Marcia Gay Harden Says CBS Loved 'So Help Me Todd' Despite Cancellation

Marcia Gay Harden is feeling emotional about So Help Me Todd’s cancellation at CBS after two seasons.

“We’re all super sad,” Harden, 64, exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 GLSEN Respect Awards at New York City’s Gotham Hall on Monday, April 29. “The whole cast and the crew and the writers and showrunners, everyone is really sad. We’ve had a great run with CBS.”

Noting that she has “respect and love” for the show’s network, Harden speculated that “takeovers” in the entertainment industry could have played a part in the series’ cancellation. “Paramount is being bought by somebody,” she told Us. “We don’t know who and so CBS had numbers to reach and whatever the mystery goes behind it, why they chose our show to go rather than another one, we don’t know.”

Harden said what makes her “sad” about So Help Me Todd not making the cut is the fact it was “one of the few original comedic and dramatic shows on CBS,” adding, “And it seems like a lot of the programming is syndicated crime shows.”

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Despite the series’ end, Harden told Us she knows “CBS loved our show” and that it likely “made them sad as well to have to cancel it.”

News broke last month that So Help Me Todd would not be returning for a third season. The show is one of many CBS shows to recently get the ax, including CSI: Vegas and NCIS: Hawai’i.

So Help Me Todd premiered in 2022 and followed Harden as Margaret Wright, an attorney who took in her laid-back son Todd (Skylar Astin) as her law firm’s new in-house detective. The pair’s relationship faced ups and downs as they worked on cases together. The show’s season 2 finale premieres later this month.

While Harden may have a complicated relationship with her onscreen son, she shares a close bond with her three children — Eulala, 25, and twins Hudson and Julitta, 20 — whom she shares with her ex-husband, Thaddaeus Scheel.

Being the mother of three queer children, Harden told Us that her kids have helped her become “less rigid” over the years. “I think my perspective is broadened. … There are so many things we’ve invented for the binary: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ every introduction, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ I tell you what,” she stated. “Now I hear that, ladies and gentlemen, I think, ‘And? There are other people in the room.’ Now my vision is just much more expansive.”

Harden was honored at Monday’s GLSEN Respect Awards with this year’s Advocate Award for her work supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Proceeds from the gala are put toward supporting organizations such as The Rainbow Library, which helped make LGBTQ+ banned books available to students.

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She attended Monday’s event with Eulala, who is non-binary. “At first, when they introduced me to they/them pronouns, I was not against it, but I wasn’t good at it,” she told Us, admitting it took a “little time” to correct her pronoun usage.

Harden continued: “And I think once you commit to it, that’s when it’s easier for Eulala and anyone in that community to be able to give you the space. But if you haven’t committed to it, then every single screw-up is like a slap in the face on some level and not intentional. But as soon as you commit to wanting to understand who your child is deeply and completely, then they can also be graceful with your journey.”

With reporting by Andrew Nodell