TV Talk: Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto returns to primetime in ‘Brilliant Minds’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

PASADENA, Calif. – Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto first hit it big in primetime on NBC when he played the villain on “Heroes.” This week he’s back on NBC, starring in new medical drama “Brilliant Minds” (10 p.m. Sept. 23, WPXI-TV).

Quinto plays Dr. Oliver Wolf, a neurologist based on the real Dr. Oliver Sacks, who also inspired the Robin Williams character in the 1990 film “Awakenings.”

In an interview following a “Brilliant Minds” press conference during NBC’s portion of the Television Critics Association summer 2024 press tour, Quinto said at first he was unsure if he wanted to return to broadcast television. In the years since “Heroes” ended in 2010, Quinto has largely stuck to cable/streaming, including lead roles in AMC’s “NOS4A2” and several seasons of producer Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story.”

“Initially I was a little bit reluctant to go back into a network environment just because I haven’t been in it for so long, but I just couldn’t say no to the character and to the collaborators,” Quinto said. “Michael Grassi, our showrunner, is such an incredible creative force and he’s such a lovely person that I felt I have this opportunity to tell these really interesting stories based on a real-life person who’s incredibly inspiring. Why wouldn’t I do that?”

Like Hugh Laurie’s “House” in the 2004-12 Fox series, Dr. Oliver Wolf also investigates (and often solves!) medical mysteries. And while House and Wolf are both rebellious rule-breakers, Wolf has more sympathy for his patients and a better bedside manner.

“The similarity is that both Wolf and House are maybe a little bit socially awkward or inept in their unique ways,” Quinto said. “Wolf is driven by a sense of compassion and a sense of wanting to really help his patients preserve their dignity and find ways to navigate and reconfigure their lives so that they can live full and robust experiences. … He’s a rebel, yeah, but a rebel who wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s a rebel in service of his patients.”

Wolf has less patience for the interns who work for him or for the hospital administrator who hired Wolf to work alongside his longtime friend, Dr. Carol Pierce (Tamberla Perry).

“He doesn’t want to be slowed down by some of the inexperience of the interns,” Quinto acknowledged. “As the season unfolds, I think there emerges this really wonderful symbiosis between Wolf and the interns, and they learn from him, of course, but he also learns from them. I love the title of our show because certainly ‘Brilliant Minds’ refers to these doctors who are incredibly intelligent and fiercely committed to their patients, but it also refers to the patients themselves, these people who have minds and brains that are maybe different than they want them to be or expected them to be, but yet they find their own path forward.”

Quinto, who grew up in Green Tree and graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1995 and later Carnegie Mellon University in 1999, said to play Wolf, he immersed himself in Sacks’ life.

“I read his book, his essays, watched his interviews and TED talks and lectures,” Quinto said. “He was such a fascinating person and so endlessly complex and intriguing that I feel like that’s really where I put most of my energy in getting ready for the experience. How can I use him as a springboard into who Oliver Wolf is?”

Quinto said Wolf’s beard is an homage to Sacks’ look. And Wolf is gay, like Sacks was.

“To play an openly gay character on a primetime network show is an incredibly significant honor for me,” said Quinto, who came out as gay in 2011. “(Wolf) has a lot of conflicted feelings and emotions around his sexuality and around intimacy and you learn a lot about where that comes from and why he is the way he is. … Oliver Sacks, in real life, was celibate for 35 years of his life, and it wasn’t until very late in his life that he came to terms with who he was and ended up meeting his partner who he was with for the last decade, I think, of his life. So it’s a slow burn for Wolf, but there’s sparks that ignite as the season goes on.”

Flashbacks in “Brilliant Minds” shed light on Wolf’s relationship with his parents, particularly his mother (Donny Murphy).

“Oliver’s relationship with both of his parents factors into the journey of the series in the first season and we come to understand who he is today as a result of who he was as a child,” Quinto said. “The parental dynamics in this show and in this world are really complex and resonant for me personally. Of course, I drew on my relationship with both my mom and my dad in different ways.”

Quinto’s father died of cancer when Zach was 7; his mother passed away just a few years ago but Quinto said he still tries to get back to Pittsburgh once or twice a year.

“I have really good friends there, and it’s always nice to come back,” he said. “Pittsburgh is always a part of my fabric. It always will be. I’m always grateful for that. And every time I get to go back, I’m always happy.”

In addition to starring roles in the films “The Boys in the Band” and “Margin Call,” Quinto played Spock in three big screen “Star Trek” films, but that stream of the sci-fi franchise is currently dormant.

“If it comes back around, it would be a real gift, and all of us would love to do it again,” Quinto said, “but there’s no plans for it at the moment.”

But there will be a “Star Trek” connection in a November episode of “Brilliant Minds.” Per Variety, Quinto cast Susan Bay Nimoy, the widow of original Spock actor Leonard Nimoy, as an 80-year-old patient suffering from a condition that causes hypersexuality.