David Hyde Pierce gets role on 'The Good Wife'

Four-time Emmy Award-winner David Hyde Pierce will play a recurring role on "The Good Wife" this season, marking his return to television for the first time since "Frasier" ended in 2004.

CBS said Thursday that Pierce, 55, would play a respected cable-news legal commentator running for office in Chicago, where the series, starring Julianna Margulies as attorney Alicia Florrick, is set.

Following the end of his 1993-2004 sitcom, in which he co-starred with Kelsey Grammer, Pierce has devoted himself to theater, where he won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, for "Curtains."

He was nominated for Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for last year's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," and has also starred in "Spamalot," "Accent on Youth" and "La Bête."

"We're tremendous fans of his dramatic skills as well as his comedy," executive producers Robert and Michelle King said in a statement.