Much lighter than the dark, seedy, and painfully hip '80s Michael Mann smash hit Miami Vice that launched Don Johnson-- series creator Carlton Cuse shared on the DVD that he wanted to present a more accurate portrait of the Johnson that he knew, which he called the fun version of the man with “real charisma” and “great sense of humor.” So in the end, it’s this approach along with the series' emphasis on Johnson’s character Nash Bridges’ own domestic struggles that helped enable all involved to realize that that’s truly the type of show they wanted to make. Likewise, as Johnson noted in a DVD interview, the show’s conception was born out of issues that baby boomers were facing and with which they could therefore relate.
A far cry from the much darker mafia and drug trade setting of the original script Johnson and good friend Hunter S. Thompson had originally pitched, Nash Bridges finds him instead playing the titular lead-- a top-notch inspector for the San Francisco Police Department who manages to use his photographic (or “pornographic” as he frequently jokes) memory and experience with magic in his work. While the writers were always told that Nash Bridges was not an ensemble show and that instead it was a Don Johnson series all the way (and the actor who also produced had tremendous input on all aspects), each screenwriter took turns doing a “Nash pass” to ensure that they wrote the best possible script for their star, their talent and training paid off as some have gone onto work on NCIS and another writer eventually created FX’s highly acclaimed The Shield.
Yet, even though it was a Don Johnson vehicle, every supporting character gets a chance at the wheel and it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without his amazing costar and buddy-in-banter, Cheech Marin. Although they’d known each other for two decades, as Johnson revealed on the DVD, it wasn’t until Ron Shelton’s Tin Cup that they’d actually worked together and as Marin joked, one day they filmed their first scene for Cup together and the next, Johnson asked him if he’d like to star alongside him in Bridges.
While there was some legal wrangling to be sorted out as Marin was contracted on another show, eventually he joined the series for good as his former retired partner and long-time best friend, Joe Dominguez, who has since become a P.I. and later an accidental gay bar owner in a surprisingly funny business scheme near the end of season one. Married to the "Nordic Goddess" Inger, Joe seems to take everything in stride balancing work and family but Bridges is unable to turn off the cop part of his brain. Still dealing with mixed feelings, nostalgic spontaneous couplings and associations with two very different ex-wives and trying to raise an independent minded teenage daughter who’s growing up way too fast, Bridges is-- as the writers note-- a man who’s done everything right in his professional life and completely flunked his personal one.
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