The news that '24' is coming to an end with the finale of this season wasn't as big a shock as some might have thought a few years back. After all, the ratings were down and some folks wondered if '24' had jumped the you-know-what. Still, when a great show calls it a day, it's a sad time for television.

At least in the finale, '24' will be bringing on some big names to gussy up the finish. 'ER's' Eriq La Salle will appear in the last two '24' episodes, for instance. Eriq will not be playing a surgeon asked to stitch together the remaining limbs of Jack Bauer before shipping him off to Kim in California. In fact, he won't be in scrubs at all.

With this being the final season of ER, the show naturally wants to bring back some of its old stars for cameos. George Clooney is the big fish to land, of course, and producers say they've got a juicy storyline to lure him in.

Showrunner David Zabel told TV Guide, "We have a really good story line for every [major] character from the past to show [the actors] what we want to do."

Anthony Edwards is already on board to appear in flashbacks on the Nov. 13 episode (since his character, Dr. Greene, is dead), along with Paul McCrane (Dr. Romano) and Laura Innes (Dr. Weaver). Noah Wyle will guest star in four episodes, and Alex Kingston may show up as Dr. Corday.

Remember what a jerk Eriq LaSalle was as Dr. Peter Benton on ER? You know, a real hard-ass. Well, it turns out his dynamic performance as that character may be because he wasn't acting. At the Hallmark Channel press tour, LaSalle got ticked off when asked about ER.

He was meeting the press to answer questions about his TV movie, Relative Stranger, which will air next January. When LaSalle noticed that there were a plethora of questions about ER -- for him and co-stars Michael Michele and Michael Beach, both of whom had also been on NBC's long-running medical drama -- Eriq flared.

"Okay, I mean look, it was a defining moment, you know, for a lot of us as artists. You know, it was a show that was a little bit ahead of its time. We had a great time doing it. I don't know what else to say. I talked about the show so much. I prefer to talk about Relative Stranger."

Eriq LaSalle, who played Doctor Peter Benton on ER from 1994 to 2001, returns to NBC's prime-time schedule in January. This time, though, he won't be acting. Rather, he will be behind the cameras as he directs an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

LaSalle will be reunited with SVU cast member Mariska Hargitay, who portrayed Cynthia Hooper during the fourth season of ER, and Michael Michele, who played Doctor Cleo Finch (and Benton's girlfriend) for two seasons on the medical drama. In the episode itself, which will air January 9th, a messy marital estrangement and subsequent custody battle (are there any others on SVU) will pit Valerie Sennet (Michele) against her estranged husband Miles Sennett (Blair Underwood) and result in some secrets being discovered by detectives Benson (Hargitay) and Stabler.

If I told you intense actor Eriq La Salle was coming back to TV in a project where he plays one of about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, would you ever guess in a hundred years that the show would be a comedy? Me neither. Which is why his new project for NBC might be interesting. The former ER star is executive producing and starring in the comedy, called The Four Next Door; where the Four Horsemen are forced to live among the humans when they arrive on earth ten years too early. Heh. Either this is going to be funny as hell or depressing as hell.

Anyway, it's not like this is the first time La Salle has done comedy. Remember he played the Jheri-curled Darryl Jenks in Coming to America. Of course, that was eighteen years ago, but it's on his resume.

(Update: La Salle is executive producing the show, not starring in it. Thanks to Chris Rose for the clarification. I think I inferred the words "starring in" when I read the article. My mistake.)