When Jericho and Moonlight Meet
August 23, 2009 by Cynthia
Scifi fans know Carol Barbee as the executive producer and a writer on the cult favorite series Jericho. But these days, she’s making the Moonlight fans 
happy because she cast Alex O’Loughlin to star in her new medical drama, Three Rivers.
I met up with Carol at a recent press screening of her new show and here’s what she had to say about casting everyone’s favorite vampire as a top transplant surgeon.
“Alex had a holding deal for CBS and I was under contract to CBS. He met with lots of people, we met with lots of people. He want to do [Three Rivers] and we wanted to have him. I wasn’t at all nervous [about casting him]. I felt very lucky that they steered him our way and second of all that he wanted to do it. He’s a really fine actor and he’s so dedicated and he’s a really nice guy and . . . okay. . .he’s cute,” she admits. “He’s a great lead. I feel very luck, usually there’s a nightmare quotient to a person like that and it’s just not there with him.”
As far as their recent ties to the scifi community go, Carol Barbee had to laugh. “Alex and I said that because of his fan base and the Jericho fan base, Three Rivers is the first medical drama that should premiere at Comic Con!”
Maybe next year, Carol, if Three Rivers gets picked up for a second season. Three Rivers premieres on October 4 on CBS.
Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I realize there is so much riding on this show. CBS has given Three Rivers a tough battle ahead. It is competing with ABC’s Desperate Housewives and NBC Sunday Football (then Donald Trumps Apprentice after football season ends). Competing with long established shows is tough, especially among a field of other medical shows. To CBS’s credit, it has built around Alex and the cast, a wonderful, modern hospital unlike any other on TV. It also is a show about organ donation, the first of it’s kind. Within that show, we have a wonderful, talented cast lead by Alex O’Loughlin. He manages to take each character he plays, and makes that character human, alive, real – each with a different physicality, tone, and presence. I believe Three Rivers will offer hope, give us sorrow, inspire, and ultimately do what few shows do, give us unique entertainment and drama while spotlighting the subject of organ donation in the hopes of ultimate good. Three Rivers will make us care.
Correction…she is making “Alex” fans happy, not Moonlight fans. As for me, I don’t know what I’ll do. I watch Sunday Night Football and tape Desparate Housewives. I guess I have to catch Alex on CBS.com.
Although I want to get a Moonlight continue in the new projects, Alex will be very successful. I think CBS has done a wise job. I hope Turkey can also track.
I really want to like this because of Alex, and Carol’s work on Jericho but the promos make it look sooooo cheesy to me. I’ll watch the first couple episodes and hope it’s better than it seems like it’s going to be.