The Good Wife Information

The Good Wife is an American television legal drama that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2009. The series was created by Robert King and Michelle King. It stars Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, and Josh Charles, and features Chris Noth in a recurring role. The current executive producers are the Kings, Ridley and Tony Scott, Charles McDougall, and David W. Zucker.

On October 7, 2009, CBS gave the series a full-season pickup, extending the first season from 13 to 22 episodes, later extended to 23 episodes. On January 14, 2010, CBS renewed the drama for a second season, which premiered on September 28, 2010. On May 18, 2011, CBS renewed The Good Wife for a third season, airing Sundays at 9:00 pm On March 14, 2012, CBS renewed the show for a fourth season.

The series and its cast have won a number of awards. Julianna Margulies has been widely recognized for portrayal in the lead role, winning a Primetime Emmy, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Archie Panjabi won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2010 for her portrayal as Kalinda Sharma. In 2012, Martha Plimpton won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal as Patti Nyholm. In addition, the series has won a Peabody Award, and has been twice nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. In total, the series and its cast have been nominated for 21 Primetime Emmy Awards in its first three seasons.

Plot

The series focuses on Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), husband Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), a former Cook County state's attorney, has been jailed following a very public sex and corruption scandal. Alicia returns to her old job as a litigator (having taken 13 years out to be a stay-at-home mother) to provide for her two children. The series was partly inspired by the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, as well as by other prominent American political sex scandals, particularly those of John Edwards and Bill Clinton:

Michelle [King]: We came up with the idea about a year and half ago. There had been this waterfall of these kinds of scandals, from Bill and Hillary [Clinton], to Dick Morris, to Eliot Spitzer, to name just a few. I think they're all over our culture. And there was always this image of the husband up there apologizing and the wife standing next to him. I think the show began when we asked, "What are they thinking?" And Robert and I started talking about it from there. ... You know, what's interesting about a lot of these political scandals is that the women are lawyers, too. Hillary [Clinton] is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer. I think that got us thinking along those lines. That is, we knew she had to go back to work, and we had so many female lawyers to draw on.

Cast

Main cast

• Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick: The wife of Peter, a disgraced state's attorney; Alicia returns to work as a junior litigator at the law firm Stern, Lockhart & Gardner. Having spent so many years as "the good wife", Alicia finds herself at the bottom of the career ladder, trying to juggle both home and professional life with the ongoing scandal surrounding her husband with whom she has two children, Zach and Grace. In season 3, Alicia is a third-year associate at the firm. She and Peter are separated, and she has a sexual affair with Will but by mid-season she breaks it off. Toward the end of season three, Peter announces his candidacy for governor of Illinois; Alicia stands at his side as he makes the announcement. In season 4, Alicia gets and takes a promotion as an Equity Partner of the firm.
• Josh Charles as Will Gardner: An old friend of Alicia's from Georgetown University and a partner at the law firm. In season 3, Will and Alicia have an affair. Will is suspended from practising law for six months as punishment stemming from an old bribery scandal.
• Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma: The firm's in-house private investigator. Kalinda previously worked for Peter for two years. He fired her after accusing her of working two jobs. After becoming good friends, Alicia finds out Kalinda had a one night stand with Peter before she knew Alicia, damaging their friendship. Kalinda has a cynical, misanthropic outlook on human behavior. She is bisexual. She often plays a major part in winning cases for Lockhart & Gardner, although not always ethically or legally. The character's signature wardrobe piece has become a pair of knee-high boots; the character initially wore pumps but Panjabi felt that boots "grounded her in the character."
• Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart: A senior partner at the firm, she supports other female lawyers. She is liberal and has strong opinions on many issues, including an extreme dislike of guns and violence, although in one plot line she had a romantic relationship with a conservative ballistics expert.
• Matt Czuchry as Cary Agos: In the first season, Cary is a junior associate at Lockhart Gardner. In the first episode, it is established that there is only one permanent position, putting Cary into competition with Alicia. At the end of first season, the firm selects Alicia, and Cary goes to work for the state attorney's office. In season 3, Cary is appointed Cook County Deputy State's Attorney. Cary is subsequently demoted. Dissatisfied with the demotion, he accepts an offer to return to Lockhart Gardner.
• Alan Cumming as Eli Gold: Eli is Peter's campaign manager. His style of management is to be blunt, often rude. Eli is separated from his wife and has a daughter, Marissa (played by Sarah Steele), who is similarly outspoken and shares a healthy relationship with her father. He has a brief shot at romance with Natalie Flores (played by America Ferrera), a student who worked in the past as a nanny for Wendy Scott-Carr. Eli leaks details to the press of Natalie's status as an illegal immigrant but as he comes to know her he is seen to regret this and later helps her get a job as an intern at Lockhart & Gardner. Cumming's portrayal of Gold has been compared to Rahm Emanuel. He was promoted to the main cast in season two.
• Graham Phillips as Zachary "Zach" Florrick: Son of Alicia and Peter.
• Makenzie Vega as Grace Florrick: Daughter of Alicia and Peter.

Recurring cast

• Chris Noth as Peter Florrick: Alicia's husband and Cook County State's Attorney. He was imprisoned for political corruption. During his trial, it was revealed he had patronized prostitutes numerous times. In season one, he was released from prison to house arrest using electronic monitoring. However, he was later cleared when a court dismissed the corruption case against him. In season one's finale, Peter launched an ultimately successful campaign for his old job. At the end of season 3, he launches his campaign for governor of Illinois.
• Mary Beth Peil as Jackie Florrick: Peter's mother. She is reluctant to believe in her son's corrupt behavior and is hopeful Alicia and Peter will reunite and once again become a family. Jackie's meddling in Alicia's and the children's lives annoys Alicia.
• Zach Grenier as David Lee: Head of Family Law at Lockhart/Gardner.
• Titus Welliver as Glenn Childs: The former Cook County State's Attorney. Childs was responsible for leaking Peter Florrick's sex tape to the media. He is Peter's arch rival and will do anything to keep Peter from emerging from disgrace. After Peter's fall, he was the new state's attorney. During Peter's campaign for the top spot, Glenn is forced to withdraw his candidacy due to the fact Peter knows of his illegal dealings with nannies. He now works as an AUSA (Assistant United States Attorney).
• Michael Boatman as Julius Cain: Head of Litigation at Lockhart/Gardner.
• Scott Porter as Blake Calamar: A private investigator for the firm who competes with Kalinda. He tries to frame Kalinda for putting a doctor in a coma but fails. He finds out that her former name was Leela Tahiri and Peter helped her change it. In return, she slept with Peter. After this revelation, he disappears after Bond is removed as name partner.
• Anika Noni Rose as Wendy Scott-Carr: Ran unsuccessfully against Peter for state's attorney. Scott-Carr reappears in season 3 as a special prosecutor hired by Florrick.
• Michael Ealy as Derrick Bond: A new partner in season 2. He plays Will and Diane against each other, forcing Diane to plan a new firm. He fails when Will and Diane find out his scheme and turn on him. In "Great Firewall", he is removed as a named partner.
• Joe Morton as Daniel Golden: A member of Peter's legal team who now works in the State Department.
• Chris Butler as Matan Brody: A prosecutor. After Blake confronts Kalinda in "Ham Sandwich" about her one-night stand with Peter, Blake leaves after giving one last interview to Matan.
• Renee Goldsberry as Geneva Pine: Another assistant state's attorney in Florrick's office.
• Jill Flint as Lana Delaney: A lesbian FBI Special Agent who has had sexual liaisons with Kalinda.
• Monica Raymund as Dana Lodge: An assistant state's attorney in Florrick's office.
• Anna Camp as Caitlin D'arcy: A junior associate at the firm. She is the niece of David Lee and Alicia acts as her mentor. She leaves Lockhart & Gardner in the third season.
• Michael J. Fox as Louis Canning: Canning is a rival attorney who has been opposing counsel to Alicia in various cases. Canning is afflicted with tardive dyskinesia, which he often uses to curry sympathy with judges, juries, and witnesses. He offers Alicia a job in "Wrongful Termination", which she rejects.
• Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni: A quirky lawyer introduced in the episode "Mock" as part of Peter's team. She returns in the third season to help Alicia when she gets in trouble with the Treasury Department. Later in that season, Will hires her to help him when Wendy Scott-Carr investigates him for judicial bribery.
• Dallas Roberts as Owen Cavanaugh: Alicia's mischievous, openly gay younger brother.
• Stockard Channing as Veronica Loy: Alicia's mother who has been absent and detached from her.
• Nathan Lane as Clarke Hayden: A court-appointed trustee in charge of getting the firm out of bankruptcy in the fourth season.
• Amanda Peet as Captain Laura Hellinger: A former Army captain and military lawyer. While in Afghanistan, a contractor attempted to rape her. Is now an assistant state's attorney in Florrick's office.
• Marc Warren as Nick Saverese, Kalinda's abusive ex-husband, who she had been avoiding by changing her name. He appears in season 4, after being revealed as the unseen person entering Kalinda's apartment in a cliff-hanger at the end of Season 3.

Crew

The series was created by Robert King and Michelle King who also serve as executive producers and show runners. The pair had produced the short-lived legal drama In Justice that aired as a mid-season replacement in early 2006. The creators had previously worked extensively in feature films. Scott Free productions helped to finance The Good Wife and Ridley Scott, Tony Scott (till his death) and David W. Zucker are also credited as executive producers. Executive producer Dee Johnson added television writing experience to the team. Charles McDougall directed the pilot episode and was the pilot's other executive producer. McDougall had previously enjoyed success as the director of the pilot for Desperate Housewives. All seven executive producers returned when a full series was ordered and they were joined by executive producer Brooke Kennedy. McDougall left the crew after directing and executive producing the second episode. The series is produced by Bernadette Caulfield who had previously worked on the HBO polygamy drama Big Love. Co-producer Ron Binkowski added post production experience to the pilot and returned for the first season.

Several new producers were added to the crew once CBS ordered a full season. Angela Amato Velez joined the crew as a consulting producer and writer bringing legal experience from her careers as a police officer and legal aid attorney and writing experience from the police dramas Third Watch and Southland. Todd Ellis Kessler, who had recently completed production on The Unit and had previously worked on legal drama The Practice, joined the staff as a co-executive producer and writer. Kessler's fellow The Unit producer Ted Humphrey served as a supervising producer and writer and then as co-executive producer and writer. Corinne Brinkerhoff completed the production team as a writer and co-producer. Brinkerhoff had previously worked as a writer and story editor on Boston Legal.

David W. Zucker is an American TV writer and producer. He has been nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys and one PGA Award. His 18 credits include Judging Amy. The Good Wife, The Pillars of the Earth, Law Dogs.

Episodes

Ratings

Season	Episodes	Timeslot (EST)	Original airing			Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Season premiere	Season finale	TV season
1	23	Tuesday 10:00 pm	September 22, 2009	May 25, 2010	2009"10	#18	13.12
2	23		September 28, 2010	May 17, 2011	2010"11	#16	13.00
3	22	Sunday 9:00 pm	September 25, 2011	April 29, 2012	2011"12	#26	11.83
4	22		September 30, 2012	April 28, 2013	2012"13	TBA	TBA

DVR Ratings

Internet Ratings

Syndication

The Good Wife has been sold in a complex multi-window deal that involves two streaming partners, Amazon and Hulu; a basic cable network, Hallmark Channel; and broadcast syndication, for a combined license fee of nearly $2 million per episode. "This is an off-network model for a unique serialized show in today's television ecosystem," said Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation.

Under the deal, the first three seasons of The Good Wife will become available on Amazon Prime tomorrow, with the current Season 4 coming later this year. Hulu Plus will roll out previous seasons of the show in September 2013, while Hallmark Channel will begin airing The Good Wife in January 2014. A weekend broadcast syndication run is scheduled to begin in September 2014, with the series sold in 85% of the country.

International broadcasts

Country	TV network(s)	Notes
	Network Ten	Season 1 premiered on Monday nights from February 8, 2010, but moved to Sunday nights at 8:30 pm from April 11, 2010. Season 2 premiered on Wednesday nights from October 20, 2010, but was moved to Thursday nights at 8:30 pm from January 20, 2011.
	Universal Channel	Premiered on November 9, 2009 as The Good Wife " Pelo Direito de Recomeçar ("The Good Wife " For the Right to Start Over").
	Global V	Global: Premiered on September 22, 2009, in English, airing Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm ET/PT (including simultaneous substitution of CBS broadcast). Season 2 also aired simultaneously with CBS. Since Season 3, new episodes air same date (Sundays) as CBS but one hour later, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. V: Premiered on September 1, 2010, as Une femme exemplaire ("The Good Wife", in French) in Quebec, airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm
	Universal Channel	Broadcasted as Dobrá man?elka ("Good Wife" in Czech).
Denmark	TV 2	Premiered in 2009
	M6, Téva	Bilingual broadcast, in French, and English with French subtitles. Season 1 premiered on February 3, 2011 as "The Good Wife"
	Nelonen	Premiered on May 21, 2010. Broadcast with subtitles.
	ProSieben kabel eins FOX sixx	ProSieben: Season 1 premiered on March 31, 2010 in German dubbed, airing Wednesday nights at 10:15pm CET. kabel eins: Season 2 premiered on March 11, 2011 in German dubbed, airing Friday nights at 09:15pm CET (episode 2.01"2.06) and 11:00pm CET (episode 2.07"2.23). FOX: Pay-TV reruns of the first two seasons started on November 22, 2011. sixx: Started reruns of the first season on June 22, 2012 and is expected to also air the German premiere of Season 3.
	TV2, Universal Channel	Season 1 premiered on Hallmark Channel (now Universal Channel) on January 24, 2010 as A férjem védelmében ("In my husband's protection"). Later Season 1 was also premiered on the countrywide-available TV2. Season 2 was also aired on Universal Channel, it was premiered on February 7, 2011.
	RT"? Two	Season 1 premiered Monday March 15, 2010 at 9.30 pm and completed its run on August 16, 2010. Season 2 premiered on Thursday July 7, 2011 at 9.00 pm and completed its run on October 13, 2011. Season 3 premiered on April 19, 2012 at 9.30 pm and completed its run on September 13, 2012.
	NHK	Premiered on Tuesdays at 11:00 pm since October 5, 2010.
	NET 5	Premiered on January 1, 2010.
	POP BRIO, Universal Channel	The series premiered on Hallmark Channel (now Universal Channel) on January 24, 2010 as did in Hungary, the countries have the same schedule. Season 2 premiered on February 7, 2011, and season 3 on March 4, 2012. The Good Wife also airs on Pay TV channel POP Brio. First season premiered on September 7, 2010, the second on January 19, 2012. and season 3 premiered on August 1, 2012. The 3rd season was shown Monday to Friday at 9.30 pm and completed its run on August 30, 2012.
	RTS Un	Wednesdays at 21:25.
	Channel 4, More4	Premiered on Monday, January 25, 2010 and, starting the following week, first run episodes shown on More4 on Thursdays at 9:00 pm (with Channel 4's screening the following Wednesday).
	M-Net, SABC3	Series one premiered on Monday, January 25, 2010 on Mnet. Season two and three premiered on 17 January 2011 and 5 March 2012 respectively, whilst season four will be broadcast on 22 October.
	Nova (TV channel)	Series one premiered in 2010.
	Fox Life	Season one premiered on October 14, 2010.
	Diva Universal & Prima TV	Season 4 / First season

Reception

The first season of the show received generally favorable reviews. It scored a Metacritic rating of 76 out of 100 based on the views of 26 critics. In reviewing the first early episodes many critics praised the acting talents of the cast. The Chicago Tribune commended the show saying "one of the best parts of the show is Alicia's complicated relationship with her husband, who humiliated his family with a sex scandal but also appears to be a pawn in a larger game being played by high-level politician". The second season of the show was generally better received than the first. It currently sits at 89 out of 100 on Metacritic indicating "universal acclaim". The 4th season also received critical acclaim, with a 86 out 100 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".

The New York Daily News report, in a review of the lead character's performance said "Margulies puts a powerful combination of cold fury, bewilderment and tenacity into Alicia Florrick, the wife of a disgraced Chicago politician in a new series that readily admits it ripped itself from the headlines" while The Baltimore Sun predicted that "With all four [actors] bringing their 'A' games to the pilot, it looks as if CBS could have another winning 10 o'clock drama."

There were a few reservations as to the long-term success and plot of the show, with the San Francisco Chronicle concluding that "There's nothing inherently wrong with The Good Wife other than it's a legal series with too many close-up shots of knowing glances and 'attagirl Alicia' moments of empowerment that you saw coming 20 minutes prior".

Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 TV Series of 2010 and 2011, saying, "The ability to keep growing: that's what makes a good Wife great". The Salt Lake Tribune in its list of the Top 10 series of 2011 ranked The Good Wife No. 3, explaining "The mix of fascinating legal drama and even more fascinating personal drama is superb."

AOL named Alicia the 19th Most Memorable Female TV Character.