'St. Denis Medical' Creator Talks Being Funny Without 'Doing Harm' in the Premiere

The St. Denis Medical premiere episodes revealed that trauma can happen anywhere and any time, even when you're trying to make it to your kid's school play. That's the tough position new head nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) found herself in during the pilot episode. At the end of the day, Alex remembered that being a nurse is about saving lives, and when she's able to do that there's no better feeling in the world.

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Before Alex could reclaim the joy in her job though, we met her co-workers who sometimes make her question why she spends 80 hours a week doing this work. There's her second in command at the nurse's station Serena (Kahyn Kim), who helps keep Alex sane. They also have Val (Kaliko Kauahi), who is not at St. Denis to suck up anyone's nonsense. However, the nurses also have to deal with Ron (David Alan Grier), who acts like a father figure to them but is too jaded to actually get his hands dirty with the work that needs to be done around the hospital.

On the more antagonistic side, there's hospital president Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covi), who is so preoccupied with making St. Denis Medical a destination hospital that she overlooks the immediate needs of her staff. Bruce (Josh Lawson) is an incredible surgeon, but you have to put up with his ego to get anything done. And then there's Matt (Mekki Leeper), a brand new nurse who is more of a hazard than helpful when it comes to saving patients.

All of these people want to heal the patients that come into St. Denis Medical, but working together for that common goal is harder than you can imagine and where the jokes in this medical comedy come from. Parade spoke to St. Denis Medical co-creator Eric Ledgin about the premiere episodes and what fans can expect going forward.

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How would you describe Joyce as a character in this show? In the premiere episodes, she's not vindictively evil, but she's also making everyone else's life harder. Is she actually a villain?
I kind of want that to be a little confusing. That's the goal with the character. It is something that Wendi plays so well because she is so magnetic and liable, but she's doing things that aren't necessary. That is true in general about management in any job. A lot of people see their boss as good in some ways and annoying in a lot more ways, right?

In the healthcare industry, the tricky part is that Joyce's goal is a moral goal. She wants to help more people. Yes, it's in line with her ego goal of making this a destination hospital. But ultimately, she started out as an oncologist. She was treating cancer patients. Now, she sees a way for her to make her mark by making this hospital amazing. It's a good goal. Oftentimes, the administration loses touch a little bit with what's happening on the ground and how best to help the patients we have today, as opposed to the patients we want to help five years from now.

How do you walk that line? The Office was able to use Michael Scott's incompetence to fuel the comedy, but if you have a hospital with incompetent doctors, that's not funny. It's a nightmare. 
Totally. It was a conscious decision to where we can be funny, but be funny while doing the least harm. You talk to a lot of people about first year nurses, there is this thing about first year "dummies." The first years make a lot of mistakes. I love mistakes, and that's Matt. He's trying his best, and he's making a lot of mistakes as a first year nurse. But other nurses are there to watch over him and make sure that no one is getting hurt in the process. I can tell you from my own hospital experience that there's a lot of truth to young nurses making mistakes. Whereas Bruce is a surgeon operating on a very life or death level. We found a lot of comedy in him being deeply insecure, but a pretty awesome surgeon. He's the guy you want if you are going to go under. Joyce is toeing that line. There is a lot to learn from Joyce throughout the first season. Maybe you'll see Alex take a page or two from Joyce's book.

Matt admits he's in love with Serena right off the bat. Are you going for a slow-burn romance there or what does that storyline look like going forward?
I'm trying other trademark this phrase. But I am calling it a "Will-I-won't I." Because this is a very one-sided. "Will-they-won't-they" that exists only in Matt's mind. We'll have a lot of fun in Season 1 with the one-sidedness of it and, without giving anything away, I will promise that some progress is made in that overall story by the end of the season. Without telling you whether it's positive progress or negative progress, there is some movement that will happen.

Related: St. Denis Medical Boss Talks Mixing Comedy and Medicine in New Sitcom

Alex's big hurdle in these first episodes is setting up better work-life balance. Are we ever going to go home with her to see what the other half of her life looks like? 
Justin [Spitzer, co-creator] and I both agreed that we didn't really want to go anywhere besides the hospital for the first season. It felt like the show wanted to live in the hospital, not just because it's cheaper to film that way, but because it just felt right for getting to know these characters and their space. If we get another season, we probably expand a bit and find ways that feel organic and natural. You will get to meet her husband and one of her kids in ways that I think are natural to the show.

Pilots require so much exposition and set up and they are about making sure everyone is properly introduced. What were you most excited to get into when you sat down to write Episode 2, knowing the exposition was out of the way?The two things I can think of right off the top of my head was I wanted to find out more about Joyce and her personal life, and what a weirdo she is. I was in bed one night and I had the thought, "Oh, Joyce plays the marimba." I was feeling the power of having my own show and being able to be like, "I can make it so Joyce now plays the marimba." Getting into those quirky details of their personal lives without feeling like we're wasting valuable time was exciting to me. Getting Bruce a storyline was also important. He was short-changed in the pilot because we were cutting down to time. But he's such an insane, borderline sociopathic character that I really enjoy seeing him talk to the camera a lot and having his own storyline.

Is there anything shocking that you've learned about the medical industrial complex that you are excited to share with the audience through this show?
It's how much bureaucracy people have to do deal with. I had a sense of that, but I didn't realize how frustrating it was for people in terms of just getting certain care approved for patience whose insurance is being difficult, or how much paperwork or computer work doctors have to do during a day. I think some of the interdepartmental tensions is something I'm hoping to get into more if we get a Season 2 because that stuff, any sort of inner conflict, is always very fun for me to explore when it's people who are supposed to be on the same team.

St. Denis Medical continues Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.

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