ER, as a show, worked very hard to be inclusive. This was more than just ethnic, though we’ll be getting to Eriq LaSalle next week and could talk about Gedde Watanabe (except I already have) or Ming-Na (except I already have) or Laura Cerón (who I’ll get to someday, possibly). But there was also a wide range of ages in the various characters, and there were all sorts of other things that you don’t necessarily see on major TV shows. The problem being that, while most of these roles were played by people to whom they were appropriate, Kerry Weaver was not played by a physically disabled actress—which is disappointing for the show and actually became physically damaging to Laura Innes.

Don’t get me wrong—Laura Innes is a talented actress, and I’m a little sad that I don’t have much familiarity with her non-ER career. I think I’m surprised all over again every time I watch the My So-Called Life episode were she plays Angela’s uncle’s current girlfriend. Who is fairly obnoxious, in my opinion, and whom Innes portrays beautifully. And she was definitely good as Weaver. Her voice in particular was extremely well-suited to Weaver’s acerbic nature. She’s snarky and fierce and competent, and Laura Innes is extremely skilled at the role.

I’m just saying, you know, they chose a woman without a physical disability to portray a physically disabled woman. And not only does that have the result that a physically disabled actress didn’t have a job, it was literally bad for Innes. She was on more episodes of the show than anyone but Noah Wyle, which is impressive—especially since he only beat her by four—but she spent most of the show on crutches. It actually started giving Innes herself spinal damage to limp the way Weaver did. They ran an arc where Weaver’s symptoms were alleviated simply to keep from breaking Innes more.

I think everyone who thinks about people who were on the show remembers George Clooney and forgets that, for the most part, it wasn’t a particularly star-making show. Though I wonder how much that has to do with the show’s diversity, especially when it comes to age. Innes was almost forty when she started on the show, and while there are people who start solid careers in acting at that age, either it’s as character actors or else they’re men—in general, Innes was already too old when the show started to become a major female star, much less by the time it ended.

Eventually, they had Kerry Weaver come out, too, and at least that wasn’t something actually damaging to the actress. I eventually stopped watching ER because I found a lot of the plots more frustrating or silly than compelling, but Weaver’s weren’t on that list. Honestly, her realizations about herself as a middle-aged woman who’d always thought about herself in a certain way were much more moving to me than Noah Wyle angsting all over the place.

I actually am a physically disabled middle aged woman; you can help me out by contributing to my Patreon or Ko-fi!