ELSBETH: Jonathan Tolins on Season 2’s Guest Cast Approach and Season 1 Lessons
October 15, 2024 by Marisa Roffman
“Subscription to Murder” – When a womanizing finance executive is found stabbed to death after a night at the opera, Elsbeth suspects an obsessed opera lover (Nathan Lane) was driven to murder because of a ringing cell phone. Meanwhile, Elsbeth, Captain Wagner and Kaya must adjust to changes in the precinct as the consequences of Noonan’s wrongdoing continue to loom, on the second season premiere of the CBS Original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Oct. 17 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*. Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Nathan Lane as Phillip Cross Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
ELSBETH is returning for a star-studded sophomore season on Thursday, October 17 with Nathan Lane, Rob Riggle, Pamela Adlon, Brittany O’Grady, and Vanessa Williams among the early notable guests.
With a season of the Carrie Preston-led show under their belt, it’s been a mix of the writers creating a character specifically for a guest actor versus approaching an actor with a fully-formed character, ELSBETH showrunner Jonathan Tolins tells Give Me My Remote.
“There is at least one person coming up—who I can’t talk about yet—who is someone I’ve worked with before, and I have finally convinced to do the show,” he shares. “And I’m writing that episode, so that’s fun.”
“We’ve also had things like episode 2×01…I wrote a script and we sent it to Nathan Lane, and he said ‘yes’ a few hours later,” Tolins continues. “And I think part of that is we have built a reputation with this show that guest stars have fun and are treated well and come off well. We want the acting community to know this is a show they want to do.”
(Though the character was not specifically written for Lane, long-time fans of the actor may be amused by parallels to a previous role: “His big breakout role in the theater was Mendy, the opera lover, in Terrence McNally’s ‘The Lisbon Traviata,’” Tolins points out. “I wrote to Nathan after he said yes, [and said,] ‘This is basically Mendy walks into a CBS procedural.’”)
The quick turnaround for network television also complicates matters. “I wish we could say, ‘We’re going to write this part for this actor,’” Tolins acknowledges. “The writing process of this show, it really is organic [to] what ideas spark in the writers’ room and it announces who [the characters] are to us as we go. It’s scary, sometimes, because we have very little time between when the script is done and when we have to have somebody in wardrobe [for pre-production]. But [casting director] Findley Davidson is wonderful and has really good relationships in all of the agencies.”
Tolins cites Adlon—whom he has known since she performed in a play he wrote in the late ‘90s—as someone who “just came to mind” when they were writing her season 2 episode. As they get deeper into the show’s run, “We also do now have a little list of people who have approached us and say they want to be on the show.”
The first season experience on the series also taught Tolins and writers what did—and didn’t—work for the CBS show.
“Our show is very special and challenging,” Tolins notes. “The thing we’re always struggling with to get just right is tone. When it works best, it is like a police procedural with this character of Elsbeth thrown into it. When we try overtly to be funny, it’s less funny. I’m very aware of this, mostly in the edit, when we’re trying to pull things down and keep them as real as possible—and yet allow this sort of quirkiness of Elsbeth and whimsy of our exploring these unique aspects of New York society. [We can] have those things happen, but play the procedural and the mystery very straight.”
“One thing I also found is our show is very warm,” he continues. “The relationships between our three regulars are really genuine, and you can feel it. I think people really care about Elsbeth and [Carra Patterson’s] Kaya and [Wendell Pierce’s] Captain Wagner. So we want to keep reveling in those things: The odd mix of a mystery, a quirky main character, and actual real feeling in the middle of this procedural.”
ELSBETH, Season Premiere, Thursday, October 17, 10/9c, CBS
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