Channel Surfing: ABC Gets "V," "Torchwood" Details, Renewals for "Burn Notice" and "Psych," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Details are slowly emerging about the next season of British import Torchwood. Producers have cast four actors for the series' condensed third season, entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth. Lucy Cohu (Meadowlands) will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past," according to producer Peter Bennett. Susan Brown (The Riff Raff Element) will play Bridget Spears, "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story." Cush Jumbo will play Lois Habiba, a secretary who "hacks into some vital information," and Rik Makarem will play Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen's hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood's investigations." I can't wait! (Digital Spy)

ABC is developing an adaptation of classic 1980s mini-series V, about reptilian aliens who enslave Earth, with The 4400 co-creator/executive producer Scott Peters. The new version of V will focus on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with a troubled son who attaches himself onto the aliens upon their arrival, which causes some problems at home. Warner Bros. is being the adaptation, which was sold as a spec script to ABC. Original V creator Kenneth Johnson recently tried to revive the franchise with V: The Second Generation but he will not be involved in the latest incarnation. (Variety)

USA has renewed dramas Burn Notice and Psych, with each earning 16 episode orders for 2009. The orders bring Burn Notice to its third season and Psych to its fourth. The second halves of their current seasons are slated to air in January with the following seasons set to bow next summer. No decision has yet been made about the fate of Monk. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pushing Daisies was only slightly down this week (5.6 million viewers; 2.0/6 in adults 18-49) versus its premiere last week (6.3 million viewers; 2.0/6) but Private Practice dropped 21 percent in the key demo week-to-week and Dirty Sexy Money dropped 17 percent as well. At least Daisies fans seem to be sticking around. Now if only we could get those numbers to just... go up. (Variety)

Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters), Michael Weaver (Notes from the Underbelly), Brian Van Holt (Threshold), Reid Scott (My Boys), Kevin Sorbo (Andromeda), and James Tupper (Men in Trees) are among the upcoming guest stars on CBS' The Ex List, according to series star Elizabeth Reaser. (TV Guide)

The CW has ordered a pilot for Operation Fabulous, a Top Model spinoff to star Jay Manuel and J. Alexander that will be executive produced by Tyra Banks and Ken Mok. Project will follow the Jays as they travel the country giving women makeovers, selecting five women in each town and giving them head-to-toe fashion overhauls in order to boost their confidence. (Hollywood Reporter)

Mark Burnett Prods. has teamed up with Ralph Edwards Prods. to produce a new version of This Is Your Life, in which guests are surprised with a retelling of their life stories including appearances by important people in their past. Series began as a radio show in 1948. (Variety)

ABC has renewed reality competition series I Survived a Japanese Game Show, with 10 episodes to likely air next summer. (Variety)

Rock of Love 2 runner-up Daisy De La Hoya is getting her own series on VH1. The cabler has already set up a website to cast potential suitors for the Rock of Love castoff whose series is set to debut in spring 2009. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

FOX's "Vanished" Vanishes... For Real, This Time

Just in time for the end of November sweeps, FOX has cancelled struggling drama Vanished, just a day after announcing that Vanished would take a breather for the rest of sweeps. (Make up your mind, guys.)

The Gale Harold-led--oops, scratch that--the Eddie Cibrian-led serialized drama had been airing Friday nights at 8 pm and had only four episodes left to air from its original 13 episode order. (Producers had been told in advance that they would not be getting a back nine order and were told to resolve the storyline.)

The few lingering fans that remain of the series can catch the missing episodes on Vanished's MySpace page, where FOX will begin streaming the remaining installments on November 17th. Subsequent episodes will appear each Friday, with three episodes available at any given time. The series finale of Vanished will be released online on December 8th and then, well, vanish forever.

Meanwhile fellow, Vanished's timeslot will be taken over by fellow struggling freshman drama Justice, beginning December 1st, though the days for that series are definitely numbered. FOX neglected to give Justice any additional episode orders, instead bequeathing that privilege to fellow froshers 'Til Death and Standoff. Comedy 'Til Death received a full season order, while hostage negotiator drama Standoff received an additional order of six episodes, bringing its total this season to 19 episodes.

Second Helpings: FOX's "Vanished"

One of my favorite annual pastimes is going through the following season's pilots and trying to figure out which ones I'll watch and which ones I'll skip. There's certainly no science to it and much of it is really just my gut reaction to the material and that little voice in the back of my head asking me whether or not I'd watch the series.

But the true test of a series isn't necessarily the pilot. In fact, more often than not, it's the second episode that's the real indication of whether or not I plan on investing my time with a particular series. On that note, I sat down Monday evening to watch the second episode of FOX's missing woman conspiracy drama Vanished. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that I ended up liking the pilot, which--like its second episode--was directed by Mimi Leder.

Here's what I had to say about the original pilot I watched back in June: "Created by Josh Berman (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and directed by Mimi Leder (John Doe, Deep Impact), the pilot is beautifully shot and gripping. While I had initially thought that Sara's disappearance would turn into a 24-style political/espionage thriller, the Da Vinci Code-esque religious clues scattered throughout take this series into an entirely surprising and unexpected direction. Something bigger is going on here than mere political vendettas and I wonder if Vanished will wrap it up in one season (a la the aforementioned 24) or if the Berman and Co. have plotted the series beyond Year One."

Hmm. I appear to have liked it. But then I tuned in Monday night...

As I said earlier, a second episode is always the true test of a series and here Vanished failed miserably. Instead of a smart, slick conspiracy caper, I found a sodden mess of histrionics and cheesy dialogue. Obviously, none of these serialized dramas are based in any way in reality and one must take these series with a huge ball of salt, but still, I want some resemblance to the logic of the universe to take shape. Or, at the least, I'd like to make it through a supposedly "serious" drama without laughing my butt off.

In Vanished, CSIs find valuable forensic information--a bloody handprint here, a torn scrap of dress there--in the record time of five whole seconds within arriving at the scene. One little shine of an ultraviolet light and--BOOM!--we're in business and up and running. A look at the blueprints of a labyrinthine tunnel network reveals there's a passageway right where they're standing and before you know it Graham (Gale Harold) takes off without a so much as a by-your-leave from his superior officer to play last action hero. (The less said about the fact that, following an explosion, he doesn't even bother to check on his colleagues the better.)

While Graham struck me as a bit of a cipher in the pilot, producers haven't done anything here to make him a more fully developed character and Harold sort of sleepwalks through his scenes in a short sleeve shirt and tie combo that held more amusement for me than the entire episode itself. Remember that missing mayor's wife who turned up at the end of the pilot seemingly frozen for the last few years? Her husband shows up to identify the body, Graham accuses him of killing her (he owns an orchard with refrigeration units!) and he promptly blows his brains out. But Graham doesn't seem all that perturbed by the suicide; in fact, his reaction is more akin to being rather frustrated at all the paperwork he's going to have to deal with...

Meanwhile, the Senator's bratty daughter Marcy (Margarita Levieva) suspects that her boyfriend Ben (Christopher Egan) may be involved in the disappearance of Sara Collins (Joanne Kelly) and therefore drives around Atlanta in a daze, refusing to go see her father, and even sleeping in her car (why exactly, we're not sure, when she has plenty of money to check into a hotel), before stopping off for a lemonade when she thinks that she's being followed by secret service... or FBI... or someone else. And--quelle surprise!--we're treated to that old familiar scene where someone gets into their car only to discover (shock, horror!) that there's someone else in there! Someone who takes that large bag of cash Marcy left sitting on the passenger seat (she's never heard of a trunk?), but not the bloody shirt that she so desperately hopes doesn't contain the blood of her missing step-mother. The goon issues an appropriately cryptic remark before departing, leaving Marcy shaken but not so scared that she, you know, locks the car doors or anything.

The willing suspension of disbelief is one thing but trying to suspend a belly-aching paroxysm of laughter? Not so easy. Vanished gives us a number of so cheesy it's fondue-like flashbacks that portray new cast member Josh Hopkins meeting Sara Collins for the first time back in 1994. They meet cute when she randomly steals his lunch on a dock and consumes half his sandwich in a flirtatious manner intended to make us forget why exactly this woman is wandering around the docks stealing hard-working fishermen's lunches. But Mr. Sensitive Fisherman doesn't seem to care about the innate criminality of her actions and instead wants to see her again. This being 1994, everyone is dressed in grunge and listening to the Spin Doctor's "Two Princes" (seriously!) as Mr. Sensitive Fisherman explains how when he owns his own boat someday, it will be a thing of beauty. But that's before the woman who will one day become Sara Collins vanishes the first time. While one hopes that these flashbacks are just intended to establish the connection between Sara and Josh Hopkin's character, they are so laughably bad that they instead became the televisionary equivalent of a pocketful of kryptonite.

Sorry, guys, but this is one show that just Vanished right off of my TiVo's Season Pass list.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC); Bones (FOX); Everybody Hates Chris/All of Us (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Scrubs/Scrubs (NBC); One Tree Hill (WB); 20/20 (ABC; 9-11 pm); Justice (FOX); Girlfriends/Half and Half (UPN)

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

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

I'm still shocked over Vincent's win last week, I am still excited about another new episode of my new reality fix, Project Runway. On tonight's episode, another "shocking" surprise for the designers as they are tasked to design something for a trendy jetsetter (Delta flight attendant uniforms?) while Jeffrey and Angela finally have that showdown that Runway's editors trick us into believing is going to happen each week.

Cibrian and Hopkins To Be "Vanished"

The cast of Vanished just keeps... appearing.

Variety is reporting that Eddie Cibrian has joined the cast of FOX's upcoming serialized drama Vanished, where he'll portray an FBI agent on the hunt for a missing senator's wife. The series revolves around the conspiracy surrounding her disappearance and plays out through the various perspectives of her family, the police, and the media.

Cibrian, last seen on ABC's Invasion, joins a cast that included Gale Harold, John Allen Nelson, Rebecca Gayheart, Joanne Kelly, Margarita Levieva, John Patrick Amedori, Chris Egan, Ming-Na, Penelope Ann Miller, and Esai Morales.

Additionally, Josh Hopkins (Pepper Dennis) has also signed on to Vanished in a recurring role as the former flame of the missing senator's wife. Hopkins will also recur on ABC's fall drama Brothers & Sisters, where he'll play a love interest for Calista Flockhart's character.