scottbakula

(S01E02) There's a possibility that Men of a Certain Age could become grumpy old men of a certain age. But I don't think that's going to happen because there's still enough irony and levity to keep the show from wallowing into a miserable experience. These guys aren't grumpy all the time and when they are, it feels justified. It's hard not to share their feelings. These are every American men in a lot of ways, well-off, spoiled to an extent, wondering what's going on in the world that's suddenly not as young as it used to be.

This was an episode about injustice and fairness, and it's not surprising that our men feel like they've been subjected to too many slights, too many instances when they've been dumped upon, and too many things that have them pissed off. Read on for more about how our three mess-keteers handled the weekly travails.

(S01E01) I'm not even sure what I just watched. Here was a show about guys being guys, and yet there were no sexual exploits, and no drinking, watching sports or tinkering with cars. It's as if someone took all the stereotypes about men and threw them out the window. Instead what we got was a raw and honest look at manhood.

It was a revelation. More importantly, it was wonderful.

Ray Romano joined forced with one of his Everybody Loves Raymond cohorts, Mike Royce, to write and develop Men of a Certain Age. As if that wasn't a strong enough pedigree, he got the likes of Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula to join him as the three men at the centerpiece of this exploration of middle age.

If you ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond -- or currently watch the reruns -- you might wonder what would Raymond become after a while. What would happen if he didn't have Deborah yelling at him and his family keeping him from being a self-indulgent slob who only thought of himself. Men of a Certain Age shows you the dark side of Raymond, only here Ray Romano is called Joe. Joe and his college buddies, Owen and Terry, are on the wrong side of 40 and they know it.

We already know about the in-development reboot of Alien Nation at Syfy. What I somehow missed in all the hoopla about that is that Syfy is also in talks with creator Don Bellisario about a possible relaunch of Quantum Leap. Or a sequel or, really, whatever Bellisario would be interested in. Syfy is looking for a great time travel show, and other than Doctor Who, was there ever a better executed one than Quantum Leap?

Hell, with Scott Bakula all over our television screens on Chuck and The New Adventures of Old Christine among other appearances, and Dean Stockwell already familiar to SyFy's core fan-base, why not just go ahead and do a continuation of the original series with Sam's daughter in the lead role, or something like that?

(S02E21) If you were waiting all season long for an episode this power-packed, you finally got your heart's desire. You wanted action; you got it. Story line development? Check. More about Sarah and Chuck? Casey in the middle of everything? Guest stars? References to pop culture and old movies? Morgan's deepest dreams revealed? Yep. This was the episode for you. The penultimate Chuck for season two -- and hopefully not the next to last of all time -- was perhaps the best episode of the year.

For sheer dynamics, the team was not working together. Casey, who was promoted and thus became the colonel of the title, was put in the tough position of having to apprehend Chuck and Sarah. Since they all know each other so well, there was no advantage on either side, and Chuck's emotional appeal about finding his father seemed to have little effect on Casey.

(S02E19) Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Just when you think you're on the verge of getting answers, you wind up with a lot more questions. We knew going in that Chuck had finally tracked down his father, ostensibly to fulfill Ellie's dream of having her dad walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

On the most superficial level, Chuck achieved his goal. He did find his father, Steven J. Bartowski, but he also found all the craziness that sent him off in the first place. Only it wasn't really, really craziness. It was something far more nefarious.

I like Scott Bakula. I've liked him in just about everything I've seen him do. The latest news that Scott Bakula is joining Chuck as Papa Bartowski, Chuck and Ellie's long-lost dad, seems like great casting to me.

I can't imagine how the clever writers of the show -- that starts with creator Josh Schwartz -- will keep from referring to Quantum Leap and Enterprise in some way. In fact, knowing their penchant for weaving topical bits into the plot, there should be a slew of references.

I don't know about you, but I'm suffering from serious 24 withdrawal. Like, to the point where I'm ready to start watching the entire series from the beginning again.

But maybe there's a little glimmer of light there. I'm not talking about the 24 movie this fall to tie us into next year -- although that certainly qualifies. I'm talking about the new series, Night and Day, from 24 co-creator Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson.

TNT has just given the green light to the series, a fast-paced, gritty drama about the life of an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Hmmm, sounds strangely familiar...

Scott Bakula is Ray Romano's new best friend. Bakula is the latest addition to the cast of Men of a Certain Age, a pilot for TNT. The drama focuses on three men in their forties that have been friends since college; Bakula is one of the leads. His character, Terry, is an "intelligent, but struggling, actor." Terry's best friends have struggles of their own. Joe, Romano's character, is a divorced father who runs a party supply store. Owen, played by the supremely gifted Andre Braugher, is a family man who works at his father's car dealership.

This recent bit of casting news just made the TNT pilot a must-see for me. Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher seem like an unlikely group of buddies, but I suppose it depends on the chemistry between the three actors.

(S04E13) "Denny Crane, to serve and protect" - Denny Crane

Only a couple minutes into the show and the crazy meter is off the charts. Nutjob Leigh is threatening Katie. Denny is having anonymous sex with Shirley's friend and I'm having a Murphy Brown flashback.

I've lost a lot of respect for Jerry. What could possibly compel him to get involved with Leigh again other than his being a pitiful loser? It seemed like he was making progress for a while there. Doesn't he know that a woman who leaves you once is very likely to leave you again? I just hope he never takes her on a date to an electronics expo.

So is it yet another Star Trek alumnus coming on-screen, or a reunion of former Murphy Brown costars Candace Bergen and her on-screen amore Scott Bakula, as TV Guide says. Looks like it's both, as Bakula has signed on to join Bergen and William Shatner for an upcoming episode of Boston Legal. In it he will play one of Shirley Schmidt's (Bergen) exes who runs into her at a bar. No word on if his will be a multi-episode arc or a one-time appearance.

Bakula has shown himself to have a bit of comedic chops recently on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and with BL being a dramedy, he might do very well there. Either way, it is good to see Bakula back on the small screen. Quantum Leap remains one of my all-time favorite shows and I'm still mad they haven't found a way to bring it back (despite periodic rumors that they may), while Knight Rider gets a revival. It'd be great if they can get Bakula's character and Denny Crane (Shatner) together in a scene and have them salute one another or slip some other Trek teaser for the audience in the know.

ABC had garnered a fair amount of press over this one because of the obvious tie-in to the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie. The big news is that the creators of the movie are back for the TV show. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Swingers) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand) have signed on to try and transform their movie to the small screen.

Sometimes the wheels of TV production turn mighty slowly. In August of '05 Adam posted about Doug Liman signing a deal with NBC. Then, last January there was talk about his first project being a series adaptation of the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

A year later, and the show is finally getting the go ahead for a pilot, but not at NBC. Somehow the show has now ended up at ABC. Liman, who directed the big screen version, will direct the pilot. It will be written by Simon Kinberg, who wrote the movie. Kinberg says of the series, ""It's essentially Married With Children with guns." Casting is under way with nobody officially attached to replace Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at this time.

I'll be curious to get a look at it, just because it's Doug Liman, but my real hope for the show is that it will somehow lead to a DVD set of the completely unrelated CBS show, also called Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You might remember that from the fall of '96, starring Scott Bakula and Maria Bello.

It looks like the Sci Fi Channel is actually going to run science fiction and fantasy shows in the near future. Shocking! Especially since it has recently dabbled in airing such shows as Law & Order:SVU and, deep breath, Extreme Championship Wrestling (no, I will never get over it!).

The network has recently picked up the rights to Star Trek:Enterprise, the prequel series that took place 150 years before the original. Enterprise aired on UPN from 2001-2005 to mixed reviews. The deal for Enterprise, which will premiere in the fall on the Sci Fi Channel, also included an extension of the network's contract for the original The Twilight Zone episodes.

The deal also includes rights to the Stephen King miniseries The Stand and The Langoliers, as well as a number of science fiction and supernatural shows that never completed their initial network runs. These include Threshold, Wolf Lake, Haunted, and Jake 2.0.