‘Dr Ken’ Season 1 Episode 1 Spoilers: Ken Stressed Out by Whining Patients [Watch]
In the first episode of ABC's new comedy series "Dr. Ken," which premieres on Friday, Dr. Ken (Ken Jeong, "Community" and "The Hangover") is stressed out due to his "whining, complaining" patients.
He requires a therapy session with wife and therapist Allison (Suzy Nakamura). At home, he is nervous about teenage daughter Molly's (Krista Marie Yu) driving test, wondering comically, "What if she doesn't fail!"
The medical comedy promises plenty of laughs, as Jeong plays a cranky, but lovable HMO doctor with no bedside manner. He juggles practicing medicine and parenting, and his unorthodox approach to both is often wrong even when he has the best intentions, reports Broadway World.
At the medical clinic, Dr. Ken's staff includes his sharp-tongued receptionist Damona (Tisha Campbell-Martin), HMO manager Pat (Dave Foley), dim-witted nurse Clark (Jonathan Slavin), and Dr. Julie Mintz (Kate Simses), a naive resident whose endless optimism and search for romance can be irritating.
Dr. Ken's nemesis, the hospital administrator, never misses an opportunity to take jabs at the good doctor and his staff.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ken's wife keeps him in line as they raise their two children. Dave (Albert Tsai), their youngest, has a quirky attitude that makes things interesting. Molly is a typical teen girl who keeps both parents on their toes.
The Futon Critic reports that ABC sent 500,000 "Dr. Ken" branded pharmacy bags to pharmacies throughout New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Dallas to promote the show. The bags were given out to pharmacy customers beginning Sept. 18.
What makes the show even more interesting is that Jeong really was a doctor before switching to an acting career. He earned a medical degree at the University of North Carolina and went on to perform his internal medicine residency at Ochsner Foundation Hospital in the late 1990s, while also working as a standup comedian, reports ABC.
He left medicine because being a general physician became "medically and professionally unfulfilling," the doctor-turned-actor told Fox News.
"There is a lot of burnout in primary care because a lot of times you are the gatekeeper in the HMO and [the patients] just want to see a specialist ... you are just pushing papers," he explained.
Watch Jeong in "Dr. Ken" Friday, Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
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