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For an unprecedented eighth year in a row, Emmy Award-winning drama series “ER” was television’s highest-rated drama among key advertising demographics during the 2001-02 season. Created by best-selling author Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”), the series centers on the medical personnel in the emergency room of a Chicago hospital. Crichton is also an executive producer, along with John Wells (“China Beach”) and Jack Orman.

Now in its ninth season, “ER” stars Noah Wyle (“Enough”), Laura Innes (“Deep Impact”), Alex Kingston (“Croupier”), Goran Visnjic (“The Deep End”), Maura Tierney (“Insomnia”), Paul McCrane (“Fame”), Ming-Na (“Mulan”), Sherry Stringfield (“NYPD Blue”) Sharif Atkins and Mekhi Phifer (“Clockers”).

A winner of the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, the series has also earned 18 Emmy Awards and 104 nominations, as well as the People’s Choice Award as Favorite Television Dramatic Series every year it has been on the air. Also, the cast has won four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Drama Series. “ER” was named Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmy Awards in 1996.

The program tracks the inner workings of County General Hospital, a Level One Trauma Center where heroic doctors and nurses are faced with life-and-death decisions on a daily basis. The staff is led by chief resident Dr. John Carter (Wyle), who, after eight years at County, has risen to a role of respect and moral leadership in the ER. The chief of emergency medicine is Dr. Kerry Weaver (Innes), a tough and determined administrator who finds herself at a personal crossroads, trying to strike a balance between her life as a doctor and the life she now wants as a woman. Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Kingston) is the dedicated surgeon who must now face the challenges of starting over and raising a baby daughter alone following the death of her husband, Dr. Mark Greene.

Also on staff are Dr. Luka Kovac (Visnjic), an ER attending physician from Croatia who is searching – sometimes self-destructively – for something to fill the void of his lost family and failed relationships; Abby Lockhart (Tierney), a nurse embarking on a relationship with Carter even as her family’s history of mental illness threatens to rise again; Dr. Robert Romano (McCrane), the arrogant surgeon and chief of staff who takes a bit too much joy in wielding his power; Dr. Jing-Mei Chen (Ming-Na), an attending ER doc who, having sacrified so much for her work, is looking to lighten up and get out more; and Dr. Susan Lewis (Stringfield), who, after returning to Chicago last year, is in the process of forging new ties and friendships while taking on an unfamiliar position of authority in the ER.

Recent additions to the ER include Michael Gallant (Sharif Atkins), a fourth-year medical student who is working his way through medical school on the U.S. Army’s ticket, and Dr. Gregory Pratt (Phifer), a brash intern with a checkered background that won’t stop haunting him.

“ER” is a production of Constant c Productions and Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Television.