WHO SHOT `ER'? CABLE OUTAGE CUTS CLOONEY CLIFFHANGER.Byline: Steve Carney Daily News Staff Writer Some San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. fans of the television show ``ER'' had their own traumas Thursday night - their cable service flatlined during the climax to one of TV's biggest mysteries since ``Dallas'' asked, ``Who shot J.R.?'' In areas of Tarzana and Woodland Hills served by Century Communications, cable reception began to blink out intermittently about 8:30 p.m., and went off completely just before 11 p.m. That left Century viewers in a tizzy tiz·zy n. pl. tiz·zies Slang A state of nervous excitement or confusion; a dither. [Origin unknown. : They lost connection with Doug Ross This article is about the ER character. For the Gene Wilder character, see Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (film). Dr. Douglas Ross was a fictional medical doctor from the television series ER. , the brooding, womanizing wom·an·ize v. woman·ized, woman·iz·ing, woman·iz·es v.intr. To pursue women lecherously. v.tr. To give female characteristics to; feminize. pediatrician played by George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who gained fame as the lead doctor in the long-running television drama, ER , cleaning out his locker. Was he leaving for good? Would his girlfriend, nurse Carol Hathaway Nurse Carol Hathaway is a fictional character on the popular television show ER who appeared from 1994 to 2000. She is portrayed by Julianna Margulies. Career Carol Hathaway is a registered nurse and was the nurse manager of the ER at the beginning of the series. , leave with him? ``It was the worst episode to go out. It was like the Super Bowl going out,'' said one irate Woodland Hills viewer, who refused to give his name. ``I think maybe I'll be better off with a satellite.'' A three-way cable splitter somewhere in the Woodland Hills-Tarzana area failed, akin to a light bulb burning out and stopping the flow of current, said Bill Rosendahl, Century Communications' senior vice president. The relay started to go bad about 8:30 p.m. - causing the intermittent outages - and failed for good just before 11 p.m. Crews began searching for the problem as it began, but couldn't find and replace the device that sends cables in three directions until after 11 p.m., Rosendahl said. ``I consider an outage like a heart attack - the longer it goes, the more damage it does to the system,'' he said. ``I'm as upset as the folks who missed the program. ``Obviously when it happened it was prime time and people were watching their favorite shows. All I can do is apologize that the splitter went out.'' More than 200 customers of the 5,000 served in that area were affected, he said. Century has about 40,000 customers throughout the Valley. Several hundred callers jammed the company's phone lines to complain, Rosendahl said. Even though the outage lasted less than the threshold for refunds, the most irate callers were given credits for a day's service on their bill. Rosendahl said others seeking refunds can call him at (310) 829-7079. According to the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, which regulates cable companies, the Century Communications service area involved in Thursday's outage topped the city in customer service complaints in 1998. And the company ranked third for the year in customer complaints about technology, the report said. Rosendahl said he hadn't seen the report, and declined to comment on the figures. A spokesman for Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) ., which produces ``ER,'' said the episode will be repeated. He's just not sure when. If you didn't see the show and want to wait and see the rerun re·run n. The act or an instance of rebroadcasting a recorded movie or a recorded television performance. tr.v. re·ran , re·run, re·run·ning, re·runs To present a rerun of. in its entirety, skip ahead. But for those of you dying to know what happened: Clooney - who is leaving the series to expand his career in motion pictures - didn't drive off in the Batmobile or die of a heart condition, like Jimmy Smits' long-running character did earlier this year on ``NYPD Blue.'' Instead, he came out of a bus crash unscathed, was confronted by the father of a young euthanasia patient who regretted not being able to say good-bye to his son, and was told by police that charges had been dropped in the child's death. ``In the end everyone survives the bus crash,'' according to NBC's episode synopsis, ``and it becomes clearer to Ross that he is no longer welcome to practice medicine at County General. He asks Hathaway to go to Seattle with him, but she declines. Ross leaves.'' Nielsen ratings showed 35.7 million people watched ``ER'' on Thursday, the highest rating for any regular network series show this season, said Mike Nelson, director of entertainment programming information at NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. . It wasn't the only show people missed, however. Marjorie Rosenthal of Woodland Hills was engrossed en·gross tr.v. en·grossed, en·gross·ing, en·gross·es 1. To occupy exclusively; absorb: A great novel engrosses the reader. See Synonyms at monopolize. 2. in a Stephen King movie on ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. when, on her television, ``Storm of the Century'' turned to snow. ``I was upset,'' she said. ``Now I have to buy the book.'' |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion