"Returning to St. Eligius: St. Elsewhere, 30 Years Later" - Part 3 at PressPlay

The conclusion of Edward Copeland's retrospective on the series featuring new interviews with several cast and crew.

Wayne Fiscus (Howie Mandel) treats his last patient
at St. Eligius, an opera singer with laryngitis.

"Returning to St. Eligius: St. Elsewhere, 30 Years Later - Part 3" has arrived, published on November 8, which was also Norman Lloyd's 98th birthday. Part one of this series at PressPlay focused mostly on the first season. Part two adds more stories about season one and widens the scope considerably. For the second installment, Edward Copeland interviewed Christina Pickles, Ronny Cox, Channing Gibson, Cindy Pickett, Bonnie Bartlett, David Birney, Jennifer Savidge, Joshua Brand, Cynthia Sikes, William Daniels, Mark Tinker, David Morse, Nancy Stafford, Stephen Furst, Ed Begley Jr., Terence Knox, Norman Lloyd, Blythe Danner, Ellen Bry, Michael Dukakis, Edward Herrmann, Piper Laurie, Chad Allen, and Sagan Lewis.

Parts two and three are considerably longer than the first installment, and they are loaded with great stories from cast members, guest stars, and producers, as well as analysis and insight from the author. Much as part one focused on the first season, part three covers the last. As a whole, Edward Copeland's series of articles joins the ranks of Robert Thompson's Television's Second Golden Age as one of the most thorough explorations of the show ever undertaken. It's a definite must-read for St. Elsewhere fans.

It's all great stuff, so here are the bits from part two that were new and interesting to me:

Video: Interview with Norman Lloyd

Videos of an interview with Norman Lloyd about his career and his experience on St. Elsewhere, courtesy of the Archive of American Television and YouTube.

Norman Lloyd (Dr. Daniel Auschlander) discusses his long
career and his time on St. Elsewhere.

Here are some clips from an interview conducted from September 7, 2000, hosted at the Archive of American Television, and also divided into sections on YouTube. In the full version of the interview, Lloyd discusses his long and accomplished career, from studying with Eva Le Galienne (who came out of retirement to appear in the Emmy-winning episode "The Women" in season two), joining the Mercury Theatre, appearing in the title role of Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur and his long association with the legendary director, and much more. I haven't watched the whole thing (it's long), but I'll bet it's interesting. If you're looking for St. Elsewhere stuff, jump to six minutes into part six.

The following clips from YouTube are excerpts from this full version.

Interview with G.W. Bailey

The A.V. Club's "Random Roles" interview with G.W. Bailey, who played Dr. Hugh Beale in season 1.

Came across this great interview from the A.V. Club with G.W. Bailey, who played St. Eligius's psychiatrist, Dr. Hugh Beale, a good ole boy from Mississippi, on the first season of St. Elsewhere. He left the show after one season, and this interview explains why. Turns out he didn't get along with executive producer Bruce Paltrow. After leaving St. Elsewhere, he landed his iconic role as Captain Harris in the Police Academy movies. He currently stars on the TNT series, The Closer.

The experience he relates may shed some light on some of the other cast turnovers of the show's six seasons.