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I Hate My Teenage Daughter lead Katie Finneran has landed a co-starring role on Michael J. Fox’s NBC comedy series, which has a 22-episode order for a fall 2013 launch. The single-camera comedy, from Sony Pictures TV and producer-director Will Gluck, is inspired by Fox’s real life and stars him as Mike Burnaby, a husband and father of three in New York City juggling the challenges of family and career while dealing with Parkinson’s disease. A former lead anchor for a local station in NY, Mike decides to go back to work after a new medication helps him manage the effects of his illness. Finneran will play Mike’s narcissistic, single and jobless sister. Also cast in the series are Conor Romero as Mike’s college dropout son who recently returned home, and Jack Gore as his younger, 7-year-old son. In addition to Fox, Finneran, Romero and Gore join Wendell Pierce,...

Alfred Molina has joined Skeet Ulrich on NBC's upcoming Law & Order spinoff, Law & Order: Los Angeles. He will play Deputy D.A. Morales. "I am thrilled that Fred is Lola's Deputy D.A.," creator-executive producer Dick Wolf said. "He joins a remarkable list of some of America's greatest character actors like Sam Waterson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeff Goldblum, Steven Hill, Dianne Wiest  and Michael Moriarity as stars of the Law & Order-branded series." Ulrich was previously tapped to play Detective Rex Winters, one of the two detectives at the center of the crime procedural. Production on Lola is slated to begin on Aug. 2 for a Sept. 22 premiere. Molina is coming off a Tony-nominated turn on Broadway in Red. On the big screen, he is currently seen in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Lola will mark Molina's first regular series gig since the 2002 sitcom Bram and Alice. Law & Order: Los Angeles is a Wolf Films...

The USA Network series Monk has cast Traylor Howard as a series regular. Howard (Boston Common) will take on the sidekick role to Monk star Tony Shalhoub, replacing Bitty Schram, who exited the series last month. "We were fortunate to have Bitty Schram in our cast for 2 1/2 seasons, and we are thrilled to have Traylor Howard join our cast now," said Jeff Wachtel, USA executive vp original programming. "Traylor is a wonderful comic actress and a delightful addition to our accomplished ensemble." Howard joins the cast as Natalie, a former bartender and single mom who becomes the new assistant to Monk. Her credits include Bram and Alice and Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. Production on new episodes begins Sept. 23. Monk is executive produced by Universal Network Television in association with Mandeville Films and Touchstone Television.

Traylor Howard, who last appeared on the big screen in the comedy Me, Myself & Irene, has landed the female lead role opposite Jamie Kennedy in the New Line Cinema comedy Son of the Mask. Howard will play Kennedy's wife in the film, which carries on with the premise of a character-altering mask that was established in the 1994 hit starring Jim Carrey. This time around, it follows an aspiring cartoonist (Kennedy) who is not ready for fatherhood but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki. Scheduled for a summer production start, Mask is being directed by Larry Guterman from a script by Lance Khazei, Rob McKittrick and the team of Tom Gammill and Max Pross. The production is being overseen at New Line by production execs Kent Alterman, Michelle Weiss and Janis Chaskin. Howard most recently appeared in the CBS comedy Bram & Alice. In addition to Irene, she has appeared on the big screen in the comedy Dirty Work. She is repped by UTA and manager John Carrabino.

The ax has fallen for the CBS sitcom Bram and Alice. Network executives hoped the Alfred Molina starrer would form a potent Sunday comedy block as the 8:30 p.m. lead-out to Becker. But the Paramount Network Television-produced series -- about a roguish middle-aged writer who reunites with an adult daughter he didn't know he had -- was plagued from the start with low ratings and was officially canceled Wednesday. The fourth and final episode aired Sunday, placing a weak fourth in its time slot with a 2.0 rating/4 share in the key 18-49 demo. That was down 20% from the first two airings, which averaged 2.5/6. CBS will improvise in the slot for the November sweep. This Sunday, the network will air the James Bond theatrical The World Is Not Enough. Viewers will see either a repeat comedy or a football overrun on Nov. 10. Plans beyond that are yet to be determined.

Fox's coverage of Game 7 of the Anaheim Angels-San Francisco Giants World Series predictably dominated the primetime ratings Sunday, though the numbers were among the lowest in recent history for the October classic. Between 8-11 p.m. (the game actually ended with the Angels' victory at 11:13 p.m. EST), Fox averaged a 9.0 rating/21 share in the key 18-49 demo, with 24.6 million total viewers, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. That's a steep dive from last year's New York Yankees-Arizona Diamondbacks Game 7, which averaged 39.1 million viewers. Even so, baseball likely shaved a few viewers from such new shows as CBS' Bram and Alice (which scored a 2.1/5) and NBC's American Dreams (4.0/9). Overall, Fox won the night (8.7/20), with ABC and NBC tied for second (3.6/8) and CBS in third (3.0/7).

In its second outing, NBC's new drama American Dreams solidified its position as a ratings winner in the Sunday 8 p.m. period, while CBS' 8-9 p.m. Sunday comedy block -- Becker and the premiere of the Alfred Molina starrer Bram & Alice -- got off to a slow start. NBC was the most-watched network for the night (11.2 million viewers, 4.1 rating/10 share among adults 18-49) for a second straight week -- a first for the network with all series programming. A strong showing by the veteran legal drama The Practice pushed ABC (10.5 million, 4.2/11) past NBC in the heated adults 18-49 race, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research data. NBC saw solid performances by American Dreams (13 million viewers, 4.8/12) at 8 p.m. and sophomore drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent (14.6 million, 5.1/12) at 9 p.m., both winning their time periods in viewers and adults 18-49 and nicely building from the first to the second half-hour.