Recaps
The Weekly Round-Up for April 12 to 16
Here are the entertainment news items for this week:
CONDOLENCES
Designing Women actress Dixie Carter passed away this week at the age of 70 due to complications from endometrial cancer. Condolences are extended to her family, friends and fans.
TV SERIES NEWS
Conan O’Brien will be back on late night with a new talk show on – off all networks – TBS. The new show is expected to launch in November.
Syfy announced that due to their wrestling programs, which will air on Friday nights, shows like Caprica, Stargate Universe and Sanctuary will be airing on a new night: Tuesdays. This change will take place in October.
The brand new HBO series Treme has already been renewed for a second season by the network.
The BBC will NOT be renewing their post-apocalyptic series Survivors for a third season.
Actor Jared Harris has been made a series regular on the AMC series Mad Men for the show’s upcoming 4th season. The series is expected to return sometime this summer.
BET will be picking up the cancelled CW series The Game that follows the lives and relationships of players on a fictional pro football team. The network will also be working with actress/singer Queen Latifah’s production company Flavor Unit Entertainment to produce a scripted comedy series, Let’s Stay Together that takes a look at relationship challenges of five young, African-Americans.
Actor Bill Irwin will be back on CSI this May as Nate Haskell. Expect a violent confrontation on the season finale.
Emily Rios (Men of a Certain Age) and theatre veteran Lynn Blackburn will be joining the cast of Friday Night Lights as recurring characters for the final season. Rios will play a rebel Goth girl while Blackburn will be a dedicated teacher who befriends Tami Taylor (Connie Britton).
The USA Network has picked up Burn Notice for two more seasons. Each season (the 5th and 6th) will consist of 15 to 18 episodes and will air in successive summers. Season 4 will begin at 9 PM on June 3.
ONLINE NEWS
Congratulations to the Streamy Award winners, including The Guild, Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, Joss Whedon, the writing team of Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed, Joss and Zack Whedon and the writing team of Jane Espenson, Seamus Kevin Fahey and Ronald D. Moore. Also congratulations to actors Felicia Day, Neil Patrick Harris, Alessandro Juliani and Rosario Dawson for their wins.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Delroy Lindo will play the lead in the FOX drama pilot Ride-Along that revolves around Jarek (Jason Clarke), a rogue cowboy cop, and Teresa (Jennifer Beals), Chicago’s first female police chief, who vow to clean up the streets. Lindo will play a longtime building magnate-turned-politician.
The production company Cooper’s Town (from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Ziff) is developing an HBO drama series based on the novel The American Painter Emma Dial by Samantha Peale, which is about a woman coming to terms with her identity crisis as she works within the Manhattan art world. It is unclear if this potential series would air as a half-hour or one-hour show.
It looks like NBC has ordered 13 episodes of the Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Los Angeles. The new incarnation is expected to air this fall.
Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock From the Sun) will join Matthew Broderick in the NBC comedy pilot Beach Lane, about a celebrity author hired by an irresponsible millionaire heir to run his struggling small-town newspaper in the Hamptons. Aimee Garcia (Trauma) co-stars.
Billy Campbell (The 4400) and Michelle Forbes (True Blood) – among others – have joined the new AMC drama pilot The Killing which ties together three distinct stories by a single murder and as the detectives assigned to the case disagree about the best course of action, they chase down a variety of leads and suspects.
Kyle Howard (My Boys) joins Christine Woods (FlashForward) in the NBC comedy pilot Perfect Couples about three couples at various stages of their relationships.
Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) has signed up for a second comedy pilot – this one for CBS – called Team Spitz where she is being billed as a guest star. The other comedy pilot she is signed up for is the ABC series Freshman.
Ben Browder (Stargate SG-1) has joined the CW presentation called Hellcats, a drama set in the world of competitive college cheerleading. He will play a football coach. The cast includes Sharon Leal, Aly Michalka, Ashley Tisdale, Gail O’Grady, Matt Barr and Sofia Vassilieva.
Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) is no longer a part of the Josh Schwartz-CBS comedy pilot Hitched. Actress Sara Fletcher is reportedly taking over the lead role. The series is about a twentysomething newlywed couple navigating their new life together. The cast includes Jack Carpenter. Eugene Levy, Kurtwood Smith and Sharon Lawrence co-star.
Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) has been cast in the ABC family comedy pilot Southern Discomfort, but should her long-running series be picked up by the CW, she will return to the drama.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Hugh Jackman and Alicia Silverstone have joined the cast of the upcoming box office movie Butter, which will star Jennifer Garner, as a wife who begins competing in a butter-carving contest when her husband is forced out of the competition. The cast includes Ty Burrell and Ashley Greene.
Peter Fonda and Sarah Shahi (Life) have joined Michael C. Hall in the movie East Fifth Bliss, which centers on Morris Bliss (Hall), a jobless 35-year-old who shares a New York City apartment with his widowed father. The cast also includes Brie Larson (United States of Tara) and Lucy Liu.
Rachel Weisz will play Jackie Kennedy in the upcoming film Jackie, which centers on the days following the assassination of President Kennedy. The film will be directed and produced by her husband, Darren Aronofsky.
Joss Whedon will be directed the multi-superhero action movie The Avengers based on the classic comic books. The film is slated for May 4, 2012.
French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey will play a mermaid who has a fateful encounter with Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Lily Collins (The Blind Side) will star opposite Taylor Lautner in the action thriller Abduction, playing his girlfriend.
Vera Farmiga will appear in the indie western A Thousand Guns, which is about a missionary turned powerful gunslinger set in a world where the dead command the living.
Kevin Bacon has joined the currently untitled dramatic movie starring Steve Carell. The story centers on Carell, whose wife (Julianne Moore) wants a divorce. To salvage their marriage, he uses a slick life coach (Ryan Gosling) to reform him. Bacon will play a co-worker of Moore’s, an alpha male who begins an affair with her. I
CASTING SCOOP
Sam Waterston will guest star on the April 28 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Holly Marie Combs (Charmed) will appear in the ABC Family Channel summer series Pretty Little Liars. She will play the mother of Lucy Hale’s character. The series follows four teenagers who have been hiding a secret. Chad Lowe, Laura Leighton and Bianca Lawson co-star. The series premieres on June 8.
As announced last week, Mandy Moore will appear on the two-hour season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, which is set to air on May 20. This week it was announced that Ryan Devlin (Veronica Mars) will appear as her husband in this episode.
Carla Gugino (Watchmen) and Addison Timlin (Cashmere Mafia) will have recurring roles in the 4th season of Californication. Gugino will be a new love interest to appear in 10 episodes while Timlin will be an actress starring in the film within the show, appearing in 8 episodes.
Harry Hamlin is set to guest-star in an upcoming episode of Army Wives, as a public advocacy lawyer who tries a case against the Army that pits Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney) and Michael (Brian McNamara) against each other during a courtroom hearing.
Debi Mazar will guest-star in the season premiere of HawthoRNe, playing an old friend of chief nurse Christina Hawthorne (Jada Pinkett Smith) who turns up at the hospital with an unidentified illness a few days before her wedding.
F. Murray Abraham will appear as the father of Detective Nicholas (Jeff Goldblum) in the season finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which is set to air in July.
Aaron Ashmore (Smallville) will appear on In Plain Sight in the recurring role of a smart-yet-rough around the edges long-lost half brother to Mary (Mary McCormack) and Brandi (Nichole Hiltz). He attempts to reconnect with his siblings and discuss their shared father. He will be seen in the latter part of the show’s current third season.
Not only will Tim Matheson be directed the season two opener of White Collar but he will also be guest starring in the episode as a hedge fund manager who likes to dip into other folks‘ funds – as a part-time bank robber. Season Two of the popular new series is set to air in July.
RUMOR PATROL
It looks like Warner Bros. will be resurrecting the popular 60’s series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. for the big screen.
Colin Farrell is in talks to appear in the upcoming movie Something Borrowed based on the Emily Giffin novel that centers on a single Manhattan attorney (Ginnifer Goodwin), the consummate good-girl, who gets drunk on her 30th birthday and ends up sleeping with Dexter (Colin Egglesfield), the fiancé of her selfish best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson).
Viola Davis (Doubt) is in talks to star as the weary and tough Mississippi maid in the movie The Help based on the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett.
Reportedly Diane Keaton will appear in the title role of the new HBO half-hour comedy series called Tilda about a powerful and much-feared Hollywood blogger.
Debra Winger is in talks to join the case of the 3rd season of the HBO series In Treatment. Should she sign on with the show she will play one of the featured patients – a former big star who is battling insecurity and fear about her career.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following movies, specials and series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:
Doctor Who (featuring Matt Smith as the new, 11th Doctor) will have its season premiere on BBC America on Saturday, April 17 at 9 PM. Check your local listings, though, for time and airdate.
The Lifetime movie The Front, based on the novel by Patricia Cornwell, will air at 9 PM on Saturday, April 17. The movie is about a detective (Daniel Sunjata) and his partner who are assigned to solve a 40-year-old murder case by a publicity-hungry DA (Andie MacDowell).
NOTE: This movie will reair on Sunday, April 18 at 8 PM and on Monday, April 19 at 9 PM.
The music special the Academy of Country Music Awards will air on CBS on Sunday, April 18 at 8 PM.
The movie Beauty & the Briefcase will air on the ABC Family Channel on Sunday, April 18 at 8 PM. The movie stars Hilary Duff as a journalist who switches jobs as part of her research for a potential cover story. Co-stars include Matt Dallas (Kyle XY and Eastwick) and Chris Carmack (The O.C.).
NOTE: This movie will reair at 10 PM that same night and will also reair at 8:30 PM on Monday, April 19.
The Tudors returns for its final season on Showtime at 9 PM on Sunday, April 18.
The PBS Masterpiece Classic movie Small Island will air at 9 PM on Sunday, April 18. The movie is adapted from the Andrea Levy novel, recounting the struggle of two very different couples in Jamaica and London. This is a two-part movie with the conclusion airing next weekend.
Here are the new episodes of the dramas (and a few others) that will be airing this coming week:
Saturday, April 17:
The Guard on ION at 9 and 10 PM
NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Sunday, April 18:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
Breaking Bad on AMC at 10 PM
The Pacific on HBO at 9 PM
Treme on HBO at 10 PM
Army Wives on Lifetime at 10 PM
NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Monday, April 19:
Castle on ABC at 10 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Trauma on NBC at 9 PM
10 Things I Hate About You on ABC Family at 8 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM (90-minute Season Finale)
Tuesday, April 20:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
V on ABC at 10:02 PM
Glee on FOX at 9 PM (This is the Madonna-themed episode)
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Survivors on BBC America at 9 PM
Justified on FX at 10 PM
Law & Order: Criminal Intent on USA at 10 PM
Wednesday, April 21:
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM
In Plain Sight on USA at 10 PM
Thursday, April 22:
FlashForward on ABC at 8 PM
Private Practice at 9 PM (Special Time)
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on the CW at 9 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
Friday, April 23:
Miami Medical on CBS at 10 PM
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Stargate Universe on Syfy at 9 PM
Merlin on Syfy 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!
0 comments