I was woundering something about her character. Is it normal for someone to go from being an RN to a med student? Wasn't she one of the OB nurses during the eppisode when Carrol had the twins? Does one usually go from being a RN to a 3rd year med student that fast? Just woundering

-- Jennifer Sherburne (sjcpuma@yahoo.com), March 23, 2000

Answers

The way I remember it is she was temping (working as a temporary)the night Carol had her babies in OB for the extra money. So, she's been a medical student for a while but does the nursing gig when cash is low, which it must be a lot with her divorce and all. Maybe someone else understood it differently, but that's how I took it.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), March 23, 2000.

Personally, I think that the producers must have liked Maura Tierney and decided to throw her in as a quick replacement med student. In tonight's episode Abby reminded me more of Lucy, as some have said in other comments. I recently finally read this site's "dumbing down of ER" and I enjoyed and agreed with the majority of it, even about how the writers went wrong with Lucy's character (though I AM a huge fan of Lucy, despite that). Phloem said that they threw Lucy in as a main character way too swiftly, forcing odd storylines, and it seems that they are trying to redo Lucy's professional character through Abby; improving where they went wrong with her. JMO

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), March 24, 2000.

I don't think the producers threw Maura Tierney in quickly. I had heard well in advance of her appearance that she was going to join the cast of ER. I think they just wanted to add her slowly to get it right this time! I liked her last night and wasn't it horrible when she went to practice on the cadaver and it was her patient!

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), March 24, 2000.

I'm not sure why, but it seems like there is some kind of intangible difference between the way the writers are presenting Lucy and Abby. For instance, whenever Lucy screwed up I would be thinking "Oh, God not again! What an idiot!" but Abby's mistakes leave me feeling sorry for her. Anyone else?

-- joy (joygirl01@yahoo.com), March 24, 2000.

That is what I mean! Whether the writers think they messed up with Lucy or not, I do (more so this season than last) and it seems the are trying to recreate a med student like Lucy, except not as whiney (keep in mind I loved Lucy though--even Kellie Martin thought Lucy was whiney), not such outlandish storylines (ritalin), and willing to make mistakes in front of people. Abby has the same caring tone Lucy had and makes the same kind of mistakes. ALthough, I think Lucy had more "spunk".

*Also, anyone please let me know who Abby's teacher is (like Carter was Lucy's)

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), March 24, 2000.

doesn't is seem like she's had more than her fair share of screw up's though??

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), March 24, 2000.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. She screwed up twice on Thursday, got bashed for spending too much time with that old lady and I think she screwed up on her first day, too.

-- Cai (mohawk@xmission.com), March 25, 2000.

Abby does make a lot of mistakes, but she makes them for different reasons than Lucy did. Abby is not very self-confident. She is reluctant to do things because she knows that she still has a lot to learn. She's afraid and people tend to make mistakes when they are afraid because they aren't thinking clearly. Lucy was more aggressive. She tended to rush into things because she thought she knew what she was doing. She made mistakes when she didn't always think things through. I think maybe Abby's mistakes are less annoying because she has a humble attitude and is honest about her feelings of inadequecy. Lucy always acted ashamed of not knowing something (e.g. how to put in an IV).

-- Polly (pollywhitaker@juno.com), March 26, 2000.

I think Carol kind of had the same question as Jennifer in 'Abby Road', and Abby said to her that sometimes she works a few shifts to earn some money. It seems to me that this is common knowledge among the staff, as in 'Sand and Water', Carter noted her nurses scrubs in Doc Magoo's and asked if she was picking up some extra shifts.

-- Elizabeth Routledge (elizabethroutledge@uluru.freeserve.co.uk), June 30, 2001.