When pitching her plan to remake British import and American public TV staple “Doc Martin,” showrunner Liz Tuccillo (“Alaska Daily”) opted for a straightforward approach.
“Basically, I didn’t reinvent the wheel,” Tuccillo said in a Zoom interview last month for Fox’s “Best Medicine” (8 p.m. Jan. 4, then re-airs in its regular time slot, 8 p.m. Tuesday, on Jan. 6, WPGH). “I didn’t make him a woman or set it somewhere crazy.”
The original “Doc Martin,” airing from 2004-22 in England, followed Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes), a grumpy London surgeon who develops a fear of blood and moves to the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn, where he spent childhood holidays with his farmer aunt. The series was syndicated to American public TV stations and found a loyal following stateside.
“Best Medicine” — only the latest of many foreign adaptations of “Doc Martin” — follows Dr. Martin Best (Josh Charles, “The Good Wife”), a grumpy Boston surgeon who develops that same fear of blood and moves to Port Wenn, Maine, where he spent the summers of his youth with his lobsterwoman aunt (Annie Potts, “Young Sheldon”).
But in this American take, there’s also a new background twist, revealed in episode two, that seeks to explain Dr. Best’s morose, deadpan bearing.
“I wanted it to have more stakes,” Tuccillo said. “And I wanted everybody to be more interconnected so there could be more complicated stories. … And pace it up and make it feel just obviously 2025 in America.”
Port Wenn is a town full of distinctive characters, from the loopy pharmacist (Clea Lewis, “Ellen”) to a couple who manage the local BB to a schoolteacher/potential love interest (Abigail Spencer) to Dr. Best’s Gen Z receptionist (Cree).
“The tone is very similar [to the British original] in that it is both a comedy and a drama, but for us, what’s different is that we really focus a lot on the quirky characters of the town and we bring in a lot of people every week to drive [Dr. Best] crazy,” Tuccillo said. “The tone is a little different in the vast ensemble we have of our townspeople.”
Tuccillo said she didn’t think Fox would buy “Best Medicine” because it’s brighter and more uplifting than many series today.
“A lot of the TV even I watch is very edgy, it’s dark, it’s watercooler conversation, and this is just so good-natured,” she said. “I didn’t know if Fox would ultimately think people had the appetite for it. I guess we’ll see.”
To encourage viewing by “Doc Martin” fans, Martin Clunes, who played the lead character in the British series, guest stars in a late February episode as Dr. Best’s father.
“The cast was in awe of him and he’s a lovely man,” Tuccillo said. “The whole thing was hilarious and wonderful, but it was also confusing because they’re calling Josh ‘Martin’ but [Clunes] played ‘Martin’ for [more than] 10 years and his [real] name is Martin. … So, we leaned into that in the episode where they both answer to ‘doctor.’ ”
Tuccillo said “Best Medicine” borrows from “Doc Martin” plot-wise in the first episode, but beyond tha,t the “Best Medicine” writers didn’t lift many medical stories or plots from the original.
“For some reason, every time we tried, we ended up having to change it so much, it became unrecognizable,” she said. “A lot of the stories are inspired by things we saw, but they’re not direct lifts. Medical cases get easily dated.”
For Potts, filming “Best Medicine” in Newburgh, N.Y., was an adjustment.
“Our industry is so upside down and so little is being done [in Los Angeles],” Potts said. “So, I couldn’t really be like, ‘No, I don’t want to shoot in Upstate, I want to shoot in New York [City].’ New York is giving these [tax] incentives, and they do some in Manhattan, but more if it’s [filmed] in Upstate. And it’s charming here and beautiful and a great place to raise children or retire and I’m not doing either one of those things.”
Potts said her character, Dr. Best’s aunt, understands him better than anyone else.
“She is his shield and his sword, and she knows what happened and how hurt he was,” Potts said. “She loves him and only wants him to be loved back. She wants to mend him, make him stop grieving and hurting.”
Potts, who expects to reprise her “Young Sheldon” role of Meemaw on CBS’s spin-off “Georgie Mandy’s First Marriage” in an episode filming this month, said she watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” at Thanksgiving and it reminded her of “Best Medicine.”
“I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, that is our show,” she said. “Bedford Falls is Port Wenn … It’s about small-town people loving, caring and supporting one another no matter what. I think that the country is desperate for something like that to remind us who we are, who we always have been … and that we know how to act and we know what’s bad behavior and that community can come forward and say, ‘This isn’t our best behavior, let us love you into a better path.’ ”
Steelers on ‘SNF’
Unless WPXI parent company Cox Media Group and Verizon come to a deal before kickoff (8:20 p.m. Sunday), Verizon FiOS TV customers will not have access to NBC’s Jan. 4 “Sunday Night Football” telecast of the Steelers vs. Ravens.
But WPXI’s signal is available over the air, so that could be an option for receiving the game depending on the terrain and signal strength in one’s location.
“Sunday Night Football” also streams on Peacock, so one could subscribe to Peacock to access the game.
NBC Sports analyst Tony Dungy, a former Steelers defensive back, will interview Steelers coach Mike Tomlin during NBC’s “Football Night in America” (7 p.m. Sunday), airing just before “Sunday Night Football.”
Channel surfing
The first two seasons of Joel McHale’s Fox comedy “Animal Control” are now streaming on Netflix. … Following the Christmas release of three new “Stranger Things” episodes, star Jamie Bower Campbell, who plays the villainous Vecna, said his portrayal, in part, was inspired by Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers was a really interesting reference because that actually bled into music as well, Bower said. I used Tom Hanks in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,’ but that score is really eerie as well, with some real moments of spook.
