Sept. 20, 2010— -- They're baaaack!
Despite Hollywood's general habit of putting older actors out to pasture, the new crop of fall television shows this season features some of television's biggest icons.
They read like a Who's Who of the small screen, in some cases going back decades
William Shatner, who'll be 80 next year, returns to television this Thursday in the CBS series "S#*! My Dad Says" – informally known as "Bleep My Dad Says."
The show is based on the bestselling book and Twitter feed created by Justin Halpern. Shatner plays the feisty over-the-top older guy – a much older guy – with a saber-edged tongue.
This summer, NBC's popcornbiz blog reported that Shatner was Justin Halpern's first choice to play his father, a retired doctor in his seventies. The site also noted the younger Halpern had felt Shatner "hit the role 'out of the park' during the taping of the pilot, and that Halpern senior, commenting on the pilot's filming, felt that Shatner "was way into it."
Who exactly follows the career of a soon-to-be octogenarian?
A lot of people of a certain age are avid fans. "It's about the nostalgia," said Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture and television at Syracuse University.
"Although there's a certain formula to creating television programs – family shows often need an old geezer – network television realizes it has lost a lot of viewers to cable and Internet programming. Network big shots have figured out that viewers are older, certainly in their fifties. So the audience doesn't just see an older actor. What they see is William Shatner, who happens to be a senior."
Thompson also singles out Tom Selleck as a nostalgic television icon. "Face it, Selleck's now an older guy," he said.
Selleck is now one of the older guys reconnecting with his television roots.
Selleck, whose legacy goes back to the 1980s when he starred in "Magnum, P.I.," most recently starred in numerous television movies centered on the character Jesse Stone, and in the television series "Las Vegas." Now he plays Chief Frank Reagan on "Blue Bloods," a new CBS series, debuting this Friday, about a family of cops. Veteran 70-year-old actor Len Cariou – he played a Bernie Madoff-type criminal on last season's "Damages" – plays Selleck's character's father.
Plenty of other older actors are flooding the small screen this fall. Angelina Jolie's septuagenarian dad Jon Voight – best known for his movie roles ("Midnight Cowboy") but with a stint on "24" under his belt – appears on the new Fox drama "Lone Star."
