NBC’s 2010-2011 Primetime Line-Up – Conspiracies, Spies and Superheroes

Earlier this week, NBC announced its 2010-2011 primetime line-up, which includes conspiracy, espionage and costumed crime fighting. Here are some of those highlights:  

The Event is an emotional, high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter, The Class), an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée, Lelia (Sarah Roemer, Disturbia), and unwittingly beings to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Sean’s quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood, In Treatment), Sophia (Emmy award nominee Laura Innes, ER), who is the leader of a mysterious group of detainees, and Sean’s shadowy father-in-law (Scott Patterson, Gilmore Girls). Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind. Ian Anthony Dale (Daybreak) and Emmy winner Zeljko Ivanek (Damages) also star in this ensemble drama. The Event is a production of Universal Media Studios and Steve Stark Productions. Stark (Medium, Facing Kate) serves as executive producer, Nick Wauters (The 4400, Eureka) is creator/co-executive producer and Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights, Trauma) is the director/executive producer. Evan Katz (24) is also an executive producer. Check out http://nbc.com/the-event/ for more information.  

NBC's Undercovers. Photo copyright of NBC

Acclaimed writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost, Alias) serves as co-writer, executive producer – and also directs – his first direction of a TV series pilot since Lost in Undercovers with executive producer/writer Josh Reims (Brothers and Sisters). Undercovers is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world’s most dangerous partnership. Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, Soul Food, Resident Evil: Afterlife) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Doctor Who, Bonekickers), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, Smallville). Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, American Heiress) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney, Deadwood) to locate and rescue Nash. The pair is thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe – and Steven and Samantha realize that this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing. Undercovers is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The pilot was written by J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims and directed by Abrams. Abrams, Reims and Bryan Burk (Fringe, Lost, Alias) are the executive producers. Check out http://www.nbc.com/undercovers/ for more information.  

NBC's The Cape. Photo copyright of NBC

The Cape is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (ER) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, Life On Mars) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, Flash Forward). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape,” his son’s favorite comic book superhero – and takes the law into his own hands. Rounding out the cast are James Frain (The Tudors) as billionaire Peter Fleming – The Cape’s nemesis – who moonlights as the twisted killer Chess; Keith David (Death at a Funeral) as Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus gang of bank robbers who mentors Vince Faraday and trains him to be The Cape; Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as Orwell, an investigative blogger who wages war on crime and corruption in Palm City; and Dorian Missick (Six Degrees) as Marty Voyt, a former police detective and friend to Faraday. The Cape is a Universal Media Studios and BermanBraun production from executive producer/creator Thomas Wheeler (Empire), executive producer/director Simon West (Con Air), the executive producing team of Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun (NBC’s Mercy) and executive producer Gene Stein (Accidentally on Purpose). Check out http://www.nbc.com/the-cape/ for more information.  

As noted above, all photos copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Trauma’s Derek Luke, Kevin Rankin and Dario Scardapane – Field Medics

Derek Luke as Cameron Boone and Kevin Rankin as Tyler Briggs in the season one Trauma episode "All's Fair." Photo by Paul Drinkwater and copyright of NBC

FROM executive producer Peter Berg (NBC’s Friday Night Lights) comes Trauma, the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field where the real action is. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, Trauma, is an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics. When emergencies occur, the trauma team from San Francisco City Hospital is first on the scene, traveling by land, sea or air to reach their victims in time. From the heights of the city’s Transamerica Pyramid to the depths of the San Francisco Bay, these heroes must face the most extreme conditions to save lives – and give meaning to their own existence in the process. 

Starring in Trauma are Cliff Curtis (Push) as daredevil flight medic Reuben ”Rabbit” Palchuk; Derek Luke (Notorious) as stoic paramedic Cameron Boone; Anastasia Griffith (Damages) as strong-willed paramedic Nancy Carnahan; Aimee Garcia (George Lopez) as tough rookie helicopter pilot Marisa Benez; Kevin Rankin (Friday Night Lights) as edgy EMT Tyler Briggs; Taylor Kinney (Fashion House) as rookie EMT Glenn Morris and Jamey Sheridan (law & Order: Criminal Intent) as mentor Joe Savino. Peter Berg, Sarah Aubrey (The Kingdom, Friday Night Lights0, Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights), Peter Noah (The West Wing) and series creator Dario Scardapane serve as executive producer. The pilot was written by Scardapane and directed by Reiner. 

Last week, Derek Luke, Kevin Rankin and Dario Scardapane spent some time chatting with myself and other journalists about the series. The following is an edited version of our Q & A. Enjoy! 

I wanted to know if any of you were aware of the online following that you all have as far as a save the show campaign and backing the show with social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook? 

DARIO SCARDAPANE - We’re very aware of it, and watching the show’s Facebook fan page grow by about 1,000 people a week over the last few weeks has been amazing. And being a Facebook addict myself, I’ve had a lot of contact with a number of the fans. It’s been kind of a strange rollercoaster to be on, with the show on and off the schedule [due to the recent 2010 Olympic coverage], with more episodes ordered and a lot of strange things that have happened. But it’s been pretty great to hear such positive feedback and to see people doing things like sending Band-Aids and calling the network on our behalf. It’s a great way to get direct feedback from the audience. 

KEVIN RANKIN - With the Internet and these kinds of things, you’re not powerless as a viewer any more. At least you feel like you can do something, even if it doesn’t work, you know, at least you can have some sort of closure. A lot of shows get yanked after a couple of airings, so we’ve been very lucky and I would love to think that it has something to do with the great fans we have out there who are spreading the word. 

DEREK LUKE -Wow, this is funny, because my wife has been asking me to get on Facebook. But for me, I’ve been getting so much word of mouth from people on the street who have been asking me, ‘Where’s Trauma?’ And I tell them, “The Olympics,” and they’re like, ‘Man, we’re waiting for your show to come back.” So I think word of mouth is working as well as things like Facebook and Twitter. 

This question is for Derek and Luke – can you tell us a little bit about the audition process for your respective roles and some of the challenges you guys initially found stepping into these roles? 

KR - I previously worked with Jeff Reiner and Peter Berg on Friday Night Lights and then Trauma came up. I got a phone call, came in and met with Dario. We hit it off immediately and just started spit-balling ideas for the character. So it was nothing but a golden process for me. Of course, I did have to come in and test for the network, but probably my biggest challenge with the show has been a lot of the medicine and medical terminology. At the beginning of the season, though, it’s finding your character and something that’s going to speak to the people and just trying to tell this story of Tyler Briggs. 

DL - Kevin and I have a lot in common as far as behind-the-scenes. I’d worked with Peter Berg before, and then I met Jeffrey and Dario in the initial [audition] meeting. I was excited about playing Boone just because when I read the script there was so much meat and integrity in the words. Again, having worked with Peter on Friday Night Lights, this role was, like Kevin’s, a straight hire. One of the challenges for me besides the medicine was when I asked Pete, “What’s the difference with building a character on TV as opposed to in a movie?” He said, “You just have to play it moment by moment.” So I came in with a lot of questions, but I love the fact that we’re in different situations week-to-week. 

Dario, where did your inspiration for the series first come from, and what, for you, were some of the challanges getting Trauma off the ground? 

DS - Well, I’ll flat-out say that the inspiration was Emergency and the generation that grew up on that show. When Pete came to me about redoing or coming up with something that had the same kind of emergency medical adrenaline, it was just like, “Yeah, I have to.” I’d worked with NBC as well as Sarah Aubrey and Pete Berg quite a bit over the years, and this just seemed like something perfect. I’d never done a medical show before, and being the son of a doctor, the grandson of a doctor, the son of a nurse, the nephew of a doctor, and coming from an Italian American medical family where I am without a doubt the black sheep, it seemed like the right way to come up with a little off-center medical series. As far as the challanges of getting the series off the ground, they were the same ones that face just about any TV show. Our pilot was huge and perhaps kind of mis-sold as something about explosions and car wrecks, and now it’s a show about characters and this amazing group of people who go into the fray when others would run away. 

Kevin, what’s been the best argument Tyler and Boone have had so far, or which one is your favorite? 

KR - It’s just one continuous argument of who’s going to drive, who’s going to clean the rig,  and just these little nit-picky things between friends. I really don’t think it bothers Boone and Tyler too much. It’s just part of their MO [modus operandi]. However, you’re going to see in the next couple of episodes that when they do have arguments, that some lines will be drawn in the sand, but you can wipe those lines away real fast. So they’re always going to butt heads, but thing always come out in the wash and it’s always a good time with them. These guys are great friends and it’s a great friendship to see play out. I love it. 

DS - And their friendship will face a very, very big challenge in the final two episodes of the seasons. 

Dario, with so many medical dramas out there, what do you think might set Trauma apart from those and make people curious to tune in? 

DS - The bulk of our action takes place before you hit the double-doors of the emergency room, and I also think that we’ve avoided a lot of the tropes and clichés of many other shows. This is faster, funnier and a little bit weirder, and I mean that in a good way. Trauma also deals with street medicine; it deals with the medicine on the sidewalk, the medicine inside the cab of a rig. More importantly, what sets it apart from a lot of the medical shows out there, some of which came out of the same developmental season as us and have not stuck around, is that most of them rest on guest-star patient stories. So and so comes in and there’s a guest-star who has a horrible thing happen to him or her and it’s resolved at the end of 42 minutes. Our show rests on the job and the toll of the job and how it affects our core ensemble cast of characters. Trauma has a pretty unique tone, unlike most other medical shows. 

KR - We said right from the get-go that this was, you know, punk rock, not Burt Bacharach. I’ve definitely had that in the back of my mind from the beginning. 

DL - I love the energy and the current relationships. It seems like Trauma is very current and I think it takes a look at how our world affects us and how we affect our world. 

Kevin, how did you approach playing a gay character? Was it something that you were really conscious of, or did you not even think about it? 

KR - With any character, things like that are costuming to me. It’s wardrobe, because with every character that you play, you’re playing the human, and the heart of the character. I said from the beginning when I was approached to play a gay character that, like anything else, he’s going to be a guy who happens to be a paramedic who happens to be gay. I thought it was a unique opportunity to play it differently as opposed to putting this character into a stereotypical box that network television and a lot of other TV has done over the years. 

People see a very flamboyant, homosexual character on TV and then they go home and think, “Oh, I don’t know any gay people because that’s how gay people are.” But what they have to understand is that everyone knows someone who’s gay. They may not throw it in your face, they may not tell you about it, but I just thought this is a really unique way to get the message out there that, hey, we’re all the same. So I don’t think I approached this any differently than any other character I’ve played. In Friday Night Lights I was a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. If you saw me wheel into a scene, you forgot about that chair pretty quickly. You just saw the human, and I thought this is really great because we introduce Tyler at the beginning of the season and you don’t know he’s gay. 

Dario, you said earlier that maybe the show was sold incorrectly in the beginning, with it being about explosions and what not. Do you wish you had a do-over? 

DS - Not at all. The pilot process is kind of crazy and so breakneck, and way back when, even at the [network] upfront, I remember saying something, and thank God it’s still in print, about the fact that this isn’t a show about explosions, this is a show about people. In the cascade of 30-second soundbites and what you see in the first few minutes, it became evident that, wow, this show has a lot of crap blowing up. Now, though, we’re 10 episodes in – we’re shooting the 17th episode – and there’s a lot less stuff blowing up as far as cars and tankers, and more stuff blowing up amongst people, which I feel is more compelling. So I really hope that audiences give it a chance and dig in with these guys. I don’t think people come to television for spectacle. I don’t really have much fun writing spectacle for television. I’ll do that in features. 

Are you able to tease us a little bit as to what might happen should there be a season two of the show? 

DS - Well, season two will see all of our characters in a different place, quite literally and figuratively. Some will remain where they are in terms of inside the box – again, literally, the medical rig – while others are going to have to forge new paths, to sound really vague. Let’s just say that all bets are off in season two. You’ll notice by the end of the first season, that one of the characters isn’t around, and what happens with that and the ripples that that has for everybody’s lives are going to play out in season two. I’ve got the first three episodes of the second season kind of sketched out in my head, and I really hope we have the opportunity to make them. 

Dario, at one point we’d heard the show was cancelled, and then it was back and you were given more episodes. What has this been like psychologically for you and the cast to go through as far as we’re on again, off again, we’re here, we’re there, etc? 

DS - Honestly, it’s been amazing because it’s brought us together. It’s made the actors speak up about what they want to do and they’ve been our partners in this. And I have to say that we’ve got the best crew ever. I was on-set a week ago when we were at the end of a 14-hour day and I looked around and the entire cast was there. We were filming some additional footage for our very first episode back [after the 2010 Olympics] and it felt wonderful. We’ve survived the odds, you know? We thought we were off the air after 10 episodes and here we are getting ready to do 20. Talk about a great feeling.

As noted above, photo by Paul Drinkwater and copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Caprica’s David Eick and Paula Malcomson – Vive La Difference!

Caprica co-creator/executive producer David Eick. Photo by Chris Haston and copyright of the Syfy Channel

Paula Malcomson as Caprica's Amanda Graystone. Photo by Joe Pugliese and copyright of the Syfy Channel

On January 22nd, 2010, the long-awaited Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica premiered on The Syfy Channel. A few days before, series co-creator/executive producer David Eick and cast member Paula Malcomson, who portrays Amanda Graystone, spent some time on the phone speaking with myself as well as several other journalists about the series. The following is an edited version of our conversation. Enjoy!  

Can you talk about the intention to make Caprica different from Battlestar Galactica, because it definitely has a whole different feel to it.  

DAVID EICK - I think we’re very intently committed to the idea that this show stand on its own, and that it not in any way feel like an echo, a descendent or an extension of Battlestar Galactica. You’ll note that the title is not Battlestar Galactica Caprica, but simply Caprica. The relationship that it has to Battlestar is purely inconsequential. It’s kind of in an Easter egg sense of fun for the fans and audience that followed Battlestar Galactica. However, if you never saw a lick of that show, it will have no impact on your ability to really get involved in and relate to the characters as well as the drama that we’re doing on Caprica.  

People can pretty much watch Caprica in a lot of different places other than on the Syfy Channel, such as on-line. Is that part of your design or does that come from the network?  

DE - Well, it was a network design, but I believe – and I’m not certain about this – that it’s a release strategy or a distribution strategy that other networks have tried as well. I think Glee may have done something like this where the pilot premiered and after a period of time went by, the pilot re-premiered as a launch to the TV series. So I think in a multi-platform universe as it were, where people are consuming dramatic material on their televisions, DVD players and the Internet, it’s really kind of smart and ahead of the game to figure out new and unorthodox ways to launch a TV show. But, yes, that was definitely the network’s call and we were happy to get onboard. In fact, it gave us an excuse to spend even more money on the pilot, and the version that ultimately aired was sort of tricked out with a bunch of new shots and visual effects as well as a couple of scenes we even re-shot. So it’s been worth it all around.  

Paula, it seems from watching the first few episodes that your character has a lot of really tough moments to play, and she makes a lot of choices that might make her unsympathetic in the eyes of a lot of viewers. I’m wondering how you struggled with portraying that and making her a likeable character?  

PAULA MALCOLMSON - It’s definitely something that occurs to you in the back of your mind, but as an actor you have to sort of put aside your own judgements in terms of whether your character is necessarily good or bad. I think being a good actor is sort of understanding the complexity of the human psyche and also knowing that none of us are perfect. So it was tough and I did think about it, particularly that many people would perhaps find Amanda unsympathetic. I just really tried to tap into the character’s loss and pain as well as the fact that she has made mistakes and then go from there, you know?  

DE - I would also add that I don’t think in the sort of canon of this show or shows like it, that there’s a tremendous amount of concern for what I would call old-fashioned television tropes-like sympathetic characters. I think audiences want challenging characters and ones who are neither black or white but somewhere in the middle and who are going to challenge the audience’s expectation in every way. One of the reasons that Paula plays her character so well is that you’re never quite sure what to expect from her. And there are times when you expect her to maybe lose it, but, in fact, she completely holds it together and vice versa. I think that’s human and real and part of what I think is the hallmark of the show.  

David, how much impact did female viewership play in not setting the series in space or relying heavily on space scenes?  

DE - Most of the people I spoke to about Battlestar in terms of the fan base were women, so the empirical demographic breakdown of the audience is something that I just chose to keep at bay and not pay a lot of attention to. So I never really think in terms of gearing a show towards a particular audience. In more general terms, yes, I do recognize the fact that perhaps a female audience might be more inclined to watch a story that’s more of a soap operatic kind of melodrama and without the accompanying visual sort of ghetto and spaceships and outer space. Something like that might have more accessibility to a female audience just because of that generalization. But that was never a motivation for not setting Caprica in space. The motivation was to make it as different and unique from Battlestar as possible.  

David, when you guys did Battlestar Galactica, you and Ron Moore (Caprica co-creator and executive producer) talked about how the plot of the show evolved organically instead of having everything mapped out in a specific direction. Based on your experience, have you changed that creative process, and if not, why have you stuck with that mentality?  

DE -Ron Moore and I had a number of discussions about this very early on. We come from very different backgrounds in terms of how writers’ rooms are run. On Star Trek - and I heard all this third hand and cannot confirm any of it – but presumably the outline process takes place in the room. It’s very precise, very detailed. There’s not a lot of jazz or improvisation invited or tolerated, and it’s almost a military-like environment. That’s not to say that the work was any less good, it’s just that it was run with that level of discipline and structured parameters. I’ve worked with other writers and producers in a variety of different capacities and there was a much looser environment where young writers were encouraged to come up with ideas and contribute. You might throw some suggestions out, and you might find others brilliant. The downside of that is you would sometimes have an episode that didn’t work.  

So I think we wanted to sort of combine the best of both these [writing] environments. When it came to how the writers’ room was run on Battlestar, and then later on Caprica, it’s about having a structure or large picture plan usually concocted by me and Ron during the hiatus. That would then be delivered to the writing staff and everyone was encouraged to improvise and add and subtract and change and go crazy and just sort of create an environment where there are no bad ideas. If then we lost our way, we’d circle back to where we really wanted to go. So it really is a combination of running a tight ship and yet allowing for there to be a great deal of improvisation and changes on the fly, purely with the intent of developing the best ideas.  

PM - That applies on-set with the actors as well in terms of loosely dealing with the script, so when a surprise or something interesting comes up, we have the luxury to be able to follow that instinct. It’s really the only way to work as far as I’m concerned, otherwise there are no surprises and it’s boring, you know? Just the other day one of the directors said to me, “I never know what you’re going to do,” and I said, “Neither do I.” There’s just something amazing and beautiful about that, and hopefully it works.  

Paula, could you tell is a little bit about how you first became involved in Caprica and about your audition process for the role?  

PM - I met with Jeffrey Reiner, who directed the pilot, and I hit it off with him. He’s very smart and a huge film buff, so he just seemed like the kind of director I wanted to work with. So it was first of all responding to the material, and then meeting Jeffrey. I initially auditioned for the role of Sister Clarice, but Jeffrey wanted to see me play Amanda. I was hesitant about that, though, because I didn’t know if I could play that character. I was frightened of that, and I realized that that was a really good thing. Then I met David and Ron and everyone else involved. I think was the first person they cast, followed by Esai Morales [Joseph Adama], Eric Stolz [Daniel Graystone] and then Polly Walker [Sister Clarice], so I was delighted with the people who I’d be working with.  

David, with the first season of the show almost wrapped, what maybe have you enjoyed most so far about bringing the Caprica story to life?  

DE - Well, the biggest and most pleasant surprise was the one that we sort of didn’t allow ourselves to dream could happen, which was to get as lucky as we did with this [acting] ensemble. That phrase about you’re only as strong as your weakest link really applies when you’re dealing with an ensemble cast. And so we were very fortunate to have such strength across the boards from such established and well-recognized actors like Paula, Polly Walker, Esai and Eric, combined with people like Sasha Roiz [Sam Adama], who were going to be brand new to an American audience and are able to hold their own. Those are things you can’t plan for, you just have to hope. We got together in Lake Tahoe way back in January of last year to start breaking stories, so it wasn’t for lack of planning when it came to aiming to make the show good in every way that we could control. But as hard as you might work on casting and such, you just never know until you get there, and we just got incredibly lucky with our cast and crew as well.  

As noted above, photos by Chris Haston and Joe Pugliese and copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Patton Oswalt Cast in Syfy’s Caprica

THE Syfy Channel has announced that celebrated comedian Patton Oswalt will guest-star on its highly-anticipated series Caprica, premiering January 22nd, 2010. Oswalt will play the role of Baxter Samo, the wildly popular Caprican comedian talk show host on whose show Daniel and Amanda Graystone (Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson, respectively) ultimately appear.

Humanity’s storyline takes completely new twists with Caprica, which follows two rival families and their patriarchs – Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) – as they compete and thrive in the vibrant realm of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. This original, standalone series will feature the passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict in an omnipotent society that is at the height of its blind power and glory…and, unknowingly, on the brink of its fall. Caprica also stars Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Polly Walker (Sister Clarice Willow), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy) and Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone). The series is from Universal Cable Productions and executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson. Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights) directed the pilot.

As a comedian, Oswalt has released three TV specials and two critically acclaimed albums. This month, his one-hour Comedy Central Special, My Weakness is Strong, will premiere on air as well as on DVD/CD through Warner Bros. records. Patton tours regularly and extensively, headlining both in the United States and the UK. A regular at music festivals like Bumbershoot, Bonaroo and Coachella, he has also made the jump to theaters, as well as performing/reading at events by McSweeney’s and The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. He has a regular bi-monthly show at the new Largo at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles, and was also a regular fill-in host for Steve Jones on the nationally syndicated Jonesey’s Jukebox on Indie 103.1.

A versatile performer, Oswalt has also appeared in more than 20 films including Magnolia, Starsky and Hutch and Reno 911!: Miami, and provided the voice for Remy the Rat in Pixar’s Oscar-winning Ratatouille. Later this month, Patton will make his dramatic debut on the big screen as Paul Aufiero in Big Fan, the directorial debut of writer Robert Siegel (The Wrestler). Oswalt will also appear in Steven Soderbergh’s feature film The Informant, and recently appeared in Observe and Report with Seth Rogan.

His many television roles include Spence on The King of Queens on CBS for nine seasons as well as appearing on Seinfeld, Reaper, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job! Oswalt is also recurring again on the second season of Showtime’s The United States of Tara. He is a regular contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Real Time with Bill Maher and Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil.

Caprica Premieres In 2010 On The Syfy Channel

SYFY has announced the air date for its highly-anticipated upcoming series Caprica. On Friday, January 22nd @ 9 p.m., the show will kick off with a two-hour premiere and will air regularly on subsequent Fridays @ 10 p.m.

Humanity’s storyline takes completely new twists with Caprica, which follows two rival families and their patriarchs -Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) – as they compete and thrive in the vibrant realm of the Twelve Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. This original, standalone series will feature the passion, intrigue, political backbiting, and family conflict in an omnipotent society that is at the height of its blind power and glory…and, unknowingly, on the brink of its fall.

Caprica's Eric Stoltz (Daniel Graystone) and Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone). Photo by Evans Ward and copyright of The Syfy Channel

Esai Morales (Joseph Adama) with Caprica writer/executive producer Jane Espenson. Photo by Evans Ward and copyright of The Syfy Channel

Caprica also stars Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone), Polly Walker (Sister Clarice Willow), Magda Apanowicz (Lacy) and Alessandra Torresani (Zoe Graystone). The series is from Universal Cable Productions and executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson. Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights) directed the pilot.

As noted above, photos by Evans Ward and copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!