Fred Rogers
Fred "Mister" Rogers was a good neighbor for years — now his life story is about to be open for all to see.
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John Goodman
Imagine a world in which the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball all decided to move their seasons to the same time of year. It would be chaos, for fans and the professional sports business alike. And yet, in television, that's essentially what happens during pilot season.
The broadcast networks traditionally order pilots during the first few months of the year. From there, it's a race to find the best actors, hire a crew, build sets and produce a show before May, when the upcoming fall schedules are announced. The field has always been crowded, but this spring, several cable networks and online retailer-turned-programmer Amazon are also developing new shows that they hope will go to series (cable networks typically produce pilots throughout the year, usually avoiding the spring).
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Michael J Fox
The broadcast networks are desperate for your attention. They know that you're overwhelmed with their programming and distracted by cable, the Internet and now even streaming services. Plus, they didn't produce a new major hit this season, and their ratings are suffering for it.
That's why this year's crop of nearly 100 series pilots at the five networks (48 comedy and 50 drama from the five networks) is all about being big: big stars, big producers, big concepts.
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Seth MacFarlane
Fox is staying in business with Seth MacFarlane. The network has ordered a new half-hour comedy titled Dads, executive-produced by the man behind Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild will write and executive-produce the series, about two successful thirtysomething guys whose lives are...
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Katie Holmes
Reelz is planning a sequel to its 2011 miniseries The Kennedys.
The network has partnered with Muse Entertainment to develop an adaptation of J. Randy Taraborelli's bestselling book After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present. There's no word on when After Camelot will premiere.
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Modern Family
Let's start this week's roundup by blowing some Valentine's kisses to ABC's Wednesday night lineup. No tongue, and not on the mouth, because that would be rude! But also very funny, as evidenced on the night's standout comedies The Middle and Modern Family, in which Sue Heck freaks when her wrestler boyfriend Matt gets "international" with his tongue-wrestling and Claire Dunphy is seriously skeeved out by Greg Kinnear (a hoot as Phil's wealthy new client) as he plants kisses right on her mouth, while shirking an oblivious Phil's hugs. Turns out he kisses ...
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Mariska Hargitay
One of the better things about a good episode of NBC's stalwart Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is that you can rarely tell where it's headed. Is tonight's cameo-heavy hour (10/9c) the latest condemnation of reality TV's sordid excesses? Sure looks that way at the start, as we encounter an especially slimy Michael McKean (relishing his repulsiveness) as the predatory producer of a crap-tastic train wreck titled Showgirls, featuring young hopefuls who would do "whatever it takes" to land the starring role in a Broadway musical. (No small irony this is airing the week of the all-important-to-NBC Smash premiere, where such things could never happen!) As he liquors up a nervous contestant for her "audition," he leers for her to "seduce the audience. Let them know you want this." Doesn't take a genius to know where this is going.
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Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg will guest-star on an upcoming episode of ABC's The Middle, the show's executive producer announced Wednesday at the winter TV previews.
Get more scoop on your favorite shows in our Winter TV preview
Goldberg will appear on the 21st episode as the guidance counselor of Sue (Eden Shur), executive producer Eileen Heisler said during a panel that also featured the showrunners of ABC's other Wednesday night comedies, Suburgatory, Modern Family and Happy Endings.
Also coming soon to visit the Heck family...
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Ellen Barkin, Bobby Cannavale
Ellen Barkin and Bobby Cannavale have signed on to guest-star on Modern Family, TVLine reports.
Barkin, an Emmy winner, will play Vera, a legendary real estate broker and Phil's new professional rival. Earlier this season, Phil (Ty Burrell) left his company to join a new firm, which will...
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Greg Kinnear
Modern Family is going into business with Greg Kinnear, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The Oscar-nominated actor, 48, will guest-star in an upcoming episode as Phil's new business, Tad. Phil (Ty Burrell) is extremely impressed by...
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