Skip to main content

Channel Surfing: Zach Gilford Goes Off the Map, Entourage to End Next Year, Fringe's Sebastian Roche to Supernatural, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Former Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford has joined the cast of ABC's midseason medical drama Off the Map, from executive producers Shonda Rhimes and Jenna Bans. TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams reports that Gilford will play Tommy, a physician who travels to a remote medical clinic in South America along with fellow doctors Lily (Caroline Dhavernas) and Mina (Mamie Gummer). (The series' other stars include Martin Henderson, Jason George, and Valerie Cruz.) Gilford's casting comes on the heels of the hiring of Rachelle Lefevre as a regular and the departure of Enrique Murciano, though ABC was quick to point out that Gilford won't be playing the same role that Murciano did, a spoiled and uptight plastic surgeon. [Editor: I'm chuffed to see Gilford--who we all know best as Saracen--head back to primetime.] (TVGuide.com)

Not a moment too soon: HBO's long-running comedy Entourage will end next year, according to HBO Co-President Richard Plepler, speaking at Saturday's Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour session for the pay cabler. "The plan right now is to finish up this season and we're not clear exactly how many [episodes], we'll do a shorter order next season to finish up," said Plepler on Saturday. "We had talked about six [episodes]... [Creator Doug Ellin] wants to write [an Entourage] film but he also wants to do it so the storytelling makes sense... But Entourage next summer will definitely be the final season." To parse the meaning of Plepler's words: Entourage has got one more brief season left it in--likely six episodes or so--before it ends and there could be a movie but it's not certain yet. [Editor: Whew.]

Fancast's Matt Mitovich is reporting that Sebastian Roche (who recurred this season on FOX's Fringe as Thomas Jerome Newton) has ben cast on the CW's Supernatural, which returns this fall for its sixth season. Roche will play Balthazar, an angelic friend of Misha Collin's Castiel, in the season premiere ("The Third Man"). “Remember when Cass was dragged back to Heaven as a prisoner? Balthazar was actually the only friend who stood up for him,” executive producer Sera Gamble told Mitovich. “During the Apocalypse, Balthazar went AWOL, and Cass thought he was dead. Turns out… not so much.” Meanwhile, Roche will also be back on Fringe this fall as Newton hasn't quite finished with the Fringe team. (Fancast)

Time for the dance of joy? TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that former Perfect Strangers star Bronson Pinchot will guest star on NBC's Chuck this fall. Pinchot--who is slated to appear in the second episode of Chuck's fourth season--will play Victor, described as "a tacky and audacious wannabe-matchmaker Chuck (Zachary Levi) meets at Milan's Fashion Week." Keck also reports that Armand Assante will reprise his role as Goya in the fourth episode of the season when the gang visits him on the island that he inhabits. (TV Guide Magazine)

FOX has pushed back the launch date for Season Two of Human Target, which will now kick off on Friday, October 1st at 8 pm ET/PT. Here's how FOX describes the season opener: "Picking up from the heart-pounding first season cliffhanger, Season Two of HUMAN TARGET kicks off with a bang as CHANCE (Mark Valley) and GUERRERO (Jackie Earle Haley) race to rescue their kidnapped associate, WINSTON (Chi McBride). Vowing to retire from the security business, Chance is lured back to work by billionaire philanthropist ILSA PUCCI (new series regular Indira Varma), who needs his protection after the mysterious murder of her husband. While on assignment, the team encounters AMES (new cast member Janet Montgomery), a beautiful, chameleon-like thief who has a past connection to Winston." (via press release)

Serinda Swan (Smallville) has been cast in A&E's upcoming drama series Breakout Kings, where she will be Erica Reed, described as "an expert at finding people who don't want to be found -- then killing them." Swan has been contracted as a series regular for the thirteen episodes that A&E ordered earlier this summer after FOX passed on the procedural drama. (Hollywood Reporter)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Megan Boone (HMS) has been cast in NBC's upcoming Law & Order iteration, Law & Order: Los Angeles, where she will play Laura Gardner, the DDA for Terence Howard's ADA. Regina Hall, meanwhile, will play the DDA for Alfred Molina's ADA. Series also stars Skeet Ulrich, Corey Stoll, and Wanda De Jesus. (Deadline)

A&E has ordered a pilot for supernatural docuseries The Unexplained from executive producers Doug Liman, Russ Stratton, Robert Sharenow, and Elaine Frontain Bryant. Pilot, according to Variety's Stuart Levine, investigates a "five-year-old boy talks about his previous life experiences and claims he was actor George Raft, a movie star from 1930s." (Variety)

Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives) and Sean Patrick Flanery (The Dead Zone) have been cast in Hallmark Channel original telepic Mystery Girl, which will air next year on the cable channel. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Evan said…
Fyi, I didn't see anything earlier (I might have missed it) but Maury Chaykin died July 27th in Toronto. My favorite Nero Wolfe.

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns