In case you've forgotten, as the initial announcement came down nearly two years ago, HBO was all set to launch a new series titled 12 Miles of Bad Road, in which Lily Tomlin stars as a Dallas real estate agent living the high life. (Her family, the subtly named Shakespeares, live in either Highland Park or Preston Hollow, depending upon whom you believe.) But the show, from Designing Women and Evening Shade co-creators and Clinton buds Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason, never appeared -- which didn't stop someone from posting plenty o' spoilers concerning the characters, among them ones played by Mary Kay Place and Gary Cole, and forthcoming plot points.
And who knows if the show will ever appear: Says this morning's Daily Variety, six episodes have been shot, but production shut down in the fall -- thanks, of course, to the Writers Guild strike. And now, HBO is trying to decide how to proceed: "As with several new shows at other networks that saw orders interrupted by the strike, it's unclear now whether the remaining 12 Miles segs will be produced." Which matters little to the local production biz: Some of the series was expected to be filmed 'round these parts, but most of the show was shot with Los Angeles and Pasadena doubling for Dallas. --Robert Wilonsky