Rena Sofer will play the wife of Mr. Nice Guy (Dietrich Bader) in a sitcom pilot for ABC.... Bruce Davison has been added to the cast of ABC's Southern Comfort.... Catherine Bell and Gary Cole have joined the CBS drama Company Town.... Mercedes Ruehl, if only because of her first name, is in talks to costar on CBS' Paul Reiser-penned comedy set at a car dealership.... Cheryl White and D.W. Moffett are the latest additions to Kevin Williamson's untitled CW sudser.... Kevin Hart (Barbershop) is ready for The Weekend, a CBS comedy about three male friends.... John Sloan (Commander in Chief) has scored the second male lead (opposite Lex Medlin) in Fox's odd-couple comedy Happy Hour.
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Question: It seems like every other movie I see advertised is based on a TV show, like The Dukes of Hazzard. But what about the other way around? I know there was a series based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but what other TV series have been based on a movie, and were any of them good?
Answer: There have been a handful of top-notch TV shows based on movies. The flop Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) was revived as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003); Robert Altman's acerbic M*A*S*H* (1970) became the long-running M*A*S*H (1972-1983); Neil Simon
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Sleeper CellMuch like this summer's Showtime drama Weeds, Sleeper Cell explores what can lurk just below the radar in an average community. With daily news reports of terrorist threats and terrorist acts flooding the airwaves nowadays, it is hard not to think about terrorism as a constant danger here in the States. But it's a wee bit unsettling to watch a group of terrorists frolic in the park with kids at a birthday party. While this series, which is airing more like a miniseries, with four episodes this week and four next, got off to a bit of a slow start, it ended with a brutal scene that will keep me tuning in for the next installment. The disturbing image of that doting father, whose biggest concern early on was keeping his young daughter away from boys, being bu
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When Showtime adapted the Barbershop film franchise into a series (Sundays at 10 pm/ET), actors' faces weren't the only thing that changed. Some character names got a tweak, too. Case in point: The resident impressionable foreigner known as Dinka on the big screen is now Yinka (that is, an actual African name). Here, Yinka's portrayer, Gbenga Akinnagbe tells TVGuide.com what it's like to inherit a film role, why you absolutely should not let him near your hair and why Nigerian actors are a force to be reckoned with.
TVGuide.com: A couple of the Barbershop TV series' characters are new, but yours [originally played by Leonard Earl Howze] is a holdover from the film Does that make it easier or harder for an actor?Gbenga Akinnagbe: A lot of us are playing characters who were in the movie, but I think it was
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Showtime's new single-camera comedy, Barbershop (premiering Sunday at 10 pm/ET), picks up right where its film predecessors left off and enjoys a cable-friendly splash of edgier, faster-paced humor. Among the ensemble cast is newcomer Toni Trucks, who talked to TVGuide.com about inheriting rap star Eve's role as a girl in Barbershop's man's world.
TVGuide.com: Is it true that you hadn't seen the Barbershop films prior to accepting the role?Toni Trucks: I hadn't seen the films before my initial audition, then once I did that, I figured I should see the movies. But we were encouraged to reinvent the characters. [Director] John [Ridley] was very clear that we should bring ourselves to the table. TVGuide.com: Were you familiar with Eve's acting work, if not
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