Robert Picardo (the EMH) makes a comic appearance in tonight's summer season premiere of The Dead Zone, entitled "The Storm".

Picardo and Jane Lynch (MDs, Best in Show) "have funny roles as gregarious tourists with an overzealous interest in Johnny's gifts", according to TV Guide. They play a pair of midwesterners travelling through Maine in a Winnebago. "A married duo of Johnny Smith groupies," was how executive producer Lloyd Segan described them at the official Dead Zone web site.

With a teleplay by Star Trek veteran and Dead Zone executive producer Michael Piller, "The Storm" is described by TV Guide as "an exciting whirlwind tale". The episode centres around an "intervention" organised by Johnny Smith's friends at a holiday retreat, but their best laid plans are soon upset by a ferocious storm which prevents Johnny and his friend Bruce from reaching the resort. Along the way, Picardo's character, Mitch McMurtry, and his family have "a chance — and humorous — encounter with Johnny Smith", associate producer Eric Stillwell told TrekToday (story).

In his column at the show's web site, Dead Zone star John L. Adams said Picardo was "very talented and uproariously hilarious". He described the scenes featuring the tourists-cum-Johnny Smith groupies as "funny, and I mean uptown funny".

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, The Dead Zone stars Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith, who wakes up from a coma to discovers he has psychic abilities. Nicole deBoer (Ezri Dax) and David Ogden Stiers (Dr. Timicin in TNG's "Half a Life") also star.

"The Storm" airs at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time tonight on the USA Network. A video teaser and the first act of the script are available for download from TheDeadZone.net.

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