Organ donation is the focus of Three Rivers which centers on a clinic whose doctors fly all around the country to retrieve organs for their patients. This drama centers on these doctors who do everything in their power to find and retrieve the needed organs.
Creator and Executive Producer of Three Rivers, Carol Barbee, explained about the show during the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour. She said, “The setup of the show [each week] is to tell three stories that ultimately become one story. So we’ll always drop into two separate groups of people, and [the viewers] won’t know who is going to be the donor or who is going to be the recipient until something happens and they end up at Three Rivers and you [then] see who is going to be our donor [and] who is our recipient.”
Random Things Occur to Bring People Together
Barbee added, “It’s about how random things happen in this world, about how you think you have all the time in the world, and you don’t. You never know what’s going to happen, and the lives that get brought together in our show and actually in real life, they’re brought together by random events.”
When she was looking for a show to create, she heard about organ donations and thought that would make a great medical show. She wanted to tell the stories from three points of view: the donors, the recipients, and the doctors.
Medical Shows on TV
Medical shows are popping up on all the networks. According to Barbee, “Medical shows, lawyer shows, cop shows – those will always do well because the stories walk through the door for you … They’re fun to write, and you can write a lot of them. But I think for us, ER was going off the air. So there was room on the landscape, and CBS was looking for a medical show for their network.
Alfre Woodard plays Dr. Sophia Jordan, the head of surgery for the hospital, was asked if medical dramas have changed much since she portrayed Dr. Roxanne Turner from 1985-1998 in St. Elsewhere. “I’ll tell you what I’m struck by,” she said, “is how realistically they’re done. I don’t think we ever saw a heart or lung actually on St. Elsewhere. Now, some of the viewers could practically help with the procedure,” she said with a chuckle.
Carol Barber explained about the actual organ donors and their families. “Counseling is given on both sides of the equation, and all these things are discussed, but there’s definitely a healing effect that is of benefit, particularly to the donor family to be able to see the continuation of that person’s life who they loved. So there’s definitely a benefit there. And on the recipient side, if they are ready, they want to say thank you [to the donor’s family.]”
After being part of this show, the actors were asked if they were organ donors prior to this series. Justina Machado (Pam Acosta) said “Yeah, absolutely.” Daniel Henney (Dr. David Lee) said he was not, Katherine Moening (Dr. Miranda Foster) was proud to say that she is an organ donor, and Alex O’Loughlin (Dr. Andy Yablonski) said he thought it was a cool thing to do. Those who said they had not previously been organ donors are either signing up now or seriously considering becoming organ donors after seeing the lives that can be saved by organ donation.
Barbee further explained that the fictional Three Rivers hospital is located in Pittsburgh. “The number one transplant clinic in the world is in Pittsburgh, it’s UPMC, and it’s an amazing, amazing place.” The creators did their research in the Cleveland Clinic, which, she said, is a fascinating place.
The name Three Rivers not only refers to the three stories in each episode, but it also refers to the three rivers that run through Pittsburgh, the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio.
To find out about organ donation, visit the Donate Life website.
Three Rivers premiers Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 9 PM ET/PT on CBS.
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