EXCLUSIVE: Julie White is set as a series regular opposite Pete Holmes in CBS comedy Smallwood, based on professional bowler Tom Smallwood’s life, from writer Mark Gross and producers David Hollander and Brian D’Arcy James.
Smallwood stars Crashing’s Pete Holmes as Tom, a stoic Midwest husband and dad who gets laid off from a car assembly line and makes the extraordinary decision to provide for his family by following his dream of becoming a professional bowler.
As a skilled player, Tom knows that in bowling you get two chances; no matter what you do with the first ball, you get another one to make it right — the ultimate second chance. Keeping that in mind, Tom begins his new career with the loving OK from his wife, Jen (Katie Lowes), and the unfaltering support of Archie (Chi McBride), his mentor and the proud owner of Archie’s Lanes: Home of the Curly Fry. It remains to be seen if Tom will strike it big on the pro bowlers circuit, but right now, the pins are set, he’s taking his second shot, and it’s 300 or bust!
2021 CBS Pilots & Series Orders
White will play Helen Smallwood, Tom’s outspoken mother who raised him on her own, working two jobs to make ends meet. Ever since her husband died 30 years ago, she’s been frozen in time – going to the same place, making the same tuna casserole and drinking the same beer.
The Helen Smallwood role was played by a guest actress in the pilot presentation and was always planned to be recast if the pilot was picked up to series.
Mark Gross, David Hollander and Brian D’Arcy James serve as executive producers for studio CBS Studios. Mark Cendrowski directed the pilot from a script by Gross.
Smallwood is a professional 10-pin bowler who currently competes on the PBA Tour. After early struggles on the tour, he took a job at a metal shop, which led to him being hired by General Motors’ Pontiac East Assembly Plant in 2008, but he was laid off just months later. He returned to the PBA Tour and found success.
White next will be seen in the new Apple+ series Roar, starring Nicole Kidman and Cynthia Erico, and in the Apple+ miniseries WeCrashed opposite Anne Hathaway. She was recently seen opposite Kiefer Sutherland and Anthony Edwards on the final season of Designated Survivor and more recently in the FX limited series Mrs. America alongside Cate Blanchett and Sarah Paulson. White is repped by Paradigm Talent Agency.
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