The Closer: Pilot


6:00 pm - 7:00 pm, Wednesday, December 3 on WCBS Start TV (2.2)

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About this Broadcast
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Pilot

Season 1, Episode 1

In the pilot, Denver ad man Jack McLaren (Tom Selleck) decides to open his own agency after he's fired. Dobbs: Edward Asner. Erica: Penelope Ann Miller. Alex: Hedy Burress. Bruno: David Krumholtz.

repeat 1998 English HD Level Unknown Stereo
Drama Pilot Crime Drama Police Crime Suspense/thriller Mystery & Suspense Series Premiere Season Premiere

Cast & Crew
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Tom Selleck (Actor) .. Jack McLaren
Edward Asner (Actor) .. Carl `Dobbs' Dobson
Penelope Ann Miller (Actor) .. Erica Hewitt
David Krumholtz (Actor) .. Bruno Verma
Hedy Burress (Actor) .. Alex McLaren

More Information
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Did You Know..
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Tom Selleck (Actor) .. Jack McLaren
Born: January 29, 1945
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, United States
Trivia: Leading man and sex symbol, Selleck has a gentle, humorous manner. He attended college on an athletic scholarship, majoring in business. A drama coach suggested he become an actor; soon he began making the rounds of auditions. He won a part in the disastrous film Myra Breckinridge (1970), his screen debut, then appeared in small roles in a handful of films during the '70s. Meanwhile, Selleck was signed to a seven-year contract with Fox, leading to a great many TV roles, including appearances as a recurring character on the TV series "The Rockford Files." Eventually he was chosen as the lead for the TV series "Magnum P.I.;" the show became a hit, staying on the air from 1980-88, and he became a star and sex symbol, winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe award, and a star on Hollywood Boulevard. He suffered a serious career setback in 1981, when he was chosen to star in the Lucas-Spielberg blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, but couldn't get released from his TV responsibilities. Beginning in 1983 he tried to break back into films, finally landing a major hit in a co-starring role in Three Men and a Baby (1987); although he appeared in a dozen films after 1983 he never firmly established himself as a screen star. He has also been active as a TV producer. He is married to English dancer Jillie Mack.
Edward Asner (Actor) .. Carl `Dobbs' Dobson
Born: November 15, 1929
Died: August 29, 2021
Birthplace: Kansas City, Kansas, United States
Trivia: Raised in the only Jewish family in his neighborhood, American actor Ed Asner grew up having to defend himself both vocally and physically. A born competitor, he played championship football in high school and organized a top-notch basketball team which toured most of liberated Europe. Asner's performing career got its start while he was announcing for his high school radio station; moving to Chicago in the '50s, the actor was briefly a member of the Playwrights Theatre Club until he went to New York to try his luck on Broadway. Asner starred for several years in the off-Broadway production Threepenny Opera, and, toward the end of the '50s, picked up an occasional check as a film actor for industrial short subjects and TV appearances. Between 1960 and 1965, he established himself as one of television's most reliable villains; thanks to his resemblance to certain Soviet politicians, the actor was particularly busy during the spy-show boom of the mid-'60s. He also showed up briefly as a regular on the New York-filmed dramatic series Slattery's People. And though his film roles became larger, it was in a relatively minor part as a cop in Elvis Presley's Change of Habit (1969) that Asner first worked with Mary Tyler Moore. In 1970, over Moore's initial hesitation (she wasn't certain he was funny enough), Asner was cast as Lou Grant, the irascible head of the WJM newsroom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The popular series ran for seven seasons, during which time the actor received three Emmy awards. His new stardom allowed Asner a wider variety of select roles, including a continuing villainous appearance on the miniseries Roots -- which earned him another Emmy. When Moore ceased production in 1977, Asner took his Lou Grant character into an hour-long dramatic weekly about a Los Angeles newspaper. The show's title, of course, was Lou Grant, and its marked liberal stance seemed, to some viewers, to be an extension of Asner's real-life viewpoint. While Lou Grant was in production, Asner was twice elected head of the Screen Actors Guild, a position that he frequently utilized as a forum for his political opinions -- notably his opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America. When Asner suggested that each guild member contribute toward opposing the country's foreign policy, he clashed head to head with Charlton Heston, who wrested Asner's office from him in a highly publicized power play. Although no tangible proof has ever been offered, it was Asner's belief that CBS canceled Lou Grant in 1982 because of his politics and not dwindling ratings. The actor continued to prosper professionally after Lou Grant, however, and, during the remainder of the '80s and into the '90s, starred in several TV movies, had guest and recurring roles in a wide variety of both TV dramas and comedies, and headlining two regular series, Off the Rack and The Bronx Zoo. Slowed but hardly halted by health problems in the '90s, Asner managed to find time to appear in the weekly sitcoms Hearts Afire and Thunder Alley -- atypically cast in the latter show as an ineffective grouch who was easily brow-beaten by his daughter and grandchildren.
Penelope Ann Miller (Actor) .. Erica Hewitt
Born: January 13, 1964
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States
Trivia: The daughter of Mark Miller, an actor best known for his starring role on the mid-1960s TV sitcom Please Don't Eat the Daisies, actress Penelope Ann Miller was born in California and raised in Texas. After a year of attending Menlo College, Miller dropped out to train with acting coach Herbert Berghof. Her first role of note was as ditsy ingenue Daisy in the Neil Simon Broadway comedy Biloxi Blues, a role she would later recreate in the film version. For her role in Our Town she was nominated for a Tony award in 1989. In 1987, the blonde, saucer-eyed actress made her film debut in the wacked-out comedy Adventures in Babysitting, after which she costarred with popular leading men ranging from Pee-Wee Herman (Big Top Pee-Wee) to a GOlden Globe nominated performance alongside Al Pacino in Carlito's Way. Some of Miller's best known film roles have included that of Marlon Brando's enigmatic daughter in The Freshman (1990), a brief turn as silent film actress Edna Purviance in Chaplin (1992), and the svelte 1930s pulp heroine Margot Lane in The Shadow (1994). As the 1990s progressed Miller alternated ever more frequently between television and film, tempering high profile roles in The Shadow (1994) and The Relic (1997) with more intimate small screen roles in mini-series The Last Don (1997) and as the titular character in the true-life television feature The Mary Kay Letorneau Story: All American Girl (2000). If her roles in the following years weren't as high profile as in the previous decade, solid performances in Along Came a Spider (2001) and Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story (2003) eventually led to a role in the popular but shortlived Norm Macdonald sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper. Cast as the titular character's (Macdonald) city-slicker wife, the coupled opted to eschew the city for small town life to Newhart-like effect. Her gift for comedy more obvious than ever, Miller was subsequently cast in the made for television feature National Lampoon's Thanksgiving Family Reunion (2003).
David Krumholtz (Actor) .. Bruno Verma
Born: May 15, 1978
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Trivia: One of the more accomplished young actors to be immortalized on celluloid in the late 1990s, David Krumholtz has distinguished himself with both talent and the sort of unconventional looks that allow him to be both dashing and nebbish at the same time.A native of New York City, where he was born May 15, 1978, Krumholtz began his professional career at the age of 13, when he starred opposite Judd Hirsch in the Broadway production of Conversations with My Father. He went on to make his film debut in 1993, appearing as an obnoxious child actor in the Michael J. Fox comedy Life with Mikey. That same year, he had a small role as Wednesday Addams' (Christina Ricci) socially stunted love interest in Addams Family Values. Krumholtz's first truly memorable film role was that of Francis Davenport, the Upper East Side brat who gets Katie Holmes drunk in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997). He'd go on to play Natasha Lyonne's older brother in The Slums of Beverly Hills, and a high schooler in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). As the years wore on, Krumholtz would prove himself to be a viable force on screen, appearing in movies like Ray, Serenity, Walk Hard, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and This is the End,, and on the popular crime proceedural Numb3rs.
Hedy Burress (Actor) .. Alex McLaren
Born: October 03, 1973
Birthplace: Edwardsville, Illinois

Before / After
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The Closer
7:00 pm