Recaps

The Weekly Round-Up for Feb. 15 to 19

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Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Power pop hitmaker Doug Fieger of the group The Knack (who was responsible for the song “My Sharona”) passed away this week at the age of 57 after reportedly battling lung and brain cancer for years.

Legendary movie musical actress Kathryn Grayson, whose beauty and lilting soprano voice was featured in movies like Kiss Me Kate and Showboat passed away this week at the age of 88.

NEWS

Barbara Walters announced earlier this week that after this year’s Academy Awards presentation she will end her annual pre-Oscars sit-down interviews with Hollywood’s biggest stars.

TV SERIES NEWS

The CW announced this week that they have given early renewals to the following series: Supernatural, Gossip Girl, 90210, The Vampire Diaries and America’s Next Top Model.

ION Television will debut the new series The Guard starting on Saturday, March 13 with back-to-back episodes at 9 and 10 PM. The series centers around four members of the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue Team who knowingly place themselves at risk everyday in order to save lives. The cast includes Steve Bacic and guest star David James Elliott. The series will continue to air in the same two-hour time period each Saturday night.

Maggie Grace (who played Shannon) and Andrea Gabriel (who played Nadia) will return for the final season of Lost.

FOX has canceled the new reincarnation/crime drama Past Life.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) will direct the pilot episode of HBO’s new drama The Miraculous Year, a light family drama that is an examination of a New York family as seen through the lens of a charismatic self-destructive Broadway composer.

Michelle Borth (The Forgotten) and Jonathan Scarfe (Raising the Bar) have joined Zach Gilford and David Strathairn in the ABC drama pilot Matadors that is a Romeo-and-Juliet-style drama about two feuding families’ battle against each other as one populates the state attorney’s office and the other manages an influential private law firm.

Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton (Underbelly) has been tapped for one of the lead roles on the CBS drama pilot The Odds, which is about a pair of Las Vegas cops who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

Amy Smart has been cast in the CBS untitled medical drama from executive producer John Wells, which is about a mobile medical team that travels the US and helps those less fortunate yet in need of serious medical attention.  Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight) has also landed a lead role in this new series.

Actress-designer-singer Taryn Manning has joined Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight and Three Rivers) and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) in the CBS remake of Hawaii Five-O.

Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne) will star in the FOX comedy pilot Strange Brew from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. The series is set at a family-run brewery.

James Murray (Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot Chaos, which is about a group of rogue CIA operatives combating bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting. He joins Freddy Rodriguez in the cast.

Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) and Marc Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have both joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot True Blue that follows six former best friends who rose through the ranks at the San Francisco Police Department and reunite to solve the murder of one of their own.

Going against the norm is the CW. They are looking to producer-directors Ridley Scott and Tony Scott to bring the series tentatively called Nomads to the network. Why is this going against the norm? The series is described as an adrenaline fueled thrill-ride following a group of nearly broke young backpackers in foreign lands who agree to earn money (and keep their never-ending “vacation” going) by working secret missions for the CIA. In the process (they get) more adventure, romance, and danger than they bargained for.

Natalie Martinez (Sons of Tucson) has joined the ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit, which is about the city’s top homicide division as seen through the cameras of a fictitious documentary crew. She joins Aisha Hinds and John Michael Hill who have already been cast.

Donald Faison (Scrubs) has landed a role on the drama pilot The Odds from CBS about Las Vegas cops who are as outrageous as the crimes they solve.

John Schneider will appear in the Spike TV pilot Back Nine, playing a washed-up former U.S. Open golf champion.

Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen in three feature-length dramas for BBC One. The stories are based on novels by  Michael Didbin.

Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace) will play the lead in the ABC drama pilot Cutthroat, playing a Beverly Hills widow who runs a drug cartel.

David Tennant will be the lead in Single Father, a four-part drama series for BBC One that revolves around a photographer and single dad who must raise his four children on his own and who falls in love with his wife’s best friend.

Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) and Jack Carpenter (The Return of Jezebel James) will star in the Josh Schwartz-produced comedy pilot Hitched for CBS about a newly-married couple who return from their honeymoon only to discover that their relationship has only just begun.

MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS

Eric McCormack, Sherry Stringfield and Regina Taylor will star in the Lifetime original movie Who is Clark Rockefeller?, which is set to premiere on March 13 at 9 PM. The movie is based on a true shocking story that explores the inconceivable life of a con artist who ran the longest running con in FBI history, brilliantly impersonating numerous people, ranging from a talk show host to a Pentagon Advisor and even a member of the powerful Rockefeller family.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jeffrey Dean Morgan joins Sam Worthington in the movie The Texas Killing Fields, which is based on the true story of two Texas police detectives who teamed up to solve numerous unsolved crimes.

Ecosse Films is moving forward with a contemporary adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, updating the 19th century tale with a ‘hipper’ contemporary sensibility and a stronger focus on the relationship between Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins.

Gwyneth Paltrow has joined the cast-heavy Steven Soderberg virus thriller movie Contagion, which already includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law.

Djimon Hounsou and Kevin Bacon will appear in the action thriller Elephant White.

Luke Perry and Armand Assante have been cast in the horse racing drama A Fine Step about a champion horse rider injured in a car accident. One of the co-stars includes Justin Baldoni (Everwood).

Billy Burke (Twilight) has joined the movie Nicolas Cage-led movie Drive Angry about a rage-filled father (Cage) who is hell-bent on revenge against those who killed his daughter, and kidnapped his granddaughter. The vendetta/rescue spins out of control as the chase gets bloodier by the mile, leaving bodies strewn along the highway.

Carla Gugino will star alongside Dwayne Johnson, Moon Bloodgood and Maggie Grace in the action thriller Faster about an ex-con out to avenge the death of his brother, a murder with connections to a similar killing a decade before.

Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) will star in the thriller Faces in the Crowd , which revolves around a female murder witness (Milla Jovovich) who awakens from an accident with prosopagnosia (aka face blindness), an impairment in the recognition of faces.

CASTING SCOOP

Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica) has been cast as the infamous John May, the mysterious underground leader of the Fifth Column in the ABC series V. He will appear in one episode slated to air April 13.

Stephen Martines (The Closer) has landed a recurring role in The Vampire Diaries, playing bad-ass vampire named Frederick who is locked in the tomb where Katherine was once thought to be and is up to no good when released.

Samm Levine (Freaks & Geeks) will guest star in the final season of Lost.

It looks like Daniel Cosgrove is out and Colin Egglesfield (Melrose Place) is in as William Walker in the flashback-laced upcoming episode of Brothers & Sisters. Brianne Davis (Prom Night) will appear as Holly (Patricia Wettig) in the same flashback episode.

Jill Scott (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) and Quinton Aaron (The Blind Side) will appear in an in the March 24 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims UnitJaclyn Smith (the original Charlie’s Angels) will also guest star in the series as a former police officer who gets involved with Detectives Stabler and Benson.

Harold Perrineau (Lost) will guest star in CSI: NY as a death row inmate who ironically finds himself fighting for his life when he’s trapped in a prison riot.

When In Plain Sight returns at the end of next month, some of the guest stars will include Allison Janney, Rita Moreno and Steven Weber.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Winter Olympics will continue to air all week long on NBC. Check local listings for times and events.

The movie Sins of the Mother will air on Lifetime Movie Network on Sunday, February 21 at 9 PM and follows a down on her luck grad student who returns home to her alcoholic mother (Jill Scott).

NOTE: This movie will reair on Wednesday, February 24 at 8 PM on Lifetime Movie Network.

The British Academy of Film Awards will air on BBC America on Sunday, February 21 at 8 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, February 20:
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, February 21:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 22:
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 23:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
Caprica (reair) on Syfy at 9 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 24:
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (reair) on Starz at 10 PM)

Thursday, February 25:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 26:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

Using her favorite online handle, Rueben is an East Coast-bred gal who is now a permanent Californian and a lifelong tv-oholic. She watches at least 25 TV shows a week, goes to the movies as often as possible, listens to music every waking moment, reads every day and “plays” on the internet every chance she can. Some of her current favorite TV shows are Outlander, Sweet Magnolias, Wednesday, The Mandalorian, The Equalizer, Fire Country, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, The Rookie, Cobra Kai, Virgin River, The Witcher, Leverage: Redemption and School Spirits.  She is looking forward to the season premieres of Hudson & Rex on UPtv and Skymed on Paramount+ as well as the return of fall TV albeit starting in February. Follow her at @ruebenrambling or contact her at rueben@nicegirlstv.com.