Tonight at 10p, Jerry O’Connell is hosting Play By Play on Bravo, a talk show where male Bravoholics talk about all things Real Housewives and such.
Even though it is a manly show, O’Connell is man enough to make sure his nails look on point for air. Why do it alone when you can have your wife, Rebecca Romijn, by your side. Proving a couple who gets pampered together stays together.
Now if only they wax down there together live Oliver Hudson and his wife, they would be even closer.
Last week, we got to meet Carter, and tonight at 10p on WGN we will get to know him even better as he works on his first real case.
Jerry O’Connell plays Harley Carter, who is an actor best known for playing Harley Carter a detective on television. After some life mishaps in Hollywood, he returns home to Canada and starts using his fake detective skills to be a real one with his two best childhood friends, one who is a real detective.
Last week he worked on his first case to prove his house caretaker did not commit murder. This week, a fan approaches him to solve his mother’s murder. For years, police have said her death in a fire was accidental, but her son thinks otherwise. Not only that, her son believes that someone is after him. He might be right.
Now, Harley, Sam (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and Dave (Kristian Bruun) are doing everything in their power to find out who killed this guy’s mother and protect him from getting murdered himself. The only problem is the police chief hates Harley and believes this case has already been solved and does not want anyone in the force to work on it. Good thing Harley has the mayor on his side and she thinks Harley solving cases is good for the town’s image.
While it is good for the image, does Harley really know what he is doing? You just have to tune in for a police procedural that is unlike anything else on TV.
I was recently on a conference with O’Connell and he talked about working on Carter.
What attracted to Jerry O’Connell to Carter?
JC – It was really fun when I read Carter because it’s about a guy who plays a cop on TV who gets a little disillusioned with that life and then finds new life in helping out his high school sweetheart, who is a real-life detective, helping her solve crimes, and it sort of invigorates him. It really made me laugh. There’s a lot of inside jokes, like trying to explain to the real cops the five-act structure of television and how we’re getting close to finding out who the real killer is.
Admittedly, it’s a lot like Castle, except Castle was a novelist. It’s almost like Castle on steroids because this guy’s a TV actor, so if you’re a fan of the Law and Order’s and the Monk’s and the Castle’s, this is going to be your show because it sort of makes fun of that world.
Is O’Connell like Carter?
JC – Man, it’s so embarrassing to say, but a lot of Carter is like me. Thankfully, I’m not as vain as the character of Carter is. He’s always worried about how he looks in situations, or that could just be my version of Garry Shandling’s old joke, “How does my hair look?” Harley Carter is a television actor. I’m a TV actor. I like to think Carter is a little more obsessed with himself than I am. I’m not wearing makeup right now and I have a feeling that Carter is always wearing, not a lot, but some form of makeup when he leaves the house, at least concealer.
What does O’Connell think about his co-stars?
JC – First of all, Sydney is gorgeous, Sydney Poitier, and she is the most important character in the show because I can be goofy and talk about TV, and how everything works in TV, and how we find a killer in TV, and how Columbo would do it, and that’s fine. If there isn’t actual stakes, if you’re not actually really invested in the show, then it just doesn’t work. Sydney’s ability to ground our show, that’s everything. That’s what makes our show, so we’re all forever indebted to her and her ability to do that.
Kristian Bruun, for you Orphan Black fans, is just so fun to work with as well. Getting to work with those two is just a dream. We have a good old time on set. We approach every scene like, let’s have fun making this, and I think it really comes across. I don’t think we had one fight, and it’s crazy because all I do is fight with co-workers.
What is it like filming on location in Canada?
JC – I will say this, where we shot in Northern Ontario, oh, man, it was almost like rehab for my soul, it’s so gorgeous. It’s just lake country in Northern Ontario. It’s a town called North Bay. It’s super gorgeous and calming and soothing, and everyone was so happy that we were shooting there. I’m just not used to that. I’m used to shooting—not to call out cities, but I’m used to shooting in the city where people are always yelling at you for shooting in front of their store or blocking their driveway with a camera truck. It was just so refreshing to film in such a non-hostile environment. It really became sort of like a character in the show, the fact that we were shooting in a small town, and North Bay is just such a cute, quaint place.
Everyone is doing a reboot, what about Sliders?
JC – Yes. Hey, there might be a reboot. There’s been a couple of phone calls made. Yes. No phone calls returned, but a couple phone calls made.
Jerry O’Connell returns to TV tonight at 10p on WGN and Carter makes a good case for it to become your newest addiction.
Harley Carter has it all, a hit show where he plays a detective and a beautiful wife. Then it all comes crashing down on him when he walks in on his wife sleeping with someone else. When that guy shows up at his wrap party, he completely loses it.
Harley says goodbye to Hollywood and hello to his small hometown in Canada. He tries to be low key, but everyone knows the hometown celebrity. Good thing he has his two friends to help him out. Sam Shaw (Sydney Poitier Heartsong) is a detective now and she makes the mistake of bringing Harley along with her to a crime scene. He wants to see if everything he learned on the show works in real life too.
Their first case together hits close to home for them. Harley’s home actually because Koji (Denis Akiyama), one of his housekeepers and the man that helped to raise him after his mother was murdered, is now accused of murder. Now Harley and Sam along with their friend, Dave (Kristian Bruun), and Koji’s wife Dot (Brenda Kamino) are going to try to solve this case before Koji is locked up for a murder he did not commit.
Koji is a nice old man and Dot is someone you do not mess with. Her guns are like her third arm and everyone is rightfully afraid of her. But they love their Harley.
What about Harley and Sam, there is some will they or won’t they love tension between them. Thankfully, they have Dave to keep them from getting into trouble. At least in that aspect. Over the next 10 weeks, Dave and Harley will get in a lot of trouble and Sam will have to rescue them time and time again.
Yet these three childhood detectives are just as good at solving crimes now as when they were teens. Except now, they get to investigate cooler cases like a radio DJ who goes missing during a broadcast or someone finds a long-dead body on a snowmobile during their summer camping trip.
Solving cases should be enough for Harley to deal with, but his show wants him back. Will he go back to investigating fake cases or continue looking into reals ones? I cannot tell you that. What I can tell you is that you will enjoy watching this police procedural that is also about friendship. Even though they are solving crimes, it is a feel-good buddy show that will leave you smiling.
What makes it works is the chemistry between the actors, you can tell that really like each other and they play well off of one another. That is the biggest key to the success of a show. Well that, and good writing and interesting storylines. Something this show is full of. Therefore, be prepared to spend your Tuesday nights with Carter, I promise they will not let you down.
It is no secret that Rebecca Romijn and her husband Jerry O’Connell really love animals, so it makes sense that Hallmark Channel made her their Spokesperson of Adoption Ever After.
She and the network have joined together to get the word out about adopting pets from shelters. So many animals need a home, and you do not have to pay hundreds of dollars by buying one from a pet store. You can go to your local shelter and bring home your furbaby. One by one, you will be helping to cut down on the numbers of pet homelessness.
Romijn will join Happy the Dog and Happy the Cat, as they will promote the program with off-air elements, grassroots efforts, social media outreach and strategic corporate partnerships.
My sweet and lovable cat, who is the best thing that ever happened to me, was rescued from the LA Shelter the day before she was going to be put down. Therefore, I know how important it is to adopt don’t shop. Thus, I love that Hallmark Channel is doing this and that they made Romijn their Ambassador. I cannot think of a better person.
Think I am excited about all of this, not as excited as the actress. She wrote, “So thrilled about this I could cry. Thank you @hallmarkchannel.” If she does cry, good thing she has a lot of dogs and cats to lick off her tears. Another reason to bring one home today.
Back in 2010, Jerry O’Connell had his pen!s bitten off by killer fish in Piranha 3D. Eight years later, he is finally getting his revenge on fishes. He showed them what it is like to have your head is someone else’s mouth. It does not look like fun, does it. Unlike what they did to him, he left their head on!
The other night when O’Connell was on Shark After Dark during Discovery’s Shark Week, he did things to a fish that I am only assuming he has done with his wife. Things that will make a person swear off of eating seafood forever. At least it did me.
I mean Frenching a raw fish’s head has to taste grosser than doing that other sexual thing you do with your mouth on a hot sweaty day. And I have not sworn off of doing that thing yet.
Anyways, here is a O’Connell story for you. Eight years ago, I went to a press screening of Piranha 3D, and then went watch a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live from the green room with a friend. O’Connell was a guest on the show and he shook hands with everyone that was in that room before he did his interview. My friend and I could not stop laughing at him because it is hard to look in the eyes of the person who just his hot dog nibbled off of him. And yet that was not the most awkward meeting I had with a celebrity.
