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It might have seemed "Chicago Hope" was on its last legs as the TV season began, but there's still hope.
In its sixth year, the CBS medical drama faces tough competition from ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and NBC's "Frasier" and "Stark Raving Mad," but the series has rebounded strongly, recently placing in the Nielsen top 20 for the first time.
That can be attributed to smart recasting and solid writing. Original co-star Mandy Patinkin was brought back in his Emmy-winning role as arrogant and passionate Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, and Barbara Hershey, Lauren Holly, Carla Gugino and Alan Rosenberg were added after last spring's exodus by much of the cast. Television veteran James Garner will appear in the year's final four episodes, playing the hospital's new owner.
Recent "Chicago Hope" scripts have tackled intriguing dilemmas, Rene Auberjonois ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") gave an Emmy-worthy guest performance as a brillant surgeon afflicted with Tourette's syndrome, and another story found Dr. Gina Simon (Gugino) risking professional ethics by considering an unauthorized operation on a comatose colleague. This week, Dr. Gieger wants to perform needed surgery on his adopted daughter.
The comeback of "Chicago Hope" was something of mandate, since CBS and executive producer David E. Kelly agreed that drastic changes were needed if the show was to survive beyond last season. Since he is largely occupied with two Emmy-winning hits - Fox's "Ally McBeal" and ABC's "The Practice" - Kelly has entrusted "Hope" to two other producers, Michael Pressman and Henry Bromell.
"We've come back to what the show was the first season, " Pressman says, "keeping medical stories in the foreground and using the conflicts among the doctors as reactions to those. First and foremost, the drama involves some cutting-edge medical breakthrough or issue, then there's the matter of how the characters deal with that" Pressman credits Bromell with bringing more continuity to "Chicago Hope". Admitting it took time for him to become familiar with such ongoing characters as Dr. Aaron Shutt (Adam Arkin) and Dr. Phillip Watters (Hector Elizondo), Bromell says, "Maybe that was an advantage. It was sort of a fresh start for everyone. Our approach was to let the characters, both the old and the new, show you who they were through the stories."
