‘The Grinder’: Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Natalie Morales and William Devane to Join Rob Lowe and Fred Savage in Fox Pilot Sitcom
The Grinder, Fox's upcoming comedy pilot from Andrew Mogel, Nick Stoller and Jarrad Paul, starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage will have three new cast members in the persons of Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Natalie Morales and William Devane.
Written by Mogel and Paul and directed by Jake Kasdan, the upcoming sitcom has Lowe, 50, as beloved TV lawyer Dean Sanderson (aka "The Grinder"). When his long-running hit series comes to an end, he finds himself at a crossroads in life and decides to move back to his small hometown, thinking he has the experience to take over his family's law firm. Once there, he quickly finds himself butting heads with his brother, Stewart Sanderson, as played by Savage, 38.
Ellis, 35, is set to play Stewart's wife Debbie, who dated Dean back in the day, and who still thinks of her as the one that got away. Morales, 30, will play Claire, a paralegal who works at Stewart's law firm and who has never seen an episode of Dean's TV show and is thus unimpressed with his claim to celebrity status. Devane, 77, will be playing Dean Sr., the sweet, old-fashioned father of Stewart and Dean and head of the family's law firm.
Aside from appearing as the titular The Grinder in the upcoming Fox sitcom, Lowe will also be seen in the 10-episode, NBC-acquired "dramedy" Apocalypse with Jenna Fischer and Megan Mullally. The series follows what happens to an extended family whose lives intertwined in unexpected ways after news broke out that a comet is on a collision course with earth. Lowe's character there is described as a foul-mouthed priest. He will also be seen on the big-screen in Paramount's live-action/computer-animated hybrid action movie Monster Truck which will be released to theaters on December 25. He co-stars in the Chris Wedge-helmed film alongside Jane Levy, Lucas Till, Amy Ryan, Danny Glover, Holt McCallany, Frank Whaley, among others.