The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy wins first place for diversity

Prime Video's animated series The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy has the cure for LGBTQ+ viewers on February 23, 2024. This wacky tale set in the future follows Keke Palmer as Dr. Klak and Stephanie Hsu voicing Dr. Sleech in their adventures in healthcare.

Showrunner Cirocco Dunlap is also the writer and executive producer for Galaxy. Other executive producers with voice work are Natasha Lyonne as Nurse Tup and Maya Rudolph as Dr. Vlam. Dunlap worked previously on Netflix projects with Lyonne for Russian Doll and with Rudolph on Big Mouth.

Singer Sam Smith stars as Dr. Azel and other queer identifying voices in the roster include Bowen Yang, John Waters and Abbi Jacobson.

Dunlap spoke about the LGBTQ+ representation on the series on a group call with Rudolph and Lyonne, “I grew up in San Francisco, which was a promising start. My mom is bi, my dad was gay and my sister was in polyamorous, three-person, female relationships. For me, this was just the norm and the baseline from where my life began. That is what I wanted to put in the show. I wanted inclusion, representation and I wanted it to feel normal for each individual, species, animal or planet. I was absolutely delighted to include everyone.”

The trio gushed over Smith's vocal performance and when a musical episode for season two was suggested, Maya joked, “Well, not to put too much pressure on them, but I hoped they can sing!”

Rudolph went on to say, “Connecting with a robot character was not easy for me. Cirocco was there and I struggled quite a bit. What I found interesting about her is not the part that makes her a robot because that has allowed her to live a long life, but her lives have been so engaged, emotional, interesting, fulfilling and intricate. We didn't come from the regular place of bleep, bloop, blurp robot talk.”

Dunlap supported Rudolph by saying, “It was so wonderful for her to bring heart to a traditional character. This robot has the most heart of anyone in the series. She loves so hard and it was an interesting thing to discover.”

Rudolph said she is used to making “crazy noises” and explained, “I didn't do that this time out. Dr. Vlam is very level headed, so I had to find a different way to show the emotions of her and the funny parts. It was a good challenge!”

The talented actress was referring to another animated project where she played Merton McSnurtle in the DC League of Super-Pets.

Lyonne described Nurse Tup as, “Pretty cool with a lean back vibe on the bed when on in one episode someone teleports into my body.”

Look for other cool characters such as Kieran Culkin's Dr. Plowp along with his real-life brothers Macaulay, Rory, Christian and Shane Culkin.

It's a family affair in several aspects for this quirky, intergalactic adventure set in the future.

Follow doctor's orders and stream eight episodes of the first season on Prime Video at Amazon.com.