TVSquad

Oh, ER. Not again, not again.

If you watched last night's episode of ER, you saw the return of Dr. John Carter. His wife is visiting family in Paris, and he's back in Chicago to...well, we don't exactly know why he's back yet, but he's actually going to be working part-time at County General again. That's the only good news about what happened last night (I thought this was just going to be a quick visit by Wyle for a few episodes, I didn't realize he'd be working at the hospital again) because the ending probably made longtime ER fans sigh and/or grit their teeth.

The last scene showed Carter hooked up to...well, I'm not a doctor, but I'm assuming it's a dialysis machine or some sort of cancer treatment? He had a haunted look on his face, and he had a rather somber attitude throughout the entire episode. Scenes from episodes coming up showed Carter saying that he came back to Chicago specifically to talk to Dr. Banfield (?) and we also saw a scene of Carter dropping to the floor in the emergency room looking really, really bad.

Are they going to kill off Carter a la Mark Greene?

Wow, just the other day we told you about George Clooney coming back to ER for an episode this final season, and now it has been confirmed that his on-screen wife is coming back to the show too.

Juliana Margulies, who played Nurse Carol Hathaway on the show before she and Clooney walked off into the sunset in a surprise scene in her last episode, has agreed to come back to the show too. She and Clooney are going to film their scenes later this week. Margulies joins Anthony Edwards, Laura Innes, Alex Kingston, Paul McCrane, Abraham Benrubi, who have already made return engagements this season, and Noah Wyle, William H. Macy, and Eriq LaSalle. who are still to come (Gloria Reuben made an appearance last season). You know who'd I'd like to see return to the show one last time? Sherry Stringfield. Susan Lewis was one of my favorite characters.

The last episode of the show airs April 2.

Awww, Juliana, you don't want to come back to County?

Seems like we've been hearing news about old ER members coming back to the show for its final season, and now comes word from Juliana Marguiles. The actress says that she won't be coming back to the show because she thinks that Carol Hathaway left on a good note and she really can't see how they could top it. A lot of fans would probably say they don't want them to top the character's last appearance, they just want to see the character one more time before the series fades off into the sunset.

Tonight's the night that thousands of fans of ER have been waiting for, the return of Jennifer Aniston! Oh wait, that's 30 Rock that she'll be on tonight. Never mind.

Actually, tonight is the night that Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) returns to County to try to save the life of Dr. Banfield's sick son. As we told you last week, Greene isn't really alive and he's not a ghost. It seems that Dr. Banfield came to County with her son and husband, years before she became the new head of the ER, and Greene was the doctor who worked on her son. Her memory (and the flashbacks) are triggered by a current story where Banfield is trying to save the life of another child who comes to County.

Edwards isn't the only one who comes back. Since most of the episode takes place years ago, we also see Laura Innes as Dr. Weaver and Paul McCrane as Dr. Romano. Innes has a rather dramatic entrance in the clip after the jump!

I'm not sure what George Clooney fans are called. Clooneys? Cloonsters? Cloons? Whatever you fans are called, you're probably going to be very happy about this news.

In an upcoming TV Guide interview, ex-ER star Noah Wyle (who will be appearing in several episodes this last season) says that Clooney said he will "absolutely" appear in the show in an episode, at least if his schedule permits it (though I'm sure he'll make the time). This has been off again and on again for so many months, but I think Clooney will do it.

When the news came that ex-ER star Anthony Edwards was going to return to the show for an episode this last season, fans wondered how that could happen, since he died (and we mean really died, not soap opera died) of a brain tumor around 6 years ago. Would he be a ghost? A hallucination only a patient can see? Would he be Mark's long-lost twin brother (Matt, or maybe Monty) who comes to work at County because his brother worked there? The news that Dr. Mark Greene is going to interact somehow with new doctor Cate Banfield (Angela Bassett) just makes the scenario more confusing.

But now we have our answer. Edwards tells the AP that Mark will be shown via flashback in an ER story we haven't seen before.

With this being the final season of ER, the show naturally wants to bring back some of its old stars for cameos. George Clooney is the big fish to land, of course, and producers say they've got a juicy storyline to lure him in.

Showrunner David Zabel told TV Guide, "We have a really good story line for every [major] character from the past to show [the actors] what we want to do."

Anthony Edwards is already on board to appear in flashbacks on the Nov. 13 episode (since his character, Dr. Greene, is dead), along with Paul McCrane (Dr. Romano) and Laura Innes (Dr. Weaver). Noah Wyle will guest star in four episodes, and Alex Kingston may show up as Dr. Corday.

Remember a while back when we talked about this being the last season of ER and producers were trying to get old cast members to come back for an episode of the show and we joked that they should find a way to get Anthony Edwards back on the show for an episode even though his character died?

The producers have Anthony Edwards coming back to the show for an episode even though his character died.

You can probably guess how Dr. Mark Greene will be coming back. He hasn't been kept alive by some mysterious millionaire in a mountain hideout all these years (though I would happily swallow such a soap opera-ish plot because I never thought they should have killed off Mark in the first place), the character will actually be seen in new flashbacks that have something to do with a new character played by Angela Bassett (this won't be footage from past episodes, they're new flashbacks to events we didn't see on the show before).

NBC doctors may have already called the time for ER, setting next season for the end of the enduring medical drama, but the final year will go out with fire and brio. That was made abundantly clear by casting dynamic actress Angela Bassett as a series regular for the 15th season of ER. Despite rumors, Anthony Edwards may or may not return, and Noah Wyle's back for just four shows, but Angela can be counting on to carry the load.

This is the first full-time series for Ms. Bassett, an Oscar-nominated actress for What's Love Got to Do With It? (1994). Who will ever forget her playing Tina Turner in that film? She made muscular arms on a woman sexy, in addition to providing a terrific performance as the musical star. In 2006, she was superb in the indie hit Akeelah and the Bee, and on TV, she did a short stint on Alias in 2005 as a CIA director.

OK, we can put all of those "George Clooney is going to make a cameo appearance on ER next season!" rumors. You know, the rumors I helped fuel last week.

Clooney himself tells Extra that he is not going to make an appearance on the show. He says that not only would they not ask him to appear on the show, there would be no reason to do it.

It's not something that is definitely going to happen, but ER producers are trying to get as many former cast members to make appearances on the show next season, which looks like a go now and will probably be the NBC show's final season.

So...how exactly do you make a dead (really dead, not soap opera/body never found dead) character like Mark Greene come back to life? Executive producer David Zabel says that they've kicked around the idea of airing a so-called "lost episode" from 1996 featuring Edwards and Noah Wyle, who has agreed to come back to the show for several episodes next season. I guess the other choices are flashbacks, Greene's twin brother, or appearing as a ghost.

When you think of Revenge of the Nerds what comes to mind? Classic 80's movie? Naked sorority sisters? Morality story on how the meek can inherit the earth? Bush (and not the president)?

That's what came to my mind when I recently saw the film. However, something else popped into my brain as well while I was watching the end credits. Not only did a number of Nerds stars go on to other successful movies, but they also went and became fairly big television stars as well. Here are five who went onto small-screen fame.

Of course, getting George Clooney to come back would be a dream come true for ER producers, but they are trying to bring back old favorites for the final season (probably) of the hit NBC drama.

So far, only Noah Wyle has officially signed to come back to the show. He'll be on for several episodes, and in the ER not Africa (thank God). But producers have also talked to Julianna Marguiles and Gloria Reuben about coming back, and would love to also grab Eriq LaSalle, William H. Macy, and Laura Innes.

Last year I introduced the term "fanesia" on this blog. It's a word that means "fan amnesia," those moments of a TV show that you simply forget ever happened, because they're illogical, hurt the show, or just make you feel bad and/or angry. I think it's time for another five:

1. Toby was the leak (The West Wing): I don't know what happened here. Whether the character was written off because actor Richard Schiff wanted to leave or NBC wanted to cut some payroll, the way it happened was a real kick in the stomach to longtime fans of the show. Not only that Toby would leak info about a secret military plane (he wouldn't), but that President Bartlet would just fire him so coldly and bring up their history in such a nasty way. Sure, these two butted heads many times, but it was always out of caring and love for each other. Great to see Bartlet pardon him as his last act as President and invite him to the opening of the library, but still. Aaron Sorkin must have thrown something at his TV when this happened.

In my mind, Toby just quit the White House to go teach at Columbia.

Hi again. No new ER this week due to America's national pastime (the World Series, for the confused). So, I thought I'd take my usual Thursday night spot to pose a question to all fans of the show, past and present. Who do you miss from County General? There have been plenty of doctors and nurses who have come and gone through the doors of the emergency room. Some of them we were glad to see go, and we wish others would return for at least a guest appearance.

While I wait for your comments on the subject, here are the five ER cast members I miss.

John Carter (Noah Wyle) -- All right, I admit it, I had a "man crush" on Dr. Carter. In the very beginning of the series run I always felt the show was a bit empty when he wasn't around. Carter was the face of how things changed in the emergency room. Plus, he was one of those characters that we could root for, especially with events such as his stabbing and drug addiction and his rocky relationship with Abby. I wouldn't mind at all if he returned to ER for a few episodes this season.