Royal Pains

Series synopsis

The series follows Hank Lawson, a young emergency room doctor, who after being wrongly blamed for an important patient's death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes a reluctant "doctor for hire" to the rich and famous. When the administrator of the local hospital asks him to treat the town's less fortunate, he finds himself walking the line between doing well for himself and doing good for others.

Main characters

Recurring characters

Location

Principal production of the show's pilot occurred in the Hamptons. However, other locations throughout Long Island were used, with Oheka Castle being the most prominent. Although actually located 60 miles to the west, in Huntington, Oheka served as the Hamptons home of Boris, the German nobleman who offers his guest house to Hank and Evan. In later episodes, exterior and aerial shots of Oheka are used to introduce scenes in the guest house.

In one episode, a Long Beach drive-through convenience store, Dairy Barn, was used as a fictional hot dog stand; a sign can be seen in the opening of that scene. Also, several scenes were shot on the bay side of Point Lookout. Other places used as fictional Hamptons locations include Northport Village in the Town of Huntington, Old Westbury Gardens, Freeport's Nautical Mile, which served as the exterior and parking lot of Hampton Heritage Hospital (in one scene, Freeport's charter coat can be seen across the bay) Caumsett State Historic Park and Oyster Bay Town Hall, which was transformed into the entrance of the Hamptons Heritage Hospital emergency room. Catalina Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, New York was transformed for the pilot episode into the fictional Hampt Inn, the hotel Hank and Evan stayed in upon their arrival in the Hamptons. Downtown Locust Valley, another haunt of the wealthy on Long Island's Gold Coast, plays downtown East Hampton in at least one episode (where Evan and Paige go shopping), with interior shots in a store as well as street scenes.

For several beach scenes, West Neck Beach (Huntington) was used and a food shopping scene was filmed in Southdown Market in Huntington. Huntington Hospital is now used for Hamptons Heritage Hospital.

Two episodes of the second season take place in Cuba, but were filmed in Puerto Rico.

Development and production

The pilot was filmed on location on Long Island, New York in the spring and fall of 2008. The pilot was directed by Jace Alexander, who also filmed the pilot of Burn Notice, another USA Network show, which aired in the hour before Royal Pains. Andrew Lenchewski wrote the pilot and Rich and Paul Frank executive-produced the project, with Lenchewski co-executive producing and John P. Rogers producing. The series was then picked up for a 12-episode season. On February 24, 2011, the show completed its second season. The show was renewed for a sixth season which was filmed in New York and premiered on June 10, 2014.

Reception

Royal Pains has become one of the highest-rated shows on cable. The series premiere was watched by 5.57 million viewers, the highest series premiere for the USA Network since Psych in 2006. With episodes two and three watched by 5.59 million and 6.5 million viewers, respectively, it was the first show in five years to have viewership increase from week two to week three.

DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first season of Royal Pains in Region 1 on May 25, 2010, and released it in Region 4 on August 25, 2010. Season 2 was released in Region 1 on May 17, 2011. A DVD released on January 3, 2012, contained the first 10 episodes of the third season. Episodes are also available on iTunes and seasons 1-7 are now available on Netflix.com through their streaming service.

Novel series

Beginning in 2011, D.P. Lyle began publishing a book series based on the television series, under Signet Books' Obsidian imprint.

Legal issues

On July 6, 2010, actor Hayden Christensen and his older brother Tove filed a lawsuit against USA Network in a Manhattan Federal Court. In the suit, the brothers claimed to have pitched USA Network an idea for a new television series, called Housecall, which involved a concierge doctor who made house calls to the rich and famous. The two brothers also claimed that a USA Network executive told them, "prior to learning about Housecall, he was unaware of concierge doctors and that he thought it was a fascinating idea." A USA Network spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit. On May 10, 2011, a Manhattan judge ruled not enough evidence was available to justify a breach-of-contract claim because the claim concerns "materials that are not copyrightable, such as ideas." The decision was reversed on appeal in June 2012, the court holding that Christensens' claims were not pre-empted by copyright law. The opinion stated, "There are several qualitative differences between such a contract claim and a copyright violation claim," and added that sister appellate circuits recently had come to this same conclusion. The case was settled with no details made public in May 2013.