Noah Wyle is on Alan Alda's podcast today. Believe me when I tell you I have never hit play on something so fast. My favourite shows when I was 14: ER, MASH, and The X-Files. (When Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny are on the podcast, I will be there.)

They have worked together multiple times, including a season of ER, so they brush quickly past the effusive praise, which I know Alan appreciated, lol. They talk about playing doctors on TV, writing as actors, and the time Alan dressed Noah up as a soldier and filmed him running around a California park (it was for a play). Noah mentions Tina Fey's adaptation of The Four Seasons and puts in his bid to adapt The Seduction of Joe Tynan. YES, PLEASE.

If we could get Alan on TV just one more time, I'd love to see him as a corrupt rich guy taken down by the crew on Leverage: Redemption.

I have been putting off rewatching ER ever since The Pitt ended. I know I will get sucked in, and I don't know if I can afford that right now. Recently, because so many people were talking about the series finale, I watched the entire run of The Righteous Gemstones. It's an HBO show, so 4 seasons, but only 36 episodes. ER is from golden age of network TV, 20+ episodes a season! They don't make TV like that anymore.

ER was my show for so long, but I stopped watching around season 9, after Dr. Greene died, but mostly because that's when I went to university. I came back to watch episodes here and there, mostly the last appearances of all my faves (that Doug reveal!!), but always thought I'd watch the rest eventually.

The other day, I finally rewatched the pilot episode. It was both the same as I remember and so so different. Benton is making jokes! Carter doesn't even show up until the third or fourth commercial break (which I know because my stream had weirdly long pauses where the commercials were supposed to go). I might keep watching until Alan Alda shows up. Or skip straight to his season. That's how I rewatch The West Wing sometimes, too.