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Paul Adelstein: Private Practice Prescribes Juicier Drama

Oct 7, 2008 04:29 PM ET
by Matt Mitovich

Paul Adelstein

With its Season 2 premiere, ABC's Private Practice "grew up" a bit, eschewing flighty romances for bigger drama punctuated by ethical dilemmas. Paul Adelstein promises more of the same, while also previewing what's ahead for Cooper and his strange romance. Plus: Is Prison Break's Kellerman alive?

TVGuide.com: It's so good to see the show back....
Paul Adelstein: It's nice to have it back.

TVGuide.com: The gang was a little rough there on Naomi, at the end of the premiere.
Adelstein: Hey, man, she left us all high and dry! Although in her defense, we probably should have been paying a little more attention. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Apparently one and only one partner had their eye on the ledger.
Adelstein: And the rest of us were in the kitchen snacking when we should have been seeing patients.

TVGuide.com: Is that one of the themes this season, that we'll get a bit more into the business of the practice, versus pretty people just flitting around and flirting?
Adelstein: That’s a major thing, that the practice itself is in trouble. We have a high-concept idea of what the practice should do, but that butts heads with the financial realities of keeping a business afloat. So there are some splits in the ranks about how we should proceed. On top of that, [series and Grey's Anatomy creator] Shonda [Rhimes] has added a lot of issues of medical ethics that aren’t so black-and-white.

TVGuide.com: In that one case from last week, is that the real deal, that an underage kid's parents can keep him from knowing he has HIV?
Adelstein: That was based on a real case that a doctor brought to the writers. That is a case in which you would have doctor-patient confidentiality on both sides. There are more cases along those lines coming up. There's an episode that deals with a lot of issues surrounding abortion, there's euthanasia.... a lot of medical decisions that aren’t cut-and-dry, but are very important.

TVGuide.com: On the lighter side, Cooper and Charlotte have been going to some very amorous places. Who has more trouble "going there" for those scenes, you or KaDee Strickland?
Adelstein: Well... I wouldn’t say either one of us has "trouble," but you will see this week that KaDee has to don some rather... "interesting" outfits. She has to be a better sport than I, let's put it that way. [Laughs] I'm in my jeans and T-shirt and she has to... well, you'll see.

TVGuide.com: Dare I say that things between the two of them might get more real?
Adelstein: Yes. Cooper has decided that he wants to give it a go and have an adult relationship for the first time in his life.

TVGuide.com: But at what expense to his friendship with Violet?
Adelstein: That’s a good question. Again, him not having been in an adult relationship before, I don’t think he knows how to handle that exactly – and that comes to a head pretty quickly.

TVGuide.com: Has Violet put two and two together to deduce that he's seeing Charlotte?
Adelstein: She knows that he's involved with somebody, given the changes in his behavior. But Cooper is unwilling to fess up to that.

TVGuide.com: Are you, as I am, of the thought that Prison Break's Kellerman is not necessarily dead?
Adelstein: I am definitely of that mind, although there have been no indications that he is not dead.

TVGuide.com: When that van door popped open [at the end of Season 2], I always took it that he was expecting to see whomever he saw.
Adelstein: That's why it was a fun piece of writing, because it could play either way. I'm either being rescued... or I'm being deep-sixed.

TVGuide.com: Do you ever cross paths with your Prison Break "boss," Patricia Wettig (Brothers & Sisters), over there at ABC?
Adelstein: I have, I've seen her a couple times. She's no longer president, you know.