“Red Band Society” and “The Mysteries of Laura,” two series with roots in Spain, will premiere tonight on Fox and NBC.
“Red Band Society,” billed by Fox and its producers as a life-inspiring dramedy about a group of patients in the pediatrics ward of an acclaimed Los Angeles hospital, premieres at 9 p.m. It stars Octavia Spencer as the nurse who runs the ward with fellow Oscar winner Steven Spielberg among its executive producers.
“Red Band Society” is based on both the Catalan series “Polseres Vermelles” and the experiences of Margaret Nagle, who developed the series and wrote the premiere episode.
It was announced in 2011 that Spielberg’s Amblin Television had acquired the rights to make an American version of “Polseres Vermelles,” which was to be developed for ABC by Marta Kauffman, a co-creator of the hit 1994-2004 NBC comedy “Friends.” However, ABC decided against ordering it as a series.
Fox announced in 2013 that it would attempt to adapt “Polseres Vermelles” for an American audience. Fox executive Charlie Andrews, who had worked with Nagle in 2013 on a pilot inspired by the life of documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, decided Nagle “was just weird enough to write this show,” she told City News Service.
“The show is about being a freak,” Nagle said. “It’s not about being sick. It’s about how do you take the part of you that leaves you so lonely and unlike everybody else and how does that become your strength.”
Nagle said Andrews sought her to develop “Red Band Society” even before knowing her older brother Charlie was in a coma for at least one year because of an automobile accident.
“I grew up (in) pediatric hospitals and so I found them to be the most uplifting, the most hilarious (places because of) the black humor, the fun, getting to know kids that you would never know in any other situation,” said Nagle, who received Emmy nominations for her script for HBO’s 2005 made-for-television movie “Warm Springs,” and as a producer for HBO’s period crime drama “Boardwalk Empire.” She also wrote the screenplay for the film “The
Good Lie,” set to be released Oct. 3.
“Red Band Society” is narrated by Charlie (Griffin Gluck), a 12-year-old in a coma. Other patients include a 16-year-old determined not to let his cystic fibrosis stop him from living his life (Astro); a 15-year-old girl with an eating disorder (Ciara Bravo); and a “mean girl” cheerleader with a failing heart (Zoe Levin).
The medical staff caring for them — and standing in as their parents — also includes the nation’s top pediatric surgeon (Dave Annable), chief of staff Erin Grace (Mandy Moore), a naive nurse (Rebecca Rittenhouse) and another nurse who was once the patient of Spencer’s character (Wilson Cruz).
“The doctors and the nurses and the orderlies in pediatrics, they’re different from the rest of the hospital,” Nagle said. “This is something they are driven to do. They want to be there in this job.
“Sometimes they’re working out something in their own life, childhood, someone they couldn’t save, someone that they loved, that they lived with. They bring that into their work.”
The “arc” of the first season will be “the story of Charlie,” inspired by her brother’s experiences, Nagle said.
“My brother could hear in the coma,” Nagle said. “He could spell in the coma. He was experiencing life all around him the coma.
“We’re going to join in the journey. We’re going to know his family. We’re going to actually see how he, in that coma, connects and changes the lives of these other characters as well. But it’s always going to be fart jokes. It’s going to be right out in the world of being a 12-year-old boy, which is what he is.”
“The Mysteries of Laura,” whose star Debra Messing also used the word dramedy to describe it, will premiere at 10 p.m. on NBC, following the season finale of “America’s Got Talent.” It will usually air at 8 p.m. Wednesdays,
beginning next Wednesday.
Messing portrays a New York Police Department homicide detective raising unruly twin sons and whose soon-to-be ex-husband (Josh Lucas) becomes her boss. It is based on the Spanish series “Los Misterious De Laura.”
“This is a dream come true for me because I get to be in the center of a mystery and a murder mystery,” said Messing, best known for her eight seasons starring on the NBC comedy “Will & Grace,” which brought her an Emmy.
“This was the first time I’ve read a script for network TV where I didn’t have to choose — do I want to do a comedy or do I want to do a drama? It’s both.”
