Author: Kate Stanhope, Lesley Goldberg

March 04, 2016 1:30pm PT by Kate Stanhope, Lesley Goldberg

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Kathleen Rose Perkins joins the project, which hails from ‘Friends’ alum Andrew Reich.

Episodes star Kathleen Rose Perkins has booked her next TV gig.

The actress has signed on to play Candice Bergen’s daughter in the ABC comedy pilot Pearl, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

From Friends grad Andrew Reich, Pearl centers on a larger-than-life family matriarch, Pearl (Bergen), who finds out she has cancer and becomes intent on controlling and orchestrating every aspect of her family’s life before she dies.

Perkins will play Pearl’s self-reliant and unsentimental daughter Virginia, who posses both smarts and a dry sense of humor. Virginia has always clashed with her mother and is currently not speaking to her. But when she learns Peal is dying, she tries her best to be nice even though it won’t be easy. 

Reich will pen the script and executive produce the single-camera comedy from ABC Studios. Jim Field Smith will direct the pilot.

The role comes as Episodes’ fate beyond the upcoming fifth season remains unclear. Showtime has not made an official decision, but in January, executives noted that there is a “real possibility” that the series, toplined by Matt LeBlanc, could end with its upcoming fifth season. “They are hard at work on the fifth season and we will wait to see if white smoke or black smoke comes out of the chimney to see how that will work,” Showtime’s Gary Levine said in January. 

The comments came a month after LeBlanc tweeted that he had “one more season of Episodes” to shoot. Since then, LeBlanc has booked a CBS comedy pilot as well as a co-hosting gig on the newly revamped Top Gear.

Perkins, whose other credits include Colony and Gone Girl, is repped by Gersh and Trademark Talent.

Keep up with all the latest pickups, castings and eventual series orders with THR‘s handy guide to pilot season.

Pilot Season

February 19, 2016 1:30pm PT by Kate Stanhope, Lesley Goldberg

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Danza fielded multiple pilot offers before choosing the multicam comedy from the creator of ‘My Name Is Earl.’

Tony Danza is returning to TV.

The former star of Taxi and Who’s the Boss has signed on to star in Greg Garcia’s family comedy Sebastian, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The NBC multicam stars comedian Sebastian Maniscalco as a guy whose old-school values, instilled by his opinionated Italian father are constantly put to the test by his new wife, her family and the absurdities of the modern world. Danza will play his father.

Danza fielded multiple pilot offers this season. The role brings the veteran actor back to NBC after his successful runs on Taxi, which ran on the network for its fifth and final season. (Coincidentally, Danza will appear on NBC on Sunday alongside his Taxi cast to pay tribute to director James Burrows.) After Taxi, Danza went on to star in the beloved family comedy Who’s the Boss for eight seasons.

He more recently starred in the short-lived NBC sitcom The Tony Danza Show in 1998. Sebastian marks his first multicam role in nearly 20 years.

His other TV credits include The Practice and Don Jon, Danza, who most recently starred in the Broadway adaptation of Honeymoon in Vegas, is repped by CAA and manager Dan Farah.

Sebastian, which is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Amingos de Garcia Productions, is written by The Millers’ Austen Earl, who will exec produce with Garcia and director Scott Ellis. Maniscalco, Judy Brown-Marmel, Norman Aladjem and Alix Jaffe will serve as co-executive producers on the project, which has been in development since late 2014.

Pilot Season

February 16, 2016 3:00pm PT by Kate Stanhope, Lesley Goldberg

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This marks a return to the network for Lithgow, who won three Emmys for his work on the ’90s hit comedy ‘3rd Rock From the Sun.’

John Lithgow is returning to NBC.

The former 3rd Rock From the Sun star, as well as former View co-host Sherri Shepherd, have signed on to star in the network’s legal comedy pilot The Trail, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The Trail is described as a serialized single-camera comedy following a young big-city lawyer and his oddball defense team during a high-profile murder trial in a small southern town.

Lithgow will play the man on trial, Larry Henderson. A smart but slightly clueless poetry professor at a South Carolina community college who is accused of murdering his wife. Larry finds the whole notion of being charged with murder absurd, but he has a couple secrets that could really derail his defense.

Shepherd will play the well-meaning and enthusiastic assistant/receptionist at Josh Simon’s makeshift law office in East Peck, South Carolina. Anne suffers from facial blindness – the inability to recognize people by their faces – along with a host of disorders that make her job as a member of the defense team much more difficult.

The Trail, which NBC picked up to pilot last month, hails from writer and exec producers Jeff Astrof and Matt Miller (Chuck), and director Jeff Blitz. Warner Bros. Television will produce in association with Barge Productions and Good Session Productions.

This is the network’s latest attempts to find new hits with veteran talent. Cheers star Ted Danson will star in the comedy Good Fortune, which has already been picked up to series, and other network vets including Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) and Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) will also topline pilots for the network, which is trying to rebuild its comedy slate that currently only contains two returning series, Undateable, which just wrapped its third season and sophomore series The Carmichael Show.

Lithgow’s more recent TV credits include Dexter, How I Met Your Mother and the forthcoming Netflix series The Crown. He is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Walter Teller.

Shepherd’s other credits include her self-titled Lifetime sitcom, Less Than Perfect and The Soul Man. She is repped by ICM Partners and Darris Hatch Management.

Pilot Season