“It was October 5th of 2005 when my mother's husband disappeared,” So Help Me Todd series creator Scott Prendergast recalled during a TCA press conference to promote the new CBS dramedy, loosely inspired by his own life. “Her life fell apart, and I was able to step in and help her.” Having struggled to make it in Hollywood, Scott’s mother didn’t have much faith in his dreams until he proved himself to be a real gumshoe while helping her track down her missing husband. “It's taken a while to get here and I've done other things, but this was always the passion project. Getting this mother and son together and finding the right actors.” Scott’s character became Todd in the show and his mother is Margaret, played by Academy Award-winner Marcia Gay Harden. “She's so thrilled to be played by Marcia,” Scott gushed.
(Michael Courtney/CBS)
“What Margaret really wants [Todd] to do is be responsible,” Marcia Gay Harden summarized her character’s goal. “They have this whole wonderful battle between the millennials and my generation where those ideas of responsibility and the ideas of how you show up in society aren't necessarily reflected in the new generation. And so Margaret's really fighting for him to, pay his bills, get out of bed, go to work in the morning. And the good thing is he is. He's doing all those things. I think part of her journey is that she has to learn to see him for who he is and let him be who he is… All the family has a desire for Todd to show up for the family. We've all been taking care of him. And so it's not just me.”
“We want him to succeed if for any other reason than to get him out of my garage so that he's no longer oozing into my living space all the time,” joked Madeline Wise, who plays Todd’s sister Allison. “We want him to be a functioning member of society. And we love him.”
Playing the lovable Todd is Skylar Astin. “I like that Todd is a bit messier than the other characters I've played,” the actor shared. “I like not being afraid to look silly. I think he's got a lot of physicality that I like to tap into. And I also draw inspiration from people like my brother who sometimes kind of has little Todd-isms. And it's been a delight. And it's actually been really fun to take him further. And you'll see, beyond the pilot, of course, that there's some stuff that's very me and very similar to the roles I've played and then stuff that is wildly different.”
(Bettina Strauss/CBS)
Todd, a struggling private investigator, joins his mother Martha, a successful attorney, to help find her missing husband. And caught in the crosshairs are Martha’s colleagues. “When Todd shows up in his office, he's just kind of encroaching in his space and giving him orders without introducing who he is,” laughed Tristen J. Winger, who plays Lyle. “It's been such a wonderful experience to be around such talented actors and to learn from them,” added Inga Schlingmann, who plays Susan in her first role as a series regular. “Scott is also a big kid,” revealed Rosa Arrendondo, who plays Francey. “He reminds me a lot like my brother, which I tell him all the time.”
“We all see ourselves reflected in these incredible and rich relationships that are funny and at times heartbreaking and poignant and let us laugh at ourselves and laugh at the characters,” concluded showrunner Elizabeth Klaviter. “We have twists and turns coming. We have the woman who sabotaged Todd two years ago and caused him to plummet into the lowest part of his life is going to come and we're going to get to know her and we're going to get to hear more about how he lost that PI's license and ended up working for his mother. We're going to meet a rumpled lawyer in court who is smart and intelligent and actually kind of makes Margaret a little bit flustered for the first time; we'll see her. And we are going to have many capers for them and many mysteries to solve. We're going to find out about the brother and sister, Maddie and Skylar. Will they, won't they with Susan and Todd. And we will learn about the adversarial relationship and dive into all the comedy for Lyle and Todd. And we're going to learn about Francey and Margaret and how their friendship and their relationship and their working partnership has evolved. These characters are so rich and this world is so fun to play in, and I just can't wait to welcome you into it with us.”
Meet Todd, Margaret, and all of the characters from So Help Me Todd Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS beginning tonight.