Tommy Dearest

Thomas Sadoski is California dreamy as L.A. Mayor Buddy Gray in the new CBS drama.

- By Brantley Bardin

HIS FRIENDS CALL HIM TOMMY, so when Thomas Sadoski was first asked if he was interested in joining a new show called Tommy starring Edie Falco, he remembers saying, “Edie Falco is playing me? That’s not a direction I would have thought to go … but I’m all about it!”

Married to actress Amanda Seyfried, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter, Sadoski has been blessed with a career as a Tony-nominated stage, film, and TV actor. Now, fresh off of CBS’s Life in Pieces, he has indeed joined the Tommy team, although he’s left the eponymous starring role to Falco, who plays a hotshot New York City detective turned L.A.’s first female chief of police, Abigail Thomas.

Sadoski steps in to play Mayor Buddy Gray, an often antagonistic, ethically torn politician forced tohire Thomas when his last chief is caught in a sex scandal. Says Sadoski of the engrossing blend of cop show, procedural, and family drama created by two-time Oscar nominee Paul Attanasio: “This isn’t all detectives and beat cops. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at what’s going on in the police department, with main characters who are PR people, scriptwriters, and other employees of the mayor’s office.” And, he adds, “The vibe on the set is incredible!”