Welcome to the Queen of the May edition of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame!
And this year, our member for the month of May is probably the “freshest” ever! She became eligible just this year when she was rewarded for being such a standout character in the two previous series in which she appeared….
Carrie Preston already won an Emmy Award for the role back in 2013, and that’s nice and all…. But becoming a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame is a much more exclusive club!
From Wikipedia:
‘Elsbeth’ is an American police procedural comedy-drama television series that premiered on February 29, 2024, on CBS. It is a spin-off of ‘The Good Wife’ (2009–2016) and ‘The Good Fight’ (2017–2022), from which Carrie Preston originated the role of Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional attorney who ends up working as a de facto detective. The series was renewed for a second season in April 2024.'Elsbeth' is a "howcatchem" TV mystery show as opposed to the traditional "whodunit", showing the audience from the start who the killer is, how and why they commit the crime and how they are caught.
The series focuses on Elsbeth Tascioni, the offbeat, unconventional but astute attorney who, after a successful career in Chicago, utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner criminals alongside the NYPD. She is assigned to oversee a monitorship or consent decree after some controversial arrests. Episodes use the inverted detective story format.
From STartefact:
On February 29, CBS began airing ‘Elsbeth’, a series about a lawyer who uses her autism spectrum disorder to help catch criminals alongside the New York City Police Department.If you've seen ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘The Good Fight’, you'll recognize Carrie Preston's character, Elsbeth Tascioni. She is a cheerful and spontaneous lawyer who leaves her native Chicago for a solo project. Elsbeth has a form of autism spectrum disorder that does not interfere with her ability to solve complex professional problems.
She comes to New York at the invitation of the local mayor's office to help the police. They are not happy with the intrusive supervision, but quickly turn their anger to compassion – Elsbeth is charming and has amazing powers of observation.
‘Elsbeth’ is a procedural where each episode has its own story. If you haven't seen the previous two shows in which Elsbeth appeared, you can still watch the show.
From the Washington Post:
The joy, the confident dorkiness — that’s Elsbeth Tascioni, the beguiling, funny lawyer who stole scenes in 19 episodes of creators Robert and Michelle King’s hit legal dramas “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” over more than a decade, a role that earned Preston an Emmy Award in 2013. At first glance, Elsbeth was a sweet but scattered defense attorney who interrupts herself mid-thought to say something like, “These are beautiful bookcases,” or “Ooh, I like that brooch.” A minute later, she would casually eviscerate a witness on the stand or pull off a brilliant legal maneuver that left her opponent speechless.Viewers clamored for more Elsbeth, and at last they’re getting some: The crime-solving drama “Elsbeth” premiered on CBS in February and, after State of the Union and March Madness preemptions, resumes its first season Thursday. Even as Elsbeth’s mind is clicking away on levels that others can’t fathom, her genuine sense of wonder shines through. Preston read the script and knew exactly how to play the scene where she gets soaked by the car. Obviously, Elsbeth is a huge “Sex and the City” fan, and therefore thrilled to experience a Carrie Bradshaw moment in New York.
“I decided that Elsbeth would find that absolutely 100 percent delightful,” Preston said in a recent interview on set in Brooklyn. On the show, Elsbeth has just moved from “The Good Wife’s” universe of Chicago to work as a court-mandated legal observer of the New York Police Department — and she is truly dazzled by all the Big Apple has to offer. “She’s like, ‘Yes, I’m here, I’ve been splashed ... I’m a New Yorker!’”
Elsbeth charged onto Season 1 of “The Good Wife” as a blast of comic relief and physical comedy, wearing bright colors and patterns and textures and admitting her technological ineptitude as she poked around on her flower-covered laptop. (“You’re not good with computers, are you? My son keeps buying me new ones and then just backing away ... and laughing.”) The characters would be extremely annoyed and then change their tune when her shrewd legal mind repeatedly got them out of scrapes. In one much-discussed scene in a later season, she furiously made out with her professional rival (Kyle MacLachlan) over the sounds of pop smash “Call Me Maybe,” and then didn’t hesitate to destroy him in court.
Over the years, viewers begged the Kings to consider Elsbeth for her own spinoff. The idea didn’t crystallize until the coronavirus pandemic, when the Kings started watching reruns of “Columbo” and thought about how they could put Elsbeth in a similar scenario: a police procedural where you see the crime play out in the beginning, and then watch as she tries to figure out the culprit.
Preston still can’t believe her once-recurring character is now the star of the show (“This is a dream that I dared not let myself have”), helmed by showrunner Jonathan Tolins.
Assigned to watch NYPD personnel (including co-stars Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson) work after the department has been hit with too many wrongful arrest lawsuits, Elsbeth demonstrates a knack for solving the crimes herself. Elsbeth may carry too many tote bags (Preston guesses they hold everything that Elsbeth thinks she might need in a typical day, such as a protractor or a 1972 encyclopedia or a cheese sandwich), but her naiveté masks a highly effective sleuth.
From TVLine:
“We think about our friends in Chicago, but it’s not our expectation that they’re traveling to New York anytime soon,” The Good Wife and Elsbeth co-creator Michelle King said during a virtual panel. “Elsbeth is on her own in New York, which is kind of part of the fun, that she’s enjoying it and enjoying it on her own.”Not relying on cameos from franchise vets reinforces the idea that Elsbeth is as much a standalone series as it is a spinoff.*
“This is decidedly not The Good Wife, not The Good Fight. It’s its own world. It’s lighter, it’s comedic in nature,” Carrie Preston said. “You’ve got this Case of the Week, and it’s dealing with crime and not politics. So we have a bunch of different new things. So it’s the same woman, but you don’t have to have watched those shows to dive into this show.”
Here are the series which qualify Elsbeth for membership in the TVXOHOF:
THE GOOD WIFE
14 episodes
“'The Good Wife' was definitely the biggest surprise and gift that I've had in a long time, and that did come out of some other work that I had done. That whole adage of 'work begets work' actually worked in that case - it was at the very end of their first season that my character was first introduced.” – Carrie Preston
THE GOOD FIGHT
5 episodes
ELSBETH
O'Bservation:
There will be eleven episodes before this season is over. In April, it was announced that the series had been renewed for the 2024-25 season, so her tally of appearances will continue to grow.
From CBS:
ELSBETH stars Emmy Award winner Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni, an astute but unconventional attorney who uses her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD. After leaving her legal career for a new investigative role, Elsbeth finds herself jockeying with NYPD Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Working alongside Elsbeth is Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson). Based on the character featured in THE GOOD WIFE and THE GOOD FIGHT.Maybe one day, the Kings will come up with other new shows in this miniverse which they've created. And even if it happens after 'Elsbeth' is off the air, it would be great if Carrie Preston could bring back her newly-inducted TVXOHOF member to guest star in an episode.
But these appearances do not count towards her tally in Earth Prime-Time. These would be found in the Promoverse:
Congratulations, Ms. Tascioni! You will always have a home here in the Hall of Fame, but here’s hoping you have a long run in your own series so that there will be even more episodes where your fans can see you!
* TVLine had an article with a list of actors from the first two series who should make a return as their previous characters to ‘Elsbeth’. Of course, there were the usual suspects – Julianna Margulies, Christina Baranski, Archie Panjabi, Sarah Steele, and Alan Cummings. It would certainly help to get a few of those characters into the TVXOHOF!
But the one actor I think should make an appearance before the season ends is Kyle MacLachlan, who played A-USA Josh Perotti. They had such a fascinating relationship as mentioned earlier, and he matches her perfectly, quirk for quirk.
Certainly I would prefer that he came back on a recurring basis, but if Robert and Michelle King wanted to send him out in a blaze of glory… have MacLachlan portray Josh Perotti one last time - as the murderer!
Failing that, maybe he could play David Swain, the slightly off-kilter lead lawyer in the series ‘In Justice’, which coincidentally, was another, earlier production by the Kings.
In Toobworld, there are no borders....
