DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9710010045

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LARRY BONKO 

                                            LENGTH:  109 lines

HOW ``ER'' AND ``CHICAGO HOPE'' STACK UP IN HOSPITAL-SHOW DUEL

``CHICAGO HOPE'' and ``ER.'' Dueling docs. Which is the better show?

``ER'' or ``Chicago Hope''? Which show has the edge?

Let's compare the two as ``Chicago Hope'' begins its fourth season tonight at 10 on CBS.

Hunk quotient - George Clooney of ``ER'' over Mark Harmon of ``Chicago Hope'' by a wide margin.

Babe quotient - Julianna Marguiles of ``ER'' vs. Christine Lahti of ``Chicago Hope.'' Is there any question? It's Marguiles.

Ego-meter - Mandy Patinkin's Dr. Jeffrey Geiger of ``Chicago Hope'' registers highest, defeating by a whisker Eriq LaSalle's Dr. Peter Benton on ``ER.''

Starting lineup - The nod goes to ``ER,'' although you're likely to get an argument from Hector Elizondo of ``Chicago Hope,'' who recently won the Emmy for his portrayal of Dr. Phillip Watters, chief of staff.

By today's primetime standards, the ``Chicago Hope'' cast of Harmon, Lahti Elizondo, Rocky Carroll, Peter Berg, Jayne Brook and Adam Arkin is about average - not as strong as, say, ``Law & Order,'' but much better than, say, ``The Profiler.'' The ``ER'' players (Marguiles, Clooney, Anothony Edwards, Noah Wyle and LaSalle) soar above all others on network TV. They are s-o-o-o-o good.

Did you see the live season premiere of ``ER'' last week? It was outstanding work under pressure.

Name-tag recognition - ``Chicago Hope'' has a ``Shutt'' and a ``Kronk.'' The best ``ER'' can do is a ``John Carter.'' ``Chicago Hope'' wins.

Gross-out factor - They separated Siamese twins on ``Chicago Hope'' and brought on an ultrasonic brain-tissue liquefier that may have unsettled the squeamish, but in the blood, guts and bodily discharges department, ``ER'' comes out on top. The makeup artists prepare ``bodies'' with various size bullet holes.

Visual style - ``ER'' is MTV-age jerky camera work, quick-cut editing with bite-size dialogue and scenes that rarely drag on. ``Chicago Hope'' has the look of conventional TV drama - steady but stylish. ``Chicago Hope'' wins here.

Plotlines - I give a slight advantage to ``Chicago Hope'' based on last season, when there was some pretty exciting stuff going on, such as Dr. Kate Austin's unsuccessfully trying to shake her dying father's beliefs in Christian Science. ``Chicago Hope'' creator-writer-producer David E. Kelley (``L.A. Law,'' ``Picket Fences,'' ``Ally McBeal'') has the knack of getting viewers involved with his characters and keeping them hooked.

The strength of ``ER'' is not in stories that unfold outside the emergency room - we know that the LaSalle character has been less than loving to his pregnant girlfriend - but rather in what happens when the emergency room doors swing open and patients roll in. ``Male age 60 with substernal chest pain radiating down left arm!''

Traditional plot structures on ``ER'' are impossible because of the intense, hectic nature of the show, says series creator Dr. Michael Crichton, whose time as a intern is often reflected in ``ER'' scripts.

Bench strength - Advantage ``ER.'' When original cast members Michael Ironside (Dr. William ``Wild Willy'' Swift), Ron Eldard (paramedic Ray Shepherd) and Sherry Stringfield (Dr. Susan Lewis) left, they were hardly missed because the producers brought in Laura Innes (Dr. Kerry Weaver) and Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet. They added two new cast members this year (Maria Bello and Alex Kingston).

On ``Chicago Hope,'' they've never filled the hole left when Peter MacNicol, playing the hospital's legal counsel, was killed off. And I still miss Roxanne Hart, who played a nurse once married to Adam Arkin's Dr. Aaron Shutt.

The producers of ``Chicago Hope'' are to be thanked for replacing Patinkin with Lahti in the brilliant-but-tempermental-heart-surgeon billet. But just when you think you've seen the last of Patinkin's relentlessly annoying Dr. Geiger, he shows up again . . . singing. (This season he also dances in an episode staged like a musical. (Patinkin is scheduled to make an appearance at Chrysler Hall on Oct. 21.)

Wardrobe - It's mostly scrubs for the ``ER'' cast and designer-label duds for ``Chicago Hope'' actors. Elizondo's suits alone would win this category for ``Chicago Hope.''

Chaos quotient - ``ER'' all the way. There are tense moments on ``Chicago Hope'' - remember when a helicopter darn near crashed into Elizondo's office last season? - but virtually every other scene on ``ER'' is a crisis building.

Overall, ``ER'' is better TV than ``Chicago Hope.'' But not much better. It airs Thursday night at 10 on NBC.

In a totally unscientific poll of 50 Infoline callers, the votes went for ``ER'' by a 5-to-1 margin.

Angela Lester of Virginia Beach, in supporting ``ER,'' dismisses ``Chicago Hope'' as nothing more than an upscale soap opera.

Rebecca Nelson of Virginia Beach says ``ER'' is ``awesomely addictive'' and believes that it shows life as it really is in the emergency room. She ought to know. Dad is a paramedic. If he were a heart surgeon, I wonder what he'd think of Lahti's performance on ``Chicago Hope.''

Lahti was nominated for an Emmy last season but failed to win. If they were giving an award to the member of the cast who had the best imagination, it would go to Lahti.

When she signed to play cardiothoracic surgeon Kathryn Austin, the ``Chicago Hope'' writers didn't give her any ``back story'' or history of her character. She made one up.

``I decided that she grew up on a farm in southern Illinois, the daughter of a veterinarian,'' Lahti said when our paths crossed in Los Angeles not long ago. ``It was hell getting to where she is because, in medical school and in hospitals, she ran into a boys club. She's complicated, not easily liked. Although some women see her as a role model, she's a woman who messes up at times, makes mistakes.

``She's a feminist who fought a lot of battles to be taken seriously. She has the scars. It took Kate a long time to realize that there are better ways to get what you want than screaming at people.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

NBC

CBS

...Margulies...Lahti

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