SPOILER ALERT: Major plot points from tonight's third season premiere of the hit are revealed below. CBS row Elsbeth entitled “Yes, and…”
The drama behind the scenes of late night television will be highlighted in tonight's episode. Elsbeth The show's third season premiered.
Stephen Colbert plays Scotty Bristol, host of his own late-night show, Too Late with Scotty Bristol. Andy Richter also took on a role similar to the one he plays in real life, playing Mickey Muntz, Scotty's cheerful but long-suffering sidekick and husband of the show's head writer and executive producer Laurel Hammond-Muntz, played by Amy Sedaris.
Colbert's casting begins Elsbeth was confirmed just weeks after CBS' cancellation was announced. The Late Show with Stephen Colbertand its final episode will air next May. Showrunner Jonathan Tolins told Deadline that Colbert's casting comes as close to news as his tenure on the series Late Show The ending was a complete coincidence.
“It all started when Wendell Pierce was a guest on Colbert's show last February and Stephen joked that he wanted to play a corpse on the CBS series. That got the ball rolling. The script was written before news of the show's end broke. Late Show. I didn't rewrite the script at all to reflect what happened, so any resonance this episode has in that regard is a coincidence. (Some lines took on a whole new meaning!),” Tolins shared.
Tolins said that even before Colbert was cast, he and the writers planned to do an episode set in the world of late night, “which is a fun setting for a New York show.” He mentioned that the original idea was different, but “it did involve a leading man involved in a murder.”
“Since we'll only have Colbert for a limited period of time, we thought playing with his real personality and the audience's normal perception of him would maximize the impact of his appearance,” Tolins said.
Pictured (from left): Amy Sedaris as Laurel Hammond-Muntz, Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Andy Richter as Mickey Muntz.
The inner workings of the late-night show are put under the microscope in “Yes, And…”, revealing the inner workings behind the scenes, such as the pages giving tours to fans and the writers' room working hard to find jokes that will please the host. Later, the camera zooms in on a shot of Scotty again taking the opportunity to pull Mickey by his weight as Mickey's face and confidence fall to the floor.
It's a familiar scene for Laurel, who is tired of Scotty putting everything above everyone else and, of course, him making fun of her husband. Mickey asked Scotty to give him time off to improve his health, but there's always an excuse.
“Andy is so great in this role. It was also so wonderful to have three people together with a long history, just like the characters they play. I actually saw Amy and Andy in Incident at Shoemaker's Knob at the Lincoln Center Festival back in 1997,” Tollins said.
Adding: “And of course I'm a big fan Strangers with candy series co-written by and starring Amy and Stephen, in which Andy also appeared. That connection between the three of them is really palpable in this episode.”
When Mickey plucks up the courage to demand his boss give him the time he needs later that night, he plucks up the courage to walk into Scotty's office, where he discovers his dead body. Just minutes earlier, Laurel had forced Scotty's tie into a power shredder, which choked him to death.
“Most of us don't choose murder, thank God! In this case, Laurel is seriously concerned about her husband's health. She also saw Scotty, her friend and boss, humiliate Mickey, her husband, night after night in front of millions of people. I think Laurel has gotten to the point where she realizes she's given Scotty so much power over her life, her career and her marriage, and she's had enough,” explained Tollins.
“Unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well for her in the end. Plus, the fact that Steven and Amy have known each other for so long added something special to their scenes together. These people know each other deeply. I think that makes for one of our most complex and interesting murders on the show,” he continued.
As the investigation into Scotty's death continued, Mickey told his wife where she was when their boss died. When he figures out that she was present during the crime, Mickey suffers a “catastrophic coronary” and dies. Laurel took the opportunity to blame Mickey for Scotty's death, claiming that he confessed before he died. Elsbeth, of course, is too smart for Laurel's weak excuse and finds the killer by the end of the episode.
Pictured: Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni with Mickey 2 in the third season premiere of Elsbeth.
Mark Shafer/CBS
As the season approaches, the site faces budget cuts and those who work there are “a little anxious, just like in the real world,” Tolins explained. However, the topic “doesn't sound very sexy,” he said, so “I don't think we'll be focusing too much on budget cuts this season.”
Next week's new episode, “Dog Day Afternoon,” will be the best of the series. It features David Cross and Scott Campbell, who are on opposite sides of a toy store standoff. All I will say is that there is a giant piano here which could be a hint Big, this attracts Elsbeth's attention.
“I'm very proud of the new season. I think we're doing the same thing we've always done, but we're getting better at it. We're continuing to bring in incredible guest stars and finding more exciting parts of culture to explore. We're also taking more risks with the format this season, finding ways to make the show amazing. I believe the show – especially with Carrie Preston's incredible performance at the helm – can handle anything we throw at him,” Tolins shared.
