TV comedy news today as we are in the middle of the casting season for new sitcom pilots! I've announced recently that MURPHY BROWN is returning to the small screens at CBS thirty years after its end, and now we have Jake McDorman cast as her grown up son! Candice Bergen returns as news anchor to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate, with all of the old cast returning too, from Faith Ford and Joe Regalbuto to Grant Shaud! McDorman will play her millennial adult journalist son Avery, who is following in his mother’s footsteps, perhaps too closely, and has his mother’s competitive spirit and quick wit. Nik Dodani joins the old cast as Pat, the director of social media for the news show who is tasked with bringing Murphy and the gang into the 21st century.
JOSH LAWSON TO LEAD 'WELCOME TO NEIGHBOURHOOD'
Josh Lawson will lead new CBS sitcom
After casting Cedric The Entertainer, CBS has added another lead to
their multicam sitcom pilot WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBOUR HOOD. Josh Lawson
will play Dave, the nicest guy in the Midwest who moves his family into a
tough neighbourhood in L.A. where not everyone appreciates his extreme
neighbourliness. Cedric will play his next door neighbour who regards
the new family with disdain and as a pack of interlopers, while Tichina
Arnold will play his wife who judges them
by their knowledge of Scripture (non existent) and their church
attendance record (shockingly poor!).
DAX SHEPARD TO JOIN
ASHTON KUTCHER'S 'THE RANCH'
Dax Shepard will guest star in about five episodes
And the third blond hunk for today will move to a ranch! You've probably heard that Danny Masterson will no longer be a part of Netflix's multicam sitcom THE RANCH and he will now be replaced by Dax Shepard in the comedy revolving around the dysfunctional Bennett family on their Colorado ranch! He will join the second part of the 20 episode third season as a former soldier who has come to town with some history concerning the Iron River Ranch. He meets the Bennetts and forms an immediate bond with Colt (Ashton Kutcher) and his father Beau (Sam Elliott), but his past has a way of catching up with him. Dax won't be a regular, however, as he will be the lead in another sitcom, BLESS THIS MESS at Fox in which he and Lake Bell play a NY couple which moves to Nebraska to live a simpler life. It doesn’t work out like they planned.
In today's TV news, another of the series pilots we're looking forward too has found its lead stars. As 'Deadline' reports ABC's historical drama STILL STAR CROSSED will be lead by British actress Lashana Lynch and Wade Briggs, and will also star Zuleikha Robinson as Lady Capulet. Meanwhile, Torrance Coombs is leaving REIGN to play Count Paris of Mantua in this one. Based on the book by Melinda Traub it will be set in 16th century Verona picking up where William Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET left off. It charts the treachery, palace intrigue and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers’ tragic fate.
ILL FATED LOVERS The story centres on Rosaline (Lashana Lynch), a gorgeous,
intelligent and headstrong Capulet and Juliet’s cousin. Following the
death of her parents, she is taken in by her aunt and uncle, Juliet’s
parents Lady (Zyleikha Robinson) and Lord Capulet, and forced to work as
a servant. She does her best to tolerate her aunt’s cruelty, and
focuses on finding a way to free herself of the humiliation. She is
eventually ordered to marry Benvolio (Wade Briggs), a Montague.
'THE RANCH' SITCOM TRAILER
WITH ASHTON KUTCHER AND DANNY MASTERSON
Netflix has released the first trailer for their new multi camera sitcom THE RANCH out April 1st! Set in present day on a Colorado ranch, it follows Colt’s (Ashton Kutcher) return home after a brief and failed semi- pro football career to run the family ranching business with his older brother Jameson “Rooster” (Danny Masterson) and father Beau (Sam Elliott), whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Debra Winger stars as their mother, Maggie, who runs the local town bar.
'FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS'
TRAILER WITH MERYL STREEP
And check out this delightful treat - the first full trailer for FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS in which Meryl Streep plays the worst opera singer the world has ever known... although she does not know it herself! Hugh
Grant plays her trusted manager. The voice she heard in her head was
beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her manager
and partner was determined to protect his beloved Florence from the
truth.
We continue with my end of year mission to present you with all the new TV stuff coming to us in 2016! And today I have for you the sweetest of treats, the first photos from my own most anticipated new show of the year NBC's epic fantasy series EMERALD CITY giving us the first glimpses of Adria Arjona as Dorothy and Oliver Jackson Cohen as Scarecrow, Vincent D'Onofrio as the Wizard and Florence Kasumba as the Wicked Witch of the East. Visual genius Tarsem Singh is directing the ten part series in which 20-year-old Dorothy Gale is transported to a mystical land in great peril, where an all-powerful Wizard has outlawed magic and rules over the many kingdoms. This is the fabled Land of Oz in a way you’ve never seen before — where lethal warriors roam, wicked witches plot in the shadows and a young girl from Kansas becomes the headstrong hero who holds the fate of their world in her hands. Joely Richardson plays Glinda.
'THE RANCH' SITCOM
1ST PICS WITH ASHTON KUTCHER AND DANNY MASTERSON First photos have also been released for new multicamera sitcom
coming to Netflix sometime later this year THE RANCH in which Ashton
Kutcher and Danny Masterson are rejoined again! It follows a
confident-but-failed semipro football player (Ashton Kutcher) who
returns to Colorado to help run the family ranch. Danny Masterson is his
second-fiddle brother, and Sam Elliott is their stiff-necked father.
Their strong-willed mother (DebraWinger) owns a bar and temporarily
lives in a trailer behind it while she figures out her marriage.
'OF KINGS AND PROPHETS'
NEW EPIC SERIES PROMO CLIP
In the trailer department check out a new promo for ABC's midseason epic series OF KINGS AND PROPHETS a saga of faith, ambition and betrayal as told through the eyes of a battle-weary king, a powerful and resentful prophet and a resourceful young shepherd on a collision course with destiny. Ray Winstone leads the cast as King Saul!
NEW BBC 2016 TRAILER SHOWS
GLIMPSES INTO NIGHT MANAGER AND POLDARK SECOND SEASON
And you must not miss a gorgeous new video announcing all the drama we shall watch at BBC One this year titled THE ONE TO WATCH! You can catch glimpses of TomHiddleston's THE NIGHT MANAGER, second season of POLDARK and WAR AND PEACE and A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM!
Two of the popular comedians who are used to acting in television comedies are coming back to the small screens and they're doing it together: as 'Deadline' reports Danny Masterson and Ashton Kutcher will star together in THE RANCH multi camera sitcom at Netflix! The two stars, who became famous starring together in THAT 70'S SHOW after which Kutcher had comedy gig in TWO AND A HALF MAN while Masterson was the star of MEN AT WORK sitcom, will play siblings in the new sitcom coming from the creators of TWO AND A HALF MEN Don Reo and Jim Patterson!
BROTHERS ON THE RANCH The new sitcom, THE RANCH, which is to be shot in 20 episodes divided
into two ten episode runs within the same year, will have the story
set on a Colorado ranch, with Ashton Kutcher’s character returning home
after a brief semi-pro football career to run the family business with
his brother, played by Danny Masterson.
'45 YEARS' TRAILER
TRIUMPH OF EMOTIONS
The only trailer I have for you today is a wonderful one for Berlin Film Festival winner movie drama 45 YEARS which is out in Europe this August. Written and directed by Andrew Haigh, it is based on a short story by David Constantine and follows Kate and Geoff Mercer (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) in the week leading up to a party to celebrate their 45th anniversary. But when the body of Geoff’s first love, Katya, is found in a Swiss glacier where he lost her 50 years earlier, it brings up some long buried insecurities about the foundation of their relationship.
