The fall television season is in full swing and we have lots of casting news and the axe has fallen on the first new shows of the season. Read on…
Lets start with the breakout hit of the season, the Zooey Deschanel sitcom New Girl, after an awkward actor swap between the pilot and second episode — Lamorne Morris took over for Damon Wayans Jr who appeared in the pilot, but then his low rated series Happy Endings was surprisingly renewed which didn’t let him continue with New Girl. Not only has the series been picked up for a full season, but they just scored an awesome guest star, Zooey look-a-like Lizzy Caplan, who will be a love interest for Nick (Jake Johnson). She’ll be around for multiple episodes.
When 30 Rock returns (at some point midseason?) look for X-Men‘s Cyclops James Marsden to be appearing in at least one episode if not more. This might be the last season of the NBC comedy, with Alec Baldwin thinking about bowing out after the new season. Other announced guests for the new season include Denise Richards and Will Arnett (who might be pulling triple duty between this, his new series Up All Night, and the rumored return of Arrested Development in mini-series format).
NBC, who canceled the Playboy Club earlier, has now pulled the plug on their new comedy Free Agents, which starred Hank Azaria, Kathryn Hanh, and featured Buffy alum Anthony Head. Surprisingly the network ordered a full season for their struggling new comedy Whitney. With things not looking that promising with their new crop of shows, maybe NBC will go back on calling this season of Chuck its last? Maybe they will throw us fans a bone with a full season order (instead of just 13 episodes)? We can hope, can’t we?
Speaking about Chuck, if the casting of Mark Hamill and Carrie Anne-Moss in guest spots wasn’t cool enough, lets add comic book legend Stan Lee to the mix along with Community funny man Danny Pudi and White Collar‘s Tim DeKay. The new season begins in three weeks with a Halloween-themed episode.
