Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital is the haunting new 15-hour drama series created directly for television by the award-winning, bestselling master of horror. Using Lars Von Trier's Danish miniseries Riget (a.k.a. The Kingdom) as a point of inspiration, King tells the terrifying story of The Kingdom, a hospital with a bizarre population that includes a nearly blind security guard, a nurse who regularly faints at the sight of blood and a paraplegic artist whose recovery is a step beyond miraculous. When patients and staff hear the tortured voice of a little girl crying through the halls, they are dismissive of any suggestion of mysticism or unseen powers … but at their own peril.

The series stars Andrew McCarthy as Dr. Hook, Academy Award nominee Diane Ladd as Sally Druse, Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison as Dr. Stegman and Ed Begley, Jr. as Dr. Jesse James. Other cast members are Jack Coleman as Peter Rickman, William Wise as Dr. Louis Traff, Lena Georgas as Carrie Von Trier, Janet Wright as Liz Hinton, Meagan Fay as Brenda Abelson, Del Pentecost as Bobby Druse, Jamie Harrold as Elmer Traff, Brandon Bauer as Abel and Jennifer Cunningham as Christa.

Watch for KINGDOM HOSPITAL: Post-Mortem to be released from Sony Pictures on Oct. 11,2 2005.  This DVD set features the final five episodes from the haunting Stephen King series about a spooky hospital.

 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment delves into a haunted hospital in Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital: Making the Rounds.  The two disc set will be released on Sept. 27. 2005.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment delves into a haunted hospital in Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital: The Beginning.  The disc sports the two-hour premiere episode and the hour-long second episode.

Kingdom Hospital The Complete Series was released on DVD on Oct. 12, 2004 as a four-disc set from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.  The disc includes  filmmakers' commentaries, four  featurettes and interviews with Stephen King, as well as all thirteen episodes of the mini-series.

 

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, which is produced by Sony Pictures Television in association with Mark Carliner Productions and Touchstone Television, is executive-produced by Stephen King and Mark Carliner and directed by Craig Baxley. Richard Dooling provides technical support.

Cast:

Ed Begley, Jr.
Dr. Jesse James
Jack Coleman
Peter Rickman
Bruce Davison
Dr. Stegman
Diane Ladd
Sally Druse
Andrew McCarthy
Dr. Hook
Stephen King
Executive producer/Writer


The Episodes:

Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Two Hour Premiere
"Thy Kingdom Come"
Artist Peter Rickman is run down by a stoned, two-time loser driving a minivan. He is admitted comatose to Kingdom Hospital, but not before encountering a ghostly figure whose mission is to use him to rid the hospital of malevolence, both human and inhuman, and to free its nine-year old mistress, Mary, from the hospital's haunted halls. When he awakens in an altered state with newfound but not necessarily welcome telepathic powers, Rickman finds he can communicate with the spirits, good and evil, man and beast, inhabiting the hospital. Mrs. Druse, a patient with psychic gifts, is the first to hear the cries of the trapped ghost and attempts to persuade brilliant, eccentric surgeon Dr. Hook to join her quest to identify it. She is opposed in this effort by the hopelessly arrogant and mean-spirited chief neurologist Dr. Stegman, and the ebullient but vacuous hospital administrator, Dr. Jesse James, who is concerned only with the hospital's image.


Wednesday, March 10, 2004
"Death's Kingdom"
Despite being forcibly discharged from the hospital by Dr. Stegman, Mrs. Druse recruits the semi-conscious, telepathic Peter to join her at a séance to identify the spirit whose cries continue to haunt the hospital's elevator shafts. Meanwhile, the man responsible for Peter's condition becomes acutely aware of a much stronger and frightening presence at Kingdom Hospital.


Wednesday, March 17, 2004
"Goodbye Kiss"
When a murderous convict draws out a new element of evil among the mortal and spiritual worlds at Kingdom Hospital, the trapped ghost of an innocent little girl uses Peter Rickman and a catatonic, pediatric patient to form an alliance with Hook and Mrs. Druse.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004
"The West Side of Midnight"
Peter channels questions and messages from Kingdom Hospital's nine-year-old spiritual prisoner, Mary, through to Dr. Hook and Mrs. Druse, while his psychotic roommate begins to carry out the evil intentions of Mary's very wicked nemesis, Paul. Meanwhile, the hospital staff witnesses the resurgence of some of Kingdom Hospital's darkest, most deeply buried secrets.

Wednesday, March 31, 2004
"Hook's Kingdom"
The psychic Mrs. Druse is called to assist when the trapped evil spirit of a tortured teenaged boy wreaks havoc on the staff, patients and innocent spirits inhabiting Kingdom Hospital. Meanwhile Dr. Hook forges a relationship of the mortal variety.

Thursday, April 8, 2004
"The Young and the Headless"
Using Peter Rickman's drawings as a guide, Mrs. Druse and Hook make contact with Mary and her nemesis, Paul, and begin to navigate through the trenches of Kingdom Hospital's horrifying past. Meanwhile, Dr. Traff's attempt at a love prank on sleep psychologist Dr. Lona Massingale goes terrifyingly wrong.

Thursday, April 15, 2004
"Black Noise"
Still unable to speak, Peter gets a message to Dr. Hook and Mrs. Druse that a very dark presence within Kingdom Hospital is channeling his evil through a hallucinating alcoholic and pyromaniac to harm patients, staff and their most powerful spiritual allies, Mary and Antibus. And Dr. Stegman's unethical medical practices and questionable past begin to haunt him at every turn.

Thursday, April 22, 2004
"Heartless"
An attorney in need of a heart transplant rues the day he checked into Kingdom Hospital. Meanwhile, Hook discovers authentic newspaper clippings inside Mary's doll that reveal the horrific details of the 1869 Gates Falls Mills fire that killed scores of children on the very ground where the hospital now stands.

Thursday, April 29, 2004
"Butterfingers"
When a retired major league baseball player attempts to take his own life and is admitted to Kingdom Hospital, he begins a chain reaction that opens up some horrific old wounds and reverses history for those -- living and dead -- who inhabit the hospital.

Thursday, June 24, 2004
"The Passion of Reverend Jimmy"
When the reverend of the Christ-Oly-Christ mission is sacrificed, new life resurges in and around Kingdom Hospital and the mystery behind Mary's death is revealed. Meanwhile, maintenance man Jack Handlemann, guest starring Wayne Newton, delivers a very destructive blow to Steg's ego and most prized possession.

Bruce and Gumby on the set of Kingdom Hospital at the Workers' Compensation Board's (WCB) back lot. The Helping Hands charity group plans to use the photographs on the company's intranet where they will be accessible to over twenty-five hundred staff members throughout BC.  The pictures show that charities can be fun while they seek to provide solutions to the problems found in our communities. 

CHECKING INTO 'HOSPITAL'
Tuesday, July 29, 2003 by Michael Schneider
     Former Brat packer Andrew McCarthy and Academy Award nominees Diane Ladd and Bruce Davison have scrubbed into ABC's 15-hour series "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital".
     The skein bows Thursday, Feb. 5 - the first night of sweeps - at 9 p.m. with a two-hour premiere.  The hourlong thriller, from Sony Pictures TV, will continue in that slot in subsequent weeks.
     King has already written all 15 hours of the series, which is based on the Danish miniseries "Riget" ("The Kingdom") from Lars von Trier.
     "Kingdom Hospital" revolves around a bizarre hospital where patients and staff have chosen to ignore telltale signs of mysticism and unseen powers.  King describes the project as a cross between "ER" and his own "The Shining."
     McCarthy ("Pretty in Pink") will take residency as Dr. Hook, a surgeon who lives in the hospital basement and collects medical equipment.  Ladd ("Rambling Rose"), meanwhile, plays psychic hypochondriac Mrs. Druse, a regular in Kingdom Hospital's emergency room.
     Then there's Davison ("X2"), who will star as Dr. Stegman, an arrogant, inept physician.
     ABC movies and minis topper Quinn Taylor called it a coup to land three such well-known names for "Kingdom Hospital".
     "When we saw the auditions of these three actors, we all got chills," Taylor said.  "There were no other people for the part.  Looking at their resumes, we're ecstatic."
Sony Pictures Television programming chief Russ Krasnoff said King has been involved in the
     		casting process, attending casting sessions in New York.  Exec said "Kingdom Hospital" was a good  example of Sony's near-boutique style approach to network prime-time development. "This project is a great business for us," he said.  "Stephen King's got a worldwide appeal.  He's a brand unto himself."
     Krasnoff also said King and the other producers were treating "Kingdom Hospital" as a series and thus looked for actors who would get auds to return over the long haul.
     "So much of a TV series is creating a relationship between viewers and characters," he said.  "We were focused on how we could really hit it out of the park (with casting)."
     And with the entire series' scripts in the can, the "Kingdom Hospital" thesps will also have the unusual luxury of learning where their characters are headed.
     All three thesps have options to return for a second season, ratings willings.
      McCarthy, who's repped by Innovative, most recently appeared in USA's hit drama "Monk";  he'll also star in the upcoming feature "Anything but Love."  Ladd, repped by Elizabeth Fowler and the Chasin Agency, appeared in "Primary Colors" and the Showtime telepic "Daddy and Them."
     Gersh-repped Davison will star in the upcoming "Runaway Jury"; his resume includes turns on films such as "Longtime Companion."
     Production on "Kingdom Hospital" begins Aug. 11 in Vancouver.  King and Mark Carliner executive produce, while Craig Baxley will direct.
    (Josef Adalian contributed to this report.)


Visit the official Kingdom Hospital website:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/kingdomhospital/index.html