NBC’s “ER” lasted an incredible 15 seasons from its debut in 1994 to its finale in 2009, holding the title of the second longest running medical drama in history behind ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” But in its very first season, “ER” took a low-key, little-known product placement request that could’ve been a gag from “30 Rock.”
“[General Electric] was our corporate parent. The show had an imaging unit there in the [ER set],” Warren Littlefield, who served as NBC’s entertainment president from 1991 to 1999, told the Television Academy in an oral history. “And Jack Welch, who was the then-chairman of GE, called up and goes, ‘The imaging unit is not a GE’ And I say, ‘We don’t own the show. We don’t produce. What do you want?'”
Interestingly enough, the chairman had a solution. “He goes, ‘We’ll replace it. Just tell us where it needs to be. We will send one.’ And they did. Within, like, two days, there was a GE machine installed on the set,” Littlefield continued. “And it was not a fake one. No one said we had to feature the logo or anything on the show. All [Jack] said was, ‘Our employees love the show, and it’s painful for them to know it’s not their equipment.'”
A small request for one big show
An imaging unit can refer to a number of different types of machinery that allows the professionals to see inside a body and make diagnoses. That includes systems that perform MRIs, CT scans, x-rays, and ultrasounds. We don’t know specifically which machine featured on “ER” Warren Littlefield specifically referenced in the Television Academy oral history, but it could’ve been one of several types.
As for the show’s history with product placement, this certainly wasn’t the only time they prominently highlighted a brand. The Seattle Times did a piece in 2002 on how the show featured SonoSite ultrasound equipment — and even noted the push by GE to have more of their equipment featured on the show. The 11th episode of Season 4 was also noteworthy for featuring Gateway 2000, a now-old school computer company.