DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250074

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
                                            LENGTH:   79 lines

LIVE ``ER'' TONIGHT IS MUST-SEE TV

NBC TONIGHT AT 10 does the season premiere of ``ER'' live, live, LIVE! Stop the presses, call re-write, and tear out the front page, boys and girls, we're putting out an EXTRA.

It's ``ER'' on live TV.

What's the big deal?

Stars George Clooney and Anthony Edwards both hosted ``Saturday Night Live,'' a show on which actors have been working without a net for 22 years.

Soaps were done live for decades, and before the coming of videotape, virtually all TV was live. As recently as 1982, NBC put on ``A Member of the Wedding'' live, starring Henry Fonda.

Live TV is not as difficult as, say, splitting the atom. So why is NBC telling everyone that tonight's ``ER'' is a colossal challenge that requires numerous rehearsals including Wednesday night's full dress rehearsal?

The answer is because ``ER'' is ``ER'' - a fast-moving, MTV generation, short-attention-span drama in which crews using as any as 11 cameras and six sound booms work in the tight spaces of a simulated Chicago hospital emergency room with as many as 40 actors and 50 extras.

Unlike ``Roc,'' a sitcom which Fox did live a few seasons ago, ``ER'' has a lot going on all at once with IV needles, intubation trays, stethoscopes and rubber gloves flying all over the place. Much can go wrong in a setting such as that, and often does.

That's when the director yells, ``Cut!,'' and starts over again. ``Doing `ER' is always a logistical nightmare, and when we do it live, it will be more so,'' said executive producer John Wells. Carol Flint, who wrote the script for tonight's episode, said, ``The departments handling props, wardrobe and make-up will have to work much harder and faster than they are used to doing.''

And they'll all have to do it twice. NBC decided against taping the 10 p.m. live telecast on the East Coast, and showing it to viewers in the west. ``ER'' will go live west of the Rockies, too.

In a stroke of genius, Flint wrote a script in which viewers will have a hard time telling if anything goes wrong during the live telecast. Here's why: Tonight's story centers on a TV crew that has come to County General to do a documentary about emergency-room medicine.

In this TV show within a TV show, who'll notice if the doctors and nurses drop instruments, bump into each other or mumble their lines? They'll be nervous because a TV crew is in the emergency room with their hand-held cameras, getting in the way.

``You'll see doctors and lawyers who are intimidated by the cameras. They'll seem anxious, off their game,'' said director Thomas Schlamme, who knows about TV doctor shows. His wife is Christine Lahti of ``Chicago Hope.''

``Screw-ups will be inevitable,'' said Clooney, who plays Dr. Doug Ross. But will they be screw-ups by actors following the ``ER'' script or screw-ups by a staff reacting nervously to a camera crew in their midst?

See if you can tell the difference. Most obvious to ``ER'' viewers who are used to the ``soft'' filmed look of the series will be the harsh tone of tonight's episode - a different feel.

The producers resent the implication that ``ER'' going live is a gimmick, a grandstand play to pull in a Super Bowl-type audience as the series begins its fourth season. Ratings were off a tad last year.

Could this be a plan to bring back those 40-plus audience shares?

Not really, Wells said.

``Creatively speaking, we're just trying to mix it up a bit. There's always the danger of becoming a little stale at what you're doing if you don't change things or challenge yourself.

``Also, this live show will have a storyline involving Dr. Mark Greene and his continuing inability to deal with the violence he was a victim of last season. Doing this episode will give us an edge, a certain rawness.''

This is the season premiere of ``ER,'' but not the first new show the cast and crew has worked on at Warner Brothers' soundstage No. 11. Six episodes have been filmed.

Just because it's live doesn't mean the emergency room staff will loaf through the hour. ``I've included just as many traumas and mono-syllabic medical terms as usual in the script,'' Flint said.

Who's the lucky actor who gets to say ``diabetic ketoacidosis'' real fast on live TV tonight? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

NBC

Anthony Edwards stars in...

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