These days, the main Hollywood stars have divided their time between young and large screens in a fairly reliable way; Hell, it seems that Nicole Kidman has a new television project every two weeks (in a different wig, no less). In the 1990s and 2000s, however, television was considered a lesser medium, which means that actors with small screens were constantly trying to become large cinema stars and leave their television roots firmly in the rear view mirror. This is precisely why, after five seasons as Dr. Doug Ross, George Clooney left “ER” for greener and more cinematographic pastures.

It probably looks like an excessive simplification of saying that Clooney has stopped playing Doug Ross so that he can focus on his cinematographic career, but that’s essentially … exactly what happened! Although Clooney made films like “Out of Sight” and his Crusader Caped film often discouraged “Batman & Robin” while playing Doug Ross, filming a network television program with 20 episodes by one season is a huge Time commitment. With his eyes on the big screen, it is logical that he decided to leave Chicago for Hollywood. So, how did John Wells and the rest of the creative team behind “ER” write Doug Ross of the global story? Has Clooney ever returned to resume his role as Doug Ross? (Yes, twice; I will come back to it.) I am almost sure that you know the post-“Er” work of Clooney, but we will review briefly. Here is precisely how George Clooney left the successful medical drama of NBC “ER” and how his career has gone to astonishing heights thereafter.

Throughout his stay on “ER”, Dr. Doug Ross – which begins the series as a pediatric scholarship holder before becoming a participation in the field which works specifically in the emergency department – is an irreverent but extremely devoted doctor who will do anything to help his patients and his impulse to shake up the rules to serve patients at all costs is exactly the reason why it is written in the series. During season 5 of “ER”, Doug treats a young boy named Ricky Abbott (Kyle Chambers) who has a rare disease called adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD; Doug first crosses a border when he gives a medication to experimental pain in Ricky, which could compromise the entire test of the drug if someone discovered it. (There is no remedy for Ald.)

Later, in the two -part episode “The Storm” – where Doug enters a car accident with the assistant doctor Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Reuben) – Doug does not allow Ricky’s mother so secret to access the supply Locked from Dilaudid Hospital, a medication finally leads to the death of Ricky after she administered it to end his sufferings. To avoid a scandal, Doug “moves to Seattle” and the last appearance of Clooney in the series – as regular – is in the second half of “The Storm”.

Even if George Clooney left “ER” to pursue a more lucrative and high -level cinematographic career, he finally returned to the series twice, although his first return was a small cameo (and super secret). In the episode of season 6 “Soux Sweet Sorrow”, Carol Hathaway – one of the first major “ER” characters played by Julianna Margulies – decides to move to Seattle to be with his love by Doug Ross, away , and at the very end of the episode, Doug is not played by a humble replacement; He played by George Clooney himself. In an interview in 2024 with the Television academyMarguiles said that showrunner John Wells had managed to make the appearance of Clooney a total secret, which really paid off – because when the public saw it, they were shocked. “I remember that my mother told me – she was so shocked because everyone knew that George was out of the show – my mother said that she had shouted, which, I think, was a lot of reaction “Remember Marguiles. “It was the right end for them because Carol and Doug were intended to be together.”

In season 15 of “ER” – The last season of the long medical series, in fact – Marguiles and Clooney reappear in the “Old Times” episode, where they work together as a married couple at the University of Washington Medical Center. After having persuaded a mourning grandmother, played by Susan Sarandon, to give the organs of her grandson … But what they do not know is that the kidney of this harvest goes to their old friend And colleague, Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) Chicago while he is under his own health crisis.

He is sure to say that leaving “uh” was the right decision for George Clooney because he is now Hollywood royalty … and he might not have had time To become a movie star if he had been stuck to play Doug Ross for years. After leaving the show in 2000, Clooney appeared in a fairly wide variety of successful filmsIncluding “The Perfect Storm” and “O brother, where are you?” That same year; In the years that followed, he worked on everything, “confessions of a dangerous spirit” The “Ocean” franchise “In the air” to “men of monuments”.

Clooney finally won his first Oscars for her supporting role in “Syriana” in 2006 and her second for production “Argo” in 2013, but he was nominated for his performance in “Michael Clayton”, “Up in the Air” And “The descendants,” and appeared in the main advantages of the best film as the masterpiece of Alfonso Cuarón “Gravity”. In recent years, Clooney has taken only a handful of roles, especially in the romantic comedy “Ticket to Paradise” – which brings him together with his co -star of “Ocean” Julia Roberts – and in The Apple TV + Buddy “Wolfs” comedy With his real friend Brad Pitt, but the venerable actor is also married (with the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney) with two children, so he is a little busy. In any case, you can watch him play Dr. Doug Ross on “ER” on Hulu now if you want to relive his small screens.