fall lineup for the National Broadcasting Company
(NBC). The high-action, intense series opening
quickly ledERto become the network’s Thursday
night anchor program.ERquickly emerged as a top-
billed program, luring advertisers who were willing
to pay substantial fees to spotlight their products on
this instantly popular new program. Both stars and
supporting actors were soon nominated for Emmy
and Golden Globe Awards.
Further Reading
Dougan, Andy.The Biography of George Clooney.Phila-
delphia: Trans-Atlantic, 1997.
Jones, Mark.ER: The Unofficial Guide.London: Con-
tender Books, 2003.
Keenleyside, Sam.Bedside Manners: George Clooney
and “ER.”Toronto: ECW Press, 1998.
Cynthia J. W. Svoboda
See also Clooney, George; Medicine; Television.
Etheridge, Melissa
Identification American rock musician
Born May 29, 1961, Leavenworth, Kansas
Etheridge’s fervent anthems gave voice to many people who
saw themselves as marginalized by society. Her coming
out in 1993 contributed to gay and lesbian visibility in the
1990’s.
Having established her reputation with two success-
ful albums in the late 1980’s, Melissa Etheridge re-
leased her third album,Never Enough, in 1992. The
first single from the album, “Ain’t It Heavy,” rose to
number ten on theBillboardcharts. It won Etheridge
a 1992 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal
Performance. In January, 1993, while performing at
the Triangle Ball, held in honor of the inauguration
of Bill Clinton as president of the United States,
Etheridge confirmed longtime rumors by coming
out as a lesbian. This confirmed her popularity in
the gay and lesbian community and brought her
new fans. That acknowledging her homosexuality
helped rather than hurt her popularity was an indi-
cation of the increasing openness of gay entertainers
in the 1990’s.
Etheridge fans were also numerous in online
communities. Active fans helped to make the Inter-
net a visible space for discussion of both alternative
music and gays and lesbians in popular culture. The
title of Etheridge’s next album,YesIAm(1993),
played on her declaration of her sexual orientation.
The first single from the album, “Come to My Win-
dow,” was often heard as a plaintive declaration of
lesbian love. Etheridge insisted, however, that she
kept her love songs deliberately genderless, not spe-
cifically mentioning a male or female object to
them. This allowed both gay and straight women to
identify with her work.
Etheridge also appealed to straight male fans dur-
ing this era, as her working-class background, her
love of baseball (her favorite team was the Kansas
City Royals), and her championing of the downtrod-
den made her in many ways the female equivalent of
Bruce Springsteen, whose song “Thunder Road”
Etheridge memorably covered onMTV Unplugged.
“Nowhere to Go,” the second single from Etheridge’s
1995 album,Your Little Secret, was emblematic of the
discontent of a working class faced with the chal-
lenges of globalization. Even as she played to in-The Nineties in America Etheridge, Melissa 315
Melissa Etheridge performs onThe Tonight Show with Jay
Lenoin 1992.(AP/Wide World Photos)