Gary Cole cast in ABC’s Good Behavior
Have you noticed that there are some actors who just work constantly? They go from TV show to TV show, take a film role, do some voice over work, pop up here and there and never struggle to get a gig. (Maybe this should be a new TV award category — The Don’t Worry About His Next Paycheck Award?)
Anyway, you can put Gary Cole in that category. After playing the lethal Wayne Davis, Dana Delaney’s ex, on Desperate Housewives last season, Gary Cole has signed to play the father in Good Behavior, an ABC pilot starring Catherine O’Hara. Rob Thomas is creating Good Behavior, which is based on a New Zealand TV show called Outrageous Fortune, about a family of criminals who decide to go straight when the patriarch, that would be Gary, is busted and sent to jail for five years.
It’s also been revealed that Jeffrey Tambor will star in the pilot, playing Hy, Jackie West’s partner in a down and out pawn shop. Hopefully, this will morph into a long term, recurring role, something good so Tambor can make fans forget Welcome the The Captain and evoke memories of Arrested Development.
Back to Gary, he’s got a feature coming up this summer, Pineapple Express with Seth Rogan and James Franco. But on TV, he was also in 12 Miles of Bad Road, that Lily Tomlin hour comedy by Linda Bloodworth Thomason that HBO dropped recently. It’s being shopped around now and will emerge somewhere on the dial — there’s just too many talented people involved for it to remain unbroadcast. Who are the talent? Tomlin and Cole, are two. Then there’s Mary Kay Place (Mary Hartman, Mart Hartman), Leslie Jordan (Will and Grace), Kim Dickens (Lost), David Andrews (JAG), among others.
HBO bails on Lily Tomlin comedy
HBO has decided not to air a new Lily Tomlin comedy series, even though six episodes are in the can. 12 Miles of Bad Road, created by Designing Women writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, is a one-hour comedy about the Shakespeare family, a millionaire Texas clan whose real estate fortune is mixed up with their eccentric antics. Sounds vaguely like Dallas meets Arrested Development, but whatever the recipe, HBO has given it the thumbs down.
This is highly unusual, considering the high profile of the production. In January 2007, HBO ordered the series. Then in April, they showed a preview of 12 Miles after The Sopranos, presumably because they had faith in the show. Something’s changed, though, because now HBO is giving it up. Perhaps the exit of Carolyn Strauss as HBO president spelled the end of 12 Miles?
Whatever, it’s a blow for Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who hasn’t had a certifiable hit since the glory days of Designing Women, Hearts Afire and Evening Shade all for CBS. She stumbled with the Designing Women spin-off, Women of the House, and the lame NBC sitcom for Emeril Lagasse, Emeril (2001).
And it’s a disappointment for an award-winning star like Lily, who’s conquered TV, theater and film. In 12 Miles, she plays the head of the family, the Miss Ellie if you will, and second in the cast is another superb comic actress, Mary Kay Place of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman fame. Other notables in the cast include Gary Cole (Harvey Birdman), Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace), Katherine LaNasa (Boston Legal; she’s also French Stewart’s wife), David Andrews (JAG), among many others. This was not a shoestring production.
Executive producer Harry Thomason and his wife, Linda, are looking for another network to take on the series, including Lifetime.