10 Worst Characters On ER

It's amazing how many members of County General Hospital die horribly.

Greg Pratt's an arrogant but intelligent member of the team initially. Where Doug Ross' hothead antics often helped patients (and the series' entertainment value), Pratt's were simply loud, aggressive and annoying. His penchant for getting in people's faces wore thin as did his struggle to take orders properly.

There's ultimately a decent character arc for him during his 7 seasons on the show as he matures into a sensible authority figure. Like most of the stars in the later seasons however, Pratt succumbed to ludicrous writing including bizarre crime subplots involving his handicapped adopted brother Leon and a soap operish backstory regarding his estranged father, Charlie.

To top it all off, at a point where he was finally one of the show's more likeable figures, Pratt is blown up by the Turkish mob. No, really. Thanks to yet another criminal character, this time played by guest star Steve Buscemi, Pratt is collateral damage in an ambulance bombing to take the government informant Buscemi out of the picture. It becomes difficult to take Pratt seriously in hindsight after that unceremonious send-off.

A lot of viewers loved to hate this mannerless control freak. Others just straight up hated him. Played with a fittingly unpleasant aura by Paul McCrane, Romano's pretty much everything you don't want in the work place. A sexist, homophobic, temperamental jerk with little in the way of redeeming features. His endless clashes with Dr Weaver see him at his best as a tactless, obnoxious piece of work. Slightly less engaging is his recurring penchant for sabotaging tense moments throughout the show with offensive zingers.

While the Romano character wasn't without entertainment value, the writing of him during his later seasons leaves a lot to be desired. First, Romano's arm is obliterated in a disastrous helicopter accident. One would assume such an injury marks the end of his surgery career but he hangs around anyway, ultimately amputating the limb entirely after suffering some burns. There's then that whole thing with his robot arm in season 10...

Clearly someone in the writers' room had a fixation on helicopters because an additional helicopter tragedy kills Romano off entirely. The whole thing's so ridiculous and a major shark jumping moment in the show. A polarising figure at best, Romano's ludicrous storylines plant him firmly on this show's blacklist.

Fans of Angel know what an effectively creepy and sinister character actor Sam Anderson can be. Despite Dr Jack's despicable ways, ER never really cashed in on Anderson's penchant for villainy. Instead, Kayson is an especially insufferable member of the board and worse still, he's somehow managed to become head of cardiology.

Devoid of any likeable qualities, the socially malignant Kayson frequently throws out questionable diagnoses when he visits the ER. Worse still, he seems incapable of accepting any questioning from the other doctors.

The peak of Kayson's unpleasantness arrives during his feud with Susan Lewis. Lewis attempts to give a patient dealing with a myocardial infarction the right treatment. Being an insufferable know-it-all, Kayson interferes and overrules Lewis' strategy, leading to the patient's death. It's one of the most infuriating moments in the show's history, the kind of thing that makes you wish a character was real just so you could punch them in the face.

Kayson's meddlesome ways pop up occasionally all the way into season 14. The amount of botched diagnoses and meddling he's guilty of is just plain criminal. While the storyline with Lewis was gripping, there didn't seem to be much else in mind for the Kayson character and his unprofessional behaviour grew to be irritating and repetitive.

A dead on arrival attempt at comic relief, Archie is a solid contender for laziest doctor character in TV history. His desperate attempts to avoid any and all work make him the worst kind of doctor and a nightmare scenario for patients. He's eventually caught smoking marijuana on the job but isn't fired. Luckily for Morris, it's Dr Romano who caught him and fate decided Romano hadn't had enough helicopter-related misfortune that day.

The fact it takes a helicopter falling on the guy who caught him to save his career is among the dumbest moments in ER's long run. Even more ludicrous is Morris' appointment to Chief Resident in season 11. From there, his main purpose appears to be annoying both the rest of the cast and the viewers at home. He succeeds admirably on both fronts.

Eventually another example of the writers struggling for good ideas in the double digit seasons, Morris turns out to be a father of 4 via his time as a sperm donor. Watching the unlikable Morris try to be a father doesn't succeed in making him more endearing. Instead, it's a storyline that simply eats up valuable screen time that could've been granted to literally anyone else.

Poor Lucy didn't last very long did she? Introduced as a leading character in season 5, Knight was rather unceremoniously let go in season 6 when an escaped psychiatric patient savagely stabs her to death. It was a seminal moment in the series and the first time a main cast member suffered the shock horror of being killed off.

Lucy's not a vile figure like many of the entrants on this list. In fact, she's really nice, one might say too nice. Severely lacking in any standout personality or storytelling, Lucy is often guilty of the worst TV sin there is: being boring.

Actress Kellie Martin felt the same way, even bringing her concerns regarding Lucy to the producers. With everyone accepting that the character simply wasn't working, the decision to kill her off was agreed upon and Martin was sent packing after one of the show's more disturbing moments.

Ultimately, Lucy Knight became far better remembered for her horrendous death than anything she did in life. A disappointing outcome for all involved and one that probably could have been avoided with a little more attention to character development.

Yet another cheeky hospital rebel. The somewhat implausible Barnett character is torn between his medical career and his rock band. When he has the audacity to attempt time off so he can tour, he's given an ultimatum over which dream job he'll stick with. It's corny, hammily written and predictable from the get go with Barnett of course picking medicine in the end.

From there, Barnett moves on to become a will they/won't they love interest for Neela and falls victim to one of the dumbest moments in TV history. During Luka Kovač and Abby Lockhart's wedding, a throwdown between Barnett and Tony Gates leads to Barnett getting hit by a truck and losing his legs.

It's an excellent contender for the worst way they ever wrote a character out of this series. Just mind boggling. Apparently no one had learned from the poor reception to Dr Romano's limb severing catastrophe. Actor Shane West worked hard with the frivolous material he was given in a bid to make the cliché-ridden Barnett a more human, three-dimensional presence on the show. An admirable effort but one ultimately let down by way too many goofy story arcs.

Speaking of that unfortunate wedding scuffle...

Tony Gates was the last (and least successful) crack the show made at having a male heart throb doctor on the loose. Arguably the leading male for the final, weakest seasons, Tony was considerably more interesting during his initial phase as a recurring paramedic character. His earlier episodes hold a fair few tense, dangerous moments that provide some interest.

Once he takes the lead in season 13 however, Gates becomes an unlikable, disinteresting figure. For one thing, the series had grown stale and Gates lacked anything viewers hadn't already seen before with earlier, more engaging characters. His romance with Neela paints both characters in an unlikable shade thanks to Tony initially cheating on his then girlfriend, Meg. Meg was a widow funding Tony's medical school education making his unfaithful behaviour all the more unseemly. There's also a late in the game relationship with Sam that comes lacking on the entertainment front.

Actor John Stamos didn't earn the same acclaim here as he did for his previous medical performance on General Hospital. It's not hard to see why he turned down a proposed spin-off of the Gates character.

Dr Dave's one guy you wouldn't want treating you in your time of need. Character such as Dr Ross and even Dr Pratt broke the hospital rules when that's what it took to provide their patients the best possible care. Malucci, on the other hand, is all about speed, bending the rules just to keep things moving. Among his many unlikable traits is his knack for discharging patients without even bothering to look them over first.

Instead of applying himself to being the best doctor he can be, Malucci loved to kill time via endless jokes, most of which weren't particularly funny. There's the occasional glimmer of hope, namely his surprisingly sensitive approach to dealing with younger patients. By extension of this, it is eventually implied that Malucci may have been abused as a child. While such a grim implication does make Malucci considerably more sympathetic, it also hampers what he was mostly there for: comic relief.

Giving a predominantly light and humorous character such a grim backstory seems counter-productive and unnecessary. This topsy turvy writing was yet another severe issue with the Malucci character.

This allegedly 'charming' womaniser was great at 2 things: sleeping with medical students and failing to do any work. Despite being depicted as a talented physician, the superficial Brenner is a dreadful teacher, refusing to share helpful info with new students. It's made even worse by the fact he's working in a teaching hospital. Instead of intriguing or edgy, Brenner's douchebaggery is just plain annoying from the onset.

As if the writers hadn't made him unlikable enough already, there's an unfortunate nepotism angle thrown in where it turns out he's Dr Anspaugh's nephew. One can't help but cheer when Neela rightly calls him out for his antics and claims he's only at County thanks to his familial connections. Sadly, even this is ruined by the need for Brenner to inexplicably sleep with every female character he interacts with.

Brenner ultimately becomes yet another instalment in the ER creative teams' strange fascination with doctors coming from abusive childhoods. During the episode titled Age of Innocence, it turns out Brenner was abused by his mum's boyfriend growing up. It's a grim reveal and despite its disturbing nature, it fails to be gripping. Instead, it feels like yet another cheap attempt at shocking viewers during the show's final instalments where ridiculous plot points and backstories became run of the mill.

John Leguizamo's antagonistic physician is an improbable character from the get go thanks to his ridiculous posing as a patient. This time-wasting nonsense doesn't make him likeable or eccentric so much as plain annoying, a sentiment echoed by the leading characters fans actually were invested in.

It only gets worse from there as he becomes an increasingly unhinged rival to fan favourite Luka Kovač. Clemente's dreadful ex-girlfriend eats up more valuable screen time with an ill-fitting subplot regarding her psychotic police officer husband that'll leave many wondering why they watched this show to begin with. The story arc of Clemente gradually descending into madness is arguably the worst in the whole show. Hammily acted and scatter shot in its development, Clemente's fall from grace isn't gripping car crash TV as was intended. Instead, it is simply change the channel TV, a creative decision that derailed the entirety of season 12 before it was done.

Of the many attempts at a villainous resident, Clemente takes the cake as the worst. His distasteful nervous breakdown plot includes laughably poor moments like relieving himself in public and vandalism. One has to wonder what Leguizamo thought of the material they were handing him...