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Don’t look now, but CBS may be changing its stripes before our very eyes, as evidenced by its Winter TCA sessions in Pasadena on Saturday.
When Instinct premieres on CBS on March 11, the show will become network TV’s first hour-long drama to feature a gay lead character—Dr. Dylan Reinhart, lifted from James Patterson’s best-selling Murder Games series and played by The Good Wife’s Alan Cumming. Dylan’s a multi-hyphenate to the extreme – an author, university professor and former CIA operative – who is drawn into working with the NYPD to help solve crimes.
“It’s a procedural with a light tone, something that sets it apart from other procedurals,” said creator Michael Rauch (Royal Pains).
Fans of James Patterson’s series will find a setup incredibly similar to the book, while character relationships and dynamics have been altered to rev up the series engine for the show.
“One of the things that James Patterson said was, ‘use as much of the book as you want, or as little as you want.’ Which is incredibly liberating to me, coming from the bestselling author in the world,” said Rauch.
For Cumming, who’s also an executive producer for the show, playing the first gay lead on a network drama was absolutely one of the reasons for taking on the role.
“It’s the first ever drama on American television to have a gay character as the lead, which I think is an incredible thing and a terrible thing at the same time,” said Cumming. “It’s another layer to the character that makes him interesting to play.”
To the entire panel, it couldn’t be a better time to show that layer on TV.
“Gay people are being persecuted and rights are being removed, which the President is actively condoning by his silence, which makes it all the more important to have a character with a healthy, successful same-sex marriage on network screens,” said Cumming. “I applaud everyone at CBS and [production company] Secret Hideout to have the courage to put that out right now in a climate that might not be the right time to do that…but I think it’s the perfect time.”
While it’s been too long in coming, it’s clear that Reinhart’s sexuality isn’t a gimmick or cliché.
“We’re very conscious of the fact that most times when we see gay characters, on American television especially, their gayness is the prime thing, and their gayness is somehow the problem,” said Cumming. “What’s refreshing about this, is there’s a successful relationship between two people who are very supportive of each other. And also, their sexuality is the fourth or fifth most interesting thing about the characters.”
Reinhart’s sexuality and the themes of female empowerment—after all, Reinhart’s boss is Detective Lizzie Needham (Shameless’s Bojana Novakovic)—come from Patterson’s novel. But Rauch and company expanded further.
“We made the mayor a woman and made the lieutenant a woman [played by Supergirl’s Sharon Leal] to balance out what is traditionally a male-driven police procedural,” said Rauch. “We wanted to subvert the traditional dynamics.”
Those traditional dynamics—a standalone “A” crime story in every episode where a quirky author helps the police capture a serial killer using his book as inspiration—brought up similarities to ABC’s recently departed Castle.
According to Rauch, the show was not an inspiration.
“The origin of how the stories are launched are quite different. Castle only came up in terms of tone. We wanted a crime procedural with urgency and stakes, but it also should feel very light. The takeaway from every episode should be one of feeling good, of resolution,” said Rauch. “You’re not reminded of how miserable things are in the world right now, but the opposite.”
Intent on ‘Living Biblically’
With Living Biblically, a new sitcom arriving in February based on A.J. Jacobs’ book Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, CBS aims to tackle an entirely different set issues.
The sitcom features The Real O’Neals’ Jay R. Ferguson as Chip Curry, a man looking for answers who decides to live his life according to the holy book.
According to executive producer Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory), the biggest hurdle the show aims to clear is the fear in having a conversation about religion.
“We don’t talk about it. There are 100 million bibles printed annually, and yet I’ve never seen someone at Starbucks reading one. It’s almost a shame if you don’t have all the answers if you are religious and a fear that you’d be misunderstood or fear that you may offend someone else’s beliefs,” said Galecki. “The best way to approach a conversation that people are uncomfortable with is comedy. Our goal here is to make people laugh and inspire conversation around the watercooler that they might’ve been uncomfortable with.”
“Our hope is that this can loosen up the conversation,” said creator Patrick Walsh (2 Broke Girls). “Our goal is to be funny and not hurt anyone’s feelings.”
That’s oftentimes a difficult tightrope to walk, especially with something as sensitive as religion. But the executives and stars view it as an opportunity.
“I’m worried, of course. But I have respect for religion and what it’s trying to be. It’s strange to me that 84% of the world align with some faith, but the only time we see religion in media it’s intensely critical like Bill Maher, or very sanitized like Seventh Heaven,” said Walsh. “We’re not doing a show trying to offend people with faith. People need guidance in life, and we hope we treat that with fairness and respect.”
The Practice’s Camryn Manheim, who plays Chip’s lesbian boss on the show, had similar concerns going into the show.
“I thought it’d be more of an indictment on the Bible, but the truth is, it gorgeously straddled both sides,” said Manheim. “If you’re non-religious, these are the things that piss me off. If you are religious, these are the things I think about that don’t work in my life. I’ve had friends from all different walks of life come up to me, and they all feel it’s speaking to them, whatever side of the fence they’re on. I don’t think people are going to be insulted by it.”
Indeed, Walsh and Galecki hope they’ve uncovered a hungry demographic.
“That was a part of my pitch. The only times you hear religion are harshly negative or way too church-y to a point where it excludes people who are not religious,” said Walsh. “Religious people aren’t given credit for having a sense of humor and non-religious people aren’t given credit for being curious about it.”
“We wanted to avoid any specific agenda, whether it’s pro or con. That’s not our motivation,” said Galecki.
When the show was announced, Walsh was disheartened by online commenters (editor’s note: join the club).
“They would say, ‘Oh great, it’s going to be making fun of me.’ It’s a shame a person of faith has to approach television that way,” said Walsh.
“The presumption that it’s going to be sarcastic is precisely what we wanted to tackle,” said Galecki. “That massive chasm between the scathing and the pious.”
Walsh and Galecki assumed Living Biblically would be a tough sell, but found exactly the opposite.
“When we went in and pitched to all four networks, each of them wanted it in the room, which is absolutely unheard of,” said Galecki.
Walsh and Galecki went with CBS because of their comfortable relationships with the network.
It appears to have paid off, as the network has been completely supportive of the product.
“I’ve been blown away by how little interference there was,” said Walsh.
Tackling Sociopolitical Issues
With Instinct and Living Biblically, it’s clear CBS is attempting to shift the perspective of what a CBS show can be, and the network hammered home the kind of network they want to be with its final panel: “Politics & Social Issues on Television.” The panel featured executives for five of their most envelope pushing shows—Barbara Hall (Madam Secretary), Michelle and Robert King (The Good Fight), Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg (Star Trek: Discovery), Jermaine Fowler (Superior Donuts) and Shawn Ryan (S.W.A.T.).
Each took turns talking about how their show tackles important sociopolitical issues.
Star Trek: Discovery continues the franchise’s long-standing tradition of progress, with its first season featuring the first female African American lead and the first gay couple on Star Trek.
“Like all good sci-fi, our show holds a mirror up to what’s going on in society and politics,” said Berg.
“[Superior Donuts] means a lot to me because I’m able to express myself politically,” said Fowler. “The topics we tackle happened in my personal life: police brutality, microaggression, affirmative action.”
SWAT, an action drama starring Shemar Moore as Hondo, wouldn’t immediately come to mind in a show tackling progressive issues, but just you wait.
“We set out to try to tell a lot of stories in the context of an action show, but something that could also resonate on more important levels,” said Ryan. “We dealt with Black Lives Matter in our pilot, we have stories coming based in the Filipino community, the Latino community in Boyle Heights, and focus on how the police interacts with the community, and is there a way to do that?”
They just finished filming an episode that focused on how local police officers must reckon with national immigration policies when in a sanctuary city.
“When we started, we wanted to talk about politics in way that wasn’t polarizing. That’s why we didn’t identify a political party [on Madam Secretary]. It’s a problem-solving show, to show how diplomacy works,” said Hall. “We get to deal with issues around ethnicity, gender identity and how those things affect everyone on a global scale.”
The forthcoming second season of The Good Fight promises to tackle sexual harassment, the chilling effect of the FCC on news and Trump fatigue.
The sexual harassment episode will result from a charge against a liberal star you wouldn’t expect, and look from a newspaper’s point of view.
Two years ago, Madam Secretary had an episode on sexual harassment in which the Secretary of State was groped by a global leader, and must wrestle with making an issue of it or thinking of the bigger picture.
“She made the decision to think of the bigger picture, but we did have a line, ‘When do we get to be the picture picture?’ I think we have our answer,” said Hall.
Behind the camera, each producer mentioned strides to make the workplace safer, and to diversify those telling the stories.
“The last thing I want is a bunch of Shawn Ryan clones in the room with me, who have grown up with similar experiences,” said Ryan.
Ryan explained that the past few years he’s paid more attention to the assistants they’re hiring, as that remains the traditional way people come up in the business.
“I’m not just giving the opportunity to the Princeton graduate son of an agent or executive I know,” he said. “I’m finding people who come from a unique background, and giving them assistant jobs.”
“We deal with gentrification on the show all the time, and it’s impossible to write that without diversifying the writer’s room and cast,” said Fowler. “We hired some of the dopest writers from different walks of lives, ages and sexes and it helped the show tremendously. It’s the best thing we’ve done for the show.”
It wasn’t long before the panel was asked if they felt wary about the network’s past in representing diversity and in presenting social issues on screen.
“I’ve received zero pushback on anything political or social in terms of storytelling that I want to tell,” said Ryan.
Indeed, Harberts congratulated CBS on their patience and commitment to the vision through Star Trek: Discovery’s many delays and false starts.
“The moment the idea was hatched by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, the idea was always to cast a woman of color in the lead role,” said Harberts. “One of the reasons we waited was because they were willing to wait for the right person of color to lead the show. Sonequa [Martin-Green] wasn’t available. She was on The Walking Dead. People were willing to take the heat with the speculation. It was a very proud moment. Their commitment to casting a women of color on the bridge of Discovery never wavered.”
Like Instinct, Star Trek: Discovery was given license to showcase its gay couple in a way that didn’t harp upon their sexuality.
“We introduced them through the mundanity of marriage. People were so relieved that they weren’t sexualized out of the gate. Often the shorthand is to lead with sexuality, but we had them lead with competence—an excellent doctor and an amazing scientist,” said Harberts. “We don’t put any character forward that we don’t love, but it was surprising the way the audience embraced them, and how they embraced them so quickly. It obviously touched a nerve, presenting them differently. They are the couple of the show and we’re going to put that couple through its paces. This is the time to give some of these incredible, epic stories to a gay couple. We’re excited about that. You very rarely see a gay couple that becomes a heroic couple.”
Perhaps CBS’ history isn’t such a bad thing.
“I view it as an opportunity. When Aaron Rahsaan Thomas and I were in talks with CBS, we had a very specific show we wanted to tell, with very specific life experience that mirrored Aaron’s experience in Kansas City,” said Ryan. “We thought this was to our advantage, that CBS was thirsting to be able to put this material on the air. Going back 10-15 years, they were slower out the gate, but I talk to these people on a daily basis. Their intentions are good, they want to tell these stories, and be a place for these stories. To be able to tell the story about Hondo who grew up in South LA and has conflicted feelings with the way the police deals with that community. To tell that on CBS is something I’m very excited about.”
Michelle King denied any difference in subject matter coming over from CBS to CBS All Access.
“There are differences in terms of language and lengths of episode, but in terms of subject matter, we were able to do on network just as interesting things we are on All Access. We were not pushed in a different manner,” she said.
As many of the shows spotlighted are liberal, the panel was asked if they worry that they’re merely preaching to the choir, that they aren’t changing hearts and minds.
“We try to make sure we don’t go too far to the left or the right. We don’t want to make the viewers mind up,” said Fowler. “We got seven characters from different walks of life with different viewpoints. This is a show that represents people’s lives. People just want to get by. That’s what America is: people who want to get by no matter what.”
“We didn’t want to preach to the choir. We wanted a show that could speak to everyone. Everything felt polarized even then. I personally felt sad about the fact that I couldn’t get into political discussions with people because it was too upsetting. I believed everyone is interested in politics, everyone wants to talk about it, and wanted a world where everyone could come to the table,” said Hall.
“Being on CBS is the opposite of preaching to the choir. Preaching to the choir is having a show on a niche cable network only watched in New York and LA. We’re aiming to address the entire width and breadth of the country,” said Ryan. “People don’t want to be lectured on any show. Our job isn’t to change hearts and minds but to express the human condition. That might lead to political and social justice arenas, but I personally find it a joy and privilege to write these shows on CBS for everyone to see. Because then that conversation is happening across all 50 states.”
“Changing hearts and minds implies that I have an agenda,” said Berg. “Instead, let’s introduce a different point of view that we’re also going to get to know. I often think if I could just get my dad to sit down and watch Samantha Bee with me we could talk…but he’s not. We need less driven conversations, to be a little sneakier about it. Instead of changing hearts and minds, let’s shift our point of view.”
Sounds like a start, and clearly CBS, along with many other networks, are joining the good fight in making strides in diversity and focusing on sociopolitical issues that need to be seen and discussed in the years to come.
[All images courtesy of CBS]
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