ER
Survival of the Fittest
TV Flash files “Survival of the Fittest” as hour 152 of 331 in the TV Flash guide — ER (1994–2009) on NBC, season 7, episode 17, aired 2001-03-29, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E17: listed hour 152 of 331 in the ER guide, hour 17 of 22 in season 7. It aired 2001-03-29 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Witch Hunt” (S07E16). Next is “April Showers” (S07E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Peter and Cleo may be at fault when a police officer shoots and kills an old woman with dementia. Carter misinforms Rena and tells her that he and Abby had a past liaison. April Fool's Day causes the staffers to play pranks on each other; Malucci gets the worst of it when Kovac injects him with Haldol, rendering him useless for the rest of the shift and getting his hand glued to his forehead while asleep. Corday endures a particularly long surgery just to prove that she can despite her pregnancy. Greene treats three young students who have been huffing carpet cleaner. Luka treats another pregnant teenager, who wants the comfort that a child will bring her.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Survival of the Fittest sit in the ER guide?
S07E17 is listed hour 152 of 331 — hour 17 of 22 in season 7, season 7 episode 17.
When did ER S07E17 air?
Survival of the Fittest aired 2001-03-29 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…