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1995 THE ENTERTAINERS

8 JOHN WELLS

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IF ''GET ME A CBC, CHEM 7, STAT!'' means anything to you, you have John Wells to thank. As executive producer of ER, he's made such esoteric medical jargon a concern of 30 million to 40 million viewers each week and, in doing so, has jolted prime-time dramas back to life. Now drawing a phenomenal 40 percent share of viewers, ER should finish the season as TV's No. 1 show. Not for 25 years -- since Marcus Welby, M.D. -- has a doctor drama worked such miracles.

If it weren't for Wells, ER might have wound up in the morgue. Michael Crichton wrote the first episode as a film script in 1974, then let it languish for years, doubting that TV could do a true-to-life-and-death drama. In 1993, Crichton met with Wells, who knew a thing or two about realistic TV from his tour of duty as coexecutive producer on the Emmy-winning China Beach. ''I said all the right things,'' Wells said, ''not knowing what the right things were.''

One thing they agreed on was to make viewers work almost as hard as the doctors to follow the action. ER wouldn't pander to viewers, any more than surly Dr. Benton would spoon-feed neophyte Dr. Carter. ''If you watched shows like Medical Center,'' Wells says, ''they'd say things like 'We need the thoracotomy tray' and then turn to some nurse who obviously knew what it was and say, 'Because we have to crack open his chest and get his heart going again.' The audience knows where stories are going, so you leave out big chunks and trust them to follow. We want to keep people jumping.''

Wells (seated, with George Clooney and Julianna Margulies) has proved equally adept at keeping the cast and crew from not jumping -- either off the show or all over one another. ''With storms constantly brewing,'' says NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield, ''he rises above them all.''

''There are a lot of egos,'' says Wells. ''Everyone has strong feelings about what they'd like.'' But respect seems to be contagious on ER. ''His door is always open if something feels wrong,'' says Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark Greene). ''Most of the time, he ends up explaining the reason for it. He isn't a pushover, nor is he unreceptive to your feelings.'' Says an impressed Crichton: ''One of the actors said, ' The reason everyone behaves is that John is so nice that none of us want to be called on the carpet by him. You'd just be mortified to be criticized by him.' ''

Wells, 39, toils on ER seven days a week, and he's about to get busier -- NBC just signed him to a multimillion-dollar deal for five new series. (It also cuffs him to ER for two more seasons.) ''It will keep me busy through the millennium,'' says Wells happily, ''which is spooky.'' It may barely leave him time for his wife, Marilyn, or his hobby: raising orchids. ''I should say I kill orchids on a regular basis,'' Wells admits. Has he tried a CBC, chem 7, stat?