Interview: Wendi McLendon-Covey Discusses Her New Role On NBC’s ‘St. Denis Medical’

NBC, the network at the forefront of churning out single-camera comedies, is back with another delightful workplace sitcom that, quite frankly, we may need now more than ever.

St. Denis Medical is from the minds of Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer (The Office, Superstore). It stars a winning ensemble from all walks of comedy, including Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs, Bridesmaids), Tony winning-David Alan Grier (In Living Color), Allison Tollman (FX’s Fargo, Good Girls), Kaliko Kauahi (Superstore), Mekki Leeper (Jury Duty, The Sex Lives of College Girls,) Josh Lawson (House of Lies), and Kahyun Kim (Cocaine Bear).

Like its predecessors, The Office, ABC’s Abbott Elementary, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Parks and Recreation, St. Denis Medical is a mockumentary-style TV show revealing the day-to-day funny hijinks of medical professionals at an underfunded hospital in Portland. The show centers most of its comedy on the chaotic, high-stakes moments, and all the jabs in between. What St. Denis Medical does best is addressing the reality of what it takes to run a hospital while showing the staff’s tenderness towards their patients and sometimes even each other.

At the center of that is Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey), the executive director and former Oncologist of St. Denis Medical, who is everything to everyone and seems to want you to think she thrives in the chaos of having to raise money for a hospital that’s underfunded and understaffed. Joyce is quick, witty, and has a no-BS policy. When I sat over Zoom to speak with McLendon-Covey, it was clear to see that while she enjoyed her time on The Goldbergs, the departure of playing a mom was a welcome one.

Here’s what she had to say about her character:

“I love that she is someone who is not cuddly. She does not like being hugged. She can’t keep a plant alive. All of her plants are fake. She only has stuffed animals because she can’t have pets because she couldn’t keep them alive. So, this is not a nurturer, even though she works in a hospital. She’s about to explode with frustration at trying to fundraise all the time. And she loves her team, but she’s not like, ‘Oh, give me a hug.'”

Check out my interview with Wendi McLendon-Covey, in which she talks about saying goodbye to Beverly Goldberg and hello to Joyce.

St. Denis Medical premieres on NBC on 11/12