The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 18 to 22

By Rueben | January 23, 2010

Here are the entertainment news items for this week: (January 18 to 22):

CONDOLENCES

The best-selling mystery novelist and the creator of both the “Spenser” and “Jesse Stone” series of novels Robert B. Parker passed away earlier this week at the age of 77.

Canadian folk singer and songwriter Kate McGarrigle passed away from cancer this week at the age of 63.

Musician Charlie Daniels suffered a mild stroke on Friday while snowmobiling in Colorado; but he was later released and is recuperating at his home.

NEWS

Congratulations to all the winners of last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards presentation.

The annual PaleyFest held by the Paley Center for Media will be held from February 26 to March 14 and the full schedule was announced this week. It is as follows:

Friday, February 26 at 7 PM – Modern Family
Saturday, February 27 at 7 PM – Lost
Monday, March 1 at 7 PM – NCIS
Wednesday, March 3 at 7 PM – Community
Thursday, March 4 at 7 PM – Dexter
Friday, March 5 at 7 PM – Cougar Town
Saturday, March 6 at 7 PM – The Vampire Diaries
Tuesday, March 9 at 7 PM – Seth MacFarlane & Friends
Wednesday, March 10 at 7 PM – Breaking Bad
Thursday, March 11 at 7 PM – FlashForward
Friday, March 12 at 7 PM – Men of a Certain Age
Saturday, March 13 at 7 PM – Glee
Sunday, March 14 at 7 PM – Curb Your Enthusiasm

As everyone knows by now, the Jay Leno Show 10 PM programming has been pulled and will end on February 12; and the “drama” of the late night scheduling has left Conan O’Brien (and his staff) $45 million richer.

President Obama will have his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, January 27.

TV SERIES NEWS

The new FX series Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant, will debut on March 16 at 10 PM.

Jennie Garth and Rob Estes are both leaving 90210; Estes will be gone next season.

Rob Lowe will be leaving the ABC series Brothers & Sisters at the end of this season.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Relative newcomer Jessica Parker Kennedy (Another Cinderella Story) will star alongside Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the J.J. Abrams spy drama Undercovers. Gerald McRaney (Jericho) will also be part of the show and Carter MacIntyre (American Heiress) has joined the show as a CIA agent with a drinking problem who goes ‘missing’ while trailing a Russian arms dealer.

CBS has greenlit a remake of the classic cop shows Hawaii Five-O to be written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. This updated version will center on an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police who only answer to the governor.

A new pilot at FOX called Midland has been ordered. The series revolves around a polygamist with a double life who works in the oil industry. *Cough* Big Love *cough* part deaux?!

The following ABC pilots have been picked up:

• Body of Evidence a drama from Chris Murphey about a female medical examiner who used to work as a neurosurgeon;

• The dramedy Generation Y from writer/executive producer Noah Hawley (The Unusuals) is based on a Scandinavian series about a group of people who remember their lives ten years ago as high school seniors;

• A female-driven dramedy called Cutthroat from writers/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Reaper) about a single mom who runs a drug cartel in Beverly Hills in order to keep up financially with her neighbors;

• The legal drama The Whole Truth, from writer Tom Donaghy and executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer;

• Edgar Floats from Rand Ravich and Far Shariat (the team behind Life) is about a police psychologist who becomes a bounty hunter;

• Matadors, set in Chicago, follows two feuding families; one in the district attorney’s office and the other in a large law firm, comes from Jack Orman (writer and executive producer of ER);

• The cop drama True Blue centers on San Francisco homicide detectives who regroup to figure out who killed one of their own. This series comes from Jon Feldman (Dirty Sexy Money) and executive producers Chris Brancato and Bert Salke; and,

• The Shonda Rhimes created medical drama, tentatively called Off the Map, about three stateside doctors who opt to work for an isolated tropical clinic.

TNT has greenlit two original series, including:

•  The offbeat drama Delta Blues (the working title) executive produced by George Clooney will star Jason Lee as a Memphis police officer who lives with his mother. The cast includes Alfre Woodard (Three Rivers), Celia Weston (Junebug), Sam Hennings, Robyn Lively (Saving Grace), Leonard Earl Howze (Barbershop), Abraham Benrubi (Men in Trees and ER) and DJ Qualls (My Name is Earl). The series will premiere this year and will have 10 episodes.

•  Based on the Tess Gerritsen mystery novels, Rizzoli & Isles (the working title) will star Angie Harmon (Women’s Murder Club) as a Boston detective who works closely with a medical examiner (Sasha Alexander from NCIS) to solve crimes. Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) will have a recurring role in the series with Lee Thompson Young (FlashForward), Bruce McGill, Jordan Bridges (Dawson’s Creek) and Billy Burke as co-stars. This series will also have 10 episodes and premiere sometime this year.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Academy Award winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood will write the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic with Steven Spielberg and Suzanne de Passe acting as producers.

Keira Knightley is no longer up for consideration in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the new adaptation of My Fair Lady. Current candidates include Carey Mulligan, Gemma Arterton and Emily Blunt.

Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) will be the director of the retooled Spider-Man which is set to pick up in 2012 with Peter Parker in high school

Marcia Gay Harden and Aidan Quinn have joined the indie drama If I Were You, which centers on two women who form and unlikely bond to repair their lives.

Clive Owen is replacing Paul Walker in the action thriller Protection that follows a disgraced former Special Forces soldier who takes on Mexican gangs in an attempt to rescue a judge’s daughter.

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES

The Hallmark Channel movie The Wild Girl will air on April 24 at 9 PM and is set in the Depression Era and stars Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) as an unlikely team who embarks on a rescue mission in the Sierra Madre Badlands, but who stumble upon an orphaned Apache girl abandoned in the wilderness. Kathleen Munroe co-stars. The movie is based on the novel by Jim Fergus.

The movie Healing Hands will air on the Hallmark Channel on March 20 at 9 PM and stars Eddie Cibrian and Lisa Sheridan (both formerly on Invasion). The movie follows the simple life of Buddy Hoyt (Cibrian), a school janitor who lives in the garage apartment of his adoptive parents’ home; but tragedy strikes him and his fiancée Alice (Sheridan) when he ends up in a coma. When he awakens, he discovers he has the ability to heal others just by touching them. The movie also stars Patrick Duffy.

CASTING SCOOP

Rich Sommer (Mad Men) will play a working class fireman who will be aiming for Betty’s heart in upcoming episodes of Ugly Betty. His episode is set to air in March. Liza Minnelli has landed a recurring role in the series, recurring as Lena Korvinka, the high school drama teacher. Kristen Johnson will reprise her role as Helen on next week’s episode of the series. Lainie Kazan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and Nestor Serrano (24) will play Bobby’s Italian parents, Dina and Anthony in this season’s 15th episode.

Allison Sweeney (Days of Our Lives) will appear in an episode of Mercy as a bus-crash victim who appears to have only minor injuries.

Legendary actress Gena Rowlands will appear in a potentially recurring role as Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ mother-in-law in NCIS starting in March.

Movie actor Michael Sheen (Underworld movies) will guest star in an upcoming episode of 30 Rock and John Hamm (Mad Men) will return to the series for the Valentine’s Day episode.

Neil Patrick Harris is to appear in the episode of Glee that will be helmed by Joss Whedon.

Billy Baldwin will play Serena’s (Blake Lively) absentee father in a few episodes of Gossip Girl that will air later this season.

Sarah Paulson(Cupid) and J. August Richards (Angel) will appear in the February 18 episode of Grey’s Anatomy as the younger versions of Meredith’s mother Ellis and the Chief. Missi Pyle will also be seen in flashbacks of Dr. Bailey’s first days on the job.

Madchen Amick (Californication) has been cast in a recurring role on CSI: NY. She will play a romantic interest for Detective Taylor (Gary Sinise).

RUMOR PATROL

Rumor has it that CBS is eyeing Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight) for their proposed remake of Hawaii Five-O; but that is speculation at best right now.

Robert Pattinson and Sean Penn are said to be in negotiations to star with Reese Witherspoon in the movie Water for Elephants, which is an adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same name about a love triangle among circus employees in Depression-era America.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies and specials will air this weekend and throughout next week:

The Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Pact will debut at 9 PM on Saturday, January 23 and is about a blogger (Thora Birch) who investigates a rash of teen pregnancies at her old high school, and rumors swirl about a pact between the girls.

NOTE: The movie will reair on Monday, January 25 at 9 PM.

The US Figure Skating Championships for women will air on NBC at 9 PM on Saturday, January 23.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast on both TNT and TBS on Saturday, January 23 at 8 PM.

Masterpiece Classic on PBS will feature the first of the three-part movie Emma based on the beloved Jane Austen novel with Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) as Mr. Knightley and Romola Garai in the lead role on Sunday, January 24 at 9 PM.

The following new or returning shows will debut this coming weekend and next week:

Damages returns for another season on FX on Monday, January 25 at 10 PM.

Psych returns for the rest of its new season on USA Network at 10 PM on Wednesday, January 27.

Greek will return to the ABC Family Channel at its new time of 10 PM on Monday, January 24.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 23:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 24:
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, January 25:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC 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
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, January 26:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

NOTE: If you want to remember what happened on last season’s finale of Lost, you can rewatch the 2-hour finale tonight at 9 PM on ABC. You can also rewatch the 2-hour pilot of Caprica on Syfy at 8 PM tonight. A special airing of Human Target is supposed to air on FOX tonight, too. Please check your local listings for time and confirmation.

Wednesday, January 27:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 9 PM (Note: Check local listings for this airing)

Thursday, January 28:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, January 29:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Dollhouse on FOX at 8 PM – Series Finale
Law & Order on NBC at 8 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 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!