Wendi McLendon-Coveyhas a bad taste in her mouth.
“What flavor are these mints?”
Denis Medical.“Disgusting.““Ugh.
‘St. Denis Medical’ star Wendi McLendon-Covey.Sami Drasin
““They’re oppressive.
““Well, they’re horrible.
““It’s making my tongue go numb.
‘St. Denis Medical’ star Wendi McLendon-Covey.Sami Drasin
I’m going to help out that way,'” McLendon-Covey explains of Joyce.
And it’s very hard.”
Not that anyone would consider medical care even in an administrative position an easy job.
‘St. Denis Medical’ star Wendi McLendon-Covey.Sami Drasin
But work has also become a large part of Joyce’s identity, perhaps to her detriment.
“This is her life.
She will die alone.
Wendi McLendon-Covey on ‘St. Denis Medical’.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
She’s not a fun lady,” the actress says, laughing.
The epitome of a helicopter mom, Bev was an adoring but overbearing mother, wife, and daughter.
McLendon-Covey received the script forSt.
Denisthe same day she found outThe Goldbergswas canceled.
“I didn’t want to play another mom right away.
I did that, and I was going to be closely associated with that,” admits theBridesmaidsandReno 911alum.
“[Joyce] is a woman that cannot nurture anything.
She cannot keep a plant alive.
She has stuffed animals all around her office, but she could not mother a thing.”
“I was surprised.
I didn’t think she’d be interested.
I would’ve thought she’d want a break,” says Spitzer.
“But she loves to work.”
But “Wendi brings a strength that’s just there no matter what.
And that strength manifests itself in different ways,” he explains.
“What she brought was way more active and interesting than maybe what I was picturing.”
So, improvising, McLendon-Covey did a cartwheel.
“She just went for it in heels!”
Ledgin recalls, his eyes lighting up thinking about the scene.
“The whole group of actors were like, ‘Whoa!’
And it was totally genuine.
Kahyun Kim and Allison Tolman on ‘St. Denis Medical’.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
That’s in the show now because it was just so surprising and weird.”
“Yeah, she is a bit of a weirdo,” the actress wholeheartedly concedes.
“Would she call herself that?
David Alan Grier and Josh Lawson on ‘St. Denis Medical’.Ron Batzdorff/NBC
No, but I would.”
That said, there is a word Spitzer knows Joyce would use.
“Boss,” he declares, attributing that all to his star.
Guest star Mindy Sterling, along with Mekki Leeper and Kaliko Kauahi on ‘St. Denis Medical’.Casey Durkin/NBC
“It’s not like we set out to be a whole different punch in of mockumentary.
Ledgin had been toying around with the hospital setting for several years.
Afraid of them as a child, his opinion changed when he was in his 20s.
‘St. Denis Medical’ star Wendi McLendon-Covey.Sami Drasin
For example, a work trip to the outskirts of Seattle with Steve Schneider (who playsSt.
Denis chaplain) that resulted in a trip to the E.R.
“We ended up in the graveyard shift of some middle-of-nowhere hospital.
It’s a show Allison Tolman never expected to join.
When her mom came home each night after spending the day with him, half-hour comedies were her medicine.
“That’s all she could stomach.
It was meant to be.”
“It’s true: You have to continually reeducate.
There’s so many advances.
The business of medicine changes.
And now, the amount of time that doctors have to do paperwork has grown exponentially.
Two-thirds of their job is just writing up s—, which has changed.
Josh Lawson’s Bruce couldn’t be more Ron’s opposite.
“An egomaniac, I think, is inherently an unlikable characteristic.
‘Nothing’s a problem, Bruce is here!'”
Lawson, like Kauahi, also appeared on Spitzer’sSuperstore.
There, her fan-favorite character Sandra was timid, butSt.
Leeper’s RN, Matt, learns that quickly.
He’s late on his first day of work just one of several mishaps witnessed by fellow nurse Serena.
Spoiler alert: He keeps his job…and he might also be right about her.
“There’s a little romance,” Serena actress Kahyun Kim teases.
“Will they, won’t they?”
With the good news secured, even then, the series didn’t go into production until mid-2024.
Grier admits he thought the show would get scrapped.
“I’m a depressed actor,” he says, deadpan.
“At some point, they’re going to drop all this, right?
Ideally, one with some good mints.
