If you’re anything like this TV Addict, odds are fairly certain that you spend an inordinate amount of time scratching your head over some of the shall we say more curious decisions TV Networks make when it comes to some of your favorite shows. But what about the actors involved in the shows themselves? As one might imagine, having starred in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the short-lived pilot-turned-internet-phenomenon NOBODY’s WATCHING and NBC’s less-than-successful KNIGHT RIDER reboot, actor Paul Campbell has a unique perspective on such matters. One that he was only too happy to share during a recent one-on-one promoting ALMOST HEROES, a new original comedy series that recently premiered on Showcase in Canada.

As a young actor you made the decision to leave BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fairly early on for a larger role on a potential pilot that didn’t end up getting picked up. Do you ever look back at decisions like that and wonder, what could have been?
Paul Campbell: No. I found that this is the business that you can’t afford to ever look back and say what could have been. Because when you have those sort of decisions to make — decisions where I either stick with a show [BATTLESTAR GALACTICA] where there are no guarantees that this character [Billy] is ever going to be more than a sideline player or try my luck with a pilot I had just booked — there’s no value in looking back. I’m constantly faced with those decisions. Should I take this Canadian series that I’m on, should I got to Romania and shoot a movie, what am I missing, as an actor, there is always going to be that “What If?”

As an observer on the periphery of this business we call show, it’s always interesting to uncover the thought process that goes into those type of seemingly career-altering decisions.
Well I was in Los Angeles testing for PSYCH which is on USA Network and I got a call from Ron Moore saying that we just got wind that you’re testing for this show. This was very early on in Season 2 and that point I wasn’t on contract with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, I was a per episode basis where there were no guarantees, so I would constantly find myself flipping through the script to see if my name was on the cast list to see if I had been killed. So I thought, “Why not?” I have an opportunity to test for this big USA show and he called me while I was at the Universal lot right after my test for PSYCH and he said look, you’re going to either have to commit where we lock you down for 5 years or we’ll probably have to start thinking about writing you out. And I decided that ultimately it was best if we went our separate ways and they were really great about writing another 10 episodes for me before Billy finally bit the bullet so to speak.

But on the plus side, Billy’s death is one of those cool ones that really stuck with fans. After-all, if you want to die in a series that is destined for greatness, you want to do it early on and in a big way like Ian Somerhalder on LOST, rather than in the fourth or fifth season when nobody really cares anymore! But we digress. Your next experience was on a pilot called NOBODY’s WATCHING produced by Bill Lawrence that after not getting picked up turned into somewhat of an internet sensation. What was that experience like and what was it like working with Bill Lawrence?
Yeah NOBODY’S WATCHING was actually the project that first took me away from BATTLESTA GALACTICA. That was the pilot that I booked after the miniseries. It was phenomenal working with Bill and actually, Bill co-wrote that script with Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan who are showrunners on COMMUNITY, which is phenomenal. For me it was the first time doing comedy and because it was a hybrid of single camera stuff — which I actually preferred — and a live action studio audience it was the best of both worlds. When the show failed to get picked up, Bill Lawrence very savvily leaked the pilot onto YouTube. I remember being back in Vancouver having taken he news very badly after almost being guaranteed that we were which is the dream and all of sudden I got a call from my manager saying that you guys are on CNN and they’re doing a feature on NOBODY’S WATCHING. Within a week it just went from zero to millions of hits, we where doing talk shows, on CARSON DAILY, and because Warner Bros. had sold it at the time, NBC who originally passed said we’ll order 6 scripts but contingent on your ability to build an online following. If you guys build a big online fan base we’ll have a big built in audience when we go to air. So we spent 4 to 6 months — Bill, Neal, Garrett and Taran [Killam] who is now on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — shooting viral videos. We had such an incredible outpouring of support that it looked like NBC was going to pick us up, until the last minute. When they changed their mind and said we’re going to give you an hour of Primetime for a special. There was a big announcement at TCA [The Television Critics Association Press Tour], and the next day they phoned and said we have no intention of ever doing the show. That was my first Hollywood wake up call.

And not the first time NBC would completely screw you!
NBC has such a wonderful history of shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t know what’s going on over there but they have a really hard time of getting things right. Which is not to say they don’t have some really great shows, some of their comedy — COMMUNITY, 30 ROCK of course — but man they just can’t seem to make it work.

And speaking of not making it work, your next project was on KNIGHT RIDER, a reboot which on paper seemed like a sure bet. At what point as an actor did you realize that this wasn’t going to work?
Almost immediately. And this happens with a number of projects that I’ve done — there are so many friggin’ cooks in the kitchen on both the production and executive level — where everybody has got to get their two cents in yet nobody really is willing to take a risk. Everybody wants to play it so safe and with KNIGHT RIDER, they tried so hard to appeal to everybody, they appealed to nobody. Patrick Massett and John Zinman, who had written a lot of stuff for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS which was one of the best shows on TV (again, NBC dip-shits!) those guys wrote a couple of episodes for KNIGHT RIDER. I read their first draft before they had submitted to Network and it was fantastic, I mean we would read it and get so excited about it. Really, dark, really edgy stuff that would finally allow us to make episodes that would force audiences to sit up, take notice and take us seriously. But when they come back with the shooting draft, following notes and revisions from NBC, it was a piece of shit. Everything good about the script, they dumbed it down, brightened it up, saying we wanted to have dads watch with their sons and then they would throw in a bunch of woman in bikinis. What Dad is going to have their son watch a bunch of woman strut around in bikinis? I mean are you appealing to the kids, or are you appealing to the 18-49? That was the problem! There was one episode when the Kit Cave had been raided, it was all blown up and the set decorator came in and they put colored streamers everywhere, bright pastels saying the show was too dark, we want to “happy” the place up a bit. At that point the cast all looked at each other and went, that’s it, we’re cancelled. Like who is making these decisions? It’s so frustrating to see something that has a lot of potential just go through that filter and come out a big streaming turd.

At least you’ve been able to keep your sense of humor through all of this.
I’ve been in the business for 8 going on 9 years — and by the way, for the record, I hate it when people say 8 going on 9 as if you don’t know what the next number in the sequence is! But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m really starting to enjoy being relaxed about everything and much happier taking control of my own choices. Saying, you know what, maybe that’s not the greatest script or maybe that has the potential to not be the greatest project, but it sounds like a lot of fun, let’s do it.

Is that the type of thinking that brought you to Canada?
Actually, that was Visa issues! Immigration seemed to get really really strict in California really fast.

So what was it specifically that attracted you to ALMOST HEROES?
It couldn’t be more of a comedy if it tried. It’s one of the most fun things — I say that NOBODY’s WATCHING was probably the most fun I ever had in part because it was the first comedy I ever did — but this is the second most, if not equally the most fun I ever had. Ryan and Jason Belleville who created the show, I’ve known for years. I actually met through Taran Killam. They pitched the show a couple of years ago to CBS who really liked but didn’t have room on their schedule, so they ended up selling it to Showcase. ALMOST HEROES is a single camera half hour comedy about these two brothers. One of whom went off to Harvard, the smart savvy cool brother, while the other stayed home to goof off and live behind their Father’s comic book shop. When the father passes away, the Harvard brother comes back to the funeral and ends up sticking around to help his brother run this failing comic book shop in this shitty strip mall set in Toronto.

ALMOST HEROES airs Thursday nights at 9PM on Showcase in Canada.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE (8PM CBS)
Left to her own devices, Christine attempts to prove she can take care of herself. Something tells us this won’t be pretty.

GARY UNMARRIED (8:30PM CBS)
We love shows with creative episode titles. This is not one of those shows. In fact, the title of tonight’s episode — “Gary And Dennis’ Sister” — either tells you everything you need to know about the plot or tells me you’re perhaps not smart enough for a better program.

LOST (9PM ABC)
To say that this show has become wildly confusing would be an understatement on the level of “Sometimes, one can spot blue in the sky during the daytime.” But that’s not a complaint by any stretch of the imagination. Given how dumbed-down 90 percent of television is these days, we’ll take a complicated story that keeps us guessing and using our brains any day. This week, Locke gets it into his head that he can stop the island from hop-scotching through time.

LIFE ON MARS (10:02PM ABC, Global in Canada)
What does it mean that both of tonight’s shows with LIFE in their title feature plots revolving around rock stars? Perhaps only that endless episodes of LOST have left me looking for conspiracies and hidden meanings. In any case, Wallace Shawn guests as an FBI agent known as The Sorcerer, and Sam thinks he may have found a way to get back to his own time. Seeing as this is not the last episode, we kinda doubt it.

DAMAGES (10PM FX)
To be honest, this season got off to a bit of a slow start. But things are cookin’ with gas now that we’re tying in plot threads from season one and Patty has someone — Walter Kendrick — to sink her teeth into. Tonight, Patty wages a war against Kendrick in the modern-day equivalent of Thunderdome: The media!

NEW & NOTABLE:
KNIGHT RIDER (8PM NBC)
What horrible sin did Justin Bruening commit to go from the mess that is ALL MY CHILDREN to the mess that is this show? These are the things that I ponder late at night. Meanwhile, ONE TREE HILL alum Maria Menounos (she was Keith’s almost-bride, Julie) guest stars as a DEA agent who arrests our hero following a fake plane crash and a real kidnapping.

CRIMINAL MINDS (9PM CBS)
Parting is such sad, sweet sorrow. Unless, of course, you embalm your victims so you can hang out with them a little longer. In that case, well, don’t be surprised if you find out the hard way that the old axiom about houseguests being like fish in that they both start to stink after a couple days is true.

LIFE (9PM NBC)
The lead singer of a heavy metal band suffocates. Why does my first thought go to “hairball?”

TOP CHEF (10PM Bravo)
You know it’s getting close to the end of the season when you get two celebrity (in foodie circles, anyway) judges. This is the last episode before the finale begins unspooling, so place your bets. And if you’re betting against Stefan, I have a poker game I’d like to invite you to.

GENERAL HOSPITAL (10PM SOAPnet)
You know, the mobsters on this show — meaning just about every male and half the females — could really solve a lot of their problems if they simply, you know, killed their enemies. Anthony should have had a bullet in his brain ages ago, but instead, he gets yet another chance to slip away from Sonny and Jason tonight. Meanwhile, can anyone tell us what these mobsters actually, you know, do to make their money? We know Sonny doesn’t get involved with drugs or prostitution. So, um, what exactly is his racquet?

The TV Addict: The facts are these. People stopped using the term Bamboozled in 1931. But seriously, as dreadful as PUSHING DAISIES’ ratings have been — and they have been dreadful. ABC has yet to bury the show six feet under. Which is why if you really, and I mean really care about the fate of Ned, Chuck, Olive and Emerson you will be sure to not only tune into a brand new episode of PUSHING DAISIES at 8PM tonight on ABC, but knock on every house on your block and convince your neighbors to do the same.*

*Please Note: theTVaddict.com does not condone door-to-door begging and pleading in an effort to raise the ratings of your favorite shows. Unless those shows were among my dearly departed brilliant-but-cancelled favorites such as EVERWOOD, JACK & BOBBY, GROSSE POINTE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL.

Can you please explain to me how KNIGHT RIDER got a full season pick up before EVERY OTHER SHOW ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH? — Jenn

The TV Addict: What’s that? You’re not buying my theory that NBC President Ben Silverman is secretly the fifth and final Cylon who has given a starring role to a talking car with the hopes of secretly pushing his pro-machine agenda on an unsuspecting public. Well then, how does this slightly more plausible theory from frequent friend-of-the-site John Kubiceck sound, “Even with modest ratings, NBC is making so much money from Ford by having KNIGHT RIDER on the air that Ben Silverman would be an idiot in these tough economic times to give up such a lucrative deal just because the show is bad. Making money with crap like that is what allows NBC to keep airing low-rated stuff like CHUCK and 30 ROCK.” 

Of course this TV Addict would be remiss if I didn’t point out to Mr. Kubiceck that (a) I’m not sure we know exactly how much NBC is getting to keep the super-sized Ford commercial that is KNIGHT RIDER on the air. And (b) CHUCK is no stranger when it comes to insanely intrusive SMALLVILLE levels of product placement [See: Recent sales pitch story-line featuring Michael Strahan and MADDEN '09.]

I’m still confused over your assertion that IN TREATMENT has been cancelled. Please clarify. — Marisa

The TV Addict: Now this may come as a shock to some, but it turns out that this TV Addict isn’t perfect. I mean who knew that sitting in front of a buteiful high defanition flatt screen for houres on end wuld be detrimental to my smarts? [TV Addict Note: Unlike my usual poor uses of spelling and grammar, the previous sentence of typos was purely for comedic effect.]

Which is why I’m here to apologize to fans of IN TREATMENT everywhere. All ten of you. Embarrassingly enough, I’ve been confusing IN TREATMENT’s cancellation, or lack there of, with TELL ME YOU LOVE ME. So to clarify, a second season of IN TREATMENT is officially moving forward with Hope Davis on board to play Mira, a high-powered malpractice lawyer and FRASIER’s John Mahoney signing on the dotted line to play Bill, a CEO who finds that life is passing him by.

Please tell me that this is some sort of sick joke and that Ben Silverman did not just pick up KNIGHT RIDER for a full season? — Dave

The TV Addict: If it helps, things could be much worse. Ben Silverman could have taken a page from Showtime’s playbook and renewed KNIGHT RIDER for two seasons. Now I know what you’re thinking, Showtime’s playbook? Well in case you haven’t heard, America’s favorite serial killer DEXTER was just renewed for two more seasons. [See Press Release] Which aside from TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES full season pick-up is some of the most gratifying news to come from the world of television in quite some time.

Who is Luke Grimes? — WalkerFan42

The TV Addict: Luke Grimes won this week’s casting lotto by beating out Jason Ritter [among others] for the role of long-lost Walker brother Ryan Walker. Coming in a close second is SMALLVILLE’s John Glover. Who according to Michael Ausiello, robbed Victor Garber of the perfect ALIAS reunion by nabbing the role of Saul’s love interest for an upcoming three episode story arc.

I can’t help but notice that you seem to, some might say gratuitously, plug Michael Ausiello quite a lot on theTVaddict.com. Yet Ausiello has yet to give your site a much deserved shout out. What’s the deal? — Jake

The TV Addict: Yes Mike [Can I call you Mike?] what is the deal? Especially when you had the perfect opportunity to mention theTVaddict.com alongside your answer to Anne’s question about the possibility of PRIVILEGED getting a full season pick up.

For future reference, rather than simply mention that you “heart Joanna Garcia… the CW has ordered additional scripts… and things are looking good for a full-season pickup.” You could have further championed PRIVILEGED by tacking on to the end of your answer that just yesterday showrunner Rina Mimoun revealed to theTVaddict.com [optional: in a highly entertaining and comprehensive interview] that EVERWOOD star Gregory Smith will very likely be dropping by Palm Beach should PRIVILEGED get that full season pick-up. See how that works Mikey! Quid pro quo.

What can you tell me about HBO Canada? — Northofthe49

The TV Addict: Not only can this TV Addict barely contain my excitement that HBO is [finally] coming to Canada [as part of the TMN subscription package] starting on October 30. I can do one better by pointing you towards November’s HBO Canada schedule [three cheers for REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER!], which you can check out by clicking here.

KNIGHT RIDER, are you F*ck**g kidding me! — SilvermanSucks

The TV Addict: Hey, Don’t shoot the messenger. Because seriously, if this TV Addict ran a television network. Things would be different. Namely EVERWOOD, JACK & BOBBY, THE WEST WING, GROSSE POINTE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL would all still be on the air. KNIGHT RIDER would be roadkill. Keri Lynn Pratt and Liza Weil would have their own hour long Amy Sherman-Palladino project in development. And networks with procedural dramas ‘ripped from the headlines’ would be limited to two per week.

And now for Ask the Addict Lighting Round. Actual queries that readers have typed into Google to find theTVaddict.com.

“Daokes’ Fate”
Not Good

“HBO or Showtime”
Showtime

“Who is playing Old Christine’s Mother?”
TVGuide recently did something very out of character by breaking the news that British acting vet Brenda Blethyn has been cast as Christine’s mom for an episode set to air in November or December.

“Who is Jensen Ackles Dating?”
Why do you care?

Flipping through this week’s fantastic issue of Entertainment Weekly featuring a sneak peak of J.J. Abrams STAR TREK re-boot, this TV Addict couldn’t help but notice an advertisement for Lifetime’s SEX AND LIES IN SIN CITY, starring Mena Suvari. Begging the question: What happened to the young actress who broke onto the scene with scene-stealing turns in AMERICAN PIE and AMERICAN BEAUTY? And more to the point, how sad is it that Mena Suvari is now seemingly relegated to C-list Lifetime Movies of the Week that we’re fairly sure Tori Spelling passed on?

Was anyone else surprised, nay, disappointed as to how fast Robin returned from her stint in Japan on last night’s installment of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER? I mean don’t get me wrong, this TV Addict is all for the further development of Robin and Barney. I was just hoping that Barney would be the one to literally suit up and bring Robin back from the Land of the Rising Sun himself. For some inexplicable reason, I can’t help but smile every time I imagine Barney surrounded by millions of dark-suited Japanese people.

Does FOX’s full season pick-up of FRINGE officially get them off the hook for the early cancellations of such TV Addict favorites like KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, UNDECLARED, DRIVE, FIREFLY and REUNION.

Who are you — as Frank would put it — gayer for? 30 ROCK’s Jamie [Val Emmich], UGLY BETTY’s Jesse [also played by Val Emmich] or LIPSTICK JUNGLE’s Kirby [see our interview].

Which Mitch Pileggi character-of-the week would you like by your side in a bar fight? Grandpa Winchester on SUPERNATURAL, SONS OF ANARCHY’s White Supremacist Leader Ernest Darby, or Kevin’s BROTHERS & SISTERS boss Browne Carter.

Is ‘free’ still too high of a price to pay for the new MTV Series Paris Hilton’s MY NEW BFF on iTunes?

When NBC President Ben Silverman first announced the re-launch of the KNIGHT RIDER franchise, this TV Addict was more than prepared to cut him a little slack. I mean who can blame the neophyte Peacock President for wanting to generate a few splashy headlines, cash in on America’s seemingly never-ending love affair with 80′s nostalgia, not to mention, grab, what surely amounted to a huge pile of cash from Ford [Three cheers for vertical integration!].

That said, following the train-wreck, err… auto collision that was February’s two-hour movie [see review here], Ben Silverman is officially running on empty.

Last night’s season premiere of the re-tooled KNIGHT RIDER series was quite literally unwatchable. And believe me, this TV Addict tried. Twice! After only managing to get through twenty minutes of the pre-air premiere courtesy of iTunes, I made the unfortunate mistake to take a second shot last night thinking the show couldn’t possibly as bad as I was making it out to be.

Unfortunately, it was.

Not only does Justin Bruening have, as NJ TV Critic Alan Sepinwall so brilliantly put it, “all the screen presence of an IKEA nightstand.” The show itself is an incoherent mess of cheesy one-liners, ridiculously cheap looking special effects and a story so pointless it will have you wondering how much money Ford really ponied up to get this show on the air.

Hand down, the worst new series of the season and if the ‘Proverbial Powers that Be’ have any sense, the final nail in Ben Silverman’s coffin.

The News: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’S Paul Campbell [Billy] will be joining the cast of KNIGHT RIDER as the head research tech at Knight Industries.
The Lowdown: Finally giving us a reason to tune in after February’s uber-disappointing two-hour car commercial.
[Source]

The News: Ex-FRIEND Matthew Perry has signed on to headline Peter Tolan’s [RESCUE ME] Showtime pilot THE END OF STEVE. A dark comedy revolving around Perry, who will play a local TV anchor who’s real-life personality is somewhat different than his cheery on-camera one.
The Lowdown: Could we BE anymore excited for the return of Matthew Perry to television? Umm… no.
[Source]

The News: Madchen Amick is returning to Central Park West, or more accurately, the Upper East Side to play a possible MILF for Nate [Chace Crawford].
The Lowdown: Already spoiling May’s finale tease that ‘S’ and ‘N’ might have lived happily ever after, at least for a little while. Way to go EW.
[Source]

The News: ALL MY CHILDREN’s Leven Rambin will join TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES this season as Riley, a new school friend of John Connor.
The Lowdown: And by friend, we naturally assume love interest. So place your bets now, Riley is (a) an undercover Terminator sent from the future, or (b) Terminated by a Terminator, thus kick-starting John’s transformation from brooding teenager to leader of the revolution!
[Source]

The News: Television icon Mary Tyler Moore will be joining NBC’s LIPSTICK JUNGLE for a multi-episode arc next season, playing Brooke Shields’ mother.
The Lowdown: Casting coup yes. But in all seriousness, how many fans in the younger demographic NBC so dearly covets really has an attachment to 70′s TV icon Mary Tyler Moore?
[Source]

The News: Former star of THE PRACTICE, Michael Badalucco will be one of a rotation of grad students filling Zack’s position while he does the Hannibal Lecter thing behind bars.
The Lowdown: An old grad student. Sound hilarious! Assuming we didn’t already see the same gag on HOUSE and GREY’S ANATOMY last year.
[Source]

The News: The revolving door at County General continues as actors Shiri Appleby, Julian Morris, Emily Rose and Victor Rasuk join the cast of ER for its fifteenth and final season.
The Lowdown: News that would excite us had we not stopped watching ER the day a helicopter crushed Dr. Romano to bits.
[Source]

The News: Ex-MEN IN TREES star James Tupper will be joining the cast of SAMANTHA WHO for at minimum three episodes, playing a love interest for Christina Applegate.
The Lowdown: Can we start the healing process now MEN IN TREES fan? Or are we all still bitter? What’s that… still bitter. Rest assured, we at theTVaddict.com understand. Seriously, three years later, we still won’t shut up about EVERWOOD being canceled.
[Source]

At yesterday’s Global TV UpFront, the TV Addict got up close and personal with the Kitt.

And on a somewhat related note, I wanted to take a moment to highlight a reader comment that almost had my morning coffee streaming out of my nose.

Said reader EKI in response to star Justin Brueing revealing that when KNIGHT RIDER returns in the fall it will most likely feature different gadgets each and every week. “I think he forgot to mention the TOPP of the week (Tremendously Obvious Product Placement).”

Needless to say, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. If his short tenure at NBC has taught us anything, it’s that aside from spin-offs and ‘re-imaginations’ Peacock President Ben Silverman hasn’t met a product placement he doesn’t like!

It looks like the negative reaction that followed February’s two-hour KNIGHT RIDER movie may not have fallen on deaf ears after-all.

Talking to the Canadian media [including your very own TV Addict] at Global TV’s 2008 UpFront this morning in Toronto, KNIGHT RIDER star Justin Brueing had this to say when asked how the series returning this fall will differentiate itself from the underwhelming two-hour movie.

“Just as the original series was reinvented as a sequel for the two-hour movie, the new series will be reinvented again. Picking up six months after our little origin story, everything will be different. The car will have a different look and will be able to morph into a different attack mode each week. There’s also talk of different gadgets in every episode.”

Needless to say, this TV Addict thinks I speaks for everyone when I say, here’s hoping third times a charm!

With the Up Fronts behind us, you’re probably wondering what new shows warrant a season’s pass on your DVR/PVR come this fall? Well, wonder no more. Because all week long theTVaddict.com will be posting our Super Early 2008 Fall TV Preview. Offering up ridiculously early and ill-informed snap judgments on a whole slate of new network shows. Putting to rest those who say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover – or in this case a TV show by its one paragraph summary and cast photo.

SNAP JUDGMENTS

PROJECT GARY [CBS, 8:30PM]:
See precocious kid, see hot wife, see the once respected Jay Mohr sell his soul for what we assume is one really big paycheck from CBS.
>> Click here for a video preview

KNIGHT RIDER [NBC, 8PM]:
Oh now I get it. February’s dreadful KNIGHT RIDER movie was simply a brilliant plan on NBC’s part to lower expectations for the show’s phenomenal return this fall! Right?
>> Click here for a video preview

DO NOT DISTURB [FOX, 9:30PM]:
Okay, we won’t.