CBS-TV's 'Three Rivers' Pilot Receives Award Before Airing

CBS-TV's 'Three Rivers' Pilot Receives Award Before Airing

New Fall Show Honored for Medical Accuracy, Inspiration at Donate Life Film Festival - June 13

LOS ANGELES, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- When does a television pilot receive an award before it even airs? When it is that good.

On June 13, Donate Life Hollywood will honor CBS-TV's new fall show "Three Rivers" with its first annual Inspire Award. Bestowed by the organ and tissue donation and transplant community, it will be presented at an awards dinner hosted at the Directors Guild of America as the culmination of the daylong Donate Life Film Festival. "Three Rivers" is a medical drama that goes inside the emotionally complex lives of organ donors, recipients and the surgeons at a preeminent transplant hospital.

The pilot episode of "Three Rivers" met and exceeded the Donate Life Hollywood criteria of portraying organ donation and transplantation in a way that was dramatic, showed viewers an accurate portrayal of the donation/transplant process, and left viewers feeling that organ donation is a good thing.

"Carol Barbee, who penned the pilot episode of 'Three Rivers,' went above and beyond to create a show that is dramatic, yet accurate," said Donate Life Hollywood campaign director Tenaya Wallace. "We arranged for Carol to see an actual organ procurement through the Southern California organ procurement organization, OneLegacy. She witnessed how OneLegacy sensitively approaches donor families, requests the transplant list from UNOS, places the organs for transplant based on this list and coordinates transplant teams to perform the recovery of the organs. Carol did her homework and the result is a dramatic donation and transplant story that shows viewers how this process really works."

"CBS recognizes that transplant stories are ripe with human drama," said Carol Barbee. "I am excited about bringing these incredible stories to life."

Organ and tissue donation is not always so well-presented on television. A study recently conducted by researchers at Purdue University shows that misleading and inaccurate information in dramatic television programming causes many people to shy away from choosing to be a donor.

Donate Life Hollywood is part of the national Donate Life movement and serves as a liaison between the organ and tissue community and the entertainment industry with the mission of seeing more accurate and inspiring organ donation storylines on television and in film. www.donatelifehollywood.org

Source: Donate Life Hollywood

CONTACT: Rivian Bell, rbell@jdipr.com, or Lisa Bernfeld, both of JDI
Communications, +1-213-612-4927, or 1-888-477-4319, for Donate Life Hollywood

Web Site: http://www.donatelifehollywood.org/

-------
Profile: intent