|
|
Just last week we went over the obstacles that Surgeon General will have to overcome to be picked up to series for the autumn schedules in the US.
Two current shows that have been under question for renewal are The Mentalist and The Good Wife. At that time it looked like just one of them would survive, with The Mentalist ahead by a nose. Earlier this week the favour was thought to have shifted to The Good Wife.
Last night Deadline (and many others) reported the news that CBS had announced a raft of renewals across their comedy and drama shows. Somewhat against expectation The Mentalist and The Good Wife can both breath a sigh of relief as the Sunday night pairing have got the nod for a further season.
As expected the likes of Elementary, NCIS:LA and Hawaii Five-O have been renewed. A show missing from the list is Criminal Minds. According to reports there are still significant negotiations continuing with the cast. Criminal Minds has had a troubled past with the loss, and even re-instatement, of fan favourite cast members. However, its prospects for return are considered good.
Vegas, widely thought to be a goner already, will be getting a sort of second chance in a few weeks with a return to the TV schedules in the difficult Friday night slot. CSI: NY was also not mentioned, the odds are against it.
What all this does is remove a few possible openings in the schedules for Surgeon General with a couple of months still to go before we hear for certain. Watch this space.
The pilot of Surgeon General is currently filming for the second week in Atlanta. It will continue into next week.
Surgeon General is, not surprisingly, a drama based on the office of the Surgeon General. The role, often described as the “nation’s doctor”, deals with health issues affecting the population as a whole. Kathryn plays Lydia Ferrari, Chief Of Staff to the SG. See the previous post for more details.
We’ve done a little more digging on the chances of the new CBS pilot starring Kathryn and Jason Isaacs, Surgeon General from being picked up to series for the CBS TV 2013-14 season in the US.
The CBS network as ordered 11 drama pilots. Of those near-dozen only a few will be selected to go beyond the pilot stage. We’re going to completely ignore the comedies as they are very unlikely to have any bearing on the scheduling of dramas, they tend to run in separate and fairly fixed blocks during the week.
Network stalwart NCIS (the original) has already been renewed. The Los Angeles branch is practically a certainty for renewal. Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, CSI (the original), new US take on the Sherlock Holmes franchise with an usually attractive Dr Watson: Elementary, and Hawaii Five-O are also considered safe bets for getting a further season.
Continue reading »
Following Friday’s wardrobe tests and table read, and Saturday’s rehearsals, it is no big surprise that filming of the Surgeon General pilot starts today (18th March 2013). Apparently the filming in Atlanta is scheduled to take about 2 weeks.
Our two leads (Jason Isaacs and Kathryn), Kat McNamara and more recently announced signings Kristen Shaw (as Barbara Weller) and Mike Coulter are all due to take part on day one.
Kristen, an Atlanta-based acting coach, is a long time collaborator of director Rod Lurie’s. She has featured in just about everything that Rod has ever made, going back to a short film in 1998. Kathryn had been in all of Rod’s feature films up to Resurrecting The Champ.
The news of Mike Coulter’s (Ringer and The Good Wife) signing broke on Friday. Mike’s role within the team will be as Dr. Connor McCallan, an epidemiologist.
On Thursday it was announced that The Lord Of The Rings star Sean Astin would be joining the cast. Sean will be psychiatrist Dr Alan Fischer, another member of the Surgeon General’s team. Sean is another actor that has worked with Rod Lurie before when he starred in the film Deterrence, which also featured Kathryn of course.
At this rate it can only be a matter of time before Mike Binder (The Mind Of The Married Man, which guest starred Kathryn in 4 episodes) turns up in an episode. This Mike was in The Contender and episode of the TV show Commander In Chief, which Lurie created.
Shaheed Malik, another Atlanta resident, will also be filming today. No word yet on when Beth Riesgraf (Leverage) as micro-organisms specialist Dr Page Wyatt, Alex Dawson, and other cast members John Tyner, B. Todd Johnston and Victor Turner are due to start filming.
 A photo has emerged of Kathryn and some of the other cast members of Surgeon General. They are all in Atlanta, Georgia at the moment doing a table read in preparation for filming the pilot episode.
 From left to right we have actors Alex Dawson, Kristen Shaw, Kathryn and Clay Kraski.
Thanks to the People Store Atlanta Talent Agency Facebook page for posting the photo.
Update (16 March 2013): Alex Dawson posted the photo you see on the right via her Instagram. As you can see it is from the same time as the one above. This new image joins the first in the Gallery. Thank you Alex for posting it.
It’s been nearly two days since the news of Kathryn’s new project broke so let’s collate all the info we have on it and run through some talking points:
- Show name: Surgeon General / The Surgeon General
- Kathryn’s role: Lydia Ferrari (aka LaFerrari to us at KM UK
 )
- Lydia’s job title: Chief Of Staff to the Surgeon General
- Co-stars: Jason Isaacs (Awake), Beth Riesgraf (Leverage) and Katherine McNamara.
- TV network: CBS
- Filming location: Atlanta, Georgia
- Writer/Creator: Samuel Baum (Lie To Me)
- Pilot director: Rod Lurie (Resurrecting The Champ)
- Premise: Dr John Sherman (Jason Isaacs) is the Surgeon General of the United States, the nation’s doctor. He has to deal with the political side of the medical profession, taking on government for the sake of the people.
Kathryn is not the lead actor in the show, that’s Jason Issacs as the Surgeon General Dr John Sherman. The Chief Of Staff to the Surgeon General is a management role, second in command to the General. Incumbents in both roles hold military senior military ranks. The Surgeon General works in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), based in Washington.
Lydia Ferrari is described as “fiercely loyal chief of staff and long-time friend, who was close to Sherman’s late wife. The consummate political operative, Ferrari admires Sherman and runs interference when he won’t play ball with their White House superiors” (THR).
Although talked about as a medical show because of the obvious doctor element, Surgeon General is more likely to be more of a political drama. No doubt there’ll be some investigative work as Beth Riesgraf plays Dr. Page Wyatt, a micro-organisms expert. TV have a habit of expanding characters roles in to investigators beyond the scope of the real job, see the CSI franchise for prime examples of that. It is not going to be an E.R., House or Bones.
Continue reading »
|
Welcome Welcome to Kathryn Morris UK, a website dedicated to the actress Kathryn Morris. Here you will find news, images, videos and information presented from the perspective of an English fan. This site has become the chief source of information for Kathryn's fans and fansites alike around the world.
If you have anything Kathryn-related that you would like to share please use the Contact Form to let us know.
Shout Outs To… Those suffering in war-torn areas
|
Latest Comments