Here are the news items for today, few though they may be:
TELEVISION
Actress Melinda Clarke (Nikita) will guest star on the TNT remake series Dallas, appearing as Tracey McKay, one of Bobby Ewing’s girlfriends from the original series (who was played by Beth Toussaint back in the day). Dallas returns to TNT on August 18. (Vlada Gelman at TV Line)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
Lifetime is adapting the Stephen King novella ‘Big Driver” into a made-for-TV movie that will star actress Maria Bell (Touch and A History of Violence). The story revolves around a successful mystery novelist (Bello), who is devastated after a brutal attack and bent on revenge. Olympia Dukakis and Joan Jett will co-star. (Nikara Johns at Variety)
The new UP Channel movie My Dad’s a Soccer Mom will debut at 6 PM on June 28.
Marion “Mad Dog” Casey (Lester Speight from My Wife and Kids) is one of the biggest, baddest and most outrageous names in professional football, but lately his mouth has been outpacing his performance on the field. When Marion’s contract isn’t renewed and no one else rushes to sign him, he’s not happy. Meanwhile, his wife Holly (Wendy Raquel Robinson from The Game), who has spent many years being a stay-at-home mom for their 10-year-old daughter Lacy (Skai Jackson from Jessie), sees this as an opportunity for her to pursue her career ambitions in interior design. After chauffeuring Lacy to ballet and theatre class – activities she really doesn’t like, Marion discovers that she has a knack for soccer. He signs her up and begins his new life as a Soccer Dad – the only 300-pound, overbearing, ex-football player in the group. As he navigates the trickiness of being a hands on parent with soccer mom Lori (Tracey Gold of Growing Pains fame) and the other moms, Marion discovers the joy of his new relationship with his daughter.
The Lifetime movie Outlaw Prophet: Warren Jeffs will debut on June 28 at 8 PM.
Tthe movie chronicles Jeffs’ (Tony Goldwyn from Scandal) rise to power after the death of his father, Rulon Jeffs (Martin Landau). Within days of his father’s passing, Warren married all of his father’s wives and dictatorial control over his polygamist followers ensued. He demanded women in the sect be completely subservient to men, banned laughing, and “reassigned” wives to other men at whim. Jeffs was eventually charged as an accomplice to rape for arranging underage marriages but fled prosecution.
After a year-long manhunt, he was finally apprehended in Texas and brought back to trial. The courtroom testimony of two brave young women who escaped his reign of terror ensured he would finally be convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
The film also stars Molly Parker (Deadwood) and Joey King (Crazy Stupid Love).
While there were plenty of repeats and reality on the major networks last night, but still a few dramas aired new episodes and CBS aired a recap special for their summer hit series.
Here is how those Monday dramas and special fared in the overall ratings last night:
9 PM Shows: 24: Live Another Day (FOX) [NEW] – 5.7 million Beauty And the Beast (The CW) [NEW] – 794,000 viewers
10 PM Shows: Under the Dome: Inside Chester’s Mill (CBS) [Recap Special] – 4.3 million Mistresses (ABC) [NEW] – 3.7 million
Saturday night programming on the major networks is usually repeats and such, but this past Saturday saw the two-hour ender of an NBC drama and the start of burn-off episodes of a failed ABC series.
Here is how those two dramas fared in the overall ratings last night:
9 PM Shows: Crisis (NBC) [Two-Hour Finale] – 2.9 million The Assets (ABC) [Burn-Off Episode] – 1.2 million
The Hallmark Channel movie When Sparks Fly will debut on June 28 at 9 PM.
Young journalist Amy Peterson (Meghan Markle from Suits ) is not as happy with her big city life as she’d hoped and it’s starting to show in her work. She’s also not thrilled with her current boyfriend, Phil (Lochlyn Munro), a GQ-handsome businessman who doesn’t quite click with her. When circulation at the “Chicago Post” starts to wane, Amy’s editor sends her back to her hometown to write an article about growing up in her parents’ fireworks business. With the Fourth of July at hand, this human-interest story will be just what the “Chicago Post” needs.
Amy arrives home to write her article, but is quickly derailed by her best friend, Sammie (Kristina Pesic from Defiance), who enlists Amy to be the official planner of her upcoming Fourth of July wedding to – of all people – Amy’s ex-boyfriend, Hank (Christopher Jacot from Eureka). As Amy struggles to cater to Sammie’s wedding demands and work on her newspaper assignment, her feelings for Hank start to resurface. Is Hank feeling the same way? Will their old flame rekindle as the time approaches for sparks to fly?
Trying to figure out what to watch tonight? Be it new episodes of the TV season, reairs of cable series or a movie, here are some suggestions:
7:15 PM: Fast & Furious 6 movie on HBO2
8 PM: Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family (NEW) NCIS on CBS (Reair) Rizzoli & Isles on TNT (Reair) Hit the Floor on VH1 (Reair) Salem on WGN America (Reair) Shawshank Redemption movie on IFC
9 PM: Chasing Life on ABC Family (NEW) Rizzoli & Isles on TNT (NEW) Royal Pains on USA Network (NEW) NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS (Reair) Supernatural on The CW (Reair) Pitch Perfect movie on Cinemax
10 PM: Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family (Encore) Perception on TNT (NEW) Tyrant on FX (DEBUT)
10:01 PM: The Night Shift on NBC (NEW) Covert Affairs on USA Network (Season Premiere) Person of Interest on CBS (Reair)
The upcoming NBC 60’s-themed, 13-episode cop drama Aquarius will star David Duchovny (Californication and The X-Files) as a cop who goes undercover to track Charles Manson and the Manson Family before their infamous murder spree. New cast members have been added to the series, including Grey Damon (Star-Crossed and Friday Night Lights), Emma Dumont (Bunheads) and Gethin Anthony (Game of Thrones). Anthony will play Charles Manson while Damon will play Duchovny’s partner and Dumont will play Emma Karn, the daughter of Grace Karn and her influential husband Ken. (The Deadline Team, TV Line and Dan Snierson at Entertainment Weekly)
Actor Carl Lumbly (Alias) has joined the cast of the A&E series The Returned, based on the French series of the same name, that will focus on a small town that is turned upside down when several local people, who have been long presumed dead suddenly reappear, bringing them into positive and detrimental consequences. Lumbly will play Pastor Leon Wright, a kindly, perceptive man, the minister of a local church. (Philiana Ng at The Hollywood Reporter)
AMC has given their period piece drama Turn a second season order consisting of 10 episodes. (The Futon Critic)
Actress Caterina Scorsone has been promoted to series regular on Grey’s Anatomy for the show’s upcoming 11th season on ABC. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)
TV TRAILER
TV MINI-SERIES NEWS
Actor Jason O’Mara (Terra Nova) has joined the History Channel’s upcoming mini-series Sons of Liberty, playing George Washington. The cast of the mini-series already includes Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia franchise), Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Betrayal), Michael Raymond James (Once Upon a Time), Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) and Dean Norris (Under the Dome). (Dan Snierson at Entertainment Weekly)
ONLINE SERIES
The cast of the upcoming Netflix 10-episode sci-fi drama Sense8 from the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski that follows eight characters around the world who, in the aftermath of a tragic death, find themselves linked to each other mentally and emotionally, will include the following cast members: Naveen Andrews (Lost), Daryl Hannah (A Walk to Remember), Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and Aml Ameen (The Maze Runner). (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
NBC is working on an hour-long limited series called Wasteland that will follow a hardened US Marshal in the wake of a massive prison break, who is charged with hunting down fugitives with supernatural powers, while unlocking the mystery of his past. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Delroy Lindo has joined the cast of the upcoming remake of Point Break that will follow a young FBI agent named Johnny Utah (actor Luke Bracey) who goes undercover to stop an organized gang of criminals and extreme sport enthusiasts who are pulling off heists all over the world. Lindo will play an FBI instructor who tries to motivate Utah to pass training. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)
Here are the top 10 box office movies for this past weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Think Like a Man Too – 29.2 million
2. 22 Jump Street – 27.5 million
3. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – 24.7 million
4. Jersey Boys – 13.3 million
5. Maleficent – 12.9 million
6. Edge of Tomorrow – 9.8 million
7. The Fault in our Stars – 8.6 million
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past – 6.2. million
9. Godzilla – 1.9 million
10. Chef – 1.7 million
Actor Ansel Elgort (The Fault in our Stars and Divergent) will star in the lead role of an upcoming as-yet titled box office film about Van Cliburn, who at the age of 23 in 1958 emerged from out of nowhere to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)
Here is a list of all of the programming options to expect on TV this week:
On June 23, Teen Wolf will air its season four premiere episode on MTV at 10 PM while that same night CBS will air a one-hour special, Under the Dome: Inside Chester’s Mill, at 10 PM that will take a look at the show’s season premiere [which happens next week] that will feature highlights from last season.
The fifth season of Covert Affairs will kick off on the USA Network on June 24 at 10 PM. Meanwhile over on FX, the new Middle East-set series Tyrant will debut that night at 10 PM. In this new series, Adam Rayner stars as the son of a dictator of a war-torn country who returns to his homeland after a self-imposed 20-year exile.
On June 25, the new summer series Taxi Brooklyn will debut on NBC at 10 PM. This is an action-comedy police procedural centered on the fractious, closely bonded partnership between a streetwise Marseilles-born New York City taxi driver (Jacky Ido) and an intensely driven NYPD detective (Chyler Leigh from Grey’s Anatomy) for whom this immigrant cabbie becomes chauffeur, insider on the streets and unofficial partner.
Continuum will air its season finale on Syfy on June 27 at 10 PM.
On June 28, the Hallmark Channel movie When Sparks Fly will debut at 9 PM. Fireworks go off when Amy Peterson (Meghan Markle from Suits) comes home to help save her family’s annual 4th of July celebration and discovers she really does love the man who she left to pursue her dreams of being a journalist. There’s just one problem: he’s engaged to be married to her best friend, and Amy has been asked to be the maid of honor.
That same night, the Lifetime movie Outlaw Prophet: Warren Jeffs will debut at 8 PM. This film tells the true story of the fundamentalist Mormon leader Warren Jeffs (Tony Goldwyn from Scandal) who spent more than a year on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List for unlawful flight on charges related to his alleged arrangement of illegal marriages involving underage girls.
On June 29, the new drama Reckless will debut on CBS at 9 PM followed by the return of Unforgettable at 10 PM. Reckless is set in Charleston, S.C., where a gorgeous Yankee litigator (Anna Wood from Deception) and a charming southern attorney (Cam Gigandet from Burlesque and Twilight) must hide their intense mutual attraction as a police sex scandal threatens to tear the city apart.
It will be a busy night over on PBS on June 29, with the premiere of the second season of the acclaimed 6-part mini-series Last Tango in Halifax at 8 PM followed by the PBS Masterpiece Mystery four-week series Endeavor, Season 2 at 9 PM, which will run for 90 minutes. At 10:30, the debut of the 6-part half-hour mini-series Vicious will debut. Vicious follows partners Freddie (Ian McKellen) and Stuart (Derek Jacobi), who have lived together in a small central London flat for nearly 50 years, are always at each other’s throats, making snide remarks aimed at the other’s age, appearance and flaws. However, underneath their vicious fighting, they share a deep love. Freddie and Stuart are often joined by feisty best friend Violet (Frances de la Tour from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Ash (Iwan Rheon from Game of Thrones), their young, upstairs neighbor.
Lastly, also on June 29 will be the debut of HBO drama The Leftovers at 10 PM. The series is based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the series will revolve around the residents of a New York town who’ve been left behind after millions and millions of people around the world vanish mysteriously in a Rapture-like event.
Rueben's Ramblings 