Development News for the Week of March 28

During this time of year, a multitude of pilots are developed by all of the networks with very few of them actually making it to the air as a new series. The list below provides updates on just some of the countless pilots that are being developed, cast and filmed for the major and cable networks.

Actor Adrian Pasdar (Heroes) will be back on NBC, but this time in a comedy pilot. He will have the male lead opposite actress Sarah Paulson (Cupid) in the as-yet untitled Kari Lizer workplace comedy that revolves around Mary Leahy (Paulson), a relationship-challenged woman who, with the help of her co-workers, guides people through unexpected career transitions. Pasdar will play Brad, a super confident guy who has drunk sex with Mary in a bar bathroom. After seeing how charming he is, Mary and her partner ask him to join their company.

Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), Lou Diamond Phillips (Stargate Universe), Bailey Chase (Saving Grace) and Cassidy Freeman (Smallville) have all joined the A&E drama pilot Longmire that is the small screen take on Craig Johnson’s literary hero Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Sackhoff and Chase will play Walt’s deputies, Victoria “Vic” Moretti, a former homicide detective from Philadelphia; and Branch Connally, who plans to run against him in the next election. While Phillips is set as Henry, Walt’s best friend who tries to loosen him up; and Freeman as Cady, Walt’s lawyer daughter.

Actor Billy Brown (Lights Out) has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot Reconstruction, which is a period drama about Jason Edding (Martin Henderson), a Civil War veteran who crosses the country and settles into a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior – whether he likes it or not. Brown will play Sam who befriends Jason.

Actor Gale Harold (Hellcats) is now part of the cast of the CW drama pilot Secret Circle, which is about Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson), a California teen who moves to her mom’s hometown of New Salem, Maine and discovers that she comes from a family of witches. He will play Thomas Meade, Diane’s (Shelley Hennig) father, who along with Vice Principal Dawn Chamberlain (Natasha Henstridge) take a unique interest in Cassie.  Also actress Ashley Crow (Heroes) has been cast as Jane Blake  Cassie’s grandmother.

Actress Natalie Zea (Justified) will guest-star in the J.J. Abrams/CBS pilot called Person of Interest, playing a district attorney whose investigation of a particularly troubling homicide may cost her life. The pilot stars Lost alum Michael Emerson as a billionaire who recruits a presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) to catch violent criminals in New York. Taraji P. Henson co-stars.

Actor Denis O’Hare (True Blood) has joined the FX drama pilot American Horror Story that stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) and comes from co-creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy (the men behind Glee).

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) is being courted for the FX drama pilot called Powers about a pair of homicide detectives in a world where superheroes are commonplace. He would play one of them, Christian Walker, who secretly used to be a superhero.

Margo Martindale (Justified) has joined the cast of the as-yet untitled Susannah Grant pilot that is about Michael Halstead (Patrick Wilson), an ultra-competitive surgeon whose life is changed forever when his ex-wife, Anna Lindberg (Jennifer Ehle), dies and begins teaching him what life is all about from the hereafter. Martindale will take over for S. Epatha Merkerson as Rita, Michael’s “don’t cross her” assistant.

NOTE: Again, keep in mind very few of these pilots will make it to the air so don’t count on seeing any or all of them UNLESS the networks deem them “good enough” for public consumption come this fall.