{"id":7382,"date":"2015-11-16T19:58:34","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T03:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=7382"},"modified":"2015-11-17T17:52:54","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T01:52:54","slug":"how-did-a-characters-name-on-er-save-the-characters-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/11\/16\/how-did-a-characters-name-on-er-save-the-characters-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did a Character’s NAME on ER Save the Character’s Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

TV URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: A character on ER was saved from death because of the name of the character. <\/p>\n

In Season 9 of E.R., a new character named Erin Harkins was introduced, played by Leslie Bibb. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Harkins was an idealistic medical student who first showed up in Season 9 who became enamored with brooding Croatian doctor Luka Kovac (played by Goran Visnjic). Her puppy dog crush was rejected several times by Kovac before he made a drunken pass at her at a Christmas party after he revealed to his ex-girlfriend that he was still in love with her. <\/p>\n

Later in the same episode, an exhausted and angry Kovac (who had been called in to work hungover and had made a mistake while at work) crashes his car with Harkins in the passenger seat. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Originally, the accident was meant to have killed Harkins, giving the character of Kovac (who had already lost his wife and child to a bombing back in Croatia) even MORE trauma before slowly building the character back up (most of Season 9 was spent tearing Kovac down). Harkins does not appear in the next couple of episodes. However, she then makes one final appearance (to finish her ER rotation) before never being seen again.<\/p>\n

Amazingly enough, the character was saved for one simple reason – her first name!
\n<\/p>\n

You see, the character was created by E.R. writer and producer David Zabel, and he named her after his wife!! So when it came time to kill her off, Zabel recalled, “I just couldn’t do it. I had to come up with a better storyline to let her live.” <\/p>\n

Isn’t that sweet?<\/p>\n

The legend is…<\/p>\n

STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n

Thanks to Zabel and Amy Chozick of the Wall Street Journal for the information! <\/p>\n

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: A character on ER was saved from death because of the name of the character. In Season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1V4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3692,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/07\/24\/tv-urban-legends-revealed-were-there-really-no-black-people-in-mayberry\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":0},"title":"Were There Really No Black People in Mayberry?","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: There were no black people in Mayberry. Let's get it out of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/barneycomestomayberry06.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7830,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/04\/22\/did-john-amos-quit-good-times-over-how-jj-was-portrayed-on-the-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":1},"title":"Did John Amos Quit Good Times Over How JJ Was Portrayed on the Show?","date":"April 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: John Amos quit Good Times. Good Times was a spin-off, of sorts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5244,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/09\/30\/did-the-kid-who-played-eddie-haskell-later-become-alice-cooper\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":2},"title":"Did the Kid Who Played Eddie Haskell Grow Up to Become Alice Cooper?","date":"September 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Ken Osmond grew up to be the rock singer Alice Cooper. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3883,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/28\/did-warner-brothers-really-sue-over-the-rights-to-the-term-daisy-dukes\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":3},"title":"Did Warner Brothers Really Sue Over the Rights to the Term “Daisy Dukes”?","date":"August 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Warner Bros. sued a company over the rights to the term \"Daisy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/daisy_duke.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4058,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/11\/15\/was-an-episode-of-hill-street-blues-re-shot-to-bring-officer-joe-coffey-back-to-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":4},"title":"Was an Episode of Hill Street Blues Re-Shot to Bring Officer Joe Coffey Back to Life?","date":"November 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: A Hill Street Blues episode was actually re-shot after airing to show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/coffey.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5875,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2014\/10\/01\/downey-written-out-ally\/","url_meta":{"origin":7382,"position":5},"title":"Was Robert Downey Jr. Written Out of His Own Character’s Wedding Episode on Ally McBeal?","date":"October 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Robert Downey Jr. was written out of his character's wedding episode on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7410,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382\/revisions\/7410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}