“I think they have stretched the boundaries of what the creative community thought was possible on broadcast television.” 

— David Stapf, president, CBS Studios 

By Paige Albiniak

The husband-and-wife team of Robert and Michelle King has been surprising television viewers since the 2009 premiere of The Good Wife, a show that turned the idea of the stand-by-her-man political wife on its head.
The Good Wife was inspired by the story of Silda Spitzer, wife of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign in 2008 after he was embroiled in a prostitution scandal. The Good Wife starred Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick and Chris Noth as her politician husband, Peter. Instead of focusing on the husband and his wrongdoing, the show turned the spotlight on Alicia and her return to the practice of law in light of her husband’s disgrace. In the end, it employed a diverse cast — including Josh Charles as Alicia’s boss, lover and courtroom rival at varying stages — to explore many other social and political issues.
“If we’re known for anything, it’s for killing Josh Charles,” Robert joked.
The Good Wife, which operated as both a serialized drama and a case-of-the-week procedural, ran until May 2016. From there, it spun off two more series: The Good Fight, starring Christine Baranski, which streamed on CBS All Access and Paramount+; and Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston, which airs on CBS and streams on Paramount+. This fall, the Kings will debut Cupertino, starring Mike Colter as an attorney in Silicon Valley. Colter is a King favorite, appearing in The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Elsbeth and their non-“Good” show on CBS, Evil.
What makes the Kings’ shows stand out is their ability to “look at the news of the day or at what is in the zeitgeist and look at it under a different lens,” CBS Studios President David Stapf said. “I think they develop really interesting, multidimensional characters that are real, and thus accessible, and then they put these characters into extraordinary situations. ”
It’s important to the Kings to always keep the audience guessing, said Jonathan Tolins, showrunner on Elsbeth and a member of the Kings’ writers rooms since The Good Fight. “I spent six years in writers rooms with Robert and Michelle and I learned a lot,” Tolins said. “One of the things I learned was, ‘Don’t be easily satisfied.’ There’s a phrase Robert uses that I use all the time in my writers room: ‘You can’t go to A and then get A.’ The characters need to go to A and then get something totally unexpected.”
Said Robert: “There are old rules about storytelling that still make sense. You want to lead the audience down the expected path and make them think they are going to get one thing from a scene and then you give them something else. That creates the pleasure of surprise.”
Besides characters and storytelling, the Kings have also surprised viewers with format. “Robert and Michelle cracked a code in that they took complicated and less-likable characters that at the time were much more common on cable shows and put them together with the procedural structure of broadcast TV, which really had not been done,” Tolins said.
Most of the shows are centered in law firms and courtrooms, including Showtime’s Your Honor, starring Bryan Cranston, adapted from an Israeli production and executive-produced through their company, King Size Productions.
“Lawyers tend to be smart and talk a lot,” Michelle said. “Law is another way to engage in what’s going on in the world.”

“You want to lead the audience down the expected path and make them think they are going to get one thing from a scene and then you give them something else. That creates the pleasure of surprise.”

— Robert King

Courting Controversy
The Kings are not afraid to take on controversial topics and chew on them for a while. “You see a lot of shows that chicken out and it makes you want to go there,” Robert said.
But neither is the couple completely fearless: “One thing we are afraid of is earnestness,” Michelle said. “The last thing we ever want to do is be preachy. We are always trying to undercut it with comedy or have characters with a different point of view.”
The Kings represent several very rare things in Hollywood: a long-married couple with an incredibly productive partnership is almost unheard of, and a partnership that has created a long-running and highly successful television universe might be even rarer.
Said Stapf: “I think they have stretched the boundaries of what the creative community thought was possible on broadcast television.”