"Kingdom Hospital" (2004) TV series

Writers:

Richard Dooling (writer) (5 episodes)
Stephen King (writer)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

3 March 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

Check your pulse at the door.

Plot:

Stephen King's take on the masterpiece series by Lars von Trier. The story takes place in a hospital in Lewiston, Maine, built on the site of a Civil War-era mill fire in which many children died.

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Maine | Stephen King | Cult Favorite | Car Accident

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jamie Harrold	...	Dr. Elmer Traff (13 episodes, 2004)
Diane Ladd	...	Sally Druse (13 episodes, 2004)
Bruce Davison	...	Dr. Stegman (13 episodes, 2004)
Jack Coleman	...	Peter Rickman (13 episodes, 2004)
Julian Richings	...	Otto (13 episodes, 2004)
Andrew McCarthy	...	Dr. Hook (13 episodes, 2004)
Lena Georgas	...	Nurse Carrie Von Trier (13 episodes, 2004)
Suki Kaiser	...	Natalie Rickman (13 episodes, 2004)
Sherry Miller	...	Dr. Lona Massingale / ... (13 episodes, 2004)
Del Pentecost	...	Bobby Druse (13 episodes, 2004)
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Dr. Jesse James (13 episodes, 2004)
Brandon Bauer	...	Abel Lyon (13 episodes, 2004)
Jennifer Cunningham	...	Christa (13 episodes, 2004)
Jodelle Ferland	...	Mary Jensen (13 episodes, 2004)
Allison Hossack	...	Dr. Christine Draper (13 episodes, 2004)
Kett Turton	...	Antubis / ... (13 episodes, 2004)
William Wise	...	Dr. Louis Traff (13 episodes, 2004)
Beverley Elliott	...	Nurse Brick Bannerman (11 episodes, 2004)
Ty Olsson	...	Danny (10 episodes, 2004)
Benjamin Ratner	...	Ollie (10 episodes, 2004)
Janet Wright	...	Liz Hinton (10 episodes, 2004)
Zak Santiago	...	Dr. Sonny Gupta (9 episodes, 2004)
Alan Scarfe	...	Henry Havens (8 episodes, 2004)
Ron Selmour	...	Firecracker Man (8 episodes, 2004)
Gerard Plunkett	...	Dr. Richard Shwartzton (7 episodes, 2004)
Paul Perri	...	Frank Schweigen (6 episodes, 2004)
Jim Shield	...	Rolf Pederson (6 episodes, 2004)

Also Known As:

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

Argentina:608 min | UK:40 min (per episode) | USA:780 min (13 parts)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-15 (TV rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Hungary:16 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | UK:15 | Argentina:16 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Britannia Beach, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Touchstone Television

Trivia:

The scene where Peter Rickman is hit by a car happens almost exactly how Stephen King described the time he was hit by a car in his memoir, "On Writing". The only difference is that the man who hit King in real life was older, sober and stopped to see if he was all right.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the episode "Seizure Day" when Brenda is making the potion for Stegman, as the camera zooms in you can see the camera's red light and someone behind it reflecting off a box just up from the red toolbox.

Quotes:

Paul: Leave it alone, Short Time, butt out! That'd be my advice. She's not the only one who has a bell!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Against the Dark (2009) (V)

Soundtrack:

Worry About You

A mediocre and not funny remake

The First thing you have to know is that "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital" on ABC is a remake of the Danish mini-series "Riget" and "Riget II" by Lars Von Trier. So it's essentially a process of "translating" something for the mainstream. My main problem with this was that they didn't focused on all the important things; it lost all the humor factor and it's special weirdo characters, and that was what made the original show so unique. And now we don't have any of that, we lost all the interesting characters and the black humor, what we get is the gore and the ghost story only. It really gives an idea about how little King and the Americans understood from the original. Yes, Ernst-Hugo Järegård is irreplaceable, but for God's sake, even the rest of these characters are all too normal, they look too nice, healthy, like models. Even when they supposed to be weird, it's somehow cliched, typical commercially "alternative". It's the paradox goal of this show, you can't turn the alternative to mainstream while remain alternative, because they are the antitheses of each other.

Another negative thing is that it's budget was probably like 10 times higher than the original, that's not negative on it's own, but they used that money on things that would have been much better without them, first of all it looks like a Hollywood movie, even though they tried to create some alternative look with the lighting but it's still too nice, too hyper realistic, that subtracts from the creepy mood a lot. And then we have some CGI characters, a talking sloth-bear, that has the teeth of the Worms from Dreamcatcher... As a conclusion you get what you have expected, a dumbed down, mainstream version of something original, and the worst is that it's badly executed.

My Rating: 3 / 10