Series Description

The Chicago Hope TV show was a 60 minute medical drama series on CBS for 141 episodes from 1994-2000. It was about the personal and professional lives of the staff at Chicago Hope Hospital.

Chicago Hope Cast

Mark Harmon .... Doctor Jack McNeil
Mandy Patinkin .... Doctor Jeffrey Geiger
Adam Arkin .... Doctor Aaron Shutt
Christine Lahti .... Doctor Kathryn Austin
Roxanne Hart .... Nurse Camille Shutt
Barbara Hershey .... Doctor Francesca Alberghetti
Peter Berg .... Doctor Billy Kronk
Eric Stoltz .... Doctor Robert Yeats
Carla Gugino .... Doctor Gina Simone
Thomas Gibson .... Doctor Daniel Nyland
Hector Elizondo .... Doctor Phillip Watters
Lauren Holly .... Doctor Jeremy Hanlon

Chicago Hope Trivia

Chicago Hope Hospital was on the "cutting edge" of medical technology. Many of the storylines centered around the use of a latest medical procedure which was still at the stage where it might be dangerous for the patient. Of course, usually the patient had no other alternative.

Chicago Hope began on Thursday nights (after the Sunday evening Pilot), directly opposite the "ER TV show (1994)". ER killed Chicago Hope in the ratings and was quickly moved to an hour earlier to precede ER. When that didn't work, the TV show was moved to Monday and things improved.

In the beginning, the Chicago Hope storylines were overly dramatic and a little hard for viewers to handle. By the end of the first season, the writers "toned it down" somewhat and the show became more fun to watch.

Chicago Hope was the first TV show to show the bare breasts of a female teenager during primetime. It was done in good taste, highlighting a successful reconstruction surgery and there was very little controversy.

There was also very little fanfare when Mark Harmon used the "unbleeped" word "shit" for the first time on a network TV show.