By admin 
The world of medical TV shows is usually filled with beautiful people performing dangerous and daring surgeries as they rocket from rare condition to office romance. That’s not true “St. Dennis Medical.” In NBC’s latest comedy, two nurses are more likely to argue over a candy bar than a medical miracle is performed.
“Part of the genesis of this show was talking about what is the day-to-day of a not-pretty ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ or ‘ER?’” executive producer Justin Spitzer told TheWrap during the Television Critics’ summer 2024 tour Association.
For showrunner and EP Eric Ledgin, the true heart of the series became known when he spoke to a doctor, “friend of a friend.” In the doctor’s hospital there was a surgeon who performed bad operations and endangered patients. So the staff rallied together and worked to fire this problematic surgeon.
“Then the head of the hospital came in and said, ‘Okay, he made a lot of money, so we’re going to have to make up for that somehow.’ It was a moment of, ‘Oh yeah, these are businesses,’” Ledgin told TheWrap. “You have these people doing this job that may have started as a calling, or something they’re passionate about, but that’s turned into a job, like all jobs. They are still confronted the manor whatever you want to call it, who is at the top trying to run a business.”
That is the premise of “St. Denis Medical,” a mockumentary comedy about employees at an underfunded hospital in Oregon. The ensemble largely revolves around the empathetic, if not slightly burnt-out Alex (Allison Tolman), who constantly clashes with her cynical mentor Ron (David Alan Grier) and the hospital’s fast-talking director, Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Add to that the stubborn trauma surgeon Bruce (Josh Lawson), the clueless newbie Matt (Mekki Leeper), the confident travel nurse with a wild side Serena (Kahyun Kim) and the no-nonsense administrator Val (Kaliko Kauahi) and you have the ingredients for a classic sitcom.
“Most nurses, especially those who work in the emergency department, will tell you that they are funny people. They must be; you’re in the trenches. It’s that gallows humor,” Ledgin said. “That’s something you miss with a lot of those dramatic medical shows — even though I like them — that seemed ripe for a comedy.”
Allison Tolman and a patient at “St. Dennis Medical.” (Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
Although Ledgin described the casting process as “very fraught,” they knew they had found their Alex after Tolman’s audition via Zoom. The two went to audition as fans of Tolman’s work, especially on ‘Fargo’. For a while, they even tried to cast her in “Superstore,” which Spitzer created and Ledgin director produced, but that never worked out. Both EPs noted that Tolman is excellent at both comedy and drama, a balance necessary when making a mockumentary about weighty topics like death and the worst day of someone’s life.
“She often reminds me of America (Ferrera) in ‘Superstore,’” Spitzer said.
“Especially in a mockumentary, there’s something in her eyes when she looks at the camera where you zoom right in. You’re just in it with her,” Ledgin said. “That’s rare.”
As the series progresses, it will follow the familiar beats that viewers have come to expect from any confident sitcom. Odd couples will pop up. There will be unexpected deep dives into the characters’ surprising personal lives and inside jokes, albeit with more gore than usual. But as much as the team behind “St. Denis Medical has made every effort to make their series as sharp and funny as possible, but they have also strived to make it an accurate reflection of the daily challenges that modern healthcare professionals face. The team did everything from watching documentaries and reading books about the medical industry to talking to “every person” they knew who had a doctor or nurse as a friend.
“There were so many people who were generously open about their frustrations, their joys and their stories,” Ledgin said. “Partly because it’s a mockumentary format, we tried to be as real as possible while still being an entertaining television show.”
St. Denis Medical” airs Tuesdays at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
