--- title: "St. Elsewhere" year: 1982 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/st-elsewhere" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 74 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-16T20:04:16.510728+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T20:04:28.684335+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # St. Elsewhere (1982) Created by Joshua Brand, John Falsey, John Masius, Mark Tinker · 1h 00m · Drama **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 74 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* A hospital full of imperfect people and the occasional lecture we could have done without > We recommend *St. Elsewhere* for its flawed hospital staff and the actors who make them worth following. The pace can drag, and the writing occasionally insists on a lesson we have already understood. ## Synopsis In a decaying Boston hospital, Mark Craig (William Daniels), Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) and Victor Ehrlich (Ed Begley Jr.) belong to a staff of flawed medical professionals. Their shared task is to care for patients, but their own shortcomings complicate the work. The series follows the hospital as an ensemble workplace, bringing professional duties and personal difficulties together rather than centring on a single doctor’s cases. Patients need help from people who are not always easy colleagues, in surroundings that are themselves in poor condition. ## Review *St. Elsewhere* is a good hospital drama with a welcome tolerance for difficult people. Created by John Masius, Mark Tinker, Joshua Brand and John Falsey, it gives a large ensemble a decaying Boston hospital to inhabit. We recommend it for the acting and the interest it takes in flawed professionals, with a warning about the slow stretches. Its staff are allowed shortcomings that cannot be tidied away simply because they do important work. William Daniels as Mark Craig, Norman Lloyd as Daniel Auschlander and Ed Begley Jr. as Victor Ehrlich make the staff worth following even when they are hard to like. The performances keep those flaws from becoming the only thing we notice about a person. There is enough intelligence in the acting to make bad behaviour interesting without asking us to excuse it. The actors hold our attention when the medical drama itself feels familiar. In the photography of Rick F. Gunter and Marvin L. Gunter, the hospital looks worn down by the work done there. That unwelcoming setting is one of the programme’s strengths, making the staff’s difficulties visible before anyone explains them. We found the disrepair upsetting: people come here needing care, to a building that seems to need care itself. J.A.C. Redford’s music makes the programme easier company than its surroundings might suggest. The combination works, allowing some warmth without making the place look like somewhere we would choose to spend an afternoon. The editing, credited to Richard E. Rabjohn, Larry L. Mills and Robert P. Seppey, gives this large cast time to make an impression. That patience is useful, although some scenes would benefit from being shorter. The pace can feel slow even after allowing for the pleasure of getting to know the staff, and there are stretches when we are ready to move on before the programme is. A little more economy would help without requiring every hospital visit to become an emergency. The more serious weakness is the writing’s tendency to keep explaining a moral point after we have understood it. John Masius and John Falsey are also among the writers, and the scripts can become over-insistent about what we should take from the staff’s experiences. Some storylines stretch belief further than the convincing hospital setting can comfortably accommodate. The exaggeration is distracting in a series that has worked hard to make its workplace believable. Six seasons give this kind of ensemble drama space to become familiar company. We like the way its interest in imperfect professionals makes a hospital feel like a workplace, with colleagues we want to see again even when their behaviour irritates us. That is a sound reason to follow a medical series, particularly when the acting stays persuasive through the less plausible writing. Begin when there is time to let an ensemble introduce itself. *Fi1m score 78, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (4) - **The AV Club**, Emily St. James (80/100, inferred): The critic notes that St. Elsewhere ran for six seasons and 137 episodes despite low ratings by appealing to younger viewers, crediting this approach with influencing how networks program for demographics today. It praises the show's finest episodes as among the best television has produced while acknowledging some preposterous story arcs. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/st-elsewhere-1798230318) - **The Times**, Ian Johns (75/100, inferred): This 1980s series set in a decaying Boston hospital redefined the medical drama genre with its large ensemble cast and flawed professionals. It remains smartly written and acted, with strong early performances and before-they-were-famous turns, though a little slow by modern standards. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/st-elsewhere-6kz7z73nkhm) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Richard Hack (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the new medical drama topnotch television, comparable to Hill Street Blues for its stark realism that both repels and attracts. Praise goes to the ensemble performances and realistic hospital setting, though the moral is worked and reworked to excess. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/st-elsewhere-original-1982-review-1235249150) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (70/100, inferred): The piece examines the famous snow globe ending of the series finale as a meta-commentary on television as fiction and its interconnected universe. It highlights the show's self-aware tendencies and homages to other TV endings throughout its run. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-st-elsewhere-finale-at-30.html) ## Details - **Created by:** Joshua Brand, John Falsey, John Masius, Mark Tinker - **Creator:** Joshua Brand, John Falsey, John Masius, Mark Tinker - **Director:** Mark Tinker, Eric Laneuville, Bruce Paltrow, David Anspaugh, Allan Arkush, Victor Lobl, Michael Fresco, Thomas Carter, Kevin Hooks, Joshua Brand, Leo Penn, Linda Day, Charles Braverman, Helaine Head, David Morse, Peter Medak, Janet Greek, Bethany Rooney, William Daniels, Tim Matheson - **Writer:** John Masius, Tom Fontana, John Tinker, Charles H. Eglee, Eric Overmyer, Mark Tinker, Joshua Brand, John Falsey, Norma Safford Vela, Lydia Woodward, Jorge Zamacona, Bruce Paltrow, Russ Woody, Grace McKeaney, Joel Surnow, John PiRoman, Michael Duggan, James Kahn - **Cinematography:** Marvin L. Gunter, Rick F. Gunter - **Editor:** Robert P. Seppey, Richard E. Rabjohn, Larry L. Mills - **Music:** J.A.C. Redford - **Producer:** Abby Singer, John Masius, John Falsey - **Cast:** William Daniels as Mark Craig; Norman Lloyd as Daniel Auschlander; G. W. Bailey as Hugh Beale; Ronny Cox as John Gideon; Bonnie Bartlett as Ellen Craig; Ellen Bry as Shirley Daniels; Ed Begley Jr. as Victor Ehrlich; Mark Harmon as Robert Caldwell - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Release (the US):** 26 October 1982 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: CA, GB, IE. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Primetime Emmy Awards 1988: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (won) - TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama 1988: TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama (won) - Primetime Emmy Awards 1987: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (nominated) - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series 1986: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series (nominated) - Primetime Emmy Awards 1986: Outstanding Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (won) - TCA Award for Program of the Year 1985: TCA Award for Program of the Year (nominated) - Golden Globes 1984: Best Television Series – Drama (nominated) - Peabody Awards 1984: Peabody Awards (won) - Primetime Emmy Awards 1984: Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) (nominated) - Primetime Emmy Awards 1983: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (won) ## If you liked this - *Hospital* (1970): For hospital work observed patiently, without fictional characters to soften its difficulties - *Bodies* (2004): For another medical ensemble whose professional failings matter as much as its patients - *The Kingdom* (1994): For hospital hierarchies and professional vanity disturbed by something considerably stranger than illness - *The Death of Mr. Lazarescu* (2005): For a harsher account of what happens when hospital procedure outlasts human patience - *Hill Street Blues* (1981), Fi1m 86: For another crowded workplace where doing the job does not guarantee good behaviour — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/hill-street-blues.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/st-elsewhere