Before there was Grey’s Anatomy’s Seattle Grace/Seattle Grace Mercy West/Grey Sloan Memorial, there was ER’s Cook County General. The medical drama ran on NBC for 15 seasons between 1994-2009 and, during its first five seasons, it starred a pre-movie star George Clooney as ER pediatrician resident Dr. Doug Ross. The actor really struck a chord with viewers through his work, and fans still talk about the role. Now, the actor has revealed that his wife, Amal, is watching the series and at times, has gotten upset at him because of it!
George Clooney was a guest on the podcast, SmartLess, with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett where he revealed that Amal was watching the medical drama and that it was getting him in trouble due to the nature of his character. Clooney explained:
My wife is watching them now, and it’s getting me in a lot of trouble, because I forgot all of the terrible things I was doing, picking up on women and things.
Doug Ross was known as a ladies’ man at County General, almost always finding someone to hook up with. But one thing that overshadowed all of that was how much he cared for his patients and how much he cared for the kids. George Clooney left the series in order to pursue a movie career but would appear in Season 6’s penultimate episode in order to close out a storyline with on-screen partner Carol (Julianna Margulies). He would later return for the show’s 15th and final season in one episode, along with Margulies. While Clooney’s character wasn’t all bad, it’s hilarious to know how his wife reacts to him on the series!
The Midnight Sky actor recently compared his character in his latest movie to ER's Doug. The actor brought up the fact that while the character was an alcoholic and womanizer who did terrible things, Doug would always save the kid, which made people love the character. Recently, Clooney felt he was set free in Midnight Sky since his character was paired with a little girl who didn’t speak and had to take care of her. He said it frees an actor from having to guide the audience, something lead characters are typically required to do. Doug was also a mentor of sorts in ER as opposed to Augustine in The Midnight Sky.
Even though it seems ER won’t be getting a reboot treatment any time soon, fans are still able to binge-watch the medical series in full on Hulu so they can relive Carter’s first day as an intern at County General, fall in love with Doug and Carol, sob over Mark’s final letter to the ER staff, or experience Angela Bassett as a badass doctor. While watching, please remember that these are characters and not the actual actors committing these actions. Although it’s hilarious that George Clooney’s wife gets upset at him while watching the series, Doug Ross is, unfortunately, just a fictional character.
