The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, March 2, 2012 2 coverstory In the land of Oz Canceled Fox series resurrected for second season By Kyla Brewer TV Media T elevision "bad guys" used to be despicable, ranging from the bum- bling to the egomaniacal. However, the tide has turned in prime time recently and many of today's TV criminals are portrayed as clever, so- phisticated or even, at times, noble. Few actors can pull off that kind of mischievous charm like Christian Slater, and he's set to return to tele- vision in the season premiere of Fox's "Breaking In," airing Tuesday, March 6. Slater stars as Oz, a myste- rious man who leads a team of former thieves and ne'er- do-wells at Contra Security, a unique company that literally breaks into clients' business- es to point out holes in their security. He's a master of ma- nipulation and appears to take great pleasure in bossing around his uber-geeky crew in "Breaking In." This is the sophomore sea- son of the workplace comedy, a lucky break considering it had been cancelled in May of last year. "Breaking In" was initially picked up in Novem- ber 2010, with a mere seven- episode order. Those are some small potatoes in network prime time. The series pre- miered in April 2011 but had been cancelled in May. The show's producers at Megan Mullally joins the cast of "Breaking In" for the new season Sony TV reportedly fought for the series and the show was "uncancelled" as of August. That's pretty rare in network television, so Fox must have some serious faith in the se- ries and those behind it. "'Breaking In' is a creative- ly vibrant and wildly adven- turous comedy," said Fox ex- ecutive Kevin Reilly at the time of renewal. "We are looking forward to bringing it back for a second season and continuing our relationship with this incredibly talented cast and these fantastic cre- ators -- Adam Goldberg and Seth Gordon." Perhaps Fox gave "Break- ing In" another chance be- cause it touches on a recent prime-time trend. TV series with such troublemakers at the helm appear to be all the rage these days. A&E's "Breakout Kings," which also has its season premiere this A/Auto Boutique B/The Green Giraffe 2 x 2 week (March 4), follows a group of prisoners who make a deal with U.S. marshals to help them catch other crooks in exchange for reduced sen- tences. The convicts are seen not as heartless monsters, but as intelligent, sometimes re- morseful people. The same is true of TNT's "Leverage," which puts a modern-day spin on the age- old Robin Hood tale. Timothy Hutton stars as former insur- ance investigator-turned- thief Nate Ford. He guides a team of con artists and crooks who target powerful people who exploit those less fortu- nate. Also, USA Network's "White Collar" takes a look at what happens when an FBI agent (Tim DeKay) teams up with a charismatic con artist (Matt Bomer) in the hopes of nabbing white-collar crimi- nals. "Breaking In's" cast of de- linquents include Bret Harri- son as brilliant computer ex- pert and self-appointed "slacker hacker," Cameron Price. He may be Oz's go-to guy, but Price's biggest ally in the office is Cash Sparks (Al- phonso McAuley), a gadget and logistics whiz, not to mention prankster. Odette Annable, who also appears as Dr. Jessica Adams in Fox's "House," will recur as adven- turous safecracker Melanie Garcia. The biggest news for "Breaking In" this season is the addition of multi-Emmy winner Megan Mullally. She's set to take over the office as Veronica Mann, who be- comes Contra Security's brassy new boss after the company is bought out by multi-billion-dollar global corporation. The Contra crew must now adjust to playing by the Mann's rules. British actress Erin Richards also joins the cast as Mann's executive assistant, Molly. The well-rounded cast must be good news for Slater, who hasn't always had good luck with TV series. Although he's had phenomenal success on the big screen in such films as "Interview With the Vam- pire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1994) and "Broken Arrow" (1996), his TV projects often flop. The two major network TV series he's headlined in the past few years have fallen prey to the so-called "Slater Curse." Prior to "Breaking In," the actor starred in the 2009-2010 ABC drama "The Forgotten," which was can- celled after one season. Be- fore that, he was seen in NBC's 2008 action-drama "My Own Worst Enemy," which was cut after nine epi- sodes. It seemed "Breaking In" might suffer a similar fate, but somehow the show has sur- vived. Fox's renewal of the se- ries proves it's willing to give the off-the-wall comedy an- other shot, and the network seems to have a knack for making quirky comedies mainstream. Chirstopher's Coins 2 x 2 hollywoodQ&A By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: Who portrays Burt Reynolds in the "Saturday Night Live" versions of "Celebrity Jeopardy"? A: Not only did Norm Macdonald appear as Burt Reynolds in five installments of "Saturday Night Live's" "Celebrity Jeopardy" spoof, but he wrote the sketch specifically for the pleasure of doing so. "I wrote that sketch because I wanted to do Burt Reyn- olds and I couldn't figure out how to do him," he said in a recent interview with the Arizona Republic. Macdonald dis- covered later that Reynolds was actually a fan of the skits. "I think he loves them. Maybe it's because it reminds him of his younger self." Indeed, Macdonald says Reynolds was such a fan that the two talked about having the actor himself do an appear- ance in one of the "Celebrity Jeopardy" skits, punching Macdonald's Reynolds in the face. But before they could put it together Macdonald and "SNL" parted ways (he says he was fired, but the details have long been hushed). Apparently the feelings weren't too hard, though, be- cause Macdonald came back a year later to host the show, and he did a "Celebrity Jeopardy" installment while there. There have been 14 of them in total, with Will Ferrell be- ing the only performer appearing in all (as longtime "Jeop- ardy" host Alex Trebek). A/Crazy Tom's B/Allstar Auto Wash 2 x 3 Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town.