5 Reasons Why ER Is The Definitive Medical Drama (& 5 Why It’s Grey’s Anatomy)

ER and Grey’s Anatomy were on the air for about four years at the same time. For four years, medical drama fans could watch Chicago on NBC and then switch to Seattle on ABC. Many medical drama fans have and continue to enjoy more than one medical show on television.

This year, Grey’s Anatomy just outpaced ER’s 15 seasons by beginning its 16th. But sometimes it’s quality over quantity. Which show, in the end, is the superior medical drama? It may be hard to decide, but here are a few reasons to love one over the other.

10 ER – George Clooney

While Dr. McDreamy may have defined a great deal of a show named after his eventual wife (Meredith Grey), Patrick Dempsey still spent a good deal of time on Grey’s Anatomy not doing medical things. He lived in a trailer, wanted to marry Meredith, and he hung out at Joe’s Bar.

Clooney’s Dr. Doug Ross, on the other hand, partied off-screen (as seen in the pilot where he gets to work early to IV off a hangover) but was working with patients the majority of the time he was seen on the show. Even outside the emergency room, he was rescuing teenagers from floods (thus saving lives). The focus was on getting people healthy.

9 Grey’s Anatomy – Personal Drama

Grey’s Anatomy has often been compared to a soap opera, but lives are like soap operas. Just because a person has a job, or spends most of their time at work, doesn’t mean that’s all there is to them. ER spent most of its time actually in the ER (romances took place on that show too, but not to the extent they did on Grey’s).

Grey’s Anatomy highlighted a lot of the doctors as people, rather than doctors. It’s part of what made the show stand out from its first season, but it also helped to highlight the whole person, rather than only the bandages when it came to medicine.

8 ER – Case-Focused

It was always a surprise when ER had an episode that spent a lot of time outside the emergency room. The drama happened at the intake desk, or in the staff room, or in triage. Grey’s Anatomy, on the other hand, saw the doctors visiting Meredith’s home, sharing apartments, or going to conferences. Sometimes Grey’s forgot all about the medicine.

Fans got to know the ER characters by how they approached their patients, not how they talked about them after hours over beers. The show was named after the place where the medicine happened, and thus that’s where the action always took place.

7 Grey’s Anatomy – Different Departments

While it is commendable that ER had such a clear focus on the emergency department, medicine isn’t all about sewing up blood and guts.

Sure, the doctors on Grey’s Anatomy are training to be surgeons, but they also make trips to the pit, dermatology, and very frequently, the maternity ward. At Grey Sloan Hospital, viewers are treated to quite a broad view of medicine compared to what we see at County General.

6 ER – World Politics

Grey’s Anatomy may have shown the different departments in the hospital, but ER offered a larger worldview on medicine. From the story of Kovac’s losses in his home country of Croatia, to his trip to help save lives in Africa, ER highlighted the different opportunities and struggles in treating patients in very different parts of the world.

Grey’s Anatomy sent its doctors around the country (even leading to plane crash once) but it didn’t add to the show’s reach, only its dramatics.

5 Grey’s Anatomy – Grow Up With The Characters

ER may have seen interns like Dr. Carter rise up the ranks, but Grey’s Anatomy focused (in the beginning) solely on a group of interns and the different tasks and challenges required to become a full-fledged doctor and surgeon. For most of the ER doctors, fans took them as they were.

This is a side of medicine often discussed but rarely explored on TV. It takes years of school and training to be successful and Grey’s Anatomy wanted to explore that struggle, not just the fight to save lives.

4 ER – The Set

Very few hospitals seen in films and on television look very much like the hospitals that regular people visit every day. While the design varies widely in the real world, more people have seen rooms similar to those seen at County General, than the clean, shiny, and high tech halls of Grey Sloan. ER had the more realistic set, no questions asked.

Medical dramas, in general, don’t get terribly close to the real experiences of practicing medicine, but ER got a little bit closer to the look.

3 Grey’s Anatomy – Bailey

Bailey has been on Grey’s Anatomy since its first season and there’s a reason. Besides the brilliant acting from Chandra Wilson, Bailey has always been the voice of truth on the show. Being a doctor is hard. It takes time and sacrifice, and Bailey has never been afraid to say so. While ER doctors hung around for quite a few seasons, the series finale left barely anyone from the original cast.

She has never been afraid to say it loudly and clearly to anyone who can hear. She acknowledges a truth that often gets missed when programs normally cure patients in less than the one-hour time slot.

2 ER – The Chaos

While Grey’s Anatomy has had more than its fair share of catastrophes (see bombings, sinkings, shootings, building collapses, plane crashes), ER highlighted the chaos that existed in the emergency room on a regular basis. ER, unlike Grey’s, didn’t need the world around them to collapse for it to feel that way.

Every new patient could be its own disaster and it didn’t take the city imploding on itself to made medicine a case of life or death.  And for many patients who show up for ER medical attention, it can certainly feel like life or death.

1 Grey’s Anatomy – The Music

It may seem like a dramatic license, but many surgeons, in fact, listen to music in the operating room (surgery can take quite a long time, after all). In that sense, Grey’s Anatomy could be a little more realistic than ER.

It certainly makes for compelling television, but it’s also a little bit of truth that the medical community has confirmed to their friends and loved ones. Sometimes music is its own medicine.

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