By MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The idea for a new TV show came to Craig Sweeny as he was driving. The producer and screenwriter, thinking about how to put his own stamp on a medical series, had to pull over when a familiar figure popped into his mind: Sherlock Holmes.

Why not combine a hospital procedural with the lore of Britain’s greatest detective? It would have a medical mystery every week and also tell stories of Holmes’ good friend, Dr. John Watson. It was a mashup of two popular draws, the TV equivalent of peanut butter and jelly.

“They’re sort of each their own show-worthy premise in a way. And we’re blessed to have both. So they compete for space in a really interesting way,” says Sweeny.

So was born “Watson,” a CBS series starring Morris Chestnut as the titular character who leads a team of medical detectives set in a present-day Pittsburgh populated with Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters.

“It’s one of those blessed moments,” says Sweeny, who was well-versed with the world of Holmes after executive producing and writing for “Elementary,” a contemporary update.

This image released by CBS shows Morris Chestnut as Dr. John Watson in a scene from “Watson.” (Colin Bentley/CBS via AP)

“Watson” is not alone among the networks jazzing up the tried-and-true procedural. While the traditional form remains the bedrock of modern TV — think the prime-time blocks of “NCIS,” “FBI” and “Chicago Med” — new twists are emerging.

New TV recipes are heavy on the quirk

ABC’s “Doctor Odyssey” is a medical procedural aboard a luxury cruise ship and NBC’s “The Hunting Party” mashes up “The Blacklist” and “Criminal Minds.” CBS has Kathy Bates in “Matlock” playing an underestimated, retirement-age lawyer — with the twist that she’s really a hard-charging mom out for vengeance.

“There’s something really pleasurable about the self-contained, 43-minute procedural that gives you a beginning, middle and end, a little bit of a mystery and the fun of watching something get figured out,” says Jonathan Tolins, a playwright, TV writer and showrunner. “I think that the audience is so familiar with it that it does reward you if you come up with a sort of fun twist on it.”

Tolins’ own current take on the procedural is CBS’ “Elsbeth,” which takes the quirky character Elsbeth Tascioni from “The Good Wife” and plops her down in a “Columbo”-style police procedural.

Elsbeth, played by Carrie Preston, is a sleuth in bright colors and a bucket hat, blunt and unpredictable, playing off the guest star of the week. Tolins says the writers and camera crew try not to make her feel like the show’s lead, even though she’s the very title.

“I said early on that I think the show works best when it feels like a CBS police procedural with Elsbeth thrown into it,” he says. “We talked about always keeping her sort of out of the center of the frame in wide shots.”

Another elevated procedural with a quirky lead character is ABC’s “High Potential,” a police show starring a genius — but this time, she’s a single mom of three who has an IQ of 160 and is played by Kaitlin Olson.

“She’s a bit of a unicorn,” says Todd Harthan, executive producer and showrunner. “You throw a unicorn into the bullpen with a bunch of detectives and they go, ‘What are we supposed to do with this colorful creature with the horn coming out of her head?’”

This image released by Disney shows Kate Berlant, left, and Joshua Jackson in a scene from “Doctor Odyssey.” (Ray Mickshaw/Disney via AP)

Streaming’s menus push traditional TV forward

Supercharging procedurals comes as streaming increasingly offers subscribers a highly curated selection of unconventional, relatively short series with big names and high production values.

“I think that, inevitably, the innovations that streaming is doing bleed into what happens in network TV and challenge what we’re doing to compete for eyeballs in a healthy way,” says Sweeny.

Procedurals are often referred to as the comfort food of TV, offering a predictable, solvable hour with a familiar cast. So strong is our attachment to the form that streaming services have also been stretching their form with shows like the also “Columbo”-like “Poker Face” on Peacock and Max’s “The Pitt,” which takes a medical show like “ER” and breaks it down into different hours of a hospital shift, like “24.”

Harthan believes the gap between the streaming and network may be closing as networks offer writers a bit of a longer leash to try different things and streaming looks enviously at the broad audiences that networks pull.

“You’re always sort of learning and trying to glean certain things from different shows that are very different than the one you’re working on day-to-day,” Harthan says. “It’s just part of the growth of doing what we do for a living.”

Showrunners caution that mixing different elements into a show to raise the level can’t be done willy-nilly. The creator of “Watson” notes that its hero was already a doctor in the world of Sherlock Holmes, so making him head of a clinic makes sense.

“It is an exotic combo, but it’s also very organic,” says Sweeny. “Mechanically you don’t have to force anything into place. Everything’s already there.”

Network TV orders up a ‘gourmet cheeseburger,’ well done

A few years ago, the term “gourmet cheeseburger” was given to streaming shows that were both premium and commercial — take “Bridgerton” — and network TV may be going through their own gourmet cheeseburger phase.

“The more the two converge, the better,” says Robert King. He and his wife, Michelle King, are the prolific creators of shows on networks (“The Good Wife,” “Evil” and “Elsbeth”) and streaming (“Happy Face”).

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“We love working in both and we don’t start with, ‘Oh, we must do a network show,’ or, ‘We must do a streaming show.’ It’s very much, ‘This idea we have fits more comfortably either in network or in streaming,’” says Michelle King.

Robert King considers one of the greatest TV hybrids to be “The Sopranos,” which mixed a comic premise with violence and put it into a serialized format. It was a hit for HBO but was originally pitched to a network, Fox.

“I do think the hybrid goes back to ‘The Sopranos,’ at least and I’m sure beyond that,” he says.

Tolins, who leads the “Elsbeth” writing room, recently got some nice feedback about his elevated procedural skills. CBS did a focus group about the new season’s premiere episode, which starred — spoilers — Nathan Lane as the killer of an obnoxious operagoer.

“One of the women who saw it afterwards kept saying, ‘This is network? I’m going to have to watch more network television,’ which of course was very, very satisfying for all of us listening,” Tolins says.

With fans counting down the hours until the Minnesota Wild’s season re-starts Saturday with an early game in Detroit versus the Red Wings, assistant coach Jack Capuano — running practices while head coach John Hynes works with Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in Boston — admitted sometimes the on-ice work feels more like September than February.

But he likes what he’s seen so far.

“When you go on break for so long, it’s almost like a mini training camp,” said Capuano, following the team’s Wednesday practice at TRIA Rink. “But I thought the last couple days the guys were dialed in, they were detailed, they had good execution and pace, and they worked hard. So that’s a credit to them.”

The schedule is for the three players who skated for Team Sweden — Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Filip Gustavsson — to return to practice on Friday, before the team flies to Michigan that afternoon. Hynes, general manager Bill Guerin, defenseman Brock Faber and forward Matt Boldy are expected to join the team in Detroit prior to its meeting with the Red Wings.

To fill the gaps created by the current absences, the Wild called up forward Travis Boyd and goalie Dylan Ferguson from their AHL team in Iowa this week just for a practice or two. And while that meant 10 total hours in the car for both men, they jumped at the chance to get some work with the NHL team at the practice rink, even if they would have preferred to be a few blocks away at Xcel Energy Center.

“It’s obviously a big deal. Just try and take what you can from it,” said Boyd, the former Gophers standout who has played three NHL games for his home state team — all of them on the road — this season.

“These guys are coming off their break, so they’re trying to get back up to speed, so you just try to be a sponge and take it in. There’s always a small thing or two you can take away from every practice, and try to get one percent better every day.”

With Filip Gustavsson getting some rest after backstopping two overtime losses for Team Sweden at the 4 Nations, Marc-Andre Fleury has had Ferguson as his counterpart for the recent practices. Ferguson was signed by the Wild to a AHL contract in the fall, and recently inked a two-way deal with the team.

The practices this week were the first time he has been called up by the NHL team, but he began his pro career in Vegas and knows Fleury from their time together with the Golden Knights.

“These are the best players in the world, and I think any chance you get to get up here and experience that is better for me and for my growth moving forward,” said Ferguson, who has played 10 games with Iowa this season.

Capuano said the team plans more of a light “training and treatment” day on Thursday, then will have a more complete roster on Friday, prompting them to send both Boyd and Ferguson back to Des Moines after practice on Wednesday. But the coaches were thankful for the extra bodies and what they contributed on the practice rink this week.

“Boyd’s been around and has played a lot of NHL games, and Fergie’s up here so he gets some NHL shots, so it’s good to have those guys around,” Capuano said. “It’s good to see the guys and it’s good to compete at this level.”

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Rosemount girls hockey co-coach Kyle Finn suspects it’s the biggest goal in Irish hockey history.

The Irish hadn’t reached the state tournament in more than a decade heading into the 2023 Class 2A, Section 3 final against Cretin-Derham Hall. Even advancing to that point was an achievement for the young squad. “A lot of people just would’ve been happy that we’d made it to the section final game,” Finn said.

Not Sophie Stramel. She was determined for more, and delivered.

The center skated down the ice in overtime with one Raiders’ defender close behind and another backtracking in front of her. As she neared the right circle, Stramel fired a wrister, tucking the puck inside the far pipe to beat the goaltender and send herself to the bottom of a dogpile — and the Irish to St. Paul.

“Just an unbelievable goal,” Finn recalled. “It’s fitting that she was the one who scored it.”

That’s because in many ways, Stramel is Rosemount girls hockey. The senior is the face of a program that will play in its third consecutive Class 2A state tournament on Thursday, when the seventh-seeded Irish battle No. 2 Centennial/Spring Lake Park in the quarterfinals at 11 a.m. at Xcel Energy Center.

Reaching St. Paul in three straight seasons would have been an unthinkable feat when Stramel joined the Rosemount varsity ranks as an eighth-grader.

“I never would’ve thought that in the years to come we’d be going three years in a row, let alone once,” Stramel said. “It’s super cool to be a part of a team like this. We all work so, so hard together, and we definitely deserve what we’ve been given. It doesn’t come without some hard work and a lot of teamwork.”

A lot of the success can be linked back to Stramel, the 2025 Pioneer Press East Metro girls hockey Player of the Year. She has team-leading totals of 27 goals and 28 assists.

“Sophie is extremely important to the team,” Finn said. “She is an infectious personality when she comes to the rink. The players on the team absolutely gravitate toward her. She’s got a smile on her face. She loves playing hockey. She loves competing, whether it’s practices or games. And that feeds through to the rest of the team.

“Everybody knows (that) when Sophie is on the ice, we’re going to be competing and we’re going to work hard and she demands more of herself than anybody else. It elevates the players around her. They see how hard she competes, and they know they have to do the same.”

Stramel’s powerful shot and hockey IQ — Finn called her “the smartest hockey player I’ve ever coached” — make her particularly lethal on the power play. But she’s also a key cog on the penalty kill.

“A lot of players who put up the kind of points that Sophie does, they tend to focus on the offensive side of the puck,” Finn said. “Sophie is a little different.”

Make no mistake, the Minnesota State-Mankato commit prefers the offensive end of the ice. But she takes pride in playing the entire sheet of ice like her brother, Charlie, a Minnesota Wild first-round pick playing center this weekend for No. 1-ranked Michigan State.

“Something that we’ve been told from our parents our whole lives is it doesn’t matter how many goals you score, it just matters that you’re the hardest-working player on the ice,” Sophie Stramel said. “I think just having that on my mind … (that) in the end, it’s not about how many points you score. It’s about your team and how much fun you’re having playing the sport you love.”

Finn noted Stramel has been a core member of Rosemount’s leadership group for years. Her ability to help make sure the Irish players are physically and mentally prepared has helped the coaches focus on the X’s and O’s.

This year, she has taken on an even larger leadership role, and is generating additional belief in herself. Stramel noted it was a nerve-wracking experience playing on varsity as an eighth-grader and attempting to carry the puck through a sea of upperclassmen.

The success that followed instilled a belief in herself, but Stramel said she often found herself feeding off the confidence of her older teammates. She spent last summer doing mental work to allow herself to become a source of optimism for all of her teammates.

“Coming into my senior year, (it was) like, ‘I really have to be a leader on this team,’ ” she said. “And I had to believe in myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to.”

Her individual list of big-time moments grows with each game she plays. Of course, it was Stramel who scored the game-winner in Rosemount’s 1-0 section final victory over Eastview last week.

“I love playoff hockey,” she said.

But her favorite Irish memory did not include her finding the back of the net. Stramel fondly recalls Maggie Erickson’s overtime winner in last year’s section semifinals, when Rosemount stunned heavily favored Lakeville North. “An unreal feeling that we all did it together and worked together,” she said.

In last week’s section final, Stramel was sent to the penalty box, where she was greeted by a little girl banging on the glass and waving to get her attention. Despite being irritated by the penalty, Stramel waved back and smiled, telling herself, “OK, it’s bigger than the moment.”

The girl’s mom texted a friend of Sophie’s mother to relay her child’s excitement. Finn noted that the second young kids walk into the arena, they’re usually looking for Stramel.

“They follow her around, they want pictures with her,” Finn said, adding “Sophie is unbelievable with the kids.”

That’s because, Stramel noted, when she was little, she always used to look up to the varsity players, and considers it an honor to have the roles now reversed.

“I love all the little girls in Rosemount — and boys, of course — everyone in Rosemount is supportive of high school hockey, so that’s awesome,” she said. “It’s pretty cool to have people look up to you. It’s an unreal feeling when you have the girls screaming in the stands for you, and seeing how much they look up to you.”

There’s an excellent chance the senior has already inspired the next Sophie Stramel, and likely more than just one, thanks to the way she has handled herself on and off the ice.

“She doesn’t do anything for the individual awards or the points or anything like that. She is all about what can she do for the program.” Finn said. “And everybody who’s in the program sees that. And everybody who’s connected to the program sees that, and that’s why they root for her so much.”

Finalists

Alida Ahern, senior forward, South St. Paul: Scored 29 goals to power the Packers’ offense.

Alaina Gnetz, junior forward, Woodbury: Minnesota-Duluth commit scored 33 goals to guide Royals to 22 wins.

Teagan Kulenkamp, senior forward, Centennial/Spring Lake Park: St. Thomas commit has 26 goals and 38 assists for state-bound Cougars.

Makayla Moran, senior forward, Apple Valley: Minnesota State-Mankato commit recorded 38 goals and 24 assists for the Eagles.

Lily Pachl, senior defender, South St. Paul: Harvard commit had 19 assists and 21 goals while patrolling Packers’ blue line.

Josie Skoogman, senior defender, Hill-Murray: St. Thomas commit leads a defense that’s allowed one or fewer goals in 17 games this season for state-bound Pioneers.

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