As St. Denis Medical returns for its third season, stars Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier reflected on what keeps NBC’s hit workplace comedy both hilarious and deeply human. During a recent press conference, the pair discussed the inspirations behind their characters, the realities of healthcare, and the joy of ensemble storytelling.
Finding the Funny in Real Frustration
McLendon-Covey, who plays the high-strung hospital administrator Joyce, revealed that her inspiration came from someone close to home. “I steal a lot of mannerisms from my own mom,” she admitted. “She worked at McDonnell Douglas for a long time and everything was always getting away from her. She was always trying to jolly people into, like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a good day!’”
But beneath Joyce’s upbeat exterior lies someone struggling with burnout and workplace bureaucracy. “You go into a profession for noble reasons and then you get there and you’re like, ‘I hate this. This is not what I thought it was gonna be. But I’m paying off my student loans.’” McLendon-Covey added, “When you go from being an oncologist… and then you say, ‘I’m gonna fight from the inside against insurance companies,’ and then you get there and all you do all day is beg for money, try to put out fires everywhere, what are you gonna do?”
Like many bumbling bosses of NBC comedies past, from Michael Scott to Leslie Knope, McLendon-Covey brings authenticity to the role, which, she noted, is essential. “It can’t go into the slapstick area because that just wouldn’t happen. You have to keep it grounded by focusing on, ‘Okay, how’s this person gonna pay for this? Do we have a bed for them?’”
The Wisdom and Weariness of Dr. Ron
For Grier, who plays the curmudgeonly Dr. Ron, the comedy also comes from truth—and time. “Dr. Ron is kind of Lou Grant-y, you know. The grump. there’s always someone sick-er. You try to leave, there’s a helicopter and stuff, and he really, I think, would like to mentor [Alex] to live a fuller life… because she is caught in that cycle of the kids, the husband, the hospital… No “her time”, and after a while, that just wears you down.”
He also connected his character’s empathy to lessons from his own family. “My dad was a psychiatrist and he told me years ago… ‘It’s the nurses that really do the healing, because after the doctors go, it’s the night nurses.’ He believed that [those] who go into that profession have this divine power.”
Even when joking, Grier’s insights reflected a veteran’s grasp of performance and humanity. “The easiest roles to play are the best-written roles… The hardest role is one which is a nightmare, when they’re just like, ‘Oh, just be funny.’”
“We Bow Down To You”
Both actors see the series as a tribute to the unsung heroes of healthcare. “I really feel like our show… we have gone there,” McLendon-Covey said. “Because I want every healthcare worker that watches us to understand, ‘Hey, we bow down to you. We’re not making fun of you, we’re making fun of the situations that happen in a workplace. But you guys are doing what we don’t have the guts to do.’”
Grier echoed that sense of respect through his character’s disillusionment. “I think one of Dr. Ron’s greatest sadness is the bureaucracy in healthcare. You see a patient for 10 minutes, then you gotta fill out forms for an hour. And he really came into medicine with a revolutionary’s point of view… and little by little he’s been broken down by the bureaucracy of medicine. That’s why he’s so grumpy.”
It’s that mix of heart, humor and real problems facing these characters that gives St. Denis Medical its emotional pulse. “He was a true believer,” Grier said of Dr. Ron. “He had a big afro. There is still in the ether whether he and Joyce hooked up way back in the day. We don’t know.”
Ensemble Energy and On-Set Joy
Despite the show’s hospital chaos, McLendon-Covey described St. Denis Medical as one of the happiest sets she’s ever been on. “I love ensemble work because it’s never boring… It’s like a never-ending carousel of lovely people that every week something is new.”
That camaraderie extends to guest stars and background performers alike. “If you come to work with us, we want it to be the best experience an actor has ever had,” she said. “We make our background feel like a million dollars, we make every guest star feel good—that’s the biggest compliment.”
Grier agreed that finding tone and rhythm was key. “There’s no audience here. It’s a single-camera show and you have to trust. Once we got the tone right, then you settle in.”
Honoring the Human Side of the Hospital
For both performers, St. Denis Medical isn’t just a parody of workplace absurdities, it’s a love letter to the people who keep hospitals running. “They put their own family lives on hold to come and bring their A-game to strangers,” McLendon-Covey said. “Most of us don’t have the strength to do that.”
And as Grier summed up with characteristic warmth and humor, “To me the most difficult part was probably last season… I didn’t really know anyone in the cast… But what I’m getting to is, there’s no audience here. You have to trust… and once we got the tone right, then you settle in.”
New episodes of Season 2 of St. Denis Medical air Mondays at 8pm ET and streaming next day on Peacock.
