Barry Livingston

Former child star Barry Livingston, who played Ernie, the youngest of Fred MacMurray’s boys on My Three Sons, has been cast on the October 31episode of ABC’s Castle, titled “Cops and Robbers.” Barry, now 57, will play Abe, an unsuspecting bank customer who his held hostage in a vault along with Castle (Nathan Fillion) and his mother, Martha (Susan Sullivan), during a botched bank robbery.

“Castle’s trying to help Martha get a loan for her acting school when the bank is taken over,” previews executive producer Andrew Marlowe. ”Beckett gets involved from the outside trying to negotiate the safety of all the hostages. Along the way there are lots of twists and turns.” (Hmm… sounds a lot like the set-up of Susan’s short-lived 2006 ABC series, The Nine.)

Barry, who’ll also be popping up on an episode of ABC’s new sitcom Suburgatory, has made the rounds on ABC’s schedule in recent years, with guest spots on Desperate Housewives,Grey’s Anatomy and Eli Stone. He has also penned a new book titled The Importance of Being Ernie in which he reveals how he survived the stigma of being America’s #1 Nerd.

Question: I seem to remember that after last season’s Mentalist finale that the writers promised that, yes, Patrick Jane really killed Red John. I personally like keeping the mystery alive, but I wish shows wouldn’t make such grand statements and then reverse them on a whim. According to the season premiere, that is exactly what happened. Do you know what changed their mind? — Dan

Matt Roush: I’m fairly sure this twist is what they had in mind all along. It’s possible the producers were purposefully misleading in some of their interviews after last season — how much do you want show-runners to reveal their hand, anyway? — but the way I understood the intent of the cliffhanger is that we were meant to believe that Patrick Jane in that moment believed he had killed the real Red John. It was only when Jane realized he’d been set up (with the missing gun, etc.) that he knew he’d been manipulated to kill the wrong fiend. I wouldn’t call the producers’ statements a lie (if in fact they did) as much as misdirection (which is what you should expect from people running a mystery series).

Source: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Ask-Matt-New-1038093.aspx