Portait of a Troubled Soul: David Hasselhoff

According to RadarOnline, David Hasselhoff is again having health issues, this time being taken to a hospital after suffering a seizure.

“Paramedics were called to the [location] in Encino for medical aid,” LA Fire spokesman Erik Scott was quoted telling RadarOnline. “Paramedics arrived at approximately 11:51 am on Friday and later transported the patient to a nearby hospital.”

No one is saying alcohol was involved, but most people are drawing their own (probably accurate) conclusion.

Hasselhoff, now 57 and too old for stuff like this, was taken to a hospital in mid-September after a combination of drugs messed up his balance. But Hasselhoff’s daughter, Hayley, called mom Pamela Bach, saying his father had been drinking a lot.

It’s sad that it may take a major tragedy to get David to stop, and hopefully he comes to his senses this time around and gets clean. The TV world wouldn’t be quite the same without Hasselhoff’s wacky personality.

Production News: Cougar Town stops over ‘family matter’

Inside the production lines of TV: according to sources inside the show and a report from Access Hollywood, a “private family matter” according to Courteney Cox has stopped production on the set of  “Cougar Town,” a new show that has been a minor hit for ABC, drawing 7.9M viewers for its show last week.

“We can confirm production on ‘Cougar Town‘ has been temporarily shut down in order for Courteney to deal with a private family matter,” stated a rep on the record to AH.

Our take: We hope she can square this issue away and return to complete the show quite soon, but at the same time, you have a contract, studios have a lot of money and deadlines at stake, and people at regular jobs normally can’t just leave because of ‘family issues’. They have to stay and complete their work, then go home and deal with the issues in their lives. Just another perspective on things.

Meet the Cash: Meet the Browns to go syndicated

Tyler Perry’s sitcom ‘Meet the Browns‘ is on its way to broadcast television, according to several inside sources. After only 15 months on the air? Yes, indeed.

The syndication company Debmar-Mercury’s deal puts the sitcom in more than 70% of the country for a mid-September debut on major station groups, including Fox, Tribune, CBS and Cox, based on buzz from the Hollywood Reporter.

The series is #1 on TBS among adults under age 49, so its natural that bigger networks want to grab this valuable viewing market.

We actually think House of Payne is the stronger show in terms of writing and characters (as far as characters get with Perry involved anyway) but hey, we’re rooting for its success all the same.

DeNiro TV Producer?: Tribeca Productions and CBS Studios hook up

Robert De Niro’s long-tenured production company, Tribeca Productions, has signed a two-year deal with CBS Television Studios, Variety is now reporting. He will produce up to 3 TV shows for various networks, including CBS, over the next few years.

The Oscar winner is currently working on 3 New York-based (location not a shock, it’s his native home) TV projects for CBS and its sister networks: Securing the City, a 1-hour drama about NYPD and its counterterrorism force; Felony Review, with young assistant district attorneys in New York and their cases and tribulations; and a unique Spike Lee and Robert De Niro produced Showtime drama as yet unnamed.

It seems the popular actor has pretty much moved to the other side of the camera for the most part.

Uproar: Suicide groups upset about ‘The Office’ and hangman scene

Some suicide prevention groups are apparently quite unhappy with a scene in “The Office” where Steve Carell’s character scares young children by putting himself in a hangman’s noose as a Halloween prank. NBC apparently isn’t laughing at all about the uproar.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention should never use suicide as a joke in any way, and we (sorta) agree with them. I mean, you have to be able to laugh at many things, but suicide is something should be treated sensitively for many reasons, let alone you never know what state the viewer watching it is in.

Robert Gebbia, the foundation’s executive director was quoted as saying: “We try not to be zealots about this…But this one … kind of crossed the line.”

NBC had no direct comment on the matter, as was expected.