TV Rundown: Stargate Fills-Out Universe, CBS Orders Comic Adaptation, Cartoon Network Goes Live, David Kelley's New Show Set for Cancellation

The new medicine I am taking lists "lack of concentration/focus" as one of its many side effects, so there will probably be more Rundowns in coming months - it's all I can do and I have a doctor's note to prove it!

• Justin Louis, David Blue, Brian J. Smith, and Jamil Walker Smith round out the new Stargate Universe cast. We told you Robert Carlyle will lead the crew of a ship lost deep in space as they try to find their way home. Blue plays the resident slacker genius, Eli Wallace; Louis is Col. Everett Young; Louis = Lt. Matthew Scott; and Smith tackles the heavy, Sr. Sgt. Ronald Greer. Stargate veterans, Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, will executive produce and write the program, which debuts as a two-hour movie special.
• CBS has picked-up Human Target, based on the DC comic book and written by Jericho co-creator, Jonathan Steinberg.
• TNT has ordered six more episodes of Leverage.
• Cartoon Network is "expanding" into live-action with a slate of 12 new series planned for release in the next year or two. Chief content officer, Rob Sorcher, described them as "...action dramas, for the most part - they all fall under a sort of teenage boy wish-fulfillment scenario." He said live-action would not replace animated programming, it would "complement" it.
• Boston Legal creator, David E. Kelley's soon to be canceled legal drama (the fourth or fifth in a series), Legally Mad, will feature Hugh Bonneville, opposite Charity Wakefield. Legally Mad centers on a 20-something attorney who accepts a job in her father's law firm. Bonneville plays the dad, Gordon Hamm. Kelley described the series as "a lot of fun." The project has been developed for NBC, which plans to cancel it shortly.
• Speaking of the Peacock, NBC renewed both The Office and 30 Rock. Inexplicably, Heroes will also be returning. The Weirding also has some exciting news on the Heroes front, which we will be sharing shortly. The Biggest Loser will be lugging its fat asses back for another season, but Lipstick Jungle might be hitting the streets - both Kath & Kim and Knight Rider may soon follow. Drama, Southland, will be replacing ER, after three "bonus" episodes air.
• The Peacock has yet another entry on this TV Rundown, as they made a slew of announcements: The Untitled Amy Poehler Show will premiere in Kath & Kim's slot. The show follows Poehler's character, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana, as she seeks to beautify her town. The mockumentary has not announced any castmembers, but a commenter on E! had a great title suggestion: Parked.

And that's your TV Rundown for the third week of January, 2009.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008