Doctor Odyssey may not be the Love Boat but it is a new series that is about a cruise ship, or boat, and there appears to be love. It premiered on Thursday night on ABC. The new series is a procedural that takes place on a cruise ship where “Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), a new on-board doctor for a luxury cruise ship where the staff—including Captain Massey (Don Johnson) and nurses Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale)—works hard and plays harder.”
“Doctor Odyssey is both old-fashioned and very modern in that it has all the elements of a traditional, big network show with gloss and a great deal of style, while also not being afraid to talk about the world now—our emotional states, the tensions between men and women, pandemics, hedonism, you name it,” explains Jon Robin Baitz, who writes and executive produces the new series alongside Murphy and Joe Baken. “And yet, it’s really funny—it’s smart, fun, and a pleasure to sink into the comfiest chair you have and watch.”
Baitz adds, “It feels like a new way of doing something wonderfully old school.”
The most important part of Doctor Odyssey, however, is the story. That is what the showrunners are focused on.
“The only way I know to keep that machine functioning is to collaborate with Ryan and Joe and write inventive, smart, entertaining scripts that respect the audience’s intelligence while taking seriously the mandate to entertain,” Baitz says. “Ryan brings a kind of brilliant showmanship along with his great storytelling instincts. Joe has tremendous oddball takes while also being very serious about the emotional life of the show. So, we must keep challenging ourselves to be really good at the brief: making a juicy, joyous, big-hearted, lively, contemporary, funny show. I like broadcast, the gloss of it, the traditions of it, the pace of it. So, it’s to make beautiful content that reminds you of a bygone time but is brand-new.”
There is also the added advantage that Jackson and Johnson have a lot of experience with making primetime television. The former starred in Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003), Fringe (2008-2013), and The Affair (2014-2018), and the latter starred in Miami Vice (1984–1990) and Nash Bridges (1996–2001). They also are executive producers for the series along with director Paris Barclay, Eric Paquette, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, and Nissa Diederich.
Baitz said that Jackson and Johnson are “smart, charming, wise, and easy-going.”
“They bring a collective plethora of TV experience: instincts for what makes a show tick, how to lead a company of actors, how to protect those characters and argue for them, and how to advocate for them,” Baitz continues. “They know how to love the work and respect the process and the crew. They are the real deal—grown-ups who are intimately familiar with all the moving parts of making TV and know how to be of value to the process.”
The added bonus of the series taking place on a cruise ship is that there will be a LOT of guest stars on the series. There will be dozens of guest stars including Kelsea Ballerini, Rachel Dratch, Gina Gershon, and Laura Harrier to Cheyenne Jackson, Chord Overstreet, John Stamos, and Shania Twain. “One of the pleasures in my life is casting,” Baitz says. “A couple dozen plays Off- and on Broadway—a life in the New York theater—gives you a real sense of how to ‘people’ a show. The talent out there is simply unending, and so is the generosity of actors who want to come play and be part of a fun.”
“There is an infinite pool of the known and unknown—new faces, old hands,” Baitz continues. “What a joy to see someone you’ve missed onscreen for a while showing up. What a surprise to see new faces being jaw-droppingly good—and knowing you’ll see more of them. Then there are the relationships we have with actors; one example is that Gina Gershon and I went to high school together and behaved very badly in plays. Well, I did, because I tried to make her laugh. This is one of the best things about Doctor Odyssey—there’s a panoply of glamorous and exciting folk coming along for the cruise.”
Baitz also shared that the fun and drama are just getting started. Throughout the season, he shared that fans can expect “deepening relationships between the principals and complicated turns in their emotional lives.” Baitz also teased that Doctor Odyssey will feature “fun and tragedy, heroic medical thinking, fast action, heartbreak, feuds, love, marvelous costumes, and life choices questioned.”
What do you think of Doctor Odyssey? Did you see the first episode? If so, what do you think? If not, are you going to watch it? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
