The ad for the first season of "Deliver Me" shows Dr. Yvonne Bohn in scrubs, with her partners Drs. Alane Park and Allison Hill, in the classic tough-woman television pose, three-quarters view, arms crossed. But Bohn, oddly enough, is smiling. The day they shot the commercial, she had delivered two babies.
In their own small way, the Los Angeles doctors have emerged from the flood of reality programming with a surprising approach to the genre: nice, low-key and smart.
"We're pretty normal," Bohn said. "We're all moms, all juggling motherhood and having a career, caring about our jobs, our families and our friends."
Producers at Discovery Health Channel said they were sure the obstetricians -- friends since residency at USC -- would make "normal" interesting. But they didn't realize how much.
In the first season, which concludes Sunday, one of the doctors had her eggs frozen by her ex-husband, also a doctor; another identified so much with a patient who had a miscarriage that she wept on camera; and, even with nannies to help, there were child-care crises. Not to mention the patients: One, in the midst of a high-risk pregnancy, mysteriously disappeared, triggering a search worthy of TV detectives before a dramatic birth by Cesarean section.
"I'm sure one of our shows will show up on 'Grey's Anatomy,' " said executive producer Eric Schiff. "We couldn't have made it up."
Discovery Health will air the finale at 9 p.m. on Mother's Day, following a marathon of the previous six episodes that begins at 3 p.m. The series was filmed in the doctors' offices downtown, adjacent to Good Samaritan Hospital, where they have practiced for nine years.
Though they're familiar with treating an urban population -- they trained at a Los Angeles County hospital -- their patients come from all over, Lancaster to Yorba Linda, including some women who work in the high-rises in downtown L.A., across the 110 Freeway.
Patients must sign releases to appear on the show, but, Hill said, "You'd be surprised how many patients are willing to open up a private time in their lives. Every time you drive down the street in L.A., they're filming something. People are so used to it here, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to have your birth on television, interestingly."
The doctors were more reluctant.
Perfect fit
Schiff and Discovery Health had been looking for a high-risk practice to follow, but an initial search four years earlier found no takers.
