Harvey Keitel is like a mature wine that you stash away in the shadows and forget about for a while. When you finally remember you have him you bust him out and take a sip and you suddenly realize he’s what you’ve been missing.

Not that we’ve sipped Harvey Keitel or anything.

We just mean we’re happy that the onetime Mr. White has ended his long period of exile from good entertainment (the Jerry Springer musical did not count) because we’re beginning to realize how much we missed him since his heyday in the 90s.

According to WENN, Keitel has been cast as Detective Gene Hunt in the US revamp of British show Life On Mars. Mars is set to replace Boston Legal on ABC and tells the story of a cop who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973.

This marks Keitel’s first time as a TV series regular and it’s obviously a sign that television is no longer considered career suicide for veterans of film.

We’re totally cool with it and excited about the show. Emmys are the new Oscars in case you haven’t heard. Just ask MVPs Kyra Sedgwick, Holly Hunter and Glenn Close. (Plus the telecast is better.) If we could get a good TV pilot for Pacino and De Niro our work would be done. Here’s to Harvey paving the way.