ER
The Greatest of Gifts
TV Flash files “The Greatest of Gifts” as hour 144 of 331 in the TV Flash guide — ER (1994–2009) on NBC, season 7, episode 9, aired 2000-12-14, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E09: listed hour 144 of 331 in the ER guide, hour 9 of 22 in season 7. It aired 2000-12-14 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Dance We Do” (S07E08). Next is “Piece of Mind” (S07E10).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
During labor Chen has second thoughts about giving her baby up for adoption, a decision complicated by the adoptive parents' presence at the hospital. With an enormous lack of sleep, Carter is called back to County to act as Chen's coach, and is later tempted to use Vicodin to take the edge off. Finch and Benton encounter trouble trying to keep Kynesha hidden from a gang. Benton comforts a little girl who is feeling used by her parents. Legaspi plants a kiss on Weaver. Greene and Corday spend the day in New York seeking help for his brain tumor. Weaver has the hiccups throughout the entire episode, trying several suggestions to stop them.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Greatest of Gifts sit in the ER guide?
S07E09 is listed hour 144 of 331 — hour 9 of 22 in season 7, season 7 episode 9.
When did ER S07E09 air?
The Greatest of Gifts aired 2000-12-14 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…