TV News Briefs: 90210, Buffy, Reaper, Sopranos, and Young Indiana Jones

Beverly Hills, 90210 — Full House and Summerland veteran Lori Loughlin has signed on for the CW’s 90210 spin-off. She’ll play Celia Mills, the former Olympic athlete who relocates to Beverly Hills with her husband and two teens. It’s rumored that pop star Hilary Duff was offered the role of Annie, the theatre-loving daughter of the Mills family. For whatever reason, it didn’t work out and Shenae Grimes of Degrassi: The Next Generation has landed the role.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer — There’s been little news about the Ripper spin-off since it was announced last year. It may have stalled but Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy’s Giles) says it’s not dead. He tells Digital Spy, “The latest is that I was over in LA last year at about this time. I bumped into Julie Gardner from BBC Wales who said ‘has anything ever happened to that?’ And at the same time I had just been speaking to Joss [Whedon] saying that there are a lot of people who keep asking about it. He said ‘Is there anybody at the BBC I can talk to about it?’ so I introduced him to Julie Gardner and they got on very well? and then the writers’ strike happened and FOX picked up an idea of his called Dollhouse that he’s doing with Eliza Dushku. So the answer is that there is a possibility of something happening… the story that he’s written could adapt to being a one-off story not necessarily related to Buffy. All that means that there is the will and there is the means. It’s a question of how, when and if it [comes together] through the next year or so.” As to the story details, Head says, “All I can say is that it’s a ghost story. But a ghost story with a real Joss Whedon difference. It’s got such a twist to it. But I wouldn’t want to give it away. It would be the worst spoiler of all time.”

Reaper — The CW execs still haven’t made up their minds about the future of the devilish comedy. Network spokesman Paul McGuire tells the LA Times that Reaper’s seen as a quality show but that, “Its future will be revealed when we announce our schedule May 13.” Producers are finishing up this season’s final episodes and are hopeful the show will be renewed now that they’ve found the show’s unique style. Executive producer Michele Fazekas says, “We understand what the show is now and what it can be. I think now that we’re in this groove, all of a sudden, in a weird way, instead of narrowing what our prospects are, it just opens them up. ‘Oh, I can see what season three is now, and season five.’ ”

The Sopranos — Series creator David Chase hasn’t closed the door on doing a movie follow-up to his popular HBO series but, don’t hold your breath. He told The Hollywood Reporter, “There’s no reason for us to foreclose the idea of ever doing a feature. But so far, that definitely hasn’t happened. I don’t think it will.” In fact, don’t count on Chase returning to series television either. He said, “As far as drama series, I don’t think I would tackle that again. It seems highly unlikely that I would have such a pleasurable experience again, and I’m just more interested in motion pictures.”

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The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles — The third and final volume of the George Lucas series is being released tomorrow. The hour-long episodes have been combined into two-hour movies and the DVD sets feature hours and hours of mini-documentaries about the real events and people that Indy encounters — including Woodrow Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and George Gershwin. The 1990s TV show wasn’t a hit for ABC but series star Sean Patrick Flanery (most recently, The Dead Zone) looks back on the series with great pride. He notes, “A lot of times as an actor you have to talk about things and act like they’re good. But this is not one of those. I’m more proud of this than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life.” Stay tuned!