ER: sceneggiatura e personaggi. Analisi della serie che ha cambiato la Tv

The essay is an analysis of the Tv series "ER", the longest medical drama in the history of American tv: a huge production effort and a global success that consacreted the era of the so called “Quality Tv”. Using categories from semiotics and screenwriting theory, the study focuses on the narrative structure and on the dramatic achitecture of the series. In this perspective, through the paradigmatic case of ER, the essay also aims to highlight some rhetorical and ideological traits common to the entire "new wave" of American primetime drama: for example, the main character conceived like an hero who resists in a world where the chances for happiness have vanished, thus living every day on the edge of nonsense.