Inside NBC’s comedy about hospital absurdity

Since ABC’s hit series “Scrubs” wrapped its nine seasons in 2010, Hollywood has been shying away from comedies set in hospitals — sometimes a tough place to get a laugh — though there have been standouts like Fox and Hulu’s “The Mindy Project,” Warner Bros. and Adult Swim’s absurdist “Childrens Hospital” and HBO’s critically acclaimed “Getting On.”

NBC is the latest to try it with “St. Dennis Medical,” a new sitcom that combines this challenging setting with a popular format: mockumentary. Can Hollywood find comedy in a hospital in 2024, especially in a show that focuses on the daily lives of hospital workers and the consequences of a global pandemic?

To find out, TheWrap made an exclusive set visit in the final week of filming for the show’s 18-episode first season, which premieres on November 12. TheWrap spoke with the ‘St. Denis Medical’ cast and makers about the making of the comedy series. An exclusive visit to the writers’ room provided further insight into how the team balanced laughter and vulnerability with advice from medical experts, their own experiences with hospitals and plenty of off-color jokes.

“It’s a workplace comedy in the most interesting workplace you can imagine,” showrunner Eric Ledgin told TheWrap. “When I’m in a hospital or meet people who work there, I’m so interested in what their lives are like – so risky and dramatic. But when I talk to them, they all have funny stories… There is a lot of tension, but also letting go of that tension.”

By creating “St. Denis Medical” in the style of “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” the team must earn the laughs while staying true to the serious topics typically associated with hospitals. NBC has a track record of launching bold comedy concepts with enormous success – a line that includes “The Office,” “Friends,” “30 Rock” and “Will & Grace.”

Still, in a Hollywood where the TV industry is shrinking, the network is taking a risky gamble on the hospital comedy, the only single-camera comedy series of the season. The new “Happy’s Place” and the returning “Lopez vs. Lopez” and “Night Court” all stick to the cheaper multicam format. CBS is the only other broadcaster devoting as much programming space to comedy, with four shows this fall.

A doctor’s visit

In “St. Denis Medical’ cameras follow the doctors, nurses and administrators of a fictional hospital and the myriad tricks of their daily lives – such as caring for difficult patients, learning on the job and juggling their personal lives while saving others.

The show aims to find the funny in the tragic.

On the day of TheWrap’s set visit, the cast and crew worked well together to bring the new medical comedy from creators Ledgin and Justin Spitzer to life. It certainly helped that many of those involved had worked together on NBC comedies like “The Office,” “Superstore” and “American Auto.”

Spirits were high on that Monday in September as series star Wendi McLendon-Covey worked through a scene. She tried different punchlines for a joke about “cool” happenings around the hospital in Oregon where the show takes place. McLendon-Covey, who plays Joyce – the hospital’s executive director – brought it home every time with a different laugh-out-loud response to an unwanted health update from one of her co-stars.

“I don’t know if this is just because I’m not running this one, so it’s easier, but it feels like everything is clicking so smoothly for a first-season show,” said Spitzer, who narrated “Superstore” and “American Auto.” TheWrap. “In the first seasons you’re kind of figuring out the show, and in season 2 you’re firing on all cylinders. God willing, we’ll get a second season, but it feels like we discovered it very early this time.

Ledgin, who was a writer and producer on Spitzer’s “Superstore” and “American Auto,” made the jump to showrunner with this new series. “I’m so proud of what we’ve created and I feel so exhausted, which I think is how you should feel at the end of your first show,” he said.

The showrunner said he wanted to capture the range of emotions that a typical day in a hospital brings. “I spent a lot of time in hospitals when I was 20 – not for me, but for someone I was close to – I had a lot of laughs and also some very difficult moments,” he said. “And during this season of the show, I ended up in the hospital for three days. There is something very personal for me about being able to think about life in a hospital environment.”

It’s that challenge that attracted top talent like Allison Tolman and David Alan Grier to the project.

“I was really surprised to find a sitcom that I was excited about,” Tolman, who previously starred in “Fargo” and “Good Girls,” told TheWrap. “The situations are so weird and the goal is to make a big belly laugh, but the way we approach it feels very authentic to me.”

“People laugh at funerals,” added veteran sitcom actor Grier, who made his name on “In Living Color.” “People literally laugh during war, when there are bodies all around them. It is the human psyche, the way we survive.”

Casting was the ‘hardest part’

Workplace comedies are only as good as their ensembles, and Ledgin admitted that finding the right talent was “the hardest part of making the whole show.” He recalled watching hundreds of tapes after the casting department reduced the number of candidates from “thousands.”

All that hard work has paid off. “Superstore” veterans Kaliko Kauahi and Josh Lawson, “Jury Duty” breakout star Mekki Leeper and “Cocaine Bear” ace Kahyun Kim round out the list of regulars for “St. Denis Medical,” alongside McLendon-Covey, Tolman and Grier. Their chemistry is palpable from episode 1, with Joyce as the neurotic but fearless hospital leader, Grier’s Ron as the grumpy and hilarious emergency room doctor, and Tolman’s Alex as the supervising nurse of the emergency department – and the emotional core of the show.

Each member of the ensemble relished the opportunity to star in an NBC comedy series sandbox under the direction of Spitzer and Ledgin.

Except Grier.

“I liked the writing, but I didn’t know anyone on the show,” Grier told TheWrap. “I knew Wendi’s work and Allison’s work from ‘Fargo,’ so I knew it was a good cast… but I didn’t know the showrunners. A rave review from “American Auto” star Ana Gasteyer encouraged him to sign on for the project, but the strong comedy in the script was what really sold it.

For McLendon-Covey: “St. Denis” was a chance for her to play a “spiky” character completely different from the “cuddly” matriarch Beverly Goldberg, whom she embodied for ten seasons on ABC’s “The Goldbergs.”

“She’s annoying, but she’s good at what she does, and you need someone like that to keep things going in a pressure cooker, like a hospital,” she told TheWrap. “She probably thought, ‘I can make a difference from within.’ “I’m going to fight the insurance companies.” That’s going to make someone bitter, isn’t it?”

Like many involved in the making of the show, Tolman shared a personal connection to the premise. Months before the script for “St. Denis” came to her, she left Los Angeles and returned to her home state of Texas. Her father had become ill and had to spend six weeks in the hospital, so she took care of the house while her mother stayed by his side during the day. They would relax at the end of each day and watch half-hour comedies together.

“It felt like kismet. And (Alex) reminded me a lot of my mother,” Tolman said, adding that the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the lives of “underrepresented and undervalued” health care workers seemed like the perfect way to honor them.

“The show does a really good job of balancing the silly with the sweet, so it doesn’t feel like we’re ever like, ‘this work is hilarious,'” she added. “These are people whose job it is to be around people on their worst days – or in some cases their best days – and every profession has things that are absolutely absurd… In some episodes we are in the broad storyline and doing we do something crazy, and in other episodes we do something crazy. We are talking about a hardcore truth of this world.”

In the writers’ room

The show, of course, begins on the page. The writers behind “St. Denis Medical” had plenty to juggle in creating a comedy series that was funny, emotional and at least somewhat accurate.

The show’s 13-member writing staff prioritized refining jokes during TheWrap’s exclusive visit to the writers’ room in late July, as cast and crew prepared to film five additional episodes ordered by the network. While the actual writing of an episode’s concept is done individually, the team met to review the concepts for Episodes 14 and 15, reading scenes and making notes on how to expand the punchlines – including a heavily discussed joke that subtly hints that Matt (Leeper), a strange but lovable new nurse who joins the staff in the series premiere, became involved in masturbating animals in his spare time (“Maybe a horse? A whale? A goat ?”).

“I love that we’re going to spend our entire hour debating masturbation jokes and fun animal facts,” Spitzer joked. “We’re trying to teach you.”

Spitzer and Ledgin led the room’s conversation, noting that almost every member of the team has a family member or close relationship with someone in the medical field. The team also consults with medical experts to ensure that the jargon, procedures and cases featured in the show are as accurate as possible. Medical technicians then ensure that the execution of the scenes on set remains in top form.

The show is certainly a comedy, and each writer brought a new flair to the jokes discussed in the room — even if the jokes weren’t always immediately obvious to Spitzer.

“This is so small I feel stupid even saying it, but when she says ‘let’s get in formation’ it might sound like ‘information,’” he told the room while on a cold open line gave a note for Joyce. unaware of the reference.

There was an unexpected moment of silence as he tried to come up with an alternative, until another writer pointed out that the line was an obvious nod to Beyoncé’s hit song “Formation.” The laughter grew as Spitzer got a crash course reminder about the global superstar. Then they moved on to the next scene.

As for the “true blue” joke about Matt? Spitzer and Ledgin told TheWrap that they ultimately removed it during the editing process — likely to avoid a comment from NBC’s Standards and Practices department.

“That’s the most time we spent on a blue joke all year,” Spitzer said.

“St. Denis Medical” premieres Tuesday, November 12 on NBC and streams on Peacock the next day.