Six Feet Under and Ugly Betty’s Freddy Rodriguez is headed for NBC. The character actor has signed on for a one-hour pilot with the peacock network called After Hours, which will follow storylines within an ER unit at a hospital…with one twist.
After Hours will follow a San Antonio center for medicine. The ER unit will be busy, and to make things even more complicated, audiences will get to see the hospital from the perspective of the night shift. Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah are writing and executive producing the pilot, which will be directed by Pierre Morel, who is probably best known for his directorial work with Taken.
According to Deadline, Eoin Macken has already joined the pilot, and now Rodriguez will join After Hours as Michael Ragosa, the guy who audits the money and deals with some of the clerical stuff during the night shift. Ragosa wanted to be a doctor, but had to drop out of medical school after dealing with vision issues, so I wonder if that will cause any lingering hostility toward the medical profession.
NBC has had its eyes on a medical drama for a while. Last season, both County and Do No Harm were bought by the network. The former never made it series, and the latter is not slated to premiere until after the football season is over, so having another medical drama on the backburner shouldn’t hurt the network, at all. Without further details, I’m especially excited to see that After Hours seems to be more of an ensemble show, like County. I’m a sucker for anything that shows the hectic nature of a hospital atmosphere, and this could be quite good.
