Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.6 “Lost and Found In Space”

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, it’s not just the patients who need to be stitched up.

Episode 4.6 “Lost and Found In Space”

(Dir by Robert Becker, originally aired on November 13th, 1985)

Bobby Caldwell lives!

Things were looking pretty bad for Bobby last week. As you may remember, he picked up a waitress, took her to his Cape Cod home, and then ended up getting slashed across the face when she pulled a razor blade out from under her tongue. This week, Bobby is wandering around the hospital with a huge bandage on his face and telling everyone that he had an “accident.” It’s only to Dr. Turner that he confesses that he was attacked by the waitress. Bobby claims that he responded by punching her and that he then called the police.

Bobby spends this episode in a truly foul mood. Not only does he have a bandage on his face but he’s also been told that the Hospital Review Board doesn’t feel that he’s performing enough surgeries for the residents to really get the training that they need. (“We’re a teaching hospital,” Dr. Craig explains.) Bobby pressures an old man into getting a face lift that he really doesn’t need. Even Victor thinks that the surgery is unethical. I mean, when you’ve lost Victor Ehrlich….

Meanwhile, Dr. Westphall is finally released from the hospital after fainting due to the Malaria that he brought back from working abroad. Westphall is depressed about the whole thing. Westphall is always depressed. Even when his daughter comes home to help out, Westphall is depressed to see her. Cheer up, Westphall!

After weeks of trying to lose weight, Elliot discovers that he’s actually gained three pounds. What’s worse is that his girlfriend, Marcy (Jeannie Elias), lost weight at the same time that Elliot was gaining weight and, when she sees that he’s just as heavy as ever, she dumps him.

Amongst the patients, Pru Dowler (Amanda Wyss) and Buddy Askew (Mark Baker) are two developmentally challenged teenagers who end up “procreating” (as Luther puts it) in Pru’s hospital room. Dr. Craig takes it upon himself to discuss what happened when Pru and it’s just as awkward as you might expect.

Col. Chuck Cochrane (David Ackroyd) is an astronaut who collapses while giving a speech. In the hospital, he has nightmares about being trapped in space. The whole storyline brought to mind The Ninth Configuration, a film that perhaps not coincidentally starred the future Donald Westphall himself, Ed Flanders.

The highlight of this episode was undoubtedly William Daniels’s performance as Dr. Craig. With Dr. Westphall recovering his illness, the day-to-day tasks of running the hospital fell on Dr. Craig and he was not at all happy about it. On this show, William Daniels is always at his best when Dr. Craig is in a bad mood. Before going on rounds, Dr. Craig predicted that Dr. Morrison would show up late and have some overly complicated excuse. Morrison did just that and it was hard not to smile at Craig’s exasperation. At the same time, it is made clear that the main reason that Craig is upset is because his granddaughter has been taken away from him. It was hard not to feel bad for him, even when he was biting everyone’s heads off.

This was not a happy episode. No one in the hospital seems to be doing well. Bobby is bitter. Dr. Craig is angry. Elliott is feeling defeated. And Westphall …. well, he’s just Westphall. Fortunately, the strong cast and the smart writing made up for the fact that St. Eligius isn’t a happy place right now.

Seriously, I could watch William Daniels yell at people all day.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.5 “Slice O’Life”

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s a busy few days in Boston.

Episode 4.5 “Slice O’Life”

(Dir by Eric Laneuville, originally aired on November 6th, 1985)

Oh, the drama!

Elliot is still struggling to lose weight.

Fiscus is having an early midlife crisis, especially when a cancer patient (Todd Susman) philosophically accepts that the treatment is going to leave him impotent. The patient has lived a life with meaning. What has Fiscus done?

Dr. Craig finally admits to Ellen that he knows he was too hard on their now dead son. They are both preparing to raise their granddaughter, Barbara, in their home. However, Yvonne’s parents (Ramon Bieri and K Callan) arrive in Boston for a visit. They are so blue collar and, in Dr. Craig’s eyes, unsophisticated that they almost seems like caricatures of what the rich think the poor are like. They reveal that Stephen and Yvonne asked them to serve as Barbara’s legal guardians in case anything happened. At first, Ellen refuses to let them take Barbara. “Get your wife in check,” Yvonne’s father says. “I’ll see you in court,” Dr. Craig replies.

After complaining about feeling like he has a cold and then getting upset about the Hospital Board not immediately approving all of his projects, Dr. Westphall collapses in the St. Eligius stairwell. It turns out that he has Malaria. Apparently, a self-righteous attitude and a bunch of impractical ideas were not the only things Westphall brought home from Ethiopia.

Finally, Bobby spends another weekend up at Cape Cod. He picks up a local woman. They have what Bobby is probably expecting to be just another one night stand. The woman, however, has a razor blade that she’s hidden under her tongue (yikes!) and proceeds to slice Bobby across his face.

AGCK!

Up until that ending, this was a fairly typical episode of St. Elsewhere. It looked like the big drama was going to be the Craigs temporarily losing Barbara. Instead, the drama is that Bobby might be dead!

Oh, poor Mark Harmon. When he first started playing the role on this show, Bobby was portrayed as being a nice guy who was a little boring. The show really had no idea what to do with him, other than have him occasionally take his shirt off. For the fourth season, the show’s writers turned him into an arrogant hedonist. On the one hand, I’m sure there are a lot of doctors like Bobby Caldwell. On the other hand, the change really does seem to have come out of nowhere. And now, he might be dead. I guess the lesson here is to stay away from Cape Cod!

The attack on Bobby ultimately overshadows everything else that happened in this episode. I will say that, before Bobby got attacked, I was enjoying Dr. Craig’s rather snobbish reaction to Yvonne’s parents. As for Dr. Westphall …. eh. Westphall’s kind of become a one trick pony. He’s depressed and he wants the world to know it. I know quite a few people like Dr. Westphall in real life, which is probably why I get so annoyed with his character on the show.

Seriously, Westphall, cheer up!

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.4 “The Naked and the Dead”

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Life is getting dark in Boston!

Episode 4.4 “The Naked and the Dead”

(Dir by Leo Penn, originally aired on October 30th, 1985)

This episode opens with Dr. Craig in an even worse mood than usual. There’s two newspapers in Boston and they each have a totally different weather forecast. One says that the day is going to be warm and sunny. The other says to expect rain. How is Dr. Craig supposed to know whether or not take an umbrella to the hospital!? Ellen, meanwhile, is preparing for Stephen’s funeral, which is going to be held later in the day.

Yes, Dr. Craig does go to the hospital on the day of his son’s funeral. He says that he has no choice because his patients need him but it’s obvious that the hospital is his way of avoiding the grief and guilt that he feels over the death of his son. Ellen worries about whether or not Stephen will be buried in a comfortable suit. Dr. Craig yells at a post-op patient for smoking and eating too much. They’re both dealing with their sadness.

Dr. Westphall, meanwhile, deals with his nonstop depression by coming up with new (and impractical) community projects for the hospital. In this episode, he leaves Tommy with a babysitter so that he can try to persuade the Board of Directors to fund his latest project, a clinic devoted to battling malnutrition. The Board turns him down. Westphall returns home a depressed. That’s nothing new. Westphall is always depressed. That said, this was the first episode in which I really felt as if I understood Westphall’s depression. Westphall feels guilty because, for all of his medical training, he still doesn’t understand his son’s autism. So, instead of dealing with Tommy, Westphall throws himself into the hospital. He’s really not that much different from Dr. Craig.

While that’s going on, Bobby hooks up with a physical therapist at the hospital. Nurse Lucy (Jennifer Savidge) steals his scrubs and we get the sight of a half-naked Mark Harmon running through the hospital. Meanwhile, an aspiring teenage photographer (Robert Romanus — DAMONE FROM FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH!) is beaten up when he sells some bad drugs to the other inhabitants of the group home where he lives. The photographer is dead by the end of the episode. It’s just that type of day.

This episode ends with Dr. Craig and his wife going to the funeral. It’s raining, of course.

Wow, what a depressing episode! Fortunately, the strong ensemble cast kept things bearable, even though there wasn’t much happiness to be found over the course of the hour. Still, I worry about Dr. Craig. He really does seem like he’s just a few days away from snapping. Hopefully, he’ll express his grief at some point. It’s not good to hold all that in. We know there’s a bar near the hospital and Dr. Craig seems like he’s on the verge of becoming a regular.

Are things going to continue to get dark or is Boston going to see happier day? We’ll find out next week!

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.1 “Remembrance Of Things Past”

Posted on June 26, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we begin season 4 of St. Elsewhere!

Episode 4.1 “Remembrance of Things Past”

(Dir by Bruce Paltrow, originally aired on September 18th, 1985)

This week, we start a new season of St. Elsewhere!

Dr. Cavenero is no longer listed in the opening credits. She’s not even mentioned in this episode, leaving her absence as a mystery. The last time we saw her during the third season, she was suffering from a cold so maybe she died. From what I’ve read, the real reason that she’s gone is because Cynthia Sikes, the actress who played her, objected to a season three storyline that would have featured her coming out as a lesbian.

From the start of this epiosde, St. Eligius seems like a happier place. A lot of that is because Dr. Westphall is gone. (That said, he’s still listed in the opening credits so we know, from the start, that will return.) Doctors Craig and Aushlander are a bit overworked having to cover Westphall’s duties but still, the residents seem to be a bit more hopeful than usual in this episode. Westphall’s perpetual glumness is no longer there to drag everyone down.

Morrison and Chandler have a conflict over a Vietnamese patient. Morrison wants to give the patient the best care possible. Chandler is upset because his older brother died in Vietnam and he feels like the patient doesn’t appreciate the sacrifice that Americans made during the Vietnam War. Morrison, of course, was an anti-war teenager. (There’s a reason why Helen Hunt calls him “boomer.”)

The whole Morrison/Chandler storyline felt a bit too heavy-handed to be effective. While I can believe that Chandler would have his own strongly-held opinions about the war, I have a hard time believing he would be as unprofessional as he was in this episode. Still, all of this does lead to a great scene where Morrison goes to Craig for the type of advice that he would usually get from Westphall and Craig responds by telling Morrison to get over it and concentrate on his job.

Seriously, I’ve been waiting for three seasons for someone to tell Morrison that.

Alfre Woodward joins the cast as Dr. Roxanne Turner, an OB-GYN. In this episode, she counsels an infertile couple. Dr. Turner wasn’t in much of the episode (and Alfre Woodard is not included in the opening credits) but I get the feeling that both she and the couple she was counseling are going to be around for a while.

The episode’s main storyline featured an amnesiac known as Joe Doe No. 6 (Oliver Clark). After John Doe escapes from the psychiatric ward and steals a suit, he’s mistaken for Dr. Jonas Wisner, who has beent sent to St. Eligius to evaluate its teaching program. John Doe No. 6 has a great time pretending to be Dr. Wisner and the doctors enjoy spending time with him. Unfortunately, the real Dr. Wisner (Joseph Ruskin) shows up and the fun ends.

Oh, how I loved watching John Doe No. 6 interact with the staff. Not only did it allow me to see the show’s characters through someone else’s eyes but it was also just an enjoyable storyline. It was a reminder that the hospital can be an entertaining place when Westpall isn’t wandering around the hallways.

However, towards the end of this episode, Westphall showed up at the hospital. Craig and Auschlander were happy to see him. Westphall asked if he could have his old job back. Of course, he can! Really? Didn’t Westphall walk off the job? But apparently, he can just wander back into the hospital while wearing his hobo cap and all is forgiven.

The episode ends with Chandler taking an impromptu trip to Washington D.C. and visiting the Vietnam War Memorial. As I watched this, it occuured to me that the memorial was still fairly new when this episoe aired. Once I realized that, I understood why the show included the Morrison/Chandler storyline. It pays to know history.

Season 4 is off to a good start! I just hope Dr. Westphall doesn’t drag everyone back down.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.24 “Cheers”

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, season 3 comes to an end.

Episode 3.24 “Cheers”

(Dir by Bruce Paltrow, originally aired on March 27th, 1985)

It’s Easter at St. Eligius and, of course, everyone is a bit depressed. While the patients in the Children’s Ward prepare for the annual Easter egg hunt (and are told about the magic Golden Egg), a man who dresses like Jesus is attacked by a bunch of vagrants and wheeled into the Emergency Room. Meanwhile, Dr. Craig is shaken to learn that his mentor, Dr. David Domedion (Dean Jagger), is suffering from dementia and Dr. Auschlander worries about his wife as she undergoes heart surgery.

And yet somehow, Dr. Westphall still manages to be the most depressed person in the hospital.

I have to admit that, over the course of this season, I’ve grown a bit frustrated with Dr. Westphall and his nonstop depression. At least one terrible thing has happened to every character on the show but they’ve all managed to continue on with their lives and their careers. Dr. Westphall is selling his house and, as a result, he’s spent a year having an existential crisis. Dr. Asuchlander is terminally ill and he still manages to smile occasionally. I realize that I’m probably being too hard on Westphall but seriously …. cheer up, old man! People love you!

This rather dark and depressing episode features an odd moment when Westphall, Crag, and Auschlander go to a neighborhood bar and talk about life. Their conversation is serious but the bar is Cheers, which was the setting of a popular sitcom of the same name in the 80s. (Dr. Frasier Crane first appeared on Cheers, though he’s sadly not present in this episode.) While the doctors wrestle with their misery, the bar regulars make jokes.

Barmaid Carla (Rhea Pearlman) gives them a hard time when she discovers that they work at St. Eligius. In fact, the entire bar seems to groan at the hospital’s name.

Bar regular Norm (George Wendt) is also Auschlander’s former accountant. Norm apologizes for losing Auschlander a good deal of money. Then Norm goes back to drinking. Maybe don’t hire an alcoholic to be your accountant.

Postman Cliff (future PIXAR regular John Ratzenberger) tries to get free medical advice. The doctors aren’t in the mood.

It’s an odd scene but there’s still a definite charm to it. It’s as if the show’s writers were acknowledging how difficult it can be to take Westphall’s nonstop glumness and they were puncturing his self-absorption a little by having the cast of another show attempt to steal the spotlight from all of his problems. This episode seems to be saying, “There’s a world outside of St. Eligius and it’s full of day drinkers.”

Still, the scene is ultimately about Dr. Westphall. At the end of it, he announces that he’s done with being a doctor. He’s going to retire. He’s going to leave St. Eligius and presumably find a new group of people to depress. Well, good for him.

The episode ends with Westphall leaving the hospital, perhaps for the last time. As he leaves, he spots and picks up the Golden Easter Egg.

Hey, Westphall, that egg is for the kids!

Next week, we start a new season!

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.22 “Tears of a Clown”

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Send in the clowns….

Episode 3.22 “Tears of a Clown”

(Dir by Janet Greek, originally aired on March 13th, 1985)

Do you like clowns?

Then this episode is for you because there are clowns all over the hospital! When Dr. Chandler tells circus clown Bonko (Gina Hecht) that she should quit the circus because she has MS, her fellow clowns all show up at the hospital to support her. And yes, they wear their clown makeup! Bonko’s partner, Corky (Dennis Dugan), understands that Bonko is a born performer. As the episode ends, Bonko and Crky perform in an elevator and cheer up Andrea Fordham (Ann Hearn), Dr. Caldwell’s plastic surgery patient. Having had her declaration of love rejected by Bobby, Andrea could definitely use the cheering up.

Dr. Morrison needs some cheering up to. Working as a resident, a medical student, and a single father is a lot of pressure and his relationship with Clancy (played by Helen Hunt) isn’t bring him much relief. Morrison is suffering from insomnia and headaches and popping pills. He’s late to a timed exam and flunks. I swear, Morrison can never get a break. The only thing keeping him from being the most depressing character on the show is that Westphall somehow always seem to be even more afflicted with melancholy.

This episode features Westphall finally finding a condo that he can move into. He’s accompanied by Dr. Craig and they are mistaken for a couple by the realtor. Craig looks annoyed. Westphall looks glum. Westphall always looks glum!

Finally, Elliot discovers that Mrs. Hufnagle left him her entire meager estate. It’s also now his responsibility to spread her ashes.

After last week’s dramatic and emotional episode, this week felt rather lowkey. How you react to this episode will probably depend on how much tolerance you have for clowns.

It was an okay episode, even if it did ultimately feel like filler. After last week’s emotion-packed installment, this episode served to remind us that life goes on, even after Hufnagle dies and Shirley Daniels pulls a gun on everyone. That’s just the way things are in the city of Boston.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.21 “Murder, She Rote”

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we’ve got a great episode of St. Elsewhere.

Episode 3.21 “Murder, She Rote”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on February 27th, 1985)

This week, Mrs. Hufnagle dies!

After spending the entire season getting on the nerves of the doctors and the nurses, Mrs. Hufnagle died in this episode. She is found dead and apparently crushed in her bed. (Hufnagle could never figure out how to properly lower and raise the front and back of it. In this episode, it appears that she raised both at the same time.) “Hufnagle in a half-shell,” Ehrlich says. Meanwhile, the perpetually angry Nurse Lucy (Jennifer Savidge) blames herself for not responding when Hufnagle was desperately pushing her help button. Gee, Lucy, you think? Isn’t it your job to respond?
Now, I should note that this episode features both Westphall and Craig calling out the doctor for the treatment that Hufnagle received. Both let it be known that doctors can’t just take care of the likable patients. Everyone who enters the hospital deserves quality care.
What did Hufnagle die of? That’s what Craig is determined to find out. His first instinct is to blame Ehrlich. Then he tried to blame Kochar (former serious regular Kavi Raz, making a guest appearance). He tries to blame the nurses. But, in the end, Craig examines his notes from Hufnagle’s heart surgery and he discovers that he’s the one who made a mistake.
In a wonderfully acted moment, Craig tells the residents that the mistake was his. William Daniels does an excellent job of showing that Craig, for all of his arrogance, is not one to shirk responsibility. When he explains how he made the mistake that led to Hufnagle’s death, it’s a brave moment for both the character and the actor.
That said, Craig is lucky Hufnagle didn’t have a family or he would definitely be getting sued.

While Hufnagle died, Shirley Daniels returned to the ER:

Given that Shirley has confessed to killing Peter White (even though she hasn’t gone to trial yet), clearing her to work at a hospital seems …. odd. That said, a psychiatrist says that Shirley is not a threat to others and Auschlander seems to be oddly eager for her to get to work.
It doesn’t take long before Shirley pulls a gun on a patient. She also points the gun at Fiscus and then Morrison. She pulls the trigger and a little flag pops out that says, “Bang!”
It was a joke! Oh, Shirely!
Shirley laughs and then leaves the hospital.

Elliot has a date:

Dr. Axelrod goes out on a date with Nurse Rosenthal’s odd daughter, Marcy (Jeannie Elias).
Marcy is impressed with Elliot’s goofy sense of humor.
Elliot takes her to the same Hawaiian restaurant that Ehrlich took the Craigs.
A sudden fire breaks out. Elliot heroically saves the life of the restaurant’s owner.
Marcy explains that she liked Elliot because he seemed goofy and harmless. Now that he’s a hero, she respects him too much to sleep with him.

This was a great episode! William Daniels gave his best performance in the role of Dr. Craig so far. Ellen Bry, in the role of Shirley Daniels, got one of the all-time great exits. And the underused Stephen Furst got a storyline where he did something more than just get insulted. I do feel sad for Mrs. Hufnagle, though. She wasn’t that bad.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.18 “Any Portrait In A Storm”

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s a stormy episode!

Episode 3.18 “Any Portrait In A Storm”

(Dir by Leo Penn, originally aired on January 30th, 1985)

As a rain storm rages outside, the drama inside St. Eligius continues.

Dr. Auschlander cancels the grand unveiling of his portrait, saying that he doesn’t feel worthy of the attention and also admitting to Westphall that the whole thing not only makes him feel old but also reminds him that he’s dying. Westphall’s response is to nod glumly because Westphall is the most depressed man on the planet. Auschlander is dying of liver cancer and he still manages to usually be more cheerful than Westphall. Even this episode ends with Auschlander in a good mood. He finally looks at his portrait and discovers that he likes it. Plus, Luther tells Auschlander how important he is to him and the other workers at the hospital.

While Auschlander feels his age and Westphall sadly stares at the ceiling, Dr. Ehrlich makes an effort to be more polite and fails completely. Ms. Hufnagle argues about her hospital bill. In an amusing moment, Warren spots Dean (Tim Van Patten) getting on an elevator and shouts, “Salami!” Before St. Elsewhere, Byron Stewart (who played Warren) and Van Patten starred together on a show called The White Shadow. Stewart played Warren, the same character that he plays on St. Elsewhere. Van Patten played someone named Salami. What makes the scene especially humorous is that Dean hesitates before saying, “You got the wrong guy,” as if he somehow remembers being a different character on another show.

Dean is at the hospital to tell his pregnant girlfriend that, despite the fact that she’s currently in labor, he’s leaving Boston for Florida so he can set up a drug deal. Both Dean’s girlfriend, Maddy (Lycia Naff), and Peter White’s widow, Myra (Karen Landry), give birth in this episode. Tragically, Maddy’s daughter dies. Myra has a son, who survives and who she names Peter. Afterwards, she receives an anonymous present — a little ski mask, identical in every way but size to the one that her late husband used to wear while he was terrorizing the hospital.

This was not a bad episode. The rain served as a good (if perhaps too obvious) metaphor for the drama happening inside the hospital. A good deal of this episode centered around Dr. Woodley trying to get Maddy to accept some help and get Dean out of her life. The problem is that this is only Dr. Woodley’s third or fourth episode and, as a result, I still don’t feel like I know much about the character. Having her suddenly take center stage for this episode felt a bit premature. Still, Norman Lloyd’s performance as Dr. Auschlander and the scene were Dr. Craig realizes that he left his lights on when he got out of his car kept things watchable, occasionally humorous, and, in the end, rather poignant. Sometimes, Dr. Asuchlander could be almost too good to be true but Norman Lloyd’s performance always sold every moment. That was certainly the case here.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.13 “Dr. Wyler, I Presume”

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a famous doctor comes to St. Eligius.

Episode 3.13 “Dr. Wyler, I Presume”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on December 19th, 1984)

This week’s episode opens in the hospital gift shop. Dr. Craig is excited because a Nobel Prize-winning surgeon, Dr. George Wyler (David Wayne), is traveling from Africa to St. Eligius. Wyler is bring along a man who needs a kidney transplant. They are hoping to find a donor in Boston.

Dr. Auschlander, who is an old friend of Wyler’s, is a bit more nervous. Craig tells him not to worry so much and then grabs a carnation that he puts on Auschlander’s lapel.
As Auschlander starts to leave the gift shop, Craig says, “Don’t forget to pay for that.”

It’s a brilliant opening for a pretty good episode of St. Elsewhere. It’s always interesting to see the usually arrogant Dr. Craig in fanboy mode and one gets the feeling that, if he’s impressed by Dr. Wyler, than Wyler really must be as brilliant as everyone says.
And maybe he is! It’s hard to say for sure. When Wyler arrives at the hospital, he’s avuncular and obviously intelligent but we really don’t learn much about him, beyond the fact that he’s an old friend of Auschlander’s. The rest of Wyler’s scenes feature him and Auschlander sitting around and talking about how they’re both getting older. It’s not boring, largely due to the performances of Norman Lloyd and David Wayne. But, after all of the build-up, it’s a bit anti-climatic. That said, according to the imdb, Dr. Wyler appeared in a total of three episodes so I imagine things will develop.

While this is going on, Nurse Rosenthal is having a mid-life crisis. Her 45th birthday is coming up and she doesn’t want to celebrate it. She’s not amused when the nurses get her a stripper. Usually, I would have sympathy for a character who hates the idea of getting older but I’m a little bit tired of Nurse Rosenthal and her poor-me attitude. I get that she’s upset that her adulterous affair hasn’t been going well but maybe she should take that as a sign to stop sleeping with married men.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Hufnagle, the patient that no one likes, continues to get on everyone’s nerves. She’s even managed to alienate Elliott! I actually feel bad for Mrs. Hufnagle. Yes, she complains a lot but being in a hospital is a scary thing. I get the feeling that the doctors and nurses getting annoyed with her is probably the most realistic part of the series. Dr. Morrison is now Hufnagle’s doctor and that worries me. Morrison’s stories always end in the most depressing way possible.

At the tv station, Victor is told that his medical segments are not popular with viewers and that he needs to make being sick sound more pleasant than it is. Victor records an upbeat segment about how wonderful it is to go the hospital.

At the hospital, Victor assists Dr. Craig in removing an live exploding bullet from a woman who was shot in a robbery. Victor worries that the bullet could explode as he removes it and end his medical career. Fortunately, the operation is successful but Craig still tells Ehrlich that he’s a disgrace.

Ouch!

Hey, this was a really good episode. It was well-acted. It wasn’t too depressing. Dr. Craig got to snap at a lot of people. The best episodes always feature Dr. Craig going off on someone. St. Eligius may not be the best hospital but, this week, it was the most entertaining.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.11 “Homecoming”

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the heartbreak continues!

Episode 3.11 “Homecoming”

(Dir by David Anspaugh, originally aired on December 5th, 1984)

What a depressing episode!

Actually, it’s not totally depressing. Dr. Elliot Axelrod (Stephen Furst) survives his first night as the attending-on-duty and he even convinces cranky old Mrs. Hufnagle (Florence Halop) to go back to her room. He also handles things when a patient collapses in the hallway. One can be sure that Elliot will be given absolutely no praise for his good work because he never is. But at least, he was there and he proved himself to be more competent than anyone gives him credit for being.

Now, for the depressing stuff:

Nurse Rosenthal is continuing her affair with Richard Clarendon. This wasn’t depressing because of anything that happened in this episode. Instead, it’s just depressing that any time was devoted to these two boring characters.

After her apartment is broken into while she’s in the shower, Clancy (Helen Hunt) moves in with Jack. Jack and Clancy make for a cute couple but, watching this episode, it’s easy to see that their relationship is doomed. Clancy is young and enthusiastic. Jack is young but he moves like an old man and he’s already been through a lifetime’s worth of tragedy. Sadly, Clancy living with Jack does not last longer than one night. Clancy says that Jack acts like he’s offended by having her stuff in his apartment and she’s right. Jack is still mourning his wife and not ready to live with anyone.

Lois Wegener (Mimi Kennedy) comes home from being out of town and discovers that her husband, Andrew (John Schuck) is becoming progressively weaker from the experimental bone marrow treatment that he’s going through in an attempt to save the life of their daughter (Brandy Gold). Everyone at the hospital is impressed with Andrew’s courage but it’s obvious to me that this is not going to have a happy ending.

Kathy Martin is still in the psych ward. During this episode, she gives Fiscus the note that Shirley Daniels gave her after Shirley shot and killed Peter White.

And finally, it wouldn’t be a depressing episode without a Westphall storyline. Westphall’s daughter, Lizzie (Dana Short), comes home from college for the weekend and, without asking Westphall ahead of time, she brings along her new boyfriend, Rick (Casey Seimaszko). Lizzie assumes that Rick will be sleeping with her in her room. Westphall is not thrilled to hear about that. (It doesn’t help that Rick isn’t wearing a shirt when he and Westphall first meet.) Lizzie gets angry. Westphall points out that his dead wife would not have approved. Lizzie argues that she is now an adult and can do whatever she wants.

And you know what? I am totally on Westphall’s side here. It’s his house! Lizzie isn’t the one paying the bills. If Westphall doesn’t want Rick sleeping in her room (and, I might add, there are other rooms in the house where Rick could sleep), then Rick doesn’t sleep in her room. When I was younger, I probably would have been on Lizzie’s side but now that I’ve gotten older, I see Westphall’s point and Lizzie comes across as being a spoiled brat. I mean, if she wants to stay in the same room as Rick, they can get a motel room. How expensive could one be in 1984? This episode ends with Lizzie telling her father that she’s leaving. “Lizzie!” Westphall says but she’s already gone.

See what I mean? This was a depressing episode, even by St. Elsewhere standards. That said, it was also a good episode. Ed Flanders, David Morse, Helen Hunt, Stephen Furst, Mimi Kennedy, they all gave wonderfully empathetic performances. Your heart may hurt for them but you can’t wait to see what happens next. Sometimes, life is depressing but, like the characters on this show, you have to moving forward.