached to the characters, crossed over with numerous other network properties (most notably sister series ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'') and was both popular and critically acclaimed. It was truly must-see TV...
6
7	...well, until the controversial GrandFinale. At the end, as the camera zoomed out to show snow falling on St. Eligius, America discovered the horrible truth about the events they had witnessed over the past six years: as the camera continues to move away, the central hospital of the show is revealed to actually be just a model of a hospital in a snowglobe. The events of the past six years (and hundreds of other shows, if you include the web of crossovers that this show famously sits within) are all just the imaginative daydreams of the [[HollywoodAutism autistic]] Tommy Westphall, based on his favourite snowglobe. This final scene continues to be debated to this day, thanks mostly to the proliferation of crossovers that both ''Elsewhere'' and ''Homicide'' enjoyed.
8
9	As a result, ''St. Elsewhere'' is now remembered as the definitive AllJustADream series, although it can also be seen as [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaking the fourth wall]] (with the snow globe containing the hospital representing the television set containing all the fictional events, as a metaphorical way to finish the story).
10
11	Now has a [[Characters/StElsewhere character sheet]].
12	----
13	!!This show contains examples of:
14	* TenMinuteRetirement: In the Season Three finale "Cheers", Dr. Westphall resigns as the Director of Medicine of St. Eligius in order to help victims of the famine in UsefulNotes/{{Ethiopia}}. In the final scene of the Season Four premiere "Remembrance of Things Past", which takes place one month later, he returns to the hospital. In the next episode "Fathers and Sons", Westphall explains that the experience taught him that UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} was where he was most needed.
15	* AccidentalPublicConfession: A Type 3 example in "Attack", when Roberta tells the page nurse about her marital problems with Victor, not realizing she had just turned the hospital's PA mic on while looking for a pencil.
16	* ActorAllusion:
17	** In "Hearts" and "Remission", it is mentioned that Dr. Auschlander is a fan of Creator/CharlieChaplin films. Creator/NormanLloyd, a good friend of Chaplin's, played Bodalink in his final American-made film ''Film/{{Limelight}}''.
18	** In "After Dark", Shirley Daniels goes to the morgue to get "the report on [[Series/KnightRider that Hasselhoff car wreck]]," a reference to Creator/WilliamDaniels' concurrent role as the voice of KITT.
19	** In "Playing God, Part 2", Ellen wonders what is on ''The Merv Griffin Show''. Dr. Craig replies, "Probably some stupid comic." When he turns on the television, Howie Mandel's stand-up can be heard.
20	** In "Close Encounters", the amnesiac mental patient John Doe #6 comes to believe that he is Mary Richards from ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' after seeing it on television. He mistakes Captain Gloria Neal, who is played by Creator/BettyWhite, for the happy homemaker Sue Ann Nivens, White's character on the series. Captain Neal explains that he has confused her with someone else.
21	** In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Dr. Craig starts singing "Sit Down, John" from ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'' when the Craigs go to Philadelphia. He also says that he doesn't know what Ellen saw in him as he was "obnoxious and disliked." UsefulNotes/JohnAdams is frequently described using this phrase in the play.
22	** In "Getting Ahead", while reading ''The Cutting Edge'', Dr. Kiem wonders why Asian women are always portrayed as either geishas or Suzie Wong, unaware that the novel was written by Dr. Craig and the character in question is based on her. France Nuyen, who played Dr. Kiem, was originally cast as the title character in ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong'' but was replaced by Creator/NancyKwan.
23	** In "Jose, Can You See?", when Ellen Craig suggests that she restarts grief counseling after a few events re-trigger her pain following [[spoiler: their son Stephen's death]], Mark Craig dismissively tells her "Simon's Broadway bound." Philip Sterling, the actor who played psychiatrist Dr. Simon Weiss, was appearing on stage in ''Broadway Bound'' at the time.
24	** Before [[spoiler:Victor's wedding to Lucy]] in "The Idiot and the Odyssey", as he's having second thoughts due to a mysterious other woman, Dr. Craig tells him, "This is not 1968. It's time you ''graduate'' into adulthood. Don't drive ''over troubled waters'' with some ''plastic'' bimbette." A shout-out to ''Film/TheGraduate'' (Creator/WilliamDaniels played Creator/DustinHoffman's father in the movie), its theme song singers Music/SimonAndGarfunkel, and the famous one word of investment advice.
25	** Also in "The Idiot and the Odyssey", Ellen rejects Mark's gift of a mink coat as she does not want to look like Mamie Eisenhower. Bonnie Bartlett (Ellen) previously played Mrs. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries ''Ike''.
26	** In "Heart On", Jack Morrison tells his wife Joanne, who is hiding under the covers of their bed, that he has made a list of thirtysomething guests for their upcoming housewarming party. Patricia Wettig (Joanne) left ''St. Elsewhere'' after "The Idiot and the Odyssey" as a result of being cast as Nancy Weston in ''Series/{{Thirtysomething}}''.
27	** In "Heaven's Skate", Judge Farnham (Jack Dodson) asks to get a haircut from Floyd the barber of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Dodson played Howard Sprague on the series.
28	** Also in "Heaven's Skate", Fiscus tells Griffin that some people thought that Bobby Caldwell, [[spoiler: who has recently died from AIDS]], was the sexiest man alive. While starring in ''St. Elsewhere'', Creator/MarkHarmon was named the Sexiest Man Alive by ''People'' in 1986.
29	** In "Requiem for a Heavyweight", Fiscus lists several works of fiction with titles relating to distance or locations, including ''Theatre/SouthPacific''. France Nuyen (Dr. Kiem) played Liat in the 1958 film adaptation.
30	** In "Split Decision", Dr. Auschlander mentions that Chaplain Claire [=McCabe=] and Penny Franks are watching an Creator/AlfredHitchcock film. Creator/NormanLloyd appeared in two Hitchcock films, ''Film/{{Saboteur}}'' and ''Film/{{Spellbound\|1945}}''. He also produced ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'' as well as directing and appearing in numerous episodes.
31	* AffectionateNickname: In "Hello, Goodbye", before even finding out his name, Clancy gives her soon-to-be boyfriend Jack the nickname "Boomer" when she approaches him on the street and asks him to sign her nuclear freeze petition. In the next episode "Playing God, Part 1", she visits him at the hospital and refers to him as "Boomer" in the presence of his friends. For the remainder of the series, the other residents call him "Boomer," even after he and Clancy break up and he marries Joanne. In "Nothing Up My Sleeve", Phil and Jackie admit that they can't remember why they started calling him "Boomer."
32	* AlliterativeTitle: "Russian Roulette".
33	* AndStarring:
34	** Until Season 5, the second-billed actor (David Birney in Season 1 and Norman Lloyd from Seasons 2 through 5) received an "and" billing after the top-billed star. The supporting cast then followed with "Also starring in Alphabetical Order".
35	** Creator/WilliamDaniels received the final credit -- "And Starring as Dr. Mark Craig" -- for the first five seasons. He was given top billing in the final season after Ed Flanders departed.
36	* AnnoyingPatient: Throughout Season Three, Mrs. Hufnagel manages to insult, belittle, annoy or offend every single prominent character, with the exception of Bobby Caldwell whom she charms.
37	* AnyoneCanDie: Not even [[spoiler:Santa Claus]] and [[spoiler:Mimsie (MTM Enterprises' adorable kitten mascot)]] are safe.
38	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: While the series was pretty thorough in researching medicine, procedures, conditions, diseases, etc., it played fast and loose with how hospitals worked, specifically in regards to the residency program. For one thing, in the first two seasons the main residents are repeatedly referred to as "First Year Residents" and by no other title. Later, in the episode "Time Heals, Part I", Craig speaks of his "Internship" under Dr. David Domedian and is seemingly offended when the journalist he's talking to calls it a "Residency", almost as if an "Intern" is something better than being a mere "Resident", not to mention Domedian refers to "all these years you've been an intern under me"...an Intern is just another name for "First Year Resident". There is a slight difference; in your first year you are not allowed to administer treatment or give an official diagnosis without say-so from a senior physician, and other restrictions that gradually get removed with each year of residency. Craig would not have spent "years" as an Intern under Domedian, and there's no reason he should have gotten offended over being called a Resident. Finally there is the fact that most Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine residencies are four years long, not three, as portrayed on this show, which wanted to end on the emotional note of having the residents move on to bigger things, but had only portrayed them as having completed three years. One area of accuracy is that surgical residencies are longer, which is shown by Wade lamenting that she will not be moving on with them...but for some reason, Ehrlich will be.
39	* AscendedExtra:
40	** Dr. Jackie Wade (Sagan Lewis) goes from a character with one line in the pilot to recurring character in the same season before getting promoted to the opening titles in Season 6.
41	** Lucy Papandrao (Jennifer Savidge) has a similar arc: she's an uncredited nurse in the pilot's OR scene who appears as a recurring character the same season, with more prominent appearances in the following years.
42	* AsHimself:
43	** In "Sweet Dreams", Music/ZZTop perform their song "Legs" in Luther's music video inspired dream in which he and the Eliminator girls have fun around the hospital.
44	** In "Bye, George", Fiscus fails to recognise Michael Dukakis when he arrives at St. Eligius with a sprained ankle. He does not believe him when he gives his occupation as Governor of Massachusetts.
45	** In "Getting Ahead", Robb Weller interviews John Doe #6 (calling himself "Dr. C") about "his" sleazy bestseller ''The Cutting Edge'', which he actually stole from Dr. Craig.
46	** In "Heaven's Skate", Dr. Craig and Jackie Wade meet the award-winning figure skaters Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia at the Aschenberg Ice Rink.
47	* AttemptedRape: In "After Dark", [[spoiler: Peter White]] tries to rape Wendy Armstrong but Fiscus stops him.
48	* BarBrawl: In the episode "Remembrance of Things Past" between Chandler, Fiscus, Caldwell, Ehrlich, and some rude drunks. Includes a BarSlide.
49	* BelligerentSexualTension: Victor and Lucy develop a serious case of it.
50	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition:
51	** In "Haunted", [[spoiler: the Craigs' son Stephen dies after getting into a car accident - caused by his using both cocaine and barbiturates - while driving himself and his [[ImperiledInPregnancy heavily pregnant new wife]] Yvonne Galecki back to UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} at the end of the previous episode "Fathers and Sons". The next day, Dr. Roxanne Turner is forced to deliver the baby by caesarean section while Yvonne is still comatose. The baby is a girl, who is later named Barbara.]]
52	** In "Family Feud", Senator Gordon Endicott is assassinated in the St. Eligius chapel while his mother Augusta is undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. The next day, his heavily pregnant niece Sarah Preston is distraught by not only his death but the effect that it is having on her grandmother. The trauma of the situation causes her to go into premature labor and the baby is delivered by caesarean section. It is a boy, whom she names Gordon after her late uncle.
53	* BreakTheCutie:
54	** Poor [[spoiler:Cathy Martin]]. After being [[spoiler:raped twice and beaten by Peter White]], she is irrevocably broken.
55	** [[spoiler:Dr. Morrison]] has a pretty tragic run of luck throughout the series. [[spoiler:His first wife dies, he nearly loses his job multiple times, his son is kidnapped, he gets raped and severely beaten, and then his second wife moves away to be closer to her children from a previous marriage]]. He ends up ok in the end, though.
56	* BreakTheHaughty: Dr. Craig. His [[spoiler:son dies]], his [[spoiler:artificial heart patient regrets his surgery and then dies]], he punches a mirror and injures his hand, leaving him unable to operate, and [[spoiler:his wife leaves him and begins an affair with another man. They eventually reconcile]]. Oh, and in one episode, he's mistaken for being homeless.
57	* BrickJoke: Throughout Season 5, Dr. Auschlander makes reference to a news, sport, or cultural event in his conversations with other doctors, with the references going back three years each subsequent episode. By the end of the season, the references are close to the time Auschlander was born. Not coincidentally, his mental state has also degraded to the point where he is like a helpless child. This was done so subtly in the scripts, Norman Lloyd didn't even catch on until the producers told him.
58	* BunnyEarsLawyer: The nymphomaniac HospitalHottie, pathologist Dr. Cathy Martin.
59	* BuryYourGays: Mostly averted. While there are several storylines involving AIDS, nearly all are straight men or infants. There is only one notable storyline involving a gay patient with AIDS, but it is a story arc that lasts for much of season 6.
60	* ButtMonkey: Boomer Morrison's wife [[spoiler:dies tragically]], his toddler son disappears (but eventually is found), he gets raped during a prison riot by the husband of a former patient in an especially brutal CallBack to Season 1, and then later said rapist is paroled, stalks Boomer, and finally takes him and his new wife and kids hostage, only to be saved when [[spoiler:Boomer's son, who's around three by now, shoots the rapist dead]].
61	* TheBusCameBack: Shirley Daniels, twice.
62	* BusCrash: [[spoiler:Bobby Caldwell]]'s (off-screen) death from AIDS in season six's "Heaven's Skate".
63	* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: The [[AllJustADream final scene]] reveals that Drs. Westphall and Auschlander are based on Tommy's father and grandfather, respectively.
64	* CallBack: Early in Season 1, a sociopathic domestic terrorist (Creator/TimRobbins in his first on-screen role) detonates a bomb in a bank, killing and wounding many, including the bomber. The casualties are brought to St. Eligius, including the bomber. The husband of one of the victims comes to the hospital, and after his wife dies ends up wandering around aimlessly throughout the episode. Finally, when the time comes to transfer the bomber to the US Marshals, the distraught husband appears out of nowhere and shoots the bomber dead. Roll credits. Now, flash forward several seasons. Boomer Morrison is volunteering at a prison clinic, where he ends up treating the husband who's been serving hard time for murdering the bomber. Somehow during the episode, a prison riot breaks out, Boomer ends up being taken hostage by the husband who then proceeds to make with the prison rape.
65	* CannotTellAJoke: In "Once Upon a Mattress", the notoriously taciturn Jack Morrison attempts to cheer up Fiscus, who is recuperating after being shot, by telling him a joke. This well-intentioned effort fails miserably as Jack changes the names of the characters in the joke several times and forgets several parts of it.
66	* CareerEndingInjury: In "Brand New Bag", Warren Coolidge mentions that his chances of playing basketball in the NBA ended when he hurt his knee. He subsequently dropped out of Carver High School, which he attended in ''Series/TheWhiteShadow'', and became an orderly.
67	* CatchPhrase: Dr. Craig. "Oh, for crying out loud!". And, occasionally, "This is all your fault, Ellen".
68	* CelebrityParadox:
69	** Sort of. In the Season 2 episode "Hello, Goodbye", Morrison takes his son to "the bar that inspired ''Series/{{Cheers}}''", but then in the Season 3 episode "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Cheers]]", Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall visit the bar from ''Cheers'' where they interact with the characters from the show!
70	** Warren Coolidge, who previously appeared as a main character in ''Series/TheWhiteShadow'', is an orderly at St. Eligius. However, "Close Encounters" establishes that ''The White Shadow'' is a television show.
71	** In "Dr. Wyler, I Presume", Dr. Craig mentions his old Army buddy B.J. from UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, a reference to ''Series/{{MASH}}'' character Captain B.J. Hunnicutt. In "Close Encounters", Dr. Auschlander chooses Trapper John, a main character on ''MASH'' and later the protagonist of the dramatic spin-off ''Series/TrapperJohnMD'', as the fictional character whom he would most like to be. B.J. replaced Trapper John in ''MASH'' after Wayne Rogers' departure.
72	* CharacterDevelopment: Many characters went through this as the show went on, most notably Victor Ehrlich (who matures enough to marry nurse Lucy Papandrao in the last season) and Luther Hawkins (who becomes a protege of sorts to Dr. Auschlander, and ends up becoming a physicians' assistant by series end).
73	* ChekhovsGun: In "My Aim Is True," a police officer's gun is stolen from the ER in the first act. It reappears in the final scene, [[spoiler:when Shirley Daniels uses it to shoot Peter White]].
74	* ChristmasEpisode: A particularly heartwrenching one following the death of [[spoiler:the Craigs' son]], which is also the one where they actually kill off '''[[spoiler:Santa Claus himself]]!'''
75	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Drs. Ben Samuels, Hugh Beale, Cathy Martin, VJ Kochar, and Annie Cavanero disappear without explanation.
76	* ClipShow: The Season 5 episode "Good Vibrations".
77	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Dr. Cathy Martin.
78	* ContinuityNod:
79	** In "Sanctuary", a homeless man claims to be Michael Dukakis but Jackie Wade naturally does not believe him. The scene features the exact same dialogue as occurred between Fiscus and the real Governor Dukakis in "Bye, George".
80	** When Bobby Caldwell is leaving St. Eligius for the last time [[spoiler: after his AIDS diagnosis]] in "Family Affair", he is carrying the firefighter's helmet given to him by Manny Schecter in "Up on the Roof".
81	** "Time Heals, Part 1" features a flashback to 1965 showing the St. Eligius emergency room being built. Dr. Auschlander tells the maintenance supervisor Raleigh Morlin not to skimp on the insulation. In "Breathless", Raleigh was diagnosed with asbestosis as a result of having installed asbestos in the building's walls and ceilings for many years up until the mid 1970s.
82	** In "Time Heals, Part 2", Dr. Auschlander tells Father Joseph [=McCabe=] in a flashback to 1945 that he was forced to break up with his fiancée before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII because he was Jewish and she was a gentile. In "Attack", his former fiancée Margaret Ryan, an Irish Catholic, was a patient at St. Eligius. After seeing each other for the first time in 45 years, they both regretted that they had not defied their parents and married over their objections.
83	** In "Once Upon a Mattress", after getting into an argument with his wife Katherine on their 40th anniversary, Dr. Auschlander asks her if she knows where to get an egg cream in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}. They then proceed to re-enact their first conversation, which led directly to their first date and first kiss, as depicted in a flashback to 1945 in "Time Heals, Part 2". They reconcile after this trip down memory lane.
84	** Kevin O'Casey, whose family's history with St. Eligius is explored in "Time Heals", returns as the boyfriend of the AIDS patient Brett Johnston in Season Six.
85	** In the SeriesFinale "The Last One", Fiscus recalls working with Ben Samuels and Annie Cavanero. This is the only reference to these two victims of ChuckCunninghamSyndrome after their departure.
86	* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD box sets for this series feature Creator/DenzelWashington prominently, as if he was the lead character. His picture is larger than all the other actors. Washington was a member of the ensemble, his character a great deal less prominent than those played by William Daniels, Ed Begley, Jr., David Morse or Ed Flanders. But Washington would later become a beloved, 2-time Oscar-winning movie star, his current career eclipsing everyone else from this series. To not market the DVD's with Washington's picture would be unthinkable, from a business standpoint.
87	* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: Sometimes played straight, but often averted.
88	* CrossOver: The show had connections with a number of other shows and had minor crossovers with others...including ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', of all things. In 1998, Creator/AlfreWoodard reprised her role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode "Mercy". In 2000, Ed Begley, Jr. reprised his role as Victor Ehrlich in a cameo appearance in ''Homicide: The Movie'', though he is not named. Private contractor Weigert was also prominently featured in several storylines in ''Series/{{Oz}}'', having taken over the prison's medical ward following a deal with the Governor. Speculation on how all of these other shows are affected by the infamous ending continues to this day.
89	* CuckooNest: Either a subversion, or a really hardcore example.
90	* DeadGuyJunior: Dr. Westphall's children Tommy and Lizzie are named after his late parents.
91	* DeadPersonConversation: In "After Life", Wayne Fiscus is shot in the emergency room and experiences a vision of the afterlife. He meets [[spoiler: Ralph and Murray Robbin]] in Purgatory, [[spoiler: Eve Leighton]] and the hospital's namesake St. Eligius in Main/{{Heaven}} and [[spoiler: Peter White]] in Main/{{Hell}}.
92	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: In "Sweet Dreams", Ehrlich's dream about being on an island of Amazon women is shown in black and white as it is an AffectionateParody of adventure films of the 1930s to the 1950s.
93	* DemotedToExtra:
94	** Joan Halloran (Nancy Stafford), an administrator brought in by the City of Boston to improve efficiency at the hospital, goes from a regular character in the opening credits in season 2 and having major clashes with Drs. Westphall, Auschlander, and Craig, as well as having a romance arc with Bobby Caldwell, to a recurring character in season 3. Halloran's screen time would continue to be reduced until she ultimately got PutOnABus after Stafford left to play Michelle Thomas on ''Series/{{Matlock}}''.
95	** This happens to Dr. Vijay Kochar, a regular character in the first two seasons. He only makes seven appearances in the last four seasons.
96	* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Ehrlich is an expert at this trope.
97	* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Hearing" refers to both the struggles of the deaf radiologist Lee Tovan to gain the respect of his supervisor Al Kleckner and Peter White facing a hearing before the Medical Board for improperly dispensing drugs.
98	* DownerEnding: The finale's reveal that it was AllJustADream, although that evidently wasn't enough since the credits ''make it worse'' by '''[[spoiler:killing Mimsie, the kitten mascot]]'''. [[labelnote:Spoiler note]]To be fair, they just used a photo of a different (not dead) cat lying on its side. Mimsie did die later that year, though.[[/labelnote]]
99	* DreamingTheTruth: In "Sweet Dreams", while participating in a dream research project, Morrison has a dream in which he sees [[spoiler: Peter White, who was killed in the previous episode "Fade to White". The experience allows Morrison to come to terms with the fact that Cathy Martin was telling the truth when she accused White of raping her. Morrison had been the only person to believe him and to support through thick and thin during his rape trial.]]
100	* DrivenToSuicide: In "Family Affair", Bobby Caldwell plans to commit suicide with 50 ccs of curare and half a liter of IV saline as he was [[spoiler:diagnosed with AIDS]] in the previous episode "Family Feud". However, his [[InterruptedSuicide attempt is interrupted]] by water leaking into his apartment from upstairs. His young neighbor Cynthia frantically knocks at his door and asks for his help in cleaning up her apartment, which was flooded when the bath overran in her parents' absence.
101	* DrJerk: Mark Craig, and to a lesser extent Victor Ehrlich.
102	** Also a rather extreme example with Peter White. Even before his ultimate slide into darkness, he was shown having extreme anger management issues, and taking them out on anyone near him, including patients and his wife, not to mention his routinely shirking duty and practically forcing others (mostly Morrison) to cover for him, his [[NeverMyFault tendency to blame any of his misfortunes on anyone but himself]], and his habit of complaining loudly about things all the doctors have to go through.
103	* DrugsAreBad: [[spoiler:Dr. Peter White]]. Also, [[spoiler:Helen Rosenthal]] went into drug rehab due to an addiction to prescription pain killers.
104	* ElevatorFailure: In "Loss of Power", Dr. Westphall spends more than five hours stuck in an elevator with an English musician, who is also named Donald, with a bleak view of the world. The failure was caused by a citywide blackout and compounded by the hospital's malfunctioning generator.
105	* EmbarrassingHospitalGown: In "Equinox", one of the friends of the PatientOfTheWeek jokingly brags that the last time he's been to the hospital, all the nurses stood on the edge of the bed to try to look up at his hospital gown.
106	* EverybodySmokes: Especially in the early episodes. Patients smoke in their rooms and doctors smoke in the hallways, and it's all quite jarring for a modern audience. Even series regular Dr Mark Craig finds it disturbing.
107	* EveryEpisodeEnding: Every episode ends with the picture freezing on the last few seconds of action.
108	* ExtremeLibido: In "The Children's Hour", Mrs. Dowd is a nymphomaniac whose propensity to have sex with her husband Ramon, a traction patient, almost leads Helen to ban her from the hospital. Ehrlich is sympathetic and has Luther find the Dowds somewhere quiet and out of the way. To Ehrlich's consternation, Luther puts them in Dr. Craig's office as he is at a Soviet-American medical conference. However, Dr. Craig returns to St. Eligius a day ahead of schedule as the conference ended early due to someone (possibly him) making a Red joke. Ehrlich and Luther are forced to hide the Dowds. Dr. Craig does not find what was his office was being used for in his absence but he does find Mrs. Dowd's underwear in his chair.
109	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: "Newheart" and "Qui Transtulit Sustinet" take place over the course of about thirteen or fourteen hours on the same day.
110	* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Dr. White, who is revealed to be the serial rapist who is preying on women in and around St. Eligius]].
111	* FakeOutOpening:
112	** "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby" begins with the camera panning around what appears to be the empty emergency room of St. Eligius. When the camera reaches the entrance to the hospital, Luther's giant smiling face is seen. It turns out that it is a model that Drs. Westphall and Auschlander had made for the hospital's founder Father Joseph [=McCabe=].
113	** "Not My Type" opens with Dr. Westphall, Helen Rosenthal and Carol Novino rushing to Dr. Auschlander's office to resuscitate him. They try valiantly but are unable to revive him and he is pronounced dead. Dr. Craig then bursts into the office and gets to work on him, determined to use his vast skills to save Auschlander's life. It is then revealed that this is nothing more than a fictional account of Craig's heroic exploits that he wrote after getting distracted with his memoirs. It is the first of several fantasy sequences involving Dr. Auschlander's death from various different causes (including being murdered by Westphall) in the episode.
114	** The Season Six premiere "Resurrection" appears to begin immediately where the Season Five finale "Last Dance at the Wrecker's Ball" left off. St. Eligius is about to be demolished with Dr. Auschlander inside. When the wrecking ball strikes the hospital entrance, the roof of the lobby collapses, seemingly crushing Auschlander. However, he flies out from under the rubble wearing a Franchise/{{Superman}} costume with an "A" in place of the Man of Steel's usual "S." At this point, it becomes apparent that this is a dream that Auschlander is having. In reality, the demolition was stopped after the ball had struck the building only once, causing very minor damage, as the hospital was bought by the Ecumena Corporation. Auschlander managed to escape, though he tore a ligament in his left leg in the process.
115	* FakingTheDead: In "Visiting Daze", Victor Ehrlich learns that his parents Lewis and Helen Ehrlich, whom he had believed had been killed in a car accident in 1961, are alive and well. It turns out that their real names are Lech and Olga Oseransky. They were UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} operates who were captured after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. The CIA faked their deaths as a cover story. Lech and Olga were imprisoned on the Isle of Pines until the US government managed to negotiate their release in 1987.
116	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "Attack", Cathy Martin tells Shirley Daniels and Jackie Wade that the serial rapist will not come after her as she does not have a victim aura. At the end of the episode, however, Cathy is the latest victim of the rapist, who turns out to be [[spoiler: Peter White]].
117	* FormerTeenRebel: In "Time Heals, Part 2", it is revealed that Donald Westphall was a rebellious teen in 1945 who skipped school and stole the pocketbooks of two patients at St. Eligius. His father Thomas sent him to Father Joseph [=McCabe=] to straighten him out. In order to pay back the money that he stole, Westphall began working as a shoeshine boy at the hospital. This eventually led him to study medicine and return to St. Eligius as a doctor, becoming Director of Medicine in 1975.
118	* FourthDateMarriage:
119	** After knowing each other for only six months and dating for only a few weeks, Dr. Ehrlich and Roberta Sloan get married in "In Sickness and in Health". [[spoiler: It doesn't last.]]
120	** In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Jack Morrison marries his second wife Joanne [=McFadden=]. In the next episode "When You Wish Upon a Scar", Joanne tells Dr. Westphall that they were friends throughout their childhood in UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} and were fixed up by Jack's brother David. After only two dates, Jack asked her to marry him but she turned him down. However, Joanne changed her mind and came to UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} to be with him.
121	** In "Split Decision", Luther Hawkins and Penny Franks get married after only knowing each other for about a month.
122	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Westphall leaves the hospital temporarily in the season 4 premiere, a frazzled Lucy Papandrao tells one of the characters she feels like screaming. When the character has a conversation with another doctor, Lucy is seen behind them in the nurse's lounge, screaming.
123	* FunnyForeigner: In early seasons, VJ Kochar frequently mangles idioms and describes over the top depictions of customs of his home village in India.
124	* GainaxEnding: One of the most famous examples: the whole show was all in the imagination of an autistic kid. [[FlatWhat What]].
125	* GentileJewChaser: Helen Rosenthal admits that she is "fatally attracted to Jewish men."
126	* GoneHorriblyRight: Dr. Craig's [[spoiler:artificial heart patient]] ended up feeling like a freak, with a side of WhatHaveIBecome.
127	* GratuitousRape: Dr. Morrison couldn't catch a break.
128	* HeroicSacrifice: While he's being treated for a ''massive'' heart attack that almost killed him, Dr. Elliot Axelrod's room-mate goes into a Code Blue situation. Elliot, despite being on his last legs, gets out of bed to help as he's ''technically'' the closest doctor around. The strain and the stress of cause Axelrod to have ''another'' heart attack, but even while dying himself he gets the patient's heart restarted.
129	* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen:
130	** Dr. Oliver London, Craig's main surgical rival at St. Eligius. [[SubvertedTrope However]], he makes two brief, wordless appearances in flashbacks to 1955 in "Time Heals, Part 2".
131	** Robert Wade, Jackie Wade's husband.
132	* HollywoodTourettes: One VerySpecialEpisode featured a [[Creator/KathyBates homeless woman]] with Tourette's who spewed profanity and racial slurs.
133	* HospitalGurneyScene: This is basically OncePerEpisode.
134	* HostageSituation: In "Dog Day Hospital", Barbara Lonnicker, who is heavily pregnant with her ninth child, holds Craig, Ehrlich, Vijay and the rest of the surgical team at gunpoint in the middle of an operation. She demands to see Dr. Tim Finnan, who performed a vasectomy on her husband Bob the previous year, so that she can kill him. Fortunately for Dr. Finnan, he is on vacation in UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}. [[spoiler: It turns out that Bob never had the vasectomy as he could not go through with it. Barbara [[{{Understatement}} does not take it well]] and tries to kill him.]]
135	* IdenticalGrandson: In "Time Heals, Part 2", Ed Flanders plays Donald Westphall's father Thomas Westphall in Main/{{Flashback}}s to 1935.
136	* IHaveThisFriend: Ehrlich tries this one a lot.
137	* InstrumentalThemeTune: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNXBgces1Q Composed by Dave Grusin.]]
138	* IntercontinuityCrossover: Several, which [[http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html raises some interesting questions]]...
139	* ItIsNotYourTime: Wayne Fiscus' near-death experience after [[spoiler:being shot by an ER patient]] in "After Life".
140	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dr. Craig. He's a rude, arrogant, pompous windbag and has an absolutely atrocious bedside manner. But don't ever question whether he cares about the lives he saves.
141	* KilledOffForReal: Main characters who were KilledOffForReal include [[spoiler:Dr. White]] (shot by [[spoiler:Shirley Daniels]]), [[spoiler:Nina Morrison]]'s sudden death due to a freak slip-and-fall head injury, [[spoiler:Wendy Armstrong]]'s suicide, [[spoiler:Mrs. Hufnagel]] getting eaten by her hospital bed, [[spoiler:Elliot Axelrod]]'s heart attack., and [[spoiler:Dr. Auschlander]]'s death in the finale.
142	* LastNameBasis: Helen's children half-jokingly refer to each other by their respective fathers' surnames since their mother is a SerialSpouse: Marcy (Eisenberg), Julie (Silverman 1), Jimmy (Silverman 2), Erin (Scheinfeld) and Jeff (Rosenthal).
143	* LogoJoke: The MTM kitten (Mimsie) meows while in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykx8KoILomU surgical outfit]], which is adorable. At the very end of the GrandFinale, while the audience is still reeling from the infamous final scene, she [[spoiler:flatlines and dies]].
144	* LoveTriangle: In "Family Feud", there are several related, increasingly complicated examples. Clancy Williams is Dr. Morrison's ex-girlfriend. Fiscus was briefly engaged to a surgical nurse named Mona Polito. The engagement was called off but Fiscus still has feelings for Mona and wants to give it another go. Clancy wants to pursue a relationship with him as she had fun when the two of them went for pizza with Pete in the previous episode "Family Ties". In the meantime, Morrison wants to get back together with Clancy but Mona invites him on a date. Things come to a head at Morrison's birthday party when everyone changes their mind so that Mona wants to be with Fiscus, who wants to be Clancy, who wants to be with Morrison, who wants to be with Mona. For his part, Ehrlich wants [[GirlOnGirlIsHot Mona to be with Clancy]]. In the next episode "Family Affair", Fiscus and Clancy go out on a date. In bed that night, Clancy admits that she was serious about dating Morrison again but realised that things would never work out between them as she thought of him more as a brother.
145	* LowerDeckEpisode:
146	** "The Women" is predominantly told from the perspective of three patients sharing a room: Evelyn Milbourne, Rose Orso and Paige Gerradeaux.
147	** "Rites of Passage" is largely told from the perspective of three boys sharing a room in the children's ward: Elvis, Ryan Deaton and Michael Skelton.
148	* MagicalDefibrillator: Frequently, but not always.
149	* MarijuanaIsLSD: When Dr. Auschlander asks Dr. Fiscus to get him some pot to help with the side effects of chemo in "Hearing", IntoxicationEnsues.
150	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In "Playing God, Part 2", Dr. Fiscus' unconscious young patient is accompanied by a middle-aged woman claiming to be his fairy godmother; a miraculous improvement in the boy's condition and the random appearance and disappearance of the woman have Fiscus wondering.
151	* MeaningfulName: In "Under Pressure", "Entrapment" and "All About Eve", Eddie Carson is a Protestant unionist teenager from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Sir Edward Carson was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1910 to 1921.
152	* MindScrew: The AllJustADream revelation in the SeriesFinale.
153	* MistakenForGay:
154	** In "A Wing and a Prayer", a butcher thinks that Dr. Craig and Dr. Ehrlich are a couple when they both arrive at his shop independently of each other and try to buy a turkey for the St. Eligius Thanksgiving dinner.
155	** In "Tears of a Clown", Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall by a British real estate agent showing them an apartment. This leads to a SeparatedByACommonLanguage moment when she offers Westphall a cigarette by asking "fag?"
156	* MonochromePast: In "Time Heals, Part 1", all of the 1935 sequences are shown in black and white. The first 1935 scene in "Time Heals, Part 2" begins in black and white but changes to full color when the six-year-old Donald Westphall sees Patrick O'Casey's blood on the floor as he is being brought into St. Eligius. From then onwards, each 1935 scene is in black and white for the first few seconds before changing to color.
157	* MistakenForGay: In "Tears of a Clown", a real estate agent believes Donald and Mark are a gay couple when they are checking out an apartment.
158	* MisterSeahorse: In "A Moon for the Misbegotten", a patient named Michael Gold believes that he is pregnant. Although Elliot tells him to send Michael to psych, Luther instead obtains a urine sample in order to prove to Michael that he couldn't possibly be pregnant. Both Luther and Dr. Morrison are shocked that the test indicates that Michael is really pregnant. However, it turns out that Michael had been exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning, which messed up the test results. It also caused the delusion of pregnancy, combined with Michael's severe guilt over killing a little girl during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
159	* MurphysBed: Mrs. Hufnagel is discovered trapped in her bed like this in the Season 3 episode "Murder, She Rote". For the most part it's treated seriously, but there's also some degree of comedy, as Luther, when he discovers her like this, doesn't take it seriously until he notices she's not responding, and two of the first three doctors he tells about it can't help but chuckle. [[spoiler:It's also played with in that, while the bear-trap bed certainly didn't help things, that wasn't what actually did her in.]]
160	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: In "Rites of Passage", Elvis was named after Music/ElvisPresley.
161	* NapoleonDelusion: "[[YouAreNumberSix John Doe #6]]", a patient in the psych ward who suffered from [[IdentityAmnesia amnesia]] and imagined himself at various times to be different people including [[Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow Mary Richards]], Creator/WilliamShakespeare, John [=McEnroe=], and Dr. Craig.
162	* NearDeathExperience: Fiscus has one after getting shot in "After Life".
163	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In "Family Ties", "Family Feud" and "Family Affair", the Endicotts, a famous, wealthy, political family from Massachusetts who are considered American royalty, are basically the Kennedys with a different name. Gordon Endicott is a senator who is seeking his party's nomination for the 1988 presidential election. There is NoPartyGiven but he is hinted to be a Democrat. However, the senator is assassinated, in the presence of his son Michael, in the St. Eligius chapel by a crazed man named Lennox who hates the Endicott family. His mother and the much loved family matriarch Augusta Endicott, who receives a quadruple bypass at the hospital, is based on Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Like the Kennedys, the Endicotts have suffered many tragedies. Gordon is the third of Augusta's children whom she has outlived as Richard died of pleurisy in 1936 and Franklin committed suicide in 1979. In "Family Ties", Gordon's son Douglas mentions that the family has a compound on Cape Cod.
164	* NocturnalEmission: In "Rites of Passage", a young boy named Elvis believes that he has cancer after experiencing his first nocturnal emission. Dr. Auschlander, who really does have cancer, sets his mind at ease by explaining the facts of life.
165	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Dr. Westphall sets up a community outreach program, to have the residents perform community service. Dr. Ehrlich goes to work with inner city youths [[spoiler: and gets mugged]]. Dr Chandler goes to work at a women's health clinic, [[spoiler:which is bombed by protesters. The next day, a second bomb goes off at St. Eligius, injuring only him]], then goes to work for a suicide hotline [[spoiler: a girl calls several times wanting to kill herself. The next morning, she calls back and it seems like she's doing better, then Chandler hears a gunshot]]. Dr. Morrison goes to work at a prison clinic, [[spoiler:and is raped by an inmate]].
166	* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: George Wyler, a doctor who spent forty years working in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, is based on Albert Schweitzer.
167	* NotWhatItLooksLike: Several times.
168	* OddballInTheSeries: "Their Town" does not feature any scenes set at St. Eligius. With the exception of one scene set in the Craigs' house, it takes place entirely in Peterborough, New Hampshire. It is also the only episode in which a character, namely Donald Westphall, [[NoFourthWall speaks directly to the audience]].
169	* OneSteveLimit: {{Averted\|Trope}} in several instances.
170	** Peter White is a main character for the first three seasons. In the Season One finale "Addiction", Jack and Nina Morrison name their newborn son Peter after Jack's great-uncle. In "AIDS & Comfort", their shared name causes momentary confusion when Dr. Caldwell tells Jack to take good care of Pete in White's presence.
171	** Season Two introduces both Dr. Robert "Bobby" Caldwell and Roberta "Bobby" Sloan, who is very briefly married to Dr. Ehrlich.
172	* OutOfGenreExperience: In the episode "Cheers", the scene set at, well, Cheers is scripted and acted out as if it were a scene from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', complete with Carla, Norm, and Cliff all making appearances and interacting with the mains exactly as you would expect them to on that show. The only thing missing is the live studio audience, which is jarring since there are still punchlines that nobody laughs at.
173	* PhraseCatcher: Especially throughout Season 2.
174	** "You're a pig, Ehrlich." He even says it to himself in "A Pig Too Far".
175	** To a lesser extent, "Shut up, Fiscus."
176	* PreviouslyOn / OnTheNext: Just about every episode of the first five seasons began with a summary of previous events that were pertinent to the episode, and some added a little snippet of events from that night's episode. In the final season, they switched to [[TheTeaser a cold open]] before the credits.
177	* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Happened to several characters over the years.
178	** Norman Lloyd (Dr. Daniel Auschlander), Creator/EllenBry (Nurse Shirley Daniels), Eric Laneuville (Luther Hawkins) and Kim Miyori (Dr. Wendy Armstrong) in Season Two. They were all major recurring cast members in Season One.
179	** Stephen Furst (Dr. Elliot Axelrod) in Season Three, having been a relatively minor recurring cast member in Season Two.
180	** Bonnie Bartlett (Ellen Craig) and Cindy Pickett (Dr. Carol Novino) in Season Five. Bartlett had been an increasingly important recurring cast member since Season One while Pickett was introduced as a major recurring cast member towards the end of Season Four.
181	** Sagan Lewis (Dr. Jackie Wade), France Nuyen (Dr. Paulette Kiem) and Jennifer Savidge (Nurse Lucy Papandrao) in Season Six. Lewis and Papandrao had been increasingly important recurring cast members since the pilot while Nuyen was introduced as a major recurring cast member in Season Five.
182	* PurgatoryAndLimbo: In "After Life", Dr. Wayne Fiscus has a NearDeathExperience after being shot. His visions include a trip to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory (which surprises him, since as he says, "I'm not Catholic"), during which he meets the souls of patients and friends who have already died.
183	* PutOnABus: Several characters, but most notably Shirley Daniels and Bobby Caldwell.
184	** Dr. Chandler goes to training in Missouri shortly after being promoted to Chief Resident to accommodate Creator/DenzelWashington's movie work.
185	* QuestioningTitle: "Jose, Can You See?" and "You Again?".
186	* RapeAsDrama: Season Two had a running story arc about a rapist preying on the hospital. The rapist was [[spoiler:series regular Dr. Peter White, whom Nurse Shirley Daniels ends up shooting dead in cold blood in "My Aim is True"]].
187	* RacistGrandma: Dr. Craig often says racist and bigoted things to others - seemingly oblivious to how much it offends or hurts them. It isn't until [[spoiler:Luther angrily calls him out on it in "Handoff"]] that he seems to display any regret about it.
188	* RecycledInSpace: Early ads said it was "''Series/HillStreetBlues'' IN A HOSPITAL!"
189	* {{Retcon}}:
190	** In "Breathless", Dr. Auschlander mentions that St. Eligius was founded in 1932. He then asks Dr. Westphall if he ever met the hospital's founder Father Joseph [=McCabe=]. Westphall says that he never did. The two-part story "Time Heals" establishes that the hospital was founded in 1935 and that Father [=McCabe=] had not only known Westphall as a child but was a mentor to him during his troubled teens.
191	** In "Give the Boy a Hand", the artist Alex Corey tells Dr. Auschlander that Father [=McCabe=] died while his father was painting his portrait years earlier. In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", it is revealed that the 90-year-old [=McCabe=] is still alive but he is paralyzed as a result of ALS when he returns to St. Eligius after spending the last 30 years among the [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Hopi tribe]] in UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}.
192	* {{Revenge}}: In "My Aim is True", Shirley Daniels [[spoiler:shoots Dr. White to avenge the rape of Cathy Martin]]. If you watch the scene carefully, you'll see that she actually [[spoiler:shoots him twice]]...and, appropriately, [[spoiler:the first shot [[GroinAttack isn't to the heart]]]].
193	* RunningGag:
194	** Season 2 has every major character call Dr. Ehrlich a pig, including Ehrlich himself.
195	** Dr. Craig’s Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award for Surgeon of the Year, and its propensity to needing to be replaced after it meets an unfortunate accident.
196	** Dr. Craig’s oft-mentioned Gerbode mitral valvulotome that he brags was gifted to him by his mentor Dr. Domedion. In “Time Heals” is revealed that Dr. Craig [[spoiler:actually stole it from his mentor]].
197	* SanitySlippage: The residency program, coupled with marital problems, eventually became too much for [[spoiler:Dr. White]].
198	* SantaAmbiguity: In "Santa Claus is Dead", the man whom Katherine Auschlander hired to play Santa Claus for the children at St. Eligius is hinted to be the genuine article. He knows Luther and Ehrlich by name and is aware of details of their personal lives. He also asks after the Craigs' newborn granddaughter Barbara. Luther suspects that he sent a front man ahead of him to find out all of this. The Auschlanders' grandson Max asks him to replace Katherine's snowglobe, which he broke while playing ball in the house. Although Santa Claus goes into cardiac arrest and dies immediately afterwards, Katherine nevertheless receives a snowglobe identical to the broken one with a card featuring Santa Claus' name. Dr. Auschlander denies having bought it for her.
199	* SchrodingersButterfly: Are all the shows this show had crossovers with (and all the shows that they crossed over with) a part of Tommy Westphall's imagination?
200	* SensualSlavs: Hungarian doctor Dr. Vera Anya, who whom Dr. Craig becomes infatuated.
201	* SeriesContinuityError: In the Season 2 episode "In Sickness and in Health", Dr. Westphall tells the Halloran family that he doesn't believe in taking comatose patients off of life support, and yet in the Season 4 WholeEpisodeFlashback "Time Heals", he is shown doing it to [[spoiler:his brain-dead wife Maureen]] in 1975, which happened eight years before the events of "In Sickness and in Health".
202	* SceneryCensor: A few times.
203	* SerialSpouse: Helen Rosenthal has been married four times, [[GentileJewChaser each time to a Jewish man]]. All four marriages end in divorce.
204	* TheShrink:
205	** Dr. Hugh Beale in Season One.
206	** Dr. Michael Ridley in Season Two.
207	** Dr. Simon Weiss in Seasons Two to Four and Six.
208	* TheShutIn:
209	** While doing the residency program's mandated community service in "To Tell the Truth", Fiscus encounters two elderly shut-ins: Sophia Pavlon, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a debilitating stroke, and Harry Cragen, who has barely left his house since the death of his beloved wife Helen almost a year and a half earlier. After Dr. Westphall tells him that everyone needs a purpose and something to live for in their lives, Fiscus introduces Sophia and Harry. After a rough start, the two of them hit it off and it is implied that a DecemberDecemberRomance will ensue.
210	** In "A Room with a View", an elderly shut-in named Amy Jeffries has observed the goings-on at St. Eligius, which is across the street from her apartment, since the 1960s. As she does not know any of their names, she gives the staff and patients at the hospital nicknames: Dr. Craig is Dr. Little Big Man, Dr. Auschlander is Dr. Kindly Grandfather and the heart surgery patient Margaret Kimbrough as Miss Yellow Nightgown. When she sees Craig packing to leave, Amy becomes extremely upset as she is particularly fond of him. She calls the hospital to find out his name and leaves numerous messages for him. Craig eventually visits her apartment and it becomes clear that the St. Eligius staff are the closest thing that she has to friends. In "A Coupla White Dummies Sitting Around Talking", Amy is admitted to the hospital with a broken hip and meets several of her "friends" for the first time. Ten days after her operation, Dr. Gideon insists that she be discharged and sent to a convalescent home. However, Dr. Kiem takes pity on Amy, who is desperately lonely. She begins an adoptive grandparent program at the hospital with Amy as the first volunteer.
211	* SlapSlapKiss: Victor Ehrlich and Lucy Papandrao.
212	* SnowGlobeOfInnocence: The series finale of infamously ends with the implication that the events of the whole series were nothing more than a mere fantasy imagined by Tommy Westphall, an autistic boy whose most treasured possession is a snow globe containing a small model of a building resembling the hospital in which the series is set.
213	* {{Southies}}: Considering that St. Eligius is in the South End of Boston, many of the patients fall into this category. The same is true of Dr. Westphall and Luther, who have lived in the area for their entire lives.
214	* StarterMarriage: In "In Sickness and in Health", Dr. Ehrlich and Roberta "Bobby" Sloan [[FourthDateMarriage get married after a very brief courtship]]. Three episodes later in "After Dark", they separate after only 16 days of marriage after they realise that they are incompatible.
215	* StealingTheCredit: In "A Coupla White Dummies Sitting Around Talking", Ehrlich is approached by a man named Knox who claims that he invented the Craig 9000 artificial heart and that the Ecumena Corporation stole the idea from him after he sent them his prototype. He pretends to have a gun and kidnaps Ehrlich as it is the only way that he can get anyone to listen to him. Knox tells Ehrlich, who is sympathetic, that he does not want all of the credit but he thinks that he at least deserves a footnote for all of his hard work.
216	* StylisticSuck: In "Heaven's Skate", the [=DXter=] clinical computer simulation is poorly shot and is filled with BadBadActing and banal dialogue.
217	* SurferDude: Ehrlich's best friend Dogger in "In Sickness and in Health". Dogger implies that Ehrlich also fit this trope before he moved to the East Coast.
218	* SurgeonsCanDoAutopsiesIfTheyWant: Unusually for a medical drama, this is mostly averted.
219	* SurprisePregnancy:
220	** In "Hearts", an overweight woman named Gina Barnett comes into St. Eligius complaining of stomach pains. Upon examining her, Dr. Armstrong discovers that she is not only pregnant but about to give birth. Prior to this, Gina had no idea that she was pregnant. After the baby is born, she abandons it in the hospital as she can't afford to raise a child because she is already taking care of her invalid father.
221	** In "Lost and Found in Space", an intellectually impaired young woman named Pru Dowler, who has the mental capacity of a seven-year-old, is brought to St. Eligius after sustaining minor injuries in a bus crash. She and Buddy, a similarly disabled young man, spontaneously have sex in her hospital room without really understanding what it means. Pru is frightened by the experience. About six weeks later in "Loss of Power", her mother brings her back to St. Eligius as she is suffering from nausea and stomach pains. Dr. Morrison's tests reveal that Pru is pregnant. Pru's mother blames the hospital for her daughter's condition and insists that she have an abortion, which is performed by Dr. Craig and Ehrlich in "The Boom Boom Womb".
222	* SurvivorGuilt: In "Time Heals, Part 2", the sixteen-year-old Donald Westphall suffers from severe survivor's guilt in 1945 as his mother Elizabeth and three siblings were killed in a fire ten years earlier. His father Thomas was the only other member of his family to survive. As a result of this guilt, Westphall became a juvenile delinquent but Father Joseph [=McCabe=] helped him to get his life on track.
223	* TakeThat: In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Phil Chandler mentions that Dr. O'Brien has gone to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Jack Morrison replies, "She won't last thirteen weeks in New York." In the 1986-87 season, the medical drama ''Kay O'Brien'', which took place in Manhattan General Hospital, aired on Creator/{{CBS}}. It was cancelled after only eight episodes.
224	* TalkingInYourDreams: In the episode "Sweet Dreams", Morrison has a nightmare where [[spoiler:Peter White talks with him from beyond the grave, and creepily confesses that he deserved to be killed.]]
225	* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: In "Tears of a Clown", while watching Mrs. Hufnagel's video will:
226	-->'''Mrs. Hufnagel (on tape)''': You had a schoolboy crush on me, and I can understand why.\
227	'''Axelrod''': I did not have a crush on you!\
228	'''Mrs. Hufnagel (on tape)''': You did too! Shut up, chubs.
229	* TeenGenius: In "Nothing Up My Sleeve", Elliot has to show a 14-year-old medical student named Owen Drimmer around the hospital.
230	* TimeShiftedActor: The two-part story "Time Heals" features younger versions of several main and recurring characters: the 1935 and 1945 versions of Donald Westphall are played by Joshua Harris and Michael Sharrett respectively, the 1945 versions of Daniel Auschlander and his future wife Katherine Wellingham are played by James Stephens and Devon Ericson and the 1965 version of Luther Hawkins is played by Sean Williams.
231	* TitleDrop: St. Eligius' derogatory nickname St. Elsewhere is used in nine episodes, including all six season premieres: "Pilot", "Bypass", "Ties That Bind", "Playing God, Part 1", "Cheers", "Remembrance of Things Past", "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", "Resurrection" and the SeriesFinale "The Last One".
232	* TitleMontage: The series features one.
233	* ThatCameOutWrong: Ehrlich, ''all the time''.
234	* TokenMinorityCouple: Luther & Penny. Dr. Chandler & Roseanne Keaton. Dr. Chandler & Dr. Turner.
235	* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Heart transplant patient Eve Leighton]].
236	* TragicAidsStory: St. Elsewhere was one of the first shows to feature AIDS-related storylines. Starting in season 2, a straight patient is diagnosed with AIDS causing much fear to the hospital staff who are unsure how to handle the disease. A major character discovers they AIDS and later die off-screen. A story arc involves a gay patient that eventually dies of AIDS. A doctor has an AIDS scare. There are several infants with AIDS.
237	* TragicDream: In "You Beta Your Life", Dr. Westphall dreams that his son Tommy has been cured of his autism and will be able to lead a perfectly normal life. Tommy then tells him that he is only dreaming and this will never happen in the real world.
238	* TraumaCongaLine: The story of Morrison's life from Season Two onwards.
239	* {{Tuckerization}}:
240	** Dr. Creator/JonLovitz is paged in "Rough Cut".
241	** In "Cheers", Rabbi Abner Singer is named after Abner "Abby" Singer, the series' executive in charge of production at the time.
242	** In "Time Heals, Part 2", two interns at St. Eligius in a flashback to 1975 are named [[Radio/TheBurnsAndAllenShow Burns and Allen]].
243	** In "Family Ties" and "You, Again?", Dr. Craig has to deal with Dr. Josiah Bartlett, his Boston General counterpart and longtime rival. He is named after Josiah Bartlett, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the Continental Congress for New Hampshire. It also serves as an ActorAllusion as Creator/WilliamDaniels' on screen and off screen wife Bonnie Bartlett (Ellen Craig) is distantly related to Bartlett.
244	** In "Visiting Daze", Victor Ehrlich learns that his real name is Bernie Oseransky and that his parents Lech and Olga Oseransky were UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} operatives. Bernard Oseransky was the series' executive in charge of production by that time.
245	** In "Their Town", Jack, Sam and Harry of the Warner Bros. Carpentry Company are named after three of the four founders of the film studio Creator/WarnerBros, Albert being the fourth.
246	** In the SeriesFinale "The Last One", there are several examples. In the opening scene, Fiscus treats a patient named General Sarnoff who is having trouble with his optic nerves. Fiscus tells him that it is a great network but he shouldn't damage it by spending all of his time watching television. General David Sarnoff was the founder of Creator/{{NBC}}. While chasing the [[Series/TheFugitive one-armed fugitive Mr. Mirkin]], Warren Coolidge says, "Move the gurney, Hal!" Hal Gurnee was the regular director of ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night with David Letterman]]''. Later, there is a new first year resident named Dr. Brandon Falsey, who is named after the Creator/{{NBC}} president Brandon Tartikoff and ''St. Elsewhere'''s co-creators Joshua Brand and John Falsey.
247	* UncleTomfoolery: Luther, in earlier seasons; Dr. Chandler even called him out on it in "Equinox". Luther eventually got better in later seasons, first becoming a paramedic and then studying to become a physician's assistant.
248	* VanityPlate: At the end of every episode, the MTM Productions logo features an animated version of Mimsie the Cat in surgical garb. [[spoiler: She flatlines at the end of the series finale "The Last One".]]
249	* VignetteEpisode: "Weigh In, Way Out" features four stories each concerning a different stage of life. In the first segment, Morrison and Ehrlich compete to deliver the 100,000th baby born at St. Eligius. In the second, Fiscus decides to perform one last childish act before turning 30, namely gluing everything in Dr. Gideon's office. In the third, Dr. Craig goes to Herschfeld's Boxing Gym and spars with the owner in order to work out his feelings at having turned 56, the age at which his father William committed suicide. In the final segment, a dying elderly man named Richard Welte mistakes Lucy for his late wife Katie and they walk the Freedom Trail together in his imagination.
250	* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Morrison is working in the morgue when he hears breathing coming from one of the shelves. He opens it to find that the supposedly dead Richard Jenkins is still alive, though only barely. Morrison and a crash team are able to resuscitate him. Elliot, who pronounced Jenkins DOA, swears that he was dead and is at a loss to explain it. Fiscus retorts that he was in fact AAKOA: alive and kicking on arrival. Jenkins is not grateful to Morrison for resuscitating him as he was trying to kill himself.
251	* WeightWoe: In "Cramming", it is revealed that Wendy Armstrong has struggled with bulimia for years. In the following episode "Rough Cut", she tells Helen Rosenthal that it is because she always felt pressure to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student and more recently the perfect doctor. [[spoiler: The resulting depression leads Wendy to commit suicide in the latter episode.]]
252	* WellDoneSonGuy: In "Once Upon a Mattress", after getting shot in the previous episode "After Life", Fiscus comes to the conclusion that his father Jonas has never liked him since he never showed interest in his activities growing up and always seemed to be annoyed by him. Jonas confirms that he never liked his son but says that he always loved him.
253	* WesternTerrorists:
254	** In "Pilot", a domestic terrorist named Andrew Reinhardt plants a bomb in a bank and is injured when it goes off prematurely. An innocent bystander named Katherine [=McAllister=] suffers much more serious injuries and dies in "Cora and Arnie". This leads her husband Stephen to shoot and kill Reinhardt as he is being transferred out of St. Eligius.
255	** In "The Boom Boom Womb", a deeply religious, fanatical pro-lifer delivers a package containing a bomb to the Boston's Women Clinic, an abortion clinic where Dr. Chandler is performing community service. As soon as the bomber leaves, it explodes, killing the clinic's administrator Dr. Francine Kennedy and injuring several other people. Chandler is physically unharmed but is traumatized by the experience. The bomber later plants another bomb in St. Eligius and calls Dr. Auschlander with a bomb threat demanding that the hospital cease all abortions. Although the police are able to locate the bomb, the bomber plants yet another in a cleaning cart later that afternoon. The next day, the bomb detonates in the vicinity of the hospital gift shop. Chandler is badly injured but survives. Ehrlich has a {{near miss\|es}} as he left the gift shop moments before the explosion. The bomber turns himself in at Chandler's bedside so that his arrest will shed light on the issue of abortion.
256	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The Season Four two-parter "Time Heals", in which St. Eligius celebrates its 50th anniversary, features extensive flashbacks:
257	** In 1935, the hospital is founded by Father Joseph [=McCabe=], who serves as its chief administrator. The six-year-old Donald Westphall loses his entire family (bar his father Thomas) in a fire.
258	** In 1945, Dr. Auschlander returns from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and is hired as a liver specialist at St. Eligius. At the hospital, he meets Westphall, a sixteen-year-old juvenile delinquent, and his future wife Katherine.
259	** In 1955, Dr. Craig is an [[JerkAss arrogant]], [[ProfessionalButtKisser sycophantic]] intern who is forever trying to get into the good graces of the chief of surgery Dr. David Domedion. Auschlander succeeds Father [=McCabe=] as the chief of services.
260	** In 1965, Craig returns to St. Eligius after ten years at Boston General and becomes the new chief of surgery. Helen Rosenthal (then Eisenberg) immigrates to the US shortly after marrying her first husband Edgar and begins working at the hospital as a nurse.
261	** In 1975, after his wife Maureen is involved in a terrible car accident, Westphall makes the difficult decision to take her off of life support. Craig performs St. Eligius' first heart bypass on Patrick O'Casey.
262	* WholePlotReference: "Their Town" is based on the 1938 play ''Theatre/OurTown'' by Creator/ThorntonWilder. Taking place in the small town of Peterborough, New Hampshire, it explores the different life challenges being faced by Donald Westphall, his children Lizzie and Tommy, Mark and Ellen Craig and Carol Novino in much the same way as the play explores the lives of the residents of the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners. Wilder based Grover's Corners on Peterborough. Furthermore, Dr. Westphall [[NoFourthWall addresses the audience directly]] several times in the episode, as the Stage Manager does in the play.
263	* WringEveryLastDropOutOfHim: Dr. Auschlander is diagnosed with terminal cancer in the pilot episode, and residents bet on when he's going to croak. He survives 6 seasons of crises, chemotherapy, accidents, and the deaths of several major characters, before dying in the final episode. ([[TheEndingChangesEverything Or did he]]...?)

Context Series / StElsewhere