Channel Surfing: ABC to Revamp Edgar Floats, Undercovers Recasts, Weatherly to Return to NCIS, Criminal Minds Cuts Female Cast, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Rand Ravich's ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats, which recently received an order for six additional scripts, will be completely reconceived, with nearly all of the original cast--including series leads Tom Cavanagh and Alicia Witt and supporting players Derek Webster, Alex Solowitz, and Raoul Trujillo--getting the axe. (Only Robert Patrick will remain.) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, meanwhile, has some further insight into the decision made by ABC. "People have been divided on Cavanagh's performance, while Patrick has been almost universally hailed as the pilot's scene stealer," she writes. "I hear ABC brass like the idea of Edgar Floats and the central character but the project is being re-conceived, with the six additional scripts still being written." [Editor: seeing as Edgar Floats was my favorite broadcast pilot of the development cycle, I'm gutted by this news.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Deadline)

Mekia Cox (90210) has been cast in JJ Abrams and Josh Reims' upcoming NBC drama series Undercovers, where she will play Lizzy, the sister of Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Samantha, who is unaware of her sister's professional capacity as a CIA agent. Cox replaces Jessica Parker Kennedy, who appeared in the role in the pilot. [Editor: while I have nothing against Kennedy, per se, I did think that Lizzy and the catering company was the weakest and most labored part of Undercovers pilot.] (Hollywood Reporter)

It's official: Michael Weatherly has closed his deal to return to CBS' NCIS next season, following a successful renegotiation for Season Eight of the crime procedural. Of the four actors who went into the summer without a deal in place--Pauley Perrette, David McCallum, Michael Weatherly, and Sean Murray--only Murray has yet to finish renegotiating, however, Deadline's Nellie Andreeva said that the two sides are "optimistic" that a deal can be reached. (Deadline, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that CBS' Criminal Minds is gutting most of its female cast for financial reasons, opting not to pick up the option of series regular A.J. Cook, while Paget Brewster will be appearing in a "reduced number of episodes next season." Cook may reprise her role as Jennifer Jereau next season so that the writers can wrap up her storyline, though no deal has been made. Move means that Kristen Vangsness will be the only female cast member to appear in all episodes next season. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Adrianne Palicki and Taylor Kitsch have signed on to appear in multiple episodes of Season Five of Friday Night Lights. Ausiello, citing unnamed sources, writes that Palicki will guest star in the final two episodes of the season (likely the series' end), while Kitsch will appear in the final four. (Also set to return, at least for one episode: Scott Porter, Zach Gilford--who will be in four installments--and likely Jesse Plemons.) (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Brian Kirk (Dexter) will direct two episodes of HBO's upcoming fantasy drama Game of Thrones. Production is slated to begin July 26th in Northern Ireland. (Hollywood Reporter)

Christopher Eccleston has broken his silence about why he left Doctor Who after just one season in a new interview with Radio Times. "I was open-minded but I decided after my experience on the first series that I didn't want to do any more," said Eccleston. "I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I thought if I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong." (BBC News)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Fringe producers are looking to cast the role of the mother of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), who would appear in a story arc that would last roughly three or four episodes next season. "The character is described as loving, stable and sweet," writes Keck. "She dotes on Olivia since her other daughter died at birth." [Editor: I would assume that this role would be taking place "over there," in the other dimension, since Olivia's sister Rachel is, uh, alive and well in "our" world.] (TV Guide Magazine)

Faran Tahir (Star Trek) is set to guest star in two episodes of Syfy's Warehouse 13 this summer, as the series returns for its second season. Tahir will play Regent Adwin Kosan, described as "one of the mysterious and powerful Regents, the shadowy governing body charged with keeping the Warehouse safe," who turns up at the Warehouse in the midst of a crisis. (via press release)

In other Warehouse 13-related news, TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck has more details about the role that former Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner will be playing when she guest stars on the Syfy dramedy as Dr. Vanessa Calder. "She's the official doctor for Warehouse agents. She is quite worldly and knows lots of secrets," Wagner told Keck. (TV Guide Magazine)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Amy Ryan Nabs In Treatment Role, Jessalyn Gilsig Talks Glee, Sanaa Lathan Spies Tilda, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Amy Ryan (The Office, The Wire) has landed a role on Season Three of HBO's psychiatric drama In Treatment, where she will play the new therapist for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. That role was formerly supplied by Dianne Wiest's Gina, who was Paul's mentor/psychotherapist for the first two seasons. (Wiest has departed the series.) [Editor: it's about high time that Ryan had a regular gig on a series. She's been a favorite since her turn on The Wire as Beadie, so it's only fitting that she returns to HBO for In Treatnment.] (Deadline)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Glee's Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Will's scheming ex-wife Terri. So will Terri be returning for Season Two of Glee? And just what was up with her potentially inappropriate interest in Finn (Cory Monteith)? While Gilsig admits that she hasn't yet received her official pickup from FOX for next season, she did discuss what happened with Finn in this week's episode ("Funk"). "What happened was completely by accident," Gilsig told E! Online about Terri's relationship with Finn. "She sees in Finn so much of what she saw in Will when she first met him because he's the same age as Will was. It's her way of remembering happier times—when she used to be kind to Will. And she realizes, here's a chance to be supportive of this kid." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Sanaa Lathan (Nip/Tuck) is the latest actor to board HBO's comedy pilot Tilda, which stars Diane Keaton, Jason Patric, and Ellen Page, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Lathan will play Sasha Litt, described as "a mysterious new head of operations that RMG head Andrew Brown (Jason Patric) brings in to work at the studio." Production on the pilot, written by Cynthia Mort and directed by Bill Condon, is slated to get underway soon in Los Angeles. (Deadline)

ABC won't be coming to the rescue of cancelled CBS comedy series The New Adventures of Old Christine after talks broke down between ABC and studio Warner Bros. Television. "The network had showed strong interest in picking up Old Christine for the past three years," writes Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "But when the show finally became available this year, a deal proved impossible to make as ABC was said to be unwilling to pay the high license fee needed to keep the veteran comedy series going." Which means that the Old Christine episode that aired May 12th will in fact serve as the series finale. (Deadline)

SPOILER! Leonard Nimoy has hinted that he might be returning to FOX's Fringe, despite the fact that his character, William Bell, appeared to have died in the season finale. "Do I think William Bell is really dead?" said Nimoy in a video on the official website. "This is science fiction. I have died in science fiction many times and somehow magically or scientifically come back. Given that he has disintegrated, what happens in the future remains to be seen." [Editor: his conjecture would also cast doubts upon Nimoy's "retirement" from acting as well.] (via Digital Spy)

What, was the title Conveyor Belt of Doom already taken? Chris Jericho will serve as host of ABC's "extreme game show" Downfall, set to air launch June 22nd. Series, which has been ordered for six episodes, will feature "contestants try to answer questions while on the roof of a Los Angeles high-rise. Meanwhile, 'the largest conveyor belt ever seen on TV' will send potential winnings (cash and prizes), the player's personal possessions and even friends and family over the side of the building." (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC Universal has signed a two-year overall deal with writer Lisa Zwerling (FlashForward), under which she will join the staff of NBC's upcoming drama series The Event as a consulting producer and develop new projects for Universal Media Studios. "Lisa is a breath of fresh air, so smart and passionate," said NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios drama exec VP Laura Lancaster told Variety. "We're impressed with her creative range and feel so fortunate she's decided to make UMS her home." (Variety)

"Sword of omens, give me sight beyond sight!" Cartoon Network has ordered a new animated series of ThunderCats (based on the much beloved 1980s animated series) from Warner Bros. Animation. "The update will combine swords and science with high-stakes battles as good and evil clash for the Stones of Power," writes The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. News comes after Cartoon Network gave a series order to animated superhero project Green Lantern. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC Worldwide America has hired former Nickelodeon executive Herb Scannell has the new president of U.S. operations, where he will oversee digital channel BBC America as well as BBC Worldwide America's US-based studio and production entity. "I would assume (BBC America) has more original shows launching than any other channel in cable TV," Scannell told Variety. "That's just by nature, given the number of shows coming from the BBC that haven't aired here in the States. I do have an interest in supplementing that with made-in-America shows that kind of have the three major attributes that make a BBC show: That they're smart, innovative and irreverent. Those are the key building blocks to think about programming wise and in branding." (Variety)

After nearly 40 years, the axe has fallen on Roy Clarke's long-running British comedy series Last Of The Summer Wine, which will end its run after more than 30 seasons this year, BBC One confirmed. "Last Of The Summer Wine has been part of BBC One for nearly 40 years," said Jay Hunt, Controller, BBC One, in a statement. "This wonderful final series is a fitting farewell to these much loved characters and I am delighted some of the channel's other heritage brands will be helping to say goodbye in style." (BBC)

Frances Berwick has been promoted to president of Bravo, filling a position that has been empty since Lauren Zalaznick was promoted to president of NBC Universal Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks in 2008. [Editor: congrats, Frances!] (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Daily Beast: "TV's Winners and Losers"

Where did the broadcasters go wrong this season, and what did they do right? Good question.

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "TV's Winners and Losers," as I break down the network's performance in the 2009-10 season and (via a nifty gallery) take a look at the season's winners--including Modern Family, Chuck, Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Bones, Parenthood, NCIS (and NCIS: Los Angeles), The Good Wife, and others--and the losers (such as FlashForward, Heroes, Melrose Place and medical dramas in general, as well as the draws.

Where did your favorite series end up on the list? And what's your take on the 2009-10 season? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Soft Spots: Through the Vale of Tears on the Season Finale of Fringe

"I don't belong here... but I don't belong there, either."

Throughout the two seasons thus far of FOX's trippy sci-fi drama Fringe, we've associated the world of Olivia Dunham and the Bishops pere et fils with the color blue, a somber color that's been reflected in the main title sequence, the frequent colored flares that have appeared on the the screen at dramatic or pivotal moments, and the general muted color palette of the world in which these characters live.

On the other side, the alternate dimension from which a young Peter Bishop was kidnapped by a desperately grieving Walter Bishop, we see a world that's rather like ours on the surface but which is different in so many ways that matter. There, the color of choice is red, a deep crimson that's echoed in the opening credits for the two-part season finale of Fringe, the comic-book heroes whose stories line the walls of an apartment Walter has furnished for Peter (Red Arrow and Red Lantern being two), and the machine that will create a "doorstop" for Bishops and Olivia to cross back over to their own world.

I couldn't help but notice in the final half of the two-part Fringe finale ("Over There, Part Two"), written by J.H. Wyman, Jeff Pinkner, and Akiva Goldsman and directed by Akiva Goldsman, that we're seeing a world brought to life as the living, breathing, embodiment of unexpected consequences, that destination at the end of the road to Hell that's paved with good intentions.

Walter Bishop attempted to save the life of an alternate version of his dead son. In doing so, he tore a hole through the fabric of time and space and unleashed a wave of unspeakable horrors onto an unsuspecting world. While he acted out of love and grief, Walter all but destroyed an entire universe. As last night's finale began, we saw the results of those actions as Peter took a guided tour of Manhattan in a dirigible, witnessing the quarantine areas--including Madison Square Garden and the 10,000 people declared legally dead within--that are the ripple-effect of Walter's cross-time continuum jaunt.

What Peter sees is staggering, really. And it speaks volumes about just why this universe would fight back, would seek to lash out at the man who caused all of this and pay his home world back in kind for the tragedy that it has caused. We've long known that a war was coming between the two universes, but I don't think anyone anticipated that Peter Bishop himself would be the flashpoint. From the Department of Defense headquarters on Liberty Island (atop which sits Lady Liberty, with her original copper-bronze hue intact), The Secretary--a.k.a. Walternate--has set in motion a plot that will ensnare his own son and use him not to fix the broken elements of this universe but to destroy the other world.

Peter slowly realizes this after falling under the lure of his biological father. But in looking at the device that Walternate is hoping to build, Peter realizes his signifance... and that while, like his alternate universe counterpart, Walternate traveled through a hole between the worlds to bring him home, he is not a good man. Not like our Walter Bishop. While Walter's experiments may have had disastrous consequences, he has always operated out of a need to help, not to harm. While these two men might be identical, they're polar opposites beneath the surface.

Olivia, meanwhile, comes face to face with her alternate universe counterpart, a chestnut-haired Fringe agent who seems to have attained the things that she never could: a healthy relationship with a lover (Philip Winchester), a positive relationship with a mother who is dead in her world. (But it's come at a cost: this world's Rachel died in childbirth.) While they're both intrigued by the other--they seem to represent a case of What If?--their instincts soon kick in and the two engage in a vicious fight that nearly kills Olivia before she's able to knock her doppelganger out and tie her up.

It seemed at first to me that Olivia had killed her with a blow to the head but that was quickly disproved. I knew that Olivia would take her counterpart's place (and that the distinctive neck tattoo would have to play a part) but didn't see the bait-and-switch that came later as alternate Olivia took our Olivia's place back in our world. It's a masterful ploy that balances things out: just as Walter took Peter, so too does Walternate take Olivia here, leaving her imprisoned on the other side.

Which leaves Alternate Olivia in our world, alone with Peter and Walter and in a strange world she doesn't really understand. Considering what passed in this episode between Olivia and Peter--and their discussion of their true feelings for one another, culminating in a kiss--I've got to believe that Peter will pick up on Olivia's differences very quickly. Especially with that neck tattoo...

Just when did Walternate decide that infiltrating the other side was more important than keeping Peter Bishop there? Hmmm... As we see from the very end of the episode, Alternate Olivia reports back to the Secretary via the typewriter, delivering a message that her infiltration was successful and waiting for new orders. Just what those orders are will have to wait until next season. But I dare say that both Peter and Walter Bishop are in serious danger.

In addition to the Olivia/Olivia and Olivia/Peter scenes, there were some other fantastic moments here (besides as well for seeing Charlie Francis again) between Walter and Leonard Nimoy's William Bell. Far too often, Bell has been presented as a secret villain within the mythology of Fringe but we see that that's not really the case here. Yes, he helped develop the shapeshifters and much of the advanced technology of the other world, but he claims he did so in order to remain useful to Walternate... and that he traveled to the other world not to profit from their tech but to undo the damage that Walter had caused by stealing Peter. (We also learned that that world's Bell died in a car accident and never met Walter Bishop.)

There was a beautiful scene between the two as they drove to Walter's old lab at Harvard University and Walter came face to face with the destruction that his actions had caused, the devastation and the quarantined areas, with people trapped inside like insects in amber. As always, John Noble deserves an Emmy nomination (and, really, an award) for his stunning performance; here, he delivers quite a few stirring scenes that resonate with loss, grief, and anger. (And love as well: witness the scene where he sees Peter once again.)

"Did I cause this," he asks, a cross between a child and an elderly man, as his voice quivers. Bell doesn't sugar-coat the answer for him... but Walter finally does get an answer about why Bell cut out pieces of his brain, erasing swaths of memory, and we get some answers about Massive Dynamic to boot.

"Creating Massive Dynamic was not my idea," Bell angrily yells, which is an interesting reveal because it makes me wonder just who did. Was it Walter Bishop himself? After all, the two had had many plans and dreams together, but Walter's were sidetracked by the memory loss and his subsequent institutionalization at St. Clare's. We see here a partnership divided not just by a gap between the worlds but by a monumental chasm that's built on personal choices. Walter saw himself as the victim in his story, but what if he was becoming a true villain, making choices without thinking of the irrevocable consequences for both worlds?

"I did it because you asked me to, because of what you were becoming," Bell tells Walter about why he had pieces of Walter's brain removed. Just what was Walter becoming? A monster bent on harvesting the other world? A man who had already thwarted the laws of physics once and was out of control? Just what other horrors had Walter unleashed? Or had been prepared to?

We see a very different Bell than the one we've built up in our collective imaginings, one who is more nursemaid and clean-up crew for Walter Bishop, one who sacrificed his life to clean up the mess that Walter created in his wake... and one who is now willing to sacrifice his own mortality in order to save him once more. Bell is the "doorstop" that he mentioned to Walter, able to push open the crack created by Olivia so that she and the Bishops can get home. Little does he know that his sacrifice has sent the faux-Olivia over to the other world.

Something tells me we'll be seeing a lot more of both worlds as Fringe returns for a third season in the fall. With Olivia Dunham trapped over there and a false replacement taking her place in our world, the team will have to unravel what's really going on... and Olivia will have to find a way to return home, possibly on her own, just as she's made a major step to reclaim her long-buried emotional connections. Will the others notice a change in her behavior? What are her orders? Is William Bell truly dead? Who has Nina Sharp been answering to all of these years? And just what was Walter up to when he asked Walter to erase his memories? Find out next season.

What did you think of the season finale and the season as a whole? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Three of Fringe begins this fall on FOX.

Channel Surfing: Team Darlton Talk Lost's "Across the Sea," NBC Likely to Axe Heroes, 24, Fringe Preview, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has a fantastic (and lengthy) interview with Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about this week's divisive "Across the Sea" episode and the end of the series. "We told the story the way we wanted to. Like David Chase, we tried to make the show to entertain the audience. That was our primary goal," said Cuse about making the sixth and final season of Lost. "We kind of planned this episode to come at this period of time because we actually wanted to take a break after the deaths of these major characters. It felt like this was the perfect time to take a time out from the main narrative. And since this was the final big mythological episode that we were going to do, we felt like it was a good placement for it, and now we'll roll into the finale. We make no apologies. We planned this to be the way it is. Again, it is funny, because there are a lot of people who are very happy with the show, there's going to be a very vocal group of people who are not happy, and that just kind of comes with the territory. We're making the show the best way we know how to make it, and we stand by it, and we're excited about how it ends and how the journey's unfolded." (Hitfix)

Over at Los Angeles Times, Maria Elena Fernandez has a fantastic piece on Lost's composer Michael Giacchino, who will be conducting a full symphony orchestra at tonight's Lost Live event here in Los Angeles (I'll be attending, of course) and speaks to Lindelof and Cuse about Giacchino's impact on the series. "We've always talked about the central aspect of Lost being character, character, character, and his music is so evocative of a certain moment or person in the show," Lindelof told Fernandez. "If you close your eyes and play 30 seconds of one of Michael's themes, you'd know which character's theme that is." (Los Angeles Times)

Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Heroes is very unlikely to earn a spot on NBC's fall schedule and that all indications are currently pointing towards the superhero drama being deader than a dodo. Previous reports had indicated that the Peacock was considering ordering a final chapter of thirteen episodes but that appears not to be the case any more for the Tim Kring-overseen drama after screening the pilots that they had ordered. "NBC (which declined to comment for this story) is nothing if not appreciative of the few Heroes fans who still care about the saga and doesn't want to leave them hanging," writes Adalian. "While a half-season appears to be out of the question, we hear there's a good chance the network will at least try to find a way to fund a two- or four-hour movie event in order to give some finality to the franchise." (Vulture)

Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice has an interview with 24's Cherry Jones about the "trippy story arc" this season for President Allison Taylor. "By the end of the season, these guys are just this side of brain dead," said Cherry about Howard Gordon and 24's writers. "They have been trying so hard. They don’t have an arc. Most TV shows would have an arc and they would figure out how to nudge everybody in the direction they wanted to go in. These guys look at the performances, look at who they’ve got and try to follow things they think will be the most shocking. The fact that my character has suddenly taken this turn was never anticipated by anyone, but they have to figure out a way to justify it. They and I have managed to do that. I’ve got to hand it to them, they live right on the edge. They don’t take the easy road." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

E! Online's Megan Masters takes an early look at Part One of season finale of FOX's Fringe (airing tonight), offering up side-by-side photos of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Walter Bishop and their alternate reality counterparts. [Editor: I think that Olivia looks amazing in either reality but her "over there" counterpart has got a smoldering look.] (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

And here's the promo for the two-part Fringe season finale:



[Editor: FOX and NBC ordered a whole slew of series yesterday afternoon, which you can read about here.]

Former Sopranos star James Gandolfini has been cast opposite Diane Lane and Tim Robbins in HBO's telepic Cinema Verite, a dramatization of the seminal 1970s reality series An American Family, where he will play the series' producer Craig Gilbert. (Robbins and Lane will play Bill and Pat Loud, the married couple at the center of the series.) Project, written by David Seltzer and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, will begin production this summer. (Variety)

BBC One has unveiled the cast of its upcoming eight-part sci-fi drama series Outcasts (created by Ben Richards), which will include Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber, Ashes to Ashes's Daniel Mays, Clash of the Titans' Liam Cunningham, Spooks' Hermione Norris, Being Human's Amy Manson, Small Island's Ashley Walters, Ugly Betty's Eric Mabius, Shameless'Michael Legge, Generation Kill's Langley Kirkwood, Invictus' Patrik Lyster, and Jeanne Kietzmann. Series revolves around a group of human colonists who are attempting to build a new society on a distant planet. Here's how BBC describes the series: "They are a diverse group of individuals who left their old lives behind in extraordinary circumstances; promised a second chance at life they created a society, far away from their home, friends, family... and their pasts. Settled in the town of Forthaven on Carpathia, they are passionate about their jobs, confident of their ideals and optimistic about the future. They work hard to preserve what they've built on this planet they now call home, having embraced all the challenges that come with forging a new beginning.The planet offers the possibility for both corruption and redemption; while they try to avoid the mistakes made on Earth, inevitably our heroes cannot escape the human pitfalls of love, greed, lust, loss, and a longing for those they've left behind. As they continue to work and live together they come to realise this is no ordinary planet... is there a bigger purpose at work? Mystery lurks around them and threatens to risk the fragile peace of Forthaven." (BBC)

Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that Steven Spielberg has pre-taped a "special introductory message" that will be played to advertisers at FOX's upfront presentation next week," signifying that his project--the prehistoric drama Terra Nova (which revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time)--has secured a thirteen-episode commitment and will be presented to advertisers even though a single frame of film has yet to be shot. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Entourage's executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson are developing a female-oriented comedy for HBO which will be written by Leah Rachel (with an assist by Emily Montague) that will revolve around a group of female friends in Los Angeles. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the final negotiations of a deal with Angus T. Jones that will keep him on CBS' Two and a Half Men for two additional seasons. Still no progress, meanwhile, in the ongoing renegotiation talks between WBTV and series lead Charlie Sheen... (Deadline)

Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall has an interview with Cougar Town co-creator Bill Lawrence about how the series got beyond a thin concept and rickety title... which Lawrence would love to change. "I'd like to (change it), and the studio has been talking about it for three reasons: One, partly as a result of common sense and partly from their research, they find too many instances of testing of people saying they would never watch a show called Cougar Town - 'I don't want to see some show about a 40-year-old woman nailing younger guys' - and then they screen an episode, and people go, 'Oh, I would watch this show,'" said Lawrence. "Second point is simply what you already said, which is you would be hard-pressed to watch the last three episodes of the show and asked anyone for titles - I doubt anyone would say Cougar Town. Third, in a world where ABC and Steve are looking to promote Modern Family and capitalize on it to promote all their new shows next fall, anything you can do to create some kind of dialogue about your existing show is smart and savvy. The reasons not to do it I think solely come down to business reasons." (Hitfix)

Community's Joel McHale and Modern Family's Sofia Vergara will be announcing the primetime Emmy Award nominations on July 8th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that FOX has passed on the following projects: Breakout Kings, Breaking In, Tax Men, Strange Brew, Most Likely to Succeed and The Station, while NBC has passed on Matthew Broderick-led comedy Beach Lane. In other pilot news, FX has passed on comedy project Sweat Shop, after filming a pilot. (Deadline)

Lionsgate has acquired international distribution rights to Comedy Central's upcoming series Big Lake, from executive producers Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy. Cabler has given the comedy, which stars Chris Gethard, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, a ten-episode commitment, with an option to order an additional 90 episodes. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Stay tuned.

You Can't Get There From Here: Northwest Passage on Fringe

"Technically, I'm from no place you ever heard of." - Peter Bishop

In its second season, Fringe has proven itself quite adept at tweaking its own formula, moving away from the episodic deadly-scientist-plot-of-the-week to a more balanced mix of procedural installments that have been underpinned by an increasingly strong mythology and an emotional core.

Last week's episode, the noir-musical "Brown Betty," offered a bit of a breather amid the shape-shifters, alternate world warriors, and brutal revelations gained by Peter Bishop, who quickly fled Boston to get as far away as possible from the man he believed to be his father, but who was finally revealed to him to be a kidnapper who yanked him away from his true family. It was a change of pace both for the plot and the general atmosphere of the series, creating a stand-alone episode that also revealed the true feelings--the wracking remorse and shame--felt by Walter Bishop.

This week's gripping episode of Fringe ("Northwest Passage"), written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Nora Zuckerman, and Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Joe Chappelle, continued the pattern so to speak, delivering a stunning episode that saw the Fringe team shattered as Peter went in search of himself in Washington State and encountered a mystery that seemed to swirl yet again around him. But was Peter being paranoid? Was he hallucinating? Or was there more than one mystery to consider?

Those were the thought-provoking questions pondered by an installment that saw Peter on one side of the country and his former comrades attempting to grapple with his disappearance on the other, creating an episode of Fringe that was about the chasm of distance between the two sides, both in an emotional sense and a physical one.

Peter's journey of self-discovery leads him to Noyo County, Washington, where he becomes the chief suspect in the disappearance of the waitress he was seen flirting with just hours before. Besides for the fact that Peter is acting shifty and checked into a motel under an assumed name, there's the fact that he seems to have knowledge of the killing that no one should know about: namely, that waitress Krista--who hours earlier was making music playlists for her customers--was missing part of her brain.

It's enough to make the local sheriff, Mathis (Martha Plimpton), deeply suspicious of Peter, even after he's vetted by the FBI. Of course, we know that Peter is innocent and that the removal of a part of the temporal lobe of this poor girl matches the modus operandi of Newton, whom Peter glimpses outside the diner where Krista worked. Did Newton kidnap Krista, operate on her, and kill her in order to locate Peter? It begins to seem that way when the bodies begin to pile up and Peter gets an increasingly bizarre series of phone calls at the various motels he's staying at.

Mathis is a believer, the sort of intrigued soul who likely has the box set of the entire run of The X-Files and an "I Believe" poster in her basement. Here, however, she's torn between her sworn obligation to protect and serve using deductive reasoning and her unerring belief that there's more to life than what's seen on the surface. She carries a pen, inscribed with the words "Find the crack," that her partner and lover Ferguson had given her on her first case. It's an entreaty to find the crack in the darkness that lets the light in.

In the dark woods of Noyo County, it's likely a good credo to adhere to. I couldn't shake the feeling that this episode reminded me both of The X-Files and Twin Peaks in the best possible senses. (The latter of which was originally entitled Northwest Passage.) Plimpton was absolutely fantastic to watch as Sheriff Mathis and I watched the hour secretly hoping that the producers would create a Mathis-based spinoff called Northwest Passage, where she investigates the spooky and inexplicable crimes that occur on the fringes of a sleepy former logging town. (Anyone else feel that? Hell, I'd watch it if it starred Plimpton.)

Back in Boston, Walter has a breakdown at a supermarket, spurred on by a chemical addictive in a box of toaster pastries. His angry rant and subsequent emotional collapse speak volumes about his mental state at the moment... and the fact that this genius scientist should not be living on his own as he can't care for himself. It's a sad fact that's all the more heartbreaking when Olivia and Astrid take Walter back to his house and see the filth and squalor he's been living in.

Walter's sadness and his pain have manifested in fitting ways. But he's not alone, as Astrid attempts to remind him. In a small but emotionally resonant scene, she asks why he didn't call her for help. While his answer is logical (he can't call her because he's out of toaster pastries), it really echoes the true answer of his situation: without Peter there to care for him, Walter is terrified he'll be sent back to St. Clare's.

But Olivia promises that won't happen. The bond between the group, shattered temporarily as it might have been by Peter's departure, is just as strong as ever. These are people who care deeply for one another. They are, for all intents and purposes, family now.

Likewise, Walter stumbles on a way to track down Peter but sabotages himself, as Astrid discovers. While he wants to reclaim his son, Walter is scared that Peter won't forgive him. But his fears may come true after all as Olivia tells them that she's found Peter in Washington and invites Walter to come with her.

But back in Washington, Peter is on his own. Or at least, teamed up with Mathis, who doesn't quite know what to think about Peter. After Ferguson disappears and Peter claims to have been fired at by Newton in the woods (after discovering a Bazooka Joe comic that sums up his whole dilemma: "You can't get there from here."), things begin to fall apart. Why would Newton be going to such lengths to find out Peter's whereabouts when he could just flash a picture at people and ask if they've seen him? It's a point that Mathis makes and which seems lost on Peter. Suffering from a distinct lack of sleep, he's not thinking clearly about his situation and seems determined to uncover a conspiracy that is intended to ensnare him.

The killer, ultimately, isn't Newton but a local ex-dairy farmer turned serial killer, who was kidnapping women and cutting them open in order to "feel close to them." (Peter realizes he's the killer after spying the CD Krista made for him among his things.) Which I can buy on the one hand but which also didn't sit totally well with me either. Just where did the guy, living in a trailer, get access to such expensive medical equipment? How did he have the knowledge to operate on these women in such a clinical and precise fashion? And why, of all organs, did he decide to take a part of their temporal lobe? While it's meant to cast suspicion on Newton, it seemed too likely of a coincidence here.

But that's a minor quibble about an otherwise fantastically perfect episode. I loved the final scene between Peter and Mathis as he confided in her that he doesn't know who he is anymore and she told him the story about how her family was murdered and she still hopes to track down whoever killed them. (A potential spinoff plot!) Just as she found her place in the world, so too will Peter... and she gives him the "Find the Crack" pen that Ferguson (luckily rescued before he was murdered) had given her back in the day.

And then there's the final bait-and-switch, a masterful narrative double-cross that I didn't see coming. Just when you believe that Peter had been hallucinating about Newton being there, the writers managed to pull the rug right out from underneath us. Peter finally attempts to get some rest and settles down on a motel bed with his Discman (clearly, iPods only exist in the other dimension) and the mix that Krista had made for him.

But as he closes his eyes, Newton appears in the motel room, armed with the dart gun we saw earlier. And if that wasn't enough, he brings Mr. Secretary into the room, forcing Peter to come face to face with his biological father, the alternate-universe Walter Bishop.

It's a staggering cliffhanger that will have to tide us over until next week's episode, the first part of what promises to be a series-altering two-part season finale... and another example of just how Fringe's writers can manage to surprise us, just when we think we have everything figured out. Well played.

Next week on Fringe ("Over There, Part One"), Walter and Olivia travel to the parallel universe and the anticipated face-off between Walter Bishop and William Bell occurs.

The Glass Heart: Dancing with Brown Betty on Fringe

"Death seems to follow you around." - Philip Broyles

This week's episode of Fringe ("Brown Betty"), written by Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, and Akiva Goldsman and directed by Seith Mann, offered a look into the mind of Walter Bishop, via the noir-tinged fairy tale he told Olivia's young niece Ella. It's a mind that's been increasingly affected by major feelings of guilt and regret about what he had done to a young Peter Bishop, the man that he raised as his son but whom he stole from his alternate universe counterpart.

It was a bit of a break from the increasingly mythology-heavy episodes of late, which have adding in some newly swirling mysteries (who is the Secretary?) to Fringe's already complex and emotional plot. Rather than see the team battle shapeshifters or freaky fringe scientists, this episode turned the focus inwards, forcing the team to examine their own fears and dreams.

While Olivia continued to search for the missing Peter, Walter turned from labeling everything in the lab (from sulfuric acid to Red Vines) to entertain Ella (and Astrid) with a marijuana-scented story that fused together film noir and classic musicals, two of his mother's favorite genres.

While the plot worked on an altogether escapist level (it is, after all, one gigantic pot-fueled dream), there were some subtleties laced throughout Walter's story that revealed his own complicity in his fate: his need to create, to push the boundaries of science, and the knowledge that doing so would bring forth the creation of so many wonderful things (bubblegum, flannel pajamas, rainbows)... and also some deadly ones.

It's a truth that hits home for Walter. His inventions were forged on the stolen dreams of children, just as Walter Bishop and William Bell had stolen the childhoods of so many of their young patients. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. And for all of his talk about saving the world, both the real Walter Bishop and the fictional one damned two worlds in the process because of his hubris and because of his broken heart.

Peter's glass heart provided the impetus for the action as Walter set in motion a complicated dance that led private investigator Olivia Dunham on the path of the missing Peter, who had reclaimed his stolen heart. The heart itself, part steampunk and part ultra-modern, represented both the humanistic drive mechanism and also the will to live. (The men's quest for their heart also reminded me, in an off-hand way, of Rose Walker's quest to find her missing heart in Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman." But that's just me.)

Along the way, we had singing detectives (thank you, Lance Reddick and Anna Torv), singing corpses, and singing scientists (Walter putting on a little Tears for Fears), as well as some classic noir tropes: the damsel in distress who isn't quite as innocent as she appears, the long-suffering gal Friday (Astrid, here cast as the plucky Esther Figglesworth), the black hatted thugs (the Observers), a close brush with death (Olivia getting thrown into the ocean in a box), and the appearance of something akin to true love (Olivia and Peter, united, but only in Ella's alternate ending).

I'm still not entirely sure why the writers felt the need to fuse together both noir and musical, two radically different genres, into one single episode, other than the fact that--as previously mentioned--Walter's mother loved both and Walter's synapses were firing at an altogether different rate. But while it was great to see Reddick, Torv, John Noble, and Jasika Nicole sing, I almost wish that we had just stuck with the noir underpinnings here and saw them through to the end.

However, I did love the fact that Olivia and Peter did finally find happiness together, exchanging their differences to dance together in Ella's version of a happy ending, one where people can cast off their fears and complications for an interaction far more simple than snappy banter. Likewise, only a child would think of something as simple and magical as the act of sharing a single heart: snapping it in two, not to break it forever, but to allow both Walter and Peter to continue their lives, bonded by the glass heart.

In the real world, such endings are far more rare. Peter does leave with his heart and breaks Walter's in the process. Olivia never does locate Peter Bishop and the father and son never have a tete-a-tete (or coeur-a-coeur) about their shared destinies. There is no happily ever after, not for these three. Meanwhile, an Observer (August) lurks nearby, noting that Peter has not returned home and that Walter did not follow his warning...

What did you think of "Brown Betty"? Did it work for you as an individual episode and within the context of the larger second season? Can't get "Candyman" out of your head? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Northwest Passage"), Peter teams up with a local law enforcement official, Sheriff Mathis (guest star Martha Plimpton), on a serial murder investigation with ties to Newton; Walter copes with the possibility of being sent back to St. Claire's; someone from the "other side" pays a visit.

Brown Betty: FOX Releases Noir-Tinged Fringe Trailer

"Death seems to follow you around..."

On this week's episode of Fringe ("Brown Betty"), take a descent into the noir and the musical, thanks to a self-medicating Walter Bishop, who takes the opportunity to tell a story to Olivia's niece Ella while attempting to unburden his own guilt-stricken mind.

FOX has released a trailer for this week's "Brown Betty" episode, which can be viewed in full below and which plays up the deliciously vintage film noir style of such 1940s classics as The Big Sleep and recasts our Fringe Division crusaders in some new roles.



Fringe airs Thursday night at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

The View from the Bridge: The Man From the Other Side on Fringe

"You called me dad." - Walter Bishop

This week's episode of Fringe ("The Man From the Other Side"), written by Josh Singer and Ethan Gross and directed by Jeffrey Hunt, paid off many of the clues and signals we've seen building throughout the second season of Fringe, particularly those swirling around Thomas Jerome Newton and the Bishop family secrets.

It was the latter that was the most heartbreaking, coming as it did on the heels of a moment of profound connection between Walter and Peter, the first time that Peter had called Walter "dad." It was a yet another tiny but emotional resonant moment in a season positively overflowing with them, offering a glimmer of happiness that would all too easily be snatched away before the end of the episode.

So what did I think of this week's episode of Fringe? Let's crank up the Rush and find out.

This season, Fringe has wisely found a balance between creepy/gross/bizarre science-related mysteries of the week, a mythology founded on multiple realities, and an emphasis on the emotional connections between the characters. (Though I am tired of repeating myself on one front: please, for the love of custard, give Astrid something to do, a storyline, a backstory. She can't just still be the lab help in the third season.) Casting aside the possibility of a romantic entanglement for Olivia and Peter, the writers have instead fashioned the Fringe Division as a family of damaged individuals, each one carting around the ghosts of the past who have finally found some semblance of home in the madness of Walter Bishop's lab beneath Harvard University.

But that familial balance is about to become unhinged. Over the past few episodes, Walter has increasingly come to the conclusion that he has to tell Peter the truth about his identity, even though it comes with the risk of losing him all over again. But Peter does deserve to know where he came from, after all. Olivia attempts to caution Peter against stirring up old secrets, making sure that he knows that Walter loves him.

But is that enough? Is it enough to know that Walter loved him when he's faced with proof that he was taken from his home? He might have called Walter "dad" for the first time, but the hatred that burns in his eyes when he regains consciousness and sees Walter reveals that he sees this man as little more than a kidnapper: a stranger who came in the night and took him away. How on earth could they hope to have any semblance of a relationship after this?

What Peter doesn't know--and what he won't allow Walter to tell him--is why. Which is perhaps their relationship's one saving grace. Walter didn't cross over between the worlds to take him but to save him. Fate intervened and then Peter's mother fell in love with him. Which is why, when he left for Europe, she killed herself. The choice she had made--to rob another mother of her son--was too much to bare once she was all alone.

Peter has long wondered why he had such fuzzy memories of his childhood, why he was often skeptical of stories that Walter told him of his formative years... and why he could survive the vibrations unleashed by Newton on the railroad bridge over the Charles River when a nearby FBI agent was atomized next to him. In that instant, everything was clear and the bridge that was appearing before his eyes wasn't just a physical one to another world by a metaphorical one to his own past.

He might have stopped Newton's plan but it also meant that the scales fell from his eyes. He saw Walter for who he really was (or who he believes him to be) and saw himself for what he was: a tourist from another place, someone who doesn't belong in this world and never did. The coming war is a direct result of Walter's efforts to save the life of his son and at the heart of this battle is Peter Bishop himself. No wonder Peter checked himself out of the hospital and took off for parts unknown.

And then there's the matter of the man on the bridge, the one who was meant to be brought through the veil between the worlds along with the bridge and who was making strides directly towards Peter Bishop. Newton went through a lot of trouble to bring him to this place and to engineer a major scheme in order to bring that bridge to this place.

Just who was he, that man from the other side? Could it be that Newton is allied with the other world's Walter Bishop? After all, the shapeshifter embryo grabbed Walter's hand and apologized with its dying breath. What if the central conflict has always been not just inside Walter Bishop but between Walter Bishop? Could it be that this entire war is really about that fateful night Walter tried to save Peter's life?

And then there's the matter of the Secretary, the mysterious person whom Newton speaks to after he crossed over to this world. He sedates him and tells him not to talk, but Mr. Secretary grips Newton's hand in a sign of solidarity... one that sharply echoes that between Walter Bishop and the shapeshifter embryo. Hmmmm...

Which means that there's a strong case to make for Mr. Secretary being Walternate, the other universe's Walter Bishop. Did he find another means of crossing over after the bridge experiment failed? After all, as far as we know that universe's Walter Bishop never crossed over before and has never visited this world. And it would make sense why the embryo apologized to Walter for failing his mission. Curious, no?

What did you think of this week's installment? Who is the man on the bridge? Who is Mr. Secretary? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Brown Betty"), Walter deals with some very upsetting news, he tells Olivia's niece, Ella, a fairy tale that includes musical performances by Olivia and Agent Broyles.

Channel Surfing: AMC Sets Mad Men Return Date, Scott Porter Returns to FNL, Laurence Fishburne Staying Put at CSI, Lost, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Mark your calendars, Mad Men fans: Season Four of the period drama is set to launch on Sunday, July 25th at 10 pm ET/PT while new drama Rubicon will launch with two back-to-back episodes on Sunday, August 1st at 8 pm before it moves into its regular 9 pm timeslot the following week. "Sunday nights are where you find the best of premium television so it should be no surprise that AMC -- the home of premium television on basic cable -- is stacking our original dramas there as well," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, in a statement. "We welcome back Mad Men and look forward to introducing Rubicon all on Sunday nights this summer." Rubicon stars James Badge Dale (The Pacific), Dallas Roberts (Walk the Line), Jessica Collins (The Nine), Christopher Evan Welch (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Lauren Hodges (Law & Order) with Arliss Howard (The Sandlot) and Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow). (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Scott Porter will be reprising his role as Jason Street in Season Five of NBC/DirecTV's Friday Night Lights. Porter, who will appear in the seventh episode of the season, was last seen during Season Three of the drama series. He'll be joined by fellow former stars Taylor Kitsch and Jesse Plemons and possibly other ex-Friday Night Lights cast members for what is likely the series' last season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Laurence Fishburne has renewed his deal and will remain as the lead of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation through the 2010-11 season. "In the upcoming Season 10 finale, Fishburne will face off against two serial killers in a battle of wits that will conclude in a life-and-death cliffhanger," writes Hibberd. "One villain is played by Matt Ross (Big Love) in a guest-starring role. The other is Bill Irwin, who reprises his role as Nate Haskell, the Dick and Jane Killer. Also in talks to guest star in the finale, veteran actor Marty Ingels." (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine talks to Lost and Supernatural star Mark Pellegrino, whose enigmatic character on Lost, Jacob, is set to get some major reveals in the May 11th episode ("Across the Sea"). "Jacob has a lot of darkness and corners we haven’t explored yet, so the differences between him and Lucifer are not as much as you would think,” Pellegrino told Keck. "With these archetypal characters, the boundary between good and evil becomes blurry. Jacob’s on a mission. It’s your judgment as to whether he’s good or bad." (TV Guide Magazine)

BBC America has announced the launch of Season Three of comedy Gavin and Stacey, set for Friday, May 14th at 9 pm ET/PT, the much-delayed premiere of Season Two of Ashes to Ashes on Tuesday, May 1st at 10 pm ET/PT, and the third season premiere of comedy Not Going Out on Friday, May 14th at 9:40 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

Brannon Braga (24) has come aboard the Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin-executive produced FOX drama Terra Nova as showrunner/executive producer, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, who reports that the project--revolving around a family from 100 years in the future who return to a pre-historic Earth overrun with dinosaurs--has been given an unofficial pickup, with 13 episodes ordered. (Deadline.com)

Meanwhile, Michael Ausiello is reporting that Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler has been made a "very lucrative offer" to star in Terra Nova. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Gil McKinney (ER) has been cast in a recurring role on Friday Night Lights, where he is set to appear in at least six episodes as a married graduate teaching assistant in the college history department who falls into a relationship with Aimee Teegarden's Julie. In other casting news, Aisha Tyler and Scott Foley (The Unit) have been cast in CBS comedy pilot Open Books; Foley--who is a regular on ABC drama pilot True Blue--will guest star. (Deadline.com)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams has an interview with V star Logan Huffman about why his character, Tyler Evans, is about to change and why he's the real hero of the series. "There is something special going on with him," said Huffman of Tyler. "To be honest, people don't realize it because it's right in front of their face, but Tyler is a hero. Have you read The Hero with a Thousand Faces? He's the only character that fits every criteria. Almost every famous character does not know who his father is. Luke Skywalker! Those characters have huge hearts, but not much of a brain, and through pain they gain a real soul." (TVGuide.com)

David Hasselhoff is returning to CBS' daytime soap The Young and The Restless after an almost three decades-long absence beginning in June. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Donnie Wahlberg (Boomtown) has been cast in a two-episode story arc on TNT's upcoming drama series Rizzoli & Isles, opposite Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. He'll play Sgt. Joey Grant, Rizzoli's childhood friend who now serves as her boss. Series premieres in July. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has given a pilot presentation order to animated comedy Heel about "a man and his sociopathic dog who is jealous of his owner's family," from writer/executive producer Chris Cluess, Reveille, and Machinima. (Variety)

Elsewhere, FOX renewed Cops for a 23rd season. (Hollywood Reporter)

The premiere of Matt Smith-led Doctor Who on BBC America scored an average of 1.2 million total viewers, a record-setting telecast for the digital cabler, as well as a record for adults 25-54 (0.9). (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

TNT has shot a pilot for reality adventure project The Great Escape from executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "The show, which has a MacGyver-flavor to it, puts ordinary people in extraordinary movie-like situations challenging them to escape using only their everyday skills, team work and what they can find around them," writes Andreeva. Project shouldn't be confused with Michael Bay and Magical Elves' own adventure project, One Way Out, which is being shopped to networks. (Deadline.com)

Starz has begun to reorganize its management under recently installed president/CEO Chris Albrecht, with EVP of development Bill Hamm now out at the network and several others expected to receive pink slips. Former HBO executive Carmi Zlotnik is expected to join the pay cabler. (Variety)

Elsewhere, The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at why Albrecht is shaking up the management structure at Starz and offers some rationale as to why Hamm may have been axed. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Warner Bros. Television has signed a two-year overall deal with Fringe executive producer Jeff Pinkner, under which he will remain on board the FOX sci-fi drama as co-showrunner and will develop new projects for the studio. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The White Tulip: Forgiveness on Fringe

I'm looking for a sign of forgiveness, a specific one, a white tulip." - Walter Bishop

I've gotten more than a few emails, comments, and questions on Twitter asking what happened to my write-up of Thursday evening's transcendent episode of Fringe ("White Tulip"). Due to circumstances beyond my control (namely being out both Thursday and Friday evenings), I didn't get a chance to watch this week's episode until the weekend, a real rarity in the Televisionary household.

But now that I've seen the episode, written by J.H. Wyman and Jeff Vlaming and directed by Jeffrey G. Hunt, I thought I'd weigh in on what was a remarkable installment of a season of Fringe that has found its true format: intense mysteries of the week that are grounded by searing and powerful emotional arcs involving the central characters.

I've been shouting at the rooftops that John Noble deserves an Emmy nomination for his amazing work this season as Walter Bishop, who has deepened and grown in some very expected ways over the last few episodes. While we had believed that Walter had stolen another world's Peter to erase his grief, the truth behind his actions were far more complicated, proving once again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It's a similar trap that enmeshes MIT professor Alastair Peck (Peter Weller): a man so determined to save the life of his dead fiancee Arlette (Kristen Ross) that he's willing to do the unthinkable: sacrifice his humanity and his body in order to recreate a temporal pocket that will allow him to travel back in time and prevent the car accident that took her life.

It's a noble gesture and speaks volumes about the way that guilt and grief, those twin specters, can make us step over lines that we should never cross. While the mystery of the week deals with the Fringe team attempting to stop Peck time and time again (while beginning to experience deja vu as they repeat the same actions, each time with slightly different results), it's really the story of Walter Bishop's guilt. He's torn between telling Peter the truth about his identity and risk losing him or continuing to lie for the rest of his life.

It's that loss that propels both Peck to risk the lives of numerous people to travel back in time and Walter to rip open the fabric separating the two worlds. Both desperately want to find a way to save the lives of the people they loved and they are willing to sacrifice everything--even sanity--in order to bring them back.

But actions have consequences. Thanks to help from Walter, Peck is able to travel to that empty field with the red balloon (a gorgeous visual that's all the more creepy when he kills every crop within a specific radius) and apologize to Arlette, telling her that he loves her, just as a truck careens right into her car. Arlette is still killed but this time Peck dies with her. Does Walter's warning to him prevent him from saving Arlette? Or does he realize that he can't without altering the universe? Is it better just to have one last moment together, even if it means his own death?

Walter may have saved Peter from death but he still ended up losing him all the same. After getting a second chance with his son, is the truth worth the risk of losing him all over again? He writes Peter a letter confessing all, a letter that twice ends up nearly discovered by Peter aboard the Mass Transit train as they investigate the mysterious deaths of the passengers.

Deep inside Walter knows that he has to tell Peter the truth. Freud would say that there is no such think as a mistake: that subconsciously Walter wanted Peter to find the letter yet couldn't bring himself to give it to him. But Peter doesn't find the letter each time, narrowly escaping the truth about himself.

But after one last time around the timeloop, Walter decides to burn the letter in the fireplace. Is it enough that he wrote out those painful words? Or is it that he knows that if he's going to confess to Peter it needs to be face to face instead of via a letter? Will the truth set him free or just make things even worse?

His brief encounter with Peck sets in motion a moment of profound transcendence for Walter Bishop. Telling Peck that his experiences have reawakened a belief in the divine, he is looking for a sign that will prove that God has forgiven him for his actions: a specific sign that is so unlikely that it will prove beyond a doubt that he is worthy of grace: a white tulip.

Tormented by his own fate, Peck offers Walter something that no one else can: forgiveness. Acting as Walter's confessor, he arranges to have Walter receive an anonymous letter on the very day that he writes that letter to Peter. With no return address and no message, it contains a single card with a drawing of a white tulip.

It's a small moment but a gut-wrenchingly powerful one. Noble perfectly captures the mixture of sadness, relief, and shock running concurrently within Walter upon seeing that image.

It's additionally a sign that Fringe is becoming aware of just how to structure these episodes. I don't mind that the series isn't inherently hyper-serialized by nature if these types of installments--ones that deal with the procedural and the emotional--continue to define this season and the next. While the plots may be designed to shock, surprise, or scare, it's the characters--and their inherent imperfections--that keep us all coming back week after week.

This week on Fringe ("The Man From the Other Side"), the team investigates the murder of two teenagers found at an abandoned warehouse with three puncture wounds to the soft palate, a trademark of the shape-shifters; discovering a shape-shifting embryo, Walter returns to the lab to conduct further analysis; Olivia and Peter head to Massive Dynamic for answers; Peter reveals a family secret to Olivia as Walter struggles to recall what Newton knows about "building a door."

Channel Surfing: Fringe Musical, Conan Heads to TBS, Ryan Devlin Checks into Grey's, Fred Willard, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an exclusive first-look at the upcoming musical episode of FOX's Fringe, set to air April 29th. "We didn’t set out to do a musical," Fringe's executive producer Jeff Pinkner told Ausiello. "We set out to do an episode that explored Walter’s state of mind — he’s dealing with some very upsetting news. When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome." [Editor: Hmmm, just what could that "very upsetting news" be?] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

A rather big speed bump has emerged during the ongoing talks between Conan O'Brien at FOX. Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd and Matthew Belloni are reporting that while the negotiations between the former Tonight Show host and FOX have been smooth, O'Brien won't commit to a late night talk show with FOX unless the network "can guarantee that stations will air his show in all or nearly all of the country." Which is a significant problem as some affiliates are less than excited by the idea of Coco taking over their late night timeslots, currently home to syndicated programming. The issue has so far prevented O'Brien from entering into "exclusive negotiations" with FOX, with his team continuing to look at other options outside of FOX, which wants to air O'Brien's new series weeknights from 11 pm to midnight. (Hollywood Reporter)

UPDATE! Hold the presses: O'Brien's team has opted not to sign with FOX and has instead concluded a deal with cabler TBS. Yes, you read that correctly. O'Brien's team has signed with TBS for a latenight talk show that will air between 11 pm and midnight on the basic cabler, a move that will push George Lopez's eponymous talker to midnight. "In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable," said O'Brien in a statement released by TBS. "My plan is working perfectly." The move pushes the comedy-oriented TBS into a place of prominence. "Conan has been the comedic voice for a generation. TBS already has a huge audience of young comedy lovers, and Conan’s show will give these fans even more reasons to watch our network," said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks. (via press release)

Ryan Devlin (Cougar Town) will guest star in the May 20th season finale of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, who reports that Devlin will play Bill, the husband of Mandy Moore's character Mary, who is a patient at Seattle Grace. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Mandi Bierly has an interview with the uber-talented Fred Willard, who will next been seen on Castle, Modern Family, and Chuck. Willard, set to reprise his role as Phil's dad on Modern Family, will guest star on Chuck as half of a super-spy couple. "That was an interesting one, because I play a part I’d always thought I was right for — a spy," said Willard about his upcoming turn on Chuck. "I’m with Swoosie Kurtz on that, we’re a bickering spy couple, kind of like Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers played [on Hart to Hart], and we’re showing the ropes to the young Chuck and his partner. And it’s like a real did we double-cross them or did we triple-cross them? That was a lot of fun." (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

Delroy Lindo (Kidnapped) has been cast as one of the leads in Shawn Ryan's FOX cop drama pilot Ride-Along, opposite Jason Clarke and Jennifer Beals. Lindo will play "a longtime building magnate-turned-politician who is loved by his constituents, but there have always been whispers about possible ties to organized," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC ordered a pilot for gameshow Secret Treasure, in which six contestants compete against one another as they answer trivia questions and try to steal one another's cash-laden "secret treasure boxes." Project, from ITV Studios, was created by Jeff Apploff. (Variety)

CBS, meanwhile, ordered a pilot for a revival of classic gameshow Pyramid, from Sony Pictures Television and Michael Davies (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire), which would replace As the World Turns in its daytime lineup. (Hollywood Reporter)

Starz is reportedly developing a series adaptation of culinary critic Gael Greene's 2006 autobiography "Insatiable: Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess," about her "gastronomic and erotic adventures" in 1970s and 1980s Manhattan. Starz will produce the potential one-hour drama series with Robert Lantos' Serendipity Point Films and Rob Lee's Bayonne Entertainment. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Grey Damon (90210) has been cast in Season Five of Friday Night Lights as a series regular. He'll play Hastings Ruckle, described as a "sexy, laid back basketball player who ends up joining the Lions as a wide receiver." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Ziff's production company Cooper's Town is developing an HBO drama series based on Samantha Peale's novel "The American Painter Emma Dial," about a woman coming to terms with her identity crisis as she works within the Manhattan art world. Sarah Treem (In Treatment) will adapt. It's unknown whether the potential drama series would air as a half-hour or one-hour. (Variety)

Warner Bros. Television has signed a two-script deal with Miss Guided creator Caroline Williams--currently a consulting producer on ABC's Modern Family--under which she will develop two comedy projects for the studio, including a single-camera comedy project with executive producer J.J. Abrams. (Hollywood Reporter)

Chris Gethard (The Other Guys) will replace Jon Heder in the Comedy Central comedy series Big Lake. Series, ordered for ten episodes by the cabler, has an option for an additional 90 episodes. (Variety)

Showtime's Marc Wootton comedy La La Land is heading across the pond to BBC Three. (Broadcast)

Law & Order's Sam Waterston will guest star on the April 28th episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. "For the first time in Law & Order: SVU’s eleven year history, Sam will show up in the SVU squad room," executive producer Neal Baer told Keck. (TV Guide Magazine)

SPOILER! Taylor Momsen will be MIA when Gossip Girl returns next season. At least at first, anyway. Citing a source close to Gossip Girl's production, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Momsen will be absent from the CW drama series for an unknown number of episodes but her temporary departure is for creative reasons. "When you watch the finale," the unnamed insider told Ausiello, "you’ll see that we’re doing something very big with her character." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Sony Pictures Television, Scott Free Television, Tandem Communications, and Peace Out Prods. is developing a four-hour mini-series based on Robert Harris' historical novel "Pompei." (Variety)

ABC will flip Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice on April 22nd, swapping the timeslots for each medical drama for one week. According to the Fuon Critic, "The Grey's/Practice swap... is simply to avoid having original episodes of FlashForward and Practice bookend a second run Grey's." (Futon Critic)

Holly Marie Combs (Charmed) has been cast in ABC Family's upcoming drama series Pretty Little Liars, where she will play the mother of Aria (Lucy Hale), one of four teenage girls who are bound together by a dark secret. She'll be playing opposite Chad Lowe, recently cast as Aria's father, who replaces Alexis Denisof. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

MTV has renewed reality series The Buried Life for a second season. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Elsewhere, Spike has renewed reality series 1000 Ways to Die for its fourth and fifth seasons. Move comes before the third season of the Original Prods.-produced series has even debuted. (Variety)

And NBC has renewed The Sing-Off for a second season. The Sony Pictures Television-produced musical competition series will return for eight episodes next season. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Stay tuned.

The Weight of a Secret: Truth and Clues on Fringe

"Some Pandora's boxes are better left unopened." - Olivia Dunham

Secrets are funny things.

On the one hand, secrets are admissions of sort to an inner circle of trust; knowledge is, after all, power and knowing a secret gives one enormous sway over another. But that's also a hefty responsibility to shoulder: to carry around the weight of knowledge, to feel the pressure from such an onus.

On this week's episode Fringe ("Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver."), Agent Olivia Dunham is feeling that weight digging into her subsconcious. In learning the truth about Peter, she's become, in a way, complicit in Walter's betrayal of Peter, agreeing to carry the guilt of what he's done to his son, to perpetuate the fraud that's been perpetuated for decades.

Despite Olivia's vast reserves of strength, it's proving to be a burden that she doesn't want to shoulder any longer. She heard Walter's shocking confession in last week's episode ("Peter"), but instead of granting her a sense of solidarity with Walter Bishop, it's resulting in a splintering of the makeshift family the Fringe Division has established.

It's also ripped her apart from Peter Bishop just as they were possibly about to embark on a romantic journey together. Which, to me anyway, is a good thing: I much prefer these two as spiritual kinsmen than lovers. They had their moment to connect in a romantic sense and they missed it, particularly after Olivia discovered the truth about Peter's identity.

That knowledge has pushed the two of them apart and has had Olivia behaving extremely aloof and shifty towards Peter. I was glad to see Peter attempt to address the sudden distance between them with the scene in the car, though he believed that the cause of it was their almost-kiss in Jacksonville. Given what Olivia knows, being around Peter is just too painful and too fraught with complication. But I was happy to see them acknowledge the fact that they've grown fond of the weird little family they've built together and neither one of them wants to jeopardize that: not Peter for the promise of a relationship with Olivia... or Olivia by attempting to tell Peter the truth.

While Olivia must come face to face with a bizarre mystery that connects to her own shadowy childhood, she's also attempting to come to grips with what Walter did to her as a child, a fact that's clouding her judgment when it comes to Peter as well. Her inability to sleep does point to the fact that she's ambivalent about what she should do regarding keeping this secret. Is it better to tell the truth for the sake of telling the truth? Or do some truths more hurtful than others?

Nina was right that Olivia didn't go to Massive Dynamic to demand information that she didn't have (and Nina was telling her truth based on that final scene between Nina and Broyles) nor did she go there to warn her that she was going to expose Walter's secret. No, she was there so that Nina could talk her out of it and therefore free her from the feelings of guilt she was experiencing in keeping the truth buried. After all, her job is to expose the truth, to punish the wicked, and to protect the innocent. In colluding with Walter to keep Peter's identity under wraps, she is failing her own basic calling.

Or at least that's what Olivia is wondering about. In reality, she'd be shattering Peter's world forever and that's not her right to do so. I loved the scene between Olivia and Walter as both of them revealed that they had each changed their mind about how to proceed: Olivia had understood that no good would come from telling Peter and Walter that he had to face up to the consequences of his action, no matter what the outcome. Peter has a right to know about his identity and Walter's efforts to take control of his secret and to share the truth with Peter is a remarkable tipping point for the character. The past, after all, never stays buried... So why not be the one to do the digging yourself?

I'm glad that the writers have kept Kevin Corrigan's Sam Weiss in the picture. It's nice to see Olivia have an outlet outside of the Fringe Division, particularly since the death of Charlie Francis, and Sam is a quirky and intriguing character. The little spark between them--their easy rapport and the fact that Sam turned up in the middle of the night with Clue--is a great change of pace for the series. I'm not sure where their storyline is going but I'm completely invested in their friendship and hope that Corrigan sticks around for a while.

Likewise, I'm also glad that Nina Sharp is being pulled further back into the main focus of the series. Nina's hung around for far too long on the, er, fringes of the series and was too often relegated to the periphery. Instead, she should be a valuable--if shifty--ally for the Fringe Division. The aforementioned scene with Broyles points to the team and Massive Dynamic working more closely together to track down the other cortexiphan trial subjects--and the man seeking to activate them--and I'm hoping that we see a lot more of Blair Brown's Nina in the weeks to come.

All in all, another fantastic episode of Fringe that featured a compelling mystery of the week (though I wish one of the team members had mentioned the fact that the killer's attacks were suddenly increasing at an alarming rate) as well as an installment that placed the focus on the relationships between the core characters and their backstories. My only complaint: that more people aren't watching this remarkable series.

Next week on Fringe ("White Tulip"), when passengers aboard a commuter train appear to have died a still death, it seems that a switch was flipped because all cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, batteries and bodies have been drained of power; Peter remains suspicious that something is amiss with Walter; the investigation leads the Fringe Division to Alistair Peck, a very powerful man who wields tremendous energy with severe consequences.

Channel Surfing: Paula Malcomson to Sons of Anarchy, Seth Gabel Lands Fringe, Chris Fedak Talks Chuck, Star Wars, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Paula Malcomson (Caprica) has been cast in an eight-episode story arc on Season Three of FX's Sons of Anarchy, where she will play a character named Maureen. Sons of Anarchy is expected to return to FX's lineup in September, with production slated to begin in roughly three weeks' time. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Seth Gabel (Dirty Sexy Money) has joined the cast of FOX's Fringe. Gabel will play the lead Fringe Division investigator in the alternate universe and is slated to make his first appearance during the season's two-part finale, airing May 13th and 20th, and could, according to Ausiello, also recur next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The second half of Maureen Ryan's mammoth interview with Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak is now live at The Chicago Tribune. In this section, they talk about the plot twists from last night's episode--originally planned as the season finale--and what else is coming up on the next six episodes. "We looked at the 13 episodes as going from the low point of Chuck and Sarah’s relationship – that his decision to be a spy [potentially would] fundamentally change who she thinks he is, [going] to the point in Episode 13 that Chuck, even though now he is a spy and now a hero and can do amazing things, he’s still the same guy," Fedak told Ryan. "At the core of Chuck, he is still the guy that she originally fell in love with." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Lucasfilm is developing another Star Wars series but--shocker!--this time it's as an animated comedy. No network is currently attached to the project, nor is there an episodic count yet. Project will be written by Brendan Hay, with Seth Green and Matthew Senriech--of Robot Chicken fame--serving as consultants on the project, which will be directed by Todd Grimes and produced by Jennifer Hill and which will "look at the saga's characters with a playful and irreverent tone." (Variety)

Sharon Lawrence (Curb Your Enthusiasm) has been cast in Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller's CBS comedy pilot Hitched, where she will play the prim and nosy mother of Kristin Kreuk's Rachel, who has recently gotten married. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has pulled comedy Sons of Tucson from its schedule, effective immediately, and will burn off remaining episodes of the low-rated series this summer beginning June 6th. Network will fill the Sundays at 9:30 pm ET/PT slot with American Dad. Additionally, FOX confirmed that the series finale of 'Til Death will air on Sunday, June 20th. (Variety)

ABC has given a series order to game show Downfall, from FremantleMedia North America, in which contestants must answer trivia questions while perched on the top of a skyscraper, from which their winnings could be thrown off of if they lose. Project, which has been received an unknown episode commitment, will be executive produced by Scott St. John. (Hollywood Reporter)

Southland producers are still in the dark about the fate of the TNT cop drama series. "The actors are on hold and there's a cutoff date in June by which they have to be notified," producer Christopher Chulack told Variety. "We're hoping for a decision in mid-to-late April." [Editor: fingers crossed.] (Variety)

NBC has ordered second seasons of its three newest reality series offerings, The Marriage Ref, Minute to Win It, and Who Do You Think You Are, all of which will return at some point during the 2010-11 season with Ref getting a 13-episode pickup while the latter two have been renewed for ten episodes apiece. (Variety)

Elsewhere, the Peacock has cut back on its commitment to freshman medical drama Trauma, which will now only produce 18 installments this season rather than the previously announced 20 episodes. Trauma will wrap its season on Monday, April 16th as a result. (Futon Critic)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to V stars Scott Wolf and Laura Vandervoort about what's coming up on the ABC sci-fi series, which returned last week with the first of eight episodes. "We start to see a Chad Dekker who has his better senses telling him that it's time to start paying attention to what might really be going on," Wolf said about his character, Chad Decker. "Once his skepticism and fear take hold, he has to figure out where to go because he can't just run away from the Visitors, but he also can't keep running in the dark. He is really playing both sides, waiting to see who's going to win." (TVGuide.com)

USA has announced their development slate, which includes projects from Steve Carell, Thom Hinkle and John Michael Higgins, Aaron Jorsh, Becky Hartman Edwards, Gay Walch, Mark and Robb Cullen, Gail Gilchriest and Kevin Murphy, Steve Stark, and others. (Variety)

ABC is looking to lend a hand to its Friday night reality series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution by pulling this week's planned episode of Wife Swap and instead airing a repeat of last week's Revolution in the 8 pm hour, according to The Wrap's Josef Adalian. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck talks to Desperate Housewives creator/executive producer Marc Cherry about the identity of the Fairview Strangler, offering up six possible suspects in the ongoing murder plot, which will be resolved on April 18th. (TV Guide Magazine)

More drama on Wisteria Lane. Former Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan has sued executive producer Marc Cherry, ABC, ABC Studios, and Touchstone Television for $20 million, claiming that she had been physically assaulted by Cherry on the set of Housewives and, when she complained, was fired. "While we have yet to see the actual complaint," said ABC Studios in a statement, "we investigated similar claims made by Ms. Sheridan last year and found them to be without merit." (Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq.)

ABC has pushed back the launch of its romantic comedy Romantically Challenged--starring Alyssa Milano--by a week, to Monday, April 19th. (Futon Critic)

Gillian Zinser (90210) will star in MTV original telepic The Truth Below, which recounts "teen angst and betrayal on a disastrous ski vacation" that leaves four friends trapped under an avalanche. Project, shooting this week in Calgary, is written by Wendy Diane Miller and directed by Scott Glosserman. (Variety)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Hugh Laurie's Gregory House and Olivia Wilde's Thirteen will find themselves at a Renaissance Fair on the April 19th episode of House. "[Thirteen] is always tough and not particularly girly, but in this episode she shows she likes to have fun and play dress-up," Wilde told Keck. "The Renaissance had their hierarchy, and I’m not very high up. I think I’m a wench!" (TV Guide Magazine)

Stay tuned.

Grave Intentions: Stepping Through the Cracks on "Fringe"

"There is only one God in this lab and it is not yours." - Walter Bishop

I said a lot of what I had to say about this week's remarkable episode of Fringe ("Peter"), in my advance review from earlier this week, but I can't pass up an opportunity to again throw my support behind a get-John-Noble-an-Emmy-straightaway campaign, particularly with regard to his staggeringly powerful performance in last night's episode.

How Noble has been passed over in the past for a supporting actor nod is absolutely beyond me, but his deft and evocative turn in "Peter" is one for the history books, as he offered not one, but three, very different incarnations of Walter Bishop over the course of a single episode. No mean feat, especially when Noble managed to more or less carry the installment on his shoulders as the only series regular to appear in more than a handful of scenes. (In fact, he's in every scene, save one or two.)

Last night's episode of Fringe offered the television equivalent of a swift kick to the gut, delivering an episode that not only peeled back the layers of mythology to reveal some plot twists and intriguing reveals but also to deliver emotionally wrenching hour of television about the ache of loss and the fact that good intentions can quite literally lead one right to hell.

"Peter" was a risky episode but it proves the unpredictability of Fringe as a series itself. Set almost entirely in the past, the episode recounts the struggles of Walter as he comes to grips with the death of his son and the near-shattering of his marriage as a result. Maddened with a sense of grief, he sets out to right the wrong, to save Peter in the only way he knows how.

We see a very different Walter Bishop here: a devoted father and husband who is still the partner of William Bell and still very much in possession of his sanity. But loss can change a person in unseen ways. Using the window he created (and demonstrated to the US military earlier in the episode with associate Dr. Carla Warren) to peer into the other reality, Walter watches in horror as his double--or "Walternate" as he calls him--nearly finds a cure for his own ailing son, but is distracted by the appearance of The Observer.

There is no greater misery than a parent's loss. Walter cannot and will not stand by idly and watch as Peter dies again. The only thing that is keeping him going right now--as he tells his wife Elizabeth (the always fantastic Orla Brady)--is the fact that somewhere, Peter will get better, will grow older, will live a happy life. Even if they can't share in that life, there's comfort to know that he's out there somewhere.

But that other Peter's existence is in jeopardy. Acting against the warnings of Carla Warren (Big Love's Jenni Blong) and Nina Sharp, Walter opens a gateway to the alternate reality, breaking all manner of theoretical and physical laws of nature (and leading to the war in which two world are now enmeshed), in order to save Peter. Which is significant in and of itself. We had always incorrectly assumed that Walter traveled to the other world to take Peter, to kidnap him, and bring him back here, in order to serve as a replacement for his own dead child.

Not so, and that's perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of this story. Walter rips open a wormhole between dimensions in order to save someone else's child. He prepares the compound that he believes will save Other Peter's life and sets out to restore his health before he returns to his own world.

But Walter didn't take certain factors into account, most notably the arrival at Reiden Lake of Nina and Carla. Nina believes that William Bell would not want Walter doing this, would not want him breaking through the dimensional barrier that separates the two worlds and she attempts to stop him, even though she hasn't spoken to Bell in quite some time. Nor did he anticipate that Nina would physically attempt to prevent him from crossing through that gateway; in the struggle, the vial containing the chemical compound is shattered, leaving Walter on the other side without the one thing he needed.

(The struggle also causes the loss of Nina's arm, the resolution to a dangling plot thread that has existed since the series' pilot, and this episode also reveals the identity of the doomed lab assistant whom Walter will inadvertently kill in Carla Warren, which itself leads to Walter's incarceration at St. Clare's. Poor Dr. Warren.)

Walter's original intention was altruistic. So too was his decision to take Other Peter back to his world and then return him once he was better. But be made a cardinal error: he couldn't lose his son a second time. The look on Elizabeth's face as he "reunites" her with Peter speaks volumes: there was no going back for them. The cracks that Walter caused weren't just between the worlds but in their relationship and in Peter. Something broken cannot be fixed and lines crossed cannot so easily be uncrossed. Walter may have saved Peter's life but the cost was tremendous: he lost his soul and caused the wall between the worlds to be forever broken.

Intriguingly, it's the Other Peter, not Walter, who is important. So important that The Observer risked being seen in order to witness the compound being created and he crosses worlds in order to save the lives of Walter and Peter beneath the lake after they fall through the ice. "The boy is important, he has to live," he tells Walter later. But why exactly? Because he's the child of Walternate? Because he is the reason why the war begins? Because he's the cause of the cracks in the wall? Hmmm...

All in all, a simply fantastic episode of Fringe that brought the humorous (the title sequence, the zeppelins, Eric Stolz starring in Back to the Future) and the gut-wrenching as we finally see an accurate portrait of Walter Bishop: the man he was and the man he is now. One need not have a window to another world to see that the cracks in his personality were ones stemming from that precise moment he made his fateful decision. But the true cost of his actions remains to be seen. He may have made his confession to Olivia but the true test will come once Peter learns of his true identity... and the lengths Walter Bishop went through to save his life.

Next week on Fringe ("Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver."), a perfectly healthy woman is found dead from a disease she never had, leading the Fringe team to investigate the origin of this inexplicably fatal condition before it claims victims that are more innocent; Olivia struggles to keep Walter's secret from Peter, and her loyalty to Peter is tested as time goes on.

Tune-in Reminder: FOX's "Fringe" Returns Tonight!

Been missing Fringe? You're not alone.

FOX's sci-fi drama series Fringe returns tonight with the first of eight brand-new episodes and tonight's installment ("Peter") isn't one that should be missed, as Walter (John Noble) turns back the clocks to reveal the secret history of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) to an incredulous Olivia (Anna Torv).

You can read my advance review of tonight episode's here and be sure to come back tomorrow to discuss the episode in-depth and share your thoughts about how much John Noble is deserving of an Emmy nomination.

Fringe returns at 9 pm ET/PT tonight on FOX.

Channel Surfing: "24" Producer Urges Patience, More on Matt Damon and "30 Rock," "Mad Men" Looks to Diversify Emmy Noms, "Grey's," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to 24 executive producer Howard Gordon about this season's ridiculous storyline involving Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh. "God almighty there has been a Dana backlash," Gordon told Ausiello. "I understand how it appears [to be] tiresome and lazy storytelling, but I really would betray anyone to try to sit in our chair and figure out how to do 24 continuous, real-time episodes, without using certain devices. I would implore people to be more patient with Dana." [Editor: out of curiosity, I'd love to know what readers think of Dana's plotline...] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has more details on Matt Damon's upcoming appearance on 30 Rock, where he'll be playing--gasp!--a love interest for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon and he may appear in more than one episode. "Though 30 Rock's producers are still hammering out all the details, sources tell me NBC is hoping to get Matt on for multiple episodes," writes Dos Santos. "However, Matt is shooting another project this spring, so it all depends on Matt's schedule and whether 30 Rock can be squeezed in. So at this point only one Damon-Lemon episode is guaranteed, but there may be more." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Do you consider Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss a supporting actress? In this year's Emmy Awards race, she is. Looking to score two actress nominations this year, Mad Men's producers are putting Moss into the supporting category instead of the lead actress pool, according to the Hollywood Reporter's Randee Dawn. The idea would be to prevent Moss and fellow Mad Men actress January Jones competing for votes in the same category. "Sources tell us the thinking is that January Jones, snubbed last year and the year before, will have a better chance in the lead actress category without competition from Moss, so great as corporate climber Peggy Olson," writes Dawn. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has the details on whether the whereabouts of Katherine Heigl's Izzie will be addressed on screen on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. "They’re definitely not going to pretend she never existed," writes Ausiello. "In fact, I’m told the Izzie issue will be addressed during May sweeps. For her part, Katherine Heigl thinks her Jan. 21 farewell — while not originally intended to be her last episode — oddly works as a bookend to Izzie’s story." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Monica Breen and Alison Schapker (Brothers & Sisters) have been hired as co-executive producers on FOX's Fringe and will also develop new series projects for Warner Bros. Television, likely in connection with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot shingle. (Hollywood Reporter)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant talks to CSI: NY executive producer Pam Veasey about the decision facing Gary Sinise's Mac Taylor when former girlfriend Peyton Driscoll (Claire Forlani) returns to his life. It's actually like he doesn't have to make the choice; it may be that these two women are trying to make the choice for him," Veasey told Bryant. "It's a great place for a character to be in: There's an old love who could return or a new relationship and new possibilities. These are two very smart, talented, attractive women that are in his life." (TVGuide.com)

ITV has commissioned a fifth season of medical drama series Doc Martin, expected to launch in 2011. (Broadcast)

Syfy has partnered with After Dark to produce two telepics slated to air on the cabler's Saturday night feature franchise including Scream of the Banshee, which will star Lauren Holly and Lance Henriksen, and 51. (Hollywood Reporter)

A&E has ordered six episodes of docusoap Growing Up Twisted, which will feature former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, his wife, and their three children. Elsewhere, the cabler ordered twelve episodes of Heavy, which will focus on individuals who are crippled by their weight and who struggle to slim down. A&E also ordered four episodes of Ice-T-executive produced The Peacemaker, about gang interventionist Malik Spellman, and ten episodes of The Squad: Prison Police, about the police force inside a Tennessee prison. (Variety)

David Lyle, the former president of Fox Reality Channel, has been tapped as the head of Fox Look, described as "a new international-fueled division of Fox Network Group" that will license and produce unscripted programming for the international market. He will report to Tony Vinciquerra and work closely with 20th Century Fox International's Marion Edwards. (Variety)

Lionsgate Television has hired MGM executive Priscilla Pesci as SVP of television marketing, where she will have oversight of domestic and international marketing for the studio's television division and will report to Peter Iacono. Additionally, Tori Crotts has been promoted to executive director of TV marketing. (Hollywood Reporter)

Season Three of Comedy Central's Supreme Court of Comedy will feature Jamie Kennedy, Kevin Nealon, Jeff Garlin, Paul Mooney, and Tom Arnold. The new season is slated to launch on the cabler in June. (Variety)

Bob Oswaks has departed his position as TV marketing chief at Sony Pictures Television. No immediate reason was given but The Wrap's Josef Adalian indicated, via an unnamed source, that "the decision to leave wasn't his own." He had reported to Steve Mosko. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

TBS has hired former Carsey-Werner development chief Kathryn Ann Busby as VP of comedy development. She will be based in Los Angeles and report to Lillah McCarthy. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

The Open Window: An Advance Review of This Week's "Fringe"

There are some lines, which once crossed, cannot be uncrossed.

FOX's sci-fi series Fringe returns later this week with a phenomenal episode ("Peter") that offers a look into the secret history of Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson). Airing Thursday evening, this episode might just be the very best of the season, if not the entire series, and should--if there was any justice in the world--net John Noble a well-deserved Emmy nomination.

After the winter finale found Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) learning of Peter's true identity, this week's episode of Fringe ("Peter"), written by Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, and Josh Singer and directed by David Straiton, offers viewers a look back into the distant past as Walter (Noble) confesses to Olivia the reasons behind his actions.

While Walter's words to Olivia comprise a narrative framework for the episode, the majority of the action takes place in the 1980s as Walter spins a tale of a father's loss and a fateful act of hubris that could destroy two worlds in the balance.

In the past, I've contended that Noble should get an Emmy nomination for his work on Fringe as Walter Bishop but he's never been in finer form than he is in this installment as Noble plays not one but three different incarnations of Walter, peeling away the layers of his character: his scientific drive, his noble quest to save a child's life, his fatal flaws that render all of his actions irrevocably damaged.

In this single episode, Noble manages to embody all of the disparate elements of Walter's personality, from his determination and altruism to his myopia and selfishness. In the process, we learn more about Walter than we have in nearly two seasons, as well as some of the other characters who populate the off-kilter world of Fringe. There's a great and well-earned reveal in this episode that I won't spoil here but which suddenly makes the dynamics between three characters all the more clear.

Kudos go out to Irish actress Orla Brady (Mistresses), who here plays Walter's long-suffering wife and Peter's mother. Her fate is still a mystery but in the 1985-set storyline here, Brady embodies Walter's better half with a nice combination of grit and sadness.

I don't want to say too much about "Peter" because I don't want to spoil what is a truly remarkable installment of this series. It's one that manages to inform without exposition and mines the past without hitting us over the head with an anvil. It's a gripping exploration of what makes Walter tick and the actions that define us as parents and human beings.

It's also a somber manifesto that pays homage to that old adage: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For all of Walter's curiosity and benevolence, his quest to save his dying son rips open a tear in the fabric of reality that cannot so easily be mended, a window between two worlds that enables everything that has come after this pivotal moment on the series.

Ultimately, "Peter" is first-rate television: thought-provoking, challenging, and illuminating. It's an installment that will remain with you long after the credits have rolled and one that points to the underlying possibilities and potential of this series. Just be sure not to miss the tongue-in-cheek opening credit sequence, one that owes a little debt of gratitude for 1980s-set series Ashes to Ashes but which nicely acts as a window to another time in its own right.

Fringe returns Thursday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

The Daily Beast: "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring"

Looking for something to watch this spring?

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring," where I round up fifteen new and returning series airing this spring--from Doctor Who, V, Nurse Jackie, and Fringe to Treme, Peep Show, and Top Chef Masters, among others--as well as some major events like the end of ABC's Lost in May.

What are you most looking forward to this spring and what's caught your fancy as your latest television obsession? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Channel Surfing: FOX Renews "Fringe," "Doctor Who," Rob Thomas Talks Adam Scott and "Party Down," Kathy Bates Circles "Kindreds," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Good news for Fringe fans: the Pattern will be continuing next season. FOX has officially renewed the drama series for a third season this fall. "Fringe tapped into a deep creative mine this year that built momentum throughout the season and helped give us our first real foothold on TV’s most competitive night,” said Kevin Reilly, President, Entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company, in a statement. "The entire Fringe team – from the producers and writers to the cast and crew – has taken smart storytelling and top production quality to a whole new level. The rest of this season is mind-blowing, and we can’t wait to get started on the third installment of this amazing journey." Meanwhile, Fringe resumes with eight all-new episodes on Thursday, April 1st. (via press release)

The Guardian's Simon Hattenstone has a huge profile of new Doctor Who star Matt Smith, who takes over the mantle of the Doctor from former star David Tennant next month when Season Five of Doctor Who launches on BBC One and BBC America. "He's a little reckless," said Smith of his take on the Doctor. "He'll walk into a room and have a million things to do. And, as opposed to knowing exactly how to get out, he'll take it up to the precipice: don't know, don't know, don't know, and boom, there's the idea. And it's a bit mad and reckless. It's very doof, doof, doof. And he's got a companion who I think is the hardest to handle. And she's quite mad. But the Doctor's quite mad as well. So together..." (Guardian)

Wondering what will happen to Season Three of Party Down now that Adam Scott has been cast in NBC's Parks and Recreation? You're not alone. Alan Sepinwall tracked down executive producer Rob Thomas to find out what's going on. "Adam will be allowed to do three guest star spots for us," Thomas told Sepinwall. "We can definitely still do the show without Adam, though we're all collectively entering about the third stage of grief over here. We'd much, much prefer to be doing the show with him. Adam hated leaving the show, but they made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and in a world where our Party Down future isn't guaranteed, he understandably felt like he needed to take the offer. We've been told that in order to return for a third season, our second season numbers need to come up from where they were. We're praying that, even with Adam gone, Starz continues with a big marketing campaign for Season Two." The second season of Party Down will premiere next month on Starz. (What's Alan Watching)

Academy Award winner Kathy Bates is reportedly in final talks to topline David E. Kelley's NBC legal drama pilot Kindreds in a role that was originally written for a man. Bates, currently in the middle of a multiple-episode story arc on NBC's The Office, would play a "curmudgeonly former patent lawyer." (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jesse Plemons will not be returning full-time for Season Five of Friday Night Lights after his contract option was not picked up. "With Jesse — as with previous cast members who have moved on — Pete Berg, myself and the producers of the show let the storytelling guide us, and we feel we didn’t have substantial enough storylines to justify keeping such an immensely talented actor from pursuing what we know will continue to be a very successful career," executive producer Jason Katims told Ausiello. "Jesse has created one of Friday Night Lights' finest and most beloved characters, and I can tell you this was not an easy decision." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Breckin Meyer (Robot Chicken) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Raising the Bar) have been cast as the leads in TBS' one-hour comedy pilot Franklin & Bash, about two best friends who are street lawyers and who are recruited to work at a white-shoe firm. Project, from Sony Pictures Television, is written by Kevin Falls and Bill Chais, who will executive produce alongside Jamie Tarses. Elsewhere at TBS, Tim Meadows and Kelly Blatz have joined the cast of comedy pilot Glory Daze, where they will star alongside Julianna Guill, Callard Harris, Matt Bush, Hartley Sawyer, and Drew Seeley. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Big Bang Theory executive producer Bill Prady wants to approach Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy about a cameo appearance on the CBS multi-camera comedy next season. "We’ll probably make a general inquiry," Prady told Ausiello. "And if there’s enough interest, we’ll develop a story. The fans have said that’s the dream get, and we agree." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Kyle Bornheimer (Romantically Challenged) has landed the lead in CBS' untitled comedy pilot from Carter Bays and Craig Thomas about an unmarried couple and their friends living in Pittsburgh. Bornheimer, whose participation here is in second position to ABC's Romantically Challenged, will play Tommy, described as "the lovable, slightly unkempt and highly entertaining half of the couple who means well but doesn't always finish what he starts." (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting roundup: Scott Foley (Cougar Town) has come aboard ABC cop drama pilot True Blue; Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) will star opposite Debra Messing in ABC comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong (also cast: The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch); Tim Peper (Carpoolers) will star in FOX comedy pilot Most Likely to Succeed; Nicholas Bishop (Past Life) will play one of the leads in ABC crime drama pilot Body of Evidence; Aly Michalka (Phil of the Future) and Gail O'Grady (Hidden Palms) have been cast in CW drama pilot Hellcats; James Patrick Stuart (90210) and Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock) have joined the cast of ABC comedy pilot It Takes a Village; Michael Cassidy (Privileged) will play one of the leads in NBC comedy pilot The Pink House; Jessy Schram (Life) scored one of the leads in CW supernatural drama pilot Betwixt, Dorian Missick (Six Degrees) has joined the cast of NBC vigilante drama pilot The Cape; and Ryan Hawley (Survivors) has been cast in the untitled Amy Sherman-Palladino's untitled Wyoming project at the CW. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has named Brooke Burke as the co-host of Dancing with the Stars. The Season Seven winner will appear alongside Tom Bergeron for the Spring 2010 season of Dancing, which launches Monday, March 22nd. (via press release)

WABC and Cablevision were able to reach an eleventh hour retransmssion deal last night, just in time for the first award to be presented at last night's Academy Awards telecast. "We've made significant progress, and have reached an agreement in principle that recognizes the fair value of ABC7, with deal points that we expect to finalize with Cablevision," said WABC prexy/GM Rebecca Campbell in a statement. "Given this movement, we're pleased to announce that ABC7 will return to Cablevision households while we work to complete our negotiations." (Variety)

Another project is rolling over into next year: CBS confirmed that it had pushed its untitled Tad Quill comedy to the next development season after it was unable to cast its central character, the widowed father of a 12-year-old boy. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC Family has acquired the first broadcast window for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, securing the rights from Walt Disney Co. to begin airing the feature film in 2012 in a deal that is believed to be more than $20 million. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Stay tuned.