Kathryn Morris UK

A-musing Reminder Of Doctored History

It’s been a while since we had reason to post about the not picked up TV drama pilot The Surgeon General. Not since the last time in fact

In July of 2013 we saw the surprise (and possibly accidental) publication of a promo video for the show. By then we already knew the show had not been selected for the 2013-2014 TV season by the CBS network. That decision was clear (largely by omission from announcements, but also by director Rod Lurie Tweeting about it) a couple of months earlier.

Much like the promo video release we can still get the occasional pleasant surprise, even 2 years later.

Rod Lurie spent a bit of time yesterday (18th April) reminiscing on his Tweeter feed with photos from various projects he’s been involved with over the years. One of them (now in the Gallery) was the one you see above. That is Rod and Kathryn on the set of The Surgeon General.

Rod should be well known to all Kathryn fans because she has been in most of his feature films. She starred in Deterrence, The Contender, The Last Castle (in scene that didn’t make the final edit) and Resurrecting The Champ. For a long time I’ve thought of Kathryn as probably being Rod’s muse. He’s now confirmed my feelings by posting the above photo with the message:

#KathrynMorris is closest person I have to a muse. In 4 of my films. Here I direct her in a pilot #SurgeonGeneral.

Hopefully they’ll work together again soon.

Thanks to Rod for the trip back down memory lane.

Surgical Strike!

This was unexpected!

We thought it was completely dead and buried. Never to be seen or heard of again. But no! It takes one final dying breath. One last blip on the ECG before flat-lining.

After failing to be picked up to series it was likely that the Surgeon General pilot would remain locked up in the deepest of CBS’s vaults “on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’” (points for getting that reference) and forgotten about forever. Luckily for us PR and marketing company The Cimarron Group had other ideas.

Last Friday, for reasons unknown, Cimarron announced to the world that the show was “coming this fall to CBS”. They are wrong about that, it won’t. However, they were kind enough to post a “sizzle reel” promotional video to go with it. The promo would have been used at the Upfront events if Surgeon General ever got that far. Which it didn’t.

In the video we get to see all the major cast (“Hello to” Jason Issacs, Mike Colter, Beth Riesgraf, Paul McCrane, Anna Deavere Smith, Clancy Brown and Katherine McNamara) including Kathryn, who features prominently in several scenes. Sean Astin is notable by his absence though.

Just to reiterate: this does not mean the show will be made or that the pilot will ever be broadcast.

A set of screencaps and a small copy of the video are now in the Gallery for your viewing pleasure.

As is so often the case we must offer our huge thanks to Kareen_T for passing this along.

Surgeon General – DOA – Update

The American TV network CBS has today (15th May 2013) released their broadcast schedules for the upcoming 2013-2014 season. New TV show Surgeon General starring Jason Issacs and Kathryn is not on it.

Sad as it may be for all of us hoping to see Kathryn return to the small screen on a regular basis this is not entirely surprising. During the announcements and speculation of the past week Surgeon General was hardly ever mentioned. This is despite Jason being a much sort after star for the latest round of pilots. He is understood to have fielded several offers.

Putting the final nail in the coffin of our hopes Rod Lurie, director of the Surgeon General pilot, has Tweeted:

Ah, SURGEONGENERAL, which I directed for CBS, didn’t get picked up. But network and studio were super supportive and cool. Stuff happens. – LINK

We just wish we could see the pilot. Sadly it is unlikely to ever be broadcast.

We are very sorry to hear this news, even if it was becoming increasingly inevitable, and wish all those that took part and helped make the show all the best.

Update (prior to the Upfront event): Earlier today Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment President, was quoted as saying “When we get back to LA we’ll probably have other conversations” when asked about additional show pick-ups. So, shows that have so far not had good news could get a reprieve.

Surgeon General – Still In The Waiting Room

The last few of days has seen a slew of announcements about the TV shows that will be on-air later this year in America.

News of the cancellations and pilot pick-ups across the various US TV networks have given us a pretty clear picture of how their autumn seasons will look. Only a few question marks remain and most of them involve CBS.

So far CBS have announced four new comedies and only two new dramas. The expectation would be for one or two more drama at least. The lack of announcements has been surprising with things like the additional NCIS spin-off, generally considered a safe bet, not being mentioned either way.

In all the speculation Surgeon General (the pilot Kathryn starred in) has hardly been referenced at all, not even as a show we are waiting to hear about. It is difficult to no whether that bodes badly for Surgeon General or if it is still in the hunt. CBS clearly have some additional announcements to make prior to their Upfront event this coming Wednesday.

We’ll do our best to let you know as soon as the news breaks.

Surgeon General – A Pregnant Pause

It’s been a long time coming and we could be facing a long five month wait to September to see the results. Sleepless nights are guaranteed but hopefully all the worry and stress during delivery will be worth it.

Earlier this week Rod Lurie, the director of the Surgeon General pilot, Tweeted about having completed the director’s cut of the show. The filming only finished last week so he has done fast work on the edit suite. We don’t know for certain but we imagine that the CBS network chiefs will watch this cut and make a decision either way. Or possibly go a third way and request changes before re-evaluating.

We could be on tenterhooks until the official announcements at the mid-May “Upfronts” to find out whether the show has been picked up to series, but we will probably know before then.

There’s been no further significant news regarding the other pilots competing for CBS airtime being picked up, or existing shows being cancelled to make way for new ones. See the recent article covering that here. We have seen it suggested that the likely cancellation of a comedy or two on the network may free up time for another drama series. Surgeon General is still likely to be fighting it out over just a couple of spaces with 3 or 4 other shows.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: what impact will the big news of the week have on the show? (no offence Kathryn, you’re glowing of course 😮 )

Continue reading »