LEWISTON – A textile mill burned, the earth quaked and a popular artist ricocheted off the windshield of a van.

It all happened before the first commercial.

Stephen King’s new TV series, “Kingdom Hospital,” debuted Wednesday on ABC, unveiling the story set here in Lewiston.

The first episode included only a passing reference to the city, where King recuperated from his own tragic encounter with a van in 1999. Instead, the author re-imagines his accident.

A dog distracts the driver of a van on a rural country road. Weaving across the two-lane blacktop, the van slams into Peter Rickman, a famous painter who happens to be jogging along the shoulder.

His body twisted, Rickman, played by actor Jack Coleman, comes to rest on the roadside. The driver first talks to the painter, clumsily apologizing, then he drives away. Meanwhile, the audience hears the painter’s thoughts:

“Help me get up!”

It’s a stirring moment which weaves together real occurrences from King’s experience, such as the dog’s distraction of the driver, with fantastic elements.

An anteater-like creature emerges from the underbrush and follows the artist for the rest of the episode. And before the debut ends, another earthquake hits.

After all, this is Stephen King.

Wednesday night’s two-hour episode was the start of a planned 15-hour series. Though filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, leaders here hope the series will draw tourists hoping to see the fictional hospital.

The first episode showed little of Lewiston, however. A tenement building and a steeple appear as glimpses behind swinging lobby doors. Instead, the focus was on the battered man and the dark halls of the hospital.

As its story goes, it was built on the site of a 1869 mill fire. The spirits of the children who died in the fire haunts the hospital.

The next episode is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, at 10 p.m.

[email protected]