The ER Episode That Landed George Clooney His Role As Batman

Yeah yeah, Joel Schumacher's 1977 film "Batman & Robin" has become known as an infamous franchise low point for which star George Clooney himself has apologized. Still, before people actually had the chance to see the end product, playing the main role in a "Batman" movie was a huge deal ... and it was an opportunity Clooney earned based on a single "ER" episode. 

The episode in question is the seventh installment in "ER" Season 2, titled "Hell and High Water." It features Clooney's pediatrician character Doug Ross committing the sort of on-site action heroics that your average doctor is unlikely to encounter at any point in their career. As the episode's director Christopher Chulack told TV Insider, it also directly contributed to Clooney being cast as Batman. "That episode got 45 million viewers," Chulack said. "The next day — this is a true story — the next day, Bob Daley and Terry Semel, who were the presidents of Warner Bros. Television, came down and knocked on George's dressing room door and told him, 'You're going to be the next Batman because of the heroism of that episode.' So I figured it's just going to go up from here, and it did."

"Hell and High Water" starts with Dr. Doug Ross at a professional crossroads. His gung-ho style and issues with protocol lead to the erstwhile pediatrician losing his fellowship contract at County General, and before he's heading off for a lucrative new job at a private practice, he's set to attend an opera fundraiser. Instead of making it to the destination, however, Ross is caught in one of the most action-packed sequences in the show's history. 

After a flat tire strands him in the middle of nowhere during inclement weather, he ends up on a perilous mission to save a boy (Erik Von Detten) who's trapped in a flooding storm drain. Filmed live by a news RV helicopter that chances upon the area, Ross' selfless rescue attempt becomes the subject of widespread interest. 

The iconic "ER" episode features too many heroic Ross moments to count: The way he manages to bond with the trapped boy and calm him down, the pen tracheotomy, the frantic underwater sequences, and especially the iconic scene of him rising from the water with the kid in his arms. These moments turn Ross into a celebrity hero and ensue his continued presence in County General — and, according to Chulack, did much the same to Clooney himself: "Although he wasn't 'George Clooney,' yet, he was 'George Clooney' after that episode."