Childrens Hospital

Last updated

Childrens Hospital
Childrenshospital.png
Also known asChildren's Hospital
Genre
Created by Rob Corddry
Developed by
Starring
Narrated by
  • Lake Bell
  • Malin Åkerman
  • Erinn Hayes
Theme music composer Amy Miles
ComposerMatt Novack
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons7
No. of episodes86 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Rob Corddry
  • Jonathan Stern
  • David Wain
Running time11 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
ReleaseJuly 11, 2010 (2010-07-11) 
April 15, 2016 (2016-04-15)
Related

Childrens Hospital (originally titled Children's Hospital as webisodes) is an American dark comedy television series and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry. The series began on the web on TheWB.com with ten episodes, roughly five minutes in length, all of which premiered on December 8, 2008. [1] Adult Swim picked up the rights to the show in 2009 and began airing episodes in 2010. [2]

Contents

The storyline centers on the staff of Childrens Hospital, a children's hospital named after Dr. Arthur Childrens. The hospital sporadically (and usually without reason) is mentioned as being located within Brazil despite making virtually no effort to conceal that the series is shot in Los Angeles, California, except for the fifth season, which was set at an American military base in Japan. Corddry is part of an ensemble cast portraying the hospital's doctors, which also includes Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino and Megan Mullally. Henry Winkler and Malin Åkerman joined the cast starting with the second season as a hospital administrator and a doctor, respectively. Zandy Hartig and Brian Huskey recurred throughout the show's run, but were credited with the main cast for the fifth season.

The show ran for seven seasons; its final episode aired on April 15, 2016. [3]

Synopsis

Childrens Hospital is a product of TheWB.com. Its webisodes are about 10–12 minutes long, each narrated by mainly Dr. Cat Black (Lake Bell) in Season 1, and by Dr. Valerie Flame (Malin Åkerman) in Season 2. The show mocks such medical dramas as St. Elsewhere , House , Grey's Anatomy , General Hospital , Private Practice , Chicago Hope , ER , Scrubs , and Holby City . [4]

Broadcasting

Though Comedy Central made a competing offer, the show was picked up by Adult Swim after Corddry decided the comedy style was not suited for the half-hour format Comedy Central wanted. Adult Swim offered half-hour or fifteen-minute time slots, and Corddry chose the latter. The original season one webisodes began airing on Adult Swim on July 11, 2010, in groups of two with a new faux-commercial in between the groupings of two webisodes. The channel then debuted the newly produced season two episodes which began airing on August 22, 2010. [2]

On September 1, 2010, Childrens Hospital began airing on the Canadian television channel G4. In Winter 2013, the show was picked up by Much. [5] In Australia Childrens Hospital premiered on cable on Comedy Channel on January 26, 2011, [6] and on ABC's free-to-air channel ABC2 during May–June 2013. The series began airing repeats on American cable channel TBS beginning October 20, 2014.

Cast and characters

The series revolves around the medical staff of Childrens Hospital, featuring an ensemble cast.

These actors receive top billing in the credits:

Recurring

"Behind the scenes"

The series occasionally presents fictional "behind-the-scenes" episodes, supposedly chronicling the production of the series. These episodes portray Childrens Hospital as a long-running medical drama and typically feature interviews with the self-absorbed, eccentric cast members (also fictional characters). The first such episodes were presented as clips from a fictional 60 Minutes -style newsmagazine entitled Newsreaders , which was later spun off into its own Adult Swim series. These fictional cast members have stories of their own:

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast airedNetwork
Web series 10December 8, 2008 (2008-12-08) TheWB.com
1 5July 11, 2010 (2010-07-11)August 8, 2010 (2010-08-08) Adult Swim
2 12August 22, 2010 (2010-08-22)November 7, 2010 (2010-11-07)
3 14June 2, 2011 (2011-06-02)September 1, 2011 (2011-09-01)
4 14August 9, 2012 (2012-08-09)November 15, 2012 (2012-11-15)
5 14July 25, 2013 (2013-07-25)October 24, 2013 (2013-10-24)
6 14March 20, 2015 (2015-03-20)June 19, 2015 (2015-06-19)
7 13January 22, 2016 (2016-01-22)April 15, 2016 (2016-04-15)

Production

During the first three seasons, portions of the show were filmed in North Hollywood Medical Center, the same former hospital used for filming Scrubs and several other movies and television programs, until its demolition in 2011. [7] As a parody of the live episode "Ambush" of ER , the season two finale (aired November 7, 2010) was promoted as a live broadcast.

Reception

Ratings

Despite the low ratings compared to other cable television series, Childrens Hospital still has received its highest ratings to date on its midnight (Eastern Time) slot. On Friday, September 3, 2010, it pulled in 525,000 viewers while the next Sunday yielded 551,000 (in the 18–34 demographic). [8]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
2012 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Keith Crofford, Nick Weidenfeld, Rich RosenthalWon [9]
2013 Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment ProgramRob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Nick Weidenfeld, Keith Crofford, Rich RosenthalWon [9]
2014 Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment ProgramRob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Mike Lazzo, Keith Crofford, Ken Marino Nominated [9]
2015 Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment ProgramRob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Mike Lazzo, Keith Crofford, Ken MarinoNominated [9]
2016 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Keith Crofford, Mike Lazzo, Krister Johnson Won [9]
Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Rob CorddryWon
Rob Huebel Nominated
Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Erinn Hayes Nominated

The mock television advertisements presented with the Adult Swim broadcasts of Childrens Hospital season one tied into future Adult Swim programs. A commercial for a crime procedural parody led to the show NTSF:SD:SUV:: (National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle), which ran from 2011 to 2013. [10] Similarly, a commercial featuring Chris Elliott promoting a fictional health drink called "Nutricai" turned out to be a tie-in with an episode of the upcoming series Eagleheart , one episode of which featured Elliott's character joining a multi-level marketing business selling the product.

Some episodes of Childrens Hospital featured a fictional TV show called Newsreaders, a parody of the CBS show 60 Minutes; this led to Newsreaders being picked up as its own show on Adult Swim, premiering in January 2013. [11] [12] [13] Former Daily Show co-executive producer Jim Margolis served as showrunner, developing the series with Childrens Hospital creators Wain, Corddry, and Jonathan Stern. [14]

In 2011, Corddry stated that the cast and creative team of Childrens Hospital were working on doing a movie together, separate from Childrens Hospital, with a different story and characters. [14]

In 2020, Netflix premiered Medical Police , a ten-episode spinoff of Childrens Hospital. The show stars Hayes and Huebel as Lola and Owen, who are recruited into a globe-spanning mission to uncover a conspiracy behind a global pandemic and find a cure. Åkerman, Bell, Cera, Corddry, Marino, and Winkler also reprised their Childrens Hospital characters as guest performers. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

<i>Newsreaders</i> Television series

Newsreaders is an American television comedy that aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Newsreaders is a spin-off of Childrens Hospital, presented as the fictional television news magazine program Newsreaders. The series premiered January 17, 2013 and ended on February 13, 2015, with a total of 24 episodes over the course of two seasons.

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Sealab 2021 is an American adult animated television series created by Adam Reed and Matt Thompson for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. Cartoon Network aired the show's first three episodes in December 2000 before the official inception of the Adult Swim block on September 2, 2001, with the final episode airing on April 24, 2005. Sealab 2021 is one of the only four original Williams Street series that premiered in 2000 before Adult Swim officially launched, the others being Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Ross</span> Fictional physician on television show ER

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Corddry</span> American actor and comedian

Robert William Corddry is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2002–2006) and for his starring role in the film Hot Tub Time Machine. He is the creator and star of Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital and has been awarded four Primetime Emmy Awards. He previously starred in the HBO series Ballers and the CBS comedy The Unicorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Marino</span> American actor

Kenneth Joseph Marino is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He was a cast member on MTV's The State and has starred in shows such as Party Down, Marry Me, Burning Love, and Childrens Hospital. He played the Lehman brothers on the Showtime series Black Monday. He also stars as Victor in the cult-classic comedy film Wet Hot American Summer, as well as its spin-offs.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Wain</span> American writer, director, actor, and comedian

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Huebel</span> American actor and comedian

Robert Anderson Huebel is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. He also appeared as Russell on the FX/FXX series The League and as Len Novak on the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent. In December 2022, Entertainment Weekly called Huebel "the premier d-bag character actor of his generation".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Huskey</span> American actor, comedian and writer

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References

  1. "Children's Hospital release info". IMDB.com. July 18, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Alex Weprin (October 21, 2009). "Web Series 'Children's Hospital' Jumping to Adult Swim". Broadcasting and Cable. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  3. "Childrens Hospital is Ending After This Season. Rob Corddry Discusses the Decision". March 4, 2016.
  4. Aaron Barnhart (December 6, 2008). "In Childrens Hospital, Rob Corddry has the RX". Kansas City Blog. Archived from the original on September 23, 2009. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  5. "Childrens Hospital Tuesday and Wednesday 11E/8P on MUCH". MuchMusic. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  6. "The official home of Comedy". The Comedy Channel. Archived from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  7. Kofler, Sandra (July 12, 2010). "Rob Corddry Spoofs Hospital Dramas With 'Childrens Hospital'". The Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  8. CH Midnight New RatingsBumpWorthy.com (accessed September 16, 2010)
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Childrens Hospital". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . Retrieved September 12, 2015.
  10. Andreeva, Nellie (November 23, 2010). "Adult Swim Picks Up Crime Drama Parody Series With 12-Episode Order". Deadline Hollywood . PMC . Retrieved July 19, 2011. The network has handed a 12-episode order to Paul Scheer's NTSF:SD:SUV:: which, as the title suggests, is a parody of the ubiquitous genre of crime procedurals. […] The project leapfrogged the pilot stage, going from the clip, directed by Eric Appel, straight to series.
  11. Newsreaders: Series Teaser. Adult Swim. November 20, 2012. Archived from the original on November 27, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2012. A new spinoff of Childrens Hospital is happening and answers all of your questions about everything, because it's an interview show and that's what it's about. Watch the series premiere January 17th on Adult Swim!
  12. "Shows A-Z – newsreaders on adult swim". The Futon Critic. Retrieved January 18, 2013. Premieres Thursday, January 17 […] TIME SLOT: thursdays from 11:59 PM-12:15 AM EST
  13. "Adult Swim Announces Largest Programming Schedule Ever for 2012–13" (press release). Adult Swim. May 16, 2012. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
  14. 1 2 Morgan, Sam (June 23, 2011). "Checking In With 'Childrens Hospital': Interview With Rob Corddry". Hollywood.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011. We're writing a Childrens Hospital movie. It will have nothing to do with the show. It's really just the same cast and creative team.
  15. Kozell, Isaac (September 8, 2017). "Rob Corddry on 'Ballers,' His 'Childrens Hospital' Spin-Off, and Playing Second Banana". Splitsider. Archived from the original on October 2, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017. I will say that yes, there is a spin-off of Childrens Hospital that has been picked up and is in the works. We're hard at work on writing it right now. […] And where it [Childrens Hospital] all took place in a children's hospital, this is going to be kind of a global thriller from country to country.
  16. Sorokach, Josh (September 14, 2017). "Rob Corddry On Inventing Binge-Watching, His 'Childrens Hospital' Spinoff, & Sharing Meditative Moments With Steve Guttenberg". Decider. Retrieved October 2, 2017. Where we shunned continuity [in Childrens Hospital], this is an episodic show that solves a mystery by the end. And what we're trying to do is actually write a compelling mystery that would be cool without the comedy.
  17. Wright, Megh (February 19, 2019). "Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel to Star in Medical Police Netflix Comedy". Vulture. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  18. "Medical Police". Metacritic . Retrieved January 30, 2020.