TV TimeZ

Monday, March 21, 2011


ABC: Dancing with the Stars at 8p, Castle
truTV: Southern Fried Stings at 10p
ABC Family: Pretty Little Liars at 8p
AE Network: Intervention at 9p
MTV: Skins at 10p
CBS:  How I Met Your Mother , Mad Love, Mike & Molly, Hawaii Five-0
FOX:  House, The Chicago Code
NBC:  Chuck, The Event, Harry's Law


Some new pilot TV show castingZ to look forward to:

• Donald Sutherland tries his hand again at series television by taking on the lead role of NBC's comedy pilot My Life as an Experiment.  The project is produced by Jack Black about a magazine journalist, A.J. Wilder (comedian Jon Dore) and how his profession impacts his family, especially his wife Stacie (Paget Brewster).  Sutherland will play Stacie's father, a highly respected though arrogant heart surgeon. 
• Christina Applegate also returns to television starring in the NBC untitled comedy from SNL's Lorne Michaels.  Emily Spivey, a writer on SNL is penning the script about an irreverent look at parenthood from the point of view of a sharp-tongued mother (Applegate), her stay-at-home husband and opinionated parents.  Previously, Applegate starred in Jesse for NBC in 2000 and ABC's Samantha Who?
• CBS snagged Kevin Dillon for the second lead in its comedy pilot How to Be a Gentleman, playing opposite David Hornsby.  The plot is a buddy comedy about Alan (Hornsby) a rigid guy who is learning to live his life with the help of his old high school friend, the amiable and optimistic Bert (Dillon).  The pilot also cast Mary Lynn Rajskub (24) to play Alan's sister, Janet, an aggressive lawyer who hen-pecks her meek though loving husband.
• Veteran TV actress Heather Locklear notches another show on her vita with CBS' pilot The Assistants, an ensemble project about four assistants working for a celebrity couple.  Locklear will play an insecure actress and one half of the celebrity couple.  The other half of the couple has not been cast yet, though the assistants will be played by: Emily Rutherford, David Henrie, T.J. Miller and Lamorne Morris.  Past TV credits for Locklear include Dynasty, T.J. Hooker, Melrose Place and Spin City.
• Michelle Trachtenberg (Gossip Girls, Mercy) cast in another CBS comedy pilot, the untitled workplace comedy about young adult employees at a top-notch venture capital firm from Peter Knight.  Trachtenberg will play the female lead, Gracie, who is promoted out of the mailroom into a junior associate position much to the surprise of her competitor Danny, the plot's central character.
• As Friday Night Lights has come to an end, series star Connie Britton will next appear as the female lead in FX's drama pilot,American Horror Story from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.  In the plot, Britton will play Vivien Harmon, one half of the show's central couple.  The overall plot of American Horror Story is not being revealed other than each season will feature an entirely new cast.  Britton was contracted for one season and is also developing a drama for FX with David O. Russell.

Following reports late last week, FOX's upcoming The X Factor did hire Antonio "L.A." Reid, former chairman of Island Def Jam Music Group as a judge joining Simon Cowell.  Reid resigned from Island Def Jam just last week.  A host and more judges for The X Factor will still be announced.