Abby Sticks Up For Sam | ER

On her final day, Abby gives an impassioned speech to the hospital board defending nurse Sam Taggart when she is reprimanded.
Requested by Kimmy Cuthbert.
From "The Book of Abby" (Season 15 Episode 3)
First broadcast October 16th, 2008

[@kimberly11091]

I like her last line when she says "And they all deserve a raise Don't make me come back here"

[@suzannadannaTARDIS]

"don't make me come back here." Best line ever.

[@Alignment22]

I Love how all of the three actresses (Julianna Margulies, Maura Tierney, Linda Cardellini) of the main nurses on ER are still doing great in their careers and winning awards

[@BaldursPicketFence]

Ana Banana I know right, they’re all superb actors and you can tell from watching these episode on ER.

[@pierovazquez3339]

Don't forget halleh

[@cynthiaerickson3646]

When nurse Hathaway left i thought no one could replace her,yet Abby went far and beyond.what an incredible actress

[@joemckim1183]

And unfortunately a lot of ER fans don't give Abby the credit she deserves. They act like the only great characters of ER existed in the first 5 seasons when it's not true.

[@freespirit_17]

And Abby was her OB nurse..

[@delbushell1017]

Love Abby Sam and Hathaway ♥️♥️♥️

[@calvinallen3424]

@@joemckim1183 Exactly. There were so many great additions: Abby, Luka, Pratt, Neela, and more

[@joemckim1183]

@@calvinallen3424 Most of those later additions were on the show longer than Doug. Other than Lucy almost all of the main cast characters were on longer than Doug.

[@willcorker763]

The look Sam gives Abby when Abby says, "she's an excellent nurse" is everything. Don't forget just a season ago Abby got out of rehab and Sam wasn't very kind to her.

[@kimberly11091]

Well it's justifiable because Sam's mother was a drunk

[@marcb3733]

@@kimberly11091 No it's not justified. Just because you have problems doesn't mean you get to project them onto others.

[@MsTinkerbelle87]

@@marcb3733 I thought she was annoyed that Abby couldn’t confide in her.

[@marcb3733]

@@MsTinkerbelle87 She projected the anger she felt at her mother's addiction onto any which was unfair

[@kimberly11091]

@@marcb3733 no one asked for your opinion

[@tenealparduestats]

I love that in her last episode they had her remember her roots as a nurse, and even use her position to advocate for them.

[@Xerruy]

“I’m sorry, but don’t you think this is kind of ass?” Abby is so funny and awesome.

[@F5_cena]

Imagine she walk into whitehouse

[@gracejaravee789]

Yes She is

[@amyzankowitz9921]

My favorite is when she went postal on her ex husband lol

[@sarap1644]

She was my favorite!!! I’m so sad she didn’t stay till the end. Abby is so badass, and she’s been though a lot. Shows you...you can be anything if you put your mind to it.

[@FFEMTB08]

Damn she is spot damn on. Real life. No show will ever come this close ever again!

[@selT02]

This is one of the reasons why ER is one of the best medical drama shows ever created (spoiler, greys anatomy is not on the list :P ) they give the nurses Credit and show that without them, nothing would work. They are truely the heart of an ER and medicine in general.

[@farhasyed599brovsbro]

Exactly…as I watched Grey’s Anatomy…it was all about Doctors and Doctors sleeping with other Doctors. Or Doctors titled to be the best in their field..they gave no credit to other hospital staff. as I re watch ER, from the first episode on ward it was about the Emergency Room, patient cases coming in. Doctors working with nurses…The front desk clerk..

[@lexi219]

It's interesting how people feel the need to bring up Grey's Anatomy when the topic is ER. What's the point? It's a completely different show that has nothing to do with this one, and there are plenty of other shows with a hospital setting. I wish people would respect ER enough to not go on and on comparing it to something else.

[@Ramblon2003]

Every work place needs an Abby on the team..!

[@florencelitavszky1500]

Love this moment when Abby speaking in front of everyone

[@GermanLeftist]

This is also an excellent indictment of the American healthcare system. And of the direction more and more healthcare systems in Europe are going.

[@dangermartin69]

If everyone wasn't looking for a lawsuit payday everywhere, then the system wouldn't have to have so many safeguards in place to prevent them. The US has the largest lawyer per person ratio in the world because lawsuits are so commonplace.

[@GermanLeftist]

@@dangermartin69 That is not really what Abby is criticising here though. What she is going on about is how the ER has to be creative and has to bend and sometimes even break the rules because of their load of patients that nobody else wants to treat. But why does nobody else want to treat them? For once, they don't have insurence so who pays for them? In a universal single-payer system that problem wouldn't even arise but the US doesn't have one of those. So all the private praciticses and for-profit private hospitals send these patients to the County, a state run hospital that has to treat these patients. But because they are running tight on budget they don't have the nurses to admit them all to the specialised ward because then what you said would happen, so the patients are given minimum care at the ER. Only that the ER is also running thight on budget and has way too few nurses, physicians, and physician assistants to take proper care of all the patients coming through their doors. It's a fundamentaly broken system in which costs plays a larger role than the wellbeing of people that results in this outburst.

[@MagicChan]

Abby is my favorite, always has been!

[@gracejaravee789]

So do I

[@_Lane_]

@@gracejaravee789 _So is mine!_ or _Mine, too!_ 😉 By the way, she's my favourite character as well! Along with Luka. And Carter. 😊

[@gracejaravee789]

Zsófia Balogh 😊😊😊

[@siswiyantisugi]

me too

[@charless.sadler3111]

You are doing a helluva job getting this stuff loaded! My favorite show.

[@jonstefanik9400]

"Don't make me come back here". The gloves came off and she was ready to go at it Terry O'Reilly style!

[@Ainiewainy]

Abby was my favourite since moment 1!

[@DrownedInExile]

"Who me, make a scene? What are you NUTS! (upends table)" - Garabaldi, Babylon 5

[@julieenslow5915]

Amazing acting, I loved this, thank you.

[@simonmarshall19]

I love Abby for standing up for Sam

[@drmayeda1930]

The beauty is Abby won't feel any fall out because this is her last day. I don't think any of them know that.

[@subman23]

.. And they all deserve a raise

[@vikkibrown2023]

You tell em Abby~~You're the best~~Miss you and Luka so much~~Love the whole show~~The storylines for the main characters were the best~~I still watch all the reruns from beginning to end~~Best medical show ever~~💗💗💗~~

[@darylralph8971]

I started watching ER every week because of Abby and only Abby...My crush. (Love her raspy voice so much)

[@SamuelPearlman]

0:11 Ask for Dr. Morris - and the woman is holding a cat that looks like Morris from the Friskies commercials!

[@melindakinnaird]

Oh my gosh, Charlotte Raye!!

[@cathyskywalker77]

Abby sure told them!!! Those suits don't know how it really is for the nurses and doctors.

[@drmayeda1930]

I can think of only one "suit" who would know what it's like in the trenches. He's with the Carter Family Foundation.

[@delbushell1017]

Sam is stunning ❤️

[@sam4lemar]

Abby was always my fave.

[@_Lane_]

I love Abby and her passionate speech but her Hungarian voice _(Orsolya Báthory)_ is so much better... 😀 By the way, as someone wrote below: she knew it was her very last day at the hospital so she had nothing to loose. 😉

[@pjhalpert]

❤️ Abby

[@soleiltounsi6754]

The bestest moment ever of Abby in the series.

[@jacklyndavis3893]

I like the outro music

[@requiemoftruth]

I think Abby is my favorite, followed closely by Susan then Weaver.

[@pierovazquez3339]

Everything she said it's still true...

[@louc9972]

This was the best episode of season 15. It was so touching and sad. Abby is the best of the best! What a terrific actress! Thank you Abby! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦👍👍👍👏👏👏

[@bluestarthewlfdeadchannel3719]

me: CAROL LEFT NO ONES BETTER NOW😭: *Abby Has Entered The Chat*

[@NayaraYaz]

Ooooh, Mrs. Garrett!!!

[@l.a.3479]

Mrs.

[@miaward1792]

Go Abby 👍❤️❤️

[@giordanotirelli6028]

Happy birthday sam from italian boy live in rome and I m fan of er

[@adi_2]

So this was what Linda was doing before becoming a shield agent

[@ezequielmontenegro7144]

I still wonder why Abby left the show in final season. It would have been so nice watch her end the show. Anyway, she'll already be my favourite

[@_Lane_]

I'm not sure but I think the reason might have been that the actress, Maura Tierney had breast cancer around that time, that's why she had to leave the show... (I think she would have stayed till the end if she had been healthy.) By the way, she's my favourite character as well (along with Luka, of course)! 😊

[@kimberly11091]

@@_Lane_ you are correct

[@carrietremble]

@@kimberly11091 No, this is actually not correct. She left because she was ready to leave. She ended up losing her role on the new show, Parenthood, some time later because of the breast cancer diagnosis.

[@kimberly11091]

@@carrietremble nope, she had breast cancer at the time

[@ftse1]

Viewer request : from this same episode Book of Abby 👉 can you upload the opening with the voice of Abby speaking from the Bible ? Thank you

[@kimberly11091]

Can you also upload where abby delivers a baby and tells everyone to shut up

[@chrisdeangelo04]

Sticking up for people and speaking up speaks volumes if you want to change the World.

[@melindakinnaird]

Do you have Sam's first episode?

[@MadTheDJ]

Amen. My mom was a nurse. Nurses keep hospitals running. The culture is slowly changing, but nurses still get viewed as somehow lesser in status than doctors by a lot of "old school" MDs and administration, not to mention governments and popular media. Shows like ER, as great as it was, still reinforced a lot stereotypes of hierarchy. Doctors aren't *above* nurses, they have two different jobs and skill sets. Both are exceptionally difficult, but there are things doctors are simply not allowed to do because of rules and protocols. Nurses don't work *for* doctors, except maybe in a private practice. It bothered me that first Carol then Abby explored going from being nurses to doctors. Carol's arc stopped that early, but Abby finished med school and became a doctor, as if that should be the goal for nurses. A lot of fiction does that as a way of "levelling up" a character, because in the minds of many writers, it's not enough to be a nurse.

[@madirishgirl76]

Madthedj Abbey started off training as a doctor then trained as an.ob nurse then finished off her training as a doctor not the other way around

[@carrietremble4497]

They stopped the trajectory of the Carol character becoming a doctor because Julianna Margulies requested for it to be stopped. She said that her character would be very proud to be a nurse, and didn’t like the storyline of her becoming a doctor. Therefore, they recycled the storyline with the Abi character.

[@madirishgirl76]

Madthedj nurses have a right to become doctors if they want to get a f grip giving out that nurses go down that Rd. I know lots of nur6who have done this. Ppl have a right to better qualify themselves if they want.

[@pepper1dancer]

I work in a hospital. This would never happen. Only on t.v.

[@kimberly11091]

She went from a nurse to being the wife of hawkeye and best friend to black widow

[@firehawk0071]

youll have to be on th YEAH RIGHT...

[@knightwind6628]

I feel like, if Lucy never died and Kelly Martin was more interested with her role, it be Lucy in Abby's shoes.

[@justinpriest9490]

Perfect example of politics that don’t know the hardships of the job and the doctors/nurses that see, hear, and do the hardship of the job and continue to do the job.

[@keithburley7767]

That was Charlotte Rae, R.I.P.

[@giordanotirelli6028]

Today sam 48 years

[@gabrielacarbajal3273]

alguien me dice de que habla?

[@ezequielmontenegro7144]

Defiende a Sam de una posible sanción por haber mandado a un adicto con una intravenosa. Se queja que todas las enfermeras atienden el triple de pacientes que en ningún otro lado. Les dice que ellos en urgencias atienden los pacientes que nadie quiere, alcohólicos sin hogar, adictos, etc. Les dice que ellos en urgencias tienen muchas cosas en contra y le pide a las junta que no se vuelvan una cosa más en contra de los doctores.

[@gabrielacarbajal3273]

@@ezequielmontenegro7144 gracias🤗una genia abby

[@Truth_Seeker1]

I liked Luka and Sam as a couple and Carter and Abbey than Abbey with Luka. In fact Luka was heart broken when Sam broke up with him.

[@giordanotirelli6028]

Happy birthday at sam from italian boy live in rome and I m fan of er

[@jacknakash2677]

Fuck yeah Abby you "go" girl

[@joyl7842]

Another reason why Hospitals being a business in the U.S. is a very bad thing.

[@jamesgentry13]

Abby was awesome. Everyone thinks she was sucked

[@Dusterbugless]

Gangsta

[@rainphantom]

I would fired the two of them

[@SupaEMT134]

Can I date Samantha?

[@erinokay9991]

Honestly… hot.

[@robd7219]

Wasn't she drunk during this scene or am I misremembering??

[@anickwynnproduction]

"You're very articulate today." "I know." I think you're onto something. The way she says that and chases after Sam in the beginning, seems like she's had a drink.

[@carrietremble]

@@anickwynnproduction She was NOT drunk. This was her last episode, and she was doing what she could to help each of her coworkers. See her teaching Frank to dance. NOT drunk.

[@doctorposting]

unrealistic af😂😂😂

[@cathydiane2558]

As a nurse who recently started working in Chicago, this scene is hilarious Chicago hospitals sticking to prescribed nurse to patient ratios? Don’t make me laugh, Abby. That shit doesn’t happen here Chicago hospitals will slam the floors with one patient after another after another. Forcing med surg nurses to take a heavy load, that includes patients who are too critical for the floor