Scrubbing in: NBC debuts new medical series with Melissa George

If you didn't necessarily think of heart surgeons as fun people, here comes “Heartbeat.”

While it's far from a comedy, NBC's new medical series — which has a “preview” premiere Tuesday, March 22, the night before it settles into its regular Wednesday slot — boasts a spirited, energetic performance by Melissa George, seen frequently as grimmer characters in such projects as “In Treatment,” “Hunted” and last year's NBC drama “The Slap.”

A nurse's daughter in real life, she now plays cardiothoracic specialist Alex Panttiere, the new Chief Innovations Officer charged with bringing cutting-edge techniques to the hospital where she juggles her professional passion with her involvements with two colleagues: her current boyfriend (Dave Annable, also a doctor last season on Fox's “Red Band Society”) and a surgeon (Don Hany, a native Australian like actress George) with whom she has a past ... and who has just joined her workplace.

“Heartbeat” is inspired by the life of Dr. Kathy Magliato, an executive producer of the show along with others including Jill Gordon (who developed the series for television) and spouses Amy Brenneman (“The Leftovers”) and Brad Silberling (“City of Angels”). Joshua Leonard (“The Blair Witch Project”) also stars as Alex's ex-husband, a rock-music star who's still very present for her and their children despite “the guy he left me for,” as she explains; Jamie Kennedy, D.L. Hughley and Shelley Conn are in the regular cast as well.

Initially, “Heartbeat” was slated for a fall start, but George's pregnancy (she gave birth to her second son in November) delayed production.

“It worked out very well,” she maintains. “Usually, the schedule is you get a pilot, you get picked up, you're shooting, you air — and the creative team has a very short window to really flesh out what they want to say. Here, we had three months where the writers could actually produce, and Jill Gordon could create the show that she wanted. I think that's a gift. To me, there are no mistakes. And my son was 10 pounds, I want you to know.”

Maintaining she “was not looking to produce a TV show” at this point, Brenneman and filmmaker spouse Silberling met with Magliato after the publication of the latter's book “Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon.” Brenneman recalls “driving away and thinking, ‘That woman is a TV show.' It took a while to find Jill Gordon, who really brought it to life, because I think it's all of her irreverence. It's her surprising stories. It's who she is. So, I think it all started with Kathy, and then I got to midwife it to Jill.”

The emergency-surgery-on-an-airplane sequence that opens “Heartbeat” really happened to Magliato, who's as lively as her on-screen alter ego and confirms the series is “based on real characters, people either in my life now or in my life in the past. I'm not getting as much ‘action' as (George) is on the set. I asked my husband about a love triangle; he just won't go for it. Kind of an old-school guy. But other than those two things, it's pretty authentic ... pretty true to life.”