St. Denis Medical’s Allison Tolman Revealed Why She Didn’t Think The Show Would Be A Hit

Anytime a new TV show is being produced, the odds against it succeeding are very long, to say the least. After all, television’s metaphorical graveyard is full of stones commemorating shows that talented professionals spent long hours working dutifully to produce.

Even though successful shows are rare, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for a famous actor to agree to star in a show they thought would fail. With that in mind, it certainly seems like fans should have been able to assume that Allison Tolman believed St. Denis Medical would be a hit. As it turns out, however, Allison once revealed the specific reason why she didn’t think that St. Denis Medical would succeed.

St. Denis Medical’s Allison Tolman Thought That Sitcoms Were Dead

Over the last few decades, there has been a lot of discussion about television’s golden age. Those discussions make a lot of sense, since there is no denying that there have been a slew of all-time great TV shows that have been produced. Fortunately for Allison Tolman, she has starred in one all-time great TV show since she headlined a season of Fargo.

While it is wonderful that so many high-quality shows have been produced, that trend has had other side effects. For example, all the discussions about acclaimed TV dramas have resulted in people talking about sitcoms a lot less than they used to.

As it turns out, those changes in the industry are why St. Denis Medical’s Allison Tolman thought entertainment had changed in a major way. Allison recently revealed that she didn’t think that a show like St. Denis Medical would work since she believed the sitcom format was dead.

In April 2025, Vanity Fair published a profile of Allison in the wake of the success of St. Denis Medical.

As a part of that profile, it was revealed that Allison told the outlet that she didn’t think she would ever star in a show like St. Denis Medical because she thought sitcoms were done.

I was like, ‘Are we still making sitcoms? Are they done?’

From there, Allison elaborated on her perception of the state of sitcoms before St. Denis Medical.

While still talking to Vanity Fair, Allison made it clear that she didn’t have confidence that St. Denis Medical would be a hit.

Prior to when St. Denis Medical became a hit. Allison Tolman had already earned acclaim for how great she was when she starred in the show Fargo. According to IMDb, Allison’s Fargo performance led to Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, Critic’s Choice, Gold Derby, and Women’s Image Network Awards nominations.

Instead, Allison explained that she thought a specific sitcom may have been the format’s last success.

Is Abbott Elementary going to be the last bastion of this? What are we doing?

Of course, if Allison wasn’t confident that St. Denis Medical would become a hit, that begs an obvious question. Why did Allison agree to star in St. Denis Medical?

As a part of the same Vanity Fair article, the sad story about why Allison agreed to star in St. Denis Medical was revealed.

According to Famous Birthdays, Allison Tolman was born on November 18th, 1981 in Texas. An NBC article about the St. Denis Medical star revealed that Allison made her acting debut in Dallas, Texas after she graduated from Baylor University with a Fine Arts degree.

Sadly for Allison and her loved ones, she had a very personal reason to connect with St. Denis Medical when she read the pilot script.

As a part of Vanity Fair’s article, it was revealed that Allison’s father had recently been hospitalized. At that time, Allison’s mother spent her days traveling to the hospital to be there for her husband.

Allison told the outlet that when her mother made it home from the hospital, she watched sitcoms to cope with her stress.

A few months after watching her mother go through that, Allison was sent the script for St. Denis Medical’s pilot. Thanks to what she’d just witnessed, Allison told Vanity Fair that she understood how valuable a show like St. Denis Medical’s could be.

There’s really a place for shows like this.

How Allison Tolman’s Past Prepared Her To Star In St. Denis Medical

As a part of Vanity Fair’s article, they revealed that Allison Tolman connected to St. Denis Medical because of her recent experiences. As it turns out, some of Allison’s other experiences prepared her to handle the pressure of starring in St. Denis Medical.

In April 2025, NBC’s official website published an article in which they quoted Allison Tolman’s comments about filming St. Denis Medical’s Season 1 finale.

For those that don’t know, the finale featured a scene with many characters that involved water pouring into the hospital from above. Since Allison was at the heart of that scene, she was under a lot of pressure to get it right quickly so that they didn’t have to pour water onto the set repeatedly.

NBC’s article revealed that Allison’s past as a theater actor helped her to blossom under the pressure to perfect that scene quickly.

“We’re gonna flood the hospital, and yeah, we can only do it so many times. The reset is really long, and there’s always special excitement in the air whenever there’s a big stunt or whenever there’s a bit of a practical effect. It’s always a little bit exciting. I love that stuff. Because I come out of the theatre world where everybody’s in the dirt doing everything together. Everything has to be in order, and I just really love it… the technical side of making TV.”

Between Allison’s past acting experience and what her family had recently gone through, it seems like she was destined to star in St. Denis Medical.