‘Er’ Producers Planning Live Episode

As if “ER” does not already provide enough thrills for the biggest audience on television, the NBC drama is now planning to begin the coming season with an episode produced live from the several sound stages on the Warner Brothers lot in Los Angeles where the show is filmed.

The decision to produce a live episode, a feat rarely attempted by network television since the golden days of live drama in the 1950s, is contingent on a decision by the producers that it will not be logistically impossible to bring off, a Warner Brothers executive said.

That is the chief consideration because the series is among the hardest shows on television to produce even with the usual weeklong filming schedule for each episode. “ER” has often been called as much action show as drama for its many scenes of chaotic rapid-fire activity inside the emergency room.

All of that presumably would be included in the live episode.

The opening episode is most likely to be the one performed live because of the extra time required to plan out all the complications of live production.

But that will also be a challenge because the opening episode must resolve several plot threads left hanging last season.