<Tr> <Th> Original release </Th> <Td> October 26, 1982 (1982 - 10 - 26)--May 25, 1988 (1988 - 05 - 25) </Td> </Tr> <P> St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988 . The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, underrated Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions . The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time; both series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines (an original ad for St. Elsewhere quoted a critic that called the series "' Hill Street Blues' in a hospital"). St. Elsewhere was filmed at CBS / MTM Studios, which was known as CBS / Fox Studios when the show began; coincidentally, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the series when it bought MTM Enterprises in the 1990s . </P> <P> Realized for its gritty, realistic drama, St. Elsewhere gained a small yet loyal following (the series did not rank higher than 49th place in the yearly Nielsen ratings) over its six - season, 137 - episode run; the series also found a strong audience in Nielsen's 18--49 age demographic, a young demo later known for a young, affluent audience that TV advertisers were eager to reach . The series also earned critical acclaim during its run, earning 13 Emmy Awards for its writing, acting, and directing . St. Elsewhere was ranked No. 20 on TV Guide's 2002 list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time", with the magazine also selecting it as the best drama series of the 1980s in a 1993 issue . In 2013, TV Guide ranked the series No. 51 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time . </P> <P> St. Elsewhere was set at the fictional St. Eligius Hospital, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood . (The South End's Franklin Square House Apartments, formerly known as the St. James Hotel and located next to Franklin and Blackstone Squares, stood in for the hospital in establishing shots, including the series' opening sequence .) The hospital's nickname, "St. Elsewhere", is a slang term used in the medical field to refer to lesser - equipped hospitals that serve patients turned away by more prestigious institutions; it is also used in medical academia to refer to teaching hospitals in general . In the pilot episode, surgeon Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels) informs his colleagues that the local Boston media had bestowed the derogatory nickname upon St. Eligius since they perceived the hospital as "a dumping ground, a place you wouldn't want to send your mother - in - law ." In fact, the hospital was so poorly regarded that its shrine to Saint Eligius was commonly defiled by the hospital's visitors and staff, and is passingly referred to by Dr. Wayne Fiscus as "the patron saint of longshoremen and bowlers ." (Eligius is neither; he is patron saint of numismatists, metalworkers, and horses .) </P>

How many seasons of st. elsewhere are there