Kathryn Morris UK

Surgeon General – What Are The Odds?

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.

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Surgeon General Pilot Starts Filming

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.

Kathryn Behind The Scenes Of Surgeon General Pilot – Update

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.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – March 2013

001 Following on from Monday’s Cold Case screencap catch-up this month’s CCCC-up is going to be another Tracie Thoms-centric one. And for that we make no apology. We thought we’d go with a photo of Thom Barry though to head the piece for a change.

However, before we get to the main course we’ll serve up the gentlemen as an amuse-bouch.

Texas Chainsaw 3D, Thom Barry‘s most recent movie role is due for release on DVD and Blu-ray in May in the US and UK, see your local stockists for details on the dates in your area. The latest in a long line of ‘Chainsaw‘ movies this one’s excuse involves a woman visiting the town of the original massacre in the 1970s. She’s gone to claim an inheritance which turns out to be a house with a dark secret. It’s probably in the basement because that’s where sort of thing is normally kept, or the attic. Either way the woman and her friends do a lot of running about and laughing… No, not laughing, screaming. It’s like laughing only with more blood. Tania Raymonde (Lost and a recurring role in season 6 of Cold Case) was amongst the happy few flailing about in the dark. Thom Barry was Sheriff Hooper, almost certainly named after Tobe Hooper the writer and director of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Thom starred in an episode of the TV show Blue Bloods that aired back in mid-January. Some how we missed that from the previous CCCC-up. Bit of a C*C*-up. He was an Assistant District Attorney (ADA) in the New York-set cop drama starring Donnie Wahlberg (Rizzoli & Isles), Bridget Moynahan (Gray Matters) and Tom Selleck (Magnum PI). The episode was directed by David Barrett (aka One Of The Lucky Ones).

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Surgeon General Information

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.

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