Three Rivers, three stories – Oct 2009

Three Rivers, three stories
  Soap Opera Weekly
20 October 2009

Alex O’Loughlin is the newest dreamy doctor on TV now that Three Rivers has been implanted in the CBS schedule.

Three Rivers centers on organ transplants performed in a Pittsburgh hospital, and Aussie O’Loughlin (ex-Mick, Moonlight; ex-Hiatt, The Shield) is Dr. Andy Yablonski, a hotshot surgeon who also enjoys “operating” with the ladies.

“The premise of the show is to tell three stories that ultimately become one story,”

explains creator Carol Barbee.

“We’ll always drop into two separate worlds and introduce you to two separate groups of people. You won’t know who is going to be the donor or who is going to be the recipient until something happens and they end up at Three Rivers.”

Viewers can expect the medical staff to end up together.

“I would say that there’s a great comaraderie between the characters,” Barbee hints.

“They each have personal journeys they are going on, and they are going on them together, because they all sort of live in this hospital 24/7. You will see relationships develop.”

What about romance?

“Oh, there will be many romantic entanglements,” Barbee teases.

But when asked which other characters Andy will become “entangled” with, she just laughs.

“All of them.”

O’Loughlin was equally reticent to identify Andy’s kissing partners, but did note that learning to operate in the hospital meant wrapping his tongue around some difficult medical jargon – in an American accent.

“The accent stuff, it’s not such a big deal for me anymore; I’ve been doing that for a long time,” he chuckles. “It’s the medical [jargon]. You study and read a lot and practice. There’s so much to learn, just to get off the ground and be convincing when you say the words.”