After scoring big with British drama such that various “Masterpiece” projects will build out of the “Downton Abbey” run, PBS announced it would get into domestic drama now as well.
Shooting begins this summer in Virginia on a six episode series on a Civil War historical drama, PBS officials announced at the TV Critics Association press tour. “The series follows two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict and is set in a family owned hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army hospital,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said.
Based on a true story and set in Alexandria, Va., it’s executive produced by Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker of “The Good Wife” as well as writer David Zebel of “ER.”
Accordingly, one of the working titles of the saga is called “Civil War ER” (another is “Mansion House”).
In a way, it’s a natural for PBS, Kerger says. “”Obviously the Civil War and history is something that is of great interest to us. Frankly, we were approached with a really great idea. And ‘The Civil War’ series that Ken Burns produced and directed and created is still the most watched television event on public television. ”
“Being able to tie back to that great legacy of telling a story that is such a seminal story in American history and to be able to now reinterpret a piece of that story through a drama, I think is for us, just absolutely perfect,” she says. “So I think all the stars lined up together.”
Kerger said PBS took its time to develop the project, “because we wanted to do it right. We have not done an American drama in a while, probably ten years. So this is a really big deal for us,.”
She says she looks at the project in the same way she does “Downton Abbey.” “It shines a light on a part of history,” Kerger said, ” I think for a lot of people, the best way to bring them into those stories is through drama. And so we’re not looking to do drama just for drama’s sake. We are looking to do drama that we feel is a little different from what everyone else is doing and that very much ties into our goal, which is not just to entertain, but also to educate and inspire. And I think this latest project is very much at the center of that kind of work.”