Question: Josh, how did you come up with the idea for the show?

Josh Berman: For me, it’s interesting, I grew up in a medical family -- my father’s a doctor; my mom’s a nurse -- yet, after writing on network television for 14 years, it’s the one genre I avoided. I spent actually nine years on forensic shows, and then a legal show with DROP DEAD DIVA. I’ve created other shows, but I never touched the medical arena because I felt like it had been done to death on TV. Then when the concept came of blending this world with the mob world, two absolutely diametrically opposed conceits; yet at the heart of it, there are families.  There’s the family at the hospital, and there’s the family in the mob world.  I love the idea of blending these two genres into something fresh and original.

I’m friends with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano on THE SOPRANOS, and she guest starred on DROP DEAD DIVA.  When she came onto DIVA, we began thinking what would’ve happened if Meadow Soprano had gone onto medical school and had become a doctor, what would that look like? Then my co-creator Rob Wright and I started talking about if there such a thing as a mob doctor?  We were shocked by the amount of literature, nonfiction, written about mob doctors. We even came across a book called "Il Dottore," the double life of a Mafia doctor, written by Ron Felber, which is the true life accounts of a mob doctor in the 1970s in New York. While we developed a very different character than the central character of that nonfiction novel, it was inspirational for us to see this is something real. It is the underbelly of organized crime --  they have there medical fixers, so to speak.  FOX was the only network we pitched to. They bought it in the room and have been excited about the project from the beginning.

Question: In the series, we see both the drama of Grace dealing with the mob as well as her medical cases at the hospital. As the series goes forward, can you talk about what kind of balance we’re going to see of those two worlds?

Josh Berman: We have some episodes that take place predominantly in the hospital, and then some that take place predominantly in the field.  I like to refer to those cases as the dirty medicine cases because we get to tell stories without the bureaucracy of a hospital, and to me that’s what’s so compelling. Ironically, when Grace is in the field, the only thing she needs to do is worry about the patient. I think she takes that energy and that passion back into the hospital with her, which kind of gives her that "I don’t give a shit" attitude when it comes to placating her bosses, and instead she puts her patient’s interest first.  I feel like that is what kind of governs where the stories go.

Question: You’ve started off the series with Grace Devlin being in a relationship with Dr. Brett Robinson (Zach Gilford) is there also something going on with her and Franco (James Carpinello)?

Josh Berman: You know, they have a history, Franco and Grace.  Their relationship is so layered and so complex and complicated. Within the first couple of episodes, you’re going to see both her relationship with Brett get a lot deeper and you’re going to see her relationship with Franco become a lot more interesting. There’s a whole arc planned for Grace’s love life which is very much informed by her personal and professional pressures that will begin to unfold over the first half of the first season.

Question: In the pilot episode, Constantine initially comes across a sympathetic character. He almost seems benign.  He has a lot of affection for Grace and her family, but by the end of the episode we see him in a very different place. How does Grace feel about this?

Josh Berman: I don’t think she’s unaware of Constantine’s potential or ability to play in a world that is very dark and dangerous. In fact, that very aspect of him is what’s oddly compelling to her about him.

Question: Josh, why was important to shoot on location in Chicago?

Josh Berman: I think there’s two reasons for me.  It was a personal reason and a professional reason.  Professionally, when you’re on a network show and you have a studio that says you can shoot anywhere you want and you’re writing a show about the mob, there’s no better city than Chicago. Post-9/11 resources have gone away from organized crime and into fighting terrorism, and there’s a whole new face on the mob and being able to place it in Chicago with such historical roots made the most sense. Personally, it’s a real pleasure because my family comes from Chicago. My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and she ended up in Chicago, as well as five of her cousins, the only people that survived. They established a department store and for them, my family, Chicago represented the American Dream; so, it’s a real great return for me.

Question: Jordana, your series MY BOYS was set in Chicago but you didn’t really film there. How has it been working in Chicago on this series?

Jordana Spiro: On MY BOYS we would just pack our exteriors onto the tail end of every season; so, no, we didn’t really get to spend much time in Chicago.

It’s an incredible thing that happens when you’re shooting in the place that the story takes place in -- it’s invaluable to what it adds to the picture of what you’re shooting. Also, when the entire crew is from where you’re shooting, the conversations you get to have on set inform and ground what you’re doing. I think that’s been the most surprising and pleasurable aspect of shooting on location is those interactions with the crew and with the local environment. 

Question: Jordana, what was it about the premise of the show in general about your character in particular, that made you want to do it?

Jordana Spiro: Two things that really stood out to me is the fact that she is a surgeon, and with that there’s this inherent quality of wanting to fix things in a very direct, hands-on way. She wants to cut something open and fix it, and there’s godliness to that.  Surgeons cross a line that isn’t just physical, it’s psychological and spiritual.  I thought there was something interesting that was going on with her choice of doing that, and this sort of inability to control her environment when she was growing up. She was the daughter of an alcoholic who abused her mother, and she had to really claw her way out of her background to get to where she’s going to. I thought that there was such a fieriness to her and such gumption to her that was just really compelling.

Then, when I read the pilot script and I read the scenes with Constantine, her debtor, I thought they were so fascinating because it could have been so easy for Josh to have made that relationship purely antagonistic, but it’s so oddly serene and paternal. This isn’t just some financial debt that’s at the surface; it’s where she’s from, it’s in her DNA, this world that she’s trying to get away from and also being pulled to at the same time.

Those two things really were pulled into the foreground for me when I read the script. Ultimately, the overarching heartbeat of the show to me, which was so exciting and compelling, was that this woman is making choices that are very morally conflicted and yet at the beginning it’s to save her family. So, this question becomes how far do you go? Where is that line that you absolutely won’t cross? What happens when that line keeps edging further and further away from you? Is there a breaking point where you say, if I can’t beat them, I’ll join them?

Question: Jordana, would you rather do the medical scenes or the in-the-field scenes?

Jordana Spiro: I don’t have a preference because there’s some pretty extraordinary actors in both scenes and that’s for me where the real fun comes. I’ve gotten now to work with some of my heroes: Zeljko Ivanek, Bill Forsythe, Kevin Corrigan and Terry Kinney. They each have their own universes that they’re in, so for me I love being able to traverse both worlds.

Question: Many actors who’ve played TV doctors say they were squeamish about blood and needles, even fake blood and fake needles. What about you?

Jordana Spiro: I shadowed several surgeons and surgical residents. I thought I was going to be a lot more squeamish than I was. If the patient was out and they weren’t aware of the surgery, I was actually okay because I was a bit desensitized just from what you see on TV.When it was a smaller more minor surgery, and they were just numbing the area, and they were cognizant to what was going on, and you could see them writhe around, that’s when I had to politely step away.

Question: Josh, what are your hopes and goals creatively for THE MOB DOCTOR?

Josh Berman: Creatively, I would love for our viewers to tap into this show on an emotional level.

I think the current show that I write and produce, DROP DEAD DIVA, had longevity because people can relate to the lead character. Now in that show, it’s about a skinny model who dies and comes back to life as an overweight attorney; obviously, not something that most people go through. In this case, we have a woman who’s a doctor and indebted to the mob. Again, not something that most people are experiencing in their lives, but the themes of what this character goes through -- the balancing of family and work  is universal. Just trying to get through the day when there are so many pressures on us. I think that’s something that viewers can really relate to, especially women.

So, I hope that at the end of the day people will fall in love and relate to Jordana’s character. Grace is so complex and so interesting. I don’t think there’s another character like her on television right now. I hope the viewers fall in love with her as much as I have.

Question: Josh, how do you see the show evolving?

Josh Berman: I have never worked on a show -- and this includes my history on CSI and BONES, and even DROP DEAD DIVA -- where we have so many stories to pick from that it’s an embarrassment of riches. We’ve already arched out our first season. We know where we want Grace’s character to go. We get deeper with William Forsythe’s character. Even by Episode 2, we’ve activated Jesse Lee Soffer’s character who plays Nate, Grace’s brother, in an unexpected way. There are twists and turns and moves to this show that are all organic and the seeds are specifically planted in the pilot.