TVSquad

Is it just me, or does the phrase "A Sci Fi Original" kind of make you cringe? They use it a lot when promoting the very special Saturday night movies, and let's be honest, a lot of them are really bad. Rick Schroder is hoping to change all that. He's signed on with RHI Entertainment to direct Hellhounds. Scott Elrod gets the starring role. He'll play Kleitos, a Greek warrior, who leads his men in a battle against the hellhounds of Hades in an effort to rescue his bride from the Underworld. It appears they nixed the idea to have S.S. Doomtrooper make a cameo.

The gig makes a lot of sense for Schroder. He's been slowly building up his directing resume with music videos and the feature Black Cloud. He also has a long history with RHI. They were the ones behind Lonesome Dove. I don't know if it's resentment over the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis, or if I have finally just seen one too many bad movies on Sci Fi Saturday, but I have trouble giving this one the benefit of the doubt. The best thing I can say about it at this point is that it sounds like a better idea than Aztec Rex, but then, that's not saying a whole lot. That said, I'll still probalby end up watching it. I just can't look away from Sci Fi Saturday. So here's hoping Schroder can buck the trend.

Ricky Schroder, the child star of Silver Spoons (formerly of NYPD Blue and Strong Medicine) will make his first appearance on 24 next week as a rough-and-tumble CTU agent named Mike Doyle. (He wants to be called "Ricky" again, according to a recent newspaper article.)

Of his new 24 character, Schroder said, "He's very physical and he likes to get information from people by any means necessary." Maybe, in the height of irony, we'll see Schroder's character -- a younger version of Jack Bauer -- using a silver spoon as an interrogation tool.

I'm just hopeful that the Doyle character won't be as wooden as Chase Edmunds, Jack's useless sidekick from 24's season three.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• David Beckham may be coming to L.A. even sooner than originally planned.
  
• This is awkward: Rick Schroder wants us to start calling him "Ricky" again.
  
• CBS and YouTube teamed up to give everyone a shot at 15 seconds of fame. Will someone please say something original? Anyone?
  

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Look, I know that his years on NYPD Blue redeemed him from a crash course with the child star curse of reality shows and cultural irrelevance, but he'll always be Ricky Schroeder to me. Ricky Schroeder - Silver Spoons star, friend to "Tap Dance Kid" Alfonso Riberio and owner of the racing car bed. Fortunately for Ricky, he overcame the 80s with the aforementioned three seasons on NYPD Blue, a comedic turn as Nurse Paul Flowers on Scrubs and his latest outing as Dr. Dylan West on Lifetime's Strong Medicine.

Ricky has made another great career move - further distancing himself from that plucky young lad in The Champ. He'll be joining the cast of 24 as CTU operative Mike Doyle. Expect to see Schroder team up with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer in executing "key field ops." 24 is really pulling out all the stops with its latest casting decisions. Schroder is just one of a list of fancy new cast members including Chad Lowe, Regina King, Powers Boothe, Peter MacNicol, James Cromwell, Kal Penn and David Hunt. That's right - Deadwood's Cy Tolliver meets Babe's Father Hoggett meets The Boondocks' Huey Freeman meets Kumar. Who doesn't want to see that?