TNT Greenlights Pilot for New Medical Drama from David E. Kelly and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta

TNT has ordered a pilot for Chelsea General (working title), a new medical drama series from award-winning producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope) and practicing neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, M.D. Kelley and Dr. Gupta will executive-produce. Kelley wrote the pilot script for the series, which is based on Gupta’s upcoming novel Monday Mornings.

“Chelsea General promises to be a smart, witty and extremely powerful medical drama, the kind of series David E. Kelley is renowned for making,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “We look forward to working with David and Sanjay in bringing the doctors’ fascinating stories and characters to television.”

Set to be published in March 2012 by Grand Central Publishing, Gupta’s Monday Mornings follows the lives of five surgeons as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. The book uses as its backdrop their hospital’s weekly morbidity and mortality conference, when doctors gather with their peers for a confidential review of complications and errors in patient care. The book provides a unique look at how surgeons come to terms with mistakes and try to learn from them.

Chelsea General joins two other recent pilot orders from TNT.  

Gateway, from Warner Horizon Television, is a Western saga revolving around three brothers who step in to save their town when their father, the town sheriff, is murdered. The brothers are pitted against a corrupt cattle baron who is determined to make the town his own. The cast includes Cam Gigandet, Keir O’Donnell, David Denman, Karen Allen, Ana De La Reguera, Keith Carradine, Donal Logue, Shanno Lucio, Eric Lang, Anthony Lapaglia and Bill Sadler.

TNT has also ordered a pilot for Scent of the Missing fromCBS Television Studios.Based on Susannah Charleson’s book about an adrenaline junkie who leads a canine search-and-rescue team, the pilot stars Tricia Helfer, Gerald McRaney, Eric Winter and Summer Glau.