The BEST episodes of St. Elsewhere season 1

Every episode of St. Elsewhere season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of St. Elsewhere season 1!

St. Eligius Hospital in South Boston was not exactly the world's best health care center. Despite its flaws, it featured some of the most caring doctors and nurses you could ever meet. Led by Dr. Donald Westphall (and later by Dr. John Gideon), the hospital nicknamed "St. Elsewhere" became a sanctuary for the underdog and the downtrodden.

Last Updated: 9/18/2024Network: NBCStatus: Ended
star
9.54
37 votes

#1 - Dog Day Hospital

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/22/1983

Helen returns to work following her mastectomy; Fiscus and Daniels visit his aunt Sirca; a pregnant woman invades the OR and holds Ehrlich and Dr. Craig hostage while demanding to see the doctor who performed her husband's vasectomy.

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star
9.45
38 votes

#2 - Addiction

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/3/1983

Morrison's wife goes into labor; White loses a girlfriend and gains a wife, while falling under suspicion when drugs are stolen; Dr. Craig's son Steven arrives for a period of observation and cause problems for Ehrlich; Martin casts her spell over Fiscus again; and Dr. Auschlander and an old friend get into a fist fight as they reminisce about the past.

Directors: Mark Tinker
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star
9.37
40 votes

#3 - Brothers

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/15/1983

A fisherman lobbies Dr. Westphall to let his brother die in peace and dignity; Fiscus substitutes for Ehrlich on a date with Shirley Daniels; and Helen's stress mounts as the hospital suffers computer glitches and she faces a radical mastectomy. Peter celebrates his birthday and runs into Myra and a gentleman friend.

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star
9.37
38 votes

#4 - Baron Von Munchausen

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/19/1983

White attends a drug rehabilitation program; Morrison becomes suspicious that his patient may be a surgery addict; Dr. Craig grapples with an inner-city medical scholarship group; Cathy tries to arrange a double date with Daniels and Fiscus; and a deranged bag lady tries to assault Daniels in the E.R..

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star
9.36
39 votes

#5 - Craig in Love

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/12/1983

Dr. Craig continues to enjoy Dr. Anya's companionship; Morrison worries over White's erratic behavior; and Chandler becomes upset over the casual attitude everyone seems to taking towards his malpractice suit.

Writer: Steve Lawson
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star
9.34
41 votes

#6 - Family History

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/8/1983

Craig continues to regret his friend's sex-change operation; John Doe #12 becomes sullen and uncooperative when his real parents arrive to take him home; White's reconciliation falls through; and Armstrong delves deeply into a man's medical and family history to find out why he has persistent nose bleeds.

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star
9.33
39 votes

#7 - Working

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/5/1983

Morrison tries to reason with a patient determined to drink himself to death; Chandler faces a malpractice suit after a patient dies unexpectedly in an elevator; White goes crazy with jealousy; and Dr. Craig enjoys the company of a visiting Hungarian surgeon.

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star
9.26
43 votes

#8 - Remission

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/22/1983

A lady flasher enlivens the halls and rooms of St. Eligius; Fiscus moves in with Ehrlich; Cavanero faces a difficult choice about a fellowship; Dr. Auschlander's cancer remission appears to be ending; Morrison and Chandler try to help a young man injured in a street beating whose brother is determined to get revenge.

Writer: Lee Curran
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star
9.24
41 votes

#9 - The Count

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/8/1983

Cavanero helps hide her patient, a porno movie star, from a process server; Armstrong worries about the ethics of a surgeon who does unnecessary heart surgery for kickbacks; Ehrlich and Fiscus nearly come to blows over their living arrangements; and Dr. Craig considers moving.

Directors: Kevin Hooks
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star
9.21
43 votes

#10 - Monday, Tuesday, Sven's Day

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/1/1983

Samuels operates on a hooker, who invites all her friends to visit her; Myra White gives her estranged husband some news; the racial tensions reach a climax when the truth about O'Connor's beating surfaces; and Ehrlich makes a fool of himself by drinking too much at a party given by Dr. Craig.

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star
8.75
73 votes

#11 - Rain

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/4/1983

Morrison regrets making a couple of house calls for an insistent old man; Fiscus has another run-in with a gang member; Ralph takes up eating garbage; White's daughter eats some mothballs; and Dr. Craig bawls Ehrlich out for spraining his little finger.

Writer: Tom Fontana
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Bypass
star
8.71
58 votes

#12 - Bypass

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/9/1982

Morrison treats the obnoxious bank bomber; Mr. MacAllister arrives to find his wife in a coma; Dr. Craig holds a news conference and badgers a patient into a surgical consent; and Dr. Samuels tries to teach Dr. Beale how to swim.

Directors: Thomas Carter
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Samuels and the Kid
star
8.49
77 votes

#13 - Samuels and the Kid

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/30/1982

Dr. Samuels becomes attached to a boy in for leg surgery; Fiscus surprises Martin with a romantic gesture; Chandler challenges a veteran nurse's competency; Dr. Craig receives his coveted `Surgeon of the Year' award; and Cavanero's weekend away is interrupted by a patient delivering her baby at home with just a teenage boy to help.

Writer: John Masius
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Cora and Arnie
star
8.48
80 votes

#14 - Cora and Arnie

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/23/1982

Morrison tries to help a bag woman and her retarded husband; Fiscus admits a relatively healthy woman who had fainted for some very expensive tests; V.J. feels homesick; and the bomber and his victim both leave the hospital.

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star
8.40
74 votes

#15 - Legionnaires (Part 1)

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/7/1982

While coping with a fussy new administrator, Dr. Westphall investigates suspicious deaths in Ward Five; Martin shocks Fiscus by breaking off their affair; Cavanero has to deal with a very hostile nurse; and White goes to desperate lengths to raise the money to replace his on-call beeper.

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star
8.38
72 votes

#16 - Graveyard

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/18/1983

Dr. Samuels breaks up a late night poker game to perform emergency surgery on a gunshot victim; Morrison lets a Chinese couple perform a folk healing ritual on their dying son; and Ralph's manic stage reaches a crescendo.

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star
8.31
75 votes

#17 - Tweety and Ralph

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/21/1982

The search continues for the source of the Legionnaire's Disease; Cavanero befriends a young woman facing a hysterectomy; Tweety makes a decision about her future; and Ellen Craig deals with the elusive Dr. Barnum.

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star
8.28
74 votes

#18 - Legionnaires (Part 2)

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/14/1982

Dr. Westphall risks his job by creating an isolation floor to stem the spread of the suspected Legionnaire's Disease (and the PR fiasco causes administrator Cummings to fall on his sword to save the hospital); Dr. Beale learns that Tweety got pregnant while in the hospital; Fiscus is assaulted in the E.R.; and Dr. Craig decides to sell his car.

Writer: Joel Surnow
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star
8.26
74 votes

#19 - Hearts

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/11/1983

Ralph masquerades as a doctor; an obese woman gives birth unexpectedly; an old friend of Dr. Samuels joins the staff; and Ehrlich faints during surgery.

Writer: John Masius
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star
7.92
71 votes

#20 - Release

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/1/1983

A sadistic doctor orders White to get his first autopsy consent; an old friend of Dr. Craig's checks in a sex-change operation; Chandler takes over the case of the John Doe gunshot victim; and Drs. Samuels and Paxton argue over the care of a patient after renewing their intimate relationship.

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Down's Syndrome
star
7.85
82 votes

#21 - Down's Syndrome

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/16/1982

Cavanero tries to counsel a couple expecting a Down's syndrome child; White makes a near-tragic mistake in the E.R.; Martin and Fiscus are caught in a stalled elevator; Morrison learns his wife is pregnant; and Dr. Beale visits the bomber.

Writer: Tom Fontana
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star
7.83
112 votes

#22 - Pilot

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/26/1982

In this intro to the series, Dr. Jack Morrison treats a young girl with dysentary; Dr. Annie Cavanero searches for a missing patient -- who happens to be a large, permanent resident of a local mental institution; Dr. Ben Samuels tries to recall all of his conquests after being diagnosed with VD; Dr. Daniel Auschlander's liver cancer is revealed; a bombing victim is brought into the ER, as is the young man who set off the bomb; and Dr. Wayne Fiscus and Dr. Cathy Martin begin a relationship.

Directors: Thomas Carter
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