Before The Pitt, Noah Wyle Launched An Epic Made-For-TV Fantasy Franchise

Some actors are, for whatever reason, best suited to television stardom. There's no clear reason why folks like Tom Selleck, Kate Jackson, or Ted Danson couldn't be movie stars (indeed, Selleck came startlingly close to playing Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), but once you've had a long-running success on the small screen, viewers closely associate you with quality TV. So when they join the cast of a new series, networks and streamers can be fairly certain that a built-in fan base will be joining them.

In terms of television drawing power, few actors have been more reliable over the last 30 years than Noah Wyle. Though George Clooney was the breakout star of "ER" when it premiered on NBC in 1994, it didn't take long for viewers to fall in love with Dr. John Carter, the wet-behind-the-ears medical student who rose through the institutional ranks of Cook County General Hospital over 11 unforgettable seasons. Wyle could've dipped out of "ER" and made a go out of it in film, but he instead became the backbone of the show. When Wyle finally had the freedom to dip his toe in the motion picture waters, he quickly retreated to the comfort of television and scored a string of hits. This year, he's found possibly his greatest role yet in Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinovitch, the beleaguered attending physician of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center aka "The Pitt."

While Wyle is reminding us what a warm, steadying presence he can be in a show with dizzyingly high stakes (like the Steven Spielberg-produced "Falling Skies"), viewers who enjoyed the affable, goofball energy of Dr. Carter from the early seasons of "ER" will be pleased to know there's a whole television franchise featuring Wyle in this mode. Many of you are already acquainted, but those who've missed the lighthearted fun, it's time to pay a visit to "The Librarian."

As Wyle was completing his run on "ER," the actor took the lead role in an offbeat fantasy-adventure series from "Independence Day" writer-producer Dean Devlin called "The Librarian: Quest for the Spear." This rollicking, modestly budgeted lark finds Wyle playing a longtime college student who takes a prestigious gig at the fictional Metropolitan Public Library, where he's soon thrust into a mission to recover a stolen piece of the Spear of Destiny (the doohickey that some nasty Roman centurion stuck into the side of Jesus Christ as he hung from the cross). If someone were ever to possess all of the pieces, they could rule the world.

The made-for-TV flick was a hit for TNT, which went on to make two more movies, "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" and "The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice." All three are quite enjoyable if you set your expectations accordingly. They also feature Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin, which is some serious TV-star gravy.

The movies continued to draw viewers, so Devlin teamed with "The Core" screenwriter and "Leverage" creator John Rodgers to create a series about a collection of deeply educated nerds who save the world with their booksmarts. The series main cast featured Rebecca Romijn, Lindy Booth, Christian Kane, John Harlan Kim and John Larroquette, but Wyle's character figured prominently in the show's narrative over its four seasons. The show recently received a spin-off titled "The Librarians: The Next Chapter," which has not worked Wyle's character into the mix thus far. You get the sense that his "The Librarian" tour of duty is probably over, but perhaps Devlin can convince him to drop by for an episode while he's taking a break from the rigors of "The Pitt."