Just as ABC extended its option on Football Wives, a few other initially passed-on fall pilots might see the airwaves after all. Per the Hollywood Reporter, ABC is also keeping a short leash on the comedies The Middle (Ricki Lake as blue-collar mom) and The Hill (set in D.C. and starring Michelle Trachtenberg and Wendie Malick).Fox, meanwhile, still may come calling for Nurses (a dramedy fronted by Eliza Dushku and Sara Rue) and/or The Cure (starring Oded Fehr and Anson Mount).
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• A spokesperson for Nicole Kidman tells the New York Daily News it's "not true" that the Aussie beanpole will guest on the coming season of Nip/Tuck, as claimed last week by series creator Ryan Murphy. Intriguing!• Peyton Manning hosts Saturday Night Live on March 24, with musical guest Carrie Underwood.• Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger puts in an appearance on this Sunday's The Apprentice, as part of the winning team's reward. • Kevin Nealon, Jane Lynch, Richard Kind and Wendie Malick are among those who have been added to the guest-star lineup for Thank God You're Here, NBC's improv comedy-challenge series debuting April 9.
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Wendie Malick, Big Day
Will Wendie Malick ever get a chance to play a demure, down-to-earth role? Let's hope not. Best known for her seven-season, Emmy-nominated stint as narcissistic fashion editor Nina Van Horn on Just Shoot Me, Malick has made a career out of playing outrageous small-screen characters, including Brian Benben's neurotic ex on Dream On and a husky-voiced lounge singer during the final year of Frasier. Currently on ABC's mid-season sitcom, Big Day (Tuesdays at 9 pm/EST) — a real-time comedy about wedding-day drama — Malick adds a
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Hello, dedicated TVGuide.com reader, my name is Stephen Rannazzisi. You can see me on ABC's new comedy Big Day. The show premieres Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 9 pm/ET. Each episode covers a different half hour in a single wedding day. It's kind of like 24 without explosions. The show was created by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, a married couple who used to write for King of Queens. We have a talented cast: Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) and Josh Cooke (all three episodes of Four Kings!) are Alice and Danny, the bride and groom. Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) and Kurt Fuller (really, who cares? I've already gotten bored of giving everyone's credits, and to be honest, I'm not sure what else he's done. I think he was in Wayne's World, but he doesn't like to talk about it) play their parents. Miriam Shor (look it up) is Becca, the maid of honor, and the hilariously nervous Stephnie Weir (I really think the Red Sox overpaid for that Japanese pitcher) is Lorna, the wedding coordinator. But enoug...
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Today's big news: I woke up to find a zit the size of a Vespa parked on my face. Good times....EXECUTIVE SESSION9:04 am: ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson is wearing blue jeans that scream "rock-star network executive!"9:06 am: McPherson announces that he's going to pressure the TV Academy to let us, the nation's top TV critics, decide next year's Emmy nominees. Hey, that was my idea! (And not to split hairs, but it's only supposed to be Matt Roush and me.)9:08 am: McPherson admits if he had to do Commander in Chief over again, he wouldn't have impeached Rod Lurie and replaced him with Steven Bochco. "We would probably bring it on later in the season and let Rod prep for it a lot longer than he had a chance to. He was the voice of that show." 9:08 am: I ask McPherson what he's doing behind the scenes at Desperate Housewives to address last season's "creative collapse." Although he disagrees with the "creative collapse" part — I was going to say implosion — he c...
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Lacey Chabert, Hello Sister, Goodbye Life!
Oh, how Party of Five's sweet Claudia has grown up. In the nearly six years since the sibling sudser aired its swan song, Lacey Chabert has gotten wild with the Thornberrys, at one point found herself Lost in Space, and then fell in with some Mean Girls. This Sunday at 7 pm/ET, Chabert stars in ABC Family's Hello Sister, Goodbye Life!, a TV-movie about a snarky coed forced to watch over her 7-year-old half sister — with barely an assist from mom Wendie Malick — when tragedy strikes.
TVGuide.com: I have to think that having Just Shoot Me's Wendie Malick play your mom was a big incen
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Kim Cattrall has been cast as the manager to Buffy alum Anthony Stewart Head's aging rock star in ABC's Elton John-produced comedy pilot, Him and Us.... Dylan McDermott has joined the ABC drama A House Divided.... Denise Richards is today's addition to ABC's Secrets of a Small Town.... Vanessa Ferlito (CSI: NY) has been cast on ABC's Drift, about a detective with insomnia.... Wendie Malick is mother of the bride in ABC's A Day in the Life, which chronicles a young couple's wedding day.... Annie Potts will play mom to Fox's Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter.... Lizzy Caplan (Related) has enrolled in CBS' The Class.
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Emily's Reasons Why NotIs it just me, or does every woman resort to voodoo dolls to release some anger? And don't we all expect a yellow parrot, aka "the love bird," after our hearts have been broken? No? OK, so anyway, this series debut left us wondering if we've got the next Carrie Bradshaw on our hands. The narration, the bad luck with men, it all sounds a bit Sex and the City. But Heather Graham's cute charm and her team of quirky sidekicks — including the token gay best friend — is definitely making this show a potential mid-season hit. Let Emily's reasons be a lesson for us all, starting with why not to smoke: Grandma Beatrice. By the way, I think so far my favorite character is Glitter, Emily's backstabbing former assistant who stole her idea to get a p
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Emily's Reasons Why NotIs it just me, or does every woman resort to voodoo dolls to release some anger? And don't we all expect a yellow parrot, aka "the love bird," after our hearts have been broken? No? OK, so anyway, this series debut left us wondering if we've got the next Carrie Bradshaw on our hands. The narration, the bad luck with men, it all sounds a bit Sex and the City. But Heather Graham's cute charm and her team of quirky sidekicks — including the token gay best friend — is definitely making this show a potential mid-season hit. Let Emily's reasons be a lesson for us all, starting with why not to smoke: Grandma Beatrice. By the way, I think so far my favorite character is Glitter, Emily's backstabbing former assistant who stole her idea to get a p
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Jake in ProgressDidn't UPN once have a show called Jake 2.0? Too bad. ABC could have used the title, because that's what this second-season premiere essentially was: an updated pilot for the series' new direction. What that direction is, alas, remains to be seen. John Stamos and Co. have tweaked the Jerk in Progress angle, giving Jake an ex to pine over in an effort to make him a little more vulnerable. They should have gone for a little more funny. Say what you want about Stamos (and you probably want to say something about Full House, or his hair, or the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" video), he's just a likable guy. But is likability reason enough to watch a situation comedy short on other criteria? And what was with the occasional, completely unnecessary split scree
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