Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actor Barry Watson (7th Heaven) will have a recurring role on Hart of Dixie this coming April, playing Davis Polk, a southern gentleman who is handsome, quick-witted, and a little bit shy. Hart of Dixie will be back on March 21, its new night (Fridays). (Leanne Aguilera at E! Online)

Actress Idina Menzel will perform the single “Let It Go” from the animated film Frozen on the Oscars, which will air on March 2. (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)

Legendary actor Dick Van Dyke will appear in at least two episodes of the new, upcoming Hallmark Channel hour-long series Signed, Sealed, Delivered, playing the supervisor of the team of mail detectives in the Dead Letter Office. This role will be revolving with different actors playing the supervisor. Actress Valerie Harper will appear as the team’s supervisor in the first two episodes of the show’s debut, which is set to air in the Spring. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Annie Wersching (24 and Heroes) will have a recurring role on the upcoming CBS summer series Extant that will star Halle Berry as Molly Watts, an astronaut trying to reconnect with her family after returning from a year in outer space. Her mystifying experiences in space lead to events that will no less than change the course of human history. Wersching will play Femi Dodd, a member of the Yasumoto Corporation board who endeavors to insure that in our race toward a technologically advanced future, we don’t leave our humanity behind. Her position makes her a powerful adversary to Molly’s husband John (Goran Visnjic from ER), a developer of humanoid robot prototypes. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

MTV has given a 10-episode order to a new drama called Eye Candy that will feature Disney star Victoria Justice in the lead role of a beautiful but reclusive hacker whose blog exposes everything from terrorist plots to suspected killers. Convinced by her roommate to begin online dating, Lindy (Justice) is targeted by a dangerous cyberstalker and believes one of her suitors to be the culprit. When things take a deadly turn, she teams up with the city’s cyber-crime unit to catch the killer. MTV has yet to set a premiere date for the series. (AJ Marechal at Variety)

Lifetime has given a 10-episode order to the conspiracy thriller drama The Lottery that is set in a dystopian future where women have stopped having children. The series reveals a world staring down the barrel of impending extinction. Remarkably, 100 embryos are successfully fertilized and a national lottery is held to decide the surrogates. As conflict, control and mystery over this global crisis unfolds, the government’s interests and power begin to dominate, igniting a highly controversial debate over our fundamental and personal freedom to raise a family. The series will star Marley Shelton (Eleventh Hour) as Dr. Alison Lennon, the brilliant fertility specialist whose scientific breakthrough may have life-and-death consequences; Michael Graziadei (American Horror Story) as Kyle, a recovering alcoholic and single father of one of the last children born in the country; David Alpay (The Vampire Diaries) as James, Alison’s colleague and lab assistant; and Martin Donovan (Homeland) as Darius Hayes, a calculating government official willing to use any strategy to achieve what he believes is the greater good. (TV By the Numbers)

Actress JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Once Upon a Time and Privileged) has landed one of the lead roles in the straight-to-series adaptation of the Lily Koppel 2013 best-selling book Astronaut Wives Club that will air on ABC. The series will follow a group of women who support their star-bound husbands during the 1960s space race. Swisher will play Betty, the wife of one of the original astronauts, who has a down-home appeal, which endears her to the public. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Titus Welliver (The Good Wife, White Collar and Lost) will guest star in the upcoming TNT drama The Last Ship, which is based on the William Brinkley novel and executive-produced by Michael Bay. The series will focus on a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. The inhabitants of Navy destroyer U.S.S. Nathan James survive the tragedy, however, leaving its crew and captain to confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors. There are no real details on what role Welliver will play though. The Last Ship will debut on TNT this summer. (Michael Slezak at TV Line)

Actress Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones and Suits) has joined the FOX event series 24: Live Another Day, taking over the role that was to be played by Judy Davis, who had to bow out of the projection due to personal matters. Fairley will play Margot, a British national and the widow of a notorious terrorist. 24: Live Another Day will debut on FOX on May 5 at 9 PM. (Tierney Bricker at E! Online)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

NBC will be offering fans of their dramas Grimm, Chicago Fire and Parenthood original digital series of the four shows that can be streamed on NBC.com, Hulu and YouTube. Chicago Fire will air the 4-part series “I Am A Firefighter” On February 11 that will focus on Dawson (series regular Monica Raymond) while she awaits the next phase of her firefighter training, as seen in recent episodes. Parenthood will air the 4-part series “Friday Night at the Luncheonette” on February 13 that will focus on Amber (series regular Mae Whitman) who is tasked with keeping an eye on her cousin Max (series regular Max Burkholder), while also working after hours at the Luncheonette. Grimm will air the 4-part “Love is in the Air” on February 14, finding Rosalee (series regular Bree Turner) and Juliette (series regular Bitsie Tulloch) gathering their girlfriends for a Valentine’s Day spa party, only to discover a Zieglevolk casting a love spell among the group. (The Futon Critic)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Courtney B. Vance (FlashForward) has joined the cast of the ABC medical drama pilot called Warriors that will center on the doctors and nurses at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who treat returning soldiers. Vance will play Dr. Hennessy Fiske, an orthopedic surgeon with a sub-specialty in neurology who is a genius at designing prosthetics. This project already includes actress Eloise Mumford (The River and Lone Star) as part of the cast. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Tom Cavanagh (Ed) has joined the cast of The CW drama pilot-spin-off The Flash that will be an origin story about Barry Allen, aka The Flash (Grant Gustin from Glee), a Central City assistant police forensics investigator who arrives in Starling to look into a series of unexplained robberies that may have a connection to a tragedy in his past. Cavanagh will play Harrison Wells, a rock star in the world of physics and the mind and money behind Central City’s S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator. He becomes a pariah after the lab’s explosion, but he charts his path to redemption when he discovers that his failed experiment had the unintended consequence of creating the world’s fastest man. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!