Inspired By A Real-Life Mystery, ‘So Help Me Todd’ Combines Drama and Comedy In Mother-Son Sleuthing Series

Scott Prendergast was experiencing a serious low point in his life, and he had a mystery on his hands that he was determined to solve.

Now, using some creative muscle, he’s turned all of his misery, and a suspenseful search, into a TV series.

In So Help Me Todd, successful attorney Margaret Wright hires her aimless son, Todd, as her law firm’s in-house investigator. The pair soon learn that solving crimes is actually is easier than working together.

The series stars Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Austin as the mother/son duo. Prendergast serves as executive producer, with Elizabeth Klaviter as showrunner.

Prendergast explains the personal story that’s the basis for the series, saying, “I think I probably watched too many episodes of [the show] Without a Trace, and I also wanted to be a spy. My mother was married to a man and on their 10th wedding anniversary, they were leaving for a trip for Greece, and she came home from work and he was gone, and he had cleared out half of the house. And I saw my mother collapsing, very upset, very emotional.”

Giving more details, he says, “It was October 5th of 2005 when my mother’s husband disappeared. At that time, I was completely broke. I had no money. I was $27,000 in credit card debt. I didn’t have car insurance, and I’d hit a taxi. Then I got injured and I didn’t have health insurance. My mother was constantly having to step in and fix my life. Then her life fell apart, and I was able to step in and help her.”

He says that when his mother’s husband disappeared that became his ‘Incredible Hulk Moment,’ with him declaring, “We’re going to find this guy.”

It was then that Prendergast says he jumped into action and found skills he didn’t know he had.

“It plays out [on the show] exactly as it did in real life,” says Prendergast.

Not wanting to give away too much, Prendergast simply adds, “I can’t tell you too much because it’s going to be a spoiler for what’s upcoming in our first season. But I did find him. We did have a bit of a showdown. And he is no longer alive.”

While this may sound very dramatic, the series is actually infused with a lot of comedy, says Prendergast as he explains the tone of the show. “We wanted the show to be a bit of a throwback. My main inspiration is Moonlighting and shows like Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, and Simon & Simon. This is a classic procedural — we’re going to have a case every week. We’re going to have red herrings and twists. There will be a big resolution at the end of every episode. But, we want to have a little bit of fun along the way.”

Hardin jumps in to add, “I don’t think it’s so unusual that we would be doing comedy and drama. If you look at Ted Lasso, it’s really, really, really funny, it’s goofy at times, and it’s silly at times, but it also always makes you cry. It always pulls at your heartstrings. So, this feels like it’s in a really great genre that we’re all familiar with.”

Prendergast wants to be clear that while there is a ‘case of the week,’ “We’re really investigating this mother-son relationship — Todd who is becoming an adult, the mother who’s learning to accept him for who he is, and him navigating his way in the world. Their stories are real, their emotions are real, so we’re investigating the family as we are these mysteries.”

At one point in his life, Prendergast says he told his mother, “’I’m moving to Hollywood. I’m going to make a movie. I’m going to be in entertainment.’ She didn’t believe in me and she said, “’You are an idiot and you need health insurance.’”

But when he succeeded in finding her husband, she changed her mind, telling him, “I believe in you. You can do it. Look what you did for me. If you hadn’t been here, who would have found my husband? You found him. You can do anything.”

Now that the series is up and running, Prendergast says his mother calls him every day, asking, “What is Marcia wearing? How is Marcia doing her hair?”

Prendergast admits that there’s another reason he wanted to do this series, saying, “The other inspiration for the series was I had a baby two years ago, and when you have a baby — people say this all the time and you don’t believe it until you actually feel yourself — but when I held the baby in my hands and you feel so strongly about protecting this child and wanting to make sure the world is safe for them, and it rewrites your history with your own parent.”

This revelation led Prendergast to really examine his relationship with his mother. “I always felt that my mother was so critical and controlling of me, and now I realize she was just worried about me because I was a complete idiot. That is a huge inspiration for this series.”

He’s also quick to assess his personal past, and ruminate about what’s happening for him now, as he says, “You know, my life fell apart, and now things are great.”

‘So, Help Me Todd’ airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS, and is available for streaming on paramount+.