St. Elsewhere
Season 3, Episode 7 — Fade to White; Broadcast on November 7, 1984
Story by John Masius and Tom Fontana; Teleplay by Cynthia Darnell
Directed by David Anspaugh
Jlewis:
…or Peter’s final moments. White is important here, as we will discover in the next episode. He survives the shooting, but only temporarily. After he does go, his wife meets the killer without realizing it in the hospital chapel memorial service for him, but nothing is developed here beyond Shirley’s fleeting “I’m sorry” statement that reveals nothing. Earlier the wife told Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders) that Peter used to be a ”good person.”
Personally I don’t feel that the Peter White the character matches up all that well with Terence Knox the actor playing him. Terence is way too mild mannered in his personality and lacks much of the malice factor required. Not that such a trait in the performance is necessary, but it does help. It just feels to me that the team of writers had to draw straws to decide which cast member should play a villain and Terence simply raised his hand and stated ”oh shucks, I’ve got broad shoulders and can handle it.”
Yet I do feel that his departure through the hands of a woman he did not molest but provokes in words (taking her and other women for granted) is a rather clever way for him to go. I liked his exit better than Wendy’s departure by suicide, since her character was too strong willed and successful at coping with life overall; her eating disorder and Peter’s assault on her did not cut it for me when she easily aced her exams and kept her job despite so much else pushed on her. In a way, Peter’s death is also one that the old Hays Code and Catholic Legion of Decency running classic Hollywood decades earlier would have approved of, since ”crime does not pay.”
Surprisingly, Peter only appears in roughly three minutes of footage this show. Everybody goes about their business as if it isn’t a big deal. Of course, we do have a detective on the case- Charles Lanyer playing Det. Alex McGallen. It is interesting to note that hospitals in the 1980s still were not equipped with security cameras. Shirley would certainly not be able to get away with it today.
One throwaway plot, at least for me, involves a boy named Jimmy suffering from asthma or, rather, some emotional reaction that resembles asthma that is built on stress about the everyday world. Couldn’t the writers create something more substantial than that as a cause?
We also get the return of Michael Richards’ Bill Wolf. In the very first episode we profiled, Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels) reluctantly agreed to allow a television crew film his work for a documentary. They are back, thanks to recently appointed Joan Halloran (Nancy Stafford), Robert’s ex, agreeing to it and Victor, of all people, agreeing to be the host of a talk show. Of course, this impacts the relationship between Junior and Daddy a.k.a. ”You lie with dogs, you get fleas!” First topic that Victor discusses in a panel discussion is circumcision, which he considers ”a dilemma”. Oh-kay…
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I think the writers made a mistake killing Peter. It would have been more interesting if he had been shot in the groin, lost his manhood, then had to deal with the disgrace of that. Also, I think he definitely would have gone to live and work somewhere else. There is no way he would want to stay at St. Eligius after all this. But the door could have been left open for him to rehabilitate and come back later in some reformed capacity. Part of me wanted Peter to have some sort of redemption long-term.
His death in this episode is quick. He is in his hospital bed and looks over at Shirley, and that is it. I wonder if the writers toyed with the idea of Shirley euthanizing him in the hospital room. In season 5 there is a mercy killing storyline, where someone on staff is murdering terminal patients and Shirley is involved in that.
I liked the scene that occurred near the end of the episode inside the hospital chapel. Peter’s widow is consoled by Shirley, which is very ironic. Jack Morrison (David Morse) is there and so is Dr. Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders). Karen Landry, the actress who plays Peter’s wife Myra perfectly complemented Terrence Knox as Peter. They both have this charming but vulnerable quality.
I agree with Jlewis’ comment that Knox is not very menacing as the villain in this storyline. Back in season one, when Peter was revealed to have a drug problem, we were supposed to be shocked that this all-American, likable doctor had such a dark secret. His secrets became darker, his demons became scarier. But Peter himself never became scary, and I think that was deliberate. We were still supposed to like Peter, because Terrence Knox is a likable actor.
Here’s a more recent photo of him:
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St. Elsewhere
Season 3, Episode 8 — Sweet Dreams; Broadcast on November 14, 1984
Story by John Masius and Tom Fontana
Directed by Mark Tinker
Jlewis:
Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse) is having a nightmare at the hospital, with 70s heavy metal music on the soundtrack and he expresses great shock when opening a door for authorized personnel only.
This is revealed (in a second dream sequence towards the end of the episode) as Peter in the After Life, dressed in white masculine clothes to match his killer’s equally white dress. That I found interesting. The speech Peter makes to Jack is pretty predictable and hardly dream-like, but it adds closure to his character. This is standard ghost story material of the Dickens sort with the living being advised not to mourn any further than necessary. Peter feels no grudges against those responsible for shooting him since he now realizes he was ultimately responsible for his own fate.
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Victor also has a dream. He is held hostage on a deserted island full of Amazonians. His character probably benefits with women being in charge over him since he is one of the most indecisive characters on network TV, needing somebody to push him to be the Man he needs to be.
Luther has a Park Avenue dream sequence with ZZ Top, I guess, adding musical support. His ladies are far more supportive of him than Victor’s as they all seek revenge on the higher ups who don’t treat Luther fairly.
All of these fantasies, sporting bigger than usual production values and not at all like the dreams I have (i.e. you ever notice how the dreams in so many movies and TV shows are so structurally plotted while the actual dreams most of us have are jumbled messes with little coherence in theme?) are part of their sleep therapy with their heads wired up as they snooze, under the guidance of Dr. Linda Ellis (Patricia Hardy).
As usual, head Dr. Mark is furious about all of this going on and so many on his staff yawning on the job.
This show is interesting from an artistic, creative editing standpoint, but it all becomes rather silly after the initial novelty. M*A*S*H and other key shows before had similar episodes involving multiple characters going through something like this all at once and the novelty was a bit old-hat by the 1980s.
Also it feels way too coincidental that the whole sleep deprivation issue carries over in two patients whom Wayne and Annie are treating that are suffering similar sleep deprivation issues. Wayne debates with Mark that the cause of death with his Philippine patient was nightmare related.
I did like the scene with Robert calling Victor out with his joke-making during surgery and, yes, patients can hear the sometimes mocking ridicule during their life-or-death situations. Simply put, Victor lacks a lot of sensitivity towards others (and his dream features aggressive women who are hardly sensitive to him) and may or may not have influenced William Hurt’s performance in the later movie THE DOCTOR (1991) about a physician learning more bedside manner.
Recently a script for this episode signed by cast members sold for just twenty bucks on eBay. There are some good collectibles you can get on eBay if you do the proper searching.
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This is certainly an experimental episode. I should first point out that St. Elsewhere was filmed at the old CBS Studio Center on Radford in Studio City, even though it aired on NBC. This is because the show as produced by Mary Tyler Moore Productions which took over the facilities there.
Other well-known series were filmed there (and are still filmed there) including Gunsmoke, Gilligan’s Island and Roseanne. Gilligan’s lagoon was an outdoor set there and it featured in an experimental episode of Roseanne and of course, it is what they used to film Victor’s dream sequence with the native women on the beach.
Though I am not a huge fan of ZZ Top, I did find Luther’s video dream of ‘Legs’ a comic highlight. And of course, the dramatic highlight is Jack’s visit with Peter in an all-white morgue. Are the writers telling us that dreams merge with death?
I like the fact that during their visit, Jack asks Peter if he was really guilty and Peter does not confirm it. If Peter is a figment of Jack’s mind in this dream-state then clearly Peter cannot tell him something he wouldn’t know. But just what does Jack know about Peter, after all is said and done?
Peter White appears in one more episode later, another experimental episode. It’s very interesting the way the writers finally “end” his character, though the rape motif carries forward because Shirley shoots at someone else at the hospital that she accuses of rape. And then Jack Morrison (David Morse) becomes a victim of rape in prison.
I agree with Jlewis’ comment that the plot with Dr. Craig and the nightmare death was too coincidental. But this was a thematic episode, about sleep and dreams…and that plot was meant to mirror the nightmare of the rapes and the death of Peter White.
I should mention that ‘Sweet Dreams’ was nominated for an Emmy for writing, for Tom Fontana & John Masius. Plus an Emmy nomination for sound mixing. It also received a nod for director Mark Tinker at the Directors Guild Awards that year.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHO
