After Watching ‘The Pitt,’ Check Out Carter’s 12 Best ‘ER’ Episodes
Noah Wyle is back in scrubs, and we couldn’t be more excited. The Pitt, on which he also serves as an executive producer, has aired its hit first season — with outstanding performances from the cast (especially Wyle), writing (from Wyle and executive producer R. Scott Gemmill), directing (from executive producer John Wells and Amanda Marsalis), and storylines (the real-time aspect works so well). Seeing him as a doctor again of course has us thinking about his previous role.
For most of ER‘s 15-season run (1994-2009), Wyle starred as Dr. John Carter. We watched him go from his very early days as a doctor, switch from surgery to emergency medicine, become the one who “set the tone” and advised others to do the same, and return time and time again even after he’d moved on from Cook County General.
Now, he’s playing Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the chief attending in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room. The first season followed a 15-hour shift, and the second will take place over the Fourth of July, as the EPs shared with TV Insider. For those who have started watching ER while we wait, check out Wyle’s best ER episodes below.
ER, Streaming Now, Max
The Pitt, Season 2, TBA, Max
"24 Hours" (Season 1 Episode 1)
The series begins with Carter a surgical student and on his first day of his ER rotation. He’s assigned to Benton (Eriq La Salle), who gives him the rundown of department quite quickly and is frustrated with how much his student does not know. (What makes this special: how much their bond grows.) Carter stumbles, but he doesn’t fall, and an instant highlight is Greene (Anthony Edwards) checking on him after a trauma. It’s a moment we’ll remember for years to come, especially with more than one callback to it before the series wraps.
"Exodus" (Season 4 Episode 15)
A chemical spill shuts down the ER — and Carter ends up in charge when Weaver (Laura Innes) becomes a patient as a result. It’s one of the show’s more memorable episodes (as incidents in the hospital tend to be), and Carter more than steps up in a situation that no one quite knows how to handle and that’s ever-changing, and it’s the first glimpse of the doctor he becomes throughout the series.
"The Good Fight" (Season 5 Episode 8)
Just how far will these doctors go to save their patients? Here is one instance that shows just that, with Carter and his med student Lucy (Kellie Martin) — he’s off shift, too — going all over Chicago in hopes of finding a young girl’s father for a blood transfusion. Along the way, Carter dislocates his shoulder, and the episode manages to both continue the tension between him and Lucy and gradually move them into a more understanding place.
"Be Still My Heart" and "All in the Family" (Season 6 Episodes 13 and 14)
This is easily the best two-parter of a medical drama, ever. Carter’s a bit too distracted while Lucy treats Paul Sobriki (David Krumholtz), a law student with possible schizophrenia. Carter’s a bit too distracted — helping Abby (Maura Tierney) with a patient — while Lucy treats Paul Sobriki (David Krumholtz), a law student with possible schizophrenia, and that leads up to the shocking ending of “Be Still My Heart”: Paul stabs Carter from behind, and when the doctor falls to the ground, he sees that Lucy’s bleeding out. The following episode focuses on the hospital staff trying desperately to save two of their own … and the heartbreak that follows when Lucy doesn’t make it.
"May Day" (Season 6 Episode 22)
Something ER does so well is follow the doctors and nurses in the aftermath of traumatic events. It does so with Greene when he’s attacked, and here, with Carter, following the stabbing as his addiction is revealed to the others. His colleagues’ attempt to help him and Benton subsequently being the one to get Carter to agree to go to rehab are moments made all the more poignant because we see what leads up to them.
"The Crossing" (Season 7 Episode 15)
Once Carter makes the move to emergency medicine, it’s almost impossible to imagine him as a surgeon. But the 150th episode does a great job of calling back to those early days of him at Cook County General when a train accident and the pregnant Corday (Alex Kingston) experiencing contractions (too early!) require Carter to step up and finish amputating the legs of a trapped firefighter (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
"The Lost" (Season 10 Episode 2)
One of the best things ER does in its later seasons is build up Carter and Kovac’s (Goran Visnjic) friendship rather than only leaning into the love triangle with Abby. And so when there’s word that Kovac has been killed in the Congo, Carter goes to bring his body home (something he doesn’t have to do), tracking his movements, only to find his friend very much alive. (Fun fact: This episode features Wyle’s future Leverage: Redemption costar Aldis Hodge in a guest spot.)
"Midnight" (Season 10 Episode 21)
This is one of the most heartbreaking episodes of the series: Carter and Kem (Thandie Newton) rush to the hospital when she realizes their baby isn’t kicking, and she must give birth to their stillborn son. Carter crying in his father’s arms? A visual we won’t forget.
"The Show Must Go On" (Season 11 Episode 22)
In some ways, Carter’s last episode and his farewell party are slightly overshadowed by a porch collapsing at a party attended by Ray (Shane West) and Morris (Scott Grimes). But he still gets his due, with a slideshow presentation of photos featuring the past cast members, the letter he wrote to himself as an intern, and his passing on the advice to “set the tone” to Morris as he leaves.
"Old Times" (Season 15 Episode 19)
The aforementioned stabbing in Season 6 is one of the reasons why Carter’s return to Chicago in the final season is for more than just a visit (and a few shifts at the hospital). He needs a kidney, and he gets one — with Benton right there with him in the OR to make sure everything goes right. Seeing those two together again makes the episode worth it alone. What makes it extra special: The kidney comes from a patient whose grandmother Doug (George Clooney) and Carol (Julianna Margulies) convince in Seattle to donate his organs.
"And In the End..." (Season 15 Episode 22)
Of course Carter’s there for ER‘s farewell. In the series finale, he opens up a clinic for the underprivileged (named after his son) and shares his wisdom with the next generation of doctors at the hospital — including, perhaps, Greene’s daughter Rachel (Hallee Hirsh). There’s really no question of whether he’ll jump in to help when a massive trauma comes in in the final moments.
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