TV PROCEDURALS UP THEIR GAME, WITH DOCTORS ON CRUISES AND QUIRKY SINGLE MOMS SOLVING CRIMES

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.

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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.

"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."