Kingdom Hospital

As the series' budget grew, Stephen King paid for all the overages himself to prevent studio interference.

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

Sony Pictures wanted the series shot on HD video, while the director wanted to shoot on 35mm film. Stephen King, in agreement with the director, covered the extra costs out of his own pocket.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The scene in which Peter Rickman (Jack Coleman) is hit by a car plays out almost exactly as Stephen King described his own accident in his memoir "On Writing." The only difference is that in real life the man who hit King was older, sober, and stopped to see if he was all right.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

In one of the episodes, Peter's (Jack Coleman) wife is reading Stephen King's book "Misery."

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Unhappy with the lack of network advertising, Stephen King paid several hundred thousand dollars for full-page color print ads in major US newspapers promoting the series. The very next week, ABC changed the show's time slot to go up against CSI.

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Some characters' names are a tribute to the original Danish series The Kingdom (1994). Hook was Krogshøj in Danish (krog meaning hook), Miss Druse was originally Drusse, the character Carrie Von Trier shares a surname with the original series' writer Lars von Trier, and Otto's name in the Danish series was Hansen, played by the Danish actor Otto Brandenburg.

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Jack Coleman (Peter) wears a "Little Tall" sweatshirt. Little Tall is the island that serves as the setting for Stephen King's Storm of the Century and Dolores Claiborne.

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In the episode Shoulda' Stood in Bed (2004) 1.12, the lawyer who finds Mona Klingerman's (Emily Tennant) anesthesiology report is named Stephen Dooling. Stephen Dooling is made up of parts of the names of Kingdom Hospital's producers Stephen King and Richard Dooling.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The exterior of Kingdom Hospital is actually the Workers' Compensation Board building in Richmond, British Columbia, and is not really a hospital. However, directly across from the WCB building is a real hospital, Richmond Hospital. (Both buildings are located at the intersection of Westminster Highway and Gilbert Road.)

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Blondi (Otto's (Julian Richings) German Shepherd) is named after the notorious Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's own German Shepherd. Coincidentally, "Otto" was the name of Hitler's own administrative assistant (Otto Günsche), but in Kingdom Hospital Otto actually takes his name from the Danish actor Otto Brandenburg (who played the similar Hansen character in the Riget TV miniseries).

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The artist's name, 'Peter Rickman,' is a nod to the artist character 'Richard Pickman' in H. P. Lovecraft's 'Pickman's Model,' which involves the drawing of supernatural beings.

EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

Although Kingdom Hospital is set in Maine, it was a mostly Canadian production shot in British Columbia; at least half of the main cast and most of the minor cast were Canadian citizens. Many are best known for roles in Canadian television productions such as Polka Dot Door, Corner Gas, Once A Thief and North of 60. Kingdom Hospital was not the first production based on a Stephen King script to be shot in British Columbia; the western province often doubles as a cheaper Maine for budget productions, especially the 1990s Stephen King's It miniseries.

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

"Kingdom Hospital" was written based on the series "The Kingdom."

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The sleazy lawyer character Sheldon Fleischer (Michael Lerner) is seen wearing a pentagram necklace associated with Anton LaVey's Church of Satan.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

In this series, Bruce Davison not only plays a neurologist, he also plays a neurologist in the Law And Order SVU season 4, episode 8, titled Waste.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED