LOS ANGELES , California ( CNN ) -- Before Jada Pinkett Smith took the role of producer and star of TNT 's `` HawthoRNe , '' she made sure her family was fine with her being away from her mother and wife duties during filming . Jada Pinkett Smith 's new TV show , `` HawthoRNe , '' premieres Tuesday on TNT . Pinkett Smith plays a single mom and a hospital 's chief nurse on the medical show , which debuts Tuesday night on cable 's TNT Network , which is owned by the parent company of CNN . `` I sat down with kids and my husband and I really asked their permission , '' she said . `` I said 'Listen , there was this show I 'd love to do and it will be three months that you might not see Mommy a lot . ' And they 're looking at me like 'Really ? What does that mean ? ' '' It meant that on weekdays Will would get Willow , 8 , and Jaden , 11 , out of bed each morning , tuck them in at night and take care of them in-between . `` So they get to eat chocolate for breakfast and go to bed whenever they feel like it for those three months while I 'm working , '' Pinkett Smith said . `` So , it works out , and they know that the rest of the year , I 'm off . '' While the show is based on a Richmond , Virginia , hospital , it 's produced in a recently closed Inglewood , California , hospital just a few miles from the Smiths ' home . `` The great thing is that my kids do know I 'm in town , '' she said . It 's close enough for Will to spend time on the set with Jada while still taking care of the kids . `` He 's an extra in one of the episodes , so just see if you can catch him , '' she said . `` He 's walking by , doing a drive-by , and we could hardly afford that . It was a very costly walk-by . '' Smith also works as a `` ghost producer '' helping structure her episodes , she said . `` He 's quite a fantastic story structuralist , '' she said . `` So right now , I 'm learning from him just how to structure a story in a way that speaks to the universal voice and to understand how to hit those human emotional cords that resonate universally , no matter what country you 're from , your economic status . '' Will Smith was also on the set at Paramount Studios last month when daughter Willow taped her TV sitcom debut on Nickelodeon 's `` True Jackson , VP . '' His role then was stage dad . Hollywood 's highest paid actor , as ranked by Forbes magazine , sat with the other parents through the day-long rehearsals and taping `` like a regular dad , '' according to the parent of a cast member . By the way , Jada reports her daughter came home saying she wanted to do more television acting . When `` HawthoRNe '' production ends later this summer , Jada may have to return the `` supportive spouse '' favor to her husband when he travels to Beijing , China , to work on a `` Karate Kid '' remake . Will Smith will produce , with son Jaden playing the lead role , opposite Jackie Chan . It 's not clear if Jada will seek work as a background extra .
Will Smith new TV show , `` HawthoRNe , '' premieres the year on Jada . TNT 's actor-husband Jada Pinkett Smith 's will appear as extra in an episode . Acting runs in family : Jada 's daughter will appear in TV sitcom , son will be in film .