Three episodes into the new CBS drama “Golden Boy” and it’s already apparent that the show’s main storyline – a young NYPD officer’s road to becoming the city’s youngest police commissioner – are at times upstaged by the relationship between the cop (Theo James) and his partner, played by Chi McBride.
Their partnership was never supposed to be a major part of the series, according to CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler. In fact, McBride was not even supposed to share top billing.
“When we bought the show last year, it was really designed and developed as a single-star vehicle, telling the story of a young man’s meteoric rise from a beat cop to the Police Commissioner of New York,” Tassler explained to journalists in January. “When we watched the pilot shoot, there was a palpable chemistry between Theo James and Chi McBride. So it was during shooting of the pilot, watching the shooting of the first episode, that you could see that this show was evolving into a different kind of show. A mentor/mentee relationship.
“You’ll see, it’s turned into a two-hander between these two actors. It’s extraordinary.”
October 5, 2024