[s1e1] George Clooney -

: The episode’s emotional core involved the suicide attempt of Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies). Clooney’s raw chemistry with Margulies was so powerful that producers decided to save her character, who was originally scripted to die in the pilot.

: Establishing Doug Ross as the "bad boy" of the hospital. [S1E1] George Clooney

While "24 Hours" is often cited as Clooney’s big break, it actually wasn’t his first time playing a doctor on a show called ER . A decade earlier, he starred in a short-lived CBS sitcom titled E/R . However, it was the 1994 NBC drama that truly stuck. : The episode’s emotional core involved the suicide