Andrew Lenchewski - Co-executive Producer, Royal Pains
Michael Rauch - Executive Producer, Royal Pains
Mark Feuerstein - Actor, Royal Pains

(May 2009) - PCM recently participated in a very entertaining media call with key members of the hit USA show, Royal Pains (see above). Andrew serves as writer and co-executive producer, Michael, as executive producer, and Mark stars as Dr. Hank Lawson in Royal Pains, which will premiere on June 4th at 10:00/9:00 Central on USA Network. Check out some Q&A held with the producers and actor to learn more about why this show is going to really catch on with audiences and what to expect from the season! Be sure to follow ROYAL PAINS on Twitter and join the Facebook Fan Page !

Q: How do you find someone to play a role like that where you have to love and hate the guy, and then stay with it as he recovers? So, what did Mr. Feuerstein bring to the character that persuaded you to cast him?

A. Lenchewski: I think we knew from the beginning we needed a guy who could bring the competency of a physician, so we could, see that credibly, and then play the consequences of that decision that you referenced at the top of the pilot, both in terms of the humanity of it, the drama of it, and then the comedy that I think was needed to bounce him back from that rock bottom that he hit when his brother came and scooped him up and took him out to the Hamptons. I think as soon as Mark came in and auditioned for the role, we gave him a few of those critical scenes. The moment of that difficult decision in the yard, the moment of depression in his apartment, and then that first moment out in the Hamptons, and he hit all of those colors brilliantly.

Q: I wonder if you could describe for us in 20 seconds or less, the show, Royal Pains?

M. Rauch: Michael, has the clock started ticking? That's a lot of pressure. Royal Pains is a show about, basically, a guy, Hank Lawson, who is a doctor, who had some choices he made in his past life have come back to change the direction of where he thought his life was going.

If you haven't seen the pilot, let me rephrase that, if you haven't seen it, because I was referencing off of that. It's a show about a doctor, that does not take place in a hospital, and his new practice is basically making house calls to both the wealthy and people who do not have as much wealth, in the Hamptons. And it's a show that deals a lot with medicine, but it's much more than that, for him as a doctor, in that it's not just about healing sicknesses, but also helping to heal people. And it's also a relationship show and because it's on USA, it's very strong in character. Andrew, do you want to add anything?

Q: Where did the idea for Royal Pains come from?

A. Lenchewski: The idea came, actually, from a friend of mine who was telling me about a concierge doctor that his family had begun to use, and he asked me whether I thought it would be a good idea for a TV show and I said it wouldn't, I thought it would be the perfect idea for a TV show. And so we, along with two of our other executive producers, Paul Frank and Rich Frank, we went off and pitched it to a few networks, and USA was the one that really, most strongly embraced what it was. And I went off and wrote the script, we shot the pilot last September, got picked up the series in January, and we've just begun production within the past couple months and we're now about to start shooting our fifth episode.

Q: Mark, what made you want to be a part of the show?

M. Feuerstein: Well, first of all, I grew up in New York City, going to first a public school, then a private school, and when I got to the private school in Manhattan, I learned of what we called "The Promised Land," which are the Hamptons. I've always had an affinity for the Hamptons. I think it is one of the most romantic, beautiful, pristine, exclusive, in a private and kind of meditative way, places on earth. So, when I heard about a show which was about a doctor set in the Hamptons, I jumped at it, then I found out it was my friend, Andrew Lenchewski, who had written the script, and then I found out that the role of Hank Lawson was a guy who was a dramatic, comedic, and romantic lead with all this dimension and everything that a good cable show has to offer, and that it was on USA, the number one cable network - which supports its shows rather than makes them crazy, as they do sometimes at the networks - and I just decided that this was just my new vision quest and I had to have it. A month later, after a relatively rigorous audition process, I got it, and I was in heaven and I still am.


Q: I was just wondering what made you decide on shooting in New York, like a medical-type story? I know there's a lot of other shows are also doing the New York route for production, like Showtime's Nurse Jackie.

M. Rauch: I think it was a dual thing. One was the fact that this show does take place in New York, and especially in the Hamptons, and we really wanted to have the authenticity, this is Michael, by the way, we really wanted to have the authenticity of that as opposed to shooting it in Toronto for New York, or even LA for New York, and the environment is such a critical element of the show.

Q: How many episodes are scheduled to be filmed for this first season?

M. Rauch: We're going to shoot 11 episodes in addition to the pilot that we already shot.

Q: I always like to find out what kind of advice you would give to young people that want to break into show business, so if you were looking into being, in your specialties or be an actor, what would you advise for a start for people?

M. Rauch: I think it's many elements, one is an incredible work ethic and working really hard, being passionate and certain that this is the field you want to pursue, because if you don't have that passion or that certainty, it's going to make the road very, very difficult. And I think educating yourself in all aspects of, whether it's film or TV, but if you're a writer, not just understanding writing but also understanding acting and editing and directing, even cinematography, just to get a sense of all the different elements that collaborate to make a great show.

A. Lenchewski: The best advise I ever heard, as a struggling writer, was, stop struggling and start writing.

Q: How much do you collaborate between each other when you're developing a show. Is it a team effort or do you kind of do your own part separately and then try to mesh it together at the end?

M. Rauch: It's a lot of both. We have a writer's room, a fantastic writer's room, with five other really talented writers, and sometimes someone will come in with an idea and they have a very certain sense of what that idea is, and we'll all help flush it out. And sometimes we all come up with an idea together and collaborate on building the story, but always when it goes from the outlying stage to script, one writer will take the script and write the script himself or herself.

Q: Were there any difficulties in getting the script to go from just an idea to a full-fledged series, which is now about to premier?

M. Rauch: The biggest difficulty was having to sit on the edge of your chair and stare at a phone for two or three months, but to USA's great credit, I think one of the major reasons for their success, and I think it's a credit to the cable model in general, is that they're not doing a volume business. They really very carefully hand pick the ideas that they want to pilot, and the pilots that they want to shoot, and the months that we spent waiting weren't really just waiting, it was really fine-tuning the script and the characters and the vision for where the series would go. So I think that really was a very encouraging process to go through.

Q: What is the most important factor that makes Royal Pains different from other doctor shows?

A. Lenchewski: I think the way we look at it is that all other medical shows bring the patient to the hospital, and we're bringing the hospital to the patients.

Q: Are there other important characters that we're going to get to know throughout the show?

M. Rauch: Yes, there are multiple other important characters that you'll get to know on the show, and not in any specific order, there's Hank's physician assistant, whose name is Divya, and she is someone who will help Hank run HankMed, which is their concierge doctor service. There's also the romantic lead with Hank, Jill Casey, who's the hospital administrator at Hamptons Heritage Hospital, and she's someone who is part of this hospital system, although she knows it's flawed whereas Hank is kind of outside of the system now, and also believes it's flawed. Campbell Scott plays a character named Boris, I'll let Andrew pronounce his last name. But he is this mysterious man of wealth, power, and a background that no one is quite sure what it is, but has a small sense of omniscience about him, and it is on his estate that Hank and his brother, Evan, live.

And then there are also characters that are going to be less frequent in the episodes but very important to the storytelling. Christine Ebersole plays a Hamptonite whose name is Miss Newberg, also known as New Parts Newberg, and then Ezra Miller and Meredith Hagner play a young, teenage couple in love, and they're kind of wise beyond their years and fantastic in the show.

Q: The show is airing right after Burn Notice, what kind of audience crossover do you think you're going to get there?

M. Rauch: Hopefully full- out hands cross over. I think that USA is very savvy in pairing us with that show. I think there's a lot of shared sensibility. I think there's a lot that the two central characters, the heros, share in common, guys who have sort of, through no choice of their own left their old lives behind and are now working outside the system to help people in beautiful, sunny locations, surrounded by a cast of quirky and fun characters. So hopefully the shows will work really well together and feed off each other.

Q: Healthcare it's definitely a hot topic right now, so are there any healthcare issues or topics that you would like to see covered on any of the shows?

M. Rauch: Yes, there's a lot of, I think, as you said, healthcare is such a kind of dominant issue right now in our country, and we want to hit it without hitting it too hard, and part of what we're doing in every episode is having Hank and his company, HankMed, treat both the wealthy and also the less privileged, and oftentimes the story lines that revolve around the less privileged deal with the type of healthcare they've been getting, the type of healthcare they've been shut out of, so trying to handle it in a way that remains within the tone of the show and the network, but at the same time hoping to deal with it in a way that treats it honestly and with the way that it deserves.

Q: How did you decide to set the show in the Hamptons? I mean, for those of us in the New York area, all you have to say is The Hamptons and everyone thinks of the usual stereotypes. Do you find that that's going to translate nationally, or is it as much a chance to educate people about the stereotype of the Hamptons and how it's not entirely true as well, going off of an earlier question.

A. Lenchewski: Well, a couple things. When the idea for the show formulated, the second idea that formulated was the only place to set this was in the Hamptons. I just felt that it's a great world, a beautiful world, one that hasn't really been seen on TV before, and it also really seemed to fit very organically with this character and his story as a concierge doctor to be, because you've got some of the wealthiest people in the world spending a couple of months of their year out there, yet there's really only one hospital and it's not a hospital that's on par with the kinds of institutions where these people are accustomed to being treated, so it felt like there was definitely a niche in the market that Hank would be able to serve.

To the second part of your question, I think this is all about Hank and we see the world through his eyes, so I think there are moments of observation where he'll sort of laugh at the outrageousness and excesses of the world, but at the same time, he's a doctor and he is helping people; and I think that will allow us to humanize a lot of the characters because at the end of the day, if you're a 16-year-old kid with hemophilia as Tucker is, the young boy that Michael referenced earlier, the hemophilia doesn't care how much money you have. So we look at medicine as the great equalizer and we think that the show will help get that across.

Q: Mark, what about the role do you find challenging?

M. Feuerstein: Well, Hank is a complicated guy, because as a child his father lost all the family's money in the stock market, and then you find him at the beginning of the pilot getting fired for not bending over backwards and risking a neighborhood kid's life to save a rich guy. So, he has a very tenuous and conflictual relationship to money, and there he is being asked to take care of people with a lot of it. So, I love the inner conflict just built into the situation, but I also think he's just a good guy at heart, whose heart is in the right place, who wants to do good and make good on his Hippocratic Oath to take care of people. But also he's a good brother, and I don't know, he looks out for people and his heart is in the right place.