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Was it just four years ago that medical dramaphiles anxiously awaited the bloody hospital showdown between Chicago Hope and ER? Nearly half a decade later, Drs. Ross, Greene, and Carter aren't what's plaguing the CBS medics. "Fifth seasons can be dreadfully dull," moans Chicago Hope executive producer John Tinker. Helping fight the fifth-year slump are more of the quirky twists we've come to expect (and, yeah, sometimes dread) from this Emmy award-winning series. "Every third or fourth episode, you won't know what you're getting," Tinker says. "The shows that are out of the ordinary are the most successful for us".
This season, look for Lisa Catera (Stacy Edwards) to become a mini-celebrity after a televised surgery, Jack McNeil (Mark Harmon) to take on a new dysfunction (this time a relationship) and Kate Austin (Christine Lahti) to attempt that logical career leap from doctor to astronaut. "Last season there was an earnestness that crept into my character because some of the guy writers didn't understand her and judged her to be a bitch," Lahti says. "Now we have some women writers who really get her--and being a doctor in space will leave a lot of room for comedy."
Of course, it wouldn't be Chicago Hope without a cast change or two. With Peter Berg (Billy Kronk) preparing to bolt for a big screen career ("I've done all the operations my character is smart enough to perform," he says), indie film-boy Eric Stoltz is scrubbing in as Dr. Robert Yeats, a surgeon with a background in Eastern medicine. "I'm a doctor who also happens to be a practicing Buddhist" says Stoltz, a Hope and TV virgin prior to being offered the role. "Other than that, who knows? I'm trying to be flexible and open to whatever may happen, and like the Buddhists, to become more comfortable with not knowing. It's like going on a blind date. I'm hopeful I might get lucky at the end of the evening."
