When Sasha Alexander arrived on the “Rizzoli & Isles” set Monday morning, Aug. 19, 2013, she had one scene with co-stars Bruce McGill and Lee Thompson Young, who played Detective Barry Frost, the likable, but squeamish young detective.
McGill was there, but Thompson was tardy.
“Lee had been late before,” says McGill, who plays Detective Vince Korsak.
“I hope the girl is worth it, because he is going to be in trouble for being late,” joked Alexander, who plays Dr. Maura Isles.
McGill and Alexander began to divide up Young’s dialogue, until series creator Janet Tamaro told them to stop.
“She told us she had a bad feeling,” McGill says.
The stars went back to their trailers and Tamaro reached out to the authorities. By this time, Angie Harmon had arrived on the Paramount lot. As Detective Jane Rizzoli, she was Frost’s partner. Off-screen, she was his friend.
Young, 29, was found dead in his Hollywood home by the police.
Tamaro summoned the stars to her office.
“She told us Lee wasn’t with us anymore,” says Alexander. “But we didn’t know any other details.”
Ten months later, Alexander, in a tan-and-white top, sits in the very office where she first heard the news. “I was devastated,” she says, tears pouring down her cheeks.
A few days later, at a party on the set celebrating Tuesday’s season premiere, McGill says, “I can see it so clearly today. Angie began to tremble. She began to convulse. Amazingly, Sasha held it together and began to hold Angie, and then they were both trembling.”
Then, they all agreed to go to the stage to tell the crew.
“One thing I didn’t expect was the shrieking,” says McGill. “It was involuntary as if you were punched in the gut. Women were shrieking.”
What happens to a show when a main character dies suddenly? How do producers wade through their own misery to revamp?
In Young’s case, it was even more difficult to cope because of the way he died. In a moment of depression, he sat alone on a sofa and put a gun to his head.
Whatever his demons, he kept them at bay on “Rizzoli & Isles.”
“That part of him was hidden,” says Jordan Bridges, who plays Frankie Rizzoli Jr. “You couldn’t get to it.”
“I thought he was just having the problems of someone in his 20s,” says Alexander.
“He was skittish,“ says McGill. “Nervous. I thought maybe I had done something, for him to be acting so weird.”
After the news of Young’s death, production was shut down, and everyone was sent home. According to McGill, Tamaro had to fight “the powers that be,” to let them have a week to grieve.
The cast returned a week later to film the season’s final episode, which the writers had rewritten, sending the Frost character on vacation.
Then they went on hiatus for five months. Tamaro was replaced by veteran producer Jan Nash (“Without a Trace”). She made it her mandate to move both the cast and the series forward. The biggest problem was how the writers would write Frost out of the show.
“Some people wanted Frost to stay on vacation,” says McGill. “That was ridiculous.”
Says Nash: “We decided to deal with the loss head on.”
Frost dies at the end of Episode 1. He is neither a crime victim nor a suicide.
“I would not have had his death be an accident,” says McGill. “I would have taken on the subject of suicide. It would have been interesting and it would have helped a lot of people, but we are not that kind of show.”
Episode 2 is devoted largely to the aftermath of Frost’s death. Frost will not be replaced. His desk remains empty. In Episode 8, a new member of the squad will be introduced, but details are sketchy.
“You can’t just replace someone in Lee’s role,” Nash admits. “We never wanted to do anything that made it seem like we were exploiting the real experience.”
“We had to ride that line between human reality and drama,” says Alexander. “We just hope it will give the family some relief.”