Jack Orman’s work on ER makes a strong case for drama built around difficult jobs and fallible colleagues. We rate that approach highly, though crowded storytelling can make an evening feel rather long.
Fi1m perspective
In ER (1994), Anthony Edwards’s Mark Greene stays restrained while the hospital bustles around him. Eriq La Salle’s Peter Benton is competent without being easy company. We were gripped by the difficult work and by people such as Benton, whose ability never makes him automatically likeable. This is the sort of ensemble drama to which Jack Orman’s writing and producing are well suited. The programme asks us to spend time with colleagues we would not necessarily choose, and makes that time worthwhile.
Orman joined ER as a writer and co-producer in 1997, becoming showrunner in the seventh series. He wrote 28 episodes and directed three, making writing and producing the larger part of his contribution. He used practising emergency physicians as consultants, while keeping dramatic pacing a priority. That balance helps explain what works: treating patients feels difficult, and the staff cannot get through it on charm alone.
Charm is nevertheless useful in George Clooney’s hands, since Doug Ross makes it feel like something his colleagues might have to put up with. Julianna Margulies’s Carol Hathaway holds our attention without pushing for it. These performances give the busy hospital scenes people worth watching, even when we would prefer fewer stories to follow. We would not assign an ensemble’s achievements to one writer or producer, but Orman’s preference for teams in demanding workplaces makes sense beside this cast.
After ER, he created and ran the period drama Pan Am (2011), and wrote and executive-produced the police drama Shades of Blue (2016). The settings broaden from hospitals to airlines and law enforcement, but his interest in groups of people doing pressured jobs remains. That is a promising starting point rather than a guarantee: familiar workplace pressures still need particular characters to make us care. Start with ER, provided that watching other people struggle through a shift sounds like a satisfactory end to your own.
Biography
Jack Orman is an American television writer, producer and director. He grew up in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and earned a bachelor's degree in communications (film) from Loyola Marymount University.
Orman began his career as a freelance writer on JAG (1995), contributing episodes and rising to co-producer. He joined ER (1994) in 1997 as a writer and co-producer on the fourth season, later becoming supervising producer, co-executive producer, executive producer and showrunner for the seventh season. He wrote 28 episodes and directed three episodes of the series.
Orman created Pan Am (2011) and Dr. Vegas (2004), and has written for Shades of Blue (2016) and Men of a Certain Age (2009). He received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series as an executive producer on ER.
