RECASTAWAY PILOT PROGRAM

Getting cast in a pilot that is then sold to a network doesn't automatically gain you entry to the home team. An actor can often be used just to sell the concept and then new actors brought on board to carry on with the show.

For the most part, this will have no bearing on the show's status in Toobworld, because those pilots usually don't get aired. If they ever do, it's usually after the show has begun and can just be lumped over in one of the alternate dimensions.

Here are the shows that will be recasting some key roles, but which will not have any consequence for the show's inner reality:

'BROTHERS & SISTERS' - Jonathan LaPaglia, another Aussie passing himself off as American like show's star Rachel Griffiths, won't be playing one of the brothers when this show follows 'Desperate Housewives' on Sunday nights. Betty Buckley won't be returning as the mom, either, which is a shame since I think I'd like to have seen her interact with Griffiths and Calista Flockhart as her daughters.

'TRAVELER' - Also on ABC, this show is losing Gillian Jabobs who played Kimberly in the pilot.

'RULES OF ENGAGEMENT' - Over on CBS, Kathleen Rose Perkins won't be in this comedy when it finally gets its moment on the sked come mid-season. (Or sooner if something flops.)

'THE BIG BANG THEORY', also for CBS, is replacing its female lead who was originally played by Amanda Walsh.

'THE WEDDING ALBUM' was sold through the performance of its leading man, Bruno Campos. But now they're looking to go in a different direction.

Over at NBC, 'THE SINGLES TABLE', which is about five strangers who become friends after getting lumped together at a table for the wedding reception of a common friend, is losing Pascale Hutton who played one of those strangers.

I guess with a show like that, the whole pilot would have to be re-shot. Other shows could just pick up the storyline at some point after the pilot takes place, as if the show had always been on. But 'The Singles Table' would need that opening salvo.

The new network, CW, is the only one who might have a splainin problem when it comes to recastaways. 'THE GAME' is a spiinoff from 'Girlfriends' and its pilot aired originally as an episode of its parent sitcom.

'The Game', which will be about the women in the lives of pro football players, is going to need a new Kelly, since Jennifer Baxter played the role on 'Girlfriends' but won't be joining the new series.

Since the character already appeared on 'Girlfriends', we'll have to see how 'The Game' splains it all away. I haven't heard who's been cast in the role of Kelly Parker yet, so any splainin will hinge on that. I know it's wrong to judge someone by their looks, but it's more that I'm seeking an answer that is most believable and the simplest to boot.

And right now I'm leaning toward plastic surgery, but it all depends on if the actress hired for the recast looks like she'd be the "After" picture in such an operation.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby