Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995                   TAG: 9503080017
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY RICHMOND LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

NBC'S `ER' IS MAKING TELEVISION RATINGS HISTORY

The NBC hospital drama has passed red-hot and is earning audience attention of historic proportions. I'm not just talking about the fact that the Feb. 23 episode was the first drama segment to attract 40 percent of the viewing audience since the season premiere of ``Moonlighting'' in 1987.

No, we're talking television history. It appears that ``ER'' is going to be the highest-ranked first-year prime-time drama since the A.C. Nielsen Co. started computing these things in the early 1950s.

With seven weeks to go in the official 30-week network season, ``ER'' ranks third with a bullet. A big bullet. A big, racing bullet.

``Seinfeld'' is No. 1. ``Home Improvement'' is second. And then comes ``ER.''

But ``ER'' trails ``Improvement'' by just .4 of a rating point and ``Seinfeld'' by 1. It conceivably could catch both, given its momentum, which has found it winning the weekly Nielsen race six of the last seven weeks.

Even if ``ER'' stumbles and remains third, it will surpass ``Have Gun, Will Travel'' for the highest finish ever by a freshman drama series. ``Have Gun'' finished fourth in its first season - back in 1957-58.

Only three other new dramas have even cracked the ratings top 10 in their maiden voyages. Those were ``Marcus Welby, M.D.'' (eighth in 1969-70), ``Murder, She Wrote'' (eighth in 1984-85) and ``The A-Team'' (tied for 10th as a midseason replacement in 1982).

``ER'' has a legitimate shot at doing what only one other television series ever has done: finish on top in its first season. Only ``The Beverly Hillbillies'' (in 1962-63) managed that feat.

As it stands, ``ER'' still is guaranteed to fare better in its first season than such classic dramas as ``Gunsmoke,'' ``Bonanza,'' ``Dallas,'' ``The Waltons'' and even ``Little House on the Prairie.'' ``Gunsmoke,'' ``Bonanza'' and ``Dallas'' couldn't even crack the top 25 their first years. ``Little House'' managed 13th; ``The Waltons'' tied for 19th.

It's not atypical for even a long-running series classic to struggle early on. ``Cheers'' finished dead last its first year. ``Miami Vice'' finished ninth its second year but far out of the money its first season. Even ``All in the Family'' landed way down the list after premiering at midseason in 1971, racing up to first place during its first full season.

But it is unprecedented for the television audience to so quickly and wholeheartedly embrace a series. Especially a drama. With an ensemble cast. That deals with grim subjects such as pain and death.

As the quickest-rising NBC series since ``The Cosby Show'' debuted in 1984 (it was third its first season, by the way), ``ER'' is looking very much like a series for the ages - unless, that is, it has a flameout as fast and precipitous as its rise.

Don't count on it. While no one has yet been able to adequately explain how this series has become a phenomenon in such a brief period, audiences don't typically abandon shows they anoint with such huge support.

In other words, up and up ``ER'' goes. Where it will stop, nobody knows. Except perhaps Mr. Nielsen - and he's not telling.