Todd Harthan – Rosewood

By starrymag | March 2, 2016

By: Nicole Smith

 

Q) How long had “Rosewood” been on the drawing board before you got a series order?

 

A) I was sort of pawing at this idea for probably a year before I brought it in to Fox because I had read an article about private pathology and how it was a booming business (how a lot of families were getting second opinions through private pathology). I just remember thinking, “Well, I don’t think I’ve seen that type of medical show.” We’ve seen medical examiners and pathology shows, but private pathology I hadn’t quite seen yet. So, it was just a seed of an idea that I thought was interesting and I didn’t know what the lead character was going to be yet. Over the next six or seven months, I just started thinking about who my pathologist would be and it was coming up close to development season. It just all started to snowball as I got closer to the season where you actually go into rooms and start selling TV shows. I wanted to go with an optimist. Thought, “I’m going to go with a guy [Dr. Rosewood, portrayed by Morris Chestnut] who actually likes people and isn’t miserable.” That was sort of the seed of the idea.

 

Q) And he actually is very optimistic.

 

A) He is. [laughs] Morris is very optimistic in real life, as is the character. That was just obviously a choice to have a guy that treats every day as a gift. A lot of us say it, but he actually subscribes to it and reminds himself of it every day and doesn’t take anything for granted. I just thought maybe America wouldn’t mind seeing a guy that’s in a good mood, respectful to people and loves his mother.

 

Q) There’s a lot of medical knowledge on the show. Do you guys consult with people to get the facts straight?

 

A) Oh yeah. We have a whole group of people that we lean on. We have a great consultant that did “House” for years named Dr. John Sotos. He’s a guy that we can just pick up and call and pick his brain. He’s a genius when it comes to medical anomalies and really great sort of outside the box kinds of things that we use on the show all the time. Then, we have a firm that we use where you can ask anything medical like how people died, different kinds of poisons, things that happen to the skin when you’ve been poisoned by this or you’ve taken too much of this medicine. We always ask consultants for that. We also have a medical examiner on set when we’re actually doing procedures. We’re trying to keep it as authentic and medically accurate as possible. When we do take creative license, we want to make sure it’s worth it.

 

Q) And you learn a lot in the process. It’s a fictional show, but you’re learning a lot of factual things, too. 

 

A) Yes. And some of those factual things are scary, because you’re like, “Wow! Look at all these things that could make me sick.” But yes, I know way, way too much about medicine for a guy who didn’t go to medical school.

 

Q) The first half of the season ended in a cliffhanger and there’s still this sexual tension and complex relationship between Rosewood and Villa. What can we expect in the episodes ahead?

 

A) Their relationship is going to continue to galvanize and they’re going to continue to grow closer and closer and closer. The fun of this relationship is because they’re built so differently, and they’re both damaged in such different ways, that we have this ability to bring them close and then break them apart. But you can only do that for so long before you have to give your audience and your fans something satisfying. So, I will guarantee we are building towards something pretty explosive and satisfying in these next twelve episodes that will be airing. There’s some surprising things that happen that are going to keep them apart and there’s going to be some surprising things revealed that bring them even closer together. It will be a big, hotter, sexier escalation in the back half than what you saw in the first half.

 

Q) You were a producer on “Psych” and there have been many people from the show’s family involved in the “Rosewood” cast and crew. Can you speak to who’s been a part of the project so far and the decision making behind bringing certain people on?

 

A) I have worked in television for ten years and this is the first show I’ve created to get on the air. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve worked with a lot of great people and when you get into a job like this where you’re running a show and you’re doing twenty-two episodes, you need a tremendous amount of help and you need a tremendous amount of talent around you. You have to be very objective and acknowledge what you’re good at and what you need help with. For example, post is not my strength. Going in and editing an episode is not necessarily my strength. So, I brought on a guy named Andy Berman, who’s a great writer from “Psych.” He’s also a really talented director. But he’s incredible in editing as well so he’s kind of my right-hand man. I worked with him on “Psych” for five years and sort of saw his skill set and it’s very different from my skill set. And we compliment each other well. That was the thinking there.

 

James Roday, who was the star of “Psych,” also wrote and directed episodes [on that show]. So, I brought him on to direct episodes of “Rosewood” because I knew he would be an amazing asset to me behind the camera. David Crabtree, he’s my main editor. He was a rock star editor on “Psych.” You just go through and collect the people that have delivered for you in the past because it takes the guesswork out of it and you know you have people surrounding you that are going to deliver.

 

“Psych” was amazing. The cast, crew and the writers on that show were amazing. So, I basically went through and took everybody I could.

 

Q) And Kurt Fuller [“Psych” cast member] was also a guest star. I know that was a very popular episode.

 

A) Yeah, Floyd Butters. Kurt’s amazing. He’ll be back again. You’re going to see him again in another episode. He’ll be making a big appearance. It’s one of my favorite episodes, which Berman actually wrote.

 

Q) When you look at “Rosewood” as a whole and the response the show has received so far, what are you most proud of?

 

A) I think the thing I’m most proud of is I think anyone could watch this show — any age, any ethnicity. I don’t think you have to be any one certain demographic to watch this show. I think we check a lot of boxes with the people. The characters on this show, I think, are relatable. They’re from different economic backgrounds, they’re all different ethnicities. And I think it’s a show that a family could get together and watch. It’s a show a single guy can watch because he has a crush on Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) or he just thinks Rosewood is cool. It’s a show mothers could watch because I think they could relate to what Donna (Lorraine Toussaint) is going through in having raised her children while being a retiree and going through a divorce. To me, it’s a show for everybody and that’s probably what I’m most proud of.

 

Q) Last year was also successful for you because the indie film Gravy, which you wrote with James Roday, got distribution rights. What did you learn from that experience that perhaps has helped you even on your work with “Rosewood?”

 

A) Well, it has helped me on my work with “Rosewood” because the beautiful thing about Gravy was that was almost like making a play. Roday and I got to hire the actors we wanted. Some of them were our friends. We had a very small crew, shot here in LA, mostly on one set. It was sort of down and dirty. There were no fancy trailers for the actors and nobody got paid a lot of money. We just did it because we thought it was going to be really fun and we thought we had a script, a piece of material, that was hopefully going to catch a little bit of a cult following. It was just really about everybody being there for the right reasons, having a good time and enjoying doing this for a living. And also leaning on each other, leaning on each other’s strengths and sort of helping us get through with not a lot of money and not a lot of time.

 

Obviously, on a big television show like this, you have more money and you certainly have more time, but the stakes are higher. I think the pressure is definitely higher. So, I think the team effort that we had on Gravy is something I sort of brought with me on this show and it’s been great. It’s been super collaborative. I think that’s the biggest thing. I don’t go around saying, “This is my show!” It really has become our show. The writers, the cast, the crew, everybody has contributed a great deal to the success. I’m the one that gets on the phone and does interviews and people congratulate me about what I’ve done, but I certainly haven’t done it alone. Three hundred people work on this show and Gravy was a nice experience coming into this. It did teach me a lot.

 

Q) How has “Rosewood” changed your career?

 

A) Wow, you know, it’s interesting. One of my writers and I…We went to dinner the other night and she asked me that. She said, “How has it changed your life since this has happened?” In a weird way, I don’t know yet. I’ve been so immersed in just trying to make one good episode after another that I don’t think I’ll even know the impact it’s had until I’m probably through this season and see if we get a second season. I don’t think about it a lot, to be honest. It hasn’t really changed my day-to-day life, other than it’s just nice to have a job on a show that I love and a cast, crew and writers that I love. I’m just sort of living in that in a weird way. I’m sort of taking a page out of Rosewood’s book and living in the moment and appreciating it. I think good things will come from it and I’m trusting in that. I’m trying to keep it pretty simple and not really think about it too much. But I will say this, I don’t think it’s going to hurt my career. [laughs] I’m so immersed in it. We’re actually breaking the last episode right now. We’re outlining episode twenty-two. I really haven’t had time to breathe and think about all this. It’s just been a really fun ride.

 

Q) It probably seems a little surreal because you went from being a producer to now being the creator of a show. That’s a big deal.

 

A) It is a big deal. I think if I think about it too much it actually becomes a little overwhelming and it stresses me out. It’s been a blast and I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that people come back and watch and that we can get another season.

 

 

“Rosewood” airs Wednesday nights at 8/7 CST on Fox. Todd Harthan can be found on Twitter, @ToddHarthan.