Faith and Medicine Drama Series in Development from Dr. Oz on CBS
A faith and medicine drama is up for development on CBS. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the man behind the "The Dr. Oz Show," will be executive producing.
The planned drama still doesn't have a title. It will, however, be based on Dr. Harley A. Rotbart's book called "Miracles We Have Seen: America's Leading Physicians Share Stories They Can't Forget."
The book is a non-fiction that features personal accounts of doctors who have witnessed tiny miracles, awakening and nearly impossible recoveries. The TV series, on the other hand, will focus on two surgeons. One relies heavily on data while the other believes in both faith and science.
Jezebel describes the concept as somewhat akin to "The X-Files," but with prayer and faith as the driving point and not aliens or supernatural creatures.
Oz's wife Liza will also be an executive producer on the show along with Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell of Safehouse Pictures. Grant Thompson ("McFarland, USA") will write the episodes.
No actors have been attached so far as the development of the series is still underway. The upcoming series will likely make up CBS' roster of shows for the 2018-2019 season, should development progress.
Oz, an experienced cardiothoracic surgeon, became a television personality through Oprah Winfrey, who helped create his syndicated medical talk show. "The Dr. Oz Show" has been renewed until 2019 by Sony Pictures Television and airs on FOX affiliate stations.
Oz, a graduate of at Harvard Medical School, is also a proponent of alternative medicine and earned criticisms from the medical community for supposedly backing pseudoscience. He faced a senate inquiry into weight loss products but denied that he sells or endorses a particular item.
"Medicine is a very religious experience," he said in 2013 via New Yorker. "I have my religion and you have yours. It becomes difficult for us to agree on what we think works, since so much of it is in the eye of the beholder. Data is rarely clean."
