St. Denis Medical Boss Reveals The 'Bad Idea' He Was Convinced To Drop From The Season 1 Finale
St. Denis Medical has scrubbed out for the season, with a notably different ending than showrunner Eric Ledgin had initially planned. And he's totally cool with that.
The NBC medical comedy closed out its freshman run on Tuesday night, with a literal perfect storm of circumstances at the hospital forcing Alex (Allison Tolman) to scurry back and forth between helping her fellow nurses and sitting by her husband's side for his imminent vasectomy on a different floor of the building. ("Ooh, a Mrs. Doubtfire situation. That always ends well," Ron warned Alex of her attempt to be in both places.)
In a surprising move, the typically work-addicted Alex ultimately decided to put her job second, opting to let Serena run the overcrowded emergency room while Alex focused all of her attention on Tim's procedure. In early discussions about the finale, though, Ledgin planned for Alex to have second thoughts about Tim's vasectomy, leaving the door open for the couple to have another child — and Ledgin is now grateful he was persuaded to change that plot point.
"I have to give a lot of credit to our writers' room for talking me out of, in retrospect, an initial bad idea that I had, that involved her changing her mind about [the vasectomy]," Ledgin tells TVLine. "If I have a redeeming quality as a showrunner, it's that I can change my mind if I'm convinced of a better idea, even if I'm really attached to something. And I kept pushing back against the room, and they convinced me that I was wrong.
"The story, as it ends now, is — to me — a way more realistic and satisfying and hopeful-for-Alex ending than if she had decided to do something that went against the character that we had established in the episodes leading up to it," he continues. (In the previous episode, Alex and Tim had butted heads about the prospect of having another kid, with Alex firmly against the idea.)
At the time that Ledgin and his fellow writers broke the Season 1 finale script, St. Denis Medical had yet to be renewed for Season 2, but he says there was little interest among the writing staff in leaving the show on any cliffhangers. Rather, "the goal was to land something significant with Alex, who's our emotional way into this show," he says. That included a pivotal conversation between Alex and Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey), wherein Joyce suggested that the St. Denis staff's lives revolve around their jobs — and known workaholic Alex was visibly uncomfortable with that sentiment, prompting her to prioritize Tim at the end of the episode.
"I went through a time in my life when I thought work was my purpose and the most important thing in my life. And then I had children, and it was challenging my ideas of who I thought I was," Ledgin explains. "Once I realized that, in a way, you have to choose, it wasn't even a close choice... my kids and my family would always come first. I felt like that was true of Alex, too, but it's sometimes hard to know that until you're pushed to think about it that way."
St. Denis Medical fans, what did you think of Tuesday's finale? And what would you like to see unfold in Season 2? Grade the finale (and Season 1 overall) in our polls below, then hit the comments to back up your choices!