Wendy Goldman on ER

It was 25 years ago today that Vanessa Marquez last appeared as Nurse Wendy Goldman on ER. The episode was "Calling Dr. Hathaway." In the episode Wendy was helping the ER's desk clerk Jerry (Abraham Benrubi) and later physician assistant Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Reuben) catch a genetically engineered mouse that had escaped from the lab. At the time I doubt anyone, except for possibly the cast and crew of ER, realized it would be Vanessa's last episode. There was no publicity about her departure and Wendy Goldman simply disappeared from the show with very little explanation. Well before I ever knew Vanessa Marquez, Wendy Goldman was my favourite character on ER and I had a huge crush on her at the time. I definitely noticed Wendy's absence, wondering a few episodes into the fourth season where she was. I know from various friends and also various individuals online that Wendy was missed by a good many ER  fans. Despite Wendy's popularity, I noticed that the write-up on Wendy on the list of ER characters on Wikipedia is a mere stub. So too is the entry on Wendy on the ER wiki. This isn't unusual for the supporting characters--Nurse Lydia Wright (Ellen Crawford) was on the show for ten seasons and her wiki is a stub too. I then thought I would write my own wiki on Wendy Goldman, containing as much information as could be gleaned from the episodes as possible. Here it is.

Nurse Wendy Goldman was a recurring character on ER in its first three seasons. At least in the first season Wendy was a student nurse. It seems likely that in the pilot, "24 Hours," she had only been working at the hospital for a short time. At the very least, she seems unfamiliar with Dr. Ross (George Clooney). When Ross comes into the ER to be treated for drunkenness, she asks Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards), "Does he always do this?" In "Make of Two Hearts," when Wendy complains to Jerry about decorating the ER for Valentine's Day, she says, "I'm not a nurse in training, I'm a nurse in decorating!"

The viewer is told nothing about Wendy's background or family. From Wendy Goldman's name, viewers might assume that she is part Jewish. At the same time, viewers would have good reason to assume that she was a Latina as well, aside from the fact that Vanessa Marquez was Mexican American. Wendy is fluent in Spanish and sometimes serves as a translator when needed. In "Into That Good Night" she comforts a Spanish speaking patient in her native language. In "Love Among the Ruins" she translates for a Spanish speaking father whose son has gotten a coat hanger caught in his throat. In "Days Like This" Jerry, who does not speak Spanish, asks Wendy to help with a Spanish speaking mother seeking information on her son, who is in the hospital. Wendy may have had a Jewish father (hence her name) and a Latina mother.

Wendy is single. In "Faith," when the nurses are negotiating a new contract with the hospital, Haleh (Yvonne Freeman) says that the nurses will stand firm as far as their demands for a new contract go. Wendy tells her, "That's easy for you to say. You've got a husband with a job." It seems likely that for much of the time Wendy is working in the ER that she does not have a boyfriend either, at least going by how aggressively she flirts with dance instructor Mickey (Brian Wimmer) in "Last Call."

Wendy is sweet and soft hearted in demeanour, and often comforts patients. In "Make of Two Hearts" she holds a train victim's hand. Unfortunately, the train victim goes into a seizure and crushes her hand. Later when she is told that the train victim has died, she is sad. In "Into that Good Night" she stroked the hair of the aforementioned Spanish speaking patient, who had been involved in a car accident. In "John Carter, M.D." it is Wendy who offers to call the parents of a little girl who was hit by car while riding her bicycle. In "The Healers" she admits to having cried when paramedics Shep (Ron Eldard) and Raul (Carlos Gómez) brought in a baby who died. Wendy's concern doesn't just extend to patients, but her co-workers in the ER as well. When Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes) is hit on the head by a falling clock, Wendy's first reaction is to ask, "Are you alright?" Wendy seems to be good with children. In "Chicago Heat" she reads Horton Hears a Who? to Dr. Greene's daughter Rachel. In "Blizzard" she is helping Patrick (Kevin Michael Richardson) entertain a little girl in the ER.

While Wendy is sweet and soft hearted, she does have a temper. As mentioned above, in "Make of Two Hearts," she complains about having to decorate the ER. Later in "Make of Two Hearts," she snaps at medical student Deb Chen (Ming-Na Wen), who is high on acid, for not recognizing her when Deb is there to put a cast on her broken hand. In "House of Cards" she yells at medical student Deb Chen (Ming-Na Wen) when Deb attempts putting a central line into a patient's chest all by herself. In "No Brain, No Gain" Wendy shouts at Jerry and E-Ray (Charles Noland) when the two of them claim an MRI has somehow reversed E-Ray's polarity. 

While viewers are never told about any friends Wendy might have outside the ER, she appears to be close to many of her fellow employees in the ER. This is particularly true of her fellow nurses. In "Baby Shower" she brings a gigantic box containing a gift to a baby shower held at Doc Magoo's for Conni (Conni Oligaro). In "Welcome Back, Carter" Chuny (Laura Cerón) shows Wendy pictures of her riding a jet ski (presumably the photos were from Chuny's vacation). In  "Who's Appy Now?" Chuny and Wendy gossip about Dr. Greene in a mixture of English and Spanish. Wendy also appears to be particularly close to desk clerk Jerry, who sometimes involves her in his various schemes. In "Make of Two Hearts," when Wendy complains to Jerry about having to decorate the ER, he asks, "Can I help?" In "No Brain, No Gain," an anthropologist doing a comparison study on the mating rituals of birds and humans thinks Wendy and Jerry are flirting, although given she later yells at Jerry it seems likely the anthropologist mistook two friends joking around for flirting. At the very least, Wendy treats Jerry very differently from Mickey in "Last Call," in whom she was obviously interested. In "Calling Dr. Hathaway" Wendy helps Jerry put out live traps to catch the genetically engineered mouse and thus get a hefty financial reward.

For the  most part Wendy maintains a professional demeanour with the medical students and doctors in the ER. She often assists Carter (Noah Wylie) and the two seem genuinely fond of each other. In "Make of Two Hearts" when Dr. Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) snatches Carter's many Valentines away from him and starts reading them off, "Wendy" is among the names of women who gave Valentines to Carter. While Wendy isn't an exceedingly rare name, it isn't very common either, so viewers may have been safe in assuming it was Wendy Goldman who gave Carter a Valentine. Even so, given neither Wendy nor Carter mention the Valentine, it seems safe to assume that if it was Wendy Goldman who sent it, it was meant as a platonic gesture. Indeed, when Ross compliments her on volunteering to decorate the ER (to which she replies, "I didn't volunteer!"), she stuffs a little heart in the pocket of his lab coat.  Later in "Make of Two Hearts" even as Carter laughs at the cast Deb put on Wendy's hand, he tells her, "I'm sorry" and says he that he will fix it the next day. Wendy also often assists Ross and in "Luck of the Draw" Ross seems comfortable enough to tell her he has a son he has never seen  In "Night Shift" Wendy assists Weaver with a night shift study.

Wendy is intelligent, displaying a good deal of medical knowledge even when she was a student nurse. In "Luck of the Draw," when Dr. Lewis tells Wendy to give her patient 350 milligrams of dopamine, Wendy corrects her and says, "I think you mean micrograms." In "House of Cards" it is Wendy who determines that a junkie who was brought into the ER needs a central line, stating, "He hasn't any veins left." When Wendy goes to get Dr. Lewis to put the central line in, Deb attempts to do the procedure herself, entirely botching it. In "Men Plan, God Laughs," Dr. Greene asks if a patient has a peptic ulcer or a varices, Wendy correctly guesses he has a varices (although Haleh was correct in guessing he had a peptic ulcer--the patient had both). Wendy apparently enjoys learning new things. In "Whose Appy Now?" Wendy is reading info from a pamphlet on how often doctors wash their hands and even pick their noses. When she relays this information to Dr. Ross, he tells her that there is a limit to how informed he wants to be. While Wendy is very bright, in "Welcome Back, Carter," Carol (Julianna Margulies) tells Wendy that she has to get her ALCS certification. Wendy doesn't know what ACLS is (for the curious, it is short for "advanced cardiac life support"). Chuny tells her not to worry, that she will love it.

We only know a little about Wendy's pastimes and hobbies. In "Blizzard," during a very slow period at the ER, Wendy rollerblades through the ER. She apparently likes baking and cooking. In "Hell and High Water" Wendy bakes brownies for the ER staff, although they might not be very good. When Carter takes a bite out of one he makes a face. In "No Brain, No Gain" Wendy makes salt water taffy for the ER staff. Her taffy seems to be better than her brownies. At the very least, Jerry and patient Mr. Percy (William Sanderson) like it. It seems likely Wendy enjoys playing video games and may actually be good at them. In "Hell and High Water" she is among the staff who plays Doom on the ER's new computer and even suggests to Carol when she is playing the game that she use the rocket launcher. Wendy also plays the lottery. In "Luck of the Draw" it is shown that she coordinates the ER staff's purchase of Lotto tickets. It also seems likely that Wendy is a fan of classic movies. In "Last Call," when describing dance instructor Mickey to Jeannie, she compares Mickey to a combination of Dennis Quaid, Robert Redford, and James Dean. While Wendy may be a fan of classic films, she apparently is not a fan of the NBA. In  "Baby Shower" Jerry claims to have met Scotty Pippen, but no one believes him. When Scotty Pippen shows up in the ER, Jerry goes to alert the doctors. Unfortunately, Scotty Pippen leaves while Jerry is gone. When Jerry gets back to the front desk, he asks Wendy if she's seen him. Wendy simply asks, "Is he kind of a tall guy?"

Wendy's talents go beyond the ER. In "Do One, Teach One, Kill One," she is writing a cover story on Dr. Greene for the nursing newsletter. In "Whose Appy Now?" Wendy states that she has National Guard duty that weekend.

Wendy Goldman last appeared on ER in "Calling Dr. Hathaway." Viewers are never told why she left or what happened to her. In the fourth season episode "Freak Show," Dr. Weaver tells Jeannie Boulet that Yoshi Takata (Gedde Watanabe) was hired to replace two nurses who left. It would be safe to assume Wendy was one of those nurses.