Laura Innes is well known to viewers of ER (Pearl, 9.30pm) as the fiercely independent Dr Kerry Weaver.
While George Clooney used ER as a platform for movie stardom, Innes learnt enough during four seasons in front of the cameras to direct tonight's episode, Power.
Innes had to grapple with filming without light as a power outage is central to the drama of this episode, an obvious cue for more heroic life-saving activities as equipment fails.
In the US, ER's ratings have slid since Clooney left. The popular Julianna Margulies, who plays his pregnant girlfriend, nurse Carol Hathaway, is also on her way out at the end of the next season. Rumours that Clooney would return for a few episodes to receive Ross' twin babies do not seem to have materialised in any new contract.
In tonight's episode, Hathaway tries to let the absent Ross know of her predicament.
In the original script Margulies' character was killed off shortly after joining the series five years ago. But viewers liked her too much for that, so death by suicide was re-written to be an unsuccessful attempt. When she does depart the show will struggle even further to live up to the success of its Clooney days.