The CBS pilot "Three Rivers" will be flowing in Pittsburgh next month.

The pilot episode for a Pittsburgh-set medical drama will tell stories from the points of view of transplant surgeons, donors and recipients. No casting has been announced.

Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer said "Three Rivers" would not be coming to Pittsburgh if not for the state's $75 million tax incentive program. Under the program, film and TV productions that spend at least 60 percent of their budgets in the state can get up to 25 percent back in transferrable tax credits.

Pennsylvania state senators Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin/York) and Pat Vance (R-Cumberland and York) want to suspend that program in the next fiscal year, but it remains in place for when the "Three Rivers" pilot shoots here next month.

The questions then become whether "Three Rivers" will get picked up as a series by CBS, and, if it is, if the show will be entirely produced in Pittsburgh.

A pilot episode, which typically shoots for about 12 days, does not guarantee a series. If "Three Rivers" is not picked up as a series, it probably will never air on TV -- unsold pilots generally disappear into studio vaults.

But Pittsburgh has a good track record with pilots. Scenes from both "The Guardian" (2001-04) and "Smith" (2006) were shot here, and both of those pilots were ordered as fall series.

"Three Rivers," a CBS Paramount Television production, was written by Carol Barbee ("Jericho," "Swingtown," "Judging Amy") and will be executive-produced by Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential"), who directed the 2000 movie "Wonder Boys" in Pittsburgh.

"They'll be hiring lots of locals, staying in hotels and spending a lot of money and showcasing Pittsburgh and the southwestern Pennsylvania region," Keezer said.

Hour-long episodes of prime-time dramas typically cost around $2 million each, but pilot episodes can sometimes cost double that as producers attempt to up the dramatic ante and hook viewers. With the economic downturn affecting television networks -- advertising is down considerably -- odds are producers will be under pressure to contain costs, even on pilot spending.

Until they know whether "Three Rivers" has a future beyond the pilot, producers won't commit to a filming location for additional episodes. CBS will announce its fall schedule on May 20.

Keezer said if the tax credit program is canceled, it could have an impact on "Three Rivers" filming episodes beyond the pilot locally.

"Our goal has always been to have a series here on the ground full time," Keezer said. "A [successful, long-running] series creates long-term jobs and has a long-term impact on the local film industry. Feature [films] come and go; series are here for a significant period of time."

Pittsburgh's first full-time series was 2007's one-season Spike TV drama "The Kill Point," which employed 250 people full time, 80 percent of them locals. At the height of a two-week Market Square shoot, an additional 300 extras were on the payroll, and producers said they spent $18 million of the eight-hour series' approximate $23 million budget locally.