Second in a series on the new pilot season. Previously: Excuse Me, Mr. Scorsese -- a Note From the Writer
Pilot season can also be a cruel tease.
Every year, there's at least one project that features one of our favorite actors that has been MIA from the small screen for a while -- and who we want to see back. Regardless of what they're in.
This year's crop of pilots features quite a few big names: Kiefer Sutherland on "Touched" (FOX), Amanda Peet on "Bent" (NBC), Gary Cole on "Tagged" (Fox). But we're not talking about them. (Sutherland as someone who isn't Jack Bauer? Peet again?)
No, there's a smaller subset in the Class of 2011 we'd personally show up for even if the resulting series wound up being a trainwreck of Charlie Sheen in Detroit proportions.
Here they are. Let's lead off with Buffy:
SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR
"Ringer" (CBS)
For a certain segment of the population -- call it the Joss Whedon Generation -- Gellar is one of the biggest TV stars of all time, and always will be. No matter how hard television has tried, the void left by the 2003 cancellation of Whedon's witty geek-fest "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" after seven influential seasons has never been filled.
Also read: Fall TV Pilots: Get the Lowdown on 'Wonder Woman,' 'Alcatraz' and Every Other Network Pilot
Gellar's "Fugitive"-style CBS pilot, "Ringer," about a woman on the run from the mob, likely won't appeal to teens today in the way that "Buffy" did for late-'90s adolescents. But the fanbase of the 34-year-old actress, who has had a hit-and-miss career since "Buffy," has aged along with her, and they'll be happy to know that Gellar plays twins here -- meaning a potential double dose of their childhood hero.
JAMES VAN DER BEEK
"Apartment 23" (ABC)
OK, so Van Der Beek doesn't have as much resonance as Gellar, his former WB stablemate. That could be because he suffered much the same fate on "Dawson's Creek" that Josh Radnor has on "How I Met Your Mother" -- he was upstaged weekly by more appealing co-workers, namely Katie Holmes (now Mrs. Tom Cruise), Joshua Jackson (now on "Fringe") and Michelle Williams (now a multiple Oscar nominee who really needs no parenthetical).
Also read: James Van Der Beek to Play Himself in New Pilot
Those three have had notable successes in the years since "Creek" went off the air, so it feels extra wrong that Van Der Beek, the de facto lead character/audience stand-in for six mopey seasons, has had the toughest time landing a permanent gig as an adult. But dare to dream, JVDB fans!
In a supporting role in this sitcom, Van Der Beek knowingly plays himself, in a way not dissimilar to how Jennifer Grey starred as herself on ABC's "It's Like, You Know..." or Matt Le Blanc just did on Showtime's "Episode."
