Talk Back: Series Premiere of ABC's "FlashForward"

What did you see?

I've been talking about FlashForward for nearly a year now since my initial review of the series' pilot script back in November to my recent advance review of the first episode. But now that the series has launched, I'm curious to see just what you thought of FlashForward and its prospects for success.

Were you lured in by the mystery of the global blackout and the flashforwards experienced by the main characters? Did you compare it to Lost or do you see the two series as distinct and separate entities? Do you think that FlashForward is a worthy successor to the mythology-based Lost in any event?

Did you find Joseph Fiennes a compelling series lead or was he lacking in charisma? Are you intrigued by the characters' backstories? Did you find the dialogue realistic or clunky? Was there a bit too much exposition in the opening hour? What do you make of the twist ending? What's up with that kangaroo, which producers have said is a "thing"?

And, most importantly, will you come back next week and watch another episode?

Talk back here.

Next week on FlashForward (""White to Play"), Mark and Demetri head to Utah to track down a suspect who may be connected to the global blackout; Olivia comes face-to-face with the man from her vision; Mark and Olivia's daughter, Charlie, has trouble dealing with the aftermath of her flashforward.

Channel Surfing: Jennifer Morrison Leaves "House," "Criminal Intent" to Phase Out D'Onofrio, Erbe, Bogosian, Mazzara to Oversee "Hawthorne," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Jennifer Morrison will depart FOX series House this season, with her final episode airing in November. According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, who broke the story, Morrison did not quit but her departure was "a creative decision on the part of [the series'] producers." Ausiello is quick to point out that Morrison's character, Dr. Allison Cameron, won't be killed off and producers are leaving the door open for her to guest star later on in the season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Looking for just how House's producers will write Cameron out of the series? E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos and Jennifer Godwin have the scoop as sources close to the production indicate a major medical standoff between Cameron and Chase (Jesse Spencer), with House (Hugh Laurie) getting involved in the discussion as well. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Hollywood Reporter's Roger Friedman is reporting that Law & Order: Criminal Intent will be phasing out leads Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, and Eric Bogosian this season, with the focus shifting onto Jeff Goldblum and the recently cast Saffron Burrows. "Details about D’Onofrio, Erbe and Bogosian’s exit are still unclear as the actors’ deals are being worked out," writes Friedman. "The network only recently renewed the Wolf Films/Universal Cable Prods. series for a ninth season, slated to premiere in late spring with a two-parter." (Hollywood Reporter's Showbiz 411)

Glen Mazzara (Crash) has been named showrunner on the second season of TNT's medical drama Hawthorne, which stars Jada Pinkett Smith. Mazzara replaces the series' creator John Masius, who served as the showrunner on the series' first season; he'll remain with the series as an executive producer. According to the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva, the decision was "initiated by Masius, who wants to focus on writing, the part of making a TV show that he enjoys the most and that has earned him nine Emmy nominations and two wins. He will continue to be involved in the oversight of the series with Mazzara." (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has given a pilot order to "high-concept police procedural" Hopscotch, from writer/executive producer Chris Levinson (Law & Order), executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman, and Warner Bros. Television. No other details were immediately available about the project, which was the focus of a bidding war between several networks. (Variety)

Elsewhere at the network, ABC has given a script order to single-camera comedy Friends With Benefits, from writer/executive producers Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber (500 Days of Summer) and director David Dobkins (Wedding Crashers). Project, from Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox Television, revolves around a group of twenty-somethings looking for sex and relationships. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has ordered a script for half-hour comedy Slacker Sons, from Sony Pictures Television, writer Mike Sikowitz, directors/executive producers Anthony and Joe Russo, and executive producers Bryan and Sean Furst. Project follows two hapless brothers who inadvertently create a hugely successful energy drink and save their family home and bail out their divorced father when he's let go from his job. (Variety)

Missed the new ABC promo for V, launching Tuesday, November 3rd, that aired last night during the series premiere of FlashForward? No worries as Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files has an embedded version of the promo. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

RDF USA has pre-sold animated UK comedy pilot Sky Jockeys, about the staffers at an airport, to FOX. The project is party of a three-script development deal between RDF USA and UK digital channel Dave, under which the shingle will develop three half-hour scripts for the channel with at least one of them getting a greenlight for late 2010. Sky Jockeys will be written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto. (Variety)

AMC has concluded a deal with former Brillstein-Grey Entertainment executive Susie Fitzgerald to join the network as SVP of scripted development and current programming. In that position, Fitzgerald will oversee original scripted development as well as day-to-day operations for the network's current series, reporting to Joel Stillerman. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Five Reasons to Watch Tonight's Episode of "Community"

Just a few quick words about tonight's episode of NBC comedy Community ("Spanish 101"), the series' second outing. I had the opportunity a few weeks back to watch the second episode of this hilarious new series and loved every second of it.

So why should you tune in to tonight's episode of Community, when the airwaves are positively overcrowded with televised offerings? Here are five reasons why.

(1) If you liked the pilot, you'll love this even more.

If you enjoyed the hysterical pilot episode of Community, you'll love tonight's episode even more. Free from having to set up the group's situation and first meeting at Greendale Community College, tonight's installment has a lot more fun with the low-key academic setting, further building out the world of Greendale and strengthening the relationships between the characters.

(2) It focuses on some of the supporting characters.

While Community is an ensemble comedy, a lot of the action of the first episode centered around the flirtation between Joel McHale's Jeff and Gillian Jacob's Britta. While Jeff and Britta play a large role in tonight's episode, the spotlight also gets to shine on several of the other characters as Alison Brie's Annie and Yvette Nicole Brown's Shirley get a subplot involving political protest and Chevy Chase's Pierce gets to bond with Jeff when they're paired together for a Spanish project. Which brings us to...

(3) Ken Jeong.

Tonight's episode of Community marks the first appearance of Ken Jeong's imperious Spanish teacher Senor Chang, easily one of the most terrifying and funny professors ever to grace the small screen. Jeong has cornered the market on playing absurd, eccentric, or creepy characters in both film and television and he adds a dangerous, quixotic element to the mix here. His language lesson in tonight's episode (he claims 90 percent of Spanish is using your hands) is gut-bustingly comical and alone is worth the price of admission.

(4) Aimee Mann's "Wise Up."

The award for the best usage of Aimee Mann's song "Wise Up" ever goes to Community for its inclusion in tonight's episode. I won't spoil just how or why it's used but will say that I was rolling on the floor after seeing

(5) It's just plain funny.

And, really, what more do you need than that?

Community airs tonight at 9:30 pm ET/PT on NBC. Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode:

Red Scarves and Legerdemain: The Magic of Deconstruction on "Top Chef"

It's funny how camaraderie can evaporate the minute someone feels one of their number doesn't deserve to win.

On this week's episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Penn and Teller"), the chefs seemed to offer a unified front, even going so far as to honor the memory of their fallen compere Mattin by donning his trademark red scarves (just how many did he pack?) in the Top Chef kitchen. It was a touching testament to how much of an emotional impact Mattin had on the chefs (even if not in a culinary sense) but that sense of community was quickly shattered by the results of the Quickfire Challenge this week.

Now I've long felt that there have been several chefs still in the competition at this point who should have packed their knives a long time ago. Perhaps it's the fact that there seem to be four incredibly talented chefs gunning for the final four (that would be Kevin, Jennifer, and the Voltaggio brothers) but the majority of the other contestants haven't made much of a mark thus far. That said, there are some who I'm shocked to watch squeak past elimination time and time again. And clearly, the chefs feel the same way I do.

This week the chefs had to prepare a duo for their Quickfire Challenge and then serve a deconstructed classic to magicians Penn and Teller for their Elimination Challenge. Just how did the chefs do? Let's discuss.

For this week's Quickfire Challenge, the judges would be critiqued by tough-to-please Michelle Bernstein; they had an hour to create a preparation of duos that would best signify the angels and devils sitting on their individual shoulders. I was impressed that the producers gave them an hour to prepare; granted there were two dishes involved but many of these chefs have been able to pull that off in roughly 30 minutes. So I had a feeling that they wanted the chefs to really pull out all of the stops in this challenge and really wow Padma and Michelle.

Here's what they prepared:

• Ashley: scallop crudo and scallop puttanesca
• Ash: spicy asparagus custard with cornbread (he was unable to complete his coffee custard)
• Bryan: frozen coconut lychee and dark chocolate mousse
• Eli: scallop with radish and greens and scallop with risotto and butter
• Jennifer: simple scallop with olive oil and scallop with butter sauce
• Kevin: halibut with seasonal vegetables crushed deviled eggs and bacon
• Laurine: chicken consomme and vegetables and chicken saltimbocca
Mike I.: cucumber yogurt soup and rack of lamb kabob-style over couscous
• Michael V: rillete of salmon and sopa and confit salmon and ice cream
• Robin: raw salad of apple and fennel and cardamom ginger crisp
Ron: Chilean sea bass with carrots and yucca and corn mash

Some interesting dishes there (Michelle seemed to love Jennifer's butter sauce but didn't single her out for acknowledgment) and some truly awful ones (Ash's gooey custard). But I have to say that I was stunned that Robin walked away with immunity... for making a salad and a fruit crisp. Yes, they may have been great offerings but this is Top Chef and people have been sent home for making a salad in the past.

Given that Robin's performance to date has been so terribly underwhelming, I was really hoping that this would be the week that she'd be sent packing but no dice. I, like the chefs, have to question whether her reveal that she had cancer played a role in establishing some sympathy in Michelle's mind. Whether it was done consciously or not, it was a manipulative thing to say and Robin didn't offer it up as a vague aside but rather as a specific part of the angel/devil scenario; she was also way too specific ("two kinds of lymphoma") rather than even just stating that she had cancer.

I can understand why the chefs were so perturbed by her win but Robin later added insult to injury in the Elimination when she chattered on endlessly about her dish and what she was doing and then, despite having immunity, had the nerve to ASK LAURINE FOR HELP. That to me was crossing a line that shouldn't have been crossed. If she's that oblivious to the irritation she's engendering in everyone around her, she should at least have the common sense to just do her own thing and get it done on her own as she doesn't have the threat of elimination hanging over her head. Mind-boggling, really.

Moving on... The Elimination Challenge this week was to take a classic dish--randomly selected by drawing knives--and deconstruct it. Which seemed simple enough but several of the cheftestants had difficulty understanding just what deconstruction meant in the first place. Modern chefs love to deconstruct dishes; it's the process of breaking down the overall flavors of a dish into separate elements, which when combined back together approximate the flavor of the original. Unlike classical cuisine, it's a post-modern technique and it has its adherents and its detractors. Personally, I think if done correctly, it's a mind-blowing experience that shows some real intelligence and creativity on the part of the chef and requires an exacting execution in order to pull it off properly.

Ash had shepherd's pie and offered a pan-roasted pork chop with braised leeks, glazed carrots, pea puree and a Madiera jus. I was baffled by this dish. I love shepherd's pie and I didn't feel like he approximated any of the flavors of the classic English comfort food dish in the least. Yes, he had planned to serve a potato and parsnip puree (it turned out "gummy") but I don't think that would have helped matters. His lamb was not evenly cooked, the tomato just looked unappetizing and he missed the boat completely here. Not a surprise that he landed in the bottom.

Ashley, on the other hand, has won me over in the last two episodes for some well-executed dishes. Here, she drew pot roast and created a dish of seared strip loin, potato puree, crispy shallots, and carrot foam. She understood deconstruction and nailed the flavors of pot roast while creating something innovative and beautiful on the plate. Well done.

Bryan landed pastrami reuben and created a dish of tuna pastrami, warm mayonnaise, shallots, rye, gruyere, and fried capers. Eli deconstructed sweet and sour pork and created a dish of tempura pork rillettes with broccoli puree, sweet and sour sauce, and celery salad.

Laurine tried to approximate fish and chips but her dish--poached halibut with malt sabayon, tartar sauce and tomato confit, with ginger and garlic--didn't really capture the dish at all. Plus, her fish was overcooked and the inclusion of two potato chips didn't capture the "chips" element at all. Mike's Eggs Florentine, likewise, didn't do the trick either. He offered up a braised kale roll, egg emulsion, mornay sauce, and crispy phyllo but it was completely unimpressive.

Was there anything positive said about Robin's clam and fennel flan, braised celery slaw, pancetta crisp, and crushed bacon? I don't think so. I do wonder if she would have been sent home for this ghastly dish if she didn't have immunity from the Quickfire Challenge. But it was really Ron, another underwhelming chef, whose dish was truly the worst of the week. His "deconstructed" paella was a messy, soggy, overcooked mound of food that didn't quite seem to offer the requisite deconstruction or even a well-executed paella to boot. Ron has managed to avoid elimination far too many times and I just knew that this would be the dish to send him home.

I'll admit that I was worried about Jennifer this week. Deconstruction is not her thing and when she landed meat lasagna, I was concerned as I can't imagine her really making a meat lasagna in regular circumstances, much less deconstructing one here. But once again Jennifer has blown me away with her creativity and skill, offering up a dish of flat iron steak, mascarpone bechemel, tomato sauce, and parmesan crisp that perfectly captured the essence of meat lasagna, from the richness of the beef, the acidic sweetness of the tomato and the slightly burnt quality of the melted cheese on top of a lasagna. A thing of beauty, really.

I knew that Michael Voltaggio would rock this challenge, even when he landed something as innocuous as Caesar salad. Proving that he sees every challenge as a possibility, he baked his own brioche and used some molecular gastronomy techniques with his incredible dish of chicken wing, parmesan gel, romaine leaves, dressing spherification, egg emulsion, and brioche. I was a fan of Michael's from his days at The Bazaar at the SLS here in Los Angeles and I'm curious to check him out at the Langham Dining Room to see just what other magic he has up his sleeve these days.

Drawing chicken mole negro, Kevin was concerned after last week's mole didn't land him a spot in the top but he needn't have worried at all. His dish, a baked chicken and chicken croquetta with Mexican coffee, chili flakes, and pumpkin and fig jam, was a master class in deconstruction. He understood the flavor components and utilized them in creative and intriguing ways to offer up something that was essentially chicken mole negro but broken down into separate and delicious pieces.

I had a feeling that he would walk away the ultimate winner here and I'm glad to see that he didn't disappoint. Longtime readers will remember that I called Kevin and Jennifer as the two chefs to watch this season from the first episode. And I truly believe that the two of them and the Voltaggio brothers would make the ideal final four this season. Fingers crossed...

What did you think of this week's episode? Should Ron have packed his knives or should it have been Ash? Would Robin have ended up in the bottom if she didn't have immunity? And what did you make of her admission during the Quickfire Challenge? Discuss.

Next week on Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Dinner Party"), the remaining contestants cater a dinner for the chefs in the Macy's Culinary Council, but first they must make it through the Quickfire Challenge, where Lady Luck again holds all the cards... or in this case, reels.

Top Chef Preview: Playing the Slots:



Top Chef Preview: Mike Is Not Pleased:

Talk Back: Series Premiere of ABC's "Modern Family"

I hope all of you tuned in last night for the launch of comedy Modern Family on ABC.

I've been praising Modern Family for months now (you can read my original advance review of the pilot episode here) but now that the series has launched, I'm extremely curious to find out what all of you thought of this remarkable and hysterical new series. It's hands down my pick for the season's best new show, a fantastically taut series about the trials and tribulations (and humor) of family life in the new millennium.

Did you enjoy the series' heady mix of deadpan humor and emotional heart? Did you like the mockumentary aspect? (I thought it worked better than, say, The Office has for the last few seasons.) Did the entire cast--from Ed O'Neill and Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, to Julie Bown and Ty Burrell (not to mention those kids!)--win you over with their overwhelming charm?

Did you roar with laughter to Cameron's Lion King homage? Or from Mitchell's request to take Jay's "multi-colored jacket and bejeweled cap"? Were you pleasantly surprised to learn that they are all one big, somewhat happy family?

And, most importantly, will you tune in again next week?

Talk back here.

Next week on Modern Family ("Coal Digger"), tension mounts when the entire family is invited to Jay and Gloria's for some barbeque and football following an incident at school between Manny and Luke, leading to some nasty words between Gloria and Claire.

Channel Surfing: Natalie Zea Tackles "Lawman," Armande Assante Targets "Chuck," CW Orders More Scripts for "Melrose" and "Diaries," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Former Dirty Sexy Money star Natalie Zea, who most recently recurred on HBO's Hung, has signed on a series regular on FX's drama Lawman, starring Timothy Olyphant. Zea, who appeared in Lawman's pilot, will reprise her role as the ex-wife of Olyphant's US Marshall Givens in the series. Project hails from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy winner Armand Assante has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck, where he will play "a Castro-esque dictator who Casey has unsuccessfully tried to assassinate multiple times." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The CW has given a full season order to veteran drama series One Tree Hill, which is currently in its seventh season. Initially, the netlet had only ordered 13 installments for this season but the order bumps the episode total to a full 22. Elsewhere, the CW ordered nine additional scripts for drama series Vampire Diaries and six more scripts for ratings-starved soap Melrose Place. (TVGuide.com, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

NBC has given a script order to an untitled multi-camera comedy pilot starring former Saturday Night Live cast member Jim Breuer about a man who decides to stay at home to look after his three daughters and take care of his elderly parents at the same time. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Varsity Pictures, will be written and executive produced by Wil Calhoun (Friends); Breuer, Brian Robbins, Judi Brown-Marmel and Sharla Sumpter. (Variety)

Stephen Root (True Blood) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Day Eight of FOX's 24, where he will play Ben Prady, "an officer of the Department of Corrections looking into a parolee gone missing." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has the first official photograph of Charisma Carpenter on syndicated fantasy drama series Legend of the Seeker. Carpenter appears in the November 7th second season premiere, where she will play "Triana, one of the feisty Mord-Sith warrior women who regularly make Richard Cypher's life miserable—when they're not trying to sex him up, that is." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Empire creator Tom Wheeler has set up two high-concept dramas at NBC and FOX, which have received script commitments with penalties attached. The NBC project, entitled The Cape, is about a former cop who, after being framed for a crime, becomes The Cape, a marked vigilante out to clear his name and reunite with his son in a city beset with corruption. Project, from Universal Media Studios and BermanBraun, will be executive produced by Wheeler, Lloyd Braun, and Gail Berman. FOX project, The Mysteries of Oak Island, is about a mother and daughter who inherit a 200-year-old lighthouse on a privately owned island off the coast of Nova Scotia where there are legends of buried treasure. That project, hails from Warner Bros. Television, and is described by Wheeler as "mixing Romancing the Stone and What Lies Beneath with a little bit of The Goonies thrown in. It's a family adventure but also about the adventure of being a family." (Hollywood Reporter)

Daniel Mays (The Street) has joined the cast of BBC One's time travel drama series Ashes to Ashes for its third and final season. Mays will play Jim Keats, a Discipline and Complaints Officer with the Metropolitan Police on the series, which returns to BBC One in 2010. "Series three of Ashes To Ashes will have the same combination of thrilling crime drama, outrageous '80s outfits and cutting one liners," said executive producer Piers Wenger. "We’ll be sad to see Gene and the gang go but the journey that will take us to that finale will be one of the most exciting, compelling and edge-of-your seat rides on TV!" (Digital Spy)

Allison Silverman (Colbert Report) has signed a blind script deal with Broadway Video to write a pilot. Word comes shortly after Silverman announced her intention to step down from Colbert Report. (Variety)

The Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Simon Cowell is talks to bring his British reality competition series The X Factor to FOX in a deal that would also extend his role on American Idol for two additional years, through the 2011-12 season. (Hollywood Reporter

UK fans will get to watch Glee after all. Digital channel E4, home to Skins and The Inbetweeners, has closed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television for the UK rights to Glee. No air date was announced. (Broadcast)

Looks like MTV will be airing the late DJ AM's intervention series Gone Too Far after all. According to the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, a source close to the cabler has indicated that the network will be airing the series and has been in touch with Adam Goldstein's family to consult about the timing of the broadcast. MTV for its part has declined to comment. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Future Tense: An Advance Review of ABC's "FlashForward"

Is it the next Lost?

That seems to be the question on many people's minds regarding ABC's new ensemble drama series FlashForward, which launches tomorrow evening and is based on Robert J. Sawyer's novel of the same name. After all, despite the many protestations of the actors and creators of the series that FlashForward isn't at all like Lost, there are some similarities on the surface. A group of disparate and ethnically diverse individuals united by a staggering and life-altering phenomenon? Check. Said phenomenon possibly caused by some sci-fi wackiness? Check. Non-linear storytelling that reveals information about the characters? Check again. Questions about fate versus free will? Youbetcha. Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger? Um, yeah.

That said, FlashForward is a different beast than Lost, which wraps its run beginning in January. When it began, Lost was ostensibly about the survivors of a plane crash on a seriously creepy island; while there were whispers of sci-fi elements in the pilot (polar bears, a monster in the jungle), the main throughline was about survival and the formation of a working community out of the chaos of an inciting incident.

FlashForward, on the other hand, tells us right off the bat that we're experiencing something steeped in the heady world of science fiction. In this case, it's the titular flash forward experienced by the entire world population for two minutes and seventeen seconds, a loss of consciousness that leads to the death of millions of people and creates chaos around the globe. When the survivors awake, they slowly realize that they were given a glimpse into their own futures six months down the line. Why six months? That's a mystery for another day, save the fact that the exact moment witnessed by everyone is of huge significance.

Just what caused the worldwide blackout is also being investigated. When the series begins, we see our sprawling cast going about their lives, unaware of what's to come. Those characters include Joseph Fiennes' recovering alcoholic FBI Agent Mark Benford, who with his partner Demetri Noh (John Cho) are on the trail of some terrorists mounting an attack on Los Angeles when The Event occurs. When they come to, the city is in chaos and both men are shaken. Whether there's any correlation between the planned terror attack and the global blackout remains unseen but the woman that they apprehend after the blackout remains a person of interest. Mark, meanwhile, is desperate to make sure his wife, Doctor Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger), and his young daughter Charlie are safe.

I won't reveal here what each of the characters experience in their flash-forwards (you spoiler-lovers can read about it in my advance review of the pilot script from last year, though there are some changes) but I will say that they all circle around the same exact moment in time: April 29th, 2010 at 10 pm PT. It's due to this fact that Mark and Demetri find themselves assigned to investigate what's being called the Mosaic, a collection of people's memories of future events, corroborated and cross-referenced to find some sort of pattern emerging from the details. Just what or who caused the blackout? For what purpose? And what will happen in six months' time?

Given that the events depicted in the flash-forwards are of incidents that have yet to occur, the series delves head-first into the murky waters of a fate versus free-will discussion. Just because we saw these things happen doesn't mean that they will necessary occur, right? Can we ever fight fate? Or is life pre-determined? Will future events play out as the characters saw them or can they alter the course of destiny? For some, the future holds frustrating twists of fate, but for others, there's the seductive possibility of happiness. Which in a word, leads to some major conflict between those who want the future to happen and those who don't. Hmmm....

The pilot ("No More Good Days"), directed by David S. Goyer (who co-created the series with Brannon Braga and Jessika Borsiczky), introduces us to the main characters we'll be following all season. They include those played by the aforementioned Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, and Sonya Walger, as well as Courtney B. Vance's FBI supervisor Stanford Wedeck, Zachary Knighton's suicidal Dr. Bryce Varley; grieving father Aaron Stark (Brian F. O'Byrne), FBI agent Janice Hawk (Christine Woods), Jack Davenport's mysterious professor Lloyd Simcoe, and babysitter Nicole Kirby (Peyton List). (Dominic Monaghan will join the series a few episodes down the line.)

There are initially some standouts among the cast: John Cho is fantastic as Demetri Noh, Mark's terrified sidekick. Planning a wedding with his fiancée, Demetri is staggered by the implications of what he glimpsed--or didn't--during his blackout and there's a fear and poignancy to his interactions that already make his character a favorite. He also manages to steal the spotlight from lead Joseph Fiennes every time they appear on-screen together. Fiennes isn't bad as Mark Benford, but he seems to lack the emotional gravity and charisma necessary to make his leading man character engaging and interesting. (Just compare his performance to that of Matthew Fox's in the pilot of Lost to see what I mean.) Given the overall strength of the cast, it feels slightly like quibbling to point out Fiennes but I was hoping for more of a smoldering presence than he provides here.

My other complaint is that some of the dialogue is distractingly clunky at times. There's a moment when Christine Woods' Janice actually uses the series' title to describe her experiences during the blackout that made me groan aloud. (Which is no fault of Woods' really; I think she shines here in the few scenes she has in the pilot episode.) I understand that there's a lot of exposition to get through in the opening installment--particularly one that's only an hour rather than a two-hour backdoor--but I still want some sophistication and slickness to the dialogue rather than feel like I'm being hit over the head with the grace of an anvil being dropped from twelve stories up.

That said, I do think that FlashForward displays a hell of a lot of promise, offering a twisty puzzle of a drama that's stuffed with engaging metaphysical mysteries, trippy sci-fi phenomena, and enough overarching mythology to keep Lost fans more than entertained during the long slog until the series returns next year. The producers have been upfront about the fact that they have a five-year plan for the series and will provide answers to some mysteries as the plot ticks along. Despite my lack of confidence in Fiennes as an anchoring lead and some of the pilot's small flaws, I also think that FlashForward is a full head and shoulders above just about every other new drama series this fall.

Just what did you see? Come back on Friday to discuss the pilot episode and what you thought of FlashForward.

The first seventeen minutes of FlashForward's pilot episode are available at Hulu.com or right below:



FlashForward airs tomorrow night at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Talk Back: "The Good Wife"

Were you just as surprised as I was by how much you enjoyed CBS' new legal drama The Good Wife?

I'll admit that I didn't have the highest of expectations for The Good Wife, which stars Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Matt Czuchry, Chris Noth, and Archie Panjabi. Despite its high wattage cast, it's not the type of series that I would ordinarily tune in to. But I have to say: I was sucked in pretty quickly to the action.

Part of the series' appeal has got to be Margulies, who plays wounded politician's wife Alicia Florrick, whose husband (Chris Noth) is imprisoned after a sex scandal raises questions about his abuses of power in office. Alicia has got to be the best role that Margulies has played in years as well as the most charismatic. (It almost erases the bitter sting of short-lived FOX legal drama Canterbury's Law.)

But now that the pilot episode has aired, I'm curious to know what you thought of the first installment of The Good Wife. Did you like Alicia's drive and determination despite the mockery she endures at the hands of her younger co-workers and disapproving female "mentor" (Baranski)? Did you gasp at the sight of so many talented actors in one place? Did you find that the series offered a slightly new take on the tried-and-true courtroom formula by grafting on a ripped-from-the-headlines scandal/relationship story and focusing on a character--a woman returning to work after raising a family--that's not often the subject of drama series?

And, most importantly, will you tune in again next week?

Talk back here.

Next week on The Good Wife ("Stripped"), Alicia represents a stripper who says she was raped at the bachelor party of a prominent businessman.

Tune-In Reminder: ABC's "Modern Family"

Just a quick and impassioned reminder to be sure to tune in to the series premiere of ABC's first-rate comedy Modern Family tonight.

I've been raving about this series since I first saw the pilot in May (you can read my advance review here) and I can't help but shout from the rooftops about this remarkable gem of a television series. (Hell, it gives me hope about the relevance of broadcast television and that's no mean feat.)

I was interviewed recently by USA Weekend and asked which series I was most excited about this fall and Modern Family topped that list.

"Hands down, this is my favorite new series so far," I said about Modern Family, which "has a winning combination of quirkiness, witty banter and heart. It explores how the post-nuclear family ticks and how universal bonds of love and frustration keep it all together."

And it's delightfully funny to boot. So do yourself a favor and be sure to tune in tonight. You'll thank me in the morning.

Modern Family launches tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Channel Surfing: Whedon Talks "Dollhouse" Season Two, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Lands FOX Comedy, Amaury Nolasco Leaves "Southland," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker has an interview with Dollhouse creator Joss Whedon about Season Two of the FOX drama series, which returns on Friday. Asked about how malleable the future depicted in the unaired thirteen episode "Epitaph One" is, Whedon said, "We talked about whether it was malleable or not, and right now we pretty much take it as gospel. But then we have a lot of different opinions about how it gets there and who does what. We're fascinated by the implications of this future, and a lot of this season has been guided by it without being so beholden to it that people who didn't see it won't understand. We were incited by the idea that the abuse of power is more widespread than just this one house." (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

J.J. Abrams' production shingle Bad Robot has landed a pilot presentation order from FOX for a half-hour comedy series that's being described as a "medical comedy." Details on the project are being kept firmly under wraps, though it's known that Mike Markowitz (Becker) is writing the script and will executive produce the pilot along with Abrams and Bryan Burk. (Variety)

Major casting change for NBC's police drama Southland. Prison Break's Amaury Nolasco has departed the project after filming just three episodes; he played an aggressive new partner for Regina King's Detective Lydia Adams. No reason was given for his departure. Stepping in: Extract's Clifton Collins, who will play a new character named Ray Suarez who "is still being fleshed out." (Hollywood Reporter)

Showtime and DreamWorks Television are said to be developing a scripted series that will revolve around the mounting of a Broadway musical, which would then actually play on the Great White Way after the series airs. The network is said to be in talks with executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron as well as songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Meetings are underway to find a writer for the series, whose format--half-hour or hour--is under discussion. (Variety)

Campbell Scott, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, and Martin Short have joined the cast of FX's Damages for the series' third season. (Televisionary)

Bill Condon (Kinsey) will direct Showtime dark comedy pilot The C Word, which stars Laura Linney as a suburbanite who is diagnosed with cancer. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Original Film, is written and executive produced by Darlene Hunt and executive produced by Neal H. Moritz and Vivian Cannon. Production on the pilot starts this fall. (via press release)

E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has the scoop on the upcoming season of ABC's Private Practice (including news that Chris Lowell won't be appearing in all 22 episodes) and talks to Kate Walsh about Addison's backstory and what's coming up for the flame-haired doc this season. "There will be more Addison family members coming to the show this year," Walsh told E! Online. "I'm not sure who's going to come over from the East Coast, but I'm sure they're going to be good and WASP-y and awesome. When Grant Show came on last year as my brother, it was fun for me to see Addison in that lower-status position, as someone's daughter or little sister. It's really fun to play because she's such a fierce and agro personality at work, and then to see her smacked down at home is fun." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

NBC is getting back into the international co-production game with the acquisition of Canadian two-hour backdoor pilot The Mountain from Muse Entertainment. Project, written and directed by Doug Barr, will revolve around a woman who moves her family to the mountains, where they move into a cabin she inherited from her uncle, who may or may not be dead. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has details about Heather Locklear's return to Melrose Place, where she will play Ella's boss at the PR firm where she works. He talks to Melrose Place star Katie Cassidy about Amanda Woodward and gets some additional hints at a workplace showdown between the two. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

MTV has announced that its new comedies Disaster Date and Popzilla will launch on Monday back-to-back in the 6 pm ET/PT timeslot. (Variety)

The Wrap's Joe Adalian is reporting that the CW has ordered eight episodes of half-hour docusoap Fly Girls, which will follow five flight attendants from Virgin America as they jet off to such locales as New York, Las Vegas, and South Beach looking for "good times, great parties, adventure and love." Project, from Collins Avenue, will be executive produced by Jeff Collins and Colin Nash and is expected to launch in early 2010. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Shine International has acquired international distribution rights to FX's six-episode animated comedy Archer, which launches in January. (Variety)

Cookie Jar Entertainment has hired former UPN and Regency TV executive Maggie Murphy as SVP of development, where she will focus on developing content aimed at tweens and will report to Tom Mazza. Murphy was most recently president of Kiefer Sutherland's shingle Eastside Entertainment. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Damage Report: Campbell Scott, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin, and Keith Carradine Join Cast of FX's "Damages"

Patty Hewes will have some new enemies to contend with.

FX today announced that they have signed deals with Martin Short to join the cast of serpentine legal drama Damages for its third season, which launches in January. The news comes on the heels of the network's announcement that Campbell Scott, who recently recurred on USA's summer drama Royal Pains, would star in the Sony Pictures Television-produced drama series.

Also on tap for Season Three of Damages: Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine, who will guest star opposite series regulars Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, and Tate Donovan, as well as Ebon Moss-Bachrach (John Adams), Michael Gaston (Fringe), and Darren Goldstein, who will reprise his role as Chris Sharp from Season One of Damages.

Production on Season Three of Damages is set to begin tomorrow in New York City for a January premiere on FX.

The full press release from FX, announcing the casting additions, can be found below.

FX’S DAMAGES SUMMONS NEW CAST MEMBERS FOR THIRD SEASON

Campbell Scott and Martin Short Sign On as Series Regulars
and Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine Take on Guest Starring Roles

Joining Emmy® Award Winner Glenn Close, Emmy Nominee Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan

Production Begins Tomorrow in New York With Season 3 to Debut in January

LOS ANGELES, September 22, 2009 – FX’s award-winning legal thriller Damages is adding four superior actors to its cast with Campbell Scott and Martin Short signing on as series regulars, and Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine joining as special guest stars for the upcoming season premiering in January. Production of the show’s 13-episode third season begins tomorrow in New York.

For the second consecutive year, Damages received seven Emmy Award nominations and Glenn Close won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Scott, Short, Tomlin and Carradine join returning stars Close, Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan. Close, who won her second consecutive Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama for her portrayal of ruthless attorney “Patty Hewes,” became the first back-to-back winner in that category since Kathy Baker won for Pickett Fences in 1995-96. Byrne received her first Emmy nomination this year for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as “Ellen Parsons,” Patty’s protégé.

Scott starred in multiple episodes of Royal Pains, and his notable film credits include The Secret Lives of Dentists, Big Night and Dying Young.

Short joins the cast as a two-time Emmy nominee for his performance in Primetime Glick and his supporting role in Merlin. He is also known for his roles in Father of the Bride, Three Amigos! and countless appearances on Saturday Night Live.

Tomlin is a multiple Emmy Award winner and Academy Award® nominee. She has played roles on award-winning hit series Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The West Wing, Will & Grace and The X-Files.

Carradine, who co-starred with Tomlin in the Academy Award winning film Nashville, most recently co-starred in Dexter as Special Agent Frank Lundy.

Other actors who will appear in the upcoming season of Damages include Ebon Moss-Bachrach (John Adams), Michael Gaston (Fringe) and Darren Goldstein who appeared in the show’s inaugural season as “Chris Sharp.”

Damages is produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. Damages is executive produced by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, co-executive produced by Aaron Zelman, and produced by Mark A. Baker.

Over its first two seasons, Damages has featured what is arguably the most impressive casts and guest stars of any series on television – Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, Ted Danson, Željko Ivanek, Anastasia Griffith, Noah Bean, Tom Aldrege, Philip Bosco, Nichael Nouri, Peter Facinelli, Peter Reigert, Mario Von Peebles, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Timothy Olyphant, John Doman, Clarke Peters, Kevin Corrigan, Paige Turco, Tom Noonan, and Garret Dillahunt.

Damages has earned seven Emmy Award nominations in each of its first two seasons. Close became the first actress from a basic cable series to win the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama; Željko Ivanek became the first actor from a basic cable series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor for a Drama Series, and Damages was the first basic cable series to take home the Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. Damages has been nominated for Outstanding Drama Series two consecutive years. Damages and AMC’s Mad Men were the first basic cable series to be nominated in for Outstanding Drama Series. In its first season, Damages earned the most Golden Globes nominations of any series in television with Glenn Close winning for Best Actress in a TV Series – Drama.

One if By Land, Two if By Sea: Great Expectations on "Mad Men"

"I feel like I just went to my own funeral. And I didn't like the eulogy."

Throughout its two and a half season run so far, Mad Men has been positively overflowing with shocking, memorable, and sensational moments but the scene in this week's episode of Mad Men ("A Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency") has managed to walk away with one of the most gasp-inducing scenes ever glimpsed on the period drama.

Yes, I'm talking about that foot.

This week's stunning installment, written by Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, was notable for several reasons beyond the morbidly hysterical bloodbath at Sterling Cooper. Centering as it did on the upcoming Independence Day holiday, the installment revolved around several story strands: Joan's departure from Sterling Cooper as she awaits the news about Greg's residency, Sally's inability to let go of her grandfather even as she cannot deal with the arrival of her baby brother, and Don's future at the agency. In other words, each of the three characters experienced the sensation of emotional whiplash as they attempted to look forward and backward at the same time.

In looking at this week's episode, I want to reiterate something I mentioned to Matthew Weiner on the phone the other day: while most series treat their younger characters as one-dimensional props in adults' storylines, Mad Men has excelled at developing Sally Draper (played with staggering skill by Kiernan Shipka) into a three-dimensional character, as complex and complicated as the adults on the series, especially this season where we see her attempt to process Gene's death even as the adults in her life return to life as usual. Her efforts to move past the death of her grandfather are hampered, of course, by the arrival of Baby Gene.

For Don and Betty, Gene is a symbol of hope. As Don tells Sally at the end of the episode, they don't yet know who Gene is nor what he'll become. He represents the very promise of the future, a new person who is as yet unformed by experiences or disappointment; he's also a figurative new bond to hold Don and Betty together after the fragmentation of their relationship last season. Anything is possible for Gene, who has his whole life ahead of him. The same can't still be said for Don and Betty, trapped as their are by the choices they've made in life. Betty selected Gene's name as a way of honoring her father and keeping his memory alive, but to Don it's a bitter reminder of the mutual hate experienced between him and his father-in-law.

For Sally, however, Gene is a literal reminder of the death of her grandfather. As she tearfully tells Don, he shares the same name as her grandfather, looks like him, and sleeps in his room. In other words: he's Gene's ghost come back to haunt the Draper clan. It's a more intellectual fear than that which Betty surmises is troubling Sally; she believes Sally is jealous of Gene and the affection being heaped on him and attempts to bring the two together by giving Sally a Barbie doll she says is from her little brother. For Betty, the problem is an emotional one: Sally is jealous and she has to stop the jealousy now. But Sally isn't jealous, she's filled with dread. She can't let go of the past or her grandfather. In other words, even if there is no ghost, she's still haunted.

We can be haunted too by our own anticipation. Lane Pryce, Don Draper, and Joan Holloway all pin so much on their own expectations, that they each have their hopes brutally dashed by other people's decisions. Lane, hoping for a reward for making Sterling Cooper so phenomenally lean and profitable, instead finds out that he'll be transferred to India; the accountant fools himself into thinking he's a golden boy when he's really just a snake-charmer, someone paid to do the dirty work. Bert Cooper makes Don believe that he's being groomed for a major promotion so he's crushed to learn that the new corporate restructure has him reporting to Guy Mackendrick (Jamie Thomas King). Joan quits her job before she knows whether Greg will get the chief resident position and learns from her drunken husband that he's been passed over. Told that she can't leave her job, Joan tearfully acknowledges that it's too late and is instructed to then find work elsewhere.

Yet each of them rises to the occasion, proving their worth in different ways. Their separate storylines dovetail nicely into one when a humorous incident involving a John Deere lawnmower turns the Sterling Cooper offices into a literal bloodbath. It's a joyous prank gone horribly wrong, resulting in the severing of Guy's foot and the destruction of one of the office walls by the hapless Lois. The sight of the wolfpack getting sprayed by Guy's blood (all over their pristine white shirts) was staggering. But Joan quickly steps in to save Guy's life, organizing the chaos and applying a tourniquet before accompanying him to the hospital.

Guy's foot is a goner, as is Guy's career in advertising, according to St. John. It's a shocking reminder of just how we're each hanging on by a thread. It's a painful reminder of just how much Sterling Cooper will lose with Joan's departure: a cool head who is able to keep the office humming along even as the walls come crashing down around them.

Lane, meanwhile, isn't going anywhere. Guy's life-altering injury means that he won't be sent to Bombay after all but will remain in New York at Sterling Cooper. Plus ce change...

During the madness at the office, Don was meeting with hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, who turns out to be "Connie," the mystery man Don met at Roger and Jane's party. (Nicely accomplished plant and pay-off.) Connie wants Don's opinion about an ad campaign and seems to be offering him a golden opportunity, something that Don turns down, saying "one opportunity at a time." Why does Don not want to attempt some sort of arrangement with Connie? Is he afraid of getting hurt by anticipating something that won't materialize? Or is he loyal to Roger and Bert, despite the many changes that have come about since the merger? Hmmm...

My favorite small moment from this week's episode: Pete catching a fainting Peggy after the lawnmower incident. Despite the recent coolness in their relationship this season, the look of worry on Pete's face spoke volumes about his true feelings towards Peggy. It's a tiny fragment in a larger tapestry in this week's episode but it also connects to the past and the future. Despite what's happened between them, there's still the possibility of rapprochement for these two star-crossed lovers.

In other words, it's a reminder that there's always the glittering prospect of hope.

Next week on Mad Men ("Seven Twenty Three"), Betty tries her hand at local politics; Don is forced into thinking about the future; Peggy receives a luxurious gift.

Emmys: The Morning After (The Morning After)

No, it's not quite the morning after the Emmys but I spent yesterday recovering from a bit too much overindulgence the night before and still wanted to get in my thoughts about this year's Emmy awards before the door for such discussion slams shut.

Emmy host is a rather thankless job and we've seen, thanks to last year, just how much the show can go off the rails in the hands of less-than-qualified hosts. However, I thought that Neil Patrick Harris did a legendary job and infused the proceedings with wit, sparkle, and humor and kept things running smoothly. (Did we really only run over by a few minutes? Fantastic.)

I spent the evening carousing at two post-Emmy bashes, HBO's luxe red-hewed affair at the Pacific Design Center and AMC's latenight after-after-party at Chateau Marmont. Both fetes were absolutely, ridiculously fun and the stars were out in full-force for both events, with this gleeful partier catching glimpses of Jon Hamm, Glenn Close, Ricky Gervais, Chloe Sevigny, Kristin Bauer, Anna Camp, Maria Bello, Christina Hendricks, Daniel Dae Kim, Kevin Connolly, John Slattery, Grace Zabriski, Douglas Smith, Shirley MacLaine, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Kristen Schaal, Anne Heche, Aaron Paul, Rose Byrne... and the list goes on and on. (That's just off the top of my head.)

I had a lovely time sitting with Top Chef judge Gail Simmons and her husband at the HBO event and discussing professional chefs, sci-fi TV, and a host of other topics and I got to catch up with Inbetweeners creator Iain Morris and his girlfriend, there to support Flight of the Conchords, for which Morris had written two episodes with writing partner Damon Beesley, and co-creator James Bobin, whom I interviewed recently for The Daily Beast, and ran into at the AMC party with Jemaine Clement. I also caught up with the always delightful Anna Camp of HBO's True Blood, who introduced me to her fiancé Michael Mosley, who will be a series regular on Scrubs this season.

And, at the AMC bash, I got to congratulate Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner--who was holding his two Emmys--on his two wins and he very kindly and graciously thanked me for the piece I did on him and Mad Men for The Daily Beast recently, saying that it was a pleasure to be interviewed by someone who genuinely loves the series. (Aw!)

So what did I think of the awards themselves? Let's discuss. (The full list of award winners can be found here.)

I'll admit that I watched the awards ceremony via an East Coast feed while I was getting ready but that it seemed to be moving at a pretty even speed and Harris provided a charming host throughout the evening, looking quite dashing in a white tuxedo and managing to make me roar with laughter during his Dr. Horrible-style takeover of the airwaves, buffering and all. (The fact that I was watching the Primetime Emmys on a computer made this gag even more hysterical and meta.)

As for the awards themselves, they were more or less pretty predictable, though there were some nice surprises spread throughout the evening. I was thrilled to see Kristin Chenoweth take home an Outstanding Supporting Actress statuette for her role as Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies , a bittersweet posthumous (for the series, not Cheno) acknowledgment of the whimsical series. (By the same token, however, I'd have much rather seen Tina Fey take home the prize for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy to match Alec Baldwin's win for Jack Donaghy, rather than United States of Tara's Toni Colette.)

I was thrilled that Little Dorrit and Grey Gardens took home some prizes in the movies and mini-series categories; both were excellent examples of how classy, upscale longform can still work on television and I was extremely chuffed that BBC/PBS mini Little Dorrit took home the top mini-series prize and writing for Andrew Davies. (If you haven't seen Davies' Little Dorrit, get thee to a video store--or Netflix--straightaway.) And, despite many critics saying that the movies/mini-series section of the ceremony dragged on for far too long, I loved Jessica Lange's acceptance speech and Ken Howard's Kanye West allusion. Unexpected, that.

I love The Amazing Race but I was really hoping that the addictive and slick Top Chef would take home the gold for Bravo this year. It's such a fantastic format and, as much as I adore TAR, I am ready to see it sit out from the reality competition category for one year at least.

Michael Emerson and Cherry Jones were about as professional as can be and I loved Cherry's promise that she was going to plonk down her Emmy on the craft services table at the 24 set in Chatsworth the next day. Likewise, I kind of assumed that Glenn Close and Bryan Cranston would take home statuettes but I'll admit that I was pulling for Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and Jon Hamm to take home those prizes respectively instead, especially for Mad Men's incredible second season. (I was thrilled for Kater Gordon and Matt Weiner to win for writing the awe-inspiring "Meditations in an Emergency" episode of Mad Men.)

But I'm extremely pleased by 30 Rock and Mad Men's continued win this year for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series respectively. If Big Love couldn't have won for the truly outstanding third season they had, then I'm exceptionally happy that Mad Men took home the prize. In an era of reality television dominating the airwaves, it's comforting to see so many fantastic drama series making their marks and I think we're truly blessed to have complex series like Mad Men, Big Love, Lost, and Damages on the air today.

What did you think of the awards? How did Neil Patrick Harris do? Were you happy with the winners? And, if not, who would you have awarded the top prizes to? Discuss.

Channel Surfing: FOX Keeps "Glee" Singing, Heather Locklear Returns to "Melrose Place," Barrowman Hints at "Doctor Who" Appearance, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. I'm back in the land of the living after recovering from a truly extraordinary Emmy evening the other night. Let's get to the headlines.

FOX has given a full season order to musical comedy Glee, picking up the back nine episodes to bring this season's total to 22 segments. While the cast had already filmed the thirteen initial episodes, there had been no word if FOX would be going ahead with the production until yesterday. Meanwhile, E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has the scoop on some upcoming plot points for the ten remaining unaired episodes from Glee's initial order, including some potential romantic complications for, well, everyone. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

The CW has announced that Heather Locklear will reprise her role as conniving Amanda Woodward on the resurrected Melrose Place later this season. Locklear is set to first appear in the November 17th episode though the reasons behind her return to the courtyard apartment complex remain a mystery. (Editor: could it have to do with Sydney stealing her thunder by faking her death too?) Zap2It wonders whether Locklear's Amanda could have a familial relationship with Katie Cassidy's Ella but that remains speculation at the moment. (Zap2It)

Torchwood star John Barrowman has hinted that he might make an appearance in this year's final David Tenannt Doctor Who specials. (Editor: I predicted as much back when Torchwood: Children of Earth wrapped its run earlier this summer.) Barrowman, asked by Metro about whether he would be returning to Doctor Who, said, "I'll put it this way - Captain Jack will always return to the side of The Doctor when he needs assistance." Hmmm... (Digital Spy)

John Glenn (Eagle Eye) will write the script for FOX drama pilot Fallen, described by the Hollywood Reporter as "a real-world drama that revolves around a group of vigilante "fallen" angels who take down the criminal and the corrupt in New York while falling in love, battling demons and seeking their own personal revenge." Project, from 20th Century Fox Television and the Chernin Co., will be executive produced by Glenn, Peter Chernin, and Katherine Pope. (Hollywood Reporter)

CBS is staying in the crime drama business. The network has given script orders (with penalties) to two projects from Sony Pictures Television. The first is an untitled crime drama from Peter Tolan (Rescue Me) about a quirky college professor who solves crimes; Tolan will executive produce with Michael Wimer. The second is The Rememberer, from writer/executive producer Ed Redlich (Without a Trace), about a female NYPD cop who has the secret ability to recall everything that she experiences. Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly will also executive produce. (Variety)

SPOILER! E! Online's Watch with Kristin chats with House star Jesse Spencer about what's coming up for Chase this season. "I'm back on the team," Spencer told E! Online's Jennifer Godwin. "It's kinda old-school: Cameron and Chase, kickin' it old-school. The merging of the teams is a work in progress. People are back and forth, and in and out, but I think very soon it's going to be a complete conglomeration of old and new. It's going to be a new dynamic for the team, which I think is going to be really good... I've got a lot of storylines coming my way. There's a bit of dodgy doctoring going on. But dodgy doctoring is all we do on the show. Bend the rules a little bit--that's what House does. If House was practicing medicine [in the real world], he'd have lot his license on day one." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Michael Fresco (My Name is Earl) will direct single-camera FOX comedy pilot Keep Hope Alive, from writer/executive producer Greg Garcia and 20th Century Fox Television, about a 25-year-old man who--wait for it-- is "raising an infant with the help of his quirky family after the mother of the baby, with whom he had a one-night stand, ends up on death row." (Hollywood Reporter)

FX has announced that it will launch comedy series The League in the 10:30 pm timeslot following It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia beginning October 29th. Series, from Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, follows the exploits of a fantasy football league. Meanwhile, the cabler also announced that animated comedy Archer (which aired its pilot via a sneak peek on Thursday evening) will launch in January and Louie will kick off sometime during the first quarter. (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Mariska Hargitay about what's coming up on Law & Order: SVU via a video interview at Sunday's Emmy Awards. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Variety is reporting that the Television Critics Association will return to the Langham Hotel in Pasadena for the Winter Press Tour in January but has secured the Beverly Hilton for the next three Summer Press Tours, beginning with the 2010 session, slated to run July 17th to August 8th. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Los Angeles Times: "'Curb Your Enthusiasm': Getting rid of Loretta"

Looking to talk about Curb Your Enthusiasm?

You can head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site to find out my thoughts on last night's season premiere of Curb Your Enthusiasm ("Funkhouser's Crazy Sister"), where I'll be discussing each week's installment every Monday morning.

This week's piece can be found here.

USA Weekend: "Which new TV shows are worth watching?"

You can check out my interview by USA Weekend's Thomas J. Walter about the fall season here.

I was interviewed along with The Futon Critic's Brian Ford Sullivan and Ain't It Cool News' Herc about which series were we most looking forward to this fall. Not surprisingly, two of the series I touted were ABC's Modern Family and V.

Of Modern Family (which launches on Wednesday night), I said, "Hands down, this is my favorite new series so far," and that the series "has a winning combination of quirkiness, witty banter and heart. It explores how the post-nuclear family ticks and how universal bonds of love and frustration keep it all together."

And V I described as "Gripping and electrifying in equal measure... With engaging leads such as Elizabeth Mitchell and Joel Gretsch, it's difficult not to get swept up by the action and the analogies for our changed world."

The piece can be read in full here.

Talk Back: Series Premiere of HBO's "Bored to Death"

Anyone fancy a glass of white wine?

You had the chance to read my advance review of HBO's new detective comedy Bored to Death, starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis), but now that the pilot episode has aired, I'm curious to see what you thought of the series.

Did you think that Schwartzman made for a particularly hapless private eye? Did you dig the kooky relationship between Jonathan Ames (based on the series' creator, novelist Jonathan Ames) and his boss George (Danson) and his best friend Ray (Galifianakis)? Did the mix of hard-boiled noir, modern neurosis, and whimsical absurdity win you over?

And, most importantly, will you tune in again next week to watch?

Talk back here.

Next week on Bored to Death ("The Alanon Case"), Jonathan tries to win back Suzanne and gets a new case when a woman named Jennifer (guest star Kristen Wiig) wants him to tail her boyfriend Gary to see if he’s been unfaithful; George has a bizarre request for Jonathan.

Channel Surfing: NBC to Stream "Chuck" Episodes Online, Desmond Harrington to Get More "Gossip," Andrew Connelly Powers Up for "Heroes," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that NBC will today begin streaming already aired episodes of Chuck on its website. For now, the installments include the original pilot episode and the entire second season of Chuck, which is being released in batches of five episodes at a time. Chuck is currently slated to return to the airwaves in March. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams is reporting that Desmond Harrington (Dexter) will reprise his role as Jack Bass on the CW's Gossip Girl later this season. "I will be back this year," Harrington told Abrams. "I think it's episode 15 or 16 where I show back up. It's fun playing Uncle Jack... I think, if anything, I am there to screw that kid's life up basically," Harrington says. "I think he might be, out of all the most evil characters the show has ever had on it, the most evil character. He's evil." (TVGuide.com)

Andrew Connolly (Lost) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Heroes this fall. He'll play the older brother to Robert Knepper's Samuel Sullivan, "the charismatic but evil Earth-moving ringleader of a traveling carnival who recruits people with special powers for a mysterious purpose." (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Ugly Betty will shoot an upcoming episode on location at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas next month. "I’m told most of the cast will be making the trek for the special episode, which will air in November and revolve around a big Mode photo shoot," writes Ausiello. He also quotes an unnamed Ugly Betty insider who reveals, "Location shoots can make or break you as an editor, so it’s a big deal for Betty... there’s also some drama with a certain love triangle." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Variety's Michael Schneider investigates the surge in animated development at the networks, with several animated projects--from FX's Archer to Nick at Nite, TBS, HBO, and Comedy Central--planned for the next few studios. "It's the engine that allows us to have all sorts of ancillary revenues of distribution -- syndication, home entertainment, licensing and merchandising," 20th Century Fox Television chairman Gary Newman told Schneider. (Variety)

The third season of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures will air twice a week in the UK on BBC One. "We've been planning this for a very long time now," executive producer Russell T. Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "The whole of Children's BBC is excited by this transmission pattern. It feels like the old days, when Doctor Who would transmit twice a week!" The spin-off series, which stars Elisabeth Sladen, aired its first season Stateside on Sci Fi; no plans have been announced yet for the second or third seasons. (Digital Spy)

TVGuide.com talks to House star Lisa Edelstein about what's coming up on the fifth season of the medical mystery series. Edelstein addressed the bait-and-switch love scene in the season finale. "The thing that I thought was good news about it is that there's only so far we can take it on the show before you change the dynamic, so the fact is, we kind of got a freebie in, because ultimately it can't really be that successful because that's not what House is about," she told TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams. "The more time you eke out of the opportunity to just explore two people who have no relationship skills, the more we can play around. I get to be a virgin another time." (TVGuide.com)

Broadcast has a fantastic interview with British comedian Katy Brand, whose eponymous sketch comedy series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show is set to launch in States on BBC America later this year. (Broadcast)

Stay tuned.

Link Tank: TV Blog Coalition Roundup for Sept. 18-20

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation.

This week, I had an exclusive one-on-one interview with True Blood writer/executive producer Alan Ball the morning after the season finale and wrapped up the second season of the HBO vampire drama and took a look ahead to Season Three.

I also put together a video interview package with the stars of NBC's new comedy series Community as they discuss the new comedy series and their individual characters.

Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items...

• Need to brush up on what went down in The Office's last season? Take BuzzSugar's Season 5 quiz! (BuzzSugar)
• When Survivor: Samoa ads boasted The Biggest Villain Ever, Scooter scoffed with thoughts of Richard Hatch in his head. But after one episode Russell did make it into the pantheon of Survivor villains. (Scooter McGavin's 9th Green)
• Things got really hot at the So You Think You Can Dance Phoenix auditions but got skintilatingly hot during the Top 14 Group dance on So You Think You Can Dance Canada. (Tapeworthy)
• They're both dreamy, they're both svelte, they're both sharp dressers. But the real question is this: who would win in a dance-off between How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris and Glee's Matthew Morrison. (TiFaux)
• Sorry, The Office. No offense, 30 Rock. But Community may have replaced you both as the funniest show on TV. [TV Fanatic]

Daily Beast: "HBO's Troubadours Take Flight"

Another quick bit of indulgent self-promotion on Emmy day.

Please be sure to check out my latest piece for The Daily Beast, entitled "HBO's Troubadours Take Flight," featuring a one-on-one interview with Flight of the Conchords co-creator James Bobin.

It's the latest installment of an Emmy story package at The Daily Beast and features a Q&A with James Bobin about the possibility of a third season, musical influences, Jemaine Clement's nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, working with Michel Gondry, and much more.

You can read the piece in full here. Be sure to read the whole intro for Flight of the Conchords and then click on the gallery to read the Q&A.