Wendi McLendon-Covey Says Filming St. Denis Medical After The Goldbergs Felt Like 'Cheating on My Family' (Exclusive)

Wendi McLendon-Covey couldn’t help but think of her TV family as she began filming the upcoming NBC sitcom, St. Denis Medical.

The 55-year-old actress tells PEOPLE that working on a new mockumentary about the workplace felt like “cheating on my family” after playing matriarch Beverly Goldberg in The Goldbergs for 10 seasons.

“It was so hard because while I was in negotiations for this and shooting this pilot, I was also on a closing farewell tour The Goldbergsand it was heartbreaking,” she says of the series, which ended in May 2023. “I loved that series. I loved all these people and I felt really, really weird.”

Wendi Mclendon Covey as Joyce in ‘St. Denis Medicinski’.

Danny Ventrella/NBC

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“I’m grateful to have this opportunity, but the way it overlapped, I found it a little strange,” she adds.

However, bridesmaids star embraced her role as Joyce, the hospital’s CEO St. Denis Medicalwhich follows “employees of an underfunded hospital in Oregon. Like real-life medical professionals, the characters come to work every day trying to balance their innate desire to do their best to help people with their innate desire not to lose their own sanity,” reads the official synopsis.

McLendon-Covey admits she had “never played a person like Joyce” before landing the role on the sitcom.

“I just left after 10 years The Goldbergs and I knew I probably didn’t want to play another mom right away,” she shares. “So I love Joyce. She’s a bit of a mess. She’s not a caregiver at all, so that’s fun because my other character was so similar, but I love that she doesn’t want to be touched. Don’t hug her.”

From left: Wendi McLendon-Covey and Hayley Orrantia in ‘The Goldbergs’.

Nicole Wilder/Disney General Entertainment/Getty

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The Renault 911! The alum describes the character as a “former oncologist,” who is now “a hospital administrator, which means she works 40+ hours a week trying to raise funds.”

“It’s in constant fundraising mode, and it’s just bubbling under the surface,” he adds. “She’s going to explode at some point, so I like to play people like that who are trying to hide their true emotions.”

The series also gave McLendon-Covey the opportunity to team up with David Alan Grier, who plays ER doctor Ron.

“I was so thrilled to be able to work with David Alan Grier,” she says. “I’ve been a fan for years and years, so when we were shooting the pilot, I would get so nervous just sitting next to him and going, ‘Oh my God, I hope he thinks I’m funny. I hope he doesn’t think I’m an amateur.”

As for their characters’ stories on the show, he hopes viewers will get a glimpse into the early days of their relationship.

“My character and his character, we have a long history and I hope at some point we can do some flashback episodes,” she says. “So we can see what they looked like in the ’90s or whenever they first came out.”

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St. Denis Medical premieres with two back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, November 12 at 8:00 PM ET on NBC.

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Source: HIS Education