Channel Surfing: Heller Wants to Build "Rome" Feature Film, Pilots Making a Comeback, Buscemi and Macdonald Head to "Boardwalk Empire," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving weekend (I'm still full from two Thanksgiving dinners' worth of turkey and all the trimmings) and is at least somewhat happy to be back at work today.

Rome creator Bruno Heller--who happens to also be the creator of this season's only certifiable network ratings hit, The Mentalist--has expressed interest in producing a feature film version of Rome. "There is talk of doing a movie version," said Heller. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off."

HBO quietly admitted recently that it was likely a mistake that they canceled the series before its well-received second season. Meanwhile, Heller says that he had a road map for five seasons of the series: "I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end," Heller said. "The second was going to end with death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There's certainly more than enough history to go around." (Hollywood Reporter)

Filming has begun in Botswana on the six-part drama series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency for HBO, BBC One, and the Weinstein Company. Series, based on the best-selling novels of Alexander McCall-Smith and written by the late Anthony Minghella, will follow the story of Precious Ramotswe, the owner of an all-female detective agency in Botswana. BBC One is expected to launch the series in Winter 2009; it aired a two-hour backdoor pilot last spring. (BBC)

NBC's Lipstick Jungle hasn't been 100 percent canceled, according to The New York Times, which says that NBC has shifted the female drama to Friday nights in an effort to see if it can attract a live audience on that night on the four original episodes that NBC will air through January. Lipstick Jungle currently sees a huge boost in DVR numbers but needs to quickly attract a higher overall audience if it has any chance of staying alive. As for what to expect from the four remaining installments: "Nico will continue to have to deal with the baby her husband left behind; Ms. Price’s character, an established fashion designer, will weigh whether to pose nude for a magazine to draw attention to her career; and one character — the writers won’t identify which one — will experience a money crisis." (The New York Times)

Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos) and Kelly Macdonald (State of Play) are in talks to join the cast of Martin Scorsese's HBO drama pilot Boardwalk Empire, about the 1920s origin of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Buscemi would play Nuck Johnson, a criminal who runs a liquor distribution racket; Macdonald would play Margaret, a cunning Irish immigrant who married the wrong man in order to escape her parents' house. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lost has thrown a sheep at you. 'Nuff said. (Zap2it)

This past season's experiment into ordering pilot-free series is now looked on as rather a large mistake, following the poor performance of those very same series, including My Own Worst Enemy and Crusoe at NBC, and the need to retool other series that have yet to air, including FOX's Dollhouse from Joss Whedon and The Philanthropist at NBC. In fact, pilots seem to be making a comeback. "The lesson learned from the last year is that going straight to series is a tool to be used, but not the only tool to be used," said NBC co-chair Marc Graboff. "There's no blanket rule that covers every situation." Ahem. Even when faced with My Own Worst Enemy (which was shot, recast, and retooled before crashing and burning upon launch), Graboff contends that NBC "made all the pilots we wanted to make." (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC One is launching an updated version of classic sci-fi series The Day of the Triffids, based on John Wyndham's 1951 novel. The new Triffids will be written by Patrick Harbinson (Law & Order) and will tell the story of Earth's inhabitants in 2011, who have used up all of the planet's fossil fuel reserves and uncover a new crop called the Triffid, a fuel that seems to have a life of its own. Project, slated to air in 2009, comes from Power and executive producers Justin Bodle and Julie Gardner. (BBC)

Doctor Who's David Tennant talks Time Lord, playing Hamlet at Stratford-upon-Avon, and nerves. (The Daily Telegraph)

Meanwhile, David Morrissey (State of Play) would "jump at the chance" to play the Eleventh Doctor, following Tennant's departure from Doctor Who in 2010. "I've had a great time," said Morrissey, who appears in this month's Doctor Who Christmas Special. "If they asked me back I'd jump at it; I think it's a great character and I've loved every minute." (Digital Spy)

And speaking of time travel, The New Statesman's Laurence Marks chats with Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes co-creator Ashley Pharoah, and Goodnight Sweetheart writer Maurice Gran about time travel. (BAFTA)

Khandi Alexander will return to CBS' CSI: Miami, where she will reprise her role as Alexx Woods, in at least one episode to air in early 2009. Alexander, meanwhile, will also star opposite The Wire's Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters in David Simon's new HBO drama pilot Treme. (TV Guide)

The New York Times speaks to The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller and stars Simon Baker and Robin Tunney about the series. Among some interesting points: "[P]ositioned as it is among the 10 top-rated shows, there is a danger that The Mentalist may have nowhere to go but down, particularly as the January premiere of the eighth season of American Idol looms. As a powerhouse lead-in to Fringe, Idol threatens to give the night back to Fox." (The New York Times)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing; NBC Cans "My Own Worst Enemy," "Lipstick Jungle," Sci Fi Asks for More "Sanctuary," Novak to Leave "The Office," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. I hope everyone watched the season premiere of Bravo's Top Chef, which nearly made up for yet another week without a new Pushing Daisies... though from what I gather, there's going to be quite a lot of those come soon. Sigh.

NBC has canceled freshman drama My Own Worst Enemy, which starred Christian Slater in the dual role of Edward/Henry. Series will wrap production after shooting its current episode, the ninth of the initial 13-episode order. No word yet on what NBC will substitute in the Monday 10 pm timeslot. (Variety)

As for the fate of sophomore drama Lipstick Jungle, NBC has also given the drama the sack as well. Ouch. (Hollywood Reporter)

Should Pushing Daisies be canceled tomorrow, creator Bryan Fuller says that the series' storylines will be wrapped up in comic book form. "The idea would be to finish out the season's story arcs in comic books," said Fuller, "to satisfy the fans and ourselves, to finish up the stories we'd love to tell." Sigh. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that ABC comes to their senses but it's not looking good, people. (TV Week's Blink)

Sci Fi has renewed drama Sanctuary for a second season, ordering thirteen episodes to launch sometime in 2009. Production on Season Two is expected to begin early next year in Vancouver. (TV Guide)

In other renewal news, the CW has ordered five additional episodes of freshman dramedy Privileged, bringing its season total to 18 episodes. While slightly short of a full 22-episode order for the series, it does show a vote of confidence on the part of the netlet, which has now given its sole new drama series full season orders. In order to promote sampling of Privileged, the CW will air two new episodes on December 1st and Devember 8th behind new episodes of lead-in Gossip Girl. (One Tree Hill, which was scheduled to air repeats, will be pre-empted those weeks.) Those episodes will be repeated in the series' regular timeslot on Tuesday evenings. (Variety)

20th Century Fox Television has informed the cast of FOX's Prison Break that they may extend the current filming schedule to include two additional episodes. While Prison Break's writers have yet to pitch their take on these episodes, speculation is that they may function as a series finale or as a "special" two-hour feature next season a la 24: Redemption. FOX, meanwhile, has not yet committed to airing these extra two episodes though the network is currently engaged in talks with the studio on this matter. (Hollywood Reporter)

B.J. Novak will take a leave of absence from NBC's The Office, where he serves as writer/producer and a performer in order to film a role in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming feature Inglorious Bastards. Conflicting reports either have Novak disappearing from Dunder-Mifflin for "several episodes" or permanently. Given that Novak's Ryan is currently filling in for receptionist Pam, who WILL return to Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch eventually, it seems as though the writers have already engineered an easy exit for Ryan. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has canceled latenight sketch comedy series MADtv after fourteen seasons; the series will end its run at the end of the current 2008-09 season. Producers say that they are weighing their options and that the series could turn up at another network. (Variety)

FX has announced return dates for Damages and Nip/Tuck. (Televisionary)

Matthew Lillard will guest star in an upcoming episode of CBS' Gary Unmarried, where he will play Gary's irritating ex-brother-in-law Taylor "who has a knack for rubbing his well-to-do status in people's faces." (TV Guide)

Sasha Alexander (NCIS) has been cast in CBS' multi-camera comedy pilot The Karenskys, where she will play Emily, a woman who returns to her hometown when her husband is forced to relocate due to his job and reconnects with her eccentric family while her husband is uncomfortable with their quirks. Also cast: Tinsley Grimes (That '80s Show). Project comes from writer/executive producer Linwood Boomer (Malcolm in the Middle), BermanBraun, and Universal Media Studios. (Hollywood Reporter)

Showtime is developing an untitled drama project based on Perry Moore's novel "Hero," that will follow the life of a gay superhero. Project comes from writer Moore and executive producer Stan Lee, the co-creator of such Marvel properties as X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Avengers, and Gill Champion. (Variety)

Also at Showtime, the pay cabler is developing half-hour comedy Kevin and the Chart of Destiny, about a "a brilliant but lonely market researcher who designs an elaborate 'dating system'--as laid out in a complex wall chart--in order to achieve his goal of finding a wife within one year." Project comes from writer/executive producer Tim Long (The Simpsons). (Hollywood Reporter)

Comedy Central has greenlit two pilots: animated comedy Ugly Americans, about a social worker who helps new US citizens--both human and non-human--adapt to life in NYC; and live-action comedy Evan and Gareth Are Trying to Get Laid, about two men earning first-hand experience in the perils of dating so they can offer advice at the relationship website where they work. (Variety)

Abby Elliott (King of the Hill) and Michaela Watkins (Old Christine) have joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, following the departure of Amy Poehler. The sketch comedy series may also add additional cast members later this season. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: NBC Looks for Gold with "Jason" But "My Own Worst Enemy" Launch Less than Golden, "Battlestar Galactica," More "Eli Stone," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Wondering where the frak BSG is? Battlestar Galactica will return with the back half of Season Four, the series' final installment, on January 16th at 10 pm. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

NBC has given a put pilot commitment to Jason and the Argonauts, a green-screen drama based on the Greek myth about the quest for the golden fleece from writer/executive producers Josh and Jonas Pate (Surface) and Media Rights Capital. (NBC previously aired a mini based on the myth in 2000.) I'm not quite sure that they should have done so until after they see the numbers from the premiere of Crusoe later this week but there you go. The Peacock landed the project after a fierce bidding war, apparently with FOX. (In other news, MRC received an order for seven additional scripts for its animated ABC comedy The Goode Family and three additional scripts for Lifetime comedy Rita Rocks.) (Variety)

In other NBC news, My Own Worst Enemy didn't exactly take the ratings by storm. The Christian Slater-led drama opened in fifth place among the seven new dramas that launched on the broadcast networks this fall with a 3.0/8 in adults 18-49 and 7.27 million viewers overall, enough to put it in third place in the key demo behind football and CSI: Miami. The series premiere held onto 70 percent of the Heroes audience, the same retention figure as cancelled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Variety)

ABC has ordered four additional scripts of sophomore drama Eli Stone, which launched its second season last night. The order suggests that studio ABC Studios is happy with the creative direction of the drama. (Hollywood Reporter)

Amy Sedaris (The Closer) has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to create, write, and star in an untitled single-camera comedy series project from Worldwide Pants. She'll co-write the script with writing partner Paul Dinello, who will direct should the project get ordered to pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek will guest star in a November episode of the CW's One Tree Hill. In a weird twist of fate, One Tree Hill films on the very same lot where Dawson's Creek was filmed. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

ABC has given a put pilot commitment to single-camera comedy Made Over from writer/executive producer Caroline Williams (The Office, Miss/Guided) and Warner Bros. Television. Project follows a shallow LA-based comestics executive who "has a crisis of conscience and quits her job," in order to start a consulting firm with a younger woman with very different values than her own. (Hollywood Reporter)

D.L. Hughley will host a CNN series. Yes, you read that correctly. (Variety)

Holy Vicky Pollard! Little Britain co-creator/co-star Matt Lucas has joined the cast of Comedy Central's scripted period fantasy comedy Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Firea, which stars Sean Maguire. Also joining the cast: India de Beaufort, Steve Speirs, Kevin Hart, John Rhys-Davies, James Murray, and Marques Ray. (Hollywood Reporter)

CBS has signed a deal with Tribeca Prods. to develop three pilots with a guarantee that one of the projects will be ordered to pilot. Under the guidance of Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca is developing its first project an untitled NYC-based one-hour drama to be written by William Monahan (The Departed). Details are sketchy at best but is said to play to Monahan's strengths. (Variety)

Amy Pietz (Aliens in America) will star in Lifetime drama pilot The Amazing Mrs. Novak, based on the UK series The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, about a supermarket manager (Pietz) who unexpectedly becomes governor of New Jersey. Also cast: Tom Verica and Kristen Dattilo. Project comes from Warner Horizon and Kudos Prods. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO Films president Colin Callender has left HBO after 21 years at the pay cabler; he'll launch his own entertainment and content company next year. (Variety)

Anna Paquin (True Blood) has been cast as the lead in CBS' telepic The Irene Sendler Story, from Hallmark Hall of Fame. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Talk Back: NBC's "My Own Worst Enemy"

By now you've read my advance review of NBC's new Christian Slater spy drama My Own Worst Enemy and had the opportunity to watch it yourself.

I'm curious to see what you thought about the series premiere of My Own Worst Enemy ("Breakdown"), which introduced the audience to Slater's Henry Spivey/Edward Albright; one is the consummate career-driven family man, the other is a deadly intelligence operative with a penchant for fast cars and faster women.

Were you as bothered by the episode's incongruities and sloppy plotting as I was? Did you think that Slater himself was pretty darn underwhelming? And did you care at all about Henry's family or Fainburg's Marbles? Do you care why Henry and Edward seem to be emerging at inopportune times? And, most importantly, will you be tuning in again next week?

Talk back here.

Missed the series premiere of My Own Worst Enemy? No worries. You can watch it after the jump...

Double Jeopardy: Spying on "My Own Worst Enemy"

When I read Jason Smilovic's original script for My Own Worst Enemy, the NBC action spy series starring Christian Slater which launches tonight, I thought that it showed enormous promise and potential. Sure, I was confused why NBC would schedule two series that both dealt with takes on the spy genre on the same night (Chuck, of course, airs two hours earlier) but I figured that, since they had managed to snag Christian Slater as the lead on a network television series, they had to be doing something right.

And then I saw the premiere episode of My Own Worst Enemy ("Breakdown") a few weeks back and I began to question everything that I had originally thought about the series, especially as the Peacock had secured the showrunning services of John Eisendrath, an Alias veteran who replaced series creator Jason Smilovic at the helm, and done some major recasts and reshooting.

My Own Worst Enemy isn't bad, per se, but it could have been a hell of a lot better and the results on screen are pretty flat. The premise? Christian Slater plays Henry Spivey, a workaday consultant for various companies who juggles his family (including a lovely wife played by Madchen Amick), his job, therapy (in the form of Saffron Burrow's Dr. Norah Skinner), and frequent business trips. Christian Slater also plays Edward Albright, a deadly intelligence operative who clearly has picked up more than a few tips from the James Bond spy playbook. In the series' opening moments, we see Edward bed a beautiful asset and then shoot her in the head minutes later when she tries to kill him.

Henry and Edward are, of course, the same person and in some truly mindblowing technobabble Edward's boss Mavis (Alfre Woodard) explains the experiment that brought them together, as it were. The twist of course is that dashing superspy Edward is the real person; it's frumpy Henry that is the experiment, a divergent personality that the scientists at AJ Sun (an anagram for Janus, the Roman two-headed god of beginnings and endings... and doorways) materialized from his frontal lobe. Edward's life of assassination, intelligence-gathering, and womanizing comprise the truth of his life; Henry's family life is just the window-dressing. But is it a liability? Or Edward's greatest strength? Hmmm.

Given that an integral member of the Alias team is involved, I expected significantly more tension and drama in the opening installment and it's hard not to compare My Own Worst Enemy with the groundbreaking series premiere of Alias, in which Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) learns some terrible secrets about the company she's working for, has her fiancee killed, and nearly dies herself in completing a mission to ensure her continued survival working for an evil organization that pretends to be a black ops division of the CIA. And, oh, reconnects with her chilly, estranged father (Victor Garber), who's tied up in the whole mess she's uncovered.

Instead, we don't really see any major stakes presented for Henry/Edward. Yes, Henry "wakes" up during a critical mission and winds up in the line of fire and is nearly killed by their target, a terrorist named Uzi (yes, seriously) who has stolen something called Fainberg's Marbles, a Rambaldi-like device if I ever heard one. Yes, Henry is later attacked in his home and kidnapped by Uzi in order to locate the Marbles but at no point do we really feel like the atmosphere is fraught with peril. We're told that Uzi will kill Henry's family if he doesn't comply, but as none of them are given any more depth or characterization than mere ciphers, it's hard to be on the edge of your seat over this threat. Where is the drama, the intrigue, the pulse-pounding tension of, say, the Bourne films... or the aforementioned Alias?

There's a messiness to My Own Worst Enemy that could have been pushed aside had your suspension of disbelief been a little more warranted. Mavis gives the order to erase Henry altogether but then only erases Henry's knowledge of Edward and the few previous days. (Wouldn't it have raised the stakes had they actually wanted to go through with it, only to have Edward buck?) The facility doesn't search through Edward's pockets before waking Henry up (they don't even apparently change his clothes, though the two men would have vastly different wardrobes), allowing Henry to discover a book of matches from a Parisian hotel that he had never been to. In fact, security is apparently so lax at AJ Sun that Mavis takes Henry to Edward's sleek apartment and leaves him there with full phone access (he calls his wife but doesn't mention any of the madness that's going on) and the ability to leave at any time (he takes Edward's car for a spin rather than running far, far away). Either AJ Sun is a completely trusting intelligence agency or these are singlehandedly the very worst spies in the business.

Additionally, Slater doesn't live up to my expectations in a dual role that doesn't really prescribe much difference between Edward and Henry. I was expecting a more fluid and subtle performance in which Slater deftly slips back and forth between the two halves of his psyche and allows us to see those differences in his mannerisms, behavior, speech patterns, and body language. (For a master course on how to do this, take a look at James Nesbitt in BBC's Jekyll.)

Smilovic's original script made better use of the subtle differences between the two men and played up Henry's puzzle-solving abilities, which were not programmed by AJ Sun and seem to have developed on their own. More weight could have been given to this extremely intriguing development but the premiere episode glosses over this to instead focus on Edward's now-familiar spy abilities. The original script also contained a pretty shocking ending that is nowhere to be found here (I won't reveal it in case NBC decides to later use this storyline) and jettisons an rather interesting subplot involving Edward and Norah.

Ultimately, My Own Worst Enemy isn't original or compelling. It feels slightly outdated and outmatched by the hyperkinetic brawn and brains of Jason Bourne and one can't help but shake the feeling that--other than the double identity conceit--that we've seen this all done better before. And one doesn't need any marbles--figurative or literal--to see that My Own Worst Enemy is depressingly underwhelming.

My Own Worst Enemy premieres tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC.

Channel Surfing: "Doctor Who" Feature Possible, J.J. Abrams Talks "Fringe," Rainn Wilson, and More

Good morning and welcome to your Monday television briefing.

Steven Moffat, who has taken over the reins at Doctor Who from Russell T. Davies, has said that he wouldn't rule out a feature film spin-off of Doctor Who so long as it didn't interfere with production on the series itself. "It would be good to see it in the cinema so long as it was great and fantastic," said Moffat, speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. "But a film is on [for] 90 minutes and that is not as important as the series. But so long as it doesn't get in the way of the show we could do it. If it got in the way of the show that would be appalling." The series itself has already had two feature spin-offs in the 1960s: Doctor Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, both of which starred Peter Cushing as the Doctor. (The Guardian's Organ Grinder)

There's a fantastic interview with J.J. Abrams about his new FOX drama Fringe and about the differences in telling stories with self-contained episodic storylines like Fringe and the Byzantine plots of series like Lost and Alias. "I just got tired of hearing people say to me, over and over, ‘Yeah, I was watching it, but I missed one, I got really confused, and I stopped watching it,’” Abrams said in a recent phone interview. He goes on to discuss just went wrong with Alias. And no it wasn't the giant orange floating ball that was supposedly Rambaldi's endgame. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times has interviewed Shawn Ryan about the end of The Shield, which kicks off its seventh and final season next month. Ryan, of course, was on the picket line when the series finale of the series he created (which launched FX as a destination for quality drama) was shot, as was the pilot for the doomed FOX supernatural series The Oaks (which never made it to air), which Ryan was on board to produce. He talks about his decision to view pencils down as a refusal to perform editing duties as well as writing services, the end of The Shield, and the strike itself. (Los Angeles Times)

If that weren't enough interviews for you, here's one with The Office's Rainn Wilson about his role in the feature film The Rocker and, of course, Dwight Schrute. (New York Daily News)

James Cromwell (24) has been cast in NBC's new drama series My Own Worst Enemy, where he'll be playing the enigmatic head of a covert government agency that is tinkering with Christian Slater's dual-identity husband/superspy Henry/Edward. Does he play the head of Janus (i.e., Mavis' mysterious employer)? Only time will tell. Cromwell joins a cast that includes Christian Slater, Madchen Amick (herself turning up in several episodes of Gossip Girl next season), Saffron Burrows, Mike O'Malley, and Alfre Woodard. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX will be streaming the series opener of Fringe and the season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles online... if you're a college student, that is. Users who log onto Fox.com from college-based .edu domains will be able to watch a simul-stream of the opener of Fringe and Sarah Connor at the same time as they launch on-air, as well as behind-the-scenes footage, cast interviews, and music videos. It's a novel concept, but why wouldn't students just, er, watch the episodes on the linear channel? (Variety)

In other fall launch news, FOX and CBS will respectively not air the original pilots for comedy Do Not Disturb and drama Eleventh Hour until later in the season. Instead, the networks will air subsequent episodes when they launch Do Not Disturb on September 10th and Eleventh Hour on October 9th. Having already seen both of these pilot episodes, I can honestly say that the networks are making the right decision as both were just awful. (Futon Critic)

Lifetime has given a six-episode order to reality competition series Blush: The Search for America's Greatest Makeup Artist, to launch in November as a potential companion for its poached Project Runway. Series, produced by IMG, will follow eight makeup artists as they live together in LA and compete for a one-year contract with Max Factor, $1,000 in cash, and the opportunity to style a magazine cover shoot. (Variety)

Paris Barclay (ER) has been promoted to executive producer on HBO's In Treatment; he'll direct at least ten episodes of the therapy drama next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has announced the cast for the latest iteration of reality competition series Dancing With the Stars, which kicks off on September 22nd. Susan Lucci, Toni Braxton, Lance Bass, Cloris Leachman, Kim Kardashian, Ted McGinley, Brooke Burke, NFL champ Warren Sapp, Olympic athletes Misty May-Treanor and Maurice Greene, chef Rocco DiSpirito, Cody Linley (Hannah Montana) and comedian Jeffrey Ross will compete for the top spot. (Variety)

Songwriter Kara DioGuardi will join American Idol as a new judge for Season Eight, alongside Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Gossip Girl (CW); High School Musical: Get in the Picture (ABC); Prison Break (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); America's Toughest Jobs (NBC); One Tree Hill (CW); Samantha Who?/Samantha Who? (ABC); Prison Break (FOX)

10 pm: CBS News: Democratic National Convention (CBS); Dateline (NBC); Vote 08 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gossip Girl.

Looking to relive the freshman season of the teen soap? On tonight's first season finale ("Much 'I Do' About Nothing"), Blair comes to Serena's defense and faces off with Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg); Lily prepares for her wedding but can't stop thinking about Rufus; and Serena finally tells Dan what's really going on with her.

10 pm: Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on Travel Channel.

This week on No Reservations, Tony travels to Egypt, one of the oldest civilizations on Earth and spends some time with locals in order to get an understanding for what it means to be Egyptian.

10 pm: Weeds on Showtime.

On this week's episode of Weeds ("Head Cheese"), Nancy deals with the aftermath of Shane's exploits and another confrontation with Guillermo; Celia tries to find a new rehab facility; Doug and Maria's relationship hits the skids and they turn to Andy for help; Silas' new business is growing too fast.

Channel Surfing: "Torchwood" Title Revealed, Fishburne in at "CSI," "Gavin & Stacey," and More

Good morning (on what appears to be a spectacularly grey day here in LA) and welcome to your early morning television briefing.

Hungry for more Torchwood? The official Torchwood magazine, published by Titan, has the details for the third season's story arc... or at least the title of the five-part story. Creator Russell T. Davies has revealed the title to be "Torchwood: Children Of Earth." The series' third outing is set to air over the course of one week on BBC1 in Spring 2009. "I usually give you all one or two tone words when we have a meeting like this," Davies told the production team during his tone meeting last month, "But if I were to give you two words this time, they would be 'Euros Lyn'. More than ever before, this series of Torchwood will be director-led, and it will look absolutely amazing." Euros Lyn directed such Doctor Who episodes as "The End Of The World," "The Girl In The Fireplace," and the two-parter "Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead." Shooting on Torchwood's third season will continue until November.

Universal Media Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with John Eisendrath (Alias) to serve as showrunner and executive producer of the upcoming fall drama series My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater, as well as develop new projects for the studio. Eisendrath was promoted from co-executive producer on My Own Worst Enemy and took up the reins from original showrunner and creator Jason Smilovic, whom the studio is constantly quick to point out is still "an exec producer and closely involved in the production." Ahem. Series launches October 13th. (Variety)

Laurence Fishburne (21) has closed a deal that will make him the lead in Season Nine of CBS' CSI. He will play "play a former pathologist who is now working as an itinerant college lecturer, teaching a course in criminalistics" who meets the Las Vegas team during a murder investigation. Fishburne replaces outbound lead William Petersen and he will first appear in the ninth episode of Season Nine. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Office's Craig Robinson (on screen right now in Pineapple Express) has been charged with two counts of felony drug possession and one count of being under the influence of illegal drugs. Robinson had been arrested June 29th in Culver City on suspicion of possession of ecstasy and methamphetamine and was released after posting bail. (New York Times)

USA has promoted Cristian de la Fuente (The Class), who plays Rafael Ramirez, the boyfriend of Mary McCormack's US Marshall Mary Shannon, to series regular on drama series In Plain Sight. (Hollywood Reporter)

Co-creator James Corden has told Take 5 magazine that he has no definitive plans for the future of hit British comedy series Gavin & Stacey, set to launch Stateside on August 26th on BBC America. While Corden and fellow co-creator/co-star Ruth Jones have been working on a Christmas special for the series, a decision about a third season has yet to be reached. NBC, meanwhile, is still developing a US adaptation of the series. (Digital Spy)

April Webster and the casting directors on Lost are currently looking for someone to play the crucial role of Dan in the series' fifth season; he's described as a high-stakes attorney who is has "real menace lurking below the surface." Elsewhere at ABC, Dave Foley (NewsRadio) cast in a guest-starring role on Brothers & Sisters; he'll appear in a November episode as love interest for one of the Walker clan. Krysten Ritter (Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls) will turn up on Season Two of AMC's Breaking Bad. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Stay tuned.

Smilovic Steps Down as Showrunner on NBC's "My Own Worst Enemy"

More behind-the-scenes drama at NBC.

Following the departure a few months back of showrunner Tom Fontana on upcoming midseason drama The Philanthropist (which BSG co-creator David Eick was brought in to oversee), yet another behind-the-scenes change is occuring on another new drama series.

Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped, Bionic Woman) will be stepping down as showrunner on the upcoming fall drama series My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater, Alfre Woodard, Saffron Burrows, Yara Martinez, and Mike O'Malley, though the Peacock is quick to say that he'll still be involved with the series and will, according to The Hollywood Reporter "continue to be the creative force behind the series and will navigate it with" his replacement, John Eisendrath.

Eisendrath (K-Ville, Alias), a co-executive producer on My Own Worst Enemy, is said to be in talks with NBC brass about becoming the series' new executive producer/showrunner.

The move comes as production is about to wrap on My Own Worst Enemy's pilot episode with director David Semel (Heroes). NBC ordered the project to series last May without shooting a pilot and I can't help but wonder if that process created some unexpected creative challenges and led them to rethink their order-off-paper strategy that categorized this year's development cycle at NBC.

Personally, I still think that the pilot process has a lot of merit and allows networks and studios to tweak elements that may not have worked in the pilot (casting, script, etc.) before going to series and battling the clock to get it exactly right in time to air.

My Own Worst Enemy is set to launch on October 13th at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Greatest American Dog (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Baby Borrowers: Lessons Learned (NBC); Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (CW); Supernanny (ABC)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

Season Five (the final season on Bravo) of Project Runway continues tonight. On tonight's episode ("Rings of Glory"), designers are challenged with designing sport outfits for the Olympic Games and are judged by Olympic medalist/Dancing with the Stars winner Apolo Anton Ohno.

Casting Couch: Universal Media Studios Casts Wide Net on Several Series

Just a day before network upfront presentations are scheduled to kick off, there has been a flurry of casting activity here in Hollywood.

Boston Legal's Saffron Burrows has joined the cast of NBC's drama series My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater and Mike O'Malley about a well-mannered family man Henry, whose alter ego Edward is a spy and all-around international man of mystery. Burrows will play Norah, Edward's girlfriend and Henry's psychiatrist.

Production on the first episode is slated to get under way soon. My Own Worst Enemy, from Universal Media Studios and writer/executive producer Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped), was ordered to series in April off of the pilot script; no pilot was shot.

Frances Fisher (In the Valley of Elah) has come aboard an eight-episode arc on the next season of Sci Fi's drama Eureka, where she will play Samantha Thorne, a corporate fixer assigned to clean up the mess at Global.

In a major casting coup, indie actor extraordinaire Eric Stoltz will join the cast of Battlestar Galactica spin-off prequel Caprica.

He'll play Daniel Greystone, the deeply flawed human creator of the Cylons, who finds himself in a moral battle with Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), the conflicted attorney father of the future Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos).

In the two-hour backdoor pilot, Stolz's character will be married to surgeon Amanda (Lost and Deadwood's Paula Malcomson); their daughter Zoe will be played by relative newcomer Alessandra Toressani.

Speaking of Caprica, executive producer David Eick will take over as showrunner on NBC's drama The Philanthropist--which itself was also, like My Own Worst Enemy, ordered to series directly off script--following the departure of Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, who had conflict with the network about the tone of the series: they wanted escapism, Fontana and Levinson gritty realism.

Either way, Eick definitely has his work cut out for him.

Stay tuned.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC; 8-10 pm); Gossip Girl (CW); Dancing With the Stars (ABC; 8-9:30 pm); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement (CBS); One Tree Hill (CW); Samantha Who? (ABC; 9:30-10 pm); House (FOX)

10 pm: CSI Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC); The Bachelor: London Calling (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gossip Girl.

The naughty teen soap continues tonight with a brand new episode! On tonight's episode ("Woman on the Verge"), Serena falls back into her old ways after revealing to Blair the real reason she left Manhattan; Blair, Nate, and Chuck must put aside their conflicts in order to help Serena, who is too ashamed to tell Dan what is actually going on; Rufus' band reunites for a gig at Rolling Stone-sponsored concert and he's surprised when Lily shows up, especially as it's the same night as her wedding rehearsal dinner.