When I randomly ran into recent Super Bowl champion Michael Strahan last Monday, I wish I had known he had recently filmed a cameo on one of my favorite TV shows, “Chuck.”

I might have been able to get a scoop about acting from the Giants’ recently retired defensive end, whom I spotted wrapping up a conversation with someone else outside a Midtown restaurant at about 10 p.m. June 23.

I love my Giants, big-time. (18-1, baby!) So when Strahan flashed what might be the third-most famous gap-toothed smile in sports and entertainment (behind David Letterman and Madonna), I wanted to keep things cordial and brief. I approached, shook his hand and congratulated him on his retirement and outstanding Giants career. He was gracious, as I’m told he often is with fans.

But an item that appeared the next morning in The Star-Ledger indicates he was also a laugh and a half on the “Chuck” set, according to Josh Schwartz, the show’s creator and exec producer:

When the cameras rolled, Michael was really, really funny. Everyone on the set was completely blown away. Broadcasting or acting, he’s got a future.

On “Chuck,” Strahan plays Mitt, a nearby sporting goods store’s menacing manager who commandeers the Buy More lounge to play video games. According to The Star-Ledger, Morgan confronts Mitt and a comical showdown ensues. Rock!

Strahan—whose off-field TV appearances are about to be far more frequent as an analyst for Fox’s NFL pregame broadcast team—was so good on “Chuck,” Schwartz did not rule out the possibility of Mitt’s return:

After everyone saw him, they were like, ‘Well, maybe we should get Mitt back here.’

Add Strahan to the list of fun and eclectic guest-stars to appear on “Chuck” Season 2.0. “Arrested Development” alum Tony Hale’s landed a recurring role and John Larroquette (”Night Court”) and Michael Clarke Duncan (”The Green Mile”) have cameos.

Oh, and I guess Nicole Richie’s going to be on, too. Hey, look over there, is The Fonz trying to jump a great white? Entertainment Weekly has other, and equally valid, concerns.

Thanks to fellow Accessories, Brian Howard and Amy Vernon, for the heads-up on the “Chuck” fronts.

(Photo of Strahan by Mike Derer/AP; photo of Richie by Diane Bondareff/AP)

I first posted news in February that an Arrested Development movie was in the offing. (Yikes, I’m giddy just typing those words.)

Well, a few months later the idea is taking shape. The Times confirmed the news once again last week in a profile interview with Jason Bateman.

A big-screen version of Arrested Development is planned for next year. “When it was on TV, if you missed one word the whole third act could be blown for you. And TV is a different experience. You come home and you’ve got to finish a call so you miss the first ten minutes or you get snacky and you go to the fridge and you miss another two minutes, so it’s a different experience to film.”

Read more of this entry »

What do Michael Clarke Duncan (left) and John Larroquette (right) have in common besides random cameos in movies fronted by stars of “Saturday Night Live”?

Well, as you probably already know by now from reading the title of this post, the two will be making appearances on “Chuck” this fall.

As a fan of “30 Rock,” I’ll be the first person to say that stunt-casting rules when it comes to well-written shows, especially comedies.

TV Guide quotes Chuck himself, Zachary Levi, who says Duncan “plays a great bad guy” and Larroquette portrays “a spy debonair who teaches me how to seduce women.” Although Duncan, who earned an Oscar nod for his performance in “The Green Mile,” can be engaging, the prospect of Larroquette’s role sounds particularly funny—right in line with his Emmy-winning performances as the lecherous Dan Fielding on “Night Court.”

As for “Chuck” Season 2.0, Levi tells TV Guide this intriguing bit:

It’s twice the action, twice the drama and twice the romance. It’s Chuck squared. … Chuck dies, twice. It’s crazy.

Whoa! Whatever that last part means! Could Chuck, too, be getting the Bryce Larkin treatment?

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the “SNL” movie cameos, Duncan was in Will Ferrell’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and Larroquette was in Bill Murray’s “Stripes.”

(Duncan: AP Photo/Stephen Chernin; Larroquette: AP Photo/Mobile Register, Mike Kittrell)

As a worshipper of quality comedies like “30 Rock” and “The Office,” I am blasphemous for never having seen a full episode of “Arrested Development.” So although it’s high on my NetFlix queue and could be viewed even sooner via Hulu, feel free to blame me for its premature demise after you’re done critiquing Fox for canceling it.

When I informed Brian Howard—my Remote Access video podcast partner and an ardent “AD” supporter—about The Hollywood Reporter’s scoop that Tony Hale joined the cast of “Chuck,” he said Hale might just have become the funniest person on an NBC sitcom he already likes.

“I think it’s amazing that that guy’s not working all the time,” Brian told me moments ago.

On “Arrested Development,” Hale played Byron “Buster” Bluth, the neurotic brother with mommy issues. If his “Chuck” character is anything like that, that kind of comedy should complement the gut-busting deadpan style of Adam Baldwin’s John Casey.

Here’s the dish on Hale’s role, according the Reporter:

Hale will play Emmett, the new assistant manager of the Buy More store where Chuck (Zachary Levi) works. An efficiency expert, he is sent in by Buy More corporate and decides to stay on when he realizes how poorly run the store is.

Hale also was in the Andy Richter vehicle “Andy Barker, P.I.,” another short-lived comedy hailed by Mr. Howard.

Hale fans will have busy Monday nights, thanks to another gig the actor just landed. He’s playing the new doctor of Christina Applegate’s character on “Samantha Who?” So after “Chuck” ends at 9 p.m. EST on NBC, viewers might just have to wait a half-hour to see Hale again on ABC.

Thanks to another fellow Accessory, Amy Vernon, for the news tip.

(AP Photo/Alex Berliner)

NBC’s fall slate is out, confirming among other things that The Office returns Sept. 25.

30 Rock doesn’t return until Oct. 30, more than a month later, to make room for prime-time, election-editions of Saturday Night Live on Oct. 9, 16 and 23.

Other highlights include Heroes’s three-hour premiere (which includes an hour-long compilation show) Sept. 22, the Oct. 9 debut of Kath & Kim (9:30 p.m. ET) and the relaunch of Knight Rider Sept. 24 (8 p.m. ET). Entertainment chief Ben Silverman unveiled the lineup today.

Chuck returns (Thankfully!) Sept. 29 (8 p.m. ET) and leads into Christian Slater’s new show, My Own Worst Enemy 10 p.m. ET).

Kath & Kim,” starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, replaces Scrubs —which jumped to ABC—on Thursdays. Reality hit The Biggest Loser launches with a two-hour Families edition, filling the America’s Got Talent slot on Tuesdays.

America’s Toughest Jobs jumps its Summer 2009 scheduled debut with a two-hour episode on Sept. 12 (8 p.m. ET). Check local listings. Its schedule is zany. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (10 p.m. ET) starts its 10th season Sept. 23. Read more of this entry »

Three more cast members have been selected for the 24 telemovie Season 7 prequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

Showtime’s Premiere of "The L-Word" Arrivals served by picapp.com • Eric Lively, late of Showtime’s L Word (and brother to Gossip Girl queen B Blake Lively) will play the president’s son. Not clear if this means the current president’s son, or son of the incoming president, played by Cherry Jones.

"The Cherry Orchard" Opening Arrivals served by picapp.com • Gil Bellows, perhaps best known for his role as Ally McBeal’s former boyfriend, “will play a State Department officer ordered to serve Bauer with a subpoena to appear before the Senate.”

AFI FEST 2007 Presented By Audi: World Premiere Of "Public Enemy" Arrivals served by picapp.com • Tony Todd, who’s familiar to Chuck fans as CIA Director Graham, “will play cruel African dictator Gen. Juma.” He’ll also appear in Season 7.

They join previously cast Robert Carlyle (who plays Jack’s mentor).

Uh oh.

TV’s new No. 1 network (sorry, CBS) announced its new lineup at yesterday’s upfronts and it’s pitting “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” against NBC’s “Chuck.”

That’s bad news for sci-fi/action fans who like both shows and good news for ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars,” which crushes almost everything in its path, and CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother,” which often scores higher ratings than “Terminator” or “Chuck’s” 8 million some-odd viewers. Without a shift in time slot and because the fall run of “Chuck” rarely if ever conflicted with the spring run of “Terminator,” I’m guessing one of those action shows will be canceled by season’s end.

There’s interesting news for “Idol” fans, who have been abandoning the No. 1 show in droves lately. The Wednesday night results show has mercifully been reduced to a half-hour. It’s one thing to keep an audience wondering; it’s another to bore them to tears. Long overdue move there.

As for new fall shows, the network is debuting only two. “Fringe” (pictured right) is a one-hour sci-fi drama by an up-and-comer by the name of J.J. Abrams. Slated to air Tuesdays this fall before “House,” “Fringe” stars former “Mighty Ducks” trilogy/”Dawson’s Creek” star Joshua Jackson as a scientist who investigates paranormal activity with a female FBI agent.

The other fall debut is “Do Not Disturb” (formerly called “The Inn”), a half-hour Wednesday comedy starring recent “Carpoolers” star Jerry O’Connell as the general manager of a hotel and “Reno: 911’s” hilarious Niecy Nash.

Like any J.J. Abrams project (see: “Lost” and “Cloverfield”), “Fringe” has a lot of buzz. And it’s hard to frown upon anything affiliated with an “Arrested Development” alum, who in this case is Jason Bateman; he directed the “Do Not Disturb” pilot.

In the spring, expect more debuts: The Joss Whedon project “Dollhouse,” starring Eliza Dushku, whom I’m convinced is most famous for being hot; the animated “The Cleveland Show,” a “Family Guy” spinoff; and another animated series, “Class Dismissed” (or “Sit Down, Shut Up,” depending on the source) featuring voice-overs by “Arrested Development” stars Bateman and “30 Rock” regular Will Arnett. Also in the mix is “Secret Millionaire,” a reality show version of “The Prince and the Pauper.”

Beyond that, expect a lot of familiar fare (”Idol,” “House” and the 20th[!] season of “The Simpsons”), including a ton of reality programming ranging from the inane (”Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”) to the insane (”The Moment of Truth”). And if someone wants to tell me why “Prison Break” is still on the air, I’d be willing to listen.

Among the shows not to return this fall are two sitcoms with great stars but poor execution: the Parker Posey-Lauren Ambrose vehicle “The Return of Jezebel James” and the Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton-led “Back to You.” Fans of “The Office” might be disappointed AND relieved that the talented Rashida Jones’ awful sitcom, “Unhitched,” was axed.

Also gone, according to the (New York) Daily News: “Anchorwoman,” “Canterbury’s Law,” “K-Ville,” “Nashville,” “New Amsterdam” and “The Next Great American Band.” (The lesson on that last one: There’s only one “American Idol.” You’d think they would have learned that lesson after the frightfest that was “American Juniors.”)

After the break, check out the full Fox fall schedule for 2008. (Thanks to BuddyTV and E! for making this easy for me.) Read more of this entry »

As much as I love covering “Top Chef,” which is just past its seasonal halfway point, and “American Idol,” which is coming down the home stretch, I’m looking forward to blogging more regularly about some scripted TV, specifically “Chuck,” which returns this fall.

Filming for the fall begins next Friday and, to TV Guide, the Intersect and his buddies will return to TV for 13 consecutive new episodes this fall. Nice.

Zachary Levi revealed the date to resume filming to TV Guide, but not much else about Season 2. “I have a huge mouth, so if they tell me anything, we’re screwed,” he told a TV guide reporter.

“Heroes” is expected to receive the same treatment of 13 straight new eps this fall, according to the mag.

Now, I know I’ve been critical of NBC for deciding to wait until the fall to bring the show back while allowing more established comedies (”The Office” and “30 Rock,” for example) to return for a mini-season shortly after the conclusion of the writers’ strike. But while “The Office” and “30 Rock” are critical darlings that have devout, passionate and may I say extremely intelligent fans, post-strike ratings for those shows went from strong to wrong once “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI” returned with new episodes. “The Office” dropped 21 percent from its season high (earned May 1) while “30 Rock” posted its “lowest-rated episode this season,” according to Entertainment Weekly. Blerg.

Perhaps the NBC execs had a point when they decided to wait a bit; “Chuck’s” ratings were slowly building an audience and collected some momentum in the fall. Bringing it back too soon only to cut it short again for summer break might have crippled any chance for the show to build or even retain its humble ratings, meaning all but certain cancelation.

What should we expect for Chuck version season 2.0? And will “Chuck” fans ever see an appearance by Natalie Martinez, who may or may not have been tabbed to play Chuck’s steady girlfriend, thus completing a love triangle with him and Sarah? Plus more teasers, minor spoilers and photos await for “Chuck” fanatics after the break. Read more of this entry »

I miss NBC’s “Chuck.” Remember that fine show? Normal guy with government secrets embedded in his noggin, routinely saves the day with many a larf, but still can’t land his girl?

Memory still a little fuzzy? That’s why I’m worried.

By the time the dramedy returns to NBC this fall, I fear not enough people will miss it or, worse, even remember it. With other shows returning to the lineup in recent weeks, I fear it was a bad move to wait until the fall to bring back a show that was just barely finding its audience when the writers’ strike hit.

Future Best Supporing Actor nominee Adam Baldwin (pictured) deserves better. Because he’s so frickin’ awesome.

Need a quick “Chuck” fix? Watch Zachary Levi as Chuck and Joshua Gomez as Morgan—really just playing themselves—as they recap movie classics so you don’t actually have to watch fine cinema. Here’s part one and here’s part two. I’d embed the clips but Hulu, which often grants permission to do so, won’t let me.

Oh, and after the break are a couple of random photos of the lovely and talented Yvonne Strahovski with my own captions that may or may not accurately depict the scene. Because it’s been a while since she’s gotten some Remote Access play and, well, she’s hot. Read more of this entry »

More than a month ago, Rickey over at Riding With Rickey tagged yours truly with a meme. Revenge for a meme I’d tagged him with, I suppose.

Anywho, I kept meaning to hold up my end of the bargain, and I finally have. It’s the movie meme, and the idea is that I’m supposed to look up my 15 favorite movies on IMDB, choose quotes from them, list them here and make you figure out what movies they are.

Aha, but this is a TV blog, I hear you thinking! Never fear, I’ve got that all figured out. No worries, I didn’t choose a bunch of Lifetime women-as-victim movies. Rather, I started with actors from our favorite TV shows. Then, I found relatively well-known characters they played in movies, found quotes from them and posted them here.

So not only do you have to figure out what movie the line is from, but you also have to figure out which actor uttered it. To make things a weeeeeee bit easier, I’ll tell you the actors I selected, but they’re not in the same order as the quotes. I’ve alphabetized the actors, by last name:

Adam Baldwin (Chuck)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy)
Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Jim Krasinski (The Office)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies)
Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)
Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money)
Kiefer Sutherland (24)
Skeet Ulrich (Jericho)
Ray Wise (Reaper)

NO CHEATING. You may not look the quotes up on IMDB and then get all the answers correct. You must use your brain; you know, the part of your brain that stores all that useless movie trivia. You all have it; if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading a television blog now, would you?

After the break, the quote list:

Read more of this entry »

Your response has been outstanding so far for our Remote Access poll, which asks you to pick (or submit) your choice for the most crucial supporting actor to his/her show.

We had dozens of initial options at the start—I offered at least one actor for every scripted show we at Remote Access cover on a regular basis—but after 630 votes, it seems to have built itself up into a two-way throwdown between Jenna Fischer (Pam on “The Office”) and Brad Beyer (Stanley on “Jericho”).

Each had 171 votes—27 percent of the total vote apiece—as of this post’s publication.

Interestingly, actors from those shows also fill the poll’s next two slots: Rainn Wilson, Dwight on “The Office,” and reader-submitted Skeet Ulrich, Jake on “Jericho.” (I’d argue that Ulrich is a lead actor, but it’s an interesting poll trend regardless.)

We’re going to keep this hotly contested poll open until Monday, April 14, so you’ve got a little more than a week to launch your last-ditch campaigns for your favorite supporting actors in the poll, which appears in the right column of this blog. Mail all your Northern Attack and Office Tally friends using “limitless paper in a paperless world”! Give your “Jericho” friends on Jeritopia or JerichoNet2 more incentive by shipping them a few packages of nuts! Or throw everyone a curveball and convince “Chuck’s” Adam Baldwin to record a YouTube video requesting your vote for this very poll. (How cool would that be?)

And remember, it doesn’t have to be Fischer or Beyer. As long as it’s a supporting actor, you can pick another name on the list or submit your own.

(Photos of Fischer and Beyer courtesy of NBC and CBS, respectively.)

This unrelated photo of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), courtesy NBC Universal, is from the April 24 episode “Night Out”. It’s my blog and I felt like including it. So there.

I mentioned a few days ago that Office Webisodes would be streaming again this summer, but it looks like Dunder Mifflin is far from NBC’s only online effort

Well now NBC is announcing that Heroes and Chuck are slated for their own series of online shorts come July. Additional chapters of Webisodes for each show will roll out throughout the season, the network says. The Office Webisodes, dubbed “The Accountants” won an onlin Emmy for the 10-installment saga of a missing $3,000.
In less exciting news, 30 Rock 360 will launch, bringing the same kind of zany fun (i.e. excruciatingly un-fun) that we’ve already seen for The Office and Heroes.

I was skeptical of The Office 360 when I first heard about it a year ago, and Dunder Mifflin Infinity, as it became to be known, fell short of even my lowest expectations. In this case you might be thinking, “It’s 30 Rock-related. How could it not be fun?” I thought the same thing about The Office and was painfully wrong.

Read more of this entry »

One thing’s for sure. Remote Access readers don’t mince words.

Almost two months ago, we asked our blog readers to weigh in on the “most heinous, classless (and/or) horrifying reality show ever.” The options presented to them included “Temptation Island,” “Joe Millionaire” and “Paradise Hotel.”

Although those three would be the shows on the original poll to top the list, readers threw even more support for a suggestion made by one of their own: “It’s a tie. All of them.”

That wound up “winning” the poll, with more than 1 in 4 voters — 101 voters total — declaring their hatred for these, and possibly all, reality TV shows. Another reader-suggested poll nomination, Fox’s “Moment of Truth,” finished close behind in second with 95 votes. “Temptation Island” finished third with 67 votes.

Other reader-nominated shows were “Kid Nation” (fourth), “Flavor of Love” (fifth), “Rock of Love” (eighth) and “The Real Housewives of Orange County” (tenth). Check out the complete poll above.

So, now we’ve got a new poll, one that might be more fun for fans of scripted television. We’re asking you to determine the SUPPORTING actor most crucial to his/her show.

Think “The Office” is nothing without Pam? Vote for Jenna Fischer. Would “Lost” be just that without Michael Emerson? Make your voice heard. Should “Chuck” be chucked without Adam Baldwin’s John Casey? Vote for him or fear for your Monte Carlo’s well-being. If you don’t see a supporting actor on the list, just click “Add an answer” and you’re good to go.

Remember, we’re looking for supporting actors here. No Tina Fey or Steve Carell nominations, please. They deserve many awards, but they don’t qualify for this poll.

Well, yeah! Sort of.

Adam Baldwin, who plays my favorite character in FBI agent John Casey on “Chuck,” voices the lead role for 2007’s animated “Superman: Doomsday,” a loose interpretation of the Death of Superman trilogy.

Although I’ve always been partial to Marvel Comics, it’s almost impossible to dismiss DC Comics’ Superman and Batman. And while many correctly argue that Batman’s a more intriguing superhero because he has no superpowers and that “Batman Begins” was better than “Superman Returns,” I’ve of late preferred the Man of Steel. I think that decision was solidified when I became a newspaper reporter (Clark Kent, after all, is a scribe for the Daily Planet) and started watching “Smallville” on DVD a couple of years ago.

As a “Chuck” fan, I was curious when I saw Baldwin’s name in the Netflix synopsis for the direct-to-video “Doomsday”:

To defend Earth, Superman (voiced by Adam Baldwin) battles an evil entity known as Doomsday. But the powerful being, created by Lex Luthor (James Marsters), proves too strong for the Man of Steel. Lois Lane (Anne Heche) joins the world in mourning the fallen superhero, but Luthor’s joy in his enemy’s demise is short-lived: Even death can’t stop Superman. This animated epic is based on DC Comics’ 1993 “The Death and Return of Superman” story arc.

I figured I’d stream just a couple of minutes of it on my computer—yes, Netflix allows you to do that with selected content legally—to hear him give a voice to Kal-El. Some 75 minutes later I had completed an above-average animated adventure. Read more of this entry »

If the writers’ strike hadn’t happened, would “Pushing Daisies” have been cancelled?

Who knows, but when a new show is over budget, behind schedule and has okay ratings, that’s never a good thing.

So when ABC made a post-strike announcement to bring back “Daisies” in the fall—instead of for a handful of new episodes this spring, like established series “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty” —creator Bryan Fuller saw it as sort of a blessing.

Fuller tells Variety that the extra time gave him a chance to completely rethink the direction of the show, which was in danger of careening off course, and plan the production more carefully.

Read more of this entry »

NBC announced three series pickups for the fall: Chuck, Life and Heroes. That last one was not a shock to anyone, to be sure, but it’s definitely nice to see the news about Chuck. I haven’t watched Life, but it sure gets good play… It’s not clear if any more episodes of Chuck or Life will be filmed for the rest of this season, but Heroes definitely won’t be back until fall.

NBC also recently announced it had picked up the American series adaptation of the popular Australian comedy, Kath & Kim. The American version would star Molly Shannon as Kath, “a cheerful, forty-something divorcee,” and Selma Blair as Kim, “her self-absorbed daughter.”

Speaking of, NBC and CBS also announced when several other shows would come back.

Read more of this entry »

With the writers’ strike nearing an end—YAhoo!—it looks like many of our favorite shows will be back on the air by spring.

“The Office,” “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives” and more will likely be able to churn out a handful of new episodes by April.

But others—mostly newbies like “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Chuck”—  probably won’t be back until the fall.

Then there’s “24,” which won’t return until January 2009, returning to the show’s standard winter premiere strategy—but leaving fans without their Jack Bauer fix for nearly TWO years.

As for serialized dramas like “Heroes” and “Lost,” the decision is a bit more difficult.

Networks and producers are trying to figure out if it’s worth the trouble to produce just a few episodes for the rest of this season, leaving viewers hanging in the middle of convoluted storylines until September.

“Lost” exec producer Damon Lindelof seems to think the island drama can crank out more than the 8 episodes we’ve been promised this season—but then again, it’s all up to ABC as to when they’d air.

E!’s Kristin Dos Santos got the scoop from show runners for some of Remote Access’ faves, including all of the above mentioned shows.  Check it out here!

(Photos courtesy of ABC, FOX and NBC)