50 Fun Facts About Nurse Jackie

Edie Falco came to Nurse Jackie having already won three lead-actress Emmys for which HBO drama?

The Sopranos made Edie Falco famous as Carmela, wife of the mob boss at its centre. She first passed on the nurse role, though the character intrigued her.

Which cable network aired Nurse Jackie, whose premiere was then the channel's most successful ever?

Showtime pulled in a million viewers for the first episode and ordered a second season at once. The series went on to run for seven seasons.

Which drug does Jackie Peyton snort at the hospital's farewell party in Nurse Jackie's finale?

Heroin, lifted from the belongings of a patient she treated that day, floors Jackie in the middle of the party. She had only just won her nursing license back.

Wendy & Lisa, who wrote Nurse Jackie's Emmy-winning theme music, rose to fame in which star's band?

Prince had Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman in his band the Revolution, the group behind Purple Rain. Their Nurse Jackie theme won the 2010 Emmy for main title music.

What does Jackie's husband Kevin run in Nurse Jackie, the place where her lover Eddie befriends him?

A bar is Kevin's livelihood, and Eddie uses it: after learning Jackie is married, he starts drinking there and builds a friendship with her husband.

Whose visit does Nurse Jackie's Gloria Akalitus chase for All Saints with an anti-obesity campaign?

Michelle Obama, then First Lady, was the prize: Akalitus rallied the staff against childhood obesity to earn an official visit, only to get bad news about it later in the season.

Edie Falco won a 2010 Emmy for Nurse Jackie in which category, then said the label didn't suit her?

Comedy series was the Emmy slot for a show about addiction, and Edie Falco used her speech to say she isn't funny. Some critics then called for a separate dramedy category.

In Nurse Jackie's final season, what do Norwegian developers plan to turn All Saints Hospital into?

Luxury condos are what the building becomes, and the nurses' protests and walkout can't block the sale. A newspaper report on the plan only sped the deal up.

Which actor, Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight films, plays cocky Dr. Fitch Cooper in Nurse Jackie?

Peter Facinelli played 'Coop', billed as a likable golden boy whose calm front hides a nervous disposition. He leaves the hospital for a new job partway through the final season.

Which Reservoir Dogs actor directed Nurse Jackie episodes featuring his own younger brother?

Steve Buscemi directed episodes in the first and third seasons. His younger brother Michael recurred as a troubled man living across the street from the hospital.

In which city is All Saints, the fictional hospital where Jackie Peyton works in Nurse Jackie, located?

New York is home to All Saints, a Manhattan emergency room. The setting brings in local faces: TV news anchor Pat Kiernan turns up as a patient in the sixth season.

To which city does Dr. Eleanor O'Hara move in Nurse Jackie's fifth season to raise her baby son?

London takes away Jackie's closest ally just as she struggles to stay clean. O'Hara comes back for the finale and confronts Jackie about using again.

In early Nurse Jackie, which condition leads a school nurse to suggest medication for Jackie's daughter Grace?

Anxiety builds in Grace until she is pulling her hair out from stress, and Jackie bristles at the idea of pills for her. Later Jackie raids Grace's own prescription to feed her habit.

What do Jackie's husband Kevin and Dr. O'Hara stage at her home in Nurse Jackie's second-season finale?

An intervention awaits Jackie after Kevin finds her secret credit card bill for prescriptions. She denies being an addict and insists the spending was for their daughters.

How does Nurse Jackie's final scene leave Jackie Peyton after she overdoses at the hospital's goodbye party?

Her fate is unresolved on purpose: showrunner Clyde Phillips said the writers wanted viewers to keep debating the ending once the show was over.

What is the job of Frank Verelli, the man Jackie dates after her divorce in Nurse Jackie's fifth season?

A police officer, Frank meets Jackie while investigating the crash she causes on her way out of divorce court. He takes it in stride when she tells him about her history of addiction.

Caryn Mandabach, the producer who first conceived Nurse Jackie, went on to make which British period drama?

Peaky Blinders is owned and produced by Caryn Mandabach, who made her name on American sitcoms such as Roseanne. Her hospital series began with stories an ER nurse told her.

Which actor joins Nurse Jackie's final season as the ER doctor with a brain tumor who replaces Coop?

Tony Shalhoub plays Dr. Bernard, who bonds with Jackie and speaks up for her at her license hearing. He had already won three Emmys as the detective Adrian Monk.

Which actor plays hospital boss Dr. Mike Cruz in Nurse Jackie's fourth season, opposite his real-life son?

Bobby Cannavale earned two Emmy nominations as the corporate administrator who fires Jackie. His son Jake played Cruz's son Charlie, the young addict Jackie befriends in rehab.

Which actress, later a wrestler in GLOW, plays first-year resident Dr. Carrie Roman in Nurse Jackie?

Betty Gilpin joined in the fifth season as a resident skating by on her looks. GLOW, where she played Liberty Belle, later brought her three Emmy nominations.

Paul Feig directed most of Nurse Jackie's second season shortly before making which hit 2011 film?

Bridesmaids made Paul Feig a star director soon after he directed eight of the show's twelve second-season episodes. He had earlier created Freaks and Geeks.

In Nurse Jackie's pilot, what does Jackie flush away to punish a violent man with diplomatic immunity?

His severed ear goes down the toilet as Jackie's own rough justice. It resurfaces an episode later, when Zoey finds it and hands it to the hospital administrator.

With what does Jackie break her own finger in Nurse Jackie to hide that her wedding ring was sawn off?

A hammer does the job after Dr. O'Hara cuts the stuck ring off with a bone saw at work. Jackie needs an injury to explain the missing ring to Kevin.

What does Jackie forge for a dead bike messenger in Nurse Jackie's pilot, trying to make good of his death?

An organ donor card, forged in the dead man's name, is Jackie's way of salvaging something from a death caused by Coop's negligence. Coop later threatens to report her over a fake donor card.

Who raised Nurse Jackie's Dr. Fitch Cooper, as viewers learn when a gallbladder attack brings family to the ER?

Two mothers, played by Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz, arrive when one of them needs treatment. Their later divorce sends Coop into a depression in the third season.

Which condition lies behind Dr. Fitch Cooper involuntarily touching colleagues' breasts in Nurse Jackie?

Tourette syndrome troubled Coop as a child, he confides. It earns him a punch from Zoey's boyfriend Lenny, who sees the touching and knows nothing of the diagnosis.

What does the man who shouts from an apartment window opposite All Saints call himself in Nurse Jackie?

God is a mentally ill neighbour who becomes a recurring presence. Zoey later treats him, talks him through an identity crisis and confides in him about her love life.

What does Gloria Akalitus accidentally use on herself after finding it lying in a hallway in Nurse Jackie?

A Taser left unattended in the corridor gets the better of the stern administrator, who had been fuming about the staff's disregard for order and professionalism.

What replaces pharmacist Eddie Walzer at All Saints Hospital late in Nurse Jackie's first season?

A pill-dispensing machine called the Pill-O-Matix takes over, and it proves so frustrating that Gloria Akalitus invites Eddie back the following season.

Which social network does Dr. Fitch Cooper take up as a way to vent in Nurse Jackie's second season?

Twitter gives Coop an outlet in an episode named after it, to Jackie's irritation. That season he also lands on a magazine's list of top doctors and fronts the hospital's ads.

In what role does Zoey Barkow arrive at All Saints in Nurse Jackie, with Jackie grudgingly training her?

A nursing student from a community college, Zoey starts out as Jackie's perky opposite. By the final season she is the head nurse told to supervise her former mentor.

What is the name of Jackie Peyton's younger daughter in Nurse Jackie, a role recast after the first season?

Fiona was played by Daisy Tahan in the first season, then recast with Mackenzie Aladjem. The character later gets into trouble at school for playing with matches.

What do Jackie and Eddie do after selling their drug stash at a pill mill in Nurse Jackie's final season?

Get engaged: the pair come away from the pill mill $22,000 richer and with drugs supposedly out of Jackie's life, and decide to marry. Grace thinks the relationship unhealthy.

What does Jackie crash her car into on the way to the airport in Nurse Jackie's sixth-season finale?

An ambulance stops Jackie's escape: rather than take a urine test, she was leaving town with a carful of meds meant for hurricane victims in Miami. She is arrested for drug trafficking.

What does Eddie Walzer accept at the end of Nurse Jackie by confessing in full to keep Jackie's name out?

A prison sentence awaits Eddie after he is caught on tape dealing drugs. He confesses in full so that the trail stops with him and never reaches Jackie.

Which actress won a 2013 Emmy as Zoey Barkow in Nurse Jackie and gave a famously brief acceptance speech?

Merritt Wever was so stunned by the win that her whole speech was a few words of thanks before she left the stage. She has since won Emmys for Godless and Severance.

Which House of the Dragon actress plays Jackie's closest friend, Dr. Eleanor O'Hara, in Nurse Jackie?

Eve Best played the surgeon who offers to fund Jackie's daughters' schooling and long overlooks her pill habit. She was also Wallis Simpson in The King's Speech.

Which milestone is Jackie marking when she swallows a hidden pill in Nurse Jackie's fifth-season finale?

A year sober is the anniversary she then announces at a party with her family and colleagues, moments after taking the pill she had kept in a jewelry box.

Which actor, Ricky in Boyz n the Hood, plays ex-military ER chief Dr. Ike Prentiss in Nurse Jackie?

Morris Chestnut won an NAACP Image Award as the former military doctor who becomes Zoey's lover in the fifth and sixth seasons. Prentiss exits when he re-enlists.

Which All Saints nurse in Nurse Jackie is played by Stephen Wallem, brother of co-creator Linda Wallem?

Thor is Jackie's kindhearted confidant, and the part was Stephen Wallem's television debut after years as a stage actor and cabaret singer in Chicago.

Which playwright, known for solo documentary plays, portrays administrator Gloria Akalitus in Nurse Jackie?

Anna Deavere Smith builds her stage shows from real interviews and performs every character herself, as in Fires in the Mirror. She was also The West Wing's national security adviser.

Which real hospital offers Jackie a job as All Saints prepares to close in Nurse Jackie's finale?

Bellevue wants Jackie, and she wants Zoey to come along. Zoey turns the offer down, saying she needs to move on from her old mentor.

On a family road trip in Nurse Jackie's second season, where does Jackie hide the pill stash she then loses?

A floss container slips out of her pocket in the car, and she goes into withdrawal for the rest of the trip. Kevin finds it under the passenger seat a season later.

Which actor, Ryan Chappelle in 24, plays pharmacist Eddie Walzer, Jackie's lover, in Nurse Jackie?

Paul Schulze also appeared in the films Panic Room and Rambo. His Eddie supplies Jackie with pills, then befriends her husband after learning she is married.

Which actress, Lady Sif in Marvel films, plays Kevin Peyton's wild sister Tunie in Nurse Jackie?

Jaimie Alexander's Tunie moves in after a breakup, and Jackie suspects Kevin brought her over to keep watch. Tunie's texts with Eddie soon alarm Jackie too.

A darker early version of Nurse Jackie, with vague supernatural elements, used which name instead of Jackie?

Mona was the title nurse until writers Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem were asked to rework the script and give it more humour. Edie Falco had passed on the project at first.

Which corporation buys All Saints in Nurse Jackie's fourth season and installs Dr. Mike Cruz as boss?

Quantum Bay sends in Cruz, who demotes Gloria Akalitus to floor nurse and plans to remake the hospital as a trauma center with a helipad.

Which country remade Nurse Jackie as a series called Charlie, starring Halina Reijn and Katja Schuurman?

Netherlands viewers got their own version on the channel Nederland 3, which began airing in March 2013 under the new title Charlie.

Which film veteran got an Emmy nomination as a Nurse Jackie patient who picks chicken soup over treatment?

Eli Wallach, the Ugly of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, was in his nineties when he played the man Jackie lets die peacefully beside his wife, to her boss's dismay.

What is the job of Lenny, the on-off boyfriend of nurse Zoey Barkow in Nurse Jackie's early seasons?

An EMT worker, Lenny woos Zoey by hiding his house key in a sandwich, which cracks her tooth. He later moves to Greece after she ends things.