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* [[And Starring]]: William Daniels gets an "and starring as Dr. Mark Craig" credit in the open.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Not even {{spoiler|Santa Claus}} and {{spoiler|Mimsie, MTM Enterprises' adorable kitten mascot}}, are safe.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Dr. Jackie Wade (Sagan Lewis) goes from a character with one line in the pilot to recurring character in the same season before getting promoted to the opening titles in seasonSeason 6.
* [[Bear Trap Bed]]
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Poor {{spoiler|Cathy Martin}}. After being {{spoiler|raped twice and beaten by Peter White}}, she is irrevocably broken.
* [[Break the Haughty]]: Dr. Craig. His {{spoiler|son dies}}, his {{spoiler|artificial heart patient regrets his surgery and then dies}}, he punches a mirror and injures his hand, leaving him unable to operate, and {{spoiler|his wife leaves him and begins an affair with another man. They eventually reconcile.}}. Oh, and in one episode, he's mistaken for being homeless.
* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: The nymphomaniac [[Hospital Hottie]], pathologist Dr. Cathy Martin.
* [[The Bus Came Back]]: Shirley Daniels, twice.
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* [[Catch Phrase]]: Dr. Craig: "Oh, for crying out loud!".
* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Sort of. In the second season episode "Hello and Goodbye", Morrison takes his son to "the bar that inspired ''[[Cheers]]''", but then in the third season episode "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Cheers]]", Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall visit the bar from ''Cheers'' where they interact with the characters from the show!
* [[Christmas Episode]]: A particularly heartwrenchingheart-wrenching one following the death of {{spoiler|the Craigs' son}}, which is also the one where they actually kill off '''''{{spoiler|[[Anyone Can Die|Santa Claus himself]]!}}!'''''
* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Drs. Ben Samuels and Annie Cavanero both disappear without explanation.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Dr. Cathy Martin.
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* [[Cuckoo Nest]]: Either a subversion, or a really hardcore example.
* [[Digging Yourself Deeper]]: Erlich is an expert at this trope.
* [[Downer Ending]]: The finale's reveal that it was an "[[All Just a Dream]]" [[Mind Screw]], although that evidently wasn't enough since the credits ''[[It Got Worse|make it worse]]'' by '''{{spoiler|killing Mimsie, the kitten mascot}}'''. [[You Bastard]]. <ref>( To be fair, they just used a photo of a different {not dead} cat lying on its side. Mimsie ''[[Funny Aneurysm Moment|did]]'' die later that year, though.)</ref>
* [[Dr. Jerk]]: Dr. Craig and Dr. Erlich.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Peter White}}. Also, {{spoiler|Helen Rosenthal}} went into drug rehab due to an addiction to prescription pain killers.
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* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Dr. White}}.
* [[Furry Fandom]]: The Birdman of St. Elsewhere is probably the [[Ur Example]] in mainstream media. Ironically, he's written with considerably more nuance and sensitivity than most people who think they're animals are written on TV today, now that furry fandom is more widely known, and heavily associated with squickiness. The show still used him mostly for laughs, although it avoided making viewers look down their nose at him, and when the Birdman decides he can fly away from the hospital by jumping off the roof...nobody's laughing.
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Dr. Craig's {{spoiler|artificial heart patient}} ended up feeling like a freak, with a side of [[What Have I Become?]].
* [[Gratuitous Rape]]: Dr. Morrison couldn't catch a break.
* [[Hahvahd Yahd in My Cah]]
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* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]: Composed by Dave Grusin. Hear it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNXBgces1Q here].
* [[Intercontinuity Crossover]]: Several, which [http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html raises some interesting questions]...
* [[It Got Worse]]: Lots and lots of times, especially Jack Morrison (see [[Butt Monkey]], above).
* [[It Is Not Your Time]]: Wayne Fiscus' near-death experience after {{spoiler|being shot by an ER patient}}.
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: '''Duh.'''.
** Main characters who were [[Killed Off for Real]] include {{spoiler|Dr. White}} (shot by {{spoiler|Shirley Daniels}}), {{spoiler|Nina Morrison}}'s sudden death due to a freak slip-and-fall head injury, {{spoiler|Wendy Armstrong}}'s suicide, {{spoiler|Mrs. Huffnagel}} getting eaten by her hospital bed, and {{spoiler|Elliot Axelrod}}'s heart attack. Not to mention {{spoiler|Dr. Auschlander}}'s death in the series finale.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Especially in the first couple of seasons.
* [[Logo Joke]]: The MTM kitten meows while in a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykx8KoILomU surgical outfit], which is adorable. At the very end of the [[Grand Finale]], she '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fce6tlwwjQo flatlines and dies]'''...which is about the only way you could possibly make the [[Downer Ending]]-[[All Just a Dream]] [[Mind Screw]] worse.
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* [[Near-Death Experience]]: Fiscus has one after getting shot in "After Life".
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: Several times.
* [[Phrase Catcher]]: Especially throughout seasonSeason 2: "You're a pig, Ehrlich."
* [["Previously On..."]] / [["On the Next..."]]: Every episode began with a summary of previous events that were pertinent to the episode, and then a little snippet of events from that night's episode.
* [[Promotion to Opening Titles]]: Happens to several characters over the years.
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* [[Sanity Slippage]]: The residency program, coupled with marital problems, eventually became too much for {{spoiler|Dr. White}}.
* [[Scenery Censor]]: A few times.
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: In a season two episode, Dr. Westphall tells a family that he doesn't believe in taking comatose patients off of life support, and yet in the seasonSeason 4 [[Whole-Episode Flashback]] "Time Heals", he is shown {{spoiler|personally disconnecting his brain dead wife from life support}}, which happened several years before the events of the seasonSeason 2 episode!
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Not necessarily. He could have been all for it in the past, but {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?|the guilt and regret of having done it to his wife]] changed his mind on the issue.}}
* [[Shout-Out]]: Dr. Craig starts singing "Sit Down, John" from ''[[1776]]'' when the Craigs go to Philadelphia.
** In one episode, Dr. Beale (the psychiatrist) is heard speaking with someone on the phone: "I'm sure your daughter-in-law isn't a witch, [[Bewitched|Mrs. Stevens]]... you ''saw'' the sofa levitating?".
** In the morgue: "Patient [[M*A*S*H (television)|#4077, Blake, Henry]]. Cause of death: [[McLeaned|Plane crash]]."
** Reference is made to a one-armed patient being sought by a "[[The Fugitive|Dr. Kimble]]".
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** Overheard on the hospital PA at least once:
{{quote|[[The Three Stooges|Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard...]]}}
* [[The Shrink]]: Dr. Beale in seasonSeason oneOne, and Dr. Ridley in seasonSeason twoTwo.
* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Victor Erlich and Lucy Papandrao.
* [[Southies]]
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* [[Title Montage]]
* [[That Came Out Wrong]]: Erlich, ''all the time''.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: {{spoiler|Heart transplant patient Eve Leighton}}.
* [[The Troubles]]: In the seasonSeason 2 episode "Under Pressure", two Irish boys, one Catholic and one Protestant, end up in the ER after fighting. One boy's mother references [[The Troubles]] by name.
* [[Uncle Tomfoolery]]: Luther, in earlier seasons. Dr. Chandler even called him out on it. Luther eventually got better in later seasons, first becoming a paramedic and then studying to become a physician's assistant.
* [[Vanity Plate]]
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