Chicago Hope
Letting Go
TV Flash files “Letting Go” as hour 131 of 141 in the TV Flash guide — Chicago Hope (1994–2000) on CBS, season 6, episode 12, aired 2000-01-20, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S06E12: listed hour 131 of 141 in the Chicago Hope guide, hour 12 of 22 in season 6. It aired 2000-01-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Faith, Hope & Surgery” (S06E11). Next is “Boys Will Be Girls” (S06E13).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A railroad engineer with a drug-resistant strain of TB requires surgery that is not performed at Chicago Hope. This necessitates calling in an expert at it, Wilkes' estranged Aunt Odelia. When Keith also tests positive for TB, he is forced to take an experimental drug to which he has a severe reaction. Meanwhile, Dr. Simon is stumped by a patient who has a wide variety of serious physical symptoms that keeps changing. She believes it's God's revenge for turning away from her dying twin sister.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Letting Go sit in the Chicago Hope guide?
S06E12 is listed hour 131 of 141 — hour 12 of 22 in season 6, season 6 episode 12.
When did Chicago Hope S06E12 air?
Letting Go aired 2000-01-20 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…