Love's Labor Lost (ER)

"**Love's Labor Lost**"
"Love's Labor Lost"
ER episode
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 19
Directed by	Mimi Leder
Written by	Lance Gentile
Production code	456618
Original air date	March 9, 1995
Guest appearances
	Ellen Crawford as Lydia Wright; Yvette Freeman as Haleh Adams; Lily Mariye as Lily Jarvik; Theodore Borders as Joey Paige; Bradford Drazen as Dr. Ralph Drake; Edith Fellows as Sadie Hubbell; Jesse D. Goins as Mr. Paige; Maddi Lewis as Dr. Pauline Blair; Shelley Malil as Dr. Urami; Christopher Richardson as Jesse; Mark Dakota Robinson as Steven; Colleen Flynn as Jodi O'Brien; Bradley Whitford as Sean O'Brien; Monty Ash as Old Man w/Dentures; Jeffrey Dean Rosenthal as Tattoo Man;
	Ellen Crawford as Lydia Wright; Yvette Freeman as Haleh Adams; Lily Mariye as Lily Jarvik; Theodore Borders as Joey Paige; Bradford Drazen as Dr. Ralph Drake; Edith Fellows as Sadie Hubbell; Jesse D. Goins as Mr. Paige; Maddi Lewis as Dr. Pauline Blair; Shelley Malil as Dr. Urami; Christopher Richardson as Jesse; Mark Dakota Robinson as Steven; Colleen Flynn as Jodi O'Brien; Bradley Whitford as Sean O'Brien; Monty Ash as Old Man w/Dentures; Jeffrey Dean Rosenthal as Tattoo Man;
Episode chronology
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	ER (season 1)
	List of episodes

"Love's Labor Lost" is the nineteenth episode of the first season of the American medical drama ER. It first aired on March 9, 1995 on NBC in the United States. The episode was written by Lance Gentile and directed by Mimi Leder. "Love's Labor Lost" earned five Emmy Awards (Writing, Directing, Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing) and several other awards and nominations.

Plot[]

Dr. Mark Greene encounters the case of a pregnant woman suffering from complications that severely threaten her life as well as her unborn baby. With the obstetrics attending unavailable, he decides to try to deliver her baby in the ER, with tragic results. Elsewhere, a teenager is accidentally poisoned by insecticides and Dr. Peter Benton has to deal with the aftermath of his mother's fall.

Reception[]

In its original broadcast, "Love's Labor Lost" finished first in the ratings for the week of March 6–12, 1995, with a 24.2 Nielsen rating and 40 percent audience share. It was the highest rated show on NBC that week with episodes of Seinfeld and Friends second and third respectively.^[1] In 1997, TV Guide ranked it as the third in its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[2] In 2009, it ranked the episode sixth.^[3] The show's producers also consider it to be one of ER's best episodes, with John Wells saying he holds it up as "an example to everyone involved creatively of what the best of the show could be."^[4] However, Wells also noted that the story maintained a traditional structure, and that the episode would not stand out if the rest of the episodes were like "Love's Labor Lost" and other "most talked-about" episodes.^[5]

Ray Richmond of Los Angeles Daily News praised the episode, calling it "one of the rare instances when network television stands tall as true art".^[6]

The episode earned writer Lance Gentile a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series at the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards,^[7] in addition to a Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Drama at the 49th Writers Guild of America Awards.^[8] The episode also earned Mimi Leder a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards^[9] as well as a nomination for Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series at the 48th Directors Guild of America Awards. Colleen Flynn earned a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in this episode, which was her only appearance in the TV series. The episode earned a host of other Emmys: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production for Randy Jon Morgan and Rick Tuber; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series for Walter Newman (supervising sound editor), John Voss Bonds Jr. (sound effects editor), Rick Camera (sound effects editor), Steven M. Sax (sound effects editor), John F. Reynolds (dialogue editor), Catherine Flynn (dialogue editor), Thomas A. Harris (adr editor), Susan Mick (music editor), Casey J. Crabtree (foley artist), and James Bailey (foley artist); as well as Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Drama Series for Russell C. Fager (production sound mixer), Michael Jiron (sound effects mixer), Allen L. Stone (dialogue mixer) and Frank Jones (music mixer). The episode also won an American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited One-Hour Series for Television for Randy Jon Morgan and Rick Tuber.

References[]

^ Grahnke, Lou (March 15, 1995). "New 'Hope' Scores Big In Premiere". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
^ "Special Collector's Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". TV Guide. June 28 – July 4, 1997.
^ "TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time". WordPress. Archived from the original on 2011-10-01.
^ Joyce Eng (2015-03-08). "ER: An Oral History of the Powerful, Groundbreaking "Love's Labor Lost"". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
^ Hill, Michael E. (September 21, 1997). "Peacock Rollout". Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
^ Richmond, Ray (March 16, 1995). "Viewers' eyes still haven't dried after last week's 'ER' episode". Austin American-Statesman: 30. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
^ "47th Primetime Emmys Nominees and Winners – Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. September 10, 1995. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
^ "The Writers Guild Foundation Library Catalog". Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-02-26. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
^ "Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series Nominees / Winners 1995". Television Academy. September 10, 1995. Retrieved March 22, 2021.

External links[]

"Love's Labor Lost" at IMDb

[1] Grahnke, Lou (March 15, 1995). "New 'Hope' Scores Big In Premiere". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)

[2] "Special Collector's Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". TV Guide. June 28 – July 4, 1997.

[3] "TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time". WordPress. Archived from the original on 2011-10-01.

[4] Joyce Eng (2015-03-08). "ER: An Oral History of the Powerful, Groundbreaking "Love's Labor Lost"". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2015-03-09.

[5] Hill, Michael E. (September 21, 1997). "Peacock Rollout". Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2021.

[6] Richmond, Ray (March 16, 1995). "Viewers' eyes still haven't dried after last week's 'ER' episode". Austin American-Statesman: 30. Retrieved March 22, 2021.

[7] "47th Primetime Emmys Nominees and Winners – Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. September 10, 1995. Retrieved 20 September 2016.

[8] "The Writers Guild Foundation Library Catalog". Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-02-26. Retrieved 2012-03-17.

[9] "Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series Nominees / Winners 1995". Television Academy. September 10, 1995. Retrieved March 22, 2021.

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show v t ER
Characters	John Carter Kerry Weaver Abby Lockhart Luka Kovač Mark Greene Peter Benton Robert Romano Elizabeth Corday Susan Lewis Greg Pratt Carol Hathaway Neela Rasgotra Samantha Taggart Jing-Mei Chen Doug Ross Jeanie Boulet Tony Gates Cleo Finch Dave Malucci Lucy Knight Anna Del Amico Catherine Banfield
Seasons	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Episodes	"24 Hours" "Love's Labor Lost" "Motherhood" "Hell and High Water" "On the Beach" "The Show Must Go On" "Strange Bedfellows" "No Place to Hide" "There Are No Angels Here" "Twenty-One Guns" "And in the End..."
Related	Cast Awards and nominations

show v t Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
1950s	Reginald Rose for Twelve Angry Men (1955)
1960s	Rod Serling for The Twilight Zone (1960) Rod Serling for The Twilight Zone (1961) Reginald Rose for The Defenders (1962) Robert Thom & Reginald Rose for "The Madman" (1963) Ernest Kinoy for "Blacklist" / Rod Serling for "It's Mental Work" (1964) David Karp for "The 700 Year Old Gang" (1965) Millard Lampell for "Eagle in a Cage" (1966) Bruce Geller for "Mission: Impossible" (1967) Loring Mandel for "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (1968) JP Miller for "The People Next Door" (1969)
1970s	Richard Levinson & William Link for "My Sweet Charlie" (1970) Joel Oliansky for "To Taste of Death But Once" (1971) Richard Levinson & William Link for "Death Lends a Hand" (1972) John McGreevey for "The Scholar" (1973) Joanna Lee for "The Thanksgiving Story" (1974) Howard Fast for "Benjamin Franklin: The Ambassador" (1975) Sherman Yellen for "John Adams: Lawyer" (1976) William Blinn & Ernest Kinoy for "Show #2" (1977) Gerald Green for "Holocaust" (1978) Michele Gallery for "Dying" (1979)
1980s	Seth Freeman for "Cop" (1980) Michael Kozoll & Steven Bochco for "Hill Street Station" (1981) Steven Bochco & Michael Kozoll & Jeff Lewis & Michael I. Wagner & Anthony Yerkovich for "Freedom's Last Stand" (1982) David Milch for "Trial by Fury" (1983) John Ford Noonan, John Masius & Tom Fontana for "The Women" (1984) Patricia Green for "Who Said It's Fair, Part 2" (1985) Tom Fontana, John Masius & Joe Tinker for "Time Heals, Parts I & II" (1986) Steven Bochco & Terry Louise Fisher for "The Venus Butterfly" (1987) Paul Haggis & Marshall Herskovitz for "Business as Usual" (1988) Joseph Dougherty for "First Day/Last Day" (1989)
1990s	David E. Kelley for "Blood, Sweat, and Fears" (1990) David E. Kelley for "On the Toad Again" (1991) Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider for "Seoul Mates" (1992) Tom Fontana for "Three Men and Adena" (1993) Ann Biderman for "Steroid Roy" (1994) Lance A. Gentile for "Love's Labor Lost" (1995) Darin Morgan for "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (1996) David Milch, Stephen Gaghan and Michael R. Perry for "Where's Swaldo?" (1997) David Milch, Nicholas Wootton and Bill Clark for "Lost Israel: Part II" (1998) James Manos Jr. and David Chase for "College" (1999)
2000s	Rick Cleveland & Aaron Sorkin for "In Excelsis Deo" (2000) Mitchell Burgess & Robin Green for "Employee of the Month" (2001) Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for "12:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m." (2002) Mitchell Burgess & David Chase & Robin Green for "Whitecaps" (2003) Terence Winter for "Long Term Parking" (2004) David Shore for "Three Stories" (2005) Terence Winter for "Members Only" (2006) David Chase for "Made in America" (2007) Matthew Weiner for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (2008) Kater Gordon & Matthew Weiner for "Meditations in an Emergency" (2009)
2010s	Erin Levy & Matthew Weiner for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (2010) Jason Katims for "Always" (2011) Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff for "Pilot (Homeland)" (2012) Henry Bromell for "Q&A" (2013) Moira Walley-Beckett for "Ozymandias" (2014) David Benioff & D. B. Weiss for "Mother's Mercy" (2015) David Benioff & D. B. Weiss for "Battle of the Bastards" (2016) Bruce Miller for "Offred" (2017) Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for "START" (2018) Jesse Armstrong for "Nobody Is Ever Missing" (2019)
2020s	Jesse Armstrong for "This Is Not for Tears" (2020)

show v t Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
1950s	Jack Smight for "Eddie" (1959)
1960s	Robert Mulligan for The Moon and Sixpence (1960) George Schaefer for Macbeth (1961) Franklin J. Schaffner for The Defenders (1962) Stuart Rosenberg for "The Madman" (1963) Tom Gries for "Who Do You Kill?" (1964) Paul Bogart for "The 700 Year Old Gang" (1965) Sydney Pollack for "The Game" (1966) Alex Segal for Death of a Salesman (1967) Paul Bogart for "Dear Friends" (1968) David Greene for "The People Next Door" (1969)
1970s	Paul Bogart for "Shadow Game" (1970) Daryl Duke for "The Day the Lion Died" (1971) Alexander Singer for "The Invasion of Kevin Ireland" (1972) Jerry Thorpe for "An Eye for an Eye" (1973) Robert Butler for "Part III" (1974) Bill Bain for "A Sudden Storm" (1975) David Greene for "Part I: Chapters 1 & 2" (Rich Man, Poor Man) (1976) David Greene for "Part 1" (Roots) (1977) Marvin J. Chomsky for Holocaust (1978) Jackie Cooper for "Pilot" (The White Shadow) (1979)
1980s	Roger Young for "Cop" (1980) Robert Butler for "Hill Street Station"(1981) Harry Harris for "To Soar and Never Falter" (1982) Jeff Bleckner for "Life in the Minors" (1983) Corey Allen for "Goodbye, Mr. Scripps" (1984) Karen Arthur for "Heat" (1985) Georg Stanford Brown for "Parting Shots" (1986) Gregory Hoblit for "Pilot" (L.A. Law) (1987) Mark Tinker for "Weigh In, Way Out" (1988) Robert Altman for "The Boiler Room" (1989)
1990s	Thomas Carter for "Promises to Keep" / Scott Winant for "The Go-Between" (1990) Thomas Carter for "In Confidence" (1991) Eric Laneuville for "All God's Children" (1992) Barry Levinson for "Gone for Goode" (1993) Daniel Sackheim for "Tempest in a C-Cup" (1994) Mimi Leder for "Love's Labor Lost" (1995) Jeremy Kagan for "Leave of Absence" (1996) Mark Tinker for "Where's 'Swaldo?" (1997) Mark Tinker for "Pilot" (Brooklyn South) / Paris Barclay for "Brain Salad Surgery" (1998) Paris Barclay for "Hearts and Souls" (1999)
2000s	Thomas Schlamme for "Pilot" (The West Wing) (2000) Thomas Schlamme for "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part I" & "Part II" (2001) Alan Ball for "Pilot" (Six Feet Under) (2002) Christopher Misiano for "Twenty Five" (2003) Walter Hill for "Deadwood" (2004) J. J. Abrams for "Pilot" (Lost) (2005) Jon Cassar for "Day 5: 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m." (2006) Alan Taylor for "Kennedy and Heidi" (2007) Greg Yaitanes for "House's Head" (2008) Rod Holcomb for "And in the End..." (2009)
2010s	Steve Shill for "The Getaway" (2010) Martin Scorsese for "Boardwalk Empire" (2011) Tim Van Patten for "To the Lost" (2012) David Fincher for "Chapter 1" (2013) Cary Joji Fukunaga for "Who Goes There" (2014) David Nutter for "Mother's Mercy" (2015) Miguel Sapochnik for "Battle of the Bastards" (2016) Reed Morano for "Offred" (2017) Stephen Daldry for "Paterfamilias" (2018) Jason Bateman for "Reparations" (2019)
2020s	Andrij Parekh for "Hunting" (2020)