TVSquad

Leverage has been added to TNT's list of drama pilots, only one or two of which will be chosen for next summer's schedule to air alongside popular series The Closer and Saving Grace. The other dramas include an untitled legal drama from Stephen Bochco starring Jane Kaczmarek and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the William H. Macy dramedy Family Man, and Truth in Advertising, a drama about an ad agency.

Actors Donal Logue and Eliza Dushku, along with writer/producer David Hemingson, recently signed on for new network projects.

Logue stars in FOX's Barry Sonnefeld-directed comedy pilot, Hackett, as a "bad-boy literary luminary" who goes from teaching at Yale to teaching at a public school in Ohio. The pilot also stars Rachel Boston (American Dreams) and Morgan Murphy. Logue was last seen on ABC's short-lived The Knights of Prosperity. Sonnefeld will work on Hackett, as well as direct episodes of Pushing Daisies, a new series for ABC premiering Wednesdays this fall.

Comedy Central has announced what's on the slate for the upcoming season. Here's the rundown:

Pilots:

Held Up: a series about a group of bank workers who are held hostage and slowly develop a "comedic version of The Stockholm Syndrome."

"Larry the Cable Guy" Animated Project: a series that features Larry as the owner of a cable station. His character is always at odds with the stations other owner, who doesn't care for Larry's ideas. Isn't that pretty much the plot of the Weird Al movie UHF?

All of these pilots are available to watch on Adult Swim Fix right now. They'll air on television this Sunday.

Superjail:

Superjail is made by Augenblick Studios, the same animation studio that made the animated segments for Wonder Showzen. The same sick and surreal sensibility that resulted in such Wonder Showzen "classics" as "D.O.G. O.B.G.Y.N." is present in this series about a gigantic jail that's run by an eccentric Willy Wonka type if Wonka happened to take that extra step from "crazy loner" to "completely batshit insane." The blood and guts and overall surreality of the episode can be pretty funny, but I think its success will depend on how the story and characters develop. I can dig bunnies being skinned alive and men being sliced up with chainsaws, but if that's all this series offers it'll get old rather quickly.

Sarah Wright has joined the still-untitled CBS comedy pilot from Friends scribe and producer Scott Silveri. The series will focus on a group of friends who hang out an all-night diner. John Cho, Phillip Vadem, Leslie Grossman, Josh Meyers and J.D. Walsh will play diner patrons, and Wright will play a waitress who works the graveyard shift in order to spend time with her son during the day. She previously appeared on 7th Heaven and The Loop.

And yes, as I and others have already pointed out, the plot does seem awfully similar to Friends.

Over on FOX, Jana Marie Hupp (Ed) is replacing Andrea Parker in the untitled comedy pilot from Victor Fresco (My Name is Earl, Life on a Stick). Hupp replaced Parker after Parker came down with laryngitis.

I think a real actress would have learned sign language and tackled the role anyway, but whatever.

Actors Jay Mohr and John Cho have both joined separate untitled comedy pilots for CBS.

Mohr's comedy pilot, from Will and Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, centers on two friends and writing partners, Mohr (the straight one) and Brian Austin Green (the gay one). The pilot is based somewhat on the professional relationship of Kohan and Mutchnick. Jessica Capshaw and Vanessa Lengies round out the cast.

Here's what's happening in the world of pilot casting, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

Stephen Moyer will play a vampire opposite Anna Paquin's mind-reading waitress in Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball's new series for HBO, True Blood. The series is based on the Southern Vampire book series by Charlaine Harris about vampires who live on synthetic blood.

Brook Kerr of Passions was also cast in the pilot, which Ball wrote and will also direct.

The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop on some fresh casting for upcoming pilots. Here's what's happening:

David Cross (Arrested Development) and Erika Christensen (Six Degrees) have been added to the new comedy pilot for CBS starring Jason Biggs titled I'm in Hell. Biggs plays a Wall Street big wig sent to Hell on Earth after a fatal car crash where he's forced to live without the benefits of his swanky lifestyle. Cross will play a devil.

Lisa Tucker of American Idol will star in the primetime soap pilot Born in the USA. The series takes place in Philadelphia and focuses on the issues dealt with by blue collar families.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, here's some pilot and casting news from the major networks:

First of all, the FOX drama pilot NSA Innocent is now Company Man, and has cast Jason Behr in the lead as a man hired by the NSA to spy on his own company. Annie Wersching of General Hospital will play his wife.

Heather Locklear has been cast in the title role for the ABC comedy pilot See Jayne Run, about a tough career woman trying to balance work and motherhood.