Channel Surfing: "Better Off Ted" Returns This Summer, Mykelti Williamson Clocks in at "24," Guest Stars Galore for "Warehouse 13," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

ABC is set to bring back Better Off Ted earlier than expected as the network has announced that it will air six unaired episodes from Ted's first season this summer before kicking off a second season of thirteen episodes in early 2010. Better Off Ted will return to ABC's schedule on June 23rd at 9 pm ET/PT, airing behind new reality competition series The Superstars. [Editor: that gleeful squealing sound you're hearing? It's me.] Meanwhile, ABC also announced that it had pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia from its lineup, instead airing back-to-back episodes of The Goode Family this week. (Variety)

Mykelti Williamson (Kidnapped) has joined the cast of Day Eight of FOX drama 24, where he will play the head of CTU New York, Brian Hastings, described as having "a razor-sharp intellect." Williamson, who will be a series regular next season, joins the recently announced Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Westfeldt, John Boyd, and Chris Diamantopoulos. Also joining the 24 cast next season: Lost's Doug Hutchison (a.k.a. Horace Goodspeed), who will play a European terrorist named Davros in a recurring role. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sci Fi has confirmed guest stars for the first season of its upcoming drama series Warehouse 13, launching July 7th. Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer will play FBI Agent Bonnie Belski who clashes with Myka (Joanne Kelly) and Pete (Eddie McClintock); Ivan Sergei (Crossing Jordan) will play an EMT named Ross when Myka and Pete investigate a case involving a local town expressing all of their subconscious desires; Stargate Atlantis' Joe Flanigan will play millionaire Jeff Weaver who is investigated by Myka and Pete when a sculpture he bid on at auction vanishes during a heist; Gossip Girl's James Naughton will play entrepreneur Gilbert Radburn who is investigated by Myka and Pete; Roger Rees (The West Wing) will play MacPherson, a former Warehouse colleague of Artie (Sam Rubinek) who has gone rogue and is now collecting dangerous objects for his own use; Eureka's Erica Cerra and Niall Matter will play Jillian and Gary Whitman, low-level Las Vegas thieves who discover a powerful artifact; Joe Morton (Eurkea) will play prison inmate John Hill, who has become a religious zealot; Battlestar Galactica's Michael Hogan will play Warren Bering, Myka's father, whose life is placed in danger when he receives a dangerous artifact in the mail, and Dollhouse's Mark Sheppard will play Mr. Valda, the "enigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organization that controls Warehouse 13." (via press release)

David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will reunite for a television production of their recent Royal Shakespeare Company performance of "Hamlet," that will air on BBC Two later this year and in the US and Japan in 2010. (Variety)

Reports are swirling that couple Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag tried to quit NBC's reality competition series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! the very first day they arrived in Costa Rica and allegedly refused to eat the same meals that had been prepared for the rest of the cast and complained about the caliber of their competitors. They wanted to be treated like stars," according to an unnamed source. "[Spencer] literally thought he and Heidi were staying in a Four Seasons, working out and getting a tan." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

The Octomom, a.k.a. Nadya Suleman, has signed a deal for a reality television series with production company 3 Ball Prods. The series, which has yet to be sold to an American outlet, will document key moments in the lives of Suleman and her enormous brood and will be modeled after a Danish format that followed the lives of four children from birth to adulthood. (Hollywood Reporter)

DirecTV Group CEO Chase Carey is said to be in talks about replacing Peter Chernin as Rupert Murdoch's Number Two at News Corp. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Brillstein TV has hired former BermanBraum and Warner Bros. Television executive Rachel Kaplan as EVP, where she will work closely with Peter Traugott in developing scripted and unscripted projects for broadcast and cable. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: McG "Optimistic" About "Chuck" Renewal, ABC Settles Down with "Modern Family," FOX to Air Two-Hour "Virtuality" Pilot, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

While the fate of NBC's on the bubble action comedy series Chuck is still unknown, executive producer McG--who helmed the pilot episode--is feeling positive about an eleventh hour renewal. "We're optimistic," he told SCI FI Wire. "We're going to find out in a week. But the fans have spoken. People really rallied and articulated their love of the show, but it's a cold-hearted numbers business. And I'm happy to report that the people at NBC like the show." (SCI FI Wire)

ABC has given an early series order of thirteen episodes to single-camera comedy Modern Family, from writer/executive producers Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. The 20th Century Fox Television-producted project, formerly known as My American Family, will track the lives of three American families--one a traditional nuclear family, one a gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese baby, and the last an older man with a young Latina wife--as they are filmed by a Dutch documentary crew. Series stars Ed O'Neil, Ty Burrell, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sarah Hyland, Nolan Gould, and Ariel Winter. (Variety)

FOX has announced that it will air the two-hour pilot of Virtuality, created by Michael Taylor and Ronald D. Moore, on Saturday, July 4th at 8 pm ET/PT. Virtuality, which stars Clea DuVall, Erik Jensen, Gene Farber, James D'Arcy, Jimmi Simpson, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Joy Bryant, Kerry Bishe, Nelson Lee, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Omar Metwally, Richie Coster, and Sienna Guillory, follows the crew of starship Phaeton on a ten-year journey on which the crew uses virtual reality modules to escape their mundane existence but a virus infects the system and unleashes a virtual killer into the mix. (Futon Critic)

Nikki Finke is reporting that the Gossip Girl spin-off series focusing on the 1980s adventures of a then teenage Lily Rhodes is now dead at CW. The potential series, which would have starred Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter, will get a backdoor pilot this Monday as Lily flashes back to her teenage years in 1980s California. However, Finke says "Even though I heard Peter Roth loved its yesteryear vibe, the show went from hot, to lukewarm, to 'fading but wouldn't count out,' to now dead, according to my insiders. I'm really surprised." (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

ABC has pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia off of the schedule for the remainder of the season. Scheduling change goes into effect immediately and will see Dancing with the Stars return to a two-hour format. (Variety)

Could Guitar Hero be coming to television? Video game producer Activision Blizzard is said to be looking into developing its array of video games into television or film projects. Guitar Hero is said to be a likely target for a reality television series and/or concert tour, while World of Warcraft and Call of Duty are being looked at for feature film development. (Hollywood Reporter)

VH1 has ordered a second season of reality series Tough Love, with new episodes slated to air towards the end of 2009. (Variety)

BBC Two has ordered six episodes of comedy series Roger And Val Have Just Got In, starring Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley, French & Saunders). Series, written by Emma and Beth Kilcoyne, will follow the lives of a middle-aged couple after they arrive home after a long day of work. Casting for the male lead is under way. "Roger And Val leapt off the page at me the very first time I saw it," said BBC Head of Comedy Mark Freeland. "There will be nothing like it when it arrives on BBC Two. It's original, intriguing, sweet, funny and full of pathos. And it's only got two people in it." (BBC)

Hulu has acquired online rights to such British series as Green Wing, Doc Martin, Peep Show, and Kingdom. All four titles are already available for streaming viewing on the site, which is offering all episodes from each of the series' freshman seasons. (Twitter)

ABC has ordered a pilot for an untitled talk show to feature host Aisha Tyler which will incorporate elements of social networking, including Tyler interacting with viewers via Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. While there were rumors swirling that the Tyler talk show, from ABC Media Prods., would take the place of one of ABC's afternoon soaps, sources at the network were quick to clarify, stating that the potential series was being developed for cable or syndication. (Hollywood Reporter)

ITV Global Entertainment has acquired worldwide television and home video distribution rights to multi-platform series Project Chopin, which follows the adventures of two children who discover a magical piano that can fly. Deal encompasses a film, a television docudrama, and 24 two-minute animated shorts, along with online and mobile content. (Variety)

Former RDF executive Martin Rakusen has been hired by ShineReveille International, where he will oversee their day-to-day operations and explore new joint ventures and partnerships. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Recycling Bin: An Advance Review of ABC's "Surviving Suburbia"

I've always loved Cynthia Stevenson.

Her Joy Lass on Showtime's short-lived Dead Like Me remains an enduring example of a suburban mother in the throes of a perpetual crisis: snarky, unsympathetic at times, and filled with a terrible sense of loss after the death of her daughter.

So what is the fantastic actor doing in the Bob Saget comedy vehicle Surviving Suburbia, premiering tonight on ABC? I'm not entirely sure but her considerable charm and comedic flair are wasted on this recycled family sitcom format.

The premise: Stevenson plays Anne Patterson, a likable wife and mother of two who's a fixture in the neighborhood, always willing to perform little errands for her neighbors, like taking in their mail or feeding their goldfish. She's married to Steve (Bob Saget), a grumpy misanthrope of a man who hates his neighbors, is selfish to a fault, and is, well, pretty damn dull. They have two kids: precocious sprite Courtney (G. Hannelius) and sullen teenager Henry (Jared Kusnitz), a nice house, a seemingly okay marriage that's long on nagging and short on passion. As Steve likes to remind us of every five minutes or so.

The result feels especially warmed over, the TV equivalent of a microwave meal that been defrosted and reheated one too many times. Sure, ABC didn't originally develop Surviving Suburbia (it was originally meant to air on Media Rights Capital's Sunday night programming block on the CW) and the network has a long history of multi-camera family sitcoms (hell, According to Jim is still clinging on for dear life), but one can't shake the feeling that we've seen all of this way too many times before.

Surviving Suburbia's pilot episode, written by Don Beck, finds Saget's grumpy Steve reluctantly agreeing to feed the goldfish of his strip club-owner neighbor Onno (Dan Cortese) while he's out of town. While snooping around in Onno's house with his fey neighbor Dr. Jim (Jere Burns), Steve accidentally starts a fire when he and Jim argue about whether they should use Onno's address book to call some strippers... and Steve later takes credit for being a hero and saving Onno's house from burning down (luckily there are no arson investigators about) and becomes the toast of the neighborhood. He uses his newfound hero status to dethrone Zak Efron as his daughter's favorite man, beds his wife, and accepts the gratitude of Onno by agreeing to use his Cabo timeshare.

Once again, Stevenson brings an appropriate flintiness to Anne that's both attractive and world-weary (you would be too living with a grouch like Steve) while Saget seems to be playing a shadow of his provocative stand-up persona. There's nothing innovative or envelope-pushing about Steve or this sitcom as a whole.

Surviving Suburbia does feel recycled from the late 1980s or 1990s and if you told me that I was watching a vintage series that had aired on ABC from twenty years ago or so, I would definitely believe you. There's nothing modern about this comedy or anything that speaks directly to us in this day and age. Some might believe that's a feat in and of itself but comedy should hold some mirror up to our society. As it is, Surviving Suburbia feels like the sort of neighbors that you might half-wave to as you pass them in the street, but there's no way you're having them over for a weekly dinner party.

Surviving Suburbia airs tonight at 9:30 pm ET/PT on ABC.