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Dr. Greene Returns To The 'ER'
It's been six-and-a-half years since Anthony Edwards first scrubbed in on the show "ER" as Dr. Mark Greene. Edwards returns to the "ER" this Thursday in an emotional episode in which Angela Bassett's Dr. Cate Banfield recalls the night her 5-year-old son died in the ER at Cook County General Hospital.
Fans of the show will recall that after triumphantly battling brain cancer, Greene died on the beach in Hawaii. Needless to say, Dr. Greene will only be appearing in flashbacks during the episode. They are not resurrecting him from the dead! Edwards is not the only familiar face appearing in this week's episode. I'll leave off just who else might be popping up for you to discover yourself. It's certainly a walk down "ER" memory lane.
Now, I have to admit I haven't watched "ER" since season five. Whether you are a fan of the original team of docs, or you are still watching season 15 all these years later, I think you'll find yourself quite satisfied.
In a conference call with reporters Edwards explained his reason for agreeing to return to the show that made him a star:
"I can understand peoples' hesitancy of coming back, because you know when you are part of something you feel like you did so well you kind of also don't want to screw it up. I think there is a natural respect for the show that you want to be respectful of. For me, it kicked in perfect timing that I was about to launch a big fundraising campaign to build the largest children's hospital in Africa and that's with the charity I work with -- Shoe4Africa."
When "ER" producer John Wells asked him to come back, Edwards agreed if in lieu of payment, Warner Brothers would donate his salary to the hospital in Africa. They agreed and donated $125,000. Steven Spielberg found out about it and he matched the $125,000 donation. John Wells kicked in $50,000 of his own money as well. So, the whole thing was a win / win for Edwards.
Of filming the episode he says, "After about half an hour, it felt like I never left."
He left the show in the first place to spend more time with his children and Edwards says he is not quite ready to return to working in television full time.
"Not right away. That hour 22 episodes a year is a tremendous amount of work. I have yet to meet a person who says they wish they spent less time with their kids when they were younger. I'm really lucky that I have that opportunity. So it's going to be a few more years before my kids are really really sick of me and want me gone."
He says that for now he is just happy to walk his kids to school everyday and go for runs in Central Park. In fact, running was what inspired him to work with Shoe4Africa.
"We take used running shoes to Africa and we do running events with women and children and we empower them through the sport of running. Then along with it we do AIDS education and health education."
To find out more go to shoe4africa.org. Look for Dr. Greene on the November 13 episode of "ER," on NBC.
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