‘So Help Me Todd’s’ Disappearing Husband Plot Was Inspired by The Producer’s Real Life
thewrap.com“So Help Me Todd” made its debut on CBS Thursday night and for anyone who saw the episode and thought, “That couldn’t happen,” well, the show’s jaw-dropping plot is rooted in creator/executive producer Scott Prendergast’s own experiences.In the premiere episode, Joan (Marcia Gay Harden) enlists the help of her son Todd (Skyler Astin) – despite him being somewhat adrift in his life – to help her out when her husband disappears, like, without a trace. “It is very personal to me,” Prendergast, who created the series, told TheWrap. “There was a time in my early 30s when my life was falling apart and I was trying to get into entertainment.
I had just turned 30, I guess. … I had been doing various things.”Prendergast had moved back to Portland from New York after his career wasn’t taking off.
After some son/mother friction, he told his mom he was moving to Los Angeles, to make “an independent film starring Lisa Kudrow.” “And my mom was like, ‘You are an idiot; you need health insurance; you need to get a regular job.
And I was like, ‘You don’t believe in me!’ And we had this huge fight. And then we weren’t speaking for a few weeks,” he said, which is similar to the relationship Todd has with his mom in the pilot of the CBS show.Eventually, the Prendergast and his mother started speaking again when his mom and her husband were planning a trip to Greece and she wanted him to take them to the airport.
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