Margo Millet may have money troubles, but she doesn’t have to sweat about her eponymous show going homeless. Ahead of tonight’s Season 1 finale, Apple TV renewed David E. Kelley‘s Emmy-contending comedy for a sophomore year. And while Season 2 of Margo’s Got Money Troubles will move the narrative past the final chapters of Rufi Thorpe’s bestselling book, Kelley and his collaborator, Eva Anderson, as well as star Elle Fanning note that one major character who didn’t make the first season cut is poised to enter the frame when the series returns.
“Maybe check out who leaves Margaret the big tip in the final scene [of the finale] and what his initials are,” Anderson teases with a grin.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that those initials are JB, one of Margo’s customers who becomes her lover, and subsequently plays a big role in the book’s endgame. But Kelley and Anderson decided early on that character would be relegated to the margins to ensure that Margo’s relationship with her oddball parents — Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Jinx (Nick Offerman) — would be Season 1’s core love story.
“We had an embarrassment of riches in the book, and we could service most of the stories, but not all of them,” Kelley explains. “And JB’s story is a big one that we didn’t want to truncate, and it gives us a great place to go in Season 2. We haven’t forgotten it!”
For her part, Fanning agreed with that choice. “Maybe Margo can find love in Season 2,” she suggests. “But for Season 1, there was so much coming at her and so many characters were being introduced that we wanted to give that [story] the time that it needed.”
Looking ahead to Season 2, Anderson hints that Margo should indeed have more time for love now that her drawn-out courtroom custody drama is behind her. (More on that in a minute.) And Kelley promises that there’s a “multitude of storytelling opportunities” in deepening the relationships that were introduced throughout the first season.
“They’ve certainly healed wounds as they went along — but now what?” he remarks. “Ruby has other books and other ideas for places that these characters can go, and she’s still part and parcel of our inner team. In television, you sometimes feel like you’ve shot all of your cannon fodder, but there’s so much that we have yet to explore.”
JB’s erasure wasn’t the only change that Kelley and Anderson made while transforming the final chapters of Thorpe’s book into the Season 1 finale. Here’s the inside story behind two other crucial creative choices, including the addition of a classic David E. Kelley judge that could have speed-walked straight off the Ally McBeal set and an identity swap for the culprit who called Child Protective Services on Margo in the penultimate episode.
Romano to the rescue
Too bad Dr. Robert Romano wasn’t as speedy as Judge Andrew Spence. Two decades after a falling helicopter memorably scrubbed him off of ER for good, character actor Paul McCrane returns as another intimidating authority figure in a centerpiece scene of the Margo’s Got Money Troubles finale. For the climactic courtroom sequence where Margo’s custody battle with her ex Mark (Michael Angarano) will be decided, Kelley knew that the presiding judge — a character that doesn’t appear in the book— would need to be played by an actor who could keep the audience on their toes by being quick on his feet.
“Courtroom scenes can be very static and staid and this was going to be a long scene,” says Kelley, whose fictional courtroom experience extends back to L.A. Law and includes Picket Fences, The Practice, and Boston Legal. “That led to the idea that we needed a judge who moved the ball quickly, and would became impulsive and unpredictable and combustible — all those characteristics that Paul brought to the part.”
Add “very, very fast” to the list of adjectives that Kelley rattled off. From the moment that Judge Spence enters the courtroom, he’s in perpetual motion, walking directly up to both Margo and Mark, as well as their assorted family members. And he speaks in as rapid a clip as he walks, which only adds to the intensity of the scene — and ups the audience’s concern that his decision may not break in Margo’s favor.
Kelley already had the inside track with McCrane, having previously cast him in a recurring role on the Kathy Bates series Harry’s Law, which earned the actor an Emmy statuette for Drama Guest Actor in 2011. “He’s a gifted actor, both funny and ferocious at the same time,” the producer raves. “I don’t go to set often, but I was there for that first day because I wasn’t sure this idea could work. It was a long courtroom scene, and we had the judge walking around the whole time. That’s a lot to ask of an actor, but Paul dove in. I wound up not staying the whole day, because I saw that I didn’t have to.”
Fanning remembers being disarmed by the former Dr. Romano’s portrayal as well. “He added a real energy to that courtroom,” she says now. “It had this spark and this haphazardness where you didn’t know what was going to happen. And then the moment where he says, ‘Who’s the village that’s surrounding this baby?’, you get to see that village. It’s another beautiful theme of the show, which is found family coming together against all odds to try and uplift one another.”
For his part, Offerman describes the experience of watching McCrane’s marathon performance as “astonishing,” comparing him to other classic Kelley legal eagles like James Spader’s Alan Shore on Boston Legal. “I would see his speeches on that show, and think, ‘Someday I want someone to write like this for me,'” the actor notes. “So when that script came in, I just thought, ‘What a crazy huge swing he’s taking!’ And then to see Paul McCrane do it was incredible.”
“Paul blew onto the set and just blew through that scene,” echoes Pfeiffer. “And it’s such a David E. Kelley role, too, isn’t it?”
By the way, McCrane is one of 33 actors who have won an Emmy for a role on a Kelley-overseen series, a record among showrunners. Asked if it would be especially meaningful if Pfeiffer — his real-life spouse — becomes No. 34 for her spirited portrayal of Shyanne, the producer smiles and nods. “That would be pretty cool,” he says. “It’d be great for her, and great for the show. I’m biased so I can’t be objective as either a producer or husband — but I think she deserves one.”
The good news is that Gold Derby predictors agree; Pfeiffer is currently in the No. 4 slot on our Comedy Supporting Actress leaderboard. And her chances may be helped by another important change that Kelley and Anderson made to the book.
Comedy Supporting Actress
1.
2.
Janelle James
Abbott Elementary
3.
Jessica Williams
Shrinking
4.
Michelle Pfeiffer
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
5.
Sheryl Lee Ralph
Abbott Elementary
They killed Kenny!
For most of Margo‘s first season, Shyanne’s new husband Kenny (Greg Kinnear) seemed to defy the typical stereotype of the older, conservative white guy. Despite wearing his faith on his sleeve, the youth minister notably declines to pass judgement on Margo for having a child out of wedlock and embarking on a career as an OnlyFans model. But in the season finale, it’s revealed that he’s the one responsible for CPS visiting her apartment and potentially costing her custody of Bodhi. That’s a significant change from the book, where Kenny pushes Shyanne to make that phone call, severing her relationship with Margo in the process.
Asked about the decision to make Kenny the villain — killing Margo’s burgeoning affection for him in the process — Pfeiffer says that preserving the book’s reveal would have resulted in a mother-daughter rift that Shyanne and Margo simply couldn’t come back from, especially with a Season 2 on the horizon. “It would have been a real rupture,” the actress says. “We didn’t want that because of the way that their relationship and Shyanne’s character has evolved from the book. It really didn’t make sense [in this version].”
Informed of his wife’s read on his revision of the text, Kelley grins and replies, “She’s thinking like a producer! I’m glad to hear that.
“Shyanne has spent a lot of her adult years feeling like she was a failure as a mother,” Kelley adds. “She might call child protective services on herself! But by the time we get to the finale and she see what Margo has become, it dawns on her: ‘You know what? I did a pretty damn good job raising my daughter!’ The character we crafted and the character that Michelle plays is too much in Margo’s corner to go there.”
Unsurprisingly, there are no arguments from Fanning, who looks forward to how Kenny’s betrayal will complicate things for both Margo and Shyanne in Season 2. “One of the things that David did so well [in the series] is expanding Shyanne’s character,” the actress says. “She’s just a tiny part of the book, but when you have Michelle Pfeiffer, you have to make the role bigger. Their relationship is so complicated and messy in terms of the dynamics of who’s the parent and who’s the child. They’re almost like best friends or girlfriends; Michelle and I had a really fun time navigating that relationship and wanted to make it as authentic as possible.
“And we got to give Greg Kinnear something [meaty] with that [reveal],” Fanning adds, laughing. Don’t be surprised if Kenny is on the receiving end of a Jinx body slam in the opening moments of Season 2.
