"Three Rivers" isn't just the title of CBS's new medical drama. It's a description of the show.
Actually, it's two descriptions of the show.
The first is obvious. "Three Rivers" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 2) is set in Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River join to form the Ohio River.
The second reference is to how "Three Rivers" scripts are structured.
"The setup of the show is to tell three stories that ultimately become one story," said Carol Barbee, the show's creator/executive producer.
The main focus of the show is the Three Rivers Regional Medical Center, a Pittsburgh hospital that is one of the world's leading transplant centers. And not just heart transplants, but all sorts of organ and tissue transplants.
But episodes won't begin there. Viewers will be taken to other locations — often other states — where somebody is about to be in need of a transplant. Elsewhere, somebody is about to become a donor.
"We'll always drop into two separate worlds and introduce you to two separate groups of people, and you 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," said Barbee, whose credits include "Judging Amy," "Jericho" and "Swingtown."
"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."
Of course, the donors and recipients change from week to week. As with other traditional medical dramas, "Three Rivers" centers on the hospital staff.
And at the center of this hospital staff is Dr. Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin of "Moonlight"), a workaholic/all-around nice guy who's a brilliant transplant surgeon.
(CBS is determined to make him a star; "Three Rivers" just might do it.)
The regulars include Dr. Sophia Jordan (Alfre Woodard), the no-nonsense head of surgery; Dr. Miranda Foster (Katherine Moenning), who's a bit of a hot-tempered maverick; Dr. David Lee (Daniel Henney), who's a bit of a smart aleck/womanizer; Ryan Abbott (Christopher J. Hanke), the na?e, young transplant coordinator; and Pam Acosta (Justina Machado), Andy's operating assistant/best friend.
With any ensemble drama, a lot depends on the chemistry of the regular cast. And, from early indications, this cast is well on its way to developing that necessary chemistry.
The characters "each have personal journeys they are going on, and they are going on them together because they all sort of live in this hospital 24/7," Barbee said. "You will see relationships develop, but what you are mainly going to see for the first little while is the medicine. You are going to see the lives that come in here and that are joined together, people who would never have met in a million years, and they suddenly are the answer to each other's prayers."
"Three Rivers" has already been through some big changes. The original pilot, which sold the network on the show, is not the episode that will air on Sunday night. (Although much of that footage will be included in a reworked episode that will air later during the season.)
There were a few cast changes — most notably the addition of Woodard. And, after shooting the pilot in Pittsburgh, "Three Rivers" returns to a Los Angeles backlot, where CBS built several impressive sets.
The episode that airs Sunday is a big improvement on the original pilot. It's not ground-breaking by any means. But with a show like this, it's not so much what it is as how it's done.
And, at this point, "Three Rivers" appears to be a nicely done medical drama that will appeal to a broad audience.
If you like hospital shows, if you like O'Loughlin or both, you'll like "Three Rivers."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com