TCA Press Tour: First look at the set of CBS ‘Three Rivers’

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When you watched ‘ER,’ chances were that the hospital set felt familiar and reminiscent of hospitals you have personally visited. But when you tune in to CBS’ new medical drama, ‘Three Rivers,’ you will be introduced to the hospital of the future.

Created by Carol Barbee (‘Jericho’ and ‘Swingers’), ‘Three Rivers’ is set in a preeminent transplant hospital in Pittsburgh and centers on the lives of the organ donors, the recipients and the healthcare workers who care for them. Each story is told from those three points of view.

‘We will always go to two separate groups of people and you don’t know who is the donor and who is the recipient until something happens and they end up at Three Rivers,’ Barbee said during a news conference held on the set today as part of the TV press tour. ‘We’re dropping you into the world of the people involved and seeing what’s at stake in their world and watching them get a resolution.’

The show’s original pilot was shot on location at a working hospital in Pittsburgh. But when CBS picked up the series, Barbee decided to build her ‘dream hospital’ in Los Angeles, after touring the Cleveland Clinic for her research and visiting its new ‘high-tech’ and ‘beautiful wing.’

Those adjectives fit the set Barbee and the cast unveiled to the media today. Although there are large computer monitors everywhere -- so many we lost count -- it also manages to be warm, earthy and ultra-modern at the same time. The donor wall is glass, for example, and an installation piece in the lobby showcases back-lit photographs of clouds and skies.

‘A lot of it is about making people feel they’re in a nice hotel so they don’t feel intimated,’ Barbee said. ‘So they feel they’re welcomed here, they know the technology is there, they know if they need help someone is there, but they feel calm serene, in comfortable place.’

With only two months to prepare, production designer Phillip Toolin said he looked at hospitals all over the world and focused his research on Scandinavia. Then he tore down the wall between Stages 19 and 20 (where ‘Citizen Kane’ was filmed) to create long, curved corridors that help the doctors move quickly, and designed ‘whimsical curves and sculptural shapes that have no point to them but provide delight and whimsy.’

‘We found the most beautiful hospitals [in Scandinavia],’ he said. ‘They looked the most humane and looked like people’s houses or like beautiful hotels. That’s what we want. We want our patients to feel like it’s not a hospital-clinic atmosphere. And to get that, we used a whole bunch of notions. First, old and new. We have a modern building set inside this older building. The idea of bringing nature inside with natural materials. We have trees outside, warm colors to get rid of the antiseptic feel and a sense of style and a sense that it’s a network hospital. You see monitors everywhere. You get the sense that it’s almost paperless. Every doctor can tap into a monitor to find out everything they want to know.’

‘Three Rivers’ premieres on Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. and stars Alex O’Loughlin (‘Moonlight’) who plays Dr. Andy Yablonski, a popular and highly skilled workaholic lead surgeon. Yablonski’s colleagues include: Dr. Miranda Foster (Katherine Moennig of ‘The L Word’), a surgical fellow with a fiery temper; the womanizing surgical resident Dr. David Lee (Daniel Henney); Ryan Abbott (Christopher J. Hanke), the new transplant coordinator; Yablonski’s best friend, Pam Acosta (Justina Machado of ‘Six Feet Under’); and head of surgery, Dr. Sophia Jordan, who is played by Alfre Woodard.

The set is housed in the lot’s Cary Grant building, and legend has it that the actor’s ghost resides there.

‘But I haven’t seen him,’ said set decorator Beau Petersen.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez