Betsy Brandt joins Masters Of Sex

Cementing her role as prestige drama’s one-woman vice squad, Betsy Brandt is moving on from the meth-choked cul-de-sacs of Albuquerque to the sex-choked (but in a cold, clinical way) hallways of academia. The former Breaking Bad star and most-likely-former–Michael J. Fox Show star will appear in the second season of Masters Of Sex, playing the only secretary who’s yet to be scandalized by or become a participant in the pioneering research of William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Her character, Barbara, fills a vacancy previously left by Lizzy Caplan’s Virginia, Caitlin FitzGerald’s Libby Masters, and Margo Martindale’s Miss Horchow—a high-profile casting that suggests Masters Of Sex is angling to establish a Murphy Brown-style revolving door of office administrators. If so, The A.V. Club hopes to see Paul Reubens sitting behind that desk no later than season three.

Brandt becomes the second Michael J. Fox castmember to flee that show for the relatively safety of a Showtime drama, following in the footsteps of yesterday’s Odd Couple addition Wendell Pierce. She’ll be joined on Masters Of Sex by Keke Palmer, whose work in the most recent Ice Age sequel makes her similarly qualified to comment on the power of blue, crystalized substances.