Wednesday, August 15, 2012

TV News - 'Suburgatory,' 'How I Met Your Mother,' 'Hannibal,' 'White Collar,' 'Arrow,' 'Gossip Girl,' 'The Good Wife,' 'Parks and Recreation,' 'Touch,' 'Grimm,' 'The Mob Doctor' & 'Revenge'

        Wednesday, August 15 - Today's casting updates include new roles and upcoming guest stars on ABC's Suburgatory and Revenge; USA's White Collar; CBS' How I Met Your Mother and The Good Wife; FOX's Touch and The Mob Doctor; The CW's Arrow and Gossip Girl; and NBC's Hannibal, Grimm and Parks and Recreation.



H. Jon Benjamin will appear on the upcoming second season of ABC's Suburgatory. He will play Tabitha, Dallas' (Cheryl Hines) unconventional and unlicensed life coach who she trusts with everything. He will first appear in the second episode this season.

Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk will reprise his role as corporate lawyer Arthur Hobbs on the upcoming season of CBS' How I Met Your Mother. He will first appear in the second episode when he pseudo-represents Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) in his prenuptial negotiations with Quinn (Becki Newton).

Lara Jean Chorostecki (Camelot) has joined the cast of NBC's upcoming drama, Hannibal, as a series regular. She will put a gender twist on the role of reporter Freddy Lounds - previously played by Stephen Lang and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the movies. Chorostecki's updated character will be more sophisticated in her manipulations but no less daring than her prior male counterparts.

Emily Procter (CSI: Miami, The West Wing) will appear in two episodes of the fourth season of USA's White Collar. She will play Assistant Special Agent Amanda Callaway, who takes over as head of the White Collar division in order to keep Peter (Tim DeKay) and Neal (Matt Bomer) in line.

Torchwood star John Barrowman is joining The CW's Arrow in a recurring role. His role is simply being called "Well Dressed Man" and he will be a wealthy acquaintance of the Queen family and a prominent figure in Starling City.

Tamara Feldmen will be returning to the final season of The CW's Gossip Girl as schemer Poppy Lifton. After failing to con Serena (Blake Lively) and her family in her last appearance, she will return to the drama in a surprising context to deal with a new target.

GCB alum Miriam Shor is joining the upcoming fourth season of CBS' The Good Wife in a recurring role. She will play a reporter, whose background is in national news but she is forced into a local market, who is covering the Florrick campaign for governor. Show sources say that Shor's character is not a replacement for Kristin Chenoweth, who joined the series as a reporter but had to bow out due to an on-set injury. The series had also planned for there to be more than one news reporter trying to get the inside story but it now seems likely that Shor's role will be amped up to deal with Chenoweth's absence.

Lucy Lawless (Spartacus, Battlestar Galactica) has landed a multi-episode role on NBC's Parks and Recreation. She will play a single mom in Pawnee who has a small problem in her neighborhood which Ron (Nick Offerman) and Andy (Chris Pratt) come to help with. Once there, Andy notices that there is some strong chemistry between her and Ron.

Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons) will appear on an upcoming episode of FOX's Touch. She will play Rosemary Mathis, a gifted architect who has had talents like Jake since a young age. She will run into and bond with Guillermo (new series regular Said Taghmaoui) while in Barcelona for the unveiling of a cathedral - her newest design.

Michael Grant Terry (Bones) is joining NBC's Grimm in multi-episode role. He will play Ryan Smulson, a wide-eyed and enthusiastic student who interns at the Portland Police Department and starts to idolize Nick as the detective he wants to become. He will first appear in the eighth episode.

John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C) will recur on the upcoming season of FOX's The Mob Doctor. He will play Mark Easton, Dr. Brett Robinson's (Zach Gilford) father and a federal prosecutor who is feared by both the corrupt politicians and the mob.

ABC's Revenge has decided to recast the recurring role of Emily's revenge sensei, Satoshi Takeda, for the drama's upcoming second season. The part was original played by Hiroyuki Sanada but will now be he will now be portrayed by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Heroes, Hawaii Five-0). The casting change is due to the role having a bigger presence in the second season and Sanada's jam-packed schedule for the upcoming movie Wolverine being too large of a geographical challenge - since the movie is being filmed in Australia. Tagawa will first appear in the September 30 season premiere.