BuzzFeed: "Veronica Mars and 8 Other TV Shows You Can Only Stream On Amazon Prime"

Looking to get caught up on Veronica Mars before the movie comes out on March 14? Turns out, the only place you can do so now is on Amazon Prime Instant.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "9 TV Shows You Can Only Stream On Amazon Prime," in which I run nine shows that you can only watch on Amazon Prime.

1. Veronica Mars

A long time ago, we used to be friends… and you used to be able to stream Veronica Mars on Netflix. But those days are long gone and on Jan. 9, Amazon Prime Instant announced that it had secured exclusive streaming rights to all three seasons of the UPN/CW sleuth series. And what perfect timing to get caught up (or refresh yourself) on all of the intrigues in Neptune: The feature film sequel opens on March 14, marshmallows.

2. Downton Abbey

Episodes of Julian Fellowes’ well-heeled period drama — which airs Stateside on PBS’ Masterpiece Classic and centers on the Crawley clan and their servants — can only be seen on Amazon Prime Instant these days. Downton’s first three seasons are available for streaming on the platform, while the series’ fourth just premiered earlier this week on PBS.

Continue reading at BuzzFeed...

The Daily Beast: "Political Animals: Greg Berlanti on the Clintons, Fiction, and More"

I talk with creator Greg Berlanti about Political Animals, which begins Sunday, about whether his characters are analogs for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and more.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Political Animals: Greg Berlanti on the Clintons, Fiction, and More," in which I talk to Berlanti about USA's new soapy political drama, whether Sigourney Weaver's Elaine Barrish and Ciaran Hinds' Bud Hammond are stand-ins for Hillary and Bill Clinton, the future of the show, and more.

It’s difficult to avoid the Bill and Hillary Clinton comparisons in Political Animals, USA’s ambitious and soapy six-episode miniseries, which begins Sunday.

Created by Greg Berlanti (Everwood), the limited-run series’ plot revolves around Sigourney Weaver’s Elaine Barrish, a former first lady who becomes the U.S. Secretary of State after a failed presidential bid, and a highly public sex scandal involving her husband, Bud Hammond (Ciaran Hinds). Sound familiar?

“I’m not being coy about it,” said Berlanti, over breakfast at a West Hollywood café. “There is no doubt that Elaine’s ex-husband was the president. Those are similarities that I don’t pretend don’t exist.” But Elaine, Berlanti said, is drawn as much from Madeleine Albright as she is the former real-life first lady.

“For Bud, there is more LBJ in there,” he said of how the character deviates from the Bill Clinton model. “There is a big difference between them, even though they were both Southern Democrats. One was an academic who wore that on his sleeve; LBJ was not. He got people and he altered between being incredibly intimidating and using that intimidation and being very jocular … and he had a real, almost tragic dark side that we’re able to explore with this character as we go on.”

In fact, there’s an ambient darkness to many of the Hammond clan members throughout Political Animals, embodied by Ellen Burstyn as Elaine’s mother Margaret, and the twins, Thomas and T.J., played respectively by James Wolk and Sebastian Stan. Inasmuch as the miniseries is about “political machinations,” it’s also about the how our pasts do and don’t define our destinies—for both the Hammond clan and for a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Susan Berg (Carla Gugino), who covered the dissolution of their marriage—and flashbacks in each of the episodes to the Hammonds’ glory days underscore this further.

There is a strong sense within the show of what Berlanti calls “the halcyon days of when things were great, what the Hammonds kind of represent: weren’t we this great country in the ‘90s?” But in the Hammonds, it’s clear that both the country and the family that once served at its center, have fallen on hard times.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "White Collar Creator Jeff Eastin: My Biggest Con"

Jeff Eastin, the creator of USA’s con-man drama White Collar, which returns tonight for a fourth season, discusses his real-life con: pretending to be happy, even in the face of crushing depression.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read Eastin's first-person story, "My Biggest Con," in which he describes just that: a con perpetrated on those around him by a showrunner and creator whose own conman character is much beloved by the public.

It’s a night a writer dreams about. My show, White Collar, has just screened at PaleyFest to a packed house. David E. Kelley mediated because he’s a fan of the show. And it’s my birthday. The crowd sang to me.

If E! ever does my True Hollywood Story, this will be the part right before the commercial and it all goes to shit.

Walking the red carpet later that night, a blogger tugs my shoulder and pushes a recorder at me. “I love Neal Caffrey,” he says. Neal is the charming and debonair criminal I created for the show, played brilliantly by Matt Bomer. “What’s the secret to writing a good con man?”

“It comes naturally,” I say, offering him a big grin. It’s contagious. He thinks I’m being clever, but I’m not. My grin is the con.

We discuss his love of the show another minute, then he moves on to Willie Garson, who’s telling an amusing story about his time on Sex and the City with SJP.

Willie shoots me a wink. I smile, playing the confident showrunner. I’m conning them all and it’s working.

Three months earlier.

I’m lying in bed. The clock says it’s 1 a.m. PST, but I don't trust it. My assistant, Eddie, has taken to setting my clocks ahead, and this could be his doing. I check my iPhone. The clock isn’t lying. In a couple of hours, the actors will show up on set in New York expecting script revisions.

I’m in a depression, and the weight of it lays on me like a sackcloth. In the days ahead I’ll realize that this was the shallow end of it; tonight will be my breakthrough.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

White Collar Season Finale: There's Nothing Sadder Than a Con Man Conning Himself

Just when it seemed as though the Vincent Adler/Kate/Nazi treasure storyline had all but wrapped up, last night's season finale of White Collar ("Under the Radar") threw us for another loop with that cliffhanger ending.

Throughout the series' run over the last two seasons, the relationship between Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke has grown into something resembling an actual partnership based on mutual trust, respect, and, well, friendship. Which is why the innate tension and suspicion of the "prove it" scene at the very end of this week's installment threatens to alter the delicate balance that has existed between the two for some time now.

Neal has proven himself a staunch ally to the White Collar Crime Division of the FBI, willing to lend his expertise to catching some crooks, but he's always had his feet in two worlds: the criminality that he's sworn to give up and the path of redemption that Peter has put him on. Is it possible to remain within both? And does the ending of the season seem to indicate that Neal has made a choice about which path he's choosing? Hmmm...

The White Collar writers went to some great lengths to plant that painting of the Chrysler Building at the beginning of the episode, showing the audience Neal's latest work in his flat, establishing that he had painted said painting, but also inserting the fact that he has a storeroom filled with such works. Not only did the audience notice the painting, but so did Peter.

Which made the ending cast more than a little suspicion on Neal: When the warehouse containing the U-Boat's billion-dollar treasure trove went up in smoke (thanks to a convenient explosion that killed no one), Peter spied a tell-tale piece of Neal's painting among the rubble. So did Neal engineer the explosion as part of a master plan of vengeance against Vincent Adler, as Vincent believed?

Nope, though the writers initially wanted us to consider that as a possibility, that Neal would take what Adler loved most since he had taken Kate from him. And that scrap of canvas is awfully incriminating. But while we know that Neal's not the mastermind (he wasn't aware of Adler's location nor that of the treasure), what the scene does is explode the relationship between Neal and Peter, casting Neal in a suddenly untrustworthy light. And Peter's suspicions have the same effect on Neal, making him distrust his partner. Hence, all the posturing and "prove it" machismo at the episode's conclusion. It seems as though the music box's tune has gone sour...

But if Neal's not the culprit than who is? Who left that little anonymous calling card for Neal signaling him to that storage facility? Just who is this mysterious "friend" that leads Neal to the location of the Nazi treasure?

Let's take a look at the possible suspects...

(1) Alex Hunter. We know Alex is a master thief and she has a personal connection to both the treasure (via her grandfather, who was the signalman who heard the last SOS transmission that the sub made) and to Neal. She's made it her life's work to find the music box and solve the riddle that her grandfather had told her about Midas.

She's also extremely helpful (almost obviously so) during the kidnapping and safe-cracking expedition and the kiss she shares with Neal shows that she (A) still has feelings for him, and (B) is willing to drive a wedge between Neal and Sara. Plus, she's no fan of the feds, so anything that puts Neal off-balance there and pulls him back into the world of criminality is a good thing in her book. She's also no fan of Adler, so the heist means getting one over on him as well.

So why would she give it over to Neal? A peace offering? A gift? The promise of more unimaginable wealth to come? And just how would Alex have been able to pull off such a grand design on her own? Hmmm....

(2) Mozzie. The fact that the anonymous note was typed rather than handwritten would seem to indicate that Neal would have recognized the handwriting in question. Which means that the perpetrator is likely someone Neal knows only too well. And Mozzie was there when Neal's painting was glimpsed by Peter.

But surely Mozzie would only be too willing to take credit for pulling off such a feat right underneath the FBI's noses? And why would he seek to incriminate Neal? I think Mozzie's actually in the clear on this one.

(3) Sara Ellis. Our insurance investigator friend did get awfully close to Neal in those library stacks last week, though her feelings were noticeably bruised by seeing Neal and Alex kiss at the dry dock after their near-death experience. Could it be that there's more to Sara than meets the eye and that she likes to walk on the dark side a little bit? We've seen nothing to that effect so far, so I don't think she's suddenly started stealing huge amounts of treasure on a whim.

Other theory: She's been in Neal's apartment and has access to some shady individuals (as well as a nice amount of capital) from her line of work. So, it is possible that she also had a vested interest in the recovery of that Nazi treasure? Could her insurance company be behind the theft in an effort to recover the stolen merchandise and profit from its "disappearance" in that warehouse fire? And that the anonymous note to Neal was her way of scoring one on him? Hmmm...

(4) Unknown Admirer. Neal has a secret admirer, another criminal who is hoping to impress him with this stunning feat that s/he pulled off without him even realizing it. Neal's just as surprised as we are that the collection didn't go up in flames, which could be mission accomplished for this perpetrator. Whoever s/he is, they've certainly got Neal's attention now, which could have been the point in the first place. Can it be that Neal has some competition in the thieving world, someone who is looking to engage in a cat-and-mouse game of oneupsmanship with Neal Caffrey? Otherwise, why lead him to the treasure in the first place? Unless..

(5) Kate. Unless the perpetrator is Kate herself. We never actually saw Kate die, just saw the the plane explode and we assumed Kate was one there. Given that Kate has some powerful friends and access to some shady individuals with specialized skill sets, it's possible that she was able to fake her own death and then take revenge on Vincent Adler. (Though, if I'm being honest, I hope it ISN'T Kate.) What if she's been keeping an eye on Neal and sees this as her opportunity to win her man back and get her revenge at the same time. The warehouse incident leaves Adler dead (thanks to Peter), the relationship between Neal and Peter fractured, and is the perfect opportunity to end the music box-led quest for this treasure that's now gone forever.

Kate and Neal's history does include an incident in a storage facility--when Peter catches him the first time--so isn't it keeping with tradition that the anonymous note would lead Neal to another storage facility? Hmmm... And it would be a twist that throws further tension into the Alex-Neal-Sara love triangle, the working relationship between Neal and Peter, and might be the thing to push Neal back into a life of crime.

So what will Neal do next? While we see him smiling amid the haul of a lifetime, will he tell Peter and the FBI about the stash? Will he keep it for himself? And will he attempt to unravel the mystery of who this anonymous "friend" is?

What do you think? Who is behind the heist? And what do you predict that Season Three of White Collar has in store for Neal Caffrey? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Three of White Collar is set to launch in June on USA.

The Magnificent Seven: An Advance Review of the Next Two Episodes of USA's White Collar

The wait is over: Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer) and Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) are back.

USA's smart and slick series White Collar returns tonight for the back half of its sophomore season, following a cliffhanger that threatened the life of Neal's shadowy associate Mozzie (the always fantastic Willie Garson), even as the dynamic duo got closer to unmasking the conspiracy surrounding that omnipresent music box.

When the series returns with the next two episodes ("Burke's Seven" and "Forging Bonds"), provided to press for review, there's a spirit of both righteous vengeance and calculated craftiness employed by Caffrey and Burke on behalf of poor Mozzie, gunned down by an unknown assailant, and some forward momentum on the music box storyline and just who is pulling the strings of the story's characters.

I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that what follows are two fantastic installments, each with their own distinct point of view. "Burke's Seven" finds Peter grappling with suspension as he puts together his own team (hence the title) to track down Mozzie's shooter and make sure that justice is paid. Unfortunately, said shooter (Paul Blackthorne, in fine form here) seems to be one step ahead of Burke and Co. Can Peter manage to pull together the team's diverse talents for a singular goal? And just who are the seven members of this rogue strike force? The answer is both in keeping with White Collar's history and its sometimes irreverent tone.

In next week's "Forging Bonds," it's a chance to take a trip down memory lane, complete with funny wigs and facial hair, as Neal remembers the first time he met both Kate (the improbably irksome Alexandra Daddario) and Mozzie, while the audience learns about the first time that Neal and Peter crossed paths. Sucker, anyone?

While most series typically fail at successfully employing this type of narrative device, "Forging Bonds" gleefully pulls off the flashback episode in fantastic style (as though you'd expect anything less from this charming series), rendering the backstories of Neal, Kate, Alex, Peter, and Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiessen) in three-dimensional glory. Creator Jeff Eastin and the writers have wisely resisted peeling away the curtain to dramatize these events until now but, in the midst of its second season, White Collar has enough momentum and character investment to warrant the use of flashback at this point in time.

And what flashbacks they are.

Bomer gets to play Neal as a wide-eyed optimist, a naive fresh-faced kid with a floppy haircut and a penchant for wearing polos with chinos rather than bespoke suits. Garson's Mozzie is, well, like you've never seen him before, both mentor and comic relief, friend and gateway drug in one. Additionally, we get a little more indication of just why Neal was so hell-bent on finding Kate after his prison sentence (though I still find their attraction extremely unlikely, though that could be because Daddario rubs me the wrong way) and how these two met and ultimately fell in love. Along the way, we're given a glimpse at Neal's working relationship with professional thief Alex and the man who made Neal who he is today.

That man would be Vincent Adler, played to smarmy perfection by Andrew McCarthy. Just what was Neal's relationship with shady businessman Adler? And just who was conning whom? In Adler, we see the seeds of the man that Neal Caffrey would one day become, his seeming generosity paving the way for some of Neal's more flamboyant style. Through Adler, we see the transformation of Neal Caffrey from two-bit crook to gentleman criminal as he gets a taste of wealth and of the possibility afforded by his less than, uh, honest professional aspirations.

These are both two very strong episodes that seamlessly set up the overarching plot for the remainder of the season and allow White Collar's accomplished actors to demonstrate their range and depth. They're also just what this winter needs. Amid a rather staid season, there's a nice heat and flair to these first two episodes back. Throw in a rakish hat, and you've got the makings of a perfect evening.

White Collar returns tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on USA.

The Daily Beast: "Twin Peaks' Strange Reunion"

"She's dead. Wrapped in plastic."

Twenty years ago today (yes, precisely to the day), Laura Palmer's killer was unmasked for Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Truman on ABC's seminal series Twin Peaks. Tonight, many of the original cast members of the haunting and harrowing series will reunite on-screen for the first time in two decades on USA's Psych, which airs its Twin Peaks homage episode, "Dual Spires," tonight at 10 pm ET/PT.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "Twin Peaks' Strange Reunion," in which I explore the enduring legacy of Twin Peaks and speak with the series' co-creator Mark Frost and Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee, about the groundbreaking drama series and where things went wrong, and speak with Psych's star James Roday (who penned tonight's "Dual Spires" episode) about his Twin Peaks obsession (one that rivals my own).

All this plus, a damn fine gallery feature entitled "The Cast of Twin Peaks: Where Are They Now?" which explores what 12 of the series' stars have been up to since they last set foot in the Double R Diner.

Serve up a slice of cherry pie, grab a cup of Norma's coffee, and remember when...

Under the Nail: An Advance Review of Psych's "Damn Fine" Twin Peaks Homage, "Dual Spires"

Smell that cinnamon...

While USA may not have planned the stars aligning just so, it is twenty years to the day that Agent Dale Cooper unmasked Laura Palmer's killer on Twin Peaks, so it's only fitting that Psych should celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the series that changed television with an episode that both a send-up and a loving tribute to Twin Peaks.

Tonight's damn fine episode of Psych ("Dual Spires"), written by James Roday and Bill Callahan, does just that, offering a plot in which Shawn (Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) travel to the quirky small town of Dual Spires for a cinnamon festival and encounter a revolving door of eccentric individuals. But their presence in town coincides with an eerie mystery, the murder of a local girl that is far more sinister and weird that it initially seems.

If you've never seen Twin Peaks, you might be slightly bewildered by the oddness unfolding around Shawn and Gus in this bucolic town where there's always music (or cinnamon, anyway) in the air. Red-suited individuals dance to creepy jukebox music, ceiling fans revolve menacingly, clues are found under the nail of one character, a woman clutches a log, and a man barks like a dog. It's weird, it's unnerving, and it's wonderful.

But if you've seen (and loved) David Lynch and Mark Frost's groundbreaking original series, it's clear that Roday has dropped in a kitchen sink's worth of allusions, shout-outs, and callbacks to Twin Peaks, loading the episode with a forest full of in-jokes for Twin Peaks devotees to catch, everything from The Great Northern (here Dual Spires' newspaper) and Windom Earle to a certain someone's transformative hair color. (And some clearly intentional music meant to recall Angelo Badalamenti's amazing score.)

I don't want to say too much lest I spoil this fantastic and fun episode, but I will say that the appearance of Twin Peaks regulars Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Sherilyn Fenn, Dana Ashbrook, Catherine E. Coulson, Lenny von Dohlen, and Robyn Lively only serve to enhance an already winning episode. (Extra points for getting Julee Cruise to perform the Psych theme song.) Fenn is pitch-perfect as sultry local librarian Maudette Hornsby (cough, cough) and it's fantastic to see Lee not serve as the victim this time around.

(Aside: I had a long conversation a few weeks back with Lee about her experiences shooting this episode and Twin Peaks in general and she fulfilled by 20-year love affair with the show and her characters. Some of which can be read here.)

Lee is fantastic here and one of the most famous scenes in Twin Peaks history, the discovery--in the pilot episode--of Laura's body, wrapped in plastic, is celebrated in rich fashion. As Lee's Dr. Donna Gooden stares down at the corpse of a local girl, whose body is wrapped in plastic, on a sandy shore, there's a sensation of being caught in a hall of mirrors, as Lee looks down at both the victim, herself as Laura Palmer, and herself as the actress playing Twin Peaks' most famous "dead girl."

It's also us, and our own memories of Twin Peaks, twenty years on, reflected back.



Psych airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on USA.

Test Pattern: What's Your Indispensable TV Network?

We all have the networks--whether broadcast or cable, legacy or newbie--that we gravitate to, but I was wondering this morning about so-called indispensable networks.

Given that I write about television, nearly all networks could be said to be indispensable in one way or another, but what I was pondering was that one specific television channel that you can't turn away from, that you automatically switch to when you turn on the television, or which you have on as background while you're doing other things in our multi-tasking obsessed society.

Many years ago, that channel was--perhaps not surprisingly for those of you who know me--Food Network, but it was replaced by BBC America around 2000 and for many years that was my go-to network, the one spot on the metaphorical dial that I could always depend on for diverting fare, soothing background noise, or a sense of the familiar and comforting.

For whatever the reason, sadly, that's not the case anymore and--shock, horror--I've actually gone so far as to remove BBC America from my list of TiVo favorite channels as it's become a 24-hour network showcasing little other than Star Trek: The Next Generation, Top Gear, and repeats of three ubiquitous Gordon Ramsay reality series. (Three standouts this year: crime drama Luther, reality series The Choir, and culinary competition series Come Dine with Me all had short runs, unfortunately, and Doctor Who can't run all year long.)

But that's a rant for another post (and, believe me, it's coming).

What I am curious about is whether you have a specific network that fulfills those needs and just what network that might be. Are you addicted to USA? Hooked on HBO? Famished for Food Network? Drawn to Cartoon Network? Ingratiated towards IFC? Perpetually amazed by AMC?

Head to the comments section to discuss and debate.

Channel Surfing: Sons of Anarchy and Haven Renewed, Walking Dead Novels, NCIS: LA, Modern Family, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

FX has renewed motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy for a fourth season. Series, which wraps up its third season on November 30th, is the most-watched series in the cable network's history. "Sons of Anarchy is the most popular show FX has ever had, and the No. 1 series in basic cable for our key demographic," said FX president/general manager John Landgraf. "It is also one of the best, most original series on television." (Variety)

Elsewhere, Syfy renewed freshman drama Haven for a second season, with thirteen episodes on tap for next summer. Production is slated to resume in the spring in Nova Scotia on the sophomore season. (Variety)

Robert Kirkman's zombie comic, "The Walking Dead," which is heading to the small screen later this month with AMC's television series of the same name, will also be transformed into a trilogy of original novels, the first of which will be released in 2011. Kirkman will provide the concept and outline for the novels, which will be written by Jay Bonansinga. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Raymond J. Barry (Lost) has been cast in what appears to be a recurring role on CBS' NCIS: LA, where he will play Branston Cole, an ex-secret agent who has crossed paths with Linda Hunt's Hetty. Barry's character is described as appearing "rail and blind from a stroke he suffered a while back, but he remains vigorous and sarcastic as he lives out the remainder of his days in a retirement home. A man with a long history and a deep well of secrets, he seems to still enjoy the game of espionage and manipulation, leading his handlers down questionable paths.” He'll make his first appearance in November. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Danny Trejo (Machete) will guest star on ABC's Modern Family, where he will play the school janitor in an upcoming episode. "The Modern Family episode finds Claire in charge of an upcoming school dance at the boys' school," writes Keck. "While all the other moms are afraid of Danny's menacing janitor, fearless Claire forms an unlikely bond with the guy." (TV Guide Magazine)

Ryan Seacrest is said to be in talks with CAA and AEG about launching a cable network. "The business venture is in very preliminary stages, but the network's concept is described as music, pop culture and lifestyle oriented," write The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd and Kim Masters. "Seacrest is likely to have some kind of on-air presence in the venture. Unlike Oprah Winfrey's upcoming OWN cable channel, however, Seacrest is expected to operate mainly as an influential partner rather than serve as the face and personality of the network. The channel won't be 'Seacrest TV, but will have its own brand. (Hollywood Reporter)

Rebecca Mader (Lost) is set to guest star on NBC's Law & Order: Los Angeles this season, where she will play a woman named Rebecca. "The fictional Rebecca’s lot in life is to get run over by a car, yet miraculously survive," writes Fancast's Matt Mitovich. (Fancast)

Tina Fey is set to return to Saturday Night Live with a primetime special that will celebrate the women of SNL. She'll be joined by Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Nora Dunn, Ana Gasteyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Laraine Newman, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Molly Shannon, and Kristen Wiig. Special is slated to air November 1st at 9 pm ET/PT. (Hollywood Reporter)

Chris D'Elia (Monk) has been cast in TBS' upcoming period comedy series Glory Daze, where he will play Stankowski, described as "as an older, oracle-style figure to the members of a college fraternity." (Variety)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC has given a script order (plus penalty) to an untitled comedy which will star Wilmer Valderrrama (That '70s Show). Project, which hails from Murray and Judah Miller, will have "a musical component" and will be directed by Akiva Schaffer. (Deadline)

Ed Begley Jr. will turn up on Shonda Rhimes' midseason medical drama Off the Map, according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck, who reports that the St. Elsewhere veteran will play Hank, a dentist, in the season's fifth episode. (TV Guide Magazine)

Oxygen has renewed Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood for a sixth season and ordered a new Tori-centric reality project entitled Tori and Dean: Storibook Weddings, which will "focus on Spelling's party planning skills while McDermott focuses on the groom's issues leading up to the pair's nuptials." (Variety)

USA has renamed its upcoming legal drama Facing Kate, which will now be entitled Fairly Legal. News was announced via Twitter by USA executive Ted Linhart. (Twitter)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Sony Pictures Television has signed a two-script deal with writer/actress Stephnie Weir, who wrote ABC comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong. The first project under the new deal is an ABC comedy pilot that is set at a diner. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: HBO Renews Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order: Criminal Intent to Return, Lone Star DOA, Fringe, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Break open the moonshine! HBO has renewed period drama Boardwalk Empire for a second season, after airing just one episode of the Terence Winter/Martin Scorsese crime drama, which averaged 4.8 million viewers in its premiere broadcast. “All the ingredients aligned for this one, from Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson’s initial pitch, to Martin Scorsese’s enormous contributions as director and executive producer, to the genius of Terry Winter and the expertise of Tim Van Patten, to a stellar cast led by Steve Buscemi,” said Michael Lombardo, President of HBO Programming, in a statement. “The response from the media and our viewers has been nothing short of amazing.” (via press release)

In other renewal news, USA has finally closed a deal to renew Law & Order: Criminal Intent for a tenth and final season of eight episodes, with original series lead Vincent D'Onofrio set to reprise his role as Detective Robert Goren, while producers are said to be in talks with Kathryn Erbe and other former stars to return. “We have been the fortunate caretakers of this legendary series, and we plan to give it the world-class farewell it so richly deserves,” said Jeff Wachtel, USA's president of original programming and UCP's co-head of original content. The cabler has also given executive producer Dick Wolf a pilot commitment for a new project at USA. New episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent are set to launch next year. (Deadline)

After the deadly ratings encountered by FOX's new fall drama Lone Star, the 20th Century Fox Television-produced drama is already said to be on death watch, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Andrew Wallenstein. "No one in TV should be happy about this," Wallenstein quotes one agent with a client on Lone Star as saying. "This is going to have a chilling effect on networks taking chances on anything but cookie-cutter shows." xxx "Though Fox declined comment, it's possible the network is delaying the announcement of a decision, perhaps waiting for the cover that will be provided today by its announcement of the American Idol judges," wrote Wallenstein. "That Star will be canceled is being treated in industry circles as fait accompli, a matter of when, not if. Tellingly, while most underwhelming TV debuts are often followed by entreaties from counter-spinning execs magnifying glimmers of hope in the ratings data -- "did you see that uptick in the last quarter-hour among women 25-34?" -- the back-channel phone calls from network and studio execs never came." (Hollywood Reporter)

More Bubbles! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Andre Royo (The Wire) will reprise his role on FOX's Fringe after his first appearance in tomorrow night's season premiere, where he plays a cab driver that Anna Torv's Olivia Dunham encounters "over there." [Editor: Having seen the episode in question, I can say that it was a no-brainer than Royo would be back at some point.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

It's official: Bravo has finally confirmed what has been floating about the internet for quite some time now. The next season of Top Chef will be an all-stars edition, with 18 runners-up from previous seasons returning to compete for another shot at the title. While the full cast has been available at various web sites for the last few weeks, Bravo will officially unveil the cast on tonight's Top Chef reunion special. [Editor: Also, Anthony Bourdain will return as a regular judge this time around, alternating with Gail Simmons.] (TVGuide.com)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jorge Garcia (Lost) will guest star in an upcoming episode of ABC midseason comedy Mr. Sunshine, starring Matthew Perry. Garcia will play "a staffer at the second-rate San Diego sports arena that Perry’s character manages" and will appear in the retooled pilot episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly's Mandi Bierly reported that Lyle Lovett will be guest staring on an upcoming episode of ABC's Castle this season, where he will play Agent Darryl Shafer, described as "a shadowy government figure who detains and interrogates Castle (Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) as they investigate the death of a prominent astrophysicist whose body was found in her car—a victim of explosive decompression." Lovett's appearance is slated for the ninth episode of the current season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The Hollywood Reporter's Allison Hope Weiner has an interview with No Ordinary Family star Michael Chiklis about his role on the ABC superhero family drama. "The big question for me was tone, and how do I pull this off in terms of tone," said Chiklis when asked about any concerns about being on network television rather than cable. "As you know, network television, television in general, has become very niche-oriented. It's very targeted toward a certain audience. Now we're embarking on a show that is all too rare on television: It's one of those kinds of shows that tries to appeal to a broad audience and, in order to do that, the things that are successful don't take themselves too seriously. This is pure entertainment and it's witty and fun, yet soulful and heartfelt. But you also have those great adrenal moments. The threat there is if you go too far in any direction, you go over the top comedically or be too melodramatic and you can fail. Yet if you aren't bold in any direction, you can become vanilla. Tonally, we felt it had to be crisp and smart and fun -- yet not taking itself too seriously." (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Dave Annable's real-life fiancee Odette Yustman will guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC's Brothers & Sisters as a new interest for Annable's Justin. Yustman, set to appear in one episode, will play a "nurse who starts to fall for Justin, as he's still mending his broken heart from his split with Rebecca." Rebecca, of course, is played by Annable's ex-girlfriend Emily Van Camp, who is set to depart the series after just a handful of episodes this season. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Will Forte will return to CBS' How I Met Your Mother, where he will reprise his role as Randy. "Marshall will wrestle with whether or not to fire Randy, who is as hopeless as a paralegal as he is with the ladies," co-creator Craig Thomas told Keck. "There is also a shocking twist as it starts to become clear that Robin — in a moment of weakness — may or may not have hooked up with Randy on Halloween night." (TV Guide Magazine)

ABC has given a put pilot order to a drama inspired by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner's book "The Lost Girls Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World," which will be adapted by Idly Modrovich (Californication). Project, from Warner Bros. Television, will be executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Psych Has a Twin Peaks Experience, HBO Orders Apatow/Dunham Pilot, SNL, Modern Family Casts Cam's Mom, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

I'm not even a Psych fan and this made me blissfully happy. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that USA's Psych is staging a Twin Peaks-inspired episode that will also feature original cast members Sheryl Lee, Sherilyn Fenn, Dana Ashbrook, Catherine Coulson, Ray Wise, Lenny Von Dohlen, and Robyn Lively. Um, yes please. The episode, co-written by series star James Roday, will air sometime this fall and will revolve around "a quirky Northern California town that has been rocked by the death of a high school student." Sound familiar? Coulson will even play a "mysterious Woman with Wood," a tongue-in-cheek take on her Log Lady from Twin Peaks. Sign me up. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that HBO has given a pilot order to an untitled comedy written/directed by 24-year-old Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture) and executive produced by Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner. Project, which will also star Dunham, revolves around "the assorted humiliations and rare triumphs of a group of girls in their early 20's" and will feature autobiographical elements from Dunham's own life. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that Parks and Recreation leading lady Amy Poehler will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 25th, with Katy Perry serving as musical guest. Season 36 has added four new players to the mix, including Taran Killam, Paul Brittain, Vanessa Bayer, and Jay Pharoah (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

[Editor: Will Forte, as widely reported, will not be returning to SNL this season. Jenny Slate, who made headlines for the F-bomb heard 'round the latenight world, is also "not expected to return," according to Variety's Michael Schneider.]

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Celia Weston (Desperate Housewives) has beat out Delta Burke, Dianne Wiest, and Kathy Bates (along with others) to play Barb Tucker, the mother of Emmy Award winner Eric Stonestreet's Cam, on ABC's Modern Family. Weston is expected to turn up around the holidays for a visit this season. (TV Guide Magazine)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Alan Ritchson will reprise his role as Arthur "AC" Curry on the final season of the CW's Smallville during November sweeps. "AC was last seen in season 8, when his secret identity was discovered by LuthorCorp," writes Ausiello. "I’m told the Justice Leaguer will resurface in this season’s ninth episode." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

MTV is getting back into the live daytime game with new daily countdown show The Seven, according to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, who reports that the show, which will launch September 27th, "presents seven stories that MTV viewers need to know, from Hollywood news, music, sex and fashion to other topics." Project, which will also feature interviews and musical performances, will be executive produced by Steve Tseckares. (Hollywood Reporter)

David Nevins has announced his first piece of development business since he took over as president of Showtime. The project in question is an adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel "The Wishbones," which Perrotta himself will adapt for the pay cabler. Warner Bros. Television-based project, which will be executive produced by Perrotta and John Wells, revolves around a small-time wedding band with plans of rock n' roll stardom. Wells is no stranger to Showtime: his next series, a US adaptation of UK drama Shameless, is set to launch early next year on the channel. [Editor: Having seen the pilot for the US Shameless--twice, no less--and been raving about it for months since, this is one to keep an eye on.] (Variety)

Don't look for Marc Cherry to pull out the stops this sweeps on ABC's Desperate Housewives. Cherry told TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck that the soap will get back to basics this season and ditch the gimmicks. "I'm not doing another big gimmicky natural disaster this year; I'm trying something different," Cherry said. "My big cliffhanger right before we take our Christmas break will have to do with Paul Young. He has a plan for destroying the neighborhood. There will a shocking cliffhanger that effects everyone's lives, and then right before February sweeps, we're going to kill off one of our characters." (TV Guide Magazine)

HBO has acquired rights to Martin Scorsese's documentary Public Speaking, which focuses on writer Fran Lebowitz and which will air on the pay cabler in November. (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that FOX's Bones will feature an episode that's loosely inspired by dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance, as Booth and Brennan tackle a case involving street performers. Episode will feature a guest appearance from So You Think You Can Dance Season Four runner-up Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who will play a murder suspect. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has renewed culinary competition series Masterchef for a second season. (Variety)

Despite the rumors swirling that Simon Cowell will step down from the UK X-Factor in order to focus his attention on the upcoming US launch of the format, his reps have told The Hollywood Reporter that "no decision has been made." (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Boxed In: Thoughts on Tuesday's Summer Season Finale of USA's White Collar

I promised you some thoughts about next week's summer season finale of USA's slick and stylish drama series White Collar and I hate to disappoint.

Airing on Tuesday evening, the summer season comes to an end with next week's fantastic and taut installment ("Point Blank"), after which we'll have to wait until January to find out just what happens to Peter, Neal, Mozzie, and the others.

Suffice it to say, the wait will be especially difficult, given the cliffhanger ending that creator Jeff Eastin and his crack writing team have left us with. It's far more intoxicating--and far less head-scratching--than the Peter/Ring scenario that they left us with halfway through the first season.

While there's no sign of Hilarie Burton's savvy insurance investigator Sara (sorry, folks!), the episode itself is extremely mythology-heavy, which makes it rather difficult to enmesh newbie Sara to the action right now. But while Burton is not present, Sara's absence isn't felt at all, thanks to a fantastic plot that draws together the various storylines involving the music box, Neal's key, some nifty codes, Kate's murder, Fowler, and OPR.

I don't want to say too much lest I spoil some of the deliciously twisty plot mechanics of this episode but I will say that we see Matthew Bomer's Neal Caffrey in a way that we haven't seen him before... and that the stakes for everyone are higher than ever.

The mysteries that have lurked in the background of White Collar throughout the back half of the first season and the first nine episodes of Season Two are pushed front and center and they manage to bring together just about all of the series' fantastic characters into a single storyline. Which means, yes, Neal, Peter, Mozzie, Diana, and Alex are all entangled in a unified narrative and, while there are answers given, there are more questions still that are raised here. Certainly enough that make us question some of the things we've taken for granted the past dozen or so episodes.

Motivations become crystal clear, alliances are formed and shattered, and Neal makes a decision that will have lasting consequences for himself and several others. Along the way, plot points that have been planted throughout the season come to fruition as the music box storyline begins to reach its climax. Just what secrets does the box contain? Why are so many people after this object? And what will Neal's key unlock once it's inserted?

Like a matryoshka, this box seems to contain secrets within secrets, puzzles within other puzzles. It's a Rambaldi device without the ominous apocalyptic overtones, yet it also connects deeply to the mystery of who wanted Kate dead and just what happened aboard that plane in the final minutes of the first season.

All this and some swashbuckling from Neal that has to be seen to be believed (yes, seriously), some great comedic interludes between Neal and Willie Garson's Mozzie (one of the best being how they age an FBI case file), and a tense standoff involving several interested parties. Not to mention that aforementioned cliffhanger, which will have people talking over the next few months, even as they hum the Batman theme.

In other words: miss Tuesday's episode at your own peril.

The summer season finale of White Collar airs Tuesday at 9 pm ET/PT on USA.

The Daily Beast: "The Summer's Best (and Worst) TV"

Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out my latest feature as I offer a report card for the Summer TV Season: picking the winners, losers, and draws across broadcast and cable.

Be sure to check out the gallery at "The Summer's Best (and Worst) TV," where I break down the successes and failures of the past season show by show. Where did White Collar, Pretty Little Liars, and Covert Affairs end up? And which shows ended up at the bottom of the barrel?

Head over to The Daily Beast to find out and head to the comments section to discuss your favorite and least favorite shows of the past summer season and why you felt certain programs succeeded or failed.

Channel Surfing: Fox Snags Locke and Key, Trouble for Tilda, Torchwood Star Lands Three Inches, Temps, The Office, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that FOX is in talks with 20th Century Fox Television and Dreamworks to develop a series based on Joe Hill's comic book "Locke and Key," which revolves around "three kids who end up watching over a secret, spooky New England mansion filled with mystical doors that transport them to different worlds and give them special powers (like turning into a ghost)," according to Adalian. But FOX isn't turning to just anyone to adapt the series created by Hill (who happens to be the son of Stephen King): Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Hawaii Five-0) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as well as Steven Spielberg are attached as executive producers. (Vulture, Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that there's some major behind the scenes drama brewing at HBO's much anticipated dark comedy pilot Tilda, which stars Diane Keaton as a Nikki Finke-esque Hollywood blogger. Showrunner Cynthia Mort has been removed from the project after the pilot shoot, during which she allegedly clashed with director/executive producer Bill Condon and with Keaton herself. "It was an unhappy marriage from day one,” an unnamed source told Ausiello about Mort and Condon's working relationship. “They banged heads about almost everything…and during production she picked huge public fights with anyone who disagreed with her on anything, including Diane.” Mort's removal prompted a nasty email to the production and the studio; neither she nor HBO would comment on the story, though Ausiello notes that Condon is assembling a new creative team and is close to picking a new showrunner for the project. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Which former Torchwood star is crossing the pond to star in Syfy drama pilot Three Inches? Naoko Mori--who played the much missed Toshiko for two seasons on BBC Three's Torchwood--has been cast as a series regular in Three Inches, which follows a slacker who discovers that he has a useless superpower: he can move any object three inches with his mind. Mori will play "a woman who can duplicate and recite any sounds she hears." Also cast: Melrose Place's Stephanie Jacobsen, who will play Watts, described as "a beautiful 'super' hero who has the ability to shape the emotions of anyone she meets at close range." (Deadline)

Good news for fans of Party Down: the creators of the short-lived Starz comedy series have landed a put pilot from NBC for their next project, a single-camera comedy entitled Temps. The project, created by Rob Thomas, Jon Enbom, and Dan Etheridge, was the subject of an intense bidding war before a deal was reached between NBC and studio Warner Bros. Television. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, Temps will revolve around "a group of recent college grads who are forced to take a variety of oddball temp jobs to make ends meet." Any chance those trademark pink bowties could make a return appearance? (Variety)

E! Online's Jennifer Arrow is reporting that producers of NBC's The Office, which will see the departure of series lead Steve Carell after the upcoming season, would prefer to promote from within rather than bring in an A-lister to replace Michael Scott. Arrow caught up with writer/producer Warren Lieberstein to ask him about whether the show can go on without Carell and just where Michael's replacement will come from. "We're really sad. I don't know how you soldier on from Steve leaving," said Lieberstein. "He's such an amazing talent. He's the best. He's the best, honestly. But we're kind of lucky, we have a lot of movie stars in our cast! Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Rainn Wilson—and that Krasinski guy is not bad, and Jenna Fischer, she's pretty great. I think the reason we've been able to survive as many seasons as we have is because of the supporting cast." As for the matter of succession, Lieberstein said, "We're still debating. A lot of us want from within, because we think we have such a strong cast, but we'll see. We have a network that also [has] wants." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

In other Three Inches-related news, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) has also joined the cast of the Syfy superhero pilot, where she will play Belinda Spackman, the mother of the main character, who is described as "a brutally cynical force of nature who will do anything to protect her son, who has developed a unique not-so-superpower: the ability to move any object three inches using his mind." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with True Blood star Denis O'Hare, who is stealing scenes this season as the Vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington. O'Hare told E! Online that, despite his character's longevity, he can still be killed. "I am 3,000 years old, but it can be done," said O'Hare. "The vampire rules are if you behead them, if you stake them with wood, or if you put silver on them, they're going down. The silver weakens them incredibly, the wood will actually kill them, and beheading is game over." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

FOX is developing an untitled drama pilot with writer Rick Eid and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci about a prosecutor who discovers that he can tell whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. "Show revolves around an overly ambitious prosecutor who wrongfully convicts an innocent man for murder, an event that becomes the trigger for his magical flashes and an understanding that he has a debt an understanding that he has a debt to repay to the innocent," writes Variety's Cynthia Littleton. (Variety)

Meghan Markle (Fringe) has been cast as one of the leads in USA's legal drama pilot A Legal Mind, where she will star opposite Patrick Adams and Gabriel Macht. She'll play Rachel Lane, described as "an attractive paralegal with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law who's assigned to Mike [Patrick Adams] and becomes his valuable after-hours research ally." Whedonverse alum Gina Torres has also been cast in the project, though her role--senior partner Katherine Pearson--is in second position to ABC Family's Huge. (Hollywood Reporter)

FX is developing comedy 13th Grade, about a "a high school graduate who's content with his meager lifestyle -- until his girlfriend dumps him for being 'stuck' between childhood and adulthood"--with Michael Cera, Derek Waters, and Emily Kapnek. Kapnek and Cera are writing the script, while Waters is set to co-star in the project. (Variety)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) will star opposite Sherry Stringfield in Lifetime's currently untitled Josh Berman drama pilot, where she will play Brooke Kross, the partner to Stringfield's police detective Molly Collins. Elsewhere, John Hawkes (Lost) will star in FX drama pilot Outlaw Country, where he will play Tarzen Larkin, the uncle to Luke Grimes' Eli, who is described as "one of the most charismatic and compelling characters in Slaughter, a big-time player in the Southern crime world." (Deadline)

Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy) and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) are set to guest star in an upcoming episode of USA's Royal Pains when the series returns for its first ever winter season this January, according to Fancast's Matt Mitovich. Sedaris will play Nan Noonan, "Jill's partner for a Hamptons golf tournament," while Cavanagh will play pro golfer Jack O'Malley. (Fancast)

TLC has ordered eight episodes of Sextuplets Take New York, which is--you guessed it!--about a family raising four boys and two girls in Queens, New York. It will launch on September 14th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Yep, Jennifer Aniston is going to guest star on ABC's Cougar Town next month, when she'll drop by as a therapist for Courteney Cox's Jules. (via press release)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Life Unexpected's Reggie Austin has been cast as the husband of Vanessa Williams' character on ABC's Desperate Housewives this season. He'll make his first appearance in the fifth episode of the season and will be playing Doug, the New York pro baseball player husband of Williams' Renee Perry. (TV Guide Magazine)

20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment have signed a blind script deal with Get Him to the Greek writer/director Nicholas Stoller. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former TNT programming executive Julie Weitz has been hired as president of Carol Mendelsohn's production company. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: USA Renews Covert Affairs, Lost Star Could Be Rockford, Lie to Me Grabs Gunn, Cannavale to Blue Bloods, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Good news for Annie Walker fans: USA has officially ordered a second season of espionage drama Cover Affairs. No word was given on an episodic order nor when Season Two of the Universal Cable Production-based series would launch, though the first season of the CIA drama is currently in full swing on the cabler. Series, which is shot on location in Toronto, is currently the highest rated cable series on Tuesdays in the 10 pm hour. (via press release)

Longtime followers on Twitter will remember that I pushed Josh Holloway for the role of Jim Rockford in NBC's resurrected The Rockford Files back in the spring when I read the pilot script. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is now pushing Holloway as well and reports that the former Lost star has been "mentioned in connection to the project, but [an unnamed] insider stresses that there are no serious talks going on at this time." So it's not like an offer has gone out to Holloway or anything but the project is still alive and kicking, even after an abysmal pilot that starred Dermot Mulroney in the role that James Garner made famous. [Editor: Personally, I think Holloway would be a significant improvement.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Breaking Bad star Anna Gunn will guest star this fall on FOX drama Lie to Me, where she will play Internal Affairs Detective Jenkins, described as "an ambitious, politically savvy police officer on the fast track to the top [who] realizes Lightman is someone who must be handled with caution as she tries to bring down Detective Wallowski." Gunn is set to appear in the season's third episode, which will air on November 24th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant is reporting that Bobby Cannavale (Cupid) has joined the cast of CBS' fall drama series Blue Bloods, where he will play Charles Rosselini, the boss of Bridget Moynahan's Erin. Rosselini is described as a "talented and popular Manhattan DA [who has] political ambitions, but as an ex-cop who served nearly 10 on the force before finishing law school, he remains a bit rough around the edges." He'll first appear in the October 15th episode. (TVGuide.com)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Ryan Devlin is headed back to ABC's Grey's Anatomy this season, where he will appear in a multiple-episode story arc set to begin in November, when he will reprise his role as the husband of Mandy Moore's character. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO is said to be developing a series based in Los Angeles' adult film business, according to a report in The New York Post's Page Six, which claims that Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson have teamed up with writer James Frey--yes, that James Frey--for a drama series that will feature actors and adult performers. "The plot will focus on a giant video company under siege from Internet competitors and a girl from the Midwest whose boyfriend convinces her to move to Los Angeles to become a star," according to Page Six. Frey, meanwhile, said, "We're going to make a sprawling epic about the porn business in LA. We're going to tell the type of stories no one else has told before, and go places no one has gone before." (New York Post)

Could John May (Michael Trucco) be heading back to ABC's V? Showrunner Scott Rosenbaum tells TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams that Trucco might be popping up on the alien invasion drama again. "John May may return," said Rosenbaum. So could he be alive? "That's what they hinted to me," Michael Trucco told TVGuide.com. "I thought, 'OK, he's dead, but he's coming back?' They're like, 'Nope, he's dead.' I wrote that off as a one-off [appearance], but they made some indication that maybe he'd come back." (TVGuide.com)

Michael J. Fox is set to guest star on CBS' The Good Wife this season, where he will play Simon Canning, described as "a shrewd and cynical litigator whom Alicia (Margulies) faces in a massive class action [who] is willing to use anything in court, including symptoms of his neurological condition, to create sympathy for his otherwise unsympathetic client: a giant pharmaceutical company." “We’re absolutely thrilled that Michael has agreed to play this role,” said executive producers and show creators Robert and Michelle King in a press release. “His intelligence as an actor, combined with his incredible comic timing will really bring this smart, cynical lawyer to life.” (via press release)

TVGuide.com's Gina DiNunno has an interview with this week's ousted Top Chef contestant, Alex Reznik, in which they discuss, yes, the pea puree debacle and the Restaurant Wars drama, among other topics. "At no time during the show did I know the pea puree was an issue and that people were accusing me of stealing something," said Reznik. "It's not in my inherent nature [to steal]. So at no point did I ever try to defend myself... Amanda saw me make it. The day before, Kelly tasted my peas. The people on the show know I didn't take it. I can't really say what happened to [Ed's pea puree]. All I know is when I got to the challenge, the first thing I did was puree peas. They can't show everything. The reality was I won that challenge and it was masked by the pea puree." (TVGuide.com)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Stephen Collins--best known for his role on 7th Heaven and next to be seen on ABC's fall drama No Ordinary Family--will guest star in the fourth episode of the upcoming season of Brothers & Sisters, where he will play Charlie, a man who helps Saul deal with his HIV diagnosis. "I don't want this to be like a TV Movie of the Week," executive producer David Marshall Grant told Keck. "Even though he didn't know his diagnosis until recently, I have a feeling Saul has been dealing with this for years. He hasn't been frequenting gay bars." (TV Guide Magazine)

Scott Caan's recent knee injury will be worked into the plot of CBS' Hawaii Five-0 this season, according to E! Online's Megan Masters. "According to an H50 rep, Scott's injury will not affect production in the least," writes Masters. "In fact, the also-Entourage star won't even need to miss an episode during his recovery, and is set to return to work Aug. 23... Said bumps and bruises will simply be written into the script, when Danno suffers a spill at the hands of his partner (played by Alex O'Loughlin—sigh). In the post-injury ep, the two visit the doctor's office together and when asked if he's suffered any trauma lately, Mr. "Book 'Em" responds: "I've got a partner—this guy is a physical injury!" (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant is reporting that David Alan Grier will guest star on FOX's Bones this season, where he will play Professor Bunsen Jude the Science Dude, described as the "quirky host of a children's TV program" in the vein of Bill Nye the Science Guy. "He comes to the Jeffersonian Institute hoping to get Brennan (Emily Deschanel) on his show as a guest scientist," writes Bryant. "When Brennan scoffs at Jude's offer because she doesn't consider him a serious scientist, Jude volunteers to work with the 'squinterns' to help solve a murder case. Brennan agrees to appear on Jude's show if he is successful." (TVGuide.com)

More guest stars heading to Syfy's Eureka, with Ming-Na (Stargate Universe) and comic book legend Stan Lee set to descend on the Pacific Northwest town. "Ming-Na will portray U.S. Senator Alice Wen who arrives in Eureka to handle a sensitive matter within Global Dynamics," according to a Syfy press release. "Her character may appear in more than one episode. Details of Stan Lee's appearance are being kept under wraps. No airdates have been set at this time." They join previously announced guest stars Wil Wheaton, Jamie Kennedy, Chris Parnell, Felicia Day, Jaime Ray Newman, Ed Quinn, and Matt Frewer. (via press release)

NBC has renewed Last Call with Carson Daly for a fifth season. (Variety)

Chelsea Handler will host this year's MTV Video Music Awards. "If there's one awards show that I should be hosting, it's probably this one," Handler told The New York Times. "My personality probably wouldn't gel with the Emmys or the Golden Globes." (New York Times)

Don't hold your breath waiting for a Glee cover of a Kings of Leon song: the band turned down a request to license its music to the FOX musical-comedy. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Renee Felice Smith has been cast in a recurring role on CBS' NCIS: LA, where she will play Nell, described as "an incredibly bright, somewhat quirky, and extremely chatty intelligence analyst who’ll be assisting Eric (Barrett Foa) in the OPS center." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Universal Media Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with Parks and Recreation writer/producer Alan Yang, under which he will remain aboard the ensemble comedy while also developing new projects for the studio. (Deadline)

Former AMC executive Christina Wayne and her new company Cineflix Studios is set to pitch a comedy series based on Ariel Leve's novel "It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me," according to Variety's Cynthia Littleton. Script was written by Leve "with guidance from Wayne," and revolves around "successful femme journo in her late 30s whose life is turned upside down when she loses her job." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

This Charming Man: USA's White Collar Remains Stylish and Sleek

In its second season, USA's stylish caper drama White Collar, which stars Matthew Bomer, Tim DeKay, Marsha Thomason, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen, has only gotten more charismatic and accomplished, displaying an engaging mix of sophistication, humor, and complexity while introducing a winning selection of guest stars to the mix.

Much of the first season focused on Neal's efforts to track down his errant ex-girlfriend Kate (despite a decided lack of chemistry between the two), but a cliffhanger ending--in which the plane Neal was meant to be boarding with Kate exploded right in front of him, killing her instantly--has not only given Neal a tragic element to overcome but also sets up the sweep of the sophomore season.

While the action on a weekly basis still focuses on the crime of the week, which gives the superb team of Bomer and DeKay numerous opportunities to bounce off of one another, there's an intriguing overarching plot to the season, one that is soaked in revenge and furtive investigation. Bomer's Neal Caffrey is conducting his own private investigation into Kate's death--aided by the improbably noble and eccentric Mozzie (Garson, here finally being given some much deserved spotlighting)--while attempting to conceal his tracks from the suits at the FBI. Unbeknownst to Neal, of course, Peter and Diana (Thomason, crackling with energy and wit) have the amber music box that provided much intrigue last season, with Diana secreting the clue-laden MacGuffin away from all prying eyes.

The divergent plots are bound to come together over the course of the season but, while the music box/OPR/Kate storylines provide a narrative spine for the season, the true joy of White Collar is the dynamic between criminal Neal and detective Peter, an unlikely partnership that has quickly developed into a nuanced friendship between polar opposites. Bomer and DeKay are both so perfectly cast and so comfortable in the skin of these characters that it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing them at this point.

Their banter--fueled by a competitive male rivalry and a mutual admiration bordering on outright respect--gives the series a vintage feel as well as a true emotional core. White Collar isn't so much a procedural drama about the collaring of criminals as it is the unfolding of a professional and personal relationship set against that backdrop. Neal, prone to slight-of-hand and slick vintage suits, seems a man out of time, a charming player with a penchant for wooing women and engaging in some larcenous behavior. Peter, with his loyal wife, love of Yankees games, and modern police methods, has been subtly influenced by Neal over the last season and a half. While neither of them will ever admit it out loud, they need each other for balance.

Season Two has improved on the first season by bringing Thomason's Diana back into the fold and wedging her between Neal and Peter. While there's likely no chance of any romantic intrigue developing between Neal and Diana, their relationship sparkles with palpable tension. Likewise, a new character--introduced in last week's episode--further complicated the web of relationships in the FBI's White Collar Division. I have to say that I was surprised by just how much I loved Hilarie Burton as insurance investigator Sara Ellis: smart, sexy, and savvy, she seems a perfect match for Neal Caffrey, able to stay just one step ahead of him and more than capable of handling a gun.

Here's to hoping that Burton's Sara Ellis continues to pop up over the course of the season (she will, of course) and that the fact that Sara has that flight recorder data that Neal desperately needs means that she'll become enmeshed in that overarching plot, to boot.

In the meantime, however, White Collar has quickly become USA's smartest and most dynamic series to date, a truly charming series that deftly balances whip-smart dialogue, wry humor, and action in a compelling and accessible package. For those of you who haven't been watching for whatever reason, do yourself a favor and jump on board now. You won't be disappointed.

White Collar airs Tuesday evenings at 9 pm ET/PT on USA.

Channel Surfing: HBO Renews Tim, Prison Break's Chris Vance Targets Dexter, The Good Wife, 90210's Gay Character Revealed, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Sometimes the networks taketh and sometimes they give back. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that HBO has had a change of heart about animated comedy The Life and Times of Tim, which it cancelled two months ago. The pay cabler has now reversed its position on the cult hit, ordering a third season of Tim, with ten episodes slated to air sometime next year. Media Rights Capital, the production company behind the project (along with Good Humor TV), attempted to shop Tim to other networks--including Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and TBS--but no buyer materialized... and now the project has headed back to HBO. [Editor: I'm relieved as I was really upset when I heard earlier this year that the series wasn't going to get picked up.] (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Chris Vance (Prison Break) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Five of Showtime's Dexter. Vance--most recently seen in FOX's short-lived drama series Mental and on Burn Notice--will play Cole, described as "a meticulous, physically fit, well-spoken personal aide to a famous businessman," and is set to appear in at least three installments of the serial killer drama. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline has an interview with The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King about their Emmy nominated CBS drama series, which will compete with several cable-based series in the Best Drama category. "It’s hard not to look at cable with envy at times, for sure," said Michelle King when asked if she wishes The Good Wife were on cable rather than broadcast television. "The tradeoff is we get to tell more stories and usually have a bigger budget, so it probably evens out." And don't call the show a procedural. "We prefer to be seen as a hybrid," said Robert King. "It’s a polite way of saying we want to have our cake and eat it, too. Mind you, we don’t hate procedurals. There’s nothing better when you’re sick in bed at home than taking in a Law & Order marathon. We’re not trying to run away from that, but we work to stuff the procedural aspect so tightly bound into a script that there’s a lot of room left to show the impact on our characters. We don’t feel hampered by the label, but we hope people can get past it and any angst they may have over it." (Deadline)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has confirmed just which one of the boys of 90210 will come out this season on the CW teen soap. Actor Trevor Donovan--who plays Teddy--revealed that he'll be playing the famous zip code's gay character. “I read all your tweets and know you are all curious about the ‘gay’ character this season," said Donovan via Twitter. "Let me say, gay or straight, relationships are relationships. Everyone goes through the same kind of troubles and joys. A gay storyline will have an added issue of dealing with judgment from others. Acceptance, by family, friends, society, and self is just one of the concerns the character will be going through. It is a part of life, and it should be portrayed. I was told, and am confident, [that] the storyline will be written very well and the change in the character will be organic, NOT overnight. It’s going to be a great season 3. I look forward to chatting with you all as we progress.” Ausiello, for his part, confirmed that Donovan's Teddy is gay. Thus, the speculation can now end. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FlashForward's Michael Ealy--who will next be seen on CBS' The Good Wife--has been cast as one of the leads on USA's buddy cop pilot Common Law, where he will play LAPD officer Travis Marks, described as "charismatic, casually attired, and unshaven—the polar opposite of his police partner, Wes Mitchell," who, unlike Wes, is "a freewheeling, impulsive maverick, not to mention an avid womanizer who is extremely successful with the ladies." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Among the presenters at this year's Primetime Emmy Awards: January Jones, Ricky Gervais, Julianna Margulies, Matthew Morrison, Sofia Vergara, and John Krasinski. (Hollywood Reporter)

Spike has renewed Deadliest Warrior for a third season, with ten episodes on tap for Summer 2011. (Variety)

Looks like you've gotten there. TBS has ordered an additional 90 episodes of comedy Are We There Yet? The series, which debuted on June 2nd, will wrap up its initial ten-episode order this summer and then return with a massive reorder. (Hollywood Reporter)

David Madden has been named the successor to outbound Fox Television Studios president Emiliano Calemzuk, who is departing the studio to become the CEO of Shine Group Americas. Madden, meanwhile, has been promoted to the position of president and will report to Dana Walden and Gary Newman. [Editor: congratulations, Dave!] (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Fringe Fest, Diablo Cody Targets FOX, Carol Burnett to Be Sue's Mom on Glee, Ferrigno to Torment Chuck, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello caught up with Fringe star Jasika Nicole to get some information about Season Three of Fringe, kicking off this fall, and a "groundbreaking and mind-blowing" twist. "She is indeed," said Nicole when asked if Astrid would get more to do in Season Three. "And that's due to the fact that there are now two of her that I get to play, which is awesome. [For the first half] of the season, we're alternating episodes, so we've got one in the alternate universe and one in the present universe, so if you were to only [watch] every other episode, you would only see the story happening in one universe." Nicole told Ausiello that the two storylines will converge into a single stream where "everyone's world will be turned upside down." Wowsers. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Diablo Cody is heading to FOX. The network signed a put-pilot deal with the Juno creator--who is the executive producer of Showtime's multiple-personality comedy United States of Tara--for comedy The Breadwinner, which will be produced by Warner Bros. Television, should FOX opt to order a pilot. Details on the plot of the project, which Cody will executive produce with Mason Novick, are being kept tightly under wraps. It's not the first time that Cody has sought to work with the network; she previously developed comedy Sydney Dare at FOX back in 2009. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stop the presses: Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that legendary comedienne Carol Burnett has been cast as the Nazi-hunting mother of Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester on Glee. While details of her arrival at William McKinley High are being kept secret (for now, anyway), it's expected that Burnett will make her appearance in an October or November episode of Glee's second season and Ausiello also indicates that she will be turning up without Sue's father. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other casting news, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former Incredible Hulk star (and motivated home seller in I Love You, Man) Lou Ferrigno will guest star on Chuck this fall. Ferrigno, who is set to appear in the second episode of Season Four, will play "the bodyguard of an evil spy model (ex-Victoria's Secret Angel Karolina Kurkova." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has two video interviews with the stars of FOX's Bones, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, in which the two talk about the power shift when Deschanel directs an episode of Bones this season and jokingly vows to make Boreanaz "pay." Plus, the duo tease details of the next season of Bones, including--SPOILER ALERT!--a potential death, a new love interest for Booth named Hannah, and much more. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Sorry sci-fi fans: it turns out that Sky1 has dropped its plan to resurrect classic sci-fi series Blake's 7, created by Terry Nation, after announcing its plans to develop an update back in 2008. "Following the development process we have decided not to produce Blake's 7," said a Sky1 spokesperson. "However, Sky continues to invest heavily in original drama and it remains at the heart of our plans. We have just announced an extended run for the second series of Chris Ryan's Strike Back and we'll soon be unveiling a new long-running series for prime time." The satcaster will also not proceed with a spy drama that was to star Gillian Anderson (The X-Files). But the production company behind the resurrected Blake's 7 plans to shop the series elsewhere. "Sky's deciding to not proceed with the planned TV revival of Blake's 7 is obviously disappointing, but the development process has resulted in the dynamic reinvention of this 'branded' series ... There is a huge opportunity for investment in a TV series that is fully developed, has genuine global appeal and has exciting 360-degree exploitation opportunities," said a B7 Productions spokesperson. "With much praised scripts from lead writers Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle (Going Postal) and 60% of the finance already in place, by anyone's standard we have pulled together a compelling package. We are confident that this reboot of Blake's 7 has the creative and commercial credentials that will enable us to find a partner with the vision to recognise the strength and enduring appeal of the show and the opportunity it represents to produce a bold new drama series with significant international appeal." (Guardian)

Dallas Roberts (Rubicon) has been cast in a potentially recurring role on CBS' The Good Wife, where he will play Owen, Alicia's gay brother, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. But don't look for the series to make a big deal out of the University of Oregon professor's sexual orientation. "“We just thought [it would be interesting] if it didn’t matter. Everybody around them thinks it’s an issue between them, but there’s no issue,” said executive producer Robert King. “We kind of like that it voids expectations of what will happen between them." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TVGuide.com's Gina DiNunno has some further details about Roberts' Good Wife character and talks to executive producer David W. Zucker about Owen. "I think [creators and executive producers] Robert and Michelle [King] came up with a very sort of compelling and surprising way to introduce her brother into the world that immediately impacts [her] and Peter, and then gets us to explore a little bit of what their history was and how it pertains to their future," said Zucker. "What about Alicia's own familial experience informed the way she handled [the] with situation with Peter, and her vigilance about protecting the children and the family first and foremost? We were really interested in trying to start exploring, for Peter and Alicia, what that greater world is, especially as Peter is coming to the public eye in a different way now." (TVGuide.com)

So it turns out that Lost's enigmatic Man in Black does have a name. Sort of. TVOvermind has confirmed that Titus Welliver's character was named Samuel. Or, was on the back of his director's chair, anyway. The news doesn't exactly send ripples through the Lost community, but it does lay to rest one dangling plot thread. (via Blastr)

Jeff Goldblum will be departing Law & Order: Criminal Intent after only two seasons, citing uncertainty "surrounding the show's future." (Ahem.) News comes on the heels of the order for Law & Order: Los Angeles and the cancellation of the flagship Law & Order. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Courtney Ford (Dexter) is heading to the CW's Vampire Diaries, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, who reports that Ford will potentially recur as Vanessa, described as "a grad student at Duke who helps Damon, Alaric, and Elena go through Isobel’s old research." But Vanessa might be more than she seems as she's concealing a secret or two... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Colm Meaney (Get Him to the Greek) will star opposite Anson Mount, Dominique McElligott, and Common in AMC period drama pilot Hell of Wheels, about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Meaney will play Thomas "Doc" Durant, described as "a businessman determined to make his fortune building the transcontinental railroad, a man of vision and a self-serving opportunist who is capable of 'creative financing.'" (Deadline)

Sherry Stringfield has landed the lead in Josh Berman's new untitled Lifetime drama pilot, where she will play San Diego police detective Molly Collins, described as a "married mother of two on the verge of divorce, who, along with her partner Brooke Kross, investigate the city’s most high-profile crimes while navigating their divergent personal lives." (Deadline)

Disney Channel has assembled the cast for its upcoming original musical movie franchise, Lemonade Mouth, which follows a group of high school students who meet in detention and start a band. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Details on Kanakaredes' Exit from CSI, Alphas Lands Two, More on McPherson, HIMYM, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to CSI: NY executive producers Pam Veasey and Zachary Reiter about the departure of Melina Kanakaredes from the crime procedural and how they'll handle Stella's exit, given that Kanakaredes will not be reprising her role this fall. "We’re giving her a noble exit,” said Reiter. "We chose not to go the route of killing her off or having her go missing. We felt that would weigh too heavily on the team." However, the action will instead pick up a few months after the events of the season finale and reveal that Stella moved to New Orleans. "She left to run a lab there," Veasey told Ausiello. "And she picked that city because it’s the city of Katrina, the city of BP oil, the city where people are looking for someone to lend a hand. She’ll essentially be Mac in New Orleans. We wanted to do something that was respectful and made a lot of sense." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

More casting on Syfy's 90-minute drama pilot Alphas: Malika Yoba (Defying Gravity) and Laura Mennell (Watchmen) have signed on to star in the pilot, which is written by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow and directed by Jack Bender. Yoba and Mennell will star opposite David Strathairn and will play members of the Alpha team, a group of people "who have extraordinary mental and physical abilities" and who "investigate difficult-to-solve cases that the CIA and FBI have either passed over or were unable to solve." (Variety)

The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters is reporting that ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson resigned from the network amid a formal sexual harassment probe into alleged misconduct involving several women--both executives and on-air talent--and an incident at a corporate retreat. Said investigation had been going on for the three weeks leading up to his announcement that he would be stepping down from the company. "Upon Steve McPherson returning to work from his vacation on Monday, he made a voluntary decision to resign and ABC accepted his resignation," said McPherson's lawyer, Tom Hoberman, in a statement. "It is not uncommon for high level executives to be the subject of gossip and innuendo. That would include rumors of internal situations which can easily be misinterpreted or misrepresented. Seems like it goes with the territory, and there is nothing further to discuss." According to Masters, ABC "pointedly did not deny allegations of inappropriate conduct." The situation remains in flux and ABC has yet to officially name a replacement for McPherson, though it's widely believed that ABC Family's Paul Lee has scored the seat. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan talks to How I Met Your Mother creators/executive producers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas about what went wrong with the fifth season of the CBS sitcom. "We set out to say, 'What if every episode, you hit the reset button at the end of the episode?'" said Bays. "...We had fun doing that, but I feel like that's not the show we wanted to do." Thomas concurred. "A certain kind of fan of the show felt like last season was less emotionally interesting, less interesting in the larger arc of 'Who's the mother?' but also less interesting in the sense of moving forward in these characters' lives," he told Ryan. "I feel like we earned fans by exploring a lot of different rites of passage in people's lives, and last year I feel like we did a lot less of it." Ryan also gets Bays and Thomas to discuss details of Season Six of Mother, including the return of Rachel Bilson, the handling of Barney and his quest to find his real father, Marshall and Lily's attempts to have a baby, the third installment of the Robin Sparkles saga, and the fact that "by the end of the season, everyone's lives will change dramatically." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, meanwhile, has a few further details on the return of Rachel Bilson's Cindy to How I Met Your Mother. "Bilson will appear in the show’s sixth season premiere this fall when Cindy shows up at MacLaren’s bar, the favored hangout of Mother‘s central quartet," writes Ausiello. Meanwhile, her return sets up some important storytelling. “The season premiere is going to be very much informed by her presence,” Carter Bays told Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that USA has renewed procedural drama In Plain Sight for two additional seasons, the series' fourth and fifth installments. "The main cast, including Mary McCormack, Frederick Weller and Paul Ben-Victor, are all set to return to In Plain Sight, which will continue to film in New Mexico," writes Andreeva. (Deadline)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has a run down of just who will be on Glee this season, who won't be, and who may be. It's a long list, to say the least. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Paul Giamatti (John Adams) has been cast in an HBO telepic that will depict the two-week tour that Nikita Khruschchev took of the United States in 1959. Project, from Playtone, is based on Peter Carlson's nonfiction book "K Blows Top," and will be adapted by Paul Bernbaum. "Once in the States, Khrushchev famously blew up when he was informed that a planned trip to Disneyland had to be tabled because of security concerns," writes Variety's Cynthia Littleton. "(The book's title comes from New York Daily News headline about the Disneyland flap.)" (Variety)

BSkyB has signed an exclusive output deal with HBO, said to be in the arena of $234 million over the next five years. Under the terms of the deal, the satcaster retains exclusive rights to all new HBO series, with the first being Boardwalk Empire, current series, past series, and right of first refusal on UK co-productions. (Variety)

Elsewhere across the pond, Channel 4 has secured the UK rights to NBC's upcoming thriller The Event, which will launch in the UK in October. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Linda Hamilton Ups Chuck, Alfred Molina to Law & Order: LA, Felicia Day Gets Eureka, Burn Notice, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's the brief calm between the dual storms of Comic-Con and the TCA Summer Press Tour and there oh so much to do. Let's hit the headlines.

Chuck's executive producers Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak stunned audiences at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend by announcing that Linda Hamilton (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) would be playing Chuck's mama Mary Bartowski, the oft-mentioned missing mother of the Bartowski siblings who was briefly glimpsed in the season finale. Hamilton will recur throughout Season Four of Chuck, though producers are being cagey about saying just what Mary has been up to since she walked out on her family, though they do admit that espionage runs in the family. "Hamilton will appear throughout the season, leading Chuck to discover that her life was shrouded in secrets," said Warner Bros. Television in an official press release about the casting. "She was a spy, a CIA agent ... and that's just the beginning. Who is she today? One thing is certain: She's not the soccer mom who left her children so many years ago." (via press release)

[In other Chuck news, composer Tim Jones will take over scoring FOX action drama series Human Target for its second season, which launches this fall. Jones will replace Bear McCreary, who will himself move over to AMC's The Walking Dead, while--fret not!--Jones will also continue on Chuck as well.)

In a surprising twist, Alfred Molina has joined the cast of NBC's Law & Order: Los Angeles, where he will play a deputy district attorney on the latest incarnation of the long-running procedural, set in the City of Angels this time around. Molina is the second actor to join the production and will star alongside Skeet Ulrich in the Universal Media Studios-produced series, which launches September 22nd. (Hollywood Reporter)

Felicia Day (Dollhouse) has signed on to appear in ten episodes of Eureka, while Caprica's Polly Walker will appear on two episodes of Syfy's Sanctuary, where she will play Ranna, described as "a powerful foe who faces Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) after the team encounters her in the show's mid-season cliffhanger." No details of just who or what Day will be playing on Eureka were immediately available and the network seems to be keeping the lid on such details for now. [Editor: could it be that they're saving something for TCA? Hmm...] (Hollywood Reporter)

USA has ordered a telepic for its action series Burn Notice that will serve as a prequel focusing on Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) in his final assignment as a Navy SEAL. No writer or director have been announced for the project, which will be shot between the fourth and fifth seasons of Burn Notice, nor were any other actors announced for the two-hour film. (Variety)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Melora Hardin (The Office) has signed on to recur on NBC's legal drama Outlaw, where she will play Claire Sax, described as "a powerful senior partner in an elite law firm and love interest to Garza." She replaces Gina Gershon, who played the role in the original pilot. Hardin has also signed on to appear in a multiple-episode story arc on The Office, where she will turn up once again as Jan Levinson for Steve Carell's potentially final season on the comedy series. (Deadline)

Elsewhere, Andreeva is also reporting that British actor Ben Whishaw (Brideshead Revisited) has been cast as the lead of Alan Ball's new HBO drama pilot All Signs of Death, based on Charlie Huston's novel "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death." Whishaw will play Webster Filmore Goodhue, described as "an inveterate twenty-something slacker who stumbles into a career as a crime scene cleaner, only to find himself entangled with a murder mystery, a femme fatale and the loose ends of his own past." (Deadline)

Indira Varma--most recently seen in BBC One's Luther--has joined the cast of FOX's Human Target as a series regular. Varma, best known for her roles on HBO's Rome and BBC's Torchwood, will play Ilsa, a wealthy widow who purchases the protection service company run by Mark Valley's Christopher Chance and becomes their new boss. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online has a full recap of yesterday's Glee panel at San Diego Comic-Con, including news that the series will feature a Rocky Horror Picture Show-inspired episode this season, there will be new love triangles (including an Artie-Tina-Mike Chang one), the Britney Spears episode will air in September, Idina Menzel will return, and more. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Jonathan Sadowski (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will replace Ryan Devlin on CBS' $#*! My Dad Says and will star opposite William Shatner in the Warner Bros. Television-produced comedy series. (Variety)

Sarah Carter (Dirty Sexy Money) has joined the cast of TNT's upcoming alien invasion drama Falling Skies, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Carter will star opposite Noah Wylie and Moon Bloodgood, and will play a member of a motorcycle gang who helps the heroes escape the aliens. (Deadline)

The Futon Critic is reporting that Stargate Universe and Sanctuary will move to Tuesday nights beginning in September. Both series will return with new seasons on September 28th. (Futon Critic)

The New York Times' Sarah Lyall has a great feature on Showtime/BBC's new comedy series Episodes, which stars Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig, and Stephen Mangan. "It takes the whole Joey persona that I have and meets it head-on," LeBlanc told Lyall. "It’s really liberating. When you get pigeonholed as one character, people tend to think, 'That’s all he can do.' [...] The Matt LeBlanc in the show uses the fact that people assume I’m dumb because I played the dumb guy on Friends — he uses that to manipulate situations to his advantage. He manipulates the writers so that the show is more the way he wants it to be. Not that he’s right, but it exposes his insecurities about his ability." (New York Times)

Nickelodeon is transitioning animated series The Fairly OddParents into a live-action telepic to star Drake Bell, Cheryl Hines, and Jason Alexander next year. Pic, entitled A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner, will also feature Steven Weber and Daniella Monet. (Variety)

Producer Francie Calfo will succeed David Nevins as the president of Imagine Television. (Nevins has left to take over as entertainment president of pay cabler Showtime.) Calfo will report to Brian Grazer and will step into the role within the next fortnight. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.