Today's Entertainment

March 28 - April 3, 2016 Page 3 ACROSS 1. Melissa Benoist action series 8. Smidgen 9. Bewildered 10. Scott Bakula's role (2) 14. Actress Remini 15. "Say __ to the Dress" 16. __ Mar; horse racing track near San Diego 17. Be a breadwinner 18. Long-running NBC weekend program 19. "Desire Under the __"; Sophia Loren/ Anthony Perkins film 20. Land division map 24. Bird that cannot fly 27. Like meringue 28. "A __ Like Love"; 2005 Ashton Kutcher movie 29. "The __ That Binds"; 1995 Daryl Hannah film 32. Bilko and Pepper: abbr. 33. "__ __ __ Boat" 36. Opera solo 37. Dinner for Mister Ed 38. Jake McDorman sci-fi series DOWN 1. "It was __ __ that ..."; reply to "How warm was it?" 2. Osmonds and others 3. "__ It Forward"; 2000 Kevin Spacey movie 4. Spaces 5. Neighbor of Syria: abbr. 6. Actor Tim and his family 7. __ down with; bearing 8. "__ __ in Danger"; 1966 Robert Goulet film 11. "CSI: __" 12. Suffix for train or absent 13. Building annex, often 14. Bruce or Spike 20. Fettuccine and lin- guine 21. "Friday Night __" 22. Comedian Johnson and others 23. Cobb and Burrell 24. 2003 Will Ferrell movie 25. __ values; ethics 26. Wombs 29. Chiang Mai resident 30. Number of seasons for "Murphy Brown" 31. CD followers 34. Scottish actor Alastair __ 35. Enemy Solution on page 2. CoverStory By Jay Bobbin © Zap2it If a movie franchise is popular enough, it still can yield a television-series spinoff some years later. Shows based on "Le- thal Weapon" and "The Exorcist" are in the works, and another example is about to debut. Nine years after the last of the three action-comedy films that teamed Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, CBS' ver- sion of "Rush Hour" pre- mieres Thursday, March 31. Justin Hires succeeds Tucker as self-styled Los Angeles police detective Carter, whose manner immediately clashes with that of his new partner: martial-arts-skilled Lee (Jon Foo), who arrives in the City of Angels to probe his sister's pre- sumed death. The duo gets other missions assigned by their no-nonsense boss ("Hot in Cleveland" and "Just Shoot Me!" alum Wendie Malick), and they receive help along the way from Carter's former partner (Aimee Garcia, "Dexter") and streetwise cousin (Page Kennedy, "Back- strom"). With TV veterans Bill Lawrence ("Scrubs," "Spin City") and Steve Franks ("Psych") among the show's executive pro- ducers, other "Rush Hour" stars certainly include the stunt players, since the first hour alone indicates there's plenty for them to do. "It is risky dice to roll," Lawrence allows, "be- cause if it's an iconic mov- ie that people like, you can't knock fans off of it, but I think what you hope is that a title brings people to check out your show and give it a look. And I still want to believe that if you cast it well and write it well and act it well and produce it well, the people will stay long after the references to the feature (films) are gone." Franks adds of the main "Rush Hour" char- acters and actors, "I like the humanity that these guys bring to this world. I love the guys. I think it's real fun. For eight years on 'Psych,' we were doing a version of the buddy comedy, kind of. Here's these two guys that were just sort of meant to be together, and this felt like a fun extension of that. And I've never laughed so hard as hanging out with these guys." Foo comes by his physical agility naturally, since he explains, "I start- ed out as a martial artist working in the circus. I did performances with the London Chinese Acrobats and the Flying Dudes Rock and Roll Circus and then went to Hong Kong and Asia and Thailand, so I started with martial arts and then ended up doing action movies." If viewers aren't familiar with Foo, though, he understands. "This is my first TV show," he notes. "This is my first time having any kind of experi- ence like this." Should Foo and Hires be compared to Chan and Tucker — which seems inevitable, particularly since a "Rush Hour 4" movie reportedly has been discussed — they maintain they're ready for it. "Chris Tucker is literally one of the reasons that I got into comedy," stand- up comic Hires says, "so it's a huge honor and a privilege to be able to step into those shoes. Honest- ly, I just feel like if I bring my own comedic voice to this role, eventually, the audience will see that there's a different Detec- tive Carter. And hopefully, they'll grow to love me somewhat comparable to Chris Tucker." Justin Hires stars in the series version of "Rush Hour," premiering Thursday on CBS. It's 'Rush Hour' at CBS with new series version of action-comedy movies

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