After an arduous, cross-country and cross-species casting search, The WB has found its billion-dollar chimpanzee.
The lucky monkey is Kendall, a 4-½-year-old chimp from Orlando, Fla., and choose the winning number in the network’s “Play for a Billion” special on Sept. 14. Kendall, who will play “Mr. Moneybags,” will have the added pressure of performing in front of his hometown crowd, as the show will emanate from Orlando.
Kendall, whose credits include “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and appearances on Nickelodeon, will share the stage with hosts Drew Carey, Jamie Kennedy and Holly Robinson Peete. He was chosen from among dozens of simian thespians whose trainers submitted audition tapes.
“Kendall is very handsome by chimp standards,” executive producer Matti Leshem says. “He is wildly charismatic. When he walks into a room all eyes turn to him. And, most importantly, he’s the most ethical chimp we saw.”
Kendall is not the chimp featured in an ad for the special with Carey and Kennedy in a bank. That monkey apparently didn’t get along with his co-stars and was replaced.
Dennis Miller joins ‘Boston Public’
Comedian Dennis Miller will make his first entree into TV drama with a guest stint on “Boston Public.”
Miller, late of “Monday Night Football” and HBO’s “Dennis Miller Live,” has signed on for a three-episode arc that will begin Oct. 24. The king of arcane cultural references will play an investment banker convicted of securities fraud.
Rather than go to prison, though, he accepts a sentence of community service – teaching math at Winslow High. (Is it us, or does that sound like a sentence that would be handed out in another David E. Kelley show, “Ally McBeal”?)
Miller, who won five Emmys for “Dennis Miller Live,” has done some dramatic work in the past, playing cops or business types in movies like “Disclosure” and “Murder at 1600.” He’s never appeared in a TV drama, however.
CBS puts Pino
on the ‘Case’
Continuing to expand the ensemble behind star Kathryn Morris, CBS’ “Cold Case” is bringing in Danny Pino to help solve some tough crimes.
The new drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, “Cold Case” focuses on a Philadelphia homicide detective (Morris) who finds herself working on unsolved murders. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pino will play the latest addition to her “Cold Case” team.
The best thing for Pino about this new gig is that “Cold Case” already has a home in CBS’ schedule on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. EDT. That must be a relief because it snaps Pino’s string of high profile pilots that didn’t get series pick ups. He was one of the stars of the Steven Bochco FOX “Copsicle” drama “NYPD 2069” as well as Tom Fontana’s HBO series “Baseball Wives.” He didn’t do much better on The WB comedy “Men, Women and Dogs.”
Madden imitator joins Fox NFL
Frank Caliendo, a stand-up comedian and regular on Fox’s “MADtv,” will join “Fox NFL Sunday” in the spot vacated by Jimmy Kimmel. Caliendo joins Terry Bradshaw, James Brown, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson and Jillian Barberie as regulars on the long-running pregame show.
Caliendo joined “MADtv” in 2001 and is best known for his impressions, particularly of John Madden, a former Fox NFL analyst. The comic has appeared on “Fox NFL Sunday” on several occasions in his Madden guise.
His official role on the show is that of “game prognosticator,” a job that encompasses both laughs and football picks.
“Frank’s humor, combined with his hilarious celebrity impersonations, makes him the right choice to make our comedic picks,” says Scott Ackerson, the show’s coordinating producer.
“Our simple goal with this segment has always been to provide our viewers with a few laughs before watching a day of NFL football, and Frank is someone who can certainly do that.”
Caliendo, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, began on The WB’s “Hype,” and has appeared on Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend” as well as in late-night slots opposite Craig Kilborn and Conan O’Brien.
“Most people in a situation like this say they have big shoes to fill,” Caliendo says of replacing Kimmel. “In this case, Bradshaw told me that I only have a big mouth to fill.”
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AP-NY-08-26-03 1604EDT
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