Give These Actors a Take Two

The following actors are all alumni of some of my favorite shows, and I want them back on television. Post haste!

• Merrin Dungey Dungey is one of my beloved Alias actors and probably one of the most underappreciated. She spent two seasons playing Francie Calfo and then made a couple of repeat performances later in the series. She spent two seasons on the sudsy, frothy mess known as Summerland. And then good news! She was cast as Addison Montgomery's best friend Naomi Bennett in the backdoor pilot for Private Practice. And then bad news! She was replaced by Audra McDonald for the actual series. Even though McDonald seems perfect for the part of Naomi, Dungey needs a role elsewhere.

• Gillian Anderson I don't care if she's playing Dana Scully or not, Anderson should return to American television. (Actually, that's a lie: I'd love to see a Scully comeback.) The X-Files alum has had a fair share of success with the miniseries Bleak House and with The X-Files: I Want to Believe, but it's not like she's crazy busy. And she did vow to come live in America again if Obama won, so she is in the country...

• The Senior Staff of the West Wing And by that, I mean Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, and Josh Molina. I'm even going to throw in Janel Maloney and Stockard Channing. The whole cast of The West Wing is enormously talented, and the actors deserves more roles—preferably on the same show, preferably on one created by Aaron Sorkin. (I'm not including Dulé Hill and Rob Lowe because they have regular jobs, and I'm not including Martin Sheen because he's had a long career and deserves a break.)

• Sam Jones III Why has he not returned to Smallville? People should know when they can jumpstart a big-screen career and when they can't. (I call it the David Caruso Question.) If Sam Jones III can't make the transfer, he should return to the burg of Smallville to have more dangerously awesome, awesomely dangerous adventures with his old high-school chums.

• Almost the entire cast of Roswell But not Katherine Heigl, that diva! No, this one goes out to Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Brendan Fehr, and all the rest who need jobs. I miss them. Unless they've abducted by real aliens, they're around, and probably looking for work.
  

• Lee Pace & Anna Friel I'm sad that Pushing Daisies was cancelled, and I'm remiss for not having seen all of the available episodes! But I loved what I saw, and these two were masters of innocent, cutie-patootie love. I'd love to see them portray the same types of characters. Then again... it could be cool seeing them as serial killers...

The Sarah Walker Switcheroo

Just for the frivolous, hypothetical fun of it all, let’s theorize what would happen if the gun-wielding, Intersect-protecting Sarah Walker from Chuck swapped places with the upstart-starting, family-tending Sarah Walker from Brothers & Sisters.

In the world of Chuck, Sarah Walker from Brothers & Sisters would get totally overwhelmed by the treacherous spy missions, call her family members for support, and then rally to get through it. She might have a fling with Chuck for the self-esteem boost and then break it off abruptly and clumsily. She would have no patience for Chuck’s best friend Morgan—she’d deem him immature and promptly put him in timeout. She would totally hit it off with Chuck’s sister Ellie—they’d call each other for life advice. She would object to John Casey’s attitude of superiority, and she’d try to become a better spy just to put him in his place.

In the world of Brothers & Sisters, Sarah Walker from Chuck would quickly get fed up with the family’s dysfunction. Thanks to a fancy, government-issued cell phone (and the requisite hidden earpiece), she would not need to put anyone on call-waiting during one of the Walkers’ infamous simultaneous-phone-calling. Not only would she be the only character on the show who could actually keep a secret, she would learn everyone else’s secrets after planting bugs around the house. She would not talk about “feelings.” Instead, she would her emotions in check until she had the chance to vent by shooting something—or someone. (Holly Harper might want to watch her back.)