St Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere  was set at the fictional  St. Eligius  Hospital, a decaying urban  teaching hospital  in Boston's  South End neighborhood . (The South End's Franklin Square House Apartments, formerly known as the St. James Hotel and located next to  Franklin and Blackstone Squares , stood in for the hospital in establishing shots, including the series' opening sequence.) The hospital's nickname, "St. Elsewhere", is a slang term used in the medical field to refer to lesser-equipped hospitals that serve patients turned away by more prestigious institutions; it is also used in medical academia to refer to teaching hospitals in general. In the pilot episode, surgeon Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels) informs his colleagues that the local Boston media had bestowed the derogatory nickname upon St. Eligius since they perceived the hospital as "a dumping ground, a place you wouldn't want to send your mother-in-law." In fact, the hospital was so poorly regarded that its shrine to  Saint Eligius  was commonly defiled by the hospital's visitors  and  staff. However, despite the hospital's reputation, they employed some first-rate doctors -- including Craig, a world-class heart surgeon. As well, their administrative staff was shown to care deeply about the hospital's mission, even as they dealt with a lack of up-to-date equipment, funding, and experienced personnel. Just as in  Hill Street Blues ,  St. Elsewhere  employed a large ensemble cast; a gritty, "realistic" visual style; and a multitude of interlocking serialized stories, many of which continued over the course of multiple episodes or seasons. In the same way  Hill Street  was regarded as a groundbreaking police drama,  St. Elsewhere  also broke new ground in medical dramas, creating a template that influenced  ER ,  Chicago Hope , and other later shows in the genre.  St. Elsewhere  portrayed the medical profession as an admirable but less-than-perfect endeavor; the St. Eligius staff, while mostly having good intentions in serving their patients, all had their own personal and professional problems, with the two often intertwining. The staff's problems, and those of their patients (some of whom did not survive), were often contemporary in nature, with storylines involving  breast cancer ,  AIDS , and addiction. Though the series dealt with serious issues of life, death, the medical profession, and the human effects of all three, a substantial number of comedic moments, inside jokes, and references to television history were included, as well as tender moments of humanity.