More info on Edie Falco’s new Showtime series
Remember back in February when we told you that Edie Falco was signed for a new dark situation comedy from Showtime about a harried nurse?
Well, they’ve started filming the show in New York and given it a tentative title, Nurse Jackie. What’s more, the cast surrounding Edie includes some familiar faces.
Nurse Jackie will have a boyfriend and he will be played by Paul Schulze. The name may not be familiar, but the face sure is. Paul was Father Phil on The Sopranos, the priest who spent a lot of time with Carmella and had her thinking they were going to replay The Thornebirds.
On this Showtime series, he’s Eddie and he works in the hospital in the pharmacy. That’s important because reportedly Edie’s character has a problem with drugs.
What’s this, she’s a female House? Could she be popping Vicodin as prodigiously as he does? Could anyone?
Other actors in the pilot are West Wing veteran Anna Deavere Smith as a hospital administrator, Mrs. Akalitus, Merritt Wever (NCIS) as Zoey, a young nurse working with Jackie, and Haaz Sleiman (Veronica Mars) a gay Muslim nurse.
The original scoop compared this comedy to Weeds, in particular, the way it’s going to be filmed and the satiric tone. The latest bit also includes more about Jackie’s character, saying that she “has an almost-clairvoyant ability to figure out what’s wrong with her patients even before doctors can — making her a much-sought-after commodity in the ER.”
Caryn Mandabach, an experienced, Emmy-award winning showrunner, is executive producing. Her credits include Grounded for Life, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That ’70s Show and The Cosby Show.
If Showtime likes what they produce, Nurse Jackie — or whatever it’s finally called — could be on the air in Spring 2009, maybe sooner. Considering the quality of the talent, I think we’ll see it sooner rather than later.
All-star cast joins Debra Messing on The Starter Wife
Debra Messing’s Emmy-award winning miniseries The Starter Wife is getting some new cast members. Joining the former Will and Grace star are David Alan Bashe of Lipstick Jungle, Danielle Nicolet of Heartland, Brielle Barbusca of Hope & Faith, and Hart Bochner of Die Hard.
The USA original series follows the post-divorce hi-jinx of Molly Kagan (Messing) as she embarks on a new chapter in her life. USA is bringing back the hit miniseries for ten episodes this fall. Messing is now executive producer as well.
Bashe will play Molly’s ex-husband, Kenny Kagen. Nicolet will play Liz Marsh, Molly’s new friend and wife a a pro-baseball player. Barbusca will play Jaden, Molly and Kenny’s daughter. And Bochner will play Molly’s new love interest and writing class teacher. Returning for guest appearances is Joe Mantegna of Criminal Minds who plays Molly’s former boyfriend Lou Manahan.
The series will premiere on USA in October. What do you think? Will The Starter Wife work as a full-fledged series?
The top ten comedy and drama Emmy semifinalists announced
The Emmy Awards voting is different than it used to be (more steps in the voting process and a special panel watches episodes and votes after that), and last year the list of the semifinalists was leaked online before it was officially announced. Well, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences don’t really want that to happen again, so they’ve decided to just announce the finalist list itself.
After the jump, the ten comedies and ten dramas that are semifinalists for the Emmy award this year. The list will be knocked down to five (more if there’s a tie) once another round of voting is done. The nominees will be announced live on July 17, and we’ll have coverage here at TV.
Best Drama Semifinalists
Lost
Mad Men
Grey’s Anatomy
Friday Night Lights
The Wire
Dexter
Damages
Boston Legal
The Tudors
House
Best Comedy Semifinalists
30 Rock
Flight of the Conchords
Entourage
Two and a Half Men
Pushing Daisies
The Office
Weeds
Family Guy
Ugly Betty
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Clooney gets The Fall of Bob on Showtime
To some people, George Clooney’s affable good nature and sincerity comes off as smug over-confidence. I fall into the former rather than the latter category.
I think George is ambitious and grateful to be working in the business. I think he remembers the years of struggling to become a star — those years on The Facts of Life and Riptide and E/R (the Elliott Gould sitcom, not the Emmy award-winning NBC medical drama).
Failures like Leatherheads have to keep him humble. Anyway, his efforts to expand as an actor and director and producer strike me as someone who is wisely not resting on his laurels. That said, today it was reported that Clooney’s production company, Smoke House, is behind a new pilot for Showtime called The Fall of Bob.
The title character of this half-hour comedy, Bob, is all about suicide. Actually, it’s about what’s happening while he’s attempting to commit suicide. Bob jumps off a building and as he’s plummeting to the ground, his life flashes before his eyes. In flashbacks, Bob narrates the stories of those flashback episodes. Presumably, those scenes will give us some idea why Bob has jumped in the first place.
Danny Zuker is the creator of this dark comedy. For obvious reasons, it’ll be shot in a single-comedy format, the current trend in Hollywood. Zuker’s been involved in all kinds of comedy, including Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, Coupling, and most recently, Pamela Anderson’s Fox series, Stacked.