Madeline Wise & Inga Schlingmann Join CBS’ Legal Drama Pilot

Madeline Wise, Inga Schlingmann Courtesy of Curtis Wallen; Stan Demidoff

EXCLUSIVE: Madeline Wise (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and newcomer Inga Schlingmann are set as series regulars opposite Geena Davis and Skylar Astin in CBS’ mother-and-son legal drama pilot from writer/executive producer Scott Prendergast and executive producer Phil McGraw. Additionally, Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro (Charmed) have joined as showrunners and executive producers.

The untitled drama follows Todd (Astin), a talented but directionless P.I. who is the black sheep of his family. Despite their opposing personalities, he agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his overbearing mother, Joan (Davis), a successful attorney reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage.

Wise will play Allison, smart and high achieving, she is an ER trauma surgeon and Todd’s (Astin) diplomatic sister, eager to keep the peace between Todd and their demanding mother, Joan (Davis). Allison shoulders many family obligations that her two brothers shirk. Often busy, and a bit scattered, she is married to the very good-looking but doltish Chuck, whom she knows is her intellectual inferior. She is dissatisfied with the picture-perfect life Joan designed for her and is teetering on the brink of taking it all apart.

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Schlingmann portrays Susan, a “stylish legal bombshell in Clark Kent glasses” who works with Joan. A former girlfriend of Todd’s, she clearly has moved on, is engaged and has just bought her first home. When she broke Todd’s heart years ago, it was because she ultimately found him to be too much of a child.

Prendergast exec produces with Kruger and Shapiro, and Phil McGraw, Jay McGraw and Julia Eisenman via the Stage 29 Productions banner. CBS Studios is the studio.

Wise recently guest-starred in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and in Paramount+s Star Trek: Picard. She portrayed Kat in a six-episode arc for HBO’s Crashing and also starred in the Fox pilot Lovestruck. On the film side, she can most recently be seen in sci-fi dramedy Lapsis. She’s repped by Insight Entertainment and A3 Artists Agency.

Kruger and Shapiro currently serve as showrunners on the CW’s Charmed reboot. The married writing duo’s showrunning/EP credits also include CBS’ Salvation and Extant. They also created and executive produced USA Network’s Necessary Roughness and executive produced and ran the writers room on Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.

Schlingmann is repped by McKegney Management and Jared Bloch at Felker Toczek Suddleson.