SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week and next week are probably the two busiest weeks of the year when it comes to news, so bear with us as we try to give some of the major highlights to you today, and stick with us throughout next week as we bring you complete details (including the lineups, which will inevitably last less than a month before shakeups) for each broadcast network. It's a busy week, so let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

Who to Follow: Mark Feuerstein (Twitter), "Raising three kids with my amazing wife, Dana Klein, in LA while writing, directing, acting and telling stories however I can."

Claim to Fame: Mark Feuerstein has been acting since he had a role on the ABC soap opera Loving over two decades ago, and he is probably best known for his starring role in the series Royal Pains. But he has had some sitcom roles, including starring in the short-lived series Conrad Bloom as well as Good Morning, Miami. Now, with Royal Pains having come to an end last season, he's headed back to the sitcom world with the CBS comedy 9JKL, which actually brings him back full circle to Conrad Bloom. In Conrad Bloom, Linda Lavin played the role of his mother, and now she will be playing his mother once again in 9JKL.

getTV presents beloved leading man Burt Reynolds in the rare 1970 police drama Dan August, airing 10 classic episodes as part of the network's "Get Lost In TV" block on Sunday, May 21, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Dan August stars Reynolds - one year before his breakthrough role in the classic thriller Deliverance - as the titular lieutenant investigating the homicide beat in his hometown of Santa Luisa, CA. August's job is complicated by figures from his past, with whom he often finds himself at odds, as he works to keep the streets safe with the help of his partner, Sgt. Wilentz (Norman Fell, before Three's Company), and Chief Untermeyer (Richard Anderson, three years before his star turn on The Six Million Dollar Man).

The Dan August "Get Lost In TV" block features a slew of impressive guest appearances, bringing together future famous duos such as Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams before they joined the Rebellion as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in Star Wars; as well as John Ritter, in just his second acting role, and Norman Fell before they met up at the Regal Beagle on Three's Company; and Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark before they moved into Knots Landing. Other notable guests include Mickey Rooney, Martin Sheen, Larry Hagman, Ricardo Montalban, Lee Meriwether, Carolyn Jones, Vera Miles, Dabney Coleman, and Gary Busey in his third acting role.

We are less than a week away from the annual upfront week and NBC has ordered three new series...so far. The series are: comedy A.P. Bio and dramas Rise and For God and Country. In A.P. Bio, when a philosophy scholar loses out on his dream job and goes to work as a high school Advanced Placement biology teacher, he makes it clear he will not be teaching any biology. Realizing he has a room full of honor roll students at his disposal, he decides instead to use the kids to his own benefit. The cast includes Glenn Howerton, Patton Oswalt, Lyric Lewis, Mary Sohn, Aparna Brielle, Jacob McCarthy, Nick Peine and guest star Vanessa Bayer.

Rise is a heartening new drama about finding inspiration in unexpected places. When dedicated teacher and family man Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor) sheds his own self-doubt and takes over the school's lackluster theater department, he galvanizes not only the faculty and students but the entire working-class town. Inspired by a true story. The cast includes Josh Radnor, Rosie Perez, Marley Shelton, Auli'i Cravalho, Damon J. Gillespie, Amy Forsyth, Rarmian Newton, Ted Sutherland, Casey Johnson, Taylor Richardson, Joe Tippett and Shirley Rumierk.

In For God and Country, from the production team behind Homeland comes a fresh, heart-pounding journey into the complex world of America's elite undercover military heroes. While D.I.A. Deputy Director Patricia Campbell (Anne Heche) and her team of analysts wield the world's most advanced surveillance technology from Washington, D.C., Adam Dalton and his heroic Special Ops squad of highly trained undercover specialists use their unbreakable bond and commitment to freedom to save lives of innocent people and execute missions in some of the most dangerous places in the world. The cast includes Anne Heche, Mike Vogel, Sofia Pernas, Tate Ellington, Natacha Karam, Demetrius Grosse, Noah Mills and Hadi Tabbal.