Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2009-05-20

Interview:
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Andrew Lenchewski, Michael Rauch, and Mark Feuerstein to talk about their new series Royal Pains. Here's what they had to say:

As I watched the pilot, I was really involved and really loved Hank for making the right choices, and then 15 minutes in, I'm thinking, wow, this guy is really wallowing; I really hate this. So 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.

And how did you find the gentleman who plays his brother, whose name escapes me at the moment?

A. Lenchewski: His name is Paulo Costanzo, and he came and auditioned for us here in LA. We saw about 50 or 60 people and he was the third one we saw, and it just didn't get any better than that. He brought a brilliant comedic take to the character and notably, this character is actually written originally as Hank's best friend, and as soon as he walked in, we said, well, he can't be his best friend, he looks too much like his brother. So the next thought was, okay, let's rewrite the script. And Evan became Hank's brother.

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

M. Rauch: 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. 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?

A. Lenchewski: I think that covers it, although I will say I think your shock clock expired at about halfway in, so penalty.

This sounds really great. 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.