TVSquad

The casts are coming together for Fox's new pilots Virtuality and Inseparable. Malik Yoba, who was on Girlfriends, and Warren Kole, who has appeared briefly on CSI: Miami and 24, have joined the cast. The show is a Jekyll and Hyde story of sorts. It follows partially-paralyzed forensic psychiatrist Justin Lamreaux who has a split personality. Lamreaux, played by Lloyd Owen, shares his life with his criminal alter ego Clyde. I'm not sure about this one. I'm sick of all the crime procedurals, and Dexter may have beat them to the punch on the half criminal/half cop concept.

On Inseparable, Yoba and Kole will play detectives: Yoba, an officer who works with the main character but is unaware of his condition; Kole, a young officer ready to move on up.

Erik Jensen, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Clea DuVall were added to Fox's two-hour pilot Virtuality. The show is set on the Phaeton, a starship exploring other solar systems. Jensen of The Bronx is Burning will play the ship's navigator. Cantillo of Standoff will play a mathematician. And DuVall, who was in Heroes and starred in Carnivale, will play Jensen's co-pilot.

What do you think of these new pilots?

Remember when FOX signed that holding deal for Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer? Well, now they're using it. The former model, best known as every fanboy's synthetic fantasy via her portrayal of sympathetic Cylon "Number 6" on Sci Fi's reimagined Battlestar Galactica, Tricia Helfer has been cast in FOX's Inseparable. As it turns out she won't be playing a hot figment of anyone's imagination, though that would be a good use for the title.

Instead, she's been cast as a psychiatrist who works for the police department. How that will relate to Lloyd Owen's split personality hero/villain lead hasn't been made clear, but I'm guessing she'll be his psychiatrist. Would she find it weird that all of her male patients would only want to talk about their sexual fantasies with her?

"Here let me show you what I'm talking about, doctor. Why don't you get down on your knees and face me ... What do you mean that wouldn't be professional? I want to know what these yearnings mean. And can you undo that top button."

In the world of TV, one of the riskiest things a creative team can do is shoot for the "quirky" factor. It's an all-or-nothing deal: either it works, where everything clicks and the audience embraces the show, or nothing works, and the show explodes in a big awful mess over the poor suckers who decided to tune in and watch. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, we have two shows who went for the quirk: Pushing Daisies and Viva Laughlin. And as it turns out, one show works and the other show is a disaster. Considering Daisies is one of the most praised new shows of the season, we all know where we're going with this.

It was back to school after the Jericho presentation with a look at CBS Interactive/CBS Audience Network Presentation and Q&A.

Remember what I said about how attending the cable and PBS portion of TCA is like taking all those science and humanity classes during your first two years of college -- and the network portion of TCA is like all the fun courses in your major?

Well, today, CBS threw us a few calculus lessons.

I mentioned the other day that Harold Perrineau had joined the CBS pilot Demons. They've now cast the main character, Gus, and the winner is Ron Eldard. If you were paying attention, you might have seen him in the short-lived Men Behaving Badly or Blind Justice. Otherwise, think of him as the paramedic with issues that was dating Carol early in the ER run. It's not the best piece of casting I've ever seen. Eldard has never proven that he can be the dramatic lead for a show, but stranger things have happened.

Meanwhile, over at CBS, Hugh Jackman (Wolverine!) is producing something called Viva Laughlin. Lloyd Owen (Miss Potter) will star as a family man trying to open a casino in Laughlin, NV. Word is that Jackman will appear in the pilot and may have a recurring role on the series. Given just that bit of knowledge, I'm intrigued by the possibilities.