News

Quick Links Breaking Free From Usual Characters with 'The Random Years' 'The Random Years' Was Sabotaged Critics Loved the Cast But Hated the Show

For a very brief period in 2002, and just before the character of Timothy McGee was introduced to the world in NCIS, actor Sean Murray opted for a more laid-back role. Instead of being stationed in Washington DC’s Navy Yard with Gibbs, Dinozzo, and Ziva, where they would investigate crimes inside the Navy, the TV actor would be placed in Chinatown, Manhattan - living a day-to-day life with three childhood friends in a nice, big loft.

Just before stepping into the role of a field agent in the fourth-longest-running scripted live-action U.S. prime-time TV series, Murray would instead be slacker Todd Mitchell, an unemployed schemer who seems to have an odd fascination with Star Wars. Even though Upn unceremoniously pulled the plug on this oddball...

John Peaslee, the writer and producer who worked alongside his longtime creative partner, Judd Pillot, on such sitcoms as Coach, Just Shoot Me!, According to Jim and Liv and Maddie, has died. He was 73.

Peaslee died Monday of natural causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, Pillot announced. The two had collaborated for 35 years.

“I will be forever thankful to the universe that I was with him for several hours that day, that I was able to hold his hand, recount all the stories — way too many to tell, but not nearly enough to fill the hole in my heart,” Pillot wrote on Instagram.

Peaslee and Pillot teamed on ABC’s Coach from 1989-93, on NBC’s Just Shoot Me! from 2002-03, on ABC’s According to Jim from 2005-09 and on Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie from 2013-17.

The pair also created ABC’s A Whole New Ballgame,...

J.J. Abrams will be turning to comedy at Fox with a half-hour project which Mike Markowitz ("In-Laws," "Becker," "The Random Years") wrote. The co-creator of Fox's science fiction series "Fringe" will serve as an executive producer. There are few details on what it's about except that it's a comedic medical show. Markowitz and Bryan Burk are also executive producing from Warner Bros. TV and Abrams' Bad Robot. Medical field is crowded with offerings like "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice"...