September 2nd, 2009
Original Article from New to TV
SFUniverse writer Cynthia Boris was present for a recent Q&A session with Three Rivers featuring creator Carol Barbee, and has shared her notes about the direction of the new CBS medical drama.
Three Rivers, scheduled to make its debut on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, is a medical drama that goes inside the lives of organ donors, the recipients and the surgeons at the preeminent transplant hospital in the country. Leading the transplant team is Dr. Andy Yablonski, played by Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight). Other cast members include: Alfre Woodard, Katherine Moennig, Daniel Henney, Justina Machado and Christopher Hanke.
The name of the series Three Rivers refers to the three different aspects of organ donation — donors and their families, the recipient and the surgical team.
“I was researching a medical drama I was developing and I saw a documentary about a hospital and there was a transplant documentary and I was struck by how fascinating it was from all those different points of view,”Barbee said. “When they were talking to the donor’s family and what happened to the donor, there was this whole life that gets interrupted by a catastrophic event that no one saw coming.And what happens to this recipient who is either chronically ill and has been waiting for years and years and is on death’s door and gets this second chance because of this random thing that has happened. Or someone who has had something catastrophic in their life and they suddenly need an organ what’s going on in their lives, who are their loves, what’s at stake for them. I found those two sides so interesting, and the doctors themselves. . . the medicine it’s in the forefront of medical news now this year we had the first face transplant, the first double hand transplant so it’s really cutting edge medicine. So I was fascinated by those three elements and how you need all three for this one story to go forward for this one life to be saved.”
When Barbee first sold the idea to CBS and started the outlining and pitching process, she was invited to hang out with a transplant team at the Cleveland Clinic, the No. 1 heart transplant clinic in the world.
“They did the face transplant, they’re a cutting edge facility, they’re amazing….” Barbee said. “What I ended up writing and what Alex ended up playing was so much based on what I saw of (lead doctor, Dr. Gonzo gonazales-Stawinski) and his team. The character that Justina Machado plays is called Pam and she’s based very much on Gonzo’s best friend and assistant her name is Natalie Johnson and the relationship between the two of them as well as how they did their jobs was based on them.”
Once O’Loughlin came aboard, he too wanted to do research for the show, and visited the Cleveland clinic himself.
“He kind of fell in love with them the same way I did. Gonzo and Alex have become very close. Alex really followed Gonzo around and he’s on the phone with him every time he does a medical scene, ‘is this how you would say it or how you would do it,’” Barbee said.
And what does Barbee think of having O’Loughlin on the show, especially after the network pulled cult-favorite Moonlight?
“I wasn’t at all nervous, I felt very lucky that they steered him our way and second of all that he wanted to do it. He’s a really fine actor and he’s so dedicated and he’s a really nice guy and . . . okay. .he’s cute. He’s a great lead. I feel very luck, usually there’s a nightmare quotient to a person like that and it’s just not there with him,” Barbee said. “He had a holding deal with him for CBS and I was under contract to CBS as well and they sent him — he met with lots of people, we met with lots of people — he wanted to do it and we wanted to have him. We’re thrilled. He’s great.”
Barbee believes Three Rivers has potential for a variety of storylines about organ donation — storylines you might not think of at first.
“First of all, somebody doesn’t have to die, there are live donors and we have a lot of stories about live donors and those are fascinating because you start to deal with family dynamics. Your brother needs a kidney but you’re not particularly thrilled with the way your brother has lived his life, do you want to go through surgery? There’s also (stories like) your daughter needs a liver and you and your wife are both typed to see which of you is going to be able to donate and you find out neither of you are and that means one of your is not her parent and it’s probably not the mother, so now we have to go find that man who could possibly save that kid’s life. The stories are amazing,” Barbee said.
And even when a person dies, opening up the opportunity for organ donation, it doesn’t have to be a complete tragedy — some good can come out of it.
“I said to one of the family care specialists, this must be so difficult in a time when a family is trying to get their mind around the fact that they just lost someone they didn’t expect to lose that day — to ask them to give this gift. Her answer was, ‘we know the comfort that families get knowing that some part of their loved one lived on and something good came out of this ridiculously tragic situation, they consider it a gift to the families.’ They know what those people are going to feel once the extreme grief is gone and they know the comfort they get. It’s this feeling of nobody regrets saying yes, but 90 percent of the ones who say no regret it and they come back and so many of them come back to the donation people and want to volunteer — they have this unresolved feeling that there was something they could have done that they didn’t do,” Barbee said. “So even in a situation where someone does die, something good comes of it.”
And in many instances, organ donation gives the recipient a second chance.
“All of the characters in the show, most are on their second chance. There’s been something in their background where there was an issue, something happened and now they have this second chance at making something of their lives, that’s really true of Andy (Alex’s character) and Kate Moennig’s character as well,” Barbee said. “So you’re going to see these doctors trying very hard to save people’s lives because they need it for their own self worth as well as their relationships, you see what they give up in order to do this work. There’s a lot of loss in their lives outside this hospital and you see the mission and you understand why they do what they do.”
Several things have changed since the original pilot, which was reshot.
“We shot in Pittsburgh in the only hospital that was available and we had a great experience there and we’re very proud of the performances, we just all felt we wanted to step it up in the case of the visuals and also we couldn’t move the camera much because you’re in an actual hospital with little teeny rooms and hallways. We now have Rob Bailey, our new director / producer, he’s got this amazing visual style so we built this incredible set, that Rob can really do his thing and the camera can move and we can have a much more exciting style,”Barbee said. “Once we decided we were going to reshoot the hospital, you learn things when you shoot a pilot, we decided, do we really need two people to run this hospital so we combined the characters of Comos and Jordan into super Jordan and then Alfrie Woodard decided to join us so we did change it in that way.”
Will Three Rivers show stories about people who have memories or talents from the person who donated the organ?
“As we get into it we earn the right to bring people back that you’ve seen transplanted and to see the effects on their lives. I’m really interested in that, it’s one of those things people are interested in, is there some sort of molecular change in you when you have someone else’s organ, at the very least there’s a psychological impact and I think it’s very interesting,” Barbee said. “We already have started to weave in characters who were long time patients, people who relapsed, a lot of times when you get an organ transplant you end up needing another and we have those patients coming back in, setting up the history of the hospital.”
Post from: New to TV
Read more articles from New to TV
