New TV Series Is Set in Clinic for Women

Some years ago, novelist Sara Davidson had an unpleasant experience with a male gynecologist.

“I had a problem,” she recalls, “and he said, ‘I’ll give you some magic pills and that will solve the problem. Don’t worry, it’s not one of those funny things.’

“ ‘You mean it’s not cancer?’ I asked. I didn’t like being talked to as a 3-year-old.”

Davidson, the author of “Loose Change,” “Friends of the Opposite Sex” and “Rock Hudson: His Story,” eventually discovered the Santa Monica Women’s Clinic. The clinic helped her through two difficult pregnancies and became the inspiration for a television series about a women’s clinic.

“HeartBeat” premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday on ABC with a two-hour episode and continues for five more weeks, in hopes of being renewed for fall. The show will fill the “Dynasty” time slot, replacing glittery fantasy with gritty reality.

“HeartBeat” has had a long evolution.

“I spent five years being turned down right and left,” Davidson recalls. “I was told, ‘No one will watch. It’s all about that female stuff.’ ”

Then a year ago she brought the idea up again in a meeting with Esther Shapiro, co-executive producer of “Dynasty,” and Ilene Chaikin, vice president of creative affairs at Aaron Spelling Productions. They liked it. So did ABC, which gave Davidson an immediate go-ahead for a script. When she turned in her first draft, the network ordered six shows. Shapiro is serving as executive producer.

The clinic in “HeartBeat,” called Women’s Medical Arts, is “a full-service medical group that takes care of women, head to toe,” says Davidson, the series’ co-producer and head writer.

“The whole spirit of Women’s Medical Arts is empowering women and giving them a choice. The philosophy of this group is that doctors are not gods. Their judgment isn’t perfect. They have terrific technical knowledge, and they share that with the patient. Then it’s up to the patient to make a choice.”

Dr. Karen Blanchard, founder of Santa Monica Women’s Clinic, is one of the series’ medical advisers. The other is Dr. Mel Silverstein, head of the Breast Center in the San Fernando Valley. Davidson describes the Breast Center, which is run by male doctors, as having “the same spirit of compassion.”

She continues, “Studies about women doctors indicate that they tend to spend more time with patients and get more emotionally involved. But this is not a show knocking men or excluding men. Three of the clinic’s doctors are men.”

Starring in “HeartBeat” are Ray Baker, Laura Johnson, Darrell Larson, Ben Masters, Kate Mulgrew, Gail Strickland, Claudette Sutherland and Lynn Whitfield.

Davidson anticipates that “HeartBeat” will stir up controversy within the medical profession.

“The scripts have been gone over with a fine-toothed comb by our advisers and by ABC’s outside medical advisers,” she says. “Some of ABC’s medical advisers called our group (of fictional doctors) ‘radicals,’ ” she says. She denies the charge. “Our doctors are highly advanced in thought and style, but they’re conservative medically.

“ ‘L.A. Law’ just did a story about an eight-months-pregnant woman dying of leukemia. Her obstetrician wanted to go in and do a Caesarean section. She wanted to try to carry the baby to term. They got a court order to do the operation, and she died on the operating table. That’s the opposite of empowering women. If that story were done on our show, our doctors would be trying to support the patient and let her make her own decisions.

“What comes through strongest at Women’s Medical Arts is the way people care about their patients as full human beings. The doctors aren’t passing them through a conveyor belt.”

The ideas presented in “HeartBeat” may seem new to viewers more accustomed to traditional doctoring practices. However, according to Davidson, there are at least 20 women’s clinics around the country.

“Women are accustomed to men being at the top of this field,” says Kate Mulgrew, who plays Dr. Joanne Springsteen, one of the founders of Women’s Medical Arts. (Davidson describes Mulgrew’s character as “the moral center of the show. She’s our Capt. Furillo.”)

“It takes intelligence, curiosity and no small degree of trust for a woman to go to a woman doctor,” Mulgrew continues. “If she does, she’ll discover there’s a certain element of nurturing that you get with a woman that men don’t know about. What could make better sense than for a woman to go to a woman gynecologist?”

Mulgrew believes “HeartBeat” will inspire women to demand more from their doctors.

“Doctors don’t tell you anything,” she complains. “You shouldn’t have to demand to know. You should simply be told. It’s your body. My character will offer her patients information and will stay with them until they get it straight.”

“HeartBeat” won’t just be about medicine, Mulgrew emphasizes. “My character struggles with her personal life. She has the same problems other achievement-oriented women have.”

The series will deal with such topical medical issues as artificial insemination, taking estrogen during menopause and pregnancy reduction (reducing the number of embryos in a multiple pregnancy).

The first episode features a detailed discussion about breast cancer and the options open to the patient. In one scene, the patient’s elderly family doctor confronts the clinic’s cancer specialist (played by Laura Johnson) and insists that his patient be given a mastectomy. The two doctors get into a heated discussion about the most effective way to treat breast cancer.

“Our goal is to always present both sides of the issue equally convincingly,” Davidson says. “We’re never going to present anything as the ‘right’ answer. There are no answers, only options.”