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NBC's St. Denis Medical Mines the Highs and Lows of Hospital Life
The new ensemble comedy St. Denis Medical uses the mockumentary format to give audiences a peek at the chaos of modern day medicine.
Eventually, everyone finds themselves in a hospital. Whether it's for your own care or to visit someone else, at some point a hospital eventually becomes the great equalizer. That truth is a big part of what inspired executive producers Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer to created NBC’s newest workplace comedy St. Denis Medical.
Starring Allison Tolman (Fargo), Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs) and David Alan Grier (The American Society of Magical Negroes), St. Denis Medical is a "mockumentary" style comedy set at a fictional, understaffed Oregon hospital where the dedicated doctors and nurses try their best to treat patients while maintaining their own sanity.
RELATED: Everything to Know About St. Denis Medical on NBC
At a recent summer press day for the series, Ledgin and Tolman explained to reporters, including NBC Insider, why the hospital setting and those who work inside it saving lives every day, inspired their participation.
The "crazy stories from the ER" are the backbone of St. Denis Medical
Having worked as a producer on other "slice of life" comedies like Superstore, Rutherford Falls and American Auto, Ledgin said the American hospital is a source of constant story inspiration because it's where "people have some of the most important moments of their lives" every day.
"Especially if you talk to healthcare workers and anyone that’s had one of those crazy stories from the ER, it’s where some of the funniest moments in people’s lives takes place," Ledgin said of why they set a comedy around a hospital setting. "I think at the end of the day, for anyone who works anywhere after enough time, a job is just a job like any other. Except that this happens to be in the highest stakes place possible. So, we really are trying to find a balance between moments that are funny, moments that are darkly funny, and moments that are sincere. We’re lucky enough to have a cast that can deliver all of it."
Allison Tolman's personal reason for checking into St. Denis Medical
Emmy-nominated actress Allison Tolman plays overworked and pragmatic Nurse Alex in the series. She told reporters that she connected to the script, which was "really charming about the mundane" despite the hospital's often dire situations.
"Everyone who is visiting the hospital is in extreme circumstances, but as extreme as they are, they’re not extreme for us," she said about the characters on St. Denis Medical. "It’s just another day and someone has a day off and it's somebody’s birthday. I find that really charming. Every episode has a moment where that sort of sincerity and that really heartfelt core shines through."
On the personal side, Tolman added that before she was sent the script for St. Denis Medical, her own father had become very ill which prompted her to relocate to Texas for several months to support her parents.
"I was really intrenched in the hospital and in the healthcare system for the first time in my life," she shared. "My mother would come home from being with him in the hospital at night, and all she could do was watch like a half-hour comedy. That’s it. That’s all she could handle...and so we watched a lot of sitcoms together. When I got this script, it just felt like kismet. It just felt like this is exactly the show I was supposed to be doing. I wanted to make a half-hour comedy that was like what kept us afloat when my dad was in the hospital. And then to have it be about healthcare workers and about these people that saved my father’s life, and that were so instrumental to us and were so kind of us as a family...it was really a blessing."
St. Denis Medical premieres November 12 on NBC with two back-to-back episodes. After the two-episode premiere, the show will begin airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. just before Season 3 of Night Court at 8:30 p.m.
Catch similar shows like Superstore on Peacock.
