[In yesterday's post, in the course of discussing the fate of shows on hiatus thanks to the ongoing writers' strike, I noted that only Journeyman was at risk for cancellation, thanks to disappointing ratings (and despite the fact that some of the blame for this falls on the unexpectedly weak performance of its lead-in, Heroes). NBC was particularly concerned that Journeyman consistently lost viewers not just from its lead-in but within its own hour. Nonetheless I thought the catastrophic impact of the strike on pilot season might resurrect this show for next year.

Sadly I must report that not only was I right about Journeyman being vulnerable, but that – so far from being saved by the strike – production for the show has been permanently shut down and Journeyman will not be back, this year or next.

I have it on excellent authority that shortly before Christmas the sets were taken down and destroyed, which effectively cancels the show for good as of Dec. 21. As my colleague Rachel Thomas already reported, NBC passed on its option for the “back nine” to complete the first season. Fans now targeting Fox, on whose lots Journeyman was being filmed, to pick up the show are unlikely to be successful: Fox is said to be uninterested.

How would the show have ended? We won’t know until everyone has been officially released from their contracts. But at least the show’s creators were able to wrap things up before the end: the last episodes, broadcast in December, brought the show full circle, with Dan witnessing the passing of the gift to himself (and learning he is the last of the travelers apart from Livia), Livia getting married, Jack becoming supportive, and Katie (while still unsettled) discovering some self-reliance.

Journeyman was one of the best and most interesting new shows of the season, and canceling a quality show knowing you’re going to have trouble filling slots in the fall is inexplicable. It even had cool opening credits, something you don’t get much these days. (Compare the graceful and atmospheric credits for Journeyman with, say, the profoundly stupid opening credits for Bionic Woman, which seem to involve Jaimie busting out of a shower stall.)

More importantly, the show avoided obsessing on the mechanism of the fantasy, or the random problems of Dan and Livia’s charges, and concentrated on how traveling disrupted and transformed the lives and personalities of Dan and everyone around him. This made for compelling stories about reasonably complex, interesting people you’d want to spend time with in real life. I like Chuck, for example, but I’d rather scrub my toilet than spend a night at a pub with any of its characters. Dan, Livia, Katie, Jack, and Hugh are people I’m going to miss. Let’s Download Journeyman Episodes

Gretchen spen her childhood in Lancaster (Pennsylvania, USA). She was attracted towards acting at a young age. Soon after graduating from the high school, she joined the Juilliard School for drama in New York. She divided her time in New York and Los Angels, and performed in a number of Broadway, off-Broadway and West End theater productions. She also started to star in a number of television series including Martial Law in which she became a series regular. In another series, Roswell, she appeared in a regular role as Vanessa Whitaker. She also starred in a movie, Gleason, in which she played the role of Jackie’s wife. She has also appeared in a number of TV series including Law and Order, Without a Trace, Century City, Nero Wolfe, Cosby, The Naked Brothers Band, Cracker, Leap of Faith, The Corsairs.

Filmography

• Journeyman (2007)
  
• East Broadway (2007)
  
• The Namesake (2006)
  
• Naked Brothers Band Movie (2005) (TV)
  
• Without a Trace (2003)
  
• Law & Order (2002)
  
• Gleason (2002)
  
• Corsairs (2002) (TV)
  
• A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001)
  
• Nicolas (2001)
  
• Roswell (2000)
  
• Martial Law (1999-2000)
  
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
  
• Cracker (1997)
  
• Quiz Show (1994)
  

ABC is not officially confirming the news yet, but reliable sources tell me that Rome-ing Journeyman Kevin McKidd has just signed on the dotted line to join ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for its upcoming season.

Playing a surgeon who arrives at Seattle Grace fresh from a tour of duty in Iraq, McKidd will first be (barely) glimpsed during the two-hour season premiere. McKidd’s character, by some accounts, ultimately will play doctor with Cristina, who has been nursing a broken heart and a seriously bruised ego ever since you-know-who didn’t stop talking skedaddled out of Seattle a season ago.

Word of McKidd’s possible casting first appeared at EW.com. – Matt Mitovich

Princess Lea

Lea Salonga, the singer behind Disney classics like Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” and Mulan’s “Reflection,” knows firsthand that it’s not easy being a princess.

“My work schedule has become, if you can believe it, more busy than it’s ever been,” she told the Los Angeles Daily News. “I’ve allowed for things to get more busy now that my daughter is a bit bigger and more hardy.”

Nicole Beverly, 2, probably will be around tonight when Salonga performs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. Then Salonga, who also played Kim in “Miss Saigon” will start rehearsals for a nine-month tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”

Today’s elimination…

Larry Strawther, one of the executive producers of “MXC,” isn’t pleased with ABC’s “Wipeout,” which looks a whole lot like “MXC.”

Strawther says that a video he created showing side-by-side moments from the two shows was pulled from YouTube after five days. In its place is a message saying the “Wipeout” producers filed a copyright violation. Strawther says he’s filing a counter protest; ABC is denying comment.

“Wipeout,” with 10.6 million viewers, topped the finale of “Hell’s Kitchen” Tuesday (8.8 million) on Fox where the student, Christina Machamer, 25, of St. Louis, beat out Louis Petrozza, 47, a caterer from Charlotte, N.C.

And we’re back…

Harry Shearer, who is promoting his digital comedy album “Lies of the Bushmen,” was also the bassist in Spinal Tap. He told Fox Sports that Spinal Tap is considering a comeback.

“It’s the 25th anniversary next year so we might do something big,” he said, as in a big reunion tour. It’s not certain yet but “I’m growing my beard,” he said.

And the Smashing Pumpkins’ 20th anniversary tour will begin Aug. 9 in Hammond, Ind.

“Expect a very loud and raucous show from us,” leader Billy Corgan writes on the band’s Web site. “The 20th Anniversary shows will be magical … we are already working on lots of surprises.”

Shorts

•Jay Karnes, the former KU acting student who plays Dutch on “The Shield,” will do at least six episodes of another FX series, “Sons of Anarchy.” That show about a motorcycle club trying to fend off real estate developers and drug dealers is being run by a “Shield” writer, Kurt Sutter.

•Kevin McKidd (”Rome,” “Journeyman”) is expected to do some episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and Michael J. Fox, whom some tabloids had on death’s door, is talking about doing a story arc on “Rescue Me.”

•Jamie-Lynn Sigler will play herself in at least three episodes of “Entourage,” and Jeffrey Tambor of “Arrested Development” is also reportedly in talks to join that show.

•Fandango.com estimates 38 percent of its recent ticket buyers for “Batman Begins” will take time off to see the film the first day. Furthermore, some theaters are adding 6 a.m. screenings July 18 for jokers who can’t make the 12:01 a.m. or 3 a.m. screenings that morning.

Mathesar rules!

Enrico Colantoni told the Fresno Bee he was surprised he got the chance to play the head of a SRU (Special Response Unit) group of cops on “Flashpoint.”

“With this kind of show, it is usually the good-looking, chiseled guy who gets to play the cop,” the hair-challenged and not-so-tall Colantoni said recently.

“Flashpoint,” which premieres at 9 tonight on CBS, is a Canadian drama that has already aired 13 episodes there. It was one of the programs CBS bought during the strike so it would have some original programming available.

But never mind that. Colantani, who also spent a few seasons as the father on “Veronica Mars,” was also the alien leader Mathesar in “GalaxyQuest.” He delights in the positive reaction he still gets about it from little kids to 90-year-old women.

“I never get tired of talking about ‘Galaxy Quest,’ ” he said. “I am so proud of that movie. Our only fear was that we were having so much fun making the movie we got concerned it might not be as good as we thought it was going to be.”

Kevin McKidd

Born:
9 August 1973, Elgin, Moray, Scotland, UK

Education:

University of Edinburgh (dropped out)
Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh (Studied drama)

Science Fiction, Horror or Fantasy
Journeyman
Hannibal Rising
Dog Soldiers
The Magical World of Leprechauns

Biography from Wikipedia

“McKidd was born and spent his childhood in Elgin, Moray, Scotland. He was a member of the local acting group the Moray Youth Theatre. As a teenager he was part of rock band Plan 9, touring the north of Scotland and enjoying some local success. Planning to study engineering he attended the University of Edinburgh but dropped out and instead enrolled at Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh to study drama. He also joined the University’s student theatre company, Bedlam Theatre.

McKidd’s first professional role was in the television series Father Ted; he played Father Deegan in the 1996 episode “A Christmassy Ted”. Some of his subsequent roles include Tommy in Trainspotting and Malky Johnson in Small Faces, with Iain Robertson. In 2004, he played James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the BBC mini-series Gunpowder, Treason & Plot.

He appeared in Kingdom of Heaven, the blockbuster movie directed by Ridley Scott, the 2002 film adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby and was also the voice of Jezz Torrent in GTA: Vice City. Others might know him from Neil Marshall’s horror film, Dog Soldiers, as Pte. Cooper. In the 2005 BBC drama, The Virgin Queen, he played Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

In 1998, he again joined Robert Carlyle on-screen in the 4-part BBC2 series Looking After Jo Jo, playing the role of Basil, a drug dealing cohort of Carlyle’s eponymous character. The show was directed by John Mackenzie of The Long Good Friday. He was one of the stars of the joint HBO/BBC series Rome, where his portrayal of the soldier/politician Lucius Vorenus received critical acclaim.

Additional work includes his role in the Silence of the Lambs prequel Hannibal Rising (2007). In the fall of 2007, McKidd will star in the American science-fiction television series Journeyman on NBC.[1]

Rumours have linked McKidd to play the part of Marvel Comics Thor in the film of the same name, due to be released in 2009.

Kevin McKidd is married to Jane and has two children; Joseph and Iona and lives in Bedford, England.”

Kevin McKidd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trivia from IMDB.com

“Due to illness could not attend the photo shoot for the iconic Trainspotting (1996) advertising campaign, and is the only main star of the film who is missing.

Left a university course in engineering to audition for the Queen Margaret Drama School.

Has a son named Joseph (born 2000) and a daughter named Iona (born 2002).

Played a Roman on Rome (2005) and a Barbarian on The Last Legion (2007).

Kevin McKidd - Biography”