INNOVATIONS (Period Scripted DocuSeries)
EP 1 “Life & LImb” | EP 2 “Heartwarming Innovation” | EP 3 “The Code to Cure Cancer” | EP 4 “Brain Games”

Director August Dannehl | DP : Manual Crosby | Producer Chris Brown
Production We Are The Mighty (Recurrent)

Production Designer
LOS ANGELES, CA
(partial set builds + practical location augmentation at RSI Pomona)


Episode 1 - “Life and Limb”
Bronx, New York 1947 - 1972

Nobel Prize Winning Physicist - Doctor Rosalyn Yalow, working out of a hospital janitors closet as a makeshift lab, discovers and develops radio-immunoassay (RIA), a groundbreaking technique that uses radioactive isotopes to quickly and precisely measure concentrations of hormones, vitamins, viruses, enzymes, drugs, and hundreds more substances. The technique is so sensitive that it can detect a teaspoonful of sugar in a body of water 62 miles long; a game-changing win and a giant leap forward in the battle against Diabetes.

Episode 2 - “Heartwarming Innovation”
Denver, Colorado 1963 - 1964

Doctor Thomas Starzl was known as the “father of transplantation” for his role in pioneering and advancing organ transplantation from a risky, rare procedure to an accessible surgery. He was an American physician, researcher, and a world-renowned transplant surgeon who performed the first human liver transplant in 1963 and 1967 and was also a pioneer in kidney transplantation and performed the first simultaneous heart and liver transplantation in 1984.

Episode 3 - “The Code to Cure Cancer”
Detroit, Michigan 1991

In the early 1990's as the internet was becoming a prevalent tool across all industries, data scientists at the VA were developing the implementation of the first, widely used Electronic Medical Record. Since then, and with the nationwide VA medical system as a proving ground, medical communities across the world have adopted iterations of the VA's novel, groundbreaking technology to improve the diagnosis, tracking and treatment of their patients. The EMR has saved countless lives since 1991 and has proven paramount in the early detection of cancers and other diseases.

Episode 4 - “Brain Games”
Brentwood, California 1959 - 1961

Doctor William Oldendorf was a neurologist, physician, researcher, medical pioneer and was the originator of the technique of computed tomography which led to the CAT scan and the MRI. In 1959, Oldendorf conceived an idea for "scanning a head through a transmitted beam of X-rays, and being able to reconstruct the radiodensity patterns of a plane through the head" by watching an engineer working on an automated apparatus to reject frostbitten oranges (by detecting dehydrated portions.) In 1961, working out of his garage - he completed a working prototype of his idea for patent, and published an article detailing the work… ingeniously, by using materials found in his home (such as his son's toy train, a phonograph turntable, and an alarm clock motor)