ER
When the Bough Breaks
TV Flash files “When the Bough Breaks” as hour 73 of 331 in the TV Flash guide — ER (1994–2009) on NBC, season 4, episode 4, aired 1997-10-16, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E04: listed hour 73 of 331 in the ER guide, hour 4 of 22 in season 4. It aired 1997-10-16 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Friendly Fire” (S04E03). Next is “Good Touch, Bad Touch” (S04E05).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The ER is flooded with injured children following a school bus accident. Mark turns surly when Jenn refuses to let Rachel visit until he cleans up his act. Jeanie faces a crisis when she's forced to use her hand to stop a patient from bleeding. Carter demands that Benton stop treating him like a student, and start treating him as an equal. Carter and Anna get new students, with Carter getting the short shrift once again. A junkie mother claims that Carol dropped her newborn child. Al Boulet loses his job. Reese is discharged from the hospital.
Viewer FAQ
Where does When the Bough Breaks sit in the ER guide?
S04E04 is listed hour 73 of 331 — hour 4 of 22 in season 4, season 4 episode 4.
When did ER S04E04 air?
When the Bough Breaks aired 1997-10-16 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need all fifteen seasons?
No. The first five (1994–99) are the contract and the star-factory peak. Seasons 6–8 still pay debts, including Greene's exit. After that, graze by cast you care about. The 2009 closer works as a building farewell even if you skipped late innings.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the handheld contract that still governs medical TV: overlapping trauma, a camera that cannot leave, and a star factory that — in the hours that matter — pays a human bill instead of shipping a trailer. Velocity first; the famous exits are footnotes.
The first thing ER does, on September 19, 1994, is refuse to stand still. 24 Hours is not a premiere that introduces characters so much as a thesis about attention: overlapping cases, a camera that behaves like a person who cannot leave, and a county hospital that will still be there when the guest star is a movie. Michael Crichton put a novelist’s procedural brain under Warner Bros. television lights; NBC put it on Thursday. The gossip is Clooney. The text is velocity. If you only remember the exit economics,…
Filed against
- Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene
Anthony Edwards steadied ER’s early chaos as Dr. Mark Greene, the ethical center amid Steadicam trauma and Clooney-level heat. His quieter authority sold the show’s human stakes when the adrenaline spiked. TV Flash files him as 1990s…
- George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross
George Clooney played Dr. Doug Ross on ER — the gossip the Steadicam still had to earn, pediatric swagger inside NBC's trauma-bay factory. TV Flash files him as the 1990s medical drama's most famous exit economics, and as television…
- Eriq La Salle as Dr. Peter Benton
Eriq La Salle played Dr. Peter Benton on ER — trauma-bay steel inside NBC's Steadicam moral instrument. Fifteen seasons of County General minted movie stars; Benton was the surgical weather that did not need the trailer. TV Flash files…
- Julianna Margulies as Nurse Carol Hathaway
Julianna Margulies’s Nurse Carol Hathaway is ER’s trauma-bay human voltage — fifteen seasons of County General, a star factory that actually cost something, medical drama learning how to move. Not the attending poster; the nurse as the…
- Noah Wyle as John Carter
Noah Wyle’s John Carter made ER a star factory that still cost something — intern velocity, County General as a moral instrument, and a camera that refused to stand still. NBC Thursday wanted adrenaline. Wyle supplied the student who had…
- Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet
Gloria Reuben played Jeanie Boulet on ER — County General from the physician-assistant line, trauma-bay velocity that did not need a movie-star exit to count. TV Flash files her as 1990s medical-ensemble craft in a star factory that, in…