The land of Television Series is well, a strange menagerie of repetitive formulas and bold surprises. In its course it gets its share of replacement actors. When a series goes into one, two, or many years, not all of the cast is going to stick around. That might mean seeing David Tennant replace Christopher Eccleston as Doctor Who, Kirstie Alley replacing Shelley Long on Cheers, or Cheryl Ladd taking over for Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels. There have been high points, low points, and shocking new faces ... but this new one leaves a funny taste in the mouth.
Why are we talking about television here? Because executive producer Paul Lieberstein really wants to cast Harvey Keitel as Steve Carell's replacement on The Office. Harvey frakin' Keitel. Not a rumor, nor an example of random wild dreaming, Lieberstein hopes to replace The 40-Year-Old Virgin with The Bad Lieutenant. We are always careful with our sources here at ole scriptflags but occasionally you need to reiterate. MTV, Yahoo, abcNews, the list goes on..
The producer told EOnline: "He's probably the only guy who can do it, and he's doing TV now." Though they want to go into a new direction, rather than treading on Carell's domain, that's quite the hyperbolic statement. There's No One else that could offer different and fresh boss laughs?
Now, this hasn't become any sort of reality yet. Talks haven't been started, but this is more than idle musing. Lieberstein says he's seriously being considered for the role, and already has a backstory planned if they manage to get Keitel on board. "He's an old salesman who thought he could retire and the stock market went down, and he has to come out of retirement to work for a few years."
