Royal Pains

Cast and characters

Mark Feuerstein plays Dr. Henry 'Hank' Lawson, a formerly successful New York E.R. doctor fired after a wealthy hospital benefactor dies in his care while he looks after a sicker patient. After saving someone's life during a trip to the Hamptons, he accepts an offer from Boris, a German businessman, to remain as a 'concierge doctor' on his palatial estate. He usually attends to wealthy clientele but also others in need, often without means to pay.

According to the episode 'Keeping the Faith', he and his brother are Jewish. Paulo Costanzo plays Evan Roth Lawson, Hank's younger brother, an accountant and self-appointed CFO of HankMed. Evan promotes the business, sometimes using strategies Hank finds inappropriate. At the end of season 4, he marries Paige, the adopted daughter of a wealthy, conservative military man running for Congress.

Location

When Boris buys Hampton Heritage hospital in season 7, Evan becomes a board member and the hospital's Acting Administrator. Reshma Shetty plays Divya Katdare, Hank's physician assistant who proposes the concierge practice. She initially keeps her medical career secret from her parents, breaks free from an arranged betrothal, and by season 6 has a daughter named Sashi, involved in a bitter custody dispute with Sashi's father Rafa. Jill Flint plays Jill Casey (seasons 1–4; recurring, season 8), Hank's on-again/off-again girlfriend and an administrator at Hamptons Heritage.

She works with Hank to open a free clinic and leaves in season 4 for relief work in Africa. Brooke D'Orsay plays Paige Lawson (seasons 4–8; recurring, seasons 2 & 3), Evan's wife. She meets Evan when she hires him as a pretend boyfriend, and their relationship becomes real. She pursues a career as an art curator.

In the season 4 episode 'Who's Your Daddy?', she is revealed to be adopted, and in the two-part finale 'Off-Season Greetings', she and Evan marry. Ben Shenkman plays Dr. Jeremiah Sacani (seasons 5–8; recurring, season 4), hired by Evan as Hank's replacement during a temporary halt to their partnership. He is an accomplished researcher with limited social skills and an awkward bedside manner, and is heir to a vast fortune. He and Divya become best friends; she moves into his house in season 6 when facing financial troubles and pregnant with Sashi.

Their friendship is almost broken when Divya meddles in his relationship with Viviana. In season 7, Sacani is conned out of a great deal of money by a former college classmate. Campbell Scott plays Boris Kuester von Jurgens-Ratenicz (seasons 4 & 5; recurring, seasons 1–3 & 6–8), a wealthy German businessman who offers Hank and Evan his guest house and is Hank's first client. Boris has a genetic disease he is determined will die with him, and he often seeks rare or risky treatments.

In season 3 he has a son, Carlos, with his wife Marissa. In season 6, he buys Hampton Heritage hospital, stating he intends to settle permanently in the Hamptons, and persuades Hank, Evan, Divya, and Jeremiah to become board members, though he has a secret agenda.

Location

Principal production of the pilot occurred in the Hamptons, but other locations throughout Long Island were used, with Oheka Castle being the most prominent. Although actually located 60 miles to the west, in Huntington, Oheka served as the Hamptons home of Boris, the German nobleman who offers his guest house to Hank and Evan. In later episodes, exterior and aerial shots of Oheka are used to introduce scenes in the guest house. In one episode, a Long Beach drive-through convenience store, Dairy Barn, was used as a fictional hot dog stand.

Several scenes were shot on the bay side of Point Lookout. Other places used as fictional Hamptons locations include Northport Village in the Town of Huntington, Old Westbury Gardens, Freeport's Nautical Mile (which served as the exterior and parking lot of Hampton Heritage Hospital), Caumsett State Historic Park, and Oyster Bay Town Hall (transformed into the entrance of the Hamptons Heritage Hospital emergency room). Catalina Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, New York was transformed for the pilot episode into the fictional Hampt Inn, the hotel Hank and Evan stayed in upon their arrival in the Hamptons.

Downtown Locust Valley plays downtown East Hampton in at least one episode. Other areas of filming include Roslyn, New York and Manhasset, New York, where the North Hempstead Town Hall was used as a police station. For several beach scenes, West Neck Beach (Huntington) was used.

Legal issues

In May 2011, a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Hayden Christensen and his brother Tove against USA Network, finding no proof of a broken contract because the idea for a show called Housecall—about a concierge doctor for the wealthy—was not copyrightable. The brothers had sued in July 2010, claiming they pitched the concept and that a network executive said he had never heard of concierge doctors before. The dismissal was overturned on appeal in June 2012, with the court ruling that their contract claim was different from a copyright claim. The case was settled in May 2013, with no terms released.

Did You Know?

• The series is based in part on contemporary concierge medicine practices of independent doctors and companies.
• Oheka Castle, used as Boris's Hamptons home, is actually located 60 miles west in Huntington, New York.
• Two season 2 episodes set in Cuba were filmed in Puerto Rico.
• The season 5 episode 'Lawson Translation' was set and shot in Budapest, Hungary.