ER (TV series)
Following the broadcast of its two-hour pilot movie on September 19, 1994, "ER" premiered Thursday, September 22 at 10:00. It remained in the same Thursday time slot for its entire run. "ER" is NBC's third longest-running drama, after "Law & Order" and "", and, the longest-running American primetime medical drama of all time. On April 2, 2008, NBC announced that the series would return for its fifteenth season. The fifteenth season was originally scheduled to run for 19 episodes before retiring with a two-hour series finale to be broadcast on March 12, 2009, but NBC announced in January 2009 that it would extend the show by an additional three episodes to a full 22-episode order as part of a deal to launch a new series by John Wells titled "Police", later retitled "Southland". "ER"s final episode aired on April 2, 2009; the two-hour episode was preceded by a one-hour retrospective special. The series finale charged $425,000 per 30-second ad spot, more than three times the season's rate of $135,000. From season 4 to season 6 ER cost a record-breaking 13 million dollars per episode. TNT also paid a record price of $1 million an episode for four years of repeats of the series during that time. The cost of the first three seasons was 2 million per episode and seasons 7 to 9 cost 8 million dollars per episode.
Drew Live
The episode was written by Clay Graham and directed by Gerry Cohen. It first aired on November 10, 1999 on the ABC network in the United States. Executive producer and series co-creator, Bruce Helford came up with the idea for "Drew Live" after seeing medical drama "ER"'s live episode in 1997. To make "Drew Live" stand out, two-minute improvisational segments, in which the cast had to invent their own lines, were added in during filming. The cast and crew performed the episode live three times for the Eastern, Mountain and Pacific time zones. It was shot on tape and broadcast with a small delay. Performers from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" also made guest appearances.