Greg Berlanti wrote the pilot script for "Everwood" because he had to — it was part of his contract with Warner Bros.
The ex-"Dawson's Creek" executive producer said he never expected the "Everwood" pilot to be produced, let alone get picked up as a series. "I wasn't looking to do another show this quick," he said. "I was looking forward to just developing new shows for awhile and getting some time off."
But we're lucky he had to write "Everwood" — it's one of the most promising new shows of the season. (And Utah is lucky because, except for the first episode, the series is shooting in Ogden and the Salt Lake area, pumping a nice chunk of change into the local economy.)
"I just wanted to write something that was a father-son story because I felt like it was under-represented on television," Berlanti said. "And I also felt like it was something I had something to say about. I see so many fathers and sons go almost their whole lives without really ever knowing each other."
But, in the case of "Everwood," a distant father-and-son pair is forced to get to know each other. Dr. Andrew Brown (Treat Williams) is a world-famous neurosurgeon whose family has always had to take a back seat to his career — that is until his wife is killed. Andrew gives up his New York practice and, along with his 15-year-old son, Ephram (Gregory Smith), and 9-year-old daughter, Delia (Vivien Cardone), moves to the small town of Everwood.
Ephram is furious with his father because of the long years of neglect, the death of his mother and now the move to Colorado. "What would drive two men that are very dissimilar that happen to live in the same home (to) have to get to know one another?" Berlanti said. "And it just seemed to me that to honor this memory of this woman they both loved in equal measure."
This is not all heavy drama, however. There's a lot of humor and a lot of great characters. Everwood is not unlike Cicely, Alaska, in "Northern Exposure" — it's a place where the characters are, well, characters.
Andrew quickly becomes a character himself. He sets up a family practice in an old, abandoned train station and dispenses free medical services.
That, of course, doesn't sit well with the incumbent town doctor Harold Abbott (Tom Amandes). And there are all the signs of a family feud involving Abbott's mother (Debra Mooney), who goes to work for Andrew; Abbott's daughter (Emily VanCamp), who catches Ephram's eye; and Abbott's son (Chris Pratt), who takes an instant disliking to Ephram.
Yeah, there's a bit of "Dawson's Creek"-like high-school behavior going on, but it's not all about the teenagers by any means.
"I really wanted to write a show and have characters that were really cross-generational, where everybody was sort of a large, dysfunctional family that extended amongst the whole community, and you had different characters of all ages," Berlanti said.
And a show with appeal to people of all ages, as well.
NOW WHAT? How little hope did Berlanti have that "Everwood" would ever become a series? Well, he never gave much thought to what he'd do about a doctor who doesn't charge for his services.
"Sometimes you do things like that. You just sort of paint yourself into a corner, writing-wise, and go, 'OK, well, it's never going to go. I'm never going to have to answer that question,' " he said. "And then it gets picked up and suddenly you have to meet with your writers and say, 'OK, now, we've got this guy who doesn't charge anybody.' And you sort of take it from there."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com