Chicago Hope
Absent Without Leave
TV Flash files “Absent Without Leave” as hour 94 of 141 in the TV Flash guide — Chicago Hope (1994–2000) on CBS, season 4, episode 23, aired 1998-05-06, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E23: listed hour 94 of 141 in the Chicago Hope guide, hour 23 of 24 in season 4. It aired 1998-05-06 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Risky Business” (S04E22). Next is “Physician, Heal Thyself” (S04E24).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Aaron and Samara vacation in LA, where Aaron learns a valuable lesson about savoring life. Keith clashes with Dennis when a wealthy woman tries to improve urban life by paying for the sterilization of drug addicts. Billy endures a visit from his flighty mother. Phillip tries to produce an audio tape on surgery.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Absent Without Leave sit in the Chicago Hope guide?
S04E23 is listed hour 94 of 141 — hour 23 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 23.
When did Chicago Hope S04E23 air?
Absent Without Leave aired 1998-05-06 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Is this just ER on the other network?
Same season debut, opposite temperature: more speeches than sprinting, ethics and ego as the engine, CBS prestige white coats versus NBC trauma velocity.
In the series
Why this series still plays
ER’s rival hospital across the dial: prestige white coats, Mandy Patinkin’s intensity, and David E. Kelley’s medical ethics machine. A network arms race that elevated craft even when the other show won the ratings. Nineties doctor drama with more speeches than sprinting — surgical soaps, ego collisions, and the satisfaction of a well-argued diagnosis after midnight.
The work, first: prestige white coats, Mandy Patinkin's intensity, medical ethics as the actual sprint — CBS's answer in the mid-1990s hospital arms race. David E. Kelley created *Chicago Hope* (1994–2000) and debuted it the same season as *ER* in a famous faceoff: classier, talkier counterweight to trauma velocity. Adam Arkin, Héctor Elizondo, later Mark Harmon and Christine Lahti. Surgeons at a top Chicago hospital clash over ethics, ego, and impossible cases. Nineties doctor drama with more speeches than…
Filed against
- Mandy Patinkin as Jeffrey Geiger
Mandy Patinkin’s Jeffrey Geiger brought intensity to Chicago Hope’s prestige white coats — ER’s rival across the dial, David E. Kelley’s ethics machine — then counselled a decade of wars as Saul on Homeland. Nineties doctor speeches;…
- Adam Arkin as Aaron Shutt
Adam Arkin’s Aaron Shutt worked Chicago Hope’s prestige white coats — ER’s rival across the dial, David E. Kelley’s medical ethics machine, nineties doctor drama with more speeches than sprinting. A network arms race that elevated craft…
- Héctor Elizondo as Phillip Watters
Héctor Elizondo's Phillip Watters ran Chicago Hope as prestige white-coat gravity — ER's rival hospital across the dial, Mandy Patinkin's intensity, David E. Kelley's medical-ethics machine. A network arms race that elevated craft even…
- Mark Harmon as Jack McNeil
Mark Harmon’s Jack McNeil worked Chicago Hope’s ethics-machine hospital — prestige coats, nineties doctor drama with more speeches than sprinting — then became NCIS’s quiet ratings titan as the squad-room still point. Kelley rival hour;…
- Christine Lahti as Kathryn Austin
Christine Lahti played Kathryn Austin on Chicago Hope — ER's rival hospital across the dial, prestige white coats, Mandy Patinkin's intensity, David E. Kelley's medical ethics machine. A network arms race that elevated craft even when the…