TVSquad

I was afraid this might happen to new shows.

Brett told you last June about a new show from ER producer John Wells titled LAPD. Well, the show has been retitled to Police, and NBC is still interested in it. However, not only is the number of episodes ordered under dispute (they're looking for 12, but NBC might want six instead), there might not be a place on the schedule for it. Jay Leno is taking up the 10pm time slot Monday through Friday later this year, so they might only want it for a short period of time. And that's if they have room for it at all.

Let's get the bad/obvious news out of the way first: Despite what ER showrunner David Zabel told TV Guide in a recent interview, George Clooney will not -- repeat NOT -- be returning to the show for it's 15th and final season.

According to Clooney's publicist, "He is on record as saying he is not coming back. It is something he has already done. He is busy making movies." If you're an optimist, though, you can always hope for a surprise Clooney return a la the 2000 ER season finale, in which Georgie showed up at the very end of Julianna Margulies' farewell ep.

On a more positive note, there are plenty of actors who ARE joining popular existing series or are attached to promising upcoming projects. A rundown of these casting coups ensues.

NBC has had it pretty easy for the last fifteen years where Thursday nights at 10, 9 Central, are concerned. ER was locked in, and for the better part of that run was a dominant force. Now that the show is finally coming to an end, they need to start grooming a replacement. It looks like it could be a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

ER executive producer, John Wells, has set up a new show, LAPD, at the network. It's an ensemble show that will follow the lives of police officers in Los Angeles and will be written by Ann Biderman. That's a solid choice as she won an Emmy for her work on NYPD Blue. The network has ordered a pilot and casting has begun. Another ER alum, Christopher Chulack, is on board to direct. Can it replace ER? Probably not completely. Remember, ER had a run as the number one show on television. That kind of success is hard to come by. Still, given the talent involved, it is something to look forward to.

[ via Cynopsis ]

Kick-ass ratings and another Emmy nomination for Kyra Sedgwick have led TNT to renew The Closer for a fourth season. The police procedural is currently in the middle of its third season and is enjoying huge ratings for a cable series. Last week, it ranked #1 in cable Nielsens with more than 7 million viewers. Overall ratings for The Closer are up 15 percent over last summer.

I review The Closer for TV Squad, and I have to say that this is a spectacular season so far. The investigations are more thrilling and the characters--especially Dep. Chief Brenda Johnson--are getting more complicated, and therefore more interesting. If you haven't been keeping up, you can watch the latest episode on TNT's website or the entire season on iTunes.

(S02E02) I just adore the Brenda character. She is such a disaster in person, isn't she? Even though she rubs people the wrong way, she still manages to get them to talk. Remarkable. I love the irony that she is so socially retarded, yet she can totally read people when it comes to interrogating them about crimes.

The first half of this episode was more about the personal side of Brenda. She's all on edge about Fritz moving in and her mother coming to visit. Her mother, you probably noticed, delivers a similar sugary-sweet 'Thank You' to Brenda's, although Brenda's can mean a million different things. It was an unusual departure for the show and I expected the crime to remain in the background but, at about the 30-minute mark, the focus of the show changed to the crime at hand. Her mother disappears into the background-- only appearing in order to be hit on by Lt. Provenza-- and Fritz completely disappears until the very end when he's properly introduced to Brenda's mother. Bummer about the story shift, because I love the walking wreck that is Brenda's personal life.

Adam Brody, also known as Seth Cohen on The O.C., is going behind-the-scenes for his next project. He's developing a show for NBC about modern-day LAPD cops who hunt for vampires. Brody is executive producing the project, which already has a script commitment from NBC. There's no title yet for the program, which centers around a rookie cop who joins the vampire-hunting squad. There aren't a whole lot of details about the project and whether it's supposed to be funny, scary, or dramatic (or all three). It's probably a good idea for all the actors on The O.C. to start looking for other projects since the end of this season marks their graduation from high school, which is usually the beginning of the end for shows like these.

Adam is also producing a remake of Revenge of the Nerds for FOX Searchlight. Who do you think they will get to play Booger?