Tradecraft: Simon Goes Undercover

One of the Simons from Simon & Simon is the first actor to be cast in J.J. Abrams' new spy series, Undercovers. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Gerald McRaney, more recently of Deadwood and Jericho, will play the spy couple's CIA boss. The trade also gives us a teeny bit more information on the show itself than we've previously had: "Undercovers, described as a mix between Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, revolves around spouses Samantha and Steven Bloom, who work together as spies. McRaney plays their boss, a CIA operative who recruited the couple and serves as the agency’s liaison with then." So the new information is that their name is Bloom and Abrams has apparently squished together a couple of Doug Liman movies. No, obviously that's nothing but network shorthand. J.J. Abrams is way more creative than that; I'm sure he'll give us another cool and original spy series. Abrams co-wrote the pilot with Josh Reims and, last we heard, was hoping to direct it as well if his busy feature film schedule (which includes new entries in Paramount's Mission: Impossible and Star Trek franchises) permits...