TVSquad

The producers of Cavemen have made quite a few changes since the show was first picked up and while they are doing their best to keep these changes from being seen by the critics, they can't keep them a secret.

It's already well-known that the show has gone through some cast changes. Sam Huntington was added to the cast late in the game as the younger brother of caveman Joel (Bill English.)

ABC is not showing the retooled and reshot Cavemen to TV critics.

Now, this could be a strategy, a la CBS and Kid Nation, to not show the pilot of a show that has been savaged by critics and the industry, to create buzz, or it could be a matter of not showing it to critics because it's just bad, like when movie studios don't let movie critics screen a bad film before it opens on a Friday.

Well, now that we've seen the rough cuts of the fall pilots, it was inevitable that we'd now be in the recasting phase of the summer. We've already seen changes on a number of shows, and now we can add Cavemen to the list. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the highly-anticipated ABC sitcom, which is based on the popular Geico ads, is rethinking one of the main roles.

The role of the younger brother to main character Joel will be renamed from Jamie to Andy, and Dash Mihok, who played the dim-witted but easy-going Jamie in the pilot (he's the guy with the cowboy hat in the picture above), will be replaced by Sam Huntington. He'll play Andy, who leaves his hometown and bunks with Joel after breaking up with his girlfriend.

Two Dreadful Children, the still-developing animated series for FOX from Kitchen Confidential creator and former Family Guy and American Dad writer Dave Hermingson has just added to new actors to its voice cast. The series, about a redneck family who discover their disobedient twin boys are geniuses, has already recruited French Stewart, Chris Kattan and Meredith Roberts. Kattan and Stewart will play the neighbors, and Roberts will voice one of the boys. Sam Huntington was recently added as the voice of the other twin, and Caroline Rhea will play their mother.

It's an interesting idea for a primetime cartoon, though Hermingson's TV past doesn't impress me all that much, and I think American Dad proved that Family Guy's comedy style is one that can't be stretched into another show without breaking. Then again, maybe Hermingson has something up his sleeve for this new series he could never work into his past projects, so I'm staying optimistic until the show hits the air, whenever that might be.