St. Elsewhere in-jokes

[TMC]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...tv/7LHulO8mw00

On St. Elsewhere, almost all of the pages over the
loudspeaker were inside jokes. Friends of the writers were always
listening to see if they got paged each week. From a legal
standpoint, it's not a particularly bad idea. You've got to page
somebody and if you pick friends' names and someone tries to sue
because you are making fun of him or her, you can always say, "I
wasn't making fun of you. I was making fun of my friend here." Of
course, the friend is usually delighted to hear his or her name
on television.

Other pages were of fictional characters from other shows.
One example was a page for "Dr. Morton Chegley", who was played
by Lloyd Nolan on the series Julia.

Jack Riley, who played the troubled Mr. Carlin on The Bob
Newhart Show, appeared occasionally as Mr. Carlin, a patient in
the psychiatric ward. He was watching TV with John Doe #2, an
amnesiac. While channel surfing, they came upon The White Shadow
to which Mr. Carlin commented, "Hey, The White Shadow. The guy
who came up with this show sure had his act together." That guy
was Bruce Paltrow, St. Elsewhere's executive producer. Then they
switched to The Mary Tyler Moore Show. John Doe #2 began to
believe he was Mary Richards and that various staff members were
other MTM show characters. One of the guest stars in this St.
Elsewhere episode was Betty White, a regular on Mary Tyler Moore,
and when "Mary" saw Betty White's character, he exclaimed, "Sue
Ann! Sue Ann Niven, the Happy Homemaker! Its me, Mary!" The Mary
Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The White Shadow and St.
Elsewhere were all MTM productions.

The name of an NBC executive was once given to a cadaver.
In an episode appropriately titled "Cheers" originally
broadcast March 27, 1985, Westphal, Craig and Auschlander stop by
the bar on Cheers for drinks. The "Cheers" sign is also visible
during one of Jack's strolls through Boston (see Cheers, above).

Warren Coolidge, one of the orderlies, was played by Byron
Stewart, who played the same character on The White Shadow (which
was produced by the same company). He even explained that he
played basketball at Boston College on the recommendation of his
coach, but he blew out his knee and that's why he was working at
St Eligius. In one episode, Timothy van Patten, who had played
Salami on The White Shadow, appeared on St. Elsewhere as another
character, and Coolidge spotted him and said, "Hey Salami... it's
me Coolidge!" Van Patten replied, "I don't know what you're
talking about... you got the wrong guy."

In the final episode, one of the doctors does an autopsy on
a Henry Blake, patient #4077, who died in when his plane crashed
into the hospital, referring to the character from M*A*S*H.

Also in the final episode, Coolidge runs around the hospital
looking for a one-armed patient. When he spots him, he says, "Dr.
Kimble's looking for you!" Eventually, we are told that Coolidge
captures the man on top of a water tower on the hospital roof.
All this is a reference to The Fugitive.

Two police officers were introduced as "Mike Stone" and
"Pete Malloy". Stone was a character on The Streets of San
Francisco and Malloy was one of the leads on Adam-12.

In a fall 1986 episode, after the rival medical series Kay
O'Brien debuted opposite St. Elsewhere, one physician mentioned
to another that "O'Brien" had gone to New York. The other doctor
slyly retorted, "I'll bet she won't last thirteen weeks." He was
right.