March 9, 2009: "Castle" Premieres

Left to right: Penny Johnson Jerald, Seamus Dever,

Tamala Jones, Jon Huertas, Stana Katic,

Nathan Fillion, Molly Quinn and Susan Sullivan

March 9, 2009: Castle premieres on ABC. Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, a mystery novelist who's just killed off his regular hero, because he's bored with him, and is looking for something new to write about. He lives with his mother, aging actress Martha Rodgers (Susan Sullivan) and his teenage daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn), and he's paying alimony to one ex-wife, while the other ex-wife is still his literary agent.

Stana Katic plays Kate Beckett, a New York homicide detective who discovers a murder scene staged to look like one in one of Castle's novels. So this cop, all business on the job, but with a wild streak, questions Castle, who's ridiculously immature, except when it comes to raising his daughter.

Eventually, 3 connected murders show scenes from his books, and they have to catch the killer. When they do so, the Mayor of New York, a friend of Castle's, suggests they team up, making Castle a consultant for the NYPD. And Beckett's commanding officer, Captain Roy Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), says, "If the Mayor's happy, I'm happy."

Castle discovers the reason Beckett became a cop: When she was in college, her mother, a crusading lawyer, was murdered. This inspires him to create a new series about a similar cop, whom he names Nikki Heat. (It should have been Nicole Lachaud: It would have been classier, and meant the same thing.)

As the show goes on, and they overcome their respective hangups and get closer, finally becoming a couple in the 4th season finale, they get closer to solving the mystery. But every step reveals a wider conspiracy, one that even Beckett's mother never got far enough to uncovering.

Those very serious episodes were unsettling. The show was so much better when there was humor mixed in. The humor extended to Castle's family; to the other homicide detectives, Seamus Dever as Kevin Ryan and Jon Huertas as Javier Esposito; to the medical examiner, Tamala Jones as Lanie Parish, Beckett's best friend, and eventually Esposito's on-again-off-again girlfriend; Montgomery and his replacement starting in the 4th season, Victoria Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald); and various suspects.

Before each episode in the 2nd and 3rd seasons, and only those seasons, Fillion recited an introduction: "There are two kinds of folks who sit around, thinking of ways to kill people: Psychopaths and mystery writers. I'm the kind that pays better."

Castle did occasionally flaunt his wealth. The show was set in the NYPD's 12th Precinct, the same fictional precinct as in the 1975-82 sitcom Barney Miller, also on ABC. That show infamously had the cops drinking awful coffee. In what might have been a tip of the hat to that earlier show, in an early episode of Castle, Rick gifts the detectives an espresso machine, to replace the bad coffee they had been drinking.

Castle loved it when the cases got weird. At various times, the killer, or the victim, appeared to be a vampire and a werewolf, a ghost, an alien, a zombie, a genie, Bigfoot, and, on 2 occasions, a time traveler. Two murders were committed at Madison Square Garden: One at a dog show, the other at a science fiction convention.

Both characters' names were homages. Castle's pen name was Richard Edgar Castle, the middle name a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, but his birth name was Richard Alexander Rodgers. Beckett's full name was Katharine Houghton Beckett, a tribute to actress Katharine Houghton Hepburn.

Apparently, at some point, things went sour between Fillion and Katic, despite their being fellow Canadians (from Edmonton and Hamilton, Ontario, respectively). This upset the show's deeply loyal fans, who didn't want "Caskett" split up, especially now that the characters were married. It was announced that Katic wouldn't be back for the 9th season. And since the show wasn't titled Castle & Beckett, this worried fans that she would be killed off. (It sure looked like she had been killed in the Season 3 finale, and Castle in the Season 6 finale, but both survived.)

Instead, it was announced that the show was canceled. It might have been the first time a show's fans were relieved about that fact. Three nights after that announcement, on May 16, 2016, the series finale aired, and all the loose ends were tied up, favorably.

Fillion went on to star on another ABC law-enforcement show, The Rookie, as a middle-aged man who becomes a Los Angeles cop. Katic also stayed in law enforcement, playing an FBI Agent on the Amazon Prime show Absentia.

In superhero cartoons, Katic has done the voices of Lois Lane and Wonder Woman; while Fillion has voiced Wonder Woman's boyfriend Steve Trevor (not in the same film), the Vigilante, and the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern. (UPDATE: Fillion was cast as the Guy Gardner version of Green Lantern in the 2025 Superman film.)

*

March 9, 2009 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA that night:

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the New Orleans Hornets, 89-79 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls, 130-127 in double overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 48 points for the Heat, Ben Gordon 43 for the Bulls.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic, 98-94 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-99 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 97-95 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers at the Moda Center in Portland.

There were 3 games in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh. The Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.