The Time I Almost Destroyed The ER Live Episode

Season 4 of ER began with a live episode. That’s right, LIVE as in we shot it, you saw it and there was no buffer, not even a delay in the broadcast. If the thing stopped, there was nothing to save us.

I was one of the main camera ops of about 7 of us. The other guys, all complete live veterans, had not done as much narrative work and I had never done anything live so we all kind of met in the middle, but honestly, I had a lot more to learn.

One of the things that was a big hurdle was this huge cable coming off of my camera. I’m used to being attached to nothing and going wherever I want and suddenly I have a camera I’m not used to with a two inch wide heavy cable falling off the back. I have a utility with me who keeps the cable out of my way and more importantly has pre planned everything and has the cable coiled on the floor in such a way that it's all set for what's to come. These guys are incredible at their job and make it look easy.

The idea of the live show was that there is a camera crew covering the ER for one night and everything (obviously) happens in real time. Tommy Schlamme, our incredible director, recognized that just like a car accident, viewers were going to tune in to watch us screw up. So, being the smart guy he is, he worked something in to keep them guessing if it was intended or not.

At one point in the show, the cameraman I am “playing” is in the middle of the hall when a trauma comes in. He swings around to find them barreling down on him and gets run down by the gurney, the camera hitting the floor, He then picks the camera up and follows them into the trauma room.

Now these cameras are worth tens of thousands of dollars and besides that, its not a good idea to throw a camera you are using on a live show to the ground, so we spent a lot of time trying to make a fake controlled drop to the floor look real. Every rehearsal I got notes back like “it sort of floated down too much” and “maybe it needs to feel like a jolt at the end” as if faking a 30 pound camera with a  huge cable on it hitting the floor is easy.

When the East coast version happened everything went off without a hitch. The feeling from the truck was that the “fall” was convincing and apparently viewers were already trying to figure out if it was a real mistake or one that was intended.

2 hours later we did the show for the West Coast (we did two so it could be live for each coast). As with any play, there were slight differences but for the most part, everything went well. When it came time for the shot where I get “hit” I was standing in the main hallway, zoomed in to see something happening farther into the set as my camera was live at that moment and as planned, I heard the trauma coming through the ambulance bay doors and started to zoom out and whip around to find them. 

Well, as luck would have it, there was an extra there who shouldn’t have been there and I hit her slightly which threw me off guard. As I recovered and found the frame again, I realized that the gurney and trauma team, as planned, were coming full steam ahead of me so I started to backpedal as fast as I could so they wouldn't hit me. Now I’m running backwards simply trying not to get hit by them and completely forgetting about all of the dialogue I am supposed to see because I realize if I get hit, we are done. My utility (I feel terrible but 20 years later I’ve forgotten his name) is not only running backwards behind me but coiling that huge cable much faster than he was expecting to and somehow keeping it out from under my feet. I’m guessing the whole thing looked quite comical but in the moment, it was simply terrifying.

At one point in the hall, quite near where the camera was supposed to “fall” the trauma team comes to a stop to turn a corner and head away from me into the trauma. As I realize we are nearing that mark (remember, i have one eye on an eyepiece and the other is desperately trying to figure out where I am), the gurney actually does bump into me, I actually do start to fall backwards, and the camera actually does start to fall out of my hands. Thankfully, my utility saw this happening and between he and I we manage to stop it just before impact and keep it pointed towards the trauma room they are headed into. Somehow, we’ve managed to keep the shot going and all I need to do is throw the camera on my shoulder and continue on, and we are good.

The gurney starts to pull away from me at high speed, trauma team acting their hearts out, and I realize as I am trying to put the camera on my shoulder that the thick cable I mentioned earlier is looped around a post on the gurney. All I can do is hold the camera in front of me, pointing up (I can’t let it see the cable) and hope that I am seeing some actors.

I was just at the point of losing my grip when Monte, one of our regulars who played a paramedic and was on the end of the gurney, caught my eye, saw the fear in me, looked down and saw the cable and effortlessly reached over and dropped it down to the floor. I grabbed the camera, threw it on my shoulder, finished the scene, and as planned, we smash cut to a commercial.

As I’m catching my breath I hear noise coming from inside the control booth and I figure I’m about to hear how I just destroyed the show. Tommy comes over the headset and in the background I realize I am hearing cheering and clapping and he says “Dave I don't know what you did differently but that was simply brilliant. We were all on the edge of our seats and honestly thought the entire thing was over. That was inspired.”

I thanked him as it was all I could muster, still completely freaked out and in shock over what had almost just happened and simply said “remind me to tell you a story after we finish tonight”.

Grabbing my camera and trying to calm my nerves, the headset came back up with our technical director “2 minutes back from commercial, cameras to positions everyone”. 

The show never stops.