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The last and final piece of NBC’s Must See TV is finally being laid to rest after this season. For so many years NBC called its Thursday lineup Must See TV, as it began with four comedies and ended with the hospital drama ER. The comedies varied throughout the years, whether it was Friends, Cheers, or Seinfeld, but ER has been at that spot for fifteen years. I’ve watched every one of those seasons, and while I used to just leave NBC on for the whole three hours, my remote now finds other programming … until the final hour when I just have to turn on ER.

This will be the last season I’ll be able to do that, though. Some have thought for awhile that ER was overstaying its welcome on our TVs, and while I agree it wasn’t always the same, to me it was always welcome. I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch whatever NBC puts in its place, as the comedies that are on TV never measure up to what I used to watch on Must See TV, so I’ve stopped watching TV comedies altogether.

There are many rumors and lots of speculation about this final season and what we can expect, most of it circulating around which stars that have since departed will be coming back. The first confirmed was Noah Wylie, as when he first left the show after its eleventh season, he inked a deal to return for eight more episodes, and he’s only fulfilled four of that.

Wylie mentioned in an interview with blog.nola.com that the executive producer had once told him since the series began on Wylie’s character’s first day at County General, his dream was always to end the show with Wylie running the ER, then sitting down at a desk and putting his feet up. To make that come full circle, though, Eriq La Salle would have to come back no longer tormenting Wylie’s Dr. Carter, but now respecting him. However, Wylie doesn’t think La Salle is likely to return.

A rumor circulating is one that is hopeful for Julianna Margulies and George Clooney to come back as a now happy couple. After setting hairstyle trends, Clooney left ER and went on to such huge success in the movies, it makes you wonder whether he’d consider coming back. He did come back once, however, and that was when Margulies left. Maybe he needs to show his career coming full circule just as Dr. Carter supposedly will.

Our only other confirmed castmate return is the one that everyone always mentioned would never happen. Even the fine doctors at County General couldn’t bring Anthony Edwards’ Dr. Mark Greene back from the dead. However, this week CBS confirmed that Edwards will return in an episode airing November 13, that will somehow also work into a storyline that involves new castmate Angela Bassett. Don’t despair. He’s not doing a soap opera “back from the dead” or “long long twin” thing, He’ll just be involved in flashbacks that may or may not include other past castmates. Surely we’d want to see him with wife Elizabeth, right?

Of course there are a whole host of other stars we could see return to the show, both that were on the show from the beginning and those that joined it as a successful show and left it the same way. Sherry Stringfield had two separate stints at the ER. She’s kind of a necessity. And maybe in another flashback we could see Dr. Romano and his nemesis the helicopter.

Who would you like to see return? Maybe we can cajole them into doing it if we ask nicely enough. The show and all its longtime fans deserve as much.

Photos courtesy of nbc.com

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