So Help Me Todd Creator Reveals the Stunning Real-Life Inspiration for the CBS Dramedy

In the upcoming CBS procedural So Help Me Todd, an unlikely event brings together a mother and son. Margaret's (Marcia Gay Harden) relationship with Todd (Skylar Astin) has been strained for a while, especially after Todd lost his job as a private investigator two years ago. But Margaret must rely on her son, and particularly on his investigative skills, when her partner Harry goes missing one evening.

It's an event that's almost identical to what happened to show creator Scott Prendergast. At CBS' Television Critics Association summer press tour panel on Sept. 21, Prendergast talked about how his personal experiences inspired the story of So Help Me Todd. "It was October 5th of 2005, when my mother's husband disappeared," said Prendergast, who is also an executive producer. "My mother was married to a man for 10 years and on their tenth wedding anniversary, they were leaving for a trip for Greece and she came home from work and he was gone." The husband had cleared out half of the house, Prendergast recalled, and he watched his mom collapse. "Something I call my Incredible Hulk moment just kicked in, and I said we're gonna find this guy," the show creator said.

"I found skills I didn't know I had," Prendergast continued. "I was massively in credit card debt at the time. I called his credit card and pretended to be him and got an address. As you'll see on the show, it plays out exactly in the show as it did in real life." Sure enough, this is also the course of action that Todd takes upon learning of Harry's disappearance. For Prendergast and his mom, he said they staked out the house at the address for two weeks — then, he broke into it. "Eventually I found him," Prendergast said.

While So Help Me Todd primarily focuses on the events that come after— in which Margaret, a successful attorney, hires Todd to be an in-house investigator at her law firm — it's the investigation into Harry's whereabouts that prompts the mending of their relationship. This is something that comes from Prendergast's own experiences, too. 

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When we first meet Todd, he is unemployed and living in his sister Allison's (Madeline Wise) garage. Prendergast said that in 2005 – the year his mother's husband went missing — he had no money. "I was completely broke," he said. "I think I was $27,000 in credit card debt." He got into a car accident, which was complicated by him not having health insurance. "My mother was constantly having to step in and save me and fix my life," Prendergast shared. "And then her life fell apart, and I was able to step in and help her." While his mom did not previously support his dreams of pursuing a career in Hollywood, she changed her mind after Prendergast helped find her husband. "My mother said to me, I believe in you, you can do it," he recalled. "If you hadn't been here who would have found my husband, I would have been still sitting in my apartment alone, crying." Because Prendergast successfully located him, his mom encouraged him to go to Hollywood. 

The show creator slowly repaired his relationship with his mom. And in the show, the bond between Margaret and Todd is the primary focus. "We have a case every week but truly — and this is what I said in the original pitch — what we're really investigating is this family," Prendergast said. "We're really investigating this mother-son relationship."

As for what happened to the real-life version of Harry, after Prendergast found him? "I can't tell you too much because it's going to be a spoiler for what's upcoming in our first season," the series creator said. "But I did find him, we did have a bit of a showdown." He added: "He is no longer alive. That's all I'm gonna say." 

So Help Me Todd premieres Sept. 29 and will be available to stream on Paramount+.