‘St. Denis Medical' creators Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer discuss navigating the ‘peaks and valleys of comedy'
'It would feel stupid to walk away and do something that's less joyful,' expresses Eric Ledgin about why he has built his career around television comedy. The writer, who is one of the two creators of the NBC mockumentary series St. Denis Medical alongside Justin Spitzer, initially wanted to 'make movies that are important,' but got 'pushed into comedy by a friend.' He now revels in the format because 'half hour gives you limitless opportunities to do whatever you want.' The creative duo recently sat down with Gold Derby to discuss the origins of the hospital-set series, their favorite episodes from the first season, and more.
St. Denis Medical boasts a unique tone. It is a comedic mockumentary about the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff at a regional hospital in Oregon, but it also often includes moments of true stakes and dramatic heft. 'It's a comedy and it's comedy forward, but there's a lot of attention paid to character and conflict and realism,' explains Spitzer, who notes, 'It's not a drama, but we're not just a joke machine either.' Ledgin echoes the sentiment, adding, 'The thesis is that hospitals are funny places, and I think if you talk to healthcare workers, almost all of them would agree. Because it's a mockumentary, it would feel false if there weren't real moments of people being moved.' 'You have the peaks and valleys of comedy and serious, happy and sad,' adds Spitzer.
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WATCH our video interview with Wendi McLendon-Covey, 'St. Denis Medical'
The series features a large ensemble of television stalwarts including David Alan Grier, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Allison Tolman plus newer faces to broadcast television such as Josh Lawson, Kahyun Kim, Mekki Leeper, and Kaliko Kauahi. When the creators were first crafting the series, the number of full-time players they wanted to include was 'restricted by budgets, obviously,' but Spitzer explains, 'What's great about these workplace settings, certainly Superstore, is that you have so many recurring employees and nurses and doctors, so it gives you the chance to slowly expand the world.' Ledgin appreciates having a large ensemble because 'having more options helps, especially when you're on episode 50 and you're trying to come up with something fresh.' The characters he gravitated toward when he and Spitzer were breaking the pilot were surgeon Bruce, played by Lawson, and Alex, portrayed by Tolman, especially because they are so 'opposite' and therefore 'opposing forces.'
In addition to the premiere episode, which laid the foundation for the tricky balance of broad comedy and emotional stakes of the show, Ledgin and Spitzer co-wrote the tenth installment, 'People Just Say Stuff Online.' In the episode, Dr. Ron, played by Grier, gets a negative Yelp review from a patient who felt the advice he received from the doctor was disparaging. The idea for the episode was inspired by a real interaction Ledgin heard from a healthcare provider. 'This doctor, who was a cocky ortho guy, was telling me he had this patient who was overweight and had a knee issue and he said the person got really offended. I thought the story was going to be, 'Can you f—ing believe this guy?,' but instead he said, 'I need to be more sensitive.' It was this very touching story about this jock-seeming guy and that seemed surprising in a way that felt like an interesting launch pad.' Spitzer says the episode works because 'this is one of those complicated areas. You don't want to make people feel ashamed, you need to meet them halfway, but some things are worse for your health than other things.'
SEE 'I know this dude!': David Alan Grier explains why he leapt at the chance to play a 'burned-out' doctor on 'St. Denis Medical'
The episode also features an excellent push-and-pull between Ron and McLendon-Covey's Joyce, the hospital administrator concerned with maintaining St. Denis' four-star rating online. The dynamic between the two had been developing all season. Ledgin describes, 'They have this history and a respect, even when they argue, and that definitely informed a lot of what we did even in Season 1. We're having a little more fun in Season 2 exploring questions like, how long have they worked together, and how well do they know each other?' Spitzer observes that in comedy series like St. Denis Medical, 'The characters become very quickly a family or a group of people that generally like each other. ... You have conflict, you keep that, but underneath it, people really don't want to watch people who truly hate each other.'
In Gold Derby's recent interviews with Grier and McLendon-Covey, both actors expressed interest in doing a flashback episode to when Ron and Joyce were residents together at St. Denis three decades ago. Asked about the possibility, Spitzer confesses, 'It's hard with a mockumentary,' because who would have been filming in the hospital back then? Ledgin agrees, saying, 'I have a little trouble with the math of that.'
WATCH our video interview with Allison Tolman, 'St. Denis Medical'
Ledgin also wrote the season finale, 'This Place Is Our Everything,' which features a payoff to the season-long question about a potential romance between nurses Serena (Kim) and Matt (Leeper). Ledgin says of how he approached the arc and its first-season conclusion, 'I think the primary thing was just not forcing anything and making sure that it never felt paint by numbers. … If there's something that we did that was smart, it was not going in with a specific objective of what's going to happen with them. I could see it. I could also see it blowing up.'
Out of the 18 episodes from St. Denis Medical's first season, Ledgin and Spitzer single out a few as especially memorable. Spitzer cites the third episode, 'Weird Stuff You Can't Explain,' sharing, 'I love watching Val (Kauahi) drag the cross. It makes me laugh a lot. If I rewatch it, it still makes me laugh.' Ledgin mentions episode 14, 'Listen to Your Ladybugs,' because it features a subplot with Ron that he says 'happened to me in the middle of the season, and it was very cathartic and fun to see.' He also spotlights the penultimate episode, 'Bruce-ic and the Mus-ic,' which features Bruce competing in a dance contest at the hospital gala, and 'People Just Say Stuff Online,' which finds Bruce confronting his high school bully. Speaking of Lawson's performance, the creator says, 'I thought he executed that so well in such a maniacal way.'
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