Channel Surfing: Freddie Prinze Jr. Dons Cape for "No Heroics," Bloodgood Subs in for Esposito, Sherry Stringfield Gets "Back," "Rome," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Freddie Prinze Jr. (Freddie) has been cast as one of the leads in ABC's US remake of UK comedy series No Heroics. In the ABC Studios-produced pilot, Prinze will play Bradley (a.k.a. Ultimatum), a cocky celebrity superhero with no shortage of women, arrogance, or grade-school quips. He joins the already cast Paul Campbell, Eliza Coupe, and Arielle Kebbel. (Hollywood Reporter)

Just days after announcing that Samantha Who? star Jennifer Esposito had been cast in USA's Burn Notice, the actress has dropped out of the role. No reason was given for Esposito's departure from the series, where she was to have played Miami police detective Michelle Paxon, a new adversary for Jeffrey Donovan's Michael Weston. Stepping in to replace Esposito: Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman), who will assume the role of Michelle. Production on Burn Notice's third season is currently underway. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Sherry Stringfield (ER) has been cast opposite Skeet Ulrich in the CBS drama pilot Back, where she will play Cheryl, the former wife of Ulrich's Richard, a man reported missing after 9/11 who suddenly returns home and has to reconnect with his family. For Cheryl, Richard's homecoming is fraught with complication as she is remarried to Tom, a firefighter. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Rome star Ray Stevenson says that a feature film based on the HBO series is currently being developed and could shoot as early as six months from now, with the script being written by Rome creator Bruno Heller (The Mentalist). "The script is in full development," said Stevenson. As you are probably aware, this is a pretty strange process. We could go into production in a year, or it could be as quick as six months. Who knows? It will happen. At least it is no longer a rumor. From what I have heard, they are nearing the end of script development. We shall see. We shall see." (Movieweb)

In other TV-to-feature film news, Dan Shotz, the co-executive producer of CBS' Jericho says that a feature adaptation of that series is also in development. "It's not just wishful thinking," said Shotz. "We've ... been developing a feature to hopefully make, because we would love to. I mean, ... Jericho is so built in a way, ... especially where we left off season two, to create a feature. So our hope is to launch this comic-book series and then, with the development at the same time of the feature, hopefully get that launched as well." (SCI FI Wire)

CBS has renewed The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men for two and three additional season, respectively. (Televisionary)

Pilot casting alert: Eric McCormack (Trust Me) has been cast in ABC's untitled multi-camera comedy from writer/executive producer Tad Quill. Also cast in the pilot: Reno Wilson (Blind Justice), Jolie Jenkins (Desperate Housewives), and Constance Zimmer (Entourage). McCormack will play Dean, a heart surgeon whose wife (Jenkins) has just had a baby, while Wilson will play Seth, a contractor with an empty nest. Zimmer will play Seth's wife. For McCormack, the pilot is in second position to his TNT drama series Trust Me, which is not expected to return. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere, Lindsay Sloane (Help Me Help You), Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and Charlie Finn (Help Me Help You) have been cast in ABC comedy pilot Pulling, a US remake of the British comedy series, while Holly Robinson Peete (Love Inc.) and Josh Braaten (The Ex List) will star opposite Lauren Graham in ABC comedy pilot The Bridget Show. (Hollywood Reporter)

Heather Locklear has turned down an offer to star in CW's revival of Melrose Place. (Televisionary)

NBC has ordered eight-episodes of reality competition series The Sing Off, in which a cappella groups will face off against one another for a Sony Music recording contract. Series, from Outlaw Prods. and Sony Pictures Television, will be executive produced by Joel Gallen. NBC/Universal Media Studios' Paul Telegdy called The Sing Off "a fantastic feel-good series." No airdate has been announced. (Variety)

One guest star too many? Clay Aiken is slated to appear on the May 14th season finale of NBC's 30 Rock. (TV Week)

SCI FI Wire talks to Caprica star Esai Morales about the Battlestar Galactica prequel series. "I think he's the moral spine [of the story]," said Morales of his character, Joseph Adama. "He's somebody who came from the wrong side of the tracks, ... or the galaxy, or solar system, so to speak. They're from a planet that's more oppressed. He and his brother came from Tauron and establish their roots here, but they're still a minority. There are still ethnic tensions. So I'm a [civil liberties] lawyer who's trying to work on the right side of the tracks, and my brother is a gangster. It's like a Rich Man, Poor Man issue meets The Godfather meets Brave New World." (SCI FI Wire)

"We are all Cylons. And every one of us is a Colonial." Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, The Washington Post has a fantastic story about the series' recent appearance at the UN, where the cast and creators discussed issues like human rights, torture, and security issues. "Suddenly we are presented with this false dichotomy of security versus human rights," said Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of the New York branch of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. "That slippery slope shows up so much in the show, and so much in real life." (Washington Post)

HBO has acquired the rights to eight-episode autobiographical documentary series The Neistat Brothers, which follows filmmaker siblings Casey and Van Neistat. All of the episodes were shot on consumer-grade cameras and edited by the Neistats using Apple's iMovie. HBO has yet to announce an airdate for the project, executive produced by Tom Scott. (Variety)

The New York Times' Brian Stelter takes a look at pay cabler Starz, which is looking to stand out from among the glut of movie channels by broadening its original series offerings, which include Rob Thomas' comedy Party Down, Crash, and Head Cases, as it looks to build a new identity for itself. "We’re the new guys on the block, even though we’re 15 years old," said Bill Myers, president of Starz Entertainment. (New York Times)

Suspense drama series Harper's Island, launching in the US next month on CBS, has been acquired by BBC Three, which plans to air the series later this year. "This is truly exciting event television," said BBC Three's Sue Deeks, Head of Series, BBC Programme Acquisition, "a suspenseful, contemporary take on the classic murder mystery with more than a dash of horror – think Agatha Christie meets Scream and you will get the idea!" (BBC)

VH1 has revived reality staple Behind the Music, ordering ten episodes that will air later this year. So far the network has signed Lil Wayne and Scott Weiland to appear in installments. "It felt like the time is right," said Jeff Olde, EVP of original programming. "There's all sorts of new artists on the scene who have emerged and have these great stories. And there's other artists that we always wanted to do the first time around." (Hollywood Reporter)

USA has promoted Jeff Wachtel to president of original series. As EVP of original programming, Wachtel helped launch such series as The 4400, Monk, and Burn Notice. "As head of original programming, Jeff’s leadership has inspired the team responsible for one of the most successful slates in all of television," said Bonnie Hammer, president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions. "His creative intellect, impeccable taste and production savvy are among the best in the business, and we look forward to having his stamp of originality on all future successes here at USA." (TV Week)

National Geographic has renewed Dog Whisperer for a sixth season, ordering 30 episodes that will air later this year. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

UPDATED: "Jericho" Not Dead, After All

Perhaps fan campaigns to save doomed series do really work after all.

CBS is said to be in talks to resurrect cancelled drama Jericho, which it axed at the end of the post-apocalyptic drama's sole season last month, thanks to the efforts of some devoted viewers.

The Hollywood Reporter indicates that CBS is considering bringing back the slaughtered series for a seven-episode midseason run. One hurdle, however: getting Jericho's cast, including star Skeet Ulrich, to sign up for a second tour of duty.

The network does have all of the actors under option (most nets typically retain options on their series' actors through July), however those deals would have to be changed due to the truncated Season Two structure.

Bottom line: Jericho fans, don't expect all of your favorite characters to return next year, should CBS be able to reach a deal with sister studio CBS Paramount.

UPDATE: CBS has confirmed that they have in fact ordered those seven additional episodes of Jericho for midseason and plan to release the Season One DVD on September 25th; additionally, there may be an online component that may bridge the gap during the wait for the seven-episode Season Two.

Scaling the Walls of "Jericho": An Early Look at the Winter Premiere

One show that I am constantly getting emails about is CBS' post-nuclear drama Jericho, which always prompts the question as to why I don't ever seem to mention the series. (For the record: I did watch the pilot last May and caught the second episode when it premiered last fall, but never fell under its spell.)

So when CBS offered me the opportunity to take a look at Jericho's winter premiere (airing February 21st), I knew just who to turn to: Televisionary reader Brock (an LA insider himself), who has been hounding me via email about how I keep neglecting the show. I invited Brock over to Televisionary HQ to watch the Jericho screener and here's what he had to say. (There are some spoilers lurking in the below, so be forewarned.)

When we last left off, eight weeks have gone by and Jericho is isolated from the rest of the world. Prodigal son Jake (Skeet Ulrich) was about to make a move on his ex-girlfriend Emily (Ashley Scott), when her thought-to-be-dead husband arrives back in town, towing a crew of nuked survivors. As the mysterious FBI Director Hawkins (Lennie James) corresponds on his laptop to an unknown person, he discovers he is being tracked by satellite… But more on that later, as most of its spring premiere takes place during the 36 hours leading up to the attack, covering most of its important characters (though Jake-obsessed school teacher Sprague Grayden seems to have vanished from the cast). The final act of the show is back in the present, mostly concerning Emily’s husband and his whereabouts over the last eight weeks.

The most interesting parts of the spring premiere concern the most intriguing characters: Jake and Hawkins. Unfortunately, the episode seems to devote a lot of wasted effort to the mundane storylines of Jericho residents, most of which just provide additional back-story to information we already know. April gets divorce papers from her lawyer, while her husband Eric (Jake’s brother) continues his affair with barmaid Mary Bailey. Stan flirts with a rude woman at Mary’s bar, only to find out later that she has flown in from DC to audit his farm (and we all know that the flirtation has built to a real romance after the bombs). Jake’s father, Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRainey), decides to retire and go to Paris with his wife, and hopes that Eric will take his place in his reelection campaign.

Meanwhile, Gail is worried about Johnston’s health, which obviously foreshadows his near-death-bed experience during the middle of the fall season. Emily and her husband argue about his job interview in Chicago; Emily wants to stay in Jericho and raise her family there, giving him an ultimatum. He takes off and heads to Chicago, but by the episode’s end, we listen to his voicemail to Emily where he has turned the job down and is on his ill-fated plane trip back to Jericho. This information spoils nothing and barely even fills in the blanks. It’s just filler and minor character development, meant as pacing between the scenes of Jake and Hawkins. Too bad.

We finally learn on where Jake had been for the last five years (though we still don’t know where he learned how to do a tracheotomy with a juice box straw); Jake spent fourteen months in Iraq and six months in Afghanistan working as an independent contractor, often running cargo to and from some scary, dangerous places. 36 hours before the bombs went off, Jake was broke, trying to get a job piloting charter jets for executives and celebrities. Apparently he was a better pilot than driver. (Hmmm, I can foresee a crop duster action sequence coming up). Apparently he was flagged by the Justice Department as a “person of interest” (which we learned from Hawkins’ computer search of Justice Department files a few episodes back). But though Hawkins believes it could be related to the terrorist attacks, Jake claims his government status stems from an incident that happened when he and a buddy were driving trucks through enemy lines and some innocent people were killed. These incidents seem to follow Jake around…

Of course, the most interesting story concerns Hawkins, who is at the center of the terrorist attacks. All we knew about Hawkins so far was that he was the FBI Director, had gone undercover and discovered the terrorist plans, and brought his estranged family with him to Jericho to escape the attacks. Hawkins has been in communication with some mysterious people... perhaps some of his allies, or perhaps the enemy he had infiltrated.

At the end of the fall finale, Hawkins was being tracked by the enemy, all the way back to Jericho. But in the spring premiere, we learn more about Hawkins and his intentions. We learn how deep Hawkins was undercover in the conspiracy and possibly that he possesses something far more dangerous than his special electromagnetic pulse bomb resistant laptop (no, it’s not an Apple, but Jack Bauer would be jealous), something the enemy may want back at all costs. We also learn that just like his ex-wife, Hawkins had someone special in his life too, and a whopper of an ending may yet disturb the sleepy suburban dress-up game he’s been playing with his family over the last eight weeks. The lengths Hawkins took to get his family to Jericho may also surprise audiences as well.

The violent-paramilitary group Ravenwood (who battled Jake and Eric several episodes ago, as well as half of the Jericho townspeople) pops back up again in Jake’s pre-bomb life, and is a major catalyst of why he returned to Jericho. Something tells me that their involvement in the terrorist attack is more than just securing America in place of the National Guard. There is also a startling revelation about the leaders of the attack, how widespread their group is, and a glimpse of their target list. Did the Chinese orchestrate the attack or is it another sinister force? My bet is on Ravenwood, attempting to take control of the government, and a way for Jake and Hawkins’ story to converge.

It’s a fun, surprising, and revelatory episode, answering just enough questions. I would rather the show focus on the conspiracy rather than the Eric/Mary/April love triangle, or at the very least, more of how the town as a whole will cope with the dangerous new world its characters are living in. Still, it’s full of action to rival FOX’s Monday lineup, soap twists and relationship turns to match ABC’s serialized fare, and enough answers to old questions and new questions to move the plot along. Jericho can take the crown of one of the most under-rated shows of the current season.

So there you have it, Jericho fans. The winter premiere of Jericho, reviewed by an avid watcher of Jericho. Ah, what a warm and fuzzy feeling I have now. Sometimes it feels good to make some TV-related magic happen.

"Jericho" returns to CBS on February 21st at 8 pm ET/PT.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); American Idol (FOX); Wicked Wicked Games (MyNet)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Veronica Mars (CW); Primetime (ABC); House (FOX); Watch Over Me (MyNet)

10 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: American Idol.

Simon, Randy, and Crazy--I mean, Paula Abdul--continue their search for the next great American Idol, but first the show's producers want them to sit through some truly ear-splinteringly bad auditions. Tonight, they're in San Antonio. Tune in for the music, stay for the humiliation.

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

Le sigh. I'm not sure why I am still watching this, as it's just so damn depressing to watch this once-great series continue to fall off the tracks. On tonight's episode ("I'd Rather Be in Philadephia"), Lorelai, Rory, and Emily wait for word on the stricken Richard's condition. But while Logan, the best BF, like ever, borrows a helicopter to get to Rory, Christopher is nowhere to be found. All in favor of ending this once great show, say aye.

9 pm: Veronica Mars.

YAY! Veronica *finally* returns (at least for a few weeks, before the dreaded Pussycat Dolls reality show knocks it off the schedule again) with new episodes. On tonight's installment ("There's Got to Be a Morning After Pill"), Veronica confronts Logan about his tryst with Madison during their break-up and investigates the curious case of a promiscuous classmate who claims she was slipped a morning-after pill and miscarried. Plus, could Veronica be pregnant? (Doubtful, that, but it does make for good promo material.)