“The Good Wife” Creators Talk About The Series

Matt Czuchry (Logan Huntzberger on Gilmore Girls)’s new series, The Good Wife, (premiering on September 22 on CBS) held a special screening yesterday for the press. SFUniverse writer Cynthia Boris was on hand for the Q&A with The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King and has shared with us her notes from the panel.

Robert King describes the series as something about “what happens in the green room” after a public statement, in this case a politician (Chris Noth) admitting to both sexual and corruption scandals, as well as a “comeback mom” series, which follows Alicia (Julianna Marguiles) as she returns to practicing law after many years away. The Good Wife is therefore a procedural law show that has a bit of a spin, since Alicia is coming in at the bottom of the game, so to speak.

The interesting aspect to this is that the audience is left trying to play catch-up on the case, just like Alicia is as she’s handed the cast-off cases to try. There’s a lot of preconceived judgements against Alicia, and King says “we want to always have the personal not that far from the procedural.” Having herself experienced ‘bottom’, Alicia develops a talent for “understanding the psychology of the person who’s reached bottom.”

At this point, we’re introduced to Matt Czuchry’s character, Cary, who is Alicia’s biggest competition for the one full-time associate position that is available. However, Alicia doesn’t know there’s just one position! Cary accidentally tells her when he jokes “may the best man win.” Cary is not afraid to be aggressive for the position, even going so far as tying up their shared assistant with so many tasks that she has no time for Alicia.

Robert King shares that Matt has changed the role of Cary from how it was conceived.

“Matt probably changed the role more than any of the other characters because we always thought of his characters as being a kind of ‘what makes Sammy run’ kind of guy who was very much about the bottom line. Matt brings such an oddball energy that comes from left-field inside, that it’s definitely going to develop.”

The series won’t be entirely about Alicia’s personal life. We will also see into the personal lives of Cary and Will (Josh Charles). They will develop their own arcs within the show that Robert Kind describes as “male centered”. The show, despite its title and its lead-in based on Alicia’s family crisis, should appeal to both genders in the same way CSI does.

Check out the previews for The Good Wife here and here.

Photo: Eike Schroter/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.