Pediatric patients find hidden joys of life on Fox's 'Red Band Society'

“Family” can have many meanings, and television is giving it a new one when it comes to those in a Los Angeles hospital's pediatric ward.

Debuting at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, the Fox drama series “Red Band Society” has an impressive pedigree starting with executive producer Steven Spielberg and a fellow Oscar winner, star Octavia Spencer (“The Help”). However, heavy lifting also is done by a cast of relative newcomers as the patients who see one another not only through illnesses, but many rites of young life.

One of those characters, Charlie (played by Griffin Gluck, seen last season on ABC's “Back in the Game”), will remain in a coma through much if not all of Season 1. That medical situation is familiar to executive producer Margaret Nagle, a former actress who developed the show from a Catalan series, since her brother — also named Charlie — was long comatose.

“It's really about that time that you spend in the hospital and how it changes you and what you learn,” Nagle says, “and what if you were able to learn what life is actually about when you're old enough to do something about it? I grew up in pediatric hospitals, so I found them to be the most uplifting, the most hilarious (places) ... the black humor, the fun, the getting to know the kids that you would never know in any other situation.”

Playing the stern but caring nurse who runs the ward, Spencer hasn't been a stranger to television since her Oscar victory, having appeared several times on CBS' “Mom.” She explains “Red Band Society” inspired her to make a bigger home-screen commitment because “it's not every day that you get great material. And from Page 1, I was like, ‘What is this going to be?' and was just moved and laughed and cried.”

Charlie Rowe, Ciara Bravo, former “The X Factor” contestant Brian “Astro” Bradley, Zoe Levin and Nolan Sotillo portray the other members of the “Red Band Society,” which is so named for the group's wristbands. Dave Annable (“Brothers & Sisters”) and Rebecca Rittenhouse appear as other members of the ward's staff.

In preparing for the series, cast members visited children's hospitals in some cities.

British actor Rowe (“Walking With Dinosaurs”) recalls that when he met one patient, “she was like, ‘Have you played hockey yet?' I'm like, ‘What?' And she says, ‘Oh, yeah, we play hockey games in the corridors with our crutches. We decorate them. You, like, create your sort of own jerseys on the crutches and stuff.' They're just having such fun. They're really beautiful places to be.”