When it was first announced that Fox would be pairing up sitcom stars Rob Lowe and Fred Savage for The Grinder, it seemed like a match made in a weird section of TV heaven. So what’s one way to make that connection even better? Adding another sitcom icon to the show, of course, and The Grinder has done just that by bringing in Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander for what sounds like it could be a hilarious role. It’s the autumn of George!
The news came from Rob Lowe himself, who posted it and a brief character description on his Twitter page. Check it out.
On The Grinder, Lowe plays Dean Sanderson, Jr., an actor who plays a lawyer on the show-within-the-show The Grinder. Once that gig comes to an end when the series is suddenly canceled, Dean flips over to his family’s legitimate law firm, where his brother Sewart (Savage) works, and attempts to utilize his fictional law knowledge in the real world. Based on the show’s basic description, it’s not clear if Alexander will have all that much to do in the show as the fictional Grinder creator Cliff Beamis – a name that I’m unhealthily jealous of – unless Dean just constantly calls him up for advice about stuff. Or maybe the show’s staff and stars try to bring it back to TV while Dean is learning the legal ropes. In any case, the more Jason Alexander, the merrier.
Alexander joins a cast that already includes It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Stewart’s wife and Dean’s ex, 24’s William Devane as the eldest Sanderson, White Collar’s Natalie Morales as simply Claire. The show was put together by Allen Gregory creators Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, the former of whom appeared in an episode of Seinfeld at one point. Connections!
Jason Alexander has tried his hand at leading a couple of comedies in the years after Seinfeld, such as Bob Patterson and Listen Up, but neither lasted all that long. In the past year or so, he’s appeared on Kirstie, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and the animated special How Murray Saved Christmas. On the big screen, he appeared in Wild Card with Jason Statham, and he lent his voice to the upcoming documentary The Gettysburg Address.
The Grinder is set to premiere on Fox on Tuesday, September 29. And if you need to see Alexander sooner than that, every episode of Seinfeld is currently available for streaming on Hulu.
