St Elsewhere, series set in Boston’s St Eligius Hospital, was first broadcast in the UK on this date in 1983.
The show was co-created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, also known for Northern Exposure. The producer was Bruce Paltrow, also known for having a daughter called Gwyneth. While she wasn’t actually in it, her name got a mention or two – doctors being paged over the hospital’s PA system often used the names of the cast and crew’s family members, so a Dr. Gwyneth Paltrow was paged a few times.
It was originally pitched as “Hill Street Blues in a hospital.”
St Elsewhere wasn’t the actual name of the teaching hospital in the show. It was St. Eligius, named for a saint who is said to have healed a demon-possessed Horse by amputating and miraculously reattaching the horse's foreleg. He’s the patron saint of veterinarians, sick horses, metalsmiths and cabmen, and his Feast day is 1 December.
The facade used for the hospital is the Franklin House at 11 East Newton Street in Boston. Built in 1868 the building has served as a hotel, a Conservatory of Music and affordable housing.
The production company’s mascot was a Cat called Mimsie, a rip off of the MGM Lion. Mimsie would be shown wearing hospital scrubs at the end of each episode. At the end of the last episode, Mimsie was shown on life support and flatlining. 2 months after the show ended, the cat died for real.
When St. Eligius was taken over by a large company called Ecumena, A real health care company called Humana actually sued the show for trademark infringement. The judge’s ruling was that there should be a disclaimer at the end of episodes: “Ecumena is a fictional company that does not represent any actual company or corporation."
Dr. Daniel Auschlander was the Chief at St. Eligius and a long running character, although at the start he was only intended to appear in four episodes, because he was dying of cancer. However, the producers liked him so much that they had him go into remission which lasted until the final episode.
Howie Mandel was a stand up comedian before getting the role. When he auditioned, he was under the impression the show was a comedy set in a hospital, and commented, ‘Their new comedy? Not that funny at all!’
Back in the 80s, nudity wasn’t seen on TV so often, but a pair of naked buttocks did make it into the final cut of one episode. Just before leaving the show, Donald Westphall decides to tell Ronny Cox, an Ecumena employee who is always trying to make savings, exactly what he thinks of his penny pinching policies – by mooning him and saying, “kiss my ass, pal.” This scene took 20 takes.
Spoiler alert. It had a somewhat controversial ending. The whole thing turned out to be a figment of the imagination of an autistic child. The child in question was Tommy Westphall, son of Donald, who conjured up the hospital and all its staff and stories in a snow globe. Since there were numerous cross overs with other shows (for example, a character in Cheers gave birth to a baby at St. Eligius) it has been argued that a number of other shows were conjured up in the snow globe as well.
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