Channel Surfing: WBTV Developing Sandman, JJ Abrams' Alcatraz, Evil Wheaton Back to Big Bang, Free Agents, True Blood, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit and James Hibberd are reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the process of acquiring television rights to Neil Gaiman's DC/Vertigo comic series "Sandman" with the view of adapting it as an ongoing television series. Among the contenders to tackle the project: Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. It's not the first time that Hollywood has courted the mythopoeic comic series: HBO nearly had a version in development at one time with James Mangold attached; Roger Avery attempted to get a feature film version off the ground in the mid-90s. It's still early days for the project as Kripke is said to be cautious about treading on such hallowed ground and attempting to translate the deeply complex and layered narrative for television. [Editor: Personally, I'd rather that Kripke and WBTV didn't: the plot of "Sandman" isn't a strict narrative in the traditional sense of the word but rather an exploration of stories and myth, strung together with some serialized plots and one-offs about Morpheus of the Endless, a race of eternal beings older than the gods themselves. It would be a very difficult project do justice to, given the strength of Gaiman's work on the series and I can't quite wrap my head around how an ongoing series would function. Would it draw from some of the more linear storylines like "A Doll's House," "Season of Mists," "The Kindly Ones," etc.? Or would it be a procedural about a dream lord who can flit through people's subconscious minds? The latter would make me vomit in rage, really.] (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Warner Bros. Television-based producer JJ Abrams and writer/producer Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost) are shopping drama spec script Alcatraz, about the notorious San Francisco island prison that once housed the nation's most infamous criminals, including Al Capone and, yes, the Birdman himself. The duo are taking the script--which was written by Sarnoff--to networks. No other details were immediately available, though it seems clear that the Bad Robot-produced project would be a period drama. Or not, as Abrams has been known to throw a curve ball or two. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Evil Wil Wheaton will be returning to CBS' Big Bang Theory to resume his feud with Jim Parsons' Sheldon. “We started talking about the idea of minor celebrities cutting in line, and we thought it might be funny to have our [Big Bang] guys waiting in line for a one-time-only midnight screening of something like Raiders of the Lost Ark with restored footage, and Wil Wheaton and his three friends cut the line," executive producer Bill Prady told Ausiello. "When it comes time for our guys to get in, the line stops; Wil took the last four seats and Sheldon is just furious. Because it doesn’t make sense to him. Wil’s celebrity is not applicable here. This is not Star Trek. It’s just wrong.” Should the episode come together, it would likely air in November. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Another day, another project for Party Down co-creator John Enbom, who has sold a second project to NBC in the last week. Enbom will adapt UK's Channel 4 comedy Free Agents for the Peacock and will executive produce with Karey Burke and Todd Holland and Universal Media Studios. The original UK series, which hailed from Simon Pegg and Nira Park's UK shingle Big Talk, revolved around an agent enmeshed in a very messy divorce. (Variety)

SPOILER! E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos and Megan Masters have the scoop on which actors will be returning for Season Four of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, though the answer might surprise you. According to the duo, Denis O'Hare, Marshall Allman, Kevin Alejandro, and Lauren Bowles will all be back next season, along with the previously reported Joe Manganiello. Yep, Russell will be back in some capacity next season, though he won't be seen initially in Season Four, which will focus--according to reports--on witches. Tommy Mickens will be back as well, as well as Alejandro's Jesus, while Lauren Bowles--who plays Wiccan Holly--has been promoted to series regular. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

As expected, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's adaptation of Joe Hill's comic book "Locke & Key" has landed at FOX, which has given the project a series commitment, though Steven Spielberg will no longer be involved as an executive producer. Project, which revolves around two brothers who live in a strange New England mansion, hails from 20th Century Fox Television and DreamWorks Television. (Variety)

Elsewhere, FOX has handed out a series order to an untitled sketch comedy show from executive producer Jamie Foxx, which will feature "a diverse cast tackling spoofs of movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, music videos and celebrities." Affion Crockett will star and executive produce the series, which comes from Fox Television Studios, Foxx/King Entertainment and The Tannenbaum Company. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Mekhi Phifer will be leaving FOX's Lie to Me when the Lightman Group breaks its ties with the FBI. "We’re going rogue a little bit,” executive producer David Graziano told Ausiello. “Lightman [Tim Roth] is going to act slightly in the more old-school PI model of a TV protagonist, [so] we’re doing away with the FBI contract [and] Mekhi is unfortunately no longer going to be on the show. The FBI franchise limited our storytelling a little bit because it had to adhere to the FBI structures of ‘Would the FBI take this case or not?’ The character that’s going to be our badge this season is a bent cop, Wolowsky [The Unusuals' Monique Gabriela Curnen], who goes about business in a similar way to Lightman. There’s a mutual respect from the get-go. We’re working hard to make The Lightman Group a dysfunctional family.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Megan Masters has an interview with The Office executive producer Paul Lieberstein, in which he floats another possible replacement for Steve Carell, who is set to leave the NBC comedy at the end of the season: Harvey Keitel. "He's probably the only guy who can do it, and he's doing TV now," said Lieberstein. "I haven't started any talks with his people, but Harvey would do a great job—a very different energy. And we don't want to bring in another Michael, having someone play a very similar character because we have such a high regard for Steve." Lieberstein goes on to say that Keitel could play a former salesman who comes out of retirement in order to oversee the Scranton branch. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

HBO has ordered a third season of dark comedy Hung, with ten episodes likely to air in summer 2011. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

In other renewal news, Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports that TNT said to be close to giving Memphis Beat a second season order. Elsewhere, Lifetime has passed on that Army Wives spin-off that was to star Brigid Brannagh and Gabrielle Union and USA has slashed the episodic budget for legal drama Facing Kate from twelve to ten episodes and pushed the premiere into early 2011, due to scheduling issues. (Deadline)

Syfy has announced the cast for its upcoming four-hour miniseries Nerverland, a prequel to Peter Pan, which will star Rhys Ifans (Pirate Radio), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Bob Hoskins, Raoul Trujillo (Tin Man), and Charlie Rowe (Pirate Radio). Project, from writer/director Nick Willing, will air in 2011. Here's how Syfy describes the project: "Raised on the streets of turn-of-the century London, orphaned Peter (Rowe) and his pals survive by their fearless wits as cunning young pickpockets. Now, they've been rounded up by their mentor Jimmy Hook (Ifans) to snatch a priceless--some believe, magical--treasure which transports them to another world. Neverland is a realm of white jungles and legendary mysteries of eternal youth, where unknown friends and enemies snatched from time welcome the new travelers with both excitement and trepidation. These groups include a band of 18th century pirates led by the power-mad Elizabeth Bonny (Friel), and the Native American Kaw tribe led by a Holy Man (Trujillo), which has protected the secret of the tree spirits from Bonny and her gang for ages--and that has meant war. But as the fight to save this strange and beautiful world becomes vital, Hook, Peter, and the ragamuffin lost boys consider that growing old somewhere in time could be less important than growing up right here in their new home called Neverland." (via press release)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck reports that Cybill Shepherd will be guest starring on ABC's upcoming dramedy series No Ordinary Family, where she will play Barbara Crane, the mother of Julie Benz's Stephanie. (TV Guide Magazine)

Following yesterday's news that Eddie Izzard would be appearing in eight episodes of Showtime's United States of Tara, the pay cabler has announced that Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) will be guest starring in one episode of Tara next season, where she will play "Max Gregson’s (John Corbett) mother, a recluse with a compulsive hoarding problem." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Former Heroes star Jack Coleman has been cast in an upcoming episode of CBS' The Mentalist, where he will play Max Armstrong, described as "wealthy, regal, arrogant, self-important man who becomes the prime suspect in a murder," according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. Coleman's episode is slated to air October 14th. (TV Guide Magazine)

Nickelodeon has announced that Jane Lynch's episode of iCarly will air on Saturday, September 11th at 8 pm ET/PT. Lynch guest stars as the "never-before-seen, eccentric" mother of Sam, Pam Puckett. (via press release)

Alyssa Milano will star in Lifetime original telepic Sundays at Tiffany's, based on the book by James Patterson. Milano will star opposite Eric Winter and will play a "bride-to-be visited by the adult incarnation of her childhood imaginary friend" who "begins to re-examine her life." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

TCA Diary: Showtime's Matt Blank Teases Upcoming Programming

Showtime's Matt Blank kicked off the festivities on Day Two of the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour by offering a look at what's coming up for their slate of original programming over the next six months or so.

"Showtime continues to thrive in every part of our business," said Blank. "We received more 2010 Emmy nominations for our original series than any other premium cable network."

Here are some highlights from the very brief session, during which Blank acknowledged the behind-the-scenes changes going on at the pay cabler, where Robert Greenblatt has stepped down and will be succeeded by David Nevins.

Weeds comes back in August. Guest stars this season will include Richard Dreyfus, Alanis Morrissette, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Linda Hamilton, and Peter Stomare.

The Big C, which launches on August 16th as well, will feature Idris Elba, Cynthia Nixon, and Liam Neeson, whose participation was announced earlier this week.

Dexter's latest season will feature Peter Weller, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Julia Stiles, Shawn Hatosy, Johnny Lee Miller, and more.

Showtime has renewed Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara for third seasons and Secret Diary of a Call Girl for a fourth and final season.

The American adaptation of UK drama Shameless is set for a January 9th launch. A promo package that was screened had very good response from the collective critics. [Editor: having scene the pilot three times now I can say that it's one of the few series that I feverishly anticipating. Amazing, amazing pilot.]

The network offered a look at period dram The Borgias, which stars Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia and hails from Neil Jordan, who serves as creator/writer/director/executive producer. The series premieres Spring 2011. Production begun last week in Budapest. The network is positioning the series, set in 15th century Rome, as "the original crime family."

Channel Surfing: Michael Trucco "Facing Kate," "Desperate Housewives" Gets FlashForward, Showtime Announces Series Returns, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Former Battlestar Galactica star Michael Trucco has been cast in USA drama pilot Facing Kate, where he will play the charismatic ex-husband to Kate, a former lawyer (Sarah Shahi) who leaves her job to become a mediator after the death of her father. Also cast: Virginia Williams (Lie to Me), who will play Kate's younger stepmother, a domineering woman who is desperate to hold onto her late husband's law firm. Bronwen Hughes will direct the pilot, which hails from Universal Cable Prods. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Desperate Housewives will offer a flashforward of sorts in their first episode after the December 6th cliffhanger that will explore several "what if" scenarios. "Two Wisterians featured prominently in the alternate reality sequences will be Gaby and Carlos’ youngest daughter, Celia, and Mike and Susan’s son, MJ," writes Ausiello. "I know this because DH is currently casting thirtysomething versions of both characters." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Showtime has announced return dates for several of its series, including a January 25th bow for Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, which will air back-to-back at 10 pm ET/PT. The night will also see the premiere of Marc Wootton's new comedy series La La Land, in which the British comedian will play three different characters interacting with real-life Los Angeles inhabitants. Looking ahead, Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara return for their respective sophomore seasons on March 22nd and The Tudors returns for its fourth and final season on April 11th. (via press release)

BBC One will launch the third and final season of comedy Gavin & Stacey on November 26th at 9 pm GMT. The network described this season: "As Gavin starts his new job, the move to Barry Island means big changes for the whole family. Pam and Mick have to adjust to an empty nest while Gwen's got a full house again. Stacey is in her element, but will this finally be the solution to the couple's long-distance problem? And how will Gavin take to living in Wales? Smithy questions their friendship along with his own role as father – and with Dave Coaches on the scene and now engaged to Nessa, will Smithy find himself pushed out of the frame? How will life in a caravan work out for Nessa and her soon-to-be husband Dave?" Pam Ferris will join the cast as Smithy's mother. (via press release)

Variety's Cynthia Littleton checks in with the producers of NBC's Parenthood, which has faced some very trying obstacles in its path to the small screen, including the health-related departure of star Maura Tierney and the character's recasting by Lauren Graham. "We’re looking forward to bringing some of her comedy to the show," said executive producer Jason Katims of Graham, "but our show has a very different tone and different voice for her. She’s looking forward to doing something different." (Variety)

NUMB3RS fans shouldn't worry that CBS will end the crime procedural without giving producers an opportunity to wrap up storylines, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "We will be doing a 16th episode that wraps up storylines and answers questions," co-creator Cheryl Heuton told Ausiello. "It will be designed to stand as a finale, but it won’t create story situations that would hamper us if the network should decide to order more episodes... [and] will give fans what they’ve been waiting for... We’re looking to feature all our characters and give good moments to every member of the cast." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TV Land and TV Guide Network have sealed a joint deal under which they will share basic cable rerun rights to HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. TV Guide Network will get the first crack at the series, launching its window in February while TV Land gets their run beginning as early as February 2013. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

A&E Television Networks pinkslipped 100 employees on Friday, roughly 10 percent of their overall workforce, in light of the cabler's recent merger with Lifetime. The majority of the cuts occurred at the female-centric network, with several executives let go, including head of casting Rick Jacobs, unscripted executive Jessica Samet, and several high-level publicists. (Hollywood Reporter)

Disney Channel has ordered a second season of comedy series Jonas, which will launch sometime in mid-2010. The cabler has named showrunner Lester Lewis and director Paul Hoen executive producers. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere at the cabler, Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place) will topline Disney Channel telepic Harriet the Spy, loosely based on Louise Fitzhugh's novel. Plot will be updated with Harriet now a movie producer's daughter whose aim is to become her class blogger. Pic, set to air next year, is written by Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke and directed by Ron Oliver. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: NBC Detects US "Prime Suspect," Kristin Kreuk Flies to "Chuck," Katherine Heigl Takes Break from "Grey's," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

NBC is developing a US version of British crime drama series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren as the dogged and damaged Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. The US version, which will be developed and written by Without a Trace's Hank Steinberg, will be shot as a two-hour presentation and is the first effort of a multi-year deal between NBC and ITV Studios, the production arm of British terrestrial network ITV. "We want to carefully choose a couple of iconic titles this year to reinvent, and our intention is to create another classic television show from this brilliant original format," said NBC Primetime Entertainment president Angela Bromstad. "Hank Steinberg was key in helping us secure this project, and we are incredibly excited about this modern vision for the show." (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former Smallville star Kristin Kreuk has been cast in a recurring role on NBC's Chuck, where she will appear in multiple episodes as Hannah, a new potential love interest for Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) whom he meets on a plane to Paris and who ends up working at the Buy More after she's laid off from her job in publishing. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

SPOILER ALERT! Katherine Heigl is taking a five-episode leave of absence from ABC drama series Grey's Anatomy in order to shoot a new feature film role opposite Josh Duhamel in Life as We Know It. E! Online's Watch with Kristin, meanwhile, was able to learn just how producers would write Izzie Stevens out of the show to explain Heigl's absence. According to information gleaned from unnamed insiders, Jennifer Godwin is reporting that the major plotline this season on Grey's is the merger between Seattle Grace and rival hospital Mercy West. "Yep, Seattle Grace is about to double in size, bringing in a slate of new doctors and paving the way for major shake-ups in the season to come," writes Godwin. "What does this mega medical merger mean for our favorites? Well, Dr. Izzie Stevens is getting fired." The introduction of several new characters--played by Robert Baker, Jesse Williams, and Nora Zehetner, will allow Heigl to take a break from the series and will also act as a smokescreen for Ellen Pompeo's maternity leave. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has ordered thirteen episodes of procedural cop dramedy Jack & Dan from writer/executive producer Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and Fox Television Studios using the the low-cost production model the studio has established with Mental and Persons Unknown. However, this time round the studio has teamed with a US broadcaster first before taking the project internationally. Project, written by Nix and executive produced by Nix and Mikkel Bondesen, is about a procedure-minded cop who is teamed with "a drunken, lecherous, wild-card cop who hangs onto his job only because of a heroic act years before." Burn Notice fans, however, shouldn't be worried about Nix leaving the USA series: Burn will continue to be his priority and production on the series will be staggered in order to accommodate his schedule. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere at FOX, the network is also developing an untitled ensemble medical drama in Kuwait with Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (Freaks and Geeks, 90210) and 20th Century Fox Television, a drama entitled Daylight Robbery about a group of women on a crime spree from writer/executive producer Karen Usher (Prison Break) and 20th Century Fox Television, and an untitled actioner from writer/executive producer Michael Duggan (Millennium) and Sony Pictures Television about a government agent and his older handler. (The Wrap's TV MoJoe)

HBO has given a pilot order to single-camera comedy Enlightened, starring Laura Dern as a "self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work." The pilot, written by Mike White, will shoot in December. (Hollywood Reporter)

Mehcad Brooks (True Blood) has been cast as a series regular on ABC's midseason legal dramedy series The Deep End, where he will play Malcolm Bennet, an associate at the high-powered Los Angeles legal firm which the series revolves around. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a fantastic interview with Diablo Cody and Jill Soloway about Season Two of Showtime comedy The United States of Tara, set to return early next year. Soloway has assumed the mantle of showrunner following the departure of Alexa Junge as head writer. "The show was getting a little bit too dark in terms of delving into her past and what happened” to Tara to cause her dissociative identity disorder, said Showtime president Robert Greenblatt. "While we ultimately want to unpeel the onion and reveal what she went through, we had to rethink how we were doing that. It’s a comedy at the end of the day. It’s not a one-hour, serious drama about this affliction." So what can fans expect? For one, Cody said that they intend to "open up the series and take it out of the house a little bit and show all these different facets of Tara’s life and her alters’ lives." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

CBS has ordered a script for an untitled multi-camera comedy project co-created by and starring Bret Harrison (Reaper) about two district attorneys, one of whom is in his twenties (to be played by Harrison) and the other in his forties, and the woman who comes between them. Project, which will be written by Robert Borden, will be produced by Universal Media Studios, Stuber Prods., and executive producer Scott Stuber. (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV has ordered eight episodes of Teen Mom, a spinoff of the cabler's 16 and Pregnant that will catch up with four of the teenagers featured on 16 and Pregnant and see how they are coping with their first year of motherhood. No premiere date has been set. (Variety)

Rick Fox (Dirt) has been cast in a recurring role on the CW's Melrose Place, where he will play the owner of the restaurant where many of the aspiring actor characters work. (Hollywood Reporter)

Hallmark has promoted Susanne Smith to SVP of marketing for both the Hallmark Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Zooey Deschanel Could Guest Star on "Bones," FOX Slates First "Glee" Soundtrack, NBC to Get "More Colorful," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

It seems like the stars are finally aligning. Producers on FOX's Bones are in talks with Zooey Deschanel to guest star on the procedural crime drama in December as the cousin of real-life sister Emily Deschanel's Brennan, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "We’ve been looking for an opportunity to get the Deschanel girls together," said Bones creator/executive producer Hart Hanson, "but Zooey’s rockin’ career kept getting in the way... We alluded to [her] having a cousin in Minnesota two seasons ago. I’d very much like to meet her in the Christmas episode." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

As previously reported on this site, 20th Century Fox Television is teaming up with Columbia Records on a series of soundtracks for FOX's upcoming series Glee. The first release, "Glee: The Music, Volume 1," will contain seventeen tracks from the series' first season (including Queen's "Somebody to Love," Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and Kanye West's "Gold Digger") and will debut on November 3rd. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has unveiled its new marketing slogan, "more colorful," which is reportedly intended to "reference both NBC's Peacock heritage and the net's famous '60s-era bumpers, which promised 'the following program is brought to you in living color on NBC,'" according to Variety's Michael Schneider. The new tagline will launch on September 14th, the same day that the Peacock will premiere Jay Leno's new 10 pm weeknightly series. (Variety)

So Twitter. FOX will use Twitter later this week during repeat broadcasts of both Glee and Fringe, during which cast members and producers will use the social networking platform to tweet live updates during the telecasts that will be displayed on-air in a scroll at the bottom of the screen. Fringe's Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Jeff Pinkner, and J.H. Wyman will participate, while Glee's Lea Michele, Kevin McHale, Mark Salling, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, and Chris Colfer are all set to join them when FOX repeats the pilot of Glee on Friday evening. (Variety)

Casting alert! Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) has been cast in NBC's medical drama Mercy, where she will play Jeannie Flanagan, the mother of Taylor Schilling's Veronica. Elsewhere, Jesse Williams (Greek) will appear in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, though producers are keeping details about his character firmly under wraps. Matthew Levy will star opposite Tyler Labine in FOX's midseason comedy Sons of Tucson as the eldest of the three brothers, Joshua Leonard (Humpday) will recur on Season Two of Showtime's United States of Tara as "boho-trustifarian" Ricky, and Mido Hamada (Path to 9/11) will recur on FOX's 24 as "Mehran, the leader of a group of operatives in an Islamic country working against their president." (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Garret Dillahunt (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will guest star in USA's Burn Notice, where he will play Simon, described by Ausiello as "a scary-smart new client of Michael’s (Jeffrey Donovan) — and perhaps the first person to outsmart him." Dillahunt's episode, which also features John Mahoney, is slated to air this winter. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Brenda Blethyn (Atonement) will star in Hidden Depths, a new murder mystery series on UK's ITV based on the novel by Ann Cleeves. Blethyn will play Vera Stanhope, a detective inspector in Northumberland who is on the trail of a murderer who left the bodies of two young people in the water. Project will be adapted by Paul Rutman and executive produced by kate Bartlett. (Guardian)

It's the end of the rainbow. PBS has announced that long-running children's series Reading Rainbow aired its final episode on Friday, after a run that began in 1983. (Hollywood Reporter)

Supernatural creator Eric Kripke told Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello that he is sticking to his five-year plan for the drama series and intends to wrap up the storyline at the end of next season. But there's a rather big catch. "I did set out [to] tell a five-season storyline," said Kripke. "Quite frankly, I never expected [the show] to make it to five years. But now that we’re in our fifth year, I have every intention of ending the story with a bang and not drawing it out or watering it down.... That having been said, I’m looking at this season as the last chapter in this particular story. That doesn’t mean there can’t be a new story. Buffy did it. The X-Files did it. You close a chapter on a big mythology storyline and then you begin a new one." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has given a script order to an untitled multi-camera comedy project from writer/executive producers Matt Williams (Roseanne), Carmen Finestra, and David McFadzean and ABC Studios about a sports psychologist who runs his practice out of his house and tries to juggle his career with his role as a father of three and a husband. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC Three has announced three new commissions including drama Lip Service, about the "sex lives and love affairs of twenty-something lesbians living in contemporary Glasgow" from Harriet Braun (Mistresses), comedy Mouth to Mouth, about the "complicated and sometimes funny issues of personal identity, following the year-in-the-life story of six young people," and news-based entertainment series Russell Howard's Good News, in which Howard draws conclusions from the top news stories as well as smaller stories which may not have gotten any ink (digital or otherwise). (BBC)

TLC has ordered twelve episodes of docusoap King of the Crown, which will follow Cy Frakes, professional beauty queen coach as he trains his clients "how to perfect their walk, style hair, and smile on cue." The cabler will debut the series, from Five Five Prods. and Discovery Studios, on Wednesday, September 30th. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Monaghan Gets "Lost" for Three Episodes, Joey Lauren Adams Falls for "Tara," "Ugly" Betty's New Look Focus-Grouped, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

E! Online's Watch with Kristin is reporting that Dominic Monaghan will reprise his role as rocker Charlie Pace on ABC's Lost next season for three episodes. "Sources tell us exclusively that, yes, Dom's deal to reappear on Lost is done and that the original castmember is set to appear in three episodes in Season Six," writes Jennifer Godwin. "No word yet on the answer to the big question: Is Charlie alive? We'll have to wait until Lost returns to ABC in January 2010 to find out." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Joey Lauren Adams (Party Down) has joined the cast of Showtime's United States of Tara for the series' second season. Adams will play Pammy, a barmaid who "has a history of picking the wrong guys," writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Her luck changes the day she meets 'Buck' and falls head over heels in love." She'll appear in at least three episodes next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABC executives are testing scenes of Ugly Betty featuring America Ferrara's Betty rocking her new glam makeover. "Based on ABC’s questions to the panel, the suits appear most concerned about whether fans of the show will deem Betty’s transformation appropriate, given her four-year journey from flunky to editor, or whether the changes are too drastic and compromise the essence of the Everygal," writes Ausiello. "They’re also asking for opinions about Betty’s new hair, styled eyebrows, and makeup." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TLC still has thirty episodes remaining on its deal for unscripted family series Jon and Kate Plus 8 and said that the family--whose behind-the-scenes drama has become headline news--isn't hesitating about continuing on. "It's the family's decision to be involved in the show," said TLC president Eileen O'Neill said. "We want to stay with them as long as they want to stay with us." The series, however, will change, with the emphasis placed more squarely on the children that their parents' dating lives. (Variety)

Amy Poehler is set to return to her Weekend Update anchor roots during September, when she will rejoin Seth Meyers on the Weekend Update desk for Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday on September 17th and September 24th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Shingle Ish Entertainment has several projects in development, including Bayside Boys, from writer/director/star Ed Burns, about a group of twenty-something male friends from Bayside, Queens. Project is being shopped to cable nets. Elsewhere, the company has Comedy Central male comedy Gnarly, about two thirty-somethings who travel back in time to their high-school selves to determine what made them so unattractive to the opposite sex. Other projects include MTV pilot Bridge and Tunnel, about students on Staten Island; dramedy One if by Land from Hitch writer Kevin Bisch, about a cafe in New York where couples get married, which has been bought as a script at CBS; and a slew of others. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC One Daytime has commissioned a second season of drama Moving On, ordering ten stand-alone episodes that will be filmed on location in and nearby Liverpool. Series, from a group of writers who were mentored by Jimmy McGovern, is a loose narrative about people each coming to grips with how best to move on in life. The original season featured such actors as Shelia Hancock, Richard Armitage, Lesley Sharp, Mark Womack, Dervla Kerwin, and Ian Hart. (BBC)

FOX has added two encore airings of its new unscripted dating series More to Love, with repeats slated to air tonight at 8 pm ET/PT and Monday, August 3rd at 9 pm. (Futon Critic)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Matthew Fox Talks "Lost" Final Season, "Reaper" Creators Check into "Dollhouse," Buckley Replaces Green on "One Tree Hill," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

E! Online caught up with Lost star Matthew Fox in Monte Carlo, where he was on hand to attend the Monte Carlo Television Festival, and got the actor to tease some details about Lost's sixth and final season. Fox, who said that Lost will end with "an incredibly powerful, very sad and beautiful way," went on to say " "I think it is going to be very satisfying and cathartic and redemptive and beautiful. I've talked to Damon pretty extensively and every time I talk to him it's sort of surprising how moving it is just to talk about it." As for the beginning of Season Six, look for the action to begin with the reveal of just what happened after Juliet seemed to detonate the hydrogen bomb, with Fox teasing, "It's very surprising and probably fairly confusing initially to the audience... Like a third of the way in [to the season] I would guess we are going to [settle] in one time frame and it will be very linear—no more flashbacks, nothing. It will be on the island and sort of a final conflict to the end." Very interesting... (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Reaper creators Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters have joined the writing staff of FOX drama Dollhouse, which returns for its second season this fall. The news was announced by Dollhouse writer Maurissa Tancharoen on her Twitter feed. Fazekas and Butters, described by Tancharoen as "awesome," recently signed an overall deal with studio 20th Century Fox Television. (Twitter)

Robert Buckley (Lipstick Jungle) has signed on to CW's One Tree Hill as a series regular next season, where he will replace Brian Austin Green, who has dropped out of the series after a deal couldn't be reached. He'll play Clayton, described as "a brash young sports agent who represents Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) and has become a close friend, ally, business partner and advisor to him while also enjoying the spoils that come from being a wealthy, handsome single guy." (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has ordered five episodes of comedic dance competition series Let's Dance, which will feature celebrities learning to react famous dance routines, such as Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's dance in Dirty Dancing, etc. Episodes will air live, with viewers asked to vote on their favorite performers, who will return for a final round. Series, based on a UK format that aired on BBC One earlier this year, will be produced by FremantleMedia North America and Whizz Kid. (Variety)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin catch up with True Blood stars Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer in a series of video interviews in which the duo spill a few details about Season Two of the HBO vampire drama. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Jonathan Sadowski (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Keir O'Donnell (Sons of Anarchy), Rebecca Wisocky (Bones), and Kaylee DeFer (The War at Home) have been cast in Comedy Central's live-action comedy pilot Ghosts/Aliens, written by Phil Johnson and based on Trey Hamburger's novel. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is slated to air on Sci Fi (or Syfy as it will be known by then) in November and BSG spin-off series Caprica will launch in January 2010, according to Sci Fi president Dave Howe. Also potentially on tap: a BSG feature film, possible three or five years down the line. (The Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Universal Media Studios has signed two-year overall deals with Heroes writers Aron Coleite and Joe Pakaski. Under the separate deals, the duo will continue to write for Heroes, entering its fourth season this fall, and develop series projects for the studio as well. (Variety)

Viola Davis (Doubt) will guest star on the second season of Showtime's comedy series The United States of Tara. Davis, who is slated to appear in seven episodes of the Diablo Cody-created series, will play Lynda B. Dozier, described as "an uncoventional artist who plays a significant role in Tara (Toni Collette) and her daughter Kate's (Brie Larson) lives." (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the season premiere of House has been expanded to two hours and will be directed by executive producer Katie Jacobs. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

MTV will begin shooting Season Twenty-Three of its venerable reality franchise The Real World this summer in Washington D.C. The cabler, which will premiere the current Cancun-set season on June 24th, will launch the Washington season in 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Warner Bros. Television has hired former NBC executive Erin Gough Wehrenberg as SVP of comedy development. She will report to Len Goldstein and will work closely with Lisa Lang and Wendy Steinhoff-Baldikoski. (Variety)

Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) will star in Lifetime Movie Network telepic Cinderella Pact, about a magazine editor with an alter ego as a reclusive columnist whose latest column about weight loss inspires her overweight co-workers to band together to shed pounds by following her advice. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Elizabeth Mitchell, Alan Tudyk, and Laura Vandervoort Spell "V," Mary McDonnell Heads to "The Closer," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) has been cast in ABC drama pilot V, a retelling of the cult 1980s sci-fi series. But before we start to mourn the passing of Juliet, it's worth noting that Mitchell will guest star in the sci fi pilot, from Warner Bros. Television, and not star in it, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files) Meanwhile, Visitorsite.net has confirmed that Mitchell will play Erica Evans, a single mother and an FBI Counter-Terrorism agent. (Visitorsite)

Editor's note: Having read the script, I can say with all authority that Erica is far from being a "guest star" in the pilot; in fact she's one of the lead roles and as intrinsic to the plot of the pilot episode as Jacqueline McKenzie's Diana Skouris was to The 4400. In fact, she's the very first character we meet in the draft of the script I read... What this truly means for Elizabeth Mitchell's Juliet remains to be seen, but given that Lost is heading into its final season next season and Juliet doesn't appear in every single scene, it's likely a good thing that Mitchell is exploring her long-term options. (Translation: let's not get hysterical yet.)

Also cast in the sci-fi drama pilot: Alan Tudyk (Firefly), who will play FBI Agent Dale Maddox, and Smallville star Laura Vandervoort, who will play Visitor Lisa, a flirty tour guide aboard the Los Angeles Visitor mothership. They join the previously cast Joel Gretsch, Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, Scott Wolf, and David Richmond-Peck. (Visitorsite)

Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on TNT's The Closer, where she will play Christina Hatcher, a police captain who runs the department's Force Investigation unit, and causes problems for Kyra Sedgwick's Brenda. Her first episode is expected to air early in the fifth season of The Closer. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting alert: Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) has been cast in ABC comedy pilot The Bridget Show opposite Lauren Graham; Julia Ormond (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) has been tapped as a lead on CBS medical drama pilot Three Rivers, where she will play the head of surgery at Three Rivers Hospital; Matthew Davis (Damages) has scored the male lead in ABC drama pilot Limelight, where he will play the interim artistic director of the performing arts academy; Gabrielle Union (Night Stalker), Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jay Hernandez (Six Degrees), and Jenny Wade (Reaper) will star in the CW's drama pilot Body Politic; Majandra Delfino (Roswell) has been cast as one of the three leads in ABC comedy pilot Pulling (based on the UK series); Grant Show (Swingtown) and Lennon Parham (Confessions of a Shopaholic) have been cast in CBS comedy pilot Accidentally on Purpose; Yvette Nicole Brown (Drake and Josh) and Gillian Jacobs (The Book of Daniel) have been added to the cast of NBC comedy pilot Community; and Nat Faxon (Happy Hour) and Kelen Coleman (CSI: New York) have been cast in CBS comedy pilot Big D. (Hollywood Reporter)

Holt McCallany (Heroes) been cast as the lead in FX drama pilot Lights Out, about a former heavyweight boxing champ who is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia, a neurological disorder that affects boxers who receive multiple blows to the head," and has to find another way to support his wife and three daughters. Clark Johnson (The Wire) will direct the pilot, which was written by Justin Zackham and Phillip Noyce (The Bucket List). Production is expected to begin next month in New Jersey. (Hollywood Reporter)

Is NBC bracing for problems with new comedy series Parks and Recreation, from executive producers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur? Nikki Finke has obtained a copy of a "Consumer And Market Intelligence Research Summary" (read: focus group report) from the rough cut of the pilot episode. Finke has some exerpts from the 12-page report that point to some potential problems within the episode. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Speaking of Daniels and Schur, Upright Citizen's Brigade member Ellie Kemper has been cast on NBC's The Office, where she will play the new Dunder Mifflin receptionist. What this means for Jenna Fischer's Pam remains to be seen. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

SCI FI Wire has an interview with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, who says that he is "very satisfied" with the series finale, which aired Friday evening. As for the controversial fate of Kara Thrace, Moore said: "You can certainly say that she's an angel or a demon or some other form of life. We know from the show that she died a mortal death, she was brought back to life in some way, and then she fulfilled a certain destiny and guided them all to Earth. What does that mean? And who is she really? It was a conscious creative decision to say, "This is as much as we're going to tell you, and she's connected to some greater truth." The more we try to answer what that greater truth is, the less interesting it becomes, and we just decided to leave it more of a mystery. I am sure that there will be a cadre of people who are angry that they never got a more definitive answer, but we just decided not to do that." (SCI FI Wire)

Roseanne Barr is said to be developing a family comedy pilot for FOX in which she would play the family's matriarch. Project, written by Jim Vallely (Arrested Development), will be executive produced by Barr, Caryn Mandabach, and Maggie Rowe. (Hollywood Reporter)

DirecTV's 101 Network will air three canceled Warner Bros. Television series from the mid-2000s. A deal between the satellite platform and Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution will see Smith, The Nine, and Eyes air on the 101 Network, including episodes that were never aired on broadcast television. Smith will launch on Wednesday, April 8th at 10 pm; The Nine will premiere May 27th, and Eyes will debut in July. All three series will air in high definition without commercial interruption. (Variety)

Executive producer/showrunner Alexa Junge has left Showtime's comedy series United States of Tara, which was recently picked up for a second season. No reason was given for Junge's decision not to continue with the Diablo Cody-created series and a search is currently underway to find her replacement. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sci Fi UK has acquired UK rights to 20th Century Fox Television's Dollhouse, from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, and NBC Universal's Knight Rider. "We're dedicated to offering our audience the most exciting content available and are thrilled to become the UK home for two such highly anticipated series," said Jon Farrar, programming director for NBC Universal Global Networks, in a statement. "Knight Rider and Dollhouse both hail from fine pedigrees, clearly reflected in their superior production values. "The special effects in both series are genuinely show-stopping and likely to be the subject of many water-cooler moments for fans, who have the added choice of watching in either standard or high definition." (The Guardian)

Back in the States, Sci Fi has ordered three four-hour mini-series from RHI, including two that will serve as backdoor "pilots" for potential series. The cabler has ordered a modern re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, from writer/director Tim Willing (Tin Man) that is expected ti air this winter; a new take on classic comic-book hero The Phantom; and Riverworld, based on a series of Philip Jose Farmer fantasy novels that follow a photojournalist who is transported to a strange world inhabited by everyone who has ever lived on Earth. The latter two are expected to air in 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has signed an "all-encompassing" deal with Comedy Central that will include six episodes of a new series to star Dunham (and his puppets) that will begin shooting this summer and will air next year. (Variety)

FOX has ordered another season of Gordon Ramsay's reality series Kitchen Nightmares, which will air next season. The network is also expected to shortly announce that the new cycle of Hell's Kitchen will air this summer. (Hollywood Reporter)

Nikki Finke is reporting that ABC/ABC Media Studios will begin pinkslipping employees next week in the wake of the merger between the network and studio sides of their business. Finke claims that Steve McPherson won't be around when the axe falls as he's due to meet with the NYC-based sales team and many believe that he's "getting out of town when the ax comes down in order to avoid witnessing the bloodbath he created," writes Finke. "Which would be contemptible enough even if he hadn't publicly scolded Ben Silverman to 'be a man' when their mutual friend Kevin Reilly was fired at NBC Entertainment with no advance warning." Ouch. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Travel Channel has ordered twelve episodes of reality series Worldwide Tribe, which follows tattooing practices around the world, from Nepal and Japan to Israel and Spain. Series, from Alchemy Reality and executive producers Mike Beale, Adena Chawke, Craig Borders, Elizabeth Browde, will be hosted by tattoo artists Chris Nunez and Ami James (who will also executive produce) and "apprentice" Yoji Harada. (Variety)

Courtney Thorne-Smith (According to Jim), Lucy Hale (Privileged), and Faith Ford (Carpoolers) will star in Lifetime telepic Sorority Wars, about a freshman who finds herself immersed in a "full-blown sorority war" when she snubs the sorority founded by her mother. Project is written by Michelle Lovretta (To Be Fat Like Me) and will be directed by James Hayman (Ugly Betty). (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Valley Hits Bullseye for "Human Target," Possible "Grey" Hour for Heigl and Knight, "Betty" Likely to Return at ABC, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Mark Valley (Fringe) has been cast as the lead in FOX drama pilot Human Target, from Warner Bros. Television, Wonderland, and DC Comics, about a "mysterious security freelancer who assumes the identities of those in danger, becoming the 'human target' for his clients." Pilot will be directed by Simon West. (Hollywood Reporter)

Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight will depart the cast of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, according to co-star James Pickens who told US Magazine that the duo would leave the series. "Yes, she is," said Pickens when asked if Heigl was leaving. "Wherever Katherine goes, I wish her nothing but the best." As for Knight, Pickens said, "He's going too. He just wanted to pursue other career paths." ABC, ABC Studios, and reps for Heigl and Knight had no comment. (US Magazine)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello had some further news on this development. "Right now, the whole thing is in the hands of their agents and ABC's lawyers," an unnamed source told Ausiello. "Something will probably be worked out soon, but it's a safe bet that Katherine and T.R. won't be returning as series regulars next season." However, creator Shonda Rhimes is said to inclined to have the duo fleetingly reprise their roles next season. "There's talk of one or both of them doing an arc in the fall," said a source within the production. "That's one of several things being discussed." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

NBC quietly rounded out the rest of its cast for upcoming Amy Poehler comedy series Parks and Recreation, which stars Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt and Aziz Ansari. Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl) will play Mark, a co-worker of Leslie Knope (Poehler) who had a fling with her years earlier and can't shake her. Nick Offerman (American Body Show) will play Ron, the Parks and Recreation supervisor. (Zap2it)

Showtime has ordered a second season of dark comedy The United States of Tara, with twelve new episodes on tap for Season Two, which is expected to premiere in early 2010. Production on the sophomore season is slated to begin this summer. (via press release)

FX ordered two pilots yesterday, including an untitled drama from writer/executive producer Graham Yost (Boomtown) that is based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole," about a Kentucky-based US Marshall who tangles with cases, his ex-wife, and his aging father. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Timberman/Beverly Prods, will be executive produced by Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly and will be directed by Michael Dinner. Also on tap: drama Lights Out, from writer Justin Zackham (The Bucket List) and executive producer Phillip Noyce and Fox Television Studios, about "an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after his fighting days, leading him to accept reluctantly a job as an enforcer collecting debts. He is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia, a neurological disorder that affects boxers who receive multiple blows to the head, which gradually will lead to him losing all of his memories." (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC is said to be close to renewing struggling dramedy Ugly Betty for a fourth season. Also likely to get early pickups: Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, America's Funniest Home Videos, and The Bachelor, though ABC had no comment about renewals. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has ordered a pilot for single-camera comedy No Heroics, based on the ITV series about a group of superheroes with less-than-impressive powers who hang out together at a local pub. Project, from ABC Studios and Tiger Aspect, will be written and executive produced by Will & Grace's Jeff Greenstein and original series creator Drew Pearce. (Hollywood Reporter)

Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) has been cast in FOX's US adaptation of Absolutely Fabulous, which has been ordered to pilot. She'll play Eddie oppposite Kristen Johnston, who will play Eddie's BFF Patsy Stone. "From working with Kate Winslet to Will Ferrell, it's her broad range of talent that inspired us to give her a development deal," said FOX EVP of casting, Marcia Shulman of Hahn. "AbFab was bought with her specifically in mind." Hahn's casting as Eddie seems to invalidate previous reports that pegged Johnston as the PR exec. (Variety)

Aleksa Palladino, Paul Sparks, Shea Whigham, and Anthony Laciura have been cast in Martin Scorsese's HBO drama pilot Boardwalk Empire. Elsewhere at HBO, Rob Brown has been cast in David Simon's drama pilot pilot Treme, where he will play Delmond, a New York jazz musician who returns to his native New Orleans; he's also the son of Clarke Peters' Albert. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lionsgate drama pilot, Tough Trade, will be the first developed project at nascent pay cabler Epix, the new joint venture between Viacom, Lionsgate, and MGM. Project, written by Chris Offutt (Weeds) and executive produced by Jenji Kohan (Weeds) and Sean and Bryan Furst, revolves around a dysfunctional Nashville music family. The pilot is slated to shoot in Nashville late this summer for a possible series launch in 2010. (Variety)

NBC has ordered comedy Community, from writer/executive producer Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Program), Krasnoff Foster Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Television, which has been described as Stripes set at a local community college. (Hollywood Reporter)

Wilmer Valderrama is developing Nickelodeon family comedy Earth to Pablo, about a family that winds welcoming a teenage space alien into their home instead of a South American exchange student they were expected. Project, produced by World of Wonder and WV Enterprises, will be written by Phil Stark. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned,

Multiple Personality Reunion Tour: An Advance Review of Showtime's "United States of Tara"

Showtime's new dark comedy United States of Tara has a lot going for it.

After all, it's created and written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg (and based on an idea of his) and it stars Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine) as a suburban mother afflicted with dissociative identity disorder. (Read: multiple personalities.) It should be a shoo-in to inherit the crown passed down by Showtime's other dark comedy series Weeds.

And yet something doesn't totally feel right. While United States of Tara is about one woman's journey to discover the disparate pieces of herself (quite literally), it is at its center a look at the pressures facing a suburban family grappling with their matriarch's disease. So why then is the series so lacking in, well, heart?

I had previously seen the pilot episode of United States of Tara before the producers recast the crucial role of Tara's daughter Kate (originally played by Portia Doubleday) and had liked the pilot script when I read it last year, so I was curious to see what changes had been made when I screened the four episodes supplied for review by Showtime.

In watching those episodes, I was struck by the fact that Tara isn't bad... but it just feels, like Tara herself, off. Juno worked precisely because it blended pitch black humor and biting dialogue with a real emotional heart; despite her fierce attitude and emotional walls, Juno was a sympathetic and engaging character.

Here, that's not the case and it's not helped by the fact that, in the first episode, we barely get a glimpse of Tara's baseline personality before she starts transitioning into OTT alters T. (the rambunctious and sexual teenager) and Buck (the misogynistic--and male--Vietnam war vet). Thus, we're left with deeper impressions of her alter egos than with the woman herself, a situation not aided by the fact that T. and Buck largely seem one-dimensional than realistically and thoughtfully rendered.

Apart from a handful of scenes in which Tara talks to her unambiguously gay son Marshall (The Winner's Keir Gilchrist), argues with her hellion daughter Kate (Raising Dad's Brie Larson, who replaced Doubleday), and climbs into bed with her put-out husband Max (Sex and the City's John Corbett), the rest of the time we're treated to seeing Tara only vis-a-vis her two alters in the first episode. (Alice, the vampy 1950s homemaker, turns up in Episode Two.) And Tara's uppity sister Charmaine (Mad Men's Rosemary DeWitt) doesn't even seem to buy into her sister's situation.

Additionally, the series' "rules" of logic are frustratingly unclear. There's discussions of video tape confessions and trips to the shed but, unlike the original pilot script, these seem odd and disjointed. Tara leaves videotape messages but it's not clear to whom they are being left and no one seems to watch them; likewise, the other alters are never seen engaging in the same behavior, so the purpose of those videotape confessions is unclear and oddly ambiguous. Marshall cranks up Thelonious Monk when T. is sent to the shed to transition back to Tara so the neighbors won't hear her screams (we're not told why the transition would be painful/loud), but then the entire family willingly invites Tara's alter Buck to Kate's ballet recital. Not exactly keeping a low profile among the neighbors, that.

Later episodes seek to expand the world of United States of Tara by introducing some supporting characters who, like our series leads, are also lacking real definition. Tara visits her sympathetic shrink Dr. Ocean (Valerie Mahaffey) to talk about her feelings. Charmaine's boss Tiffany hires Tara to paint a mural in her condo and the two become fast friends when they bond over Tara's alters... at least for two whole episodes, anyway. Kate gets a job at a family restaurant, Barnacle's, where she deals with creepy manager Gene (Nate Corddry) as she strives for financial independence from the mother she alternately loves/loathes. Marshall gets a crush on a cute AV guy (Andrew Lawrence) and finds himself involved in a local church's Hell House production, while at home he claims to enjoy the fact that his mother's condition makes them "interesting" while at the same time wetting the bed from stress. Max's best friend and landscaping business parter Neil (Patton Oswalt) tries to get him to blow off steam by getting drunk.

While these efforts go a long way to examining the cost of Tara's condition (and her decision to go off her medication) on those around her but she remains largely a cipher, even after Episode Four, in which we learn--possibly, anyway--a cause for her condition and its amnesia-like effects, as well as the evolution of her rules with her husband about sex with the alters (after she, uh, catches him during his "gentleman's time").

Still, the interplay between the characters and the examination of a marriage under extreme pressure is not enough to sustain my interest once the novelty of seeing the incandescent Collette play multiple characters wears off. While the series poses an interesting conceptual challenge to its actors (especially Collette), I don't feel that there's enough of an emotional hook to keep viewers returning for more unless the characters are better developed. Cody would have been better served developing Tara's baseline personality during the first episode and then slowly rolling out alters rather than have them all pop up nearly at once and crowd out our lead character.

Perhaps like Tara herself, we can't help but feel left in the dark when the alters show up for their "multiple personality reunion tour." Sadly, I don't think I want to be around to watch her pick up the detritus after their visits.

United States of Tara launches January 18th at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime.

Channel Surfing: "Fringe" Gets Full Season, "Daisies" Fails to Bloom, Showtime Announces "Tara" Launch, "Survivor" Flap at CBS, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

But is it The Pattern? The big news is, of course, the full season pick up for FOX's freshman drama Fringe, bringing this season's total to 22 episodes. "We're having a blast working on this show with this great team of producers and amazing cast," said FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "The series has really taken off creatively, and it's exciting to see that the audience is responding. We believe this is the first full season of many years to come." The pickup for Fringe marks the second full season order so far this year; last month, the CW ordered a full season of 90210. To date, Fringe has ranked as the number one new series among adults 18-49 this season. (Variety)

Pushing Daisies' second season launch plummeted in the ratings, sadly. "Despite strong reviews, the return of Daisies (6.3 million viewers, 2.0/6) had the steepest drop of any show this fall, declining a roller coaster-style 55% to a series-low fourth place at 8 p.m." Ouch. Let's hope that ABC doesn't get trigger-happy and cancel Daisies just as it's returning to the airwaves. Fans looking to send pie to ABC execs better start baking now, well in advance of Daisies' initial 13-episode order conclusion. Sigh. (Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed)

Showtime will launch its newest scripted comedy, The United States of Tara, starring Toni Collete, John Corbett, and Rosemary DeWitt, on January 18th at 10 pm. Series will bow between the final season of The L Word and the second season of Brit import Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Tara follows a woman suffers from multiple personality disorder and looks at how her family deals with her divergent identities. Project comes from writer/executive producer Diablo Cody and executive producer Steven Spielberg, who came up with the series' original premise. (Hollywood Reporter)

Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) and Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) have closed deals to appear in ABC's series adaptation of online series In the Motherhood (which starred Chelsea Handler, Leah Remini, and Jenny McCarthy in its original iteration). Handler may reprise her role in the ABC version but no deal is in place. Net is looking at potential 2009 launch. (TV Guide)

UK fans of Warner Bros. Television's The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker, can rest a little easier: the series will be coming to Blighty in 2009. Five and Five US have acquired rights to the procedural drama, which the nets will launch next year. (Variety)

Rosie O'Donnell will get her very own variety show this Thanksgiving entitled Rosie's Variety Show, which will be presented live on NBC from New York the evening before Thanksgiving. It's believed that the special--which will feature celebrity guests, musical acts, contests, and comedy sketches--could be a sign of a similar O'Donnell-fronted series for 2009. (Variety)

Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint with the FCC over CBS' season premiere of Survivor, which featured unintentional full frontal male nudity and was the first installment of the long-running reality franchise to be broadcast in HD. (Washington Post)

Stay tuned.