'Madam Secretary,' which will premiere on September 21 on CBS, stars Tea Leoni as ex-CIA analyst Elizabeth McCord who is plucked from her job as a UVa professor to become U.S. Secretary of State. But will it also include former female Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright too? 

According to the show’s top producers, both Secretaries of State will be involved to some degree!

The actual premise of the show, which bares similarities to "Homeland" and "Scandal," was based on one of the most controversial events of Hillary Clinton’s stint as Secretary of State.

According to the LA Times, “executive producer Lori McCreary explained…at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, she and fellow executive producer Morgan Freeman...had met with CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler about breaking into scripted television, and she advised them to find a character whose story they wanted to tell. Then McCreary turned on the Benghazi hearings and found her inspiration.”

Inspired by these real world events regarding the White House, McCreary and Freeman sought to find someone to help them turn their ideas – and questions – into reality.

"What’s life like for a secretary of state?" asked McCreary. "Especially how does that translate overseas when rights for women are not necessarily the same and as they are here. And then there’s the issue of balancing an incredibly heavy workload with a personal life, and how do you plan a single moment of your life, a baseball game when any minute you could be dealing with a rocket attack in Israel and a border crisis with Mexico."

With the help of "Homeland" co-executive producer Barbara Hall, the team was able to turn this interesting concept - which was initially inspired by Hillary Clinton and her White House experience - into an exciting television series.

And how did Madeleine Albright get involved?

Barbara Hall, the creator and showrunner of “Madam Secretary,” explained that Madeleine Albright, the first female American Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, “was introduced to her by Tim Daly, who plays Leoni’s religion-professor husband on the series. Daly who is well-connected in Washington as president of The Creative Coalition…called Albright ‘my White House Correspondents Dinner girlfriend. She became very close and she gives the best [worldwide] restaurant recommendations of anyone I’ve ever known,’ Daly added. ‘She’s very eager to weigh in and help us; she’s very excited about the show,’ Hall said of her meeting with Albright,” according to Deadline.

Actress Tea Leoni, most notably known for her starring role in the 90’s TV hit “The Naked Truth” as well as films such as “Spanglish” and “Fun with Dick and Jane,” was even able to meet Albright through Tim Daly’s connection! The “Tower Heist” star, who has taken a long break from acting while raising her family, was attracted to the show due to its “spectacular writing.”

TV Guide explains a little bit more about Tea Leoni’s character, Elizabeth McCord, “a former CIA analyst-turned-[UVa] college professor who is tapped by her former CIA colleague (aka the President) to replace the recently killed Secretary of State. ‘She's coming into the position of someone who has died. She's inheriting this role... She's inheriting this staff,’ Hall said. ‘She's inheriting everything that he put into place before her.’”

The opening scenes of “Madam Secretary” take place at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, though not filmed on location. Professor McCord, teaching and living a quiet life with her wholesome family in small town Virginia, is suddenly uprooted from her calm lifestyle and tasked with becoming Secretary of State McCord.

According to Zap2it, “The ultimate goal of the series is to ‘pull back the curtain on how the state department actually works,’ says Hall. They do heighten the reality a little, mostly to condense time more than anything, but they realize that it's unrealistic to have some enormous, global political event every week that magically gets resolved. Instead, the show will find moments of resolution within on-going problems, but also focus on the inter-office politics and life outside the office.”

Excited about the show? Curious to see a little more of what to expect from “Madam Secretary?” Check out the pilot preview below!

You might have noticed some other familiar faces in the trailer besides Tea Leoni and Tim Daly! "Madam Secretary" also features "Homeland" actor Sebastian Arcelus, "Cheers" actress Bebe Neuwirth, "Body of Proof" actor Geoffrey Arend, "Jersey Boys" actor Erich Bergen, and "Pippin" actress Patina Miller in its all-star cast. 

“Madam Secretary” will premiere the pilot episode in the 8pm time slot between “60 Minutes” and “The Good Wife” on Sunday September 21, 2014 on CBS.