CBS chose to give the stage to its exciting new drama Scorpion at the 10th annual PaleyFest in Beverly Hills on Sunday night (Sept. 7).

CBS is banking on the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction with its new “fun-cedural,” according to the executive producers. Scorpion is based on a true story of the exploits of the fourth smartest person in the world, Walter O’Brien, and his team of genius misfits.

Game of Thrones’ Elyes Gabel plays Walter in primetime. Walter is actually one of those child prodigies who hacks NASA; afterwards, he was plucked from his family’s potato farm in Ireland and recruited by the U.S. government. Since then, O’Brien has worked on plenty of top-secret missions, and now those stories are told in Scorpion.

As in real life, O’Brien is joined by his hand-picked group of fellow neurotic geniuses, a gang of “mentally enabled” misfits who are similarly inept at dealing with the outside world. Over the course of the pilot, they become government-funded problem solvers, a think tank of MacGyvers.

Each member of the group has their own “super power” and accompanying Achilles heel. Toby (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is a behavioral specialist with a gambling problem. Happy (Jadyn Wong) is a mechanical maestro and glorified car thief. Sylvester (Ari Stidham) is a mathematic marvel plagued with crippling OCD-fueled anxiety. Walter tries to keep them together, but they’d be lost without Paige (Katharine McPhee), a single mom of a boy named Ralph who is one of them. Paige translates the world for these characters, and for the audience, while Robert Patrick’s Agent Gallo is their gruff government liaison.

O’Brien is not only an executive producer, but he’s the show’s not-so-secret weapon. He’s not just the inspiration for the characters, stories, and the show itself, he also comes to the rescue whenever the cast or writer’s room have questions or problems. The code “AW” or Ask Walter, has become ubiquitous throughout the production of the show, and is crucial to its success.

The world has embraced the nerd, and Scorpion is The Big Bang Theory meets The A-Team, mixing high-octane action (the pilot is directed by Fast & Furious’ Justin Lin), humor and moments of poignancy that highlight the problems that geniuses have communicating with other people, something most of us take for granted. Scorpion throws these brilliant minds into climactic high-stake car chases involving airplanes, letting them play the hero, a position they’re presumably not used to. In CBS’ storytelling fashion, the show aims to repeat that pattern to create a formula that viewers will tune in to week after week.

According to Executive Producer and Creator Nick Santora (Prison Break), CBS has been good about greenlighting bigger stories. The scope and stakes are high, while Santora promises that every episode of Scorpion will have a beginning, middle and an end, wanting to ease audiences into the week on a Monday night.

The show aims to be more than procedural comfort food, also planning to showcase the talented ensemble and their evolving relationships each week. Viewers can expect flashbacks delving into the troubled past between Walter and Gallo, along with back stories for the rest of the Scorpion brigade. There’s also the undeniable chemistry between Walter and Paige, but as EP Nicholas Wootton described, any potential romance is a “long throw,” because Walter doesn’t even know how to love. We can also expect a genius villain, a Moriarty to Walter’s Sherlock.

The show has a higher moral purpose as well. Geniuses are the biggest minority on the planet, and Scorpion seeks to understand and empathize with them, uncovering the real problems that they face in greater society. Ralph was misdiagnosed as autistic, one of the common and disturbing medical phenomena that Scorpion seeks to eradicate. These mentally enabled people have 20% higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and suicide than the general public, and as Eddie Kaye Thomas stirringly described, being unable to connect with a majority of the world can lead you to a lonely place. They have found each other on Scorpion, and Walter O’Brien brought his remarkable story to TV in order to find and help those like him, and enlighten the rest of us.

Soon, millions will want to Ask Walter (a hashtag waiting to happen), when they discover the Scorpion gang on CBS, premiering Monday September 22nd at 9 PM.

Follow along with Paleyfest through its Live Stream or free app.

Image of Scorpion’s cast and executive producers on PaleyFest panel courtesy of Kevin Parry for The Paley Center for Media.

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