The Remote Island

Did "ER" Take A Final Swipe At "Grey's Anatomy" With That Fractured Penis Scene? [VIDEO]

Posted by Bryan Christian

Not a bad final episode for ER, as far as those things go. We liked the callouts to the pilot episode, and the way the old cast and new were mostly cordoned off from each other. We were frankly worried that this would wind up being like Star Trek: Enterprise (Jesus, why does that show keep coming up?), which rather famously introduced characters from TNG in its final episode, and in the process either laid bare the prequel show's shortcomings or, if you were a fan, just plain disrespected it entirely.

None of that here. The old characters got most of the ceremonial stuff -- saying goodbye, being sad -- and the new characters went about their day/night, just like they would have in real life. So thumbs up to showrunner John Wells, for not writing an episode where County General closed and forced everyone to squeeze out a teary farewell. Pretty classy. (Oh, also: anyone else bummed that Alexis Bledel only got one episode? Someone get her back on TV, STAT!)

We do have one question, though, and it relates to something that wasn't classy, but was in fact -- if we are right about it -- fairly awesome. Wasn't it weird having a "fractured penis" gag in this episode, just weeks after Grey's Anatomy did the exact same thing?

Full video to compare and contrast after the jump.

For those of you who didn't see it, we're embedding here. Basically, an old guy comes into the ER and is all like "check out my penis, it hurts and also I have lots of septugenarian sex" and that Australian guy's all like "g'day, fractured penis" and then they schedule surgery. And that's it. Definitely not as soapy or acty as the scene in Grey's, which as you can see below, had a lot of "that character is a cad, isn't he?"-type emoting.

One final lesson from the old folks? If so: nice one, old folks.

PREVIOUSLY:

"ER" Finale Is Tonight; We're Not Sure What To Expect

Mekhi Phifer Jumps From "ER" To "Lie To Me"

Katherine Heigl Wants "Grey's Anatomy" If "Grey's Anatomy" Wants Her

Friday Shades of "Grey's Anatomy": Wake Me Up Before You Kill Me

The Inescapable Kookiness of John Stamos [VIDEO]


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Posted Apr 03 2009, 11:33 AM
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About Bryan Christian

Bryan Christian has worked as a writer for Epicurious, GenArt and ID magazine; a web producer for WWD and Condé Nast; and a cameraman for his friends. He's married and lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

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