Image Credit: Splash News
Charlie Sheen isn’t the only high-profile actor who’s out of job next season.
Networks chased after a slew of stars during pilot season, then left a bunch out in the cold once they decided which series were making their schedule. Among the survivors are Tim Allen (Last Man Standing), James Van Der Beek (Apartment 23), Christina Applegate (Up All Night) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Ringer). But for every name that made the cut, there’s at least two that are back to pounding the pavement for work.
One of the biggest names left in the cold is Ethan Hawke, whose Fox action pilot Exit Strategy was passed over. There’s still a chance it could get retooled or salvaged, but chances seem slim.
Another big get, Angela Bassett, was expected to make ABC primetime in her police drama Identity, but the network picked up 13 other projects instead.
Image Credit: Insidefoto/PR Photos
Lost actors Jorge Garcia and Henry Ian Cusick may have found safe havens in Fox’s Alcatraz and ABC’s Scandal, respectively, but former co-star Terry O’Quinn’s Hallelujah was passed over at ABC.
Michael Chiklis seemed to land on his feet when No Ordinary Family was cancelled by landing a starring role in the CBS’ Vince Uncensored, but the comedy from Conan O’Brien’s production shingle didn’t make the grade.
Becki Newton had her choice of projects after NBC’s Love Bites imploded, yet her CBS sitcom wasn’t one of those tapped for a slot.
After Jimmy Smits’ CBS drama Cane and NBC’s Outlaw had short-lived runs, he ended up in NBC’s Traffic style crime-and-politics drama Special investigations L.A. But that, too, was a no-go.
Image Credit: NBC
And finally we come to Adrianne Palicki, who arguably had the roughest ride this pilot season. While most pilots come and go without drawing much attention beyond Hollywood and dedicated fan sites, the Friday Night Lights star was cast in the hugely buzzed-about Wonder Woman that received national press. Then NBC turned it down. This wasn’t Palicki’s fault, of course: The project already had enormous challenges (starting with that costume). Going through all that would make anybody want to take off in an invisible jet.
Other notable names: Robert Knepper, Robby Benson, Kristin Kreuk, Paula Marshall, Katie Cassidy, Rob Riggle, Annie Wersching and Rob Schneider (though he still might get picked up for CBS’ midseason).
RELATED:
Top time-period battles next fall (and who will win)
Best and worst new shows, decisions and scheduling moves of the 2011 upfronts
Actually, Emily VanCamp’s show (Revenge) did get picked up by ABC for Wednesdays at 10.
Yeah I was going to say…Though I guess they’rej ust predicting the future because I don’t see that show lasting. Bad time slot(it’s preceded by great comedy and it looks like melodrama which takes itself to seriously) and blah premise.
i’m actually pretty excited about it, the trailer looks good. it’s not uncommon to have comedy preceding the 10pm drama (cbs monday, and nbc thursday has been that way for years, and next season w/ Prime Suspect).
Please … NBC or CBS … pick up Detroit 1-8-7!
I’ve looked over some of the shows picked up and I gotta say its like they’ve gone all shallow. They wanna play it safe, they wanna have like shows that have themes or actors people know but they’re not pushing any envelopes. Its all brains and no balls. They say we the viewers are missing the point but they have no point. Without integrated diversity you have no friction. Without friction there is no story. Without story, you have no show. That said, you’re wasting all your money on a bunch of frustrated suburban know-nothings, in regards to street smarts or people skills and hard life experiences, that everyone has told to go away time and again. What you need are people that don’t need to ask what you’re talking about because they can see your point in more ways than one for better or worse. They whom not only know where the consumer offering suggestions are coming from but can relate and push new ideas in those areas forward. Without of course scabs taking their jobs during a WGA strike in effort to push smart shows off the air. How are we supposed to be a smart industry when brains are being bred out by patronizing paranoid puritans?! There ought to be an asian, mexican and hindu Brandon Tartikoff to go to right now. Not some former Enron yes man.
Please, more jokes about the Wonder Woman costume!! I haven’t heard enough of them yet!!!
Annie Wersching’s drama pilot was passed on as well. It’s ridiculous that ABC picked up awful trash like “Work It” instead of a quality looking show with a great actress.
Yeah Emily Van Camp and Robert Carlyle both made it.
Really disappointed about ‘Partners’. Annie Wersching, Scottie Thompson, Nestor Serrano, and Michael Beach in an Edward Benerro program? And they picked up Good Christian Belles and The River instead? ugh
Totally agreed about ‘Partners’. WTF is ABC thinking passing on it?
Katie Cassidy needs to be on something immediately.
AMEN!
I actually prefer Katie Cassidy on GG to Kaylee Defer.
I’d pretty much prefer Katie Cassidy over anyone so I must agree but I do like Kaylee Defer, she has picked up where Juliet left off and I love it.
Terry O’Quinn would make an excellent new boss for Beckett on Castle, that is my vote!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Great idea! Except, I would want him to have a much meatier role, because he totally deserves the limelight.
I really want them to throw the Wonder Woman pilot up on Hulu or something. I want to see just how bad it was.
My vote is for Wentworth Miller. Who was not listed up there – but was supposedly in that series “Identity” with Angela Bassett.
I wouldn’t worry about Adrienne Palicki finding work after she absolutely stole the movie Women In Trouble . The girl has comedic talent up the wazoo ! Looking forward to seeing her in the sequel Electra Luxx .
And she was great on that episode of Criminal Minds this season
Apparently none of you watch Friday Night Lights cause Tyra Collett tops all those roles.
I totally agree with Captain–if you haven’t watched Friday Night Lights (I don’t understand why you haven’t yet…) but Adrianne Palicki is utterly amazing–Tyra was definitely my favorite character because she took a seemingly one dimensional character from the pilot and gave her SO much depth. (granted the writers also did a lot of this) but, Palicki was SO DAMN GOOD! Really heart-broken she won’t be on my TV in the fall…even if it would’ve been in Wonder Woman.
Angela Basset will be fine. She has “Waiting to Exhale: The Sequel” coming up. *can’t wait*
Yeah Angela will be fine, it`s there loss, she has movies and broadway lined up
What’s the plot? They’re all waiting for Whitney to get off the pipe? It’s waaaaaaay past time to exhale.
whitney will never get her life on track crack till the end waiting for nothing they should do it while shes on crack
And also Julie Benz! I heard she was doing some pilot Bc she knew NOF was being cancelled. I loved her on Angel and Dexter but can she be on a hit series and not be killed off?
She in Cbs Gifted Man Pilot. It got picked up. I don’t know if she a regular or recuring.
No, b/c she is a terrible actress. She just happened to luck out in some roles – in good shows – that just about any blond could do.
Saw the pilot and Julie Benz was soooo much better than Jennifer Ehle. Benz should have gotten the ghost wife role and Ehle should have never been hired. Either way, it will be CBS’ first cancellation this fall.
No woman who ever wore a strapless dress can understand a superhero running around VOLUNTARILY in a strapless bodysuit to fight crime. No offense to the origins of Wonder Woman (but whom I have to say, though, was drawn by men). Honestly, that picture at the top of this article is ridiculous.
Thank you. A costume like that worked in the kitschy seventies, but could you imagine anyone in this day and age wearing a silly costume like that? They should have set it in the sixties or seventies. Another option would have been to make her a bad-@ss amazon and set it in the future. The outfit could have been completely revamped if they had put a darker spin on it. This reboot had failure written all over it.
You are SO right. I’d have black eyes if I tried to run in that outfit. Totally absurd.
You have to feel for Palicki. She will be associated with the Wonder Woman role forever since she was cast, filmed, and there are countless photos and youtube videos of her as Wonder Woman…and yet, she never got to be Wonder Woman. The least they could do is to let the pilot be seen somehow and let the girl do some interviews/promotional work for it. Unlike Superman and Batman there aren’t many that can lay claim to having portrayed Wonder Woman aside from Cathy Lee Crosby and of course Lynda Carter.
Don’t forget Jim Parsons.
Maybe the pilot will be sold on ebay someday if it ever leaks out onto the black market like the Roger Corman 90s Fantastic Four movie .
My vote is for Sarah Michelle Gellar, who wasn’t a choice
angie, SMG’s show was picked up by the CW.