TCA Awards: Critics Honor Glee, Modern Family, The Pacific, Lost, Breaking Bad, Jane Lynch, Julianna Margulies, and More

At an awards ceremony hosted by Parenthood's Dax Shepard this evening in Beverly Hills, the Television Critics Association announced their award winners for 2010 as part of the annual summer press tour held twice a year by the professional organization.

Among the winners: Glee, Modern Family, The Pacific, Lost, Breaking Bad, Jane Lynch, and The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies.

Glee took home the top prizes for both Program of the Year and Outstanding New Program while the FOX musical-comedy's Jane Lynch walked away with the prize for Individual Achievement in Comedy. Her counterpart on the drama side? Julianna Margulies, who walked away with the award for Individual Achievement in Drama.

ABC's Modern Family was named the recipient of Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, while Lost and AMC's Breaking Bad tied for Outstanding Achievement in Drama.

In the other categories, James Garner received the Career Achievement award, while the Heritage Award went to M*A*S*H. The news and information category went to Discovery's Life, Nick Jr.'s Yo Gabba Gabba took home the top prize in Youth Programming, and HBO's World War II mini-series The Pacific was awarded an outstanding achievement prize in the movies, miniseries, and specials division.

UPDATE: Just home from the TCA Awards themselves. The highlights of the evening? Dax Shepard hosting (seriously, I take back every bad thing I've said about Dax over the years) and doing both a pitch-perfect Owen Wilson impression (admonishing a "fat" Luke Wilson for doing those ubiquitous mobile phone TV ads) and Arnold Schwarzenegger to boot; Tom Hank's acceptance speech for The Pacific ("This is the last time I f---ing dress up for you); the entire Television Critics Association singing happy birthday to Modern Family's Rico Rodriguez on his twelfth birthday; Damon Lindelof reading off mean-spirited tweets he received after the Lost series finale; the standing ovation for M*A*S*H; Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan taking some digs at former ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson; and Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan teasing four things that Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester says in the second season premiere of Glee, including "You should’ve gone with the poop cookies, Will." (Yes, seriously.)

The full press release--along with the full list of the winners--can be found below.

THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES 2010 TCA AWARDS WINNERS

Fox’s “Glee” Takes Home Multiple Honors as “Program of the Year,” “Outstanding New Program” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy” for winning actress Jane Lynch
“Modern Family,” “The Pacific,” “The Good Wife,” “Life,” “Breaking Bad” and “Lost” are honored along with “M*A*S*H” and James Garner
BEVERLY HILLS – Members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) recognized the top programs and actors representing the 2009-2010 TV season tonight at its 26th Annual TCA Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Dax Shepard, star of NBC’s “Parenthood,” introduced the ceremony that bestowed 11 awards in categories reflecting comedy, drama, miniseries, news and youth programming at its annual event in conjunction with the TCA’s summer press tour.

The biggest winner of the night was Fox’s musical ensemble comedy “Glee” which was the only series to win multiple awards from the 200-plus professional TV critics association, garnering the top honor “Program of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding New Program,” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy,” with lead actress Jane Lynch’s victory.

ABC’s “Modern Family” was voted “Outstanding Achievement in Comedy,” and ABC’s “Lost” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” tied as the victors in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Drama.”

Nick Jr.’s children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba” won its second consecutive TCA Award as “Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming,” and Discovery Channel’s “Life” series took the top honors as “Outstanding Achievement in News & Information.”

Julianna Margulies, star of CBS’s “The Good Wife,” received the award for “Individual Achievement in Drama,” and HBO’s World War II miniseries epic “The Pacific” garnered “Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials.”

In addition to recognizing the year’s finest programming, the TCA bestowed a Heritage Award trophy to CBS’ former series “M*A*S*H” for the cultural and social impact that program has had on society.

The organization also presented actor James Garner with a Career Achievement Award for the influence his work has had on the small screen.

2010 TCA Award recipients are as follows:
• PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Glee” (FOX)
• OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “Glee” (FOX)
• INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jane Lynch, “Glee” (FOX)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “Modern Family” (ABC)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: TIE - “Lost” (ABC) and “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
• INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “Life” (Discovery)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba Gabba” (NICK JR.)
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES & SPECIALS: “The Pacific” (HBO)
• HERITAGE AWARD: “M*A*S*H*” (CBS)
• CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: James Garner

ABOUT THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION

The Television Critics Association represents more than 200 journalists writing about television for print and online outlets in the United States and Canada. For 26 years the TCA has honored outstanding achievement in television and enduring contributions to the medium’s heritage through the TCA Awards. Membership in the Television Critics Association is open to full-time TV writers at newspapers, magazines, trade publications, news wire services, news syndicates, and text-based Internet news organizations. For additional information on the TCA, please visit www.tvcritics.org

Not All Conspiracies Are Theories: Brief Thoughts on AMC's Rubicon

While you can read my feature piece on AMC's conspiracy thriller Rubicon here, I thought I'd also offer my brief thoughts on the first four episodes of the drama itself.

I found Rubicon--which stars James Badge Dale, Miranda Richardson, Lauren Hodges, Arliss Howard, Jessica Collins, Dallas Roberts, and Christopher Evan Welch--an intriguing glimpse behind the curtain of the intelligence community, where the focus wasn't on dashing Jack Bauer types but rather the analysts who are forced to pull together information and offer suggestions to an array of agencies on supported actions.

It's this specifically that provides the series' fourth episode--the best of the initial installments--its emotional heft, as the analysts at API are forced to content with a weighty moral decision that will impact the lives of countless people.

However, while there's a biting intelligence to Rubicon (which was created by Jason Horwitch and now overseen by Henry Bromell), it's nearly undone by its own languorously plodding pacing. AMC series aren't known initially for bolting out of the gate but there's a glacial quality to the unfolding plots here, a dual track of meandering currents that makes it hard to get into the overarching conspiracy. Not helping matters either: it's difficult to care about any of these characters in the first few episodes.

The aforementioned fourth episode goes to some lengths to add some much needed depth to both the analysts, Will Travers (James Badge Dale), and their shadowy boss Truxton Spangler (Michael Cristofer), particularly when the latter two embark on a trip to Washington D.C. Their strained interactions--which come to a head over a briefcase, of all things--provide some unexpected sparks as well as some well-earned tension there.

When Spandler admonishes Will about his low-key messenger bag because it lacks a "security tether," one can't help but feel that he might be talking about Rubicon itself. It needs not only an emotional tether but also a strong pull in the right direction.

Rubicon premieres Sunday evening at 8 pm ET/PT with a special two-hour launch (which includes the pilot that received its own sneak peek a few weeks back) on AMC.

The Daily Beast: "Rubicon's Paranoia TV"

Looking to dive deeper into AMC's new conspiracy thriller Rubicon?

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest feature, entitled "Rubicon's Paranoid TV," where I talk to showrunner Henry Brommel and stars James Badge Dale and Miranda Richardson about the AMC drama and place in within the context of both 1970s conspiracy thrillers like The Conversation, All the President's Men, Klute, The Parallax View, and Three Days of the Condor and our current political climate post-9/11.

Rubicon premieres Sunday evening at 8 pm ET/PT with a special two-hour launch (which includes the pilot that received its own sneak peek a few weeks back) on AMC.

Channel Surfing: Ellen Quits Idol, Kara Out and J.Lo In, Charles Dance for Thrones, Lizzy Caplan Heads to HBO, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. First up: the swirling rumors, news, and confirmations emanating from FOX about the changes at American Idol...

The big news from last night of course is the departure of Ellen DeGeneres from FOX's American Idol after just one season. DeGeneres released a statement yesterday evening that confirmed her departure from the musical competition series. "A couple months ago, I let FOX and the American Idol producers know that this didn't feel like the right fit for me," said DeGeneres via a network press release. "I told them I wouldn't leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for. I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on Idol and I am very grateful for the year I had. I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be." DeGeneres' departure comes at a time where there is a huge amount of upheaval at the series, which is set to launch its tenth season this winter, between the departures of Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson remains the only original judge still standing on Idol. (via press release)

FOX has declined comment on the potential replacement for Ellen: Jennifer Lopez. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, insiders close to the situation maintain that there is no deal in place to bring Lopez on board as a judge on American Idol and there are certain sticking points that might make a deal untenable. "The singer -- whose career has been on the skids for quite some time -- emerged as a true contender for the gig in recent weeks," writes Schneider. "While other names have been bandied about -- from Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson to Elton John and Sean "P.Diddy" Combs -- Lopez might make more sense. The singer is known for being brash -- witness her 'Jenny from the Block' persona -- and has the obvious industry background." As for why DeGeneres chose to decamp, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd cites an anonymous source: "A source in the DeGeneres camp said she was prepared to meet the terms of her multiyear contract but told friends that her comedy wasn't effective on the show and that Fox president of alternative entertainment Mike Darnell had told her privately that he blamed her chemistry with fellow judges Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi." (Variety, Hollywood Reporter)

As for Lopez, Deadline's Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva are reporting that it's already a done deal. "We hear her manager Benny Medina (whom she once fired) orchestrated the meeting with the American Idol producers a month ago, and negotiations have been ongoing ever since," write the Deadline duo. "We've learned a deal was closed earlier this week under the utmost secrecy." Move comes as Nigel Lythgoe returns to Idol as executive producer. (Deadline)

TMZ, meanwhile, is reporting that fellow Idol host Kara DioGuardi has been fired from her position as judge on the FOX competition series and reports that American Idol will return to a three-judge format next season. As for those judges, the online gossip site claims that they will be Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler. (TMZ)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Charles Dance (Bleak House) has been cast in HBO's upcoming George R.R. Martin drama series Game of Thrones, where he will play Tywin, described as "a wealthy lord and head of one of the most powerful clans in the realm." He is the father of Cersei (Lena Headey), Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). [Editor: Based on his presence and gravitas alone, I think Dance is absolutely perfect for this role.] (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that HBO has teamed up with Party Down's Lizzy Caplan and producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to adapt Julie Klauser's memoir, "I Don't Care About Your Band," into a comedy series that will serve as a star vehicle for Caplan. "The book, a gritty but comedic look at what it’s like to navigate the dating world in your 20s," writes Andreeva, "chronicles Klausner’s experiences from her preadolescent sexual awakenings through the unsavory details of sleeping with a gallery of losers throughout her 20s." [Editor: while I'm crushed that Party Down won't be continuing, I am chuffed that Caplan will be back on my television and on premium cable, to boot. Move marks a reunion of sorts between Caplan and HBO, where she recurred on the first season of vampire drama True Blood.] (Deadline)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos and Megan Masters have a comprehensive report from yesterday's TCA session for the CW's Gossip Girl, where producers teased the return of Georgina Sparks, haute couture in Paris, Jenny, and much more. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

NBC is said to be planning screening events for its upcoming thriller The Event in five cities across the country, to be determined by a popular vote, according to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. "The network is partnering with Eventful Inc. and its Demand It platform to let viewers lobby for their city to receive a screening," writes Hibberd. "The five cities with the most votes will win a pre-premiere screening." (Hollywood Reporter)

Law & Order: Los Angeles has scored another player. Corey Stoll (Salt) has joined the cast of the Dick Wolf procedural drama, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, where he will play TK Jaruszalski, the partner to Detective Rex Winters (Skeet Ulrich), who is described as "a confident Hollywood native with a cynical view of the entertainment industry [and] a health nut with an active social life." (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Clayne Crawford (24) has landed a role on Alan Ball's HBO drama pilot All Signs of Death, based on a Charlie Huston novel. Crawford would play the friend to a crime scene cleaner (Ben Whishaw) who is described as "a sexy greaser who runs a tattoo parlor." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

New developments in the allegations against former ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson. Deadline's Nikki Finke has obtained a copy of a faxed letter sent to The Hollywood Reporter by McPherson's lawyer Marty Singer, who demands an apology and a retraction after the trade publication published reports that McPherson was the target in a sexual harassment probe before his resignation from the network. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

TCA Diary: Season Five of Dexter About "Atonement"

At today's Dexter session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, the cast and crew of the Showtime serial killer drama united on stage--a week after appearing in San Diego to promote the series--to discuss the fifth season, how Julie Benz's Rita fits into the overarching storyline, whether there will be another season-long big bag, and other bloody good fun coming up on the series.

Joining the panel: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, James Remar, C.S. Lee, executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn and newly minted showrunner Chip Johannessen, who took to the stage after a teaser trailer that showed the bloody aftermath of the carnage in the fourth season finale.

"No," said Sara Colleton answering a question as to whether Seasons Four and Five were planned in concert with one another. "We rarely go beyond one year because we have to have a season arc that has a beginning and a finish... At the end of Season Four, it quickly became clear to us what Season Five was about... The audience had to see what the blowback would be for his culpability in Rita's death. To cheat that would be to cheat our audience."

Will Vince Masuka (Lee) gain any insight about Dexter's secret this season?

"I certainly think it’s a possibility," said Lee. "He works in close proximity with Dexter, and we share labs. That certainly can happen. I certainly hope he doesn’t get too close to that. He will have to be the next one to go."

So will Dexter reveal himself to anyone else in the department?

"The short answer would be no," said Hall. "I think Dexter relishes opportunities to reveal himself covertly and say things that are true on one level but only experiences true on another level by whoever he’s talking to. But, no, I don’t think so. I certainly hope not."

Other than Dexter, Carpenter's Deb had the craziest story arc in Season Four. Carpenter herself agreed.

"I think her arc has been extreme," she said. "I spend a lot of time justifying how she’s not in a straitjacket at this point, and what I’m learning is that life on this show happens not only in TV time, but also in Dexter time. So the healing process is really rapid, and it’s hard to not — because I am so much more emotional than Dexter is, it’s hard to not carry pieces of that into every scene."

"How it unfolds this year, I look at the other cops in the bull pen, and I’m one of them now. Like, they all have this sort of wretched experience they walk around with. And I think she’s sort of playing the game. It’s a new strength, but it’s also just compartmentalizing in a way that she hasn’t before."

This season, the task force gets closer than ever to catching Dexter. How often can the producers go to that well and have him slip away?

"The last time it happened, there was, on the one hand, the big investigation, but there was also the personal version of that, which was the character Doakes, who was going after Dexter, but he wasn’t armed up with a lot of information,
right?" asked Johannessen. "He just had a sense that this guy was bad. [The task force is] going to be spearheaded by Quinn in some form this year, and it’s really going to
look a lot different because, first of all, he’s going to have more actual information. He’s not going to be this bull in a china shop just going after Dexter. And the other thing is, because he isn’t the bull in a china shop, this sort of outsider in the bull pen, Quinn has found a home there, which is one of the nice things about this show, that there’s this kind of work environment that feels very family-like. He’s going to have a much, much more difficult time eventually pushing forward with this investigation as kind of the personal relationships around him weigh on him. So it’s going to look a lot different."

"I guess anybody could find out [about Dexter], but the one that really, really matters, I think, is Deb, the one that matters to all of us emotionally," he said. "So
that’s the important person to track, I think, in terms of finding out more about him, having suspicions about him."

As for the change at Dexter's helm, the producers were quick to play up the seamlessness of the handover between Clyde Phillips and Chip Johannessen.

"Clyde was a fabulous addition and will always be sort of part of the emeritus part of the Dexter family," said Sara Colleton. "He was our showrunner, and now we have Chip. And it has been about as seamless as these things go because we have the remaining pillars in the writing room. And the central idea of Dexter is so strong and so provocative, and we feel that as long as every year we feel there is a new human territory to push Dexter through that mine field, rather than is he going to get caught, is really what brings our audience to us, and so — and particularly after the season arc last year. It was the perfect time, after four years, to bring a fresh view and some new blood. So it’s been about as seamless as it can be."

"The one thing I want to add to that, to Sara, is we were very lucky to get Chip because Chip was a fan, and so he knew the show well," added John Goldwyn. "He knew all of the intimate aspects of the characters, and so he came to it with this wealth of knowledge about Dexter and about all of the characters in the show and the important themes and that sense of discovery that Dexter goes through in every season. So we weren’t starting off with somebody who didn’t have an intimate knowledge of the show and real appreciation, but we were very lucky in that regard."

The producers weren't, however, so keen to offer information about who the huge guest cast will be playing this upcoming season, other than Katherine Moennig, who will play Masuka's friend Debra.

"She plays a tattoo artist, and I take Debra to meet her," said Lee. "We just shot it yesterday, and she’s a wonderful actor and we had a good time."

"Because there’s a tattoo that is a part of the big crime that Miami Metro is solving this year," added Colleton, "Deb has found a clue and so they need to go
to a tattoo artist to get more information."

Meanwhile, Peter Weller's character was actually informed by, er, Peter Weller himself.

"Well, Peter Weller was part of the original pitch to Showtime," said Johannessen. "He’s going to be a big problem for Dexter, especially in the back parlor. We called him Weller when we originally conceived him, and then we had to change the name once we got the guy we had actually wanted. So he’s kind of an ex-cop, a kind of Cocaine Cowboys-era guy who gets into some trouble with the corruption thing and ends up kind of posing a problem for Dexter."

"One of the things to help you understand, we are taking a break this year from what has been the way we’ve plotted out our seasons in the past four years, which is to have one, sort of, season-long adversary for Dexter," added Coletton. "And we thought this was the perfect year, because of what Dexter has gone through, to take a break from that. And so, as he’s going through different stages of his grief, really, even
though, for Dexter, it’s completely unarticulated and it’s a range of human emotion that he doesn’t know what he’s feeling, but as he goes through different stages,
there will be different characters who will come in, who will interact. And so, as the season progresses, some of these characters interlock, but the through line is, this year, Dexter’s atonement, and different people help him along the way in different
capacities. And that’s why we have a very interesting array of new actors."

(So no details there.)

"We have an ensemble this year with Johnny Lee Miller and obviously Julia Stiles and others that help illuminate what Sara is talking about, which is this
discovery of atonement," said Goldwyn.

"One of the things we wanted to do this year was shake up that single big bad, especially in the wake of John Lithgow, and it did seem like the thing to do was try to top the baroque serial killer thing," said Johannessen. "And also, given where Dexter was coming from, it does become a series about atonement. He’s not a character who experiences guilt or grief like any of us would. So it’s not his intention starting out, but the season kind of becomes about this as he slides into it. As Michael sometimes says, he trips into it, this kind of oddly human experience, at a time where he just feels that everything that he has done that had to do with connecting with humanity has melted down in this horrible, horrible way. And the last thing he wants to do is be involved with people, and yet part of the amazing thing about this character, who is so outside of everybody and so alienated, is that he keeps trying to claw his way back in. In the wake of Rita’s death, you see that over the course, really, of the whole season."

Hall said that he did tried to approach what was coming without advance knowledge of Rita's death at the end of last season.

"I really tried, while I consciously knew that’s where things were headed — I really tried to approach everything that led up to it without that foreknowledge and decided I’d just cross that acting bridge when it revealed itself," Hall said. "But what’s
interesting is this idea of atonement, this idea that Dexter is forced, through what’s written, into those situations where he has to step into waters that he never anticipated stepping in, and it starts out subterranean, but there is some sort of appetite to address his maybe not even consciously acknowledged sense of guilt or remorse or need for atonement, and the circumstances of his life sort of manifest an
opportunity to do that in a way that he doesn’t create consciously."

Just don't expect Dexter to lose his hold on his sanity this season.

"No," said Colleton. "Don’t forget he’s now a single dad, so he has some responsibilities that are really serious. And like all single dads, they don’t know until the wife is gone just how much that means."

"I think one of the things that Dexter is examining this season, though, is his involvement in some way, or perhaps even a little bit his culpability, in the death of Rita," said Goldwyn, "which leads to what Sara mentioned earlier which is the theme of atonement, which is illuminated and dramatized over the course of this year."

"The forum that Dexter takes to achieve atonement is not in a forum that is conventional by any means," added Colleton, "and it will be through the very unique prism of Dexter’s special needs, and that’s what makes it very original."

"[Dexter] saw his mother sawed up in front of him in this container," said Johannessen. "He was born in blood. He now has this adult origin story in a way in the way he brought his own life into this horrible mess that it’s turned into, which is very relatable the way we all kind of melt down our existences, so we’re trying to give it kind of the huge cosmic space it deserves, which is this is almost like a second origin thing in his life and that event at the end of Season Four will kind of... filter through it in the same way that his original story filtered through Season One."

So how will Rita be appearing in Season Five? Will she be handled in the same way that Dexter's dad (Remar) is?

"In this show Harry serves a very unique purpose," said Colleton, "and to dilute that in any way would, I think, fundamentally harm the DNA of our show."

"He’s the only one with keys to that room," added Hall.

"You’ll be seeing her more than dead in a bathtub, for sure," teased Johannessen.

Season Five of Dexter premieres Sunday, September 26th on Showtime.

Crossing the Pond: Showtime's Episodes Session at TCA

On the comedy front, if there's one series that I'm anxiously awaiting, it's Showtime's Episodes, co-produced with Auntie Beeb. The Hollywood skewering series--which stars Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan, John Pankow, Mircea Monroe, and Kathleen Perkins--was created by former Friends writer/producers David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik and executive produced by British television god Jimmy Mulville.

Episodes explores just what happens to a pair of British television creators when an American broadcast network brings them over to Los Angeles to create a US version of their hit show... and saddles them with Matt LeBlanc.

For LeBlanc, he maintains that he's not playing himself. At all.

"It's not really myself," said LeBlanc. "It's a character that David and Jeffrey wrote that happens to have the same name as me. There are some similarities. For the most part, it's a fictitious character."

"Things go from bad to worse," said Mulville about the journey that the fictitious producers go on when they arrive in Los Angeles. "I mean, the journey of taking an English hit show to America, believe or not, things can go
wrong."

"I think what happens to the couple is not about television," he continued. "This whole thing is about a triangle. Beverly and Sean come to Hollywood. He wants to go there. She’s reluctant, but she loves him. So she goes, and they try and make this work. Enter Matt LeBlanc. There the triangle is formed, and it’s about that, really. It’s about a comedy about these three people and the characters at the network, the brilliant characters very beautifully drawn at the network, and they all conspires to make a mess of these people’s lives. So a marriage goes through a real crisis, and the backdrop is this crazy world of network TV, which apparently Jeffrey and David know quite well."

But don't ask them about whether Hollywood-centric television shows have a tendency to crash and burn.

"How many seasons did Entourage go?" said Tamsin Greig (Black Books). "I mean that was a show about the business, and I think it was pretty successful."

"Generally, people think that the TV and film industry is right up its own ass, and, you know, rather like looking into a badly run crash, and who would be interested in that?" continued Greig. "But what part of life isn’t and doesn’t look like a badly run crash? Maybe that’s why it’s interesting and funny and dramatic."

After all, the show business aspect isn't the whole series, said the creators.

"It’s sort of about show business like I Love Lucy was about show business," said Jeffrey Klarik. "It’s really on the periphery of all of our stories. The story’s really about the three of them and their dynamic."

"Hopefully that’s what the audience will invest in because if it were just satire television, you’re right," David Crane chimed in. "Then after awhile, fine. But it’s really about what happens between the people."

Why did it take LeBlanc so long to get back on television post-Joey?

"There was a few network shows that came and went that crossed my desk, and I said no to," said LeBlanc. "I just took the time [off]. 12 years, every day, was a lot. It was a great time, but I wanted to take some time off and spend time with my daughter and just sort of take some time away from the business. It’s nice to be back now in something... with writing that I have real faith in, with a cast that’s really talented, and it was a lot of fun. It was a little different. This is single camera versus multi-camera in front of an audience. So when the punch lines come up and you say the punch line and there’s no crowd laughing, it’s a little unnerving. But aside from that, I think we had a really good time, and I think it shows."

LeBlanc isn't the only one a little out of his comfort zone. For Klarik and Crane, who co-created the short-lived CBS comedy The Class, it was disconcerting to contemplate going back to the television business.

"David was bored and wanted to go back to work, and I said, 'No,'" recalled Klarik. "I said the only way I’ll go back to work is if we can do it someplace where we’re under the radar and we don’t get pummeled like we did last time. The last time
I felt like a puppy in a dryer, in a clothes dryer. I mean, it was just torture. So I said, 'Okay. Let’s do this, but let’s go to England where they leave you alone and let you do what you want.' So we met Jimmy."

"It started out as a project for BBC, and then it became a project for both Showtime and the BBC," said Crane. "We never for a minute considered taking it to a network. What we were really looking for was a creative freedom, and it’s been amazing from both networks just how much they’ve let us do the show that we wanted to do. It’s been wonderful and a little scary."

Best line of the panel? LeBlanc on whether Klarik and Crane had him in mind when writing the series: "Schwimmer said, 'No.' So did Perry. So did Lisa."

Second best line? Mulville on the language barrier between the US and the UK. "We
had a very in-depth analytical conversation about whether p*ssy-whipped would play in the U.K., and we had to do a sort of round thing of the crew. Most of the crew had heard of the words 'p*ssy' and 'whipped,' but never together." Jeffrey Klarik's rejoinder? "They actually thought it was a dessert topping."

Asked whether the writers have, after seven episodes, hit upon why it's so difficult to translate English series for American television, Mulville had a lot to say.

"I think they’ve used that as a template. I think it’s about the crass interference in the creative process by people who are driven by forces not really concerned with what’s funny, but what’s going to play, what’s going to sell, what’s going to appeal," he said. "The character that John Pankow brilliantly plays as the head of network, he has an attention span of about 15 seconds. And all the work is done by his assistant, which is beautifully played by Kathleen [Perkins]. And between them they conspire to make each wrong decision. They make a wrong decision and then fix that decision by an even worse decision. We’re watching the edits, and we’re nodding away because that’s our experience too, is that you — part of producing is to get your baby through the labyrinth, without it being completely destroyed, and onto the air. And I think that the English experience of bringing an English show is just multiplied by ten. But you talk to any American writer about getting a show on the network, and they’ll say it’s a very similar thing. You don’t have to be English to have that experience. That’s a
pretty universal experience."

"But the truth is the heart of the show is not about the minutia of getting a show
onto TV. That’s just the thing that they happen to be doing whilst their marriage goes through an incredible crisis and while they’re dealing with the madness of being
in Hollywood as well, just going to parties and having to make nice and saying the right thing to the right people. It’s stressful. And she, in particular, doesn’t want to do it. She doesn’t want to play the game. And he’s more compliant and just wants to make things nice. And when you see it on screen, you see the chemistry between Stephen and Tamsin, who have huge reputations back in the UK — and I think they’re going to really break out in America here — and then you’ve got Matt in that, the playing with them. And then you add in the network... We've watched the scenes at the network, and we’re laughing and we’re chilled at the same time. When Julian, the knight of the theater, who’s been playing this role in Britain for five years to great acclaim, is made to audition for his own part because the head of the network can’t be bothered to watch the show and makes him audition because he wants him to audition, and he dies, he dies in the audition — we’re watching it again and again, and it’s chilling. I could pick up the chair with my buttocks and walk out."

Episodes will air next year on Showtime.

TCA Diary: Showtime's The Big C Session

Showtime kicked off the second official day of the TCA Summer Press Tour with a session for its upcoming comedy The Big C, which launches next month.

After screening a selection of scenes from the first few episodes, Laura Linney, Oliver Platt, Gabourey Sidibe, executive producer Jenny Bicks, creator Darlene Hunt, and executive producers Vivian Cannon and Neal Moritz took to the stage to answer questions about the series, which revolves around the life changes undertaken by a woman after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.

"When this script came to me, what hit me the most was the theme of time," said Linney about what attracted her most about the project. "What do you with time? What are the choices that we make, how we spend our time? How much time to we get? It's a privileged to grow old... It was meaningful to me."

"Everyone who shows up is so happy to be there," said Linney about shooting the series in Connecticut. "It was important to me that the show be shot on the East Coast in order to take advantage of the theatre community there."

The series has given Linney more than a little in-depth knowledge about melanoma.

"I certainly know a lot about melanoma at this point," admitted Linney. "There's that bit of research. I'm going on the journey with Cathy, actually. I'm at the age where relatives are growing older, friends are dying, sometimes in very unexpected ways... Every once in a while, I'll be filming and I shot a scene with Oliver... and something hit me in that scene and I started to [cry] because it hit me that she's really going to die."

"She's a woman who doesn't really know who she is and she gets the opportunity to find out," she said later. "She's been functioning really well but she hasn't been living. She has a huge growth spurt throughout this."

The early episodes focus on Linney's Cathy attempting to find a new outlook on the time that she has left as she connects--and reconnects--with various people in her life, from her immature husband, horrid son, homeless brother, and her misanthropic neighbor, Marlene. We'll learn more about Marlene and her own family as the season progresses.

"Marlene has two daughters," said Jenny Bicks. "One is a lesbian, the other lives with her 'Jewish white witch of a husband,' as Marlene calls him. They will be showing up and interacting with Cathy." (Bicks said that that two roles have been cast but declined to name who would be playing the daughers.)

Meanwhile, Cynthia Nixon will play Rebecca, who is "Cathy's best friend from college who shows up at a very specific moment for Cathy," according to Bicks. "She is a wild, loose woman who never grew up and will do the same for Cathy now."

"I did," said Linney when asked if she helped broker the deal with Liam Neeson, who will play a character called the beekeeper. "He's from the alternative medicine world. He's doing two days with us [though scenes will be limited to] one episode for now."

"This should not be your go-to-place if you have just been diagnosed with cancer and are looking for how to live," said creator Darlene Hunt in response to a question about whether people suffering from cancer should use the series as a handbook for living. "It's a show about living and not dying. It's a show for everyone because we are all living on borrowed time."

"Laura really is executive producing," said Bicks about Linney's involvement in the series. "She was showing up for conceptual meetings and production meetings long before her call... She wears many hats."

An earlier comment about New York actors seemed to rub one critic the wrong way. "They're not better," clarified Linney. "There's something about filming on the East Coast that was important for me to be a little removed from all of the business... during this first season, in an undertaking that is new and foreign to me," said Linney about New York actors vs. Los Angeles actors. "There is a depth of field in New York for actors, a generation of theatre actors that have never been on screen... There's a tremendous resource there that hasn't been taken advantage of on television."

So is there an inherent shelf life on the series, given the ticking clock on Cathy's condition?

"Every season is a season," explained executive producer Vivian Cannon. "In the pilot episode, it's the first day of summer so the first season of the show would be summer, the following would be fall, and so on."

"Six seasons of television would only equal 18 months of Cathy's life," added Hunt.

"Cathy has a very interesting, mysterious response to her diagnosis, in that she doesn't want to tell the people closest to her," said Oliver Platt, who plays Cathy's husband. "This goes on for a while... My hat's off to the writers to keep it going forward. To me, what I love about the show... this very modern relationship, when Cathy gets the diagnosis--like a lot of things in your life--you take a very stark look at your life and she decides that this relationship isn't what she wants in her life. How do we describe Paul? Emotional maturity might not be the top line of his resume but he grows up fast and what a smart thing to put him in a hole to begin with."

"Why do we start to live beautifully when we get a death sentence," pondered Platt. "It's remarkable. It's a very delicate bandwidth. The only person who is allowed to make a cancer joke is Cathy... It's got a very healthy sense of irony and the absurd. It's very truthful. Who knows how someone is going to behave when they get this kind of proclamation on their life?"

But the producers insist that the series won't be all doom and gloom nor will it be a sunny comedy. There's an inherent balance within The Big C when it comes to Cathy's life and her impending death.

"The thing that we wanted to do is just to be truthful about the disease and melanoma--Cathy has Stage-IV melanoma--there's a truth to how long you will live but there's been a huge amount of clinical trials," said Bicks, who herself survived cancer. "We're not so concerned about whether or not we're going to kill her. But we are not going to be afraid of it. The nice thing about being Showtime is that we don't have to sugar-coat it."

So does Linney expect that the writers will kill off Cathy at the end of the season? She's up for anything.

"The fullness of the time that she has is so wonderful," said Linney. "I'm sort of game for whatever happens, as long as it's honest."

Academy Award winner Gabourney Sidibe plays Andrea, one of Cathy's summer school students who she pays to lose weight. Despite the fact that Andrea is unaware of Cathy's condition, the sarcastic girl forms a strange sort of friendship with Cathy over the course of the summer.

Sidibe admitted that she's had quite a journey over the last year.

"It's been a strange year," said Gabourey Sidibe. "I thought I'd be a receptionist... I'm still very normal. I take the subway, I take the bus... It goes to show you that whatever plan you have for your life, you're wrong."

"The way that the writers handle the delicacy of this woman's life was so strong and so smart," said Sidibe about what lured her to the project. "I really wanted to be a part of it."

"I'm a selfish liver, I guess," said Sidibe. "My character doesn't know about Cathy's diagnosis at so, I wonder how many people in my life that I don't know are suffering."

"She's learning from the mistakes that she makes," said Linney about Cathy's journey. "More than having a bucket list, she's trying to figure out who she wants to be."

"Cathy will explore her options this season but we wanted it to be more about her being almost in a state of denial," said Bicks.

"We wanted to turn some expectations on their ear," said Hunt about how they handled Cathy's diagnosis. "Some things that we wanted to explore were, what would be a knee-jerk reaction to just wanting to feel good and live life differently?"

Showtime has scheduled The Big C with Weeds, which is also about a woman who makes some radical choices when faced with life's difficulties. How does Linney feel about being paired with the very differently toned Weeds?

"I'm thrilled," said Linney about being paired on Mondays with Weeds. I love Mary-Louise. We're friends. We shot some promos together and had a blast. I'm thrilled to be following Weeds... Our show is a really nice complement to their lineup and different."

You can watch the first episode of The Big C in full below:



The Big C launches August 16th at 10:30 pm ET/PT on Showtime.

TCA Diary: Showtime's Matt Blank Teases Upcoming Programming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supernatural Stars of Being Human Tease Season Three, US Version, Barry Island

Last year's Comic-Con featured a huge crowd for BBC America's supernatural drama series Being Human, which hadn't even premiered in the US yet when the stars of the BBC Three series made their way to San Diego. A year later and the enthusiasm for the series--part Gothic horror, part soap, part buddy comedy--hasn't diminished.

Televisionary special correspondent Lissette Lira attended the press room for Being Human and spoke to the cast about illegal downloading, the US version of Being Human that Syfy is developing, what's coming up on Season Three of the UK version, and Barry Island.

Wait, Barry Island? Yes, you read that correctly. Just why are Mitchell, George, and Annie headed to the pleasure park? Read on in Lissette Lira's full report on just what went down behind the press room's closed doors at the Marriott Marina last weekend:

After a warm reception at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the Being Human cast--Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow, and Aidan Tuner--returned this year, along with first-timer Sinead Keenan. The cast first appeared on Thursday night, when they introduced the premiere episode of Season Two to an enthusiastic Comic-Con audience.

The following day, Russell Tovey recounted for the press room how on the previous night, Sinead had warned him, “No one’s seen it yet, darling, it comes out Saturday.” To which Tovey replied, “I promise you everyone there will have illegally taken it.”

Aidan Turner also chimed in, lamenting how much content the US audience loses because of the ad breaks. “That kind of sucks really,” Turner complained. “We shoot 55 to 57 minutes and you lose a lot here [in the US broadcasts].” This then led Tovey to voice his support for the illegal downloading movement. [Editor: Televisionary does not condone illegal downloading in any form, but does appreciate Tovey’s candor on the matter.]

What else did the oh-so-charming cast have to say? Read on as our in-depth press room report continues, complete with video of Being Human's Turner, Tovey, Crichlow, and Keenan.

VIDEO: The cast discusses illegal downloading

As the discussion shifted to the topic of Season Two, Tovey teased, “You start seeing cracks in relationships/friendships. Everyone seems to go off on their own adventure and journey. Annie has been caught in a bubble and thinks that everything is blissful, we’re all safe and life’s great and she’s blinkered to the fact that Mitchell and George are suffering terribly. George is filled with testosterone and has manned up more than he’s ever had to be a man before because of the wolf that’s taken over him and he used the wolf to kill Herrick. And Mitchell’s abstinence from blood is getting harder for him, but we all kind of miss each others' issues. Everyone is in denial.”

Lenora Crichlow echoed this sentiment, describing her character Annie--the group's resident ghost--as being “on a bit of a personal journey again trying to deepen her understanding of what it means to be where she is and who she is."

"There’s lots of things that come up that kind of snap her into reality," said Crichlow. "She has to confront death several times again and the way she died again so it’s bleak getting hammered home. Whatever happened to her she has to face it, she has to get real about it in order to kind of move on at all.”

As some viewers have noted in the past, the “supernatural rules” on Being Human can be somewhat vague at times. In response to the criticism, Turner argued, “Toby created his own rules which I think is very cool. We can’t really afford CGI to let Mitchell run really fast along the streets. I think Being Human is about engrossing these characters in the reality of making things believable and a lot of these rules wouldn’t have worked."

"With Toby making his own rules about vampires and different supernaturals, it just makes it more real and more unique to our show, which is what it’s kind of about," he continued. "At the beginning when we started shooting the first series I thought God, people are gonna go mad, they want form, they want what they know in the structure of these supernaturals but I think it’s refreshing for a lot of the fans to see this and to see it work and how it works. I think it’s cooler that Mitchell can cook with garlic or that he eats a lot of foods. Breaking tradition, I think, is refreshing.”

Keenan likewise observed, “All the afflictions, like being a vampire, a werewolf, or a ghost, it’s incidental almost. The beauty of the show is that it centers around everyone’s relationships and their struggles.”

VIDEO: The cast discusses the lack of rules about the supernatural

As for the American version of Being Human currently being developed by the Syfy Channel, the cast was generally positive and supportive in their remarks. “I think they’ll be radically different,” Turner said of the two versions. “What works for the British show is that it is low-budget and it’s cooky and it’s a bit weird. It has it’s own thing going on. I think it’ll (the US version) look glossy and very high production values and it’ll have it’s own energy and it’s own vibe going on. I mean it’s great, it’s a huge testament to the show that somebody wants to make it. They did the same to The Office and that’s been a massive success, so it’s a huge compliment and I think we’re all very proud of that.”

Tovey was similarly upbeat, pointing out, “We’re lucky that we’ve been on American TV. It’d be depressing if we hadn’t been and trying to get it out here and they made that and no one knew we existed. But people can make a comparison now and that’s great for our show.”

Sinead Keenan then offered, “It’s great that somebody somewhere likes the idea so much to make their own version. I wish them luck, I think it’s great and hopefully then people might go, oh, I wonder what the original was and come back.”

Being Human is currently in the midst of shooting Season Three of the series in Cardiff, after relocating from Bristol where the first two seasons had been filmed. Regarding the change in locale, Turner said, “It’s going really well. The move from Bristol has been pretty flawless. It’s been fine, it’s great. They built a new set for us in Cardiff so we have this gigantic set that we never had in Bristol. This year it’s a whole lot bigger. It progresses with the story and with the characters’ relationships with each other and everything it’s just a natural progression so it’s gone good.”

Tovey noted Cardiff’s role as the home of such successful BBC series as Doctor Who and Torchwood, adding, “It’s pretty cool to be somewhere that has sci-fi folklore like Cardiff because of everything that has been there and it’s quite cool that we’re now part of that click of sci-fi.”

In addition, the cast revealed that Season Three will be set on Barry Island, prompting Crichlow to promise, “We’re going to put it on the map. Now everyone will be wanting to go to Barry Island! It’s a very cool place.” [Editor: longtime fans of Gavin & Stacey already know Barry Island is aces. Tidy.]

As with Season Two (currently airing on BBC America), the forthcoming Season Three will contain eight episodes and introduce a new threat with which the characters must contend. “Season 1, the threat was vampires,” Crichlow explained. “Season Two the threat is human, Season Three the threat is from within.”

And as for fans hoping to see a favorite character or two return to the series, Keenan hinted, “The good thing about this show is that death means nothing. Anything is possible so you never know.”

Being Human airs Saturdays at 9pm on BBC America.

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

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned.

TCA Report: CBS Executive Session with Nina Tassler

TCA's Summer Press Tour began this morning with CBS' executive session, featuring Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment.

While there wasn't much news announced this morning, save the latest twist on Survivor--which will see 20 castaways split between two age groups: those over 40 and those under 30--and the companies participating in the next season of reality series Undercover Boss (DirecTV, NASCAR, Chiquita Brands International, and Great Wolf Resorts).

However, Tassler did take questions from the critics, answering queries about the GLAAD score for CBS, Hawaii Five-O, Bleep My Dad Says, The Good Wife, and more.

Tassler began by praising series from across the broadcast networks, saying that the 2009-10 season produced "one of the best freshman classes in years" and acknowledged that "all of the network shows are programming engines for all of the other platforms," including online, etc.

"It was a terrific year for us and we are restless and motivated--and I like to say--paranoid... [There] is a real diversity in terms of source material for shows." Those would include Twitter (Bleep My Dad Says), a reality show at FOX (The Defenders), a real-life mommy group (Sara Gilbert's daytime talk show), and more. "It really reflects a great diversity in source material," said Tassler.

Here's what else Tassler had to say:

Steve McPherson leaving ABC: "Stability is a good thing. As far as Steve goes, I said, damn it, he gets out of doing press tour... And I'd like a case of chardonnay for the holidays."

Hawaii Five-O: "We loved the pitch so much... We've reimagined it, we've deconstructed the elements of the orginal show... retooled it and [turned it into a] great, hip, smart character show... You'll find as the series moves forward that it's still a small island, everybody knows each other--good guys, bad guys--and those story engines are still there."

"It's a crime drama set in Hawaii," said Tassler, defending the tone of Hawaii Five-O. "I think the pilot has got a lot of beauty shots. I think it shows the brilliance and vibrant color of the island. It's got humor, the characters pop... How it opened, the tease, it certainly launches you into the show."

As for the show's violence, Tassler said, "It's a 10 o'clock show. It's monday night at 10 o'clock... I don't see it that way. Certainly for us and our network, we have standards... and we respect that process."

Additionally, the relationship between Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park provides an "emotional spine" for the show.

GLAAD: "We're adding a few characters this season... We're going to meet Alicia's brother on The Good Wife, a gay character." Additionally, Bleep My Dad Says will have a recurring gay character and other shows will feature homosexual characters as well. "Once you come out of your pilot season disappointed, you have to make changes in the regular season."

The same goes for female characters as well. "Going forward in a series, if we can add a female character, we will," said Tassler.

Undercover Boss: "People seeing cameras don't automatically think, oh, I'm on an episode of Undercover Boss... How they do it, the methods, I certainly don't want to reveal."

Pressed for more details, Tassler said, "Undercover Boss is cast like any other reality show... It's very standard."

Why CBS bought Mike & Molly: "I thought, it's Chuck Lorre," said Tassler about comedy Mike & Molly. "These are two people I relate to, these are two people I care about. It's a romantic comedy. It's charming, it has heart, and it was really funny... As I said before, it's Chuck Lorre."

The cancellation of The Bridge: "The show wasn't delivering the numbers we needed. Generally, our summer strategy works."

The fate of Flashpoint: "I haven't decided yet."

The Good Wife: "I think The Good Wife is a phenomenal show and has great story reveals coming up for next season... Certainly, we see that it's more competitive in that timeslot... and there is unbelievable story stuff coming up for that show."

On Kalinda's sexuality and whether it will be revealed, Tassler said, "I don't think you will in the first part of the season but you will later on... We don't want to spill the beans just yet."

Two and a Half Men: "No indication that there will be any delay" on delivery or production of Two and a Half Men, said Tassler.

Stay tuned for more coverage from TCA throughout the day and over the next week and a half.

Channel Surfing: Syfy Plans BSG Prequel, McPherson Leaves ABC, NBC Confirms Carell Departure, Parenthood, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Syfy is developing an online prequel to Battlestar Galactica entitled Blood & Chrome, which would focus on the life of William Adama during the first Cylon War and will be written by Caprica's Michael Taylor. Project, which would consist of nine to ten episodes of roughly ten minutes each, would focus "about a young man's initiation into war: both the realities of war as fought by soldiers on the ground (and in Battlestars and Vipers), and the somewhat less real version portrayed in the media," according to Taylor. Interestingly, should the online series be a hit, it could serve as the basis for a backdoor pilot or a full-blown series set during the first Cylon War. And, given the fact that it's running online, don't look for any content restrictions. "We're not going to be shying away from R-rated blood and guts and sex," Taylor told Ryan. "Because this is initially meant to air online, we pretty much have no restrictions in that department." [Editor: Ryan also has details from Comic-Con's Caprica panel there as well.] (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

In a stunning move, ABC Entertainment Group President Steve McPherson yesterday resigned from his position, just days before the network's session at the Television Critics Association's Summer Press Tour. He had more than a year left on his contract, which was set to expire in September 2011. "I want to thank the wonderful team of individuals who have worked with me throughout my time here and wish them nothing but the best," said McPherson in an official statement that was released to the press. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC has confirmed that Paul Lee, who previously orchestrated huge gains for BBC America and ABC Family, will be moving into McPherson's office and will take over the leadership role at the network, which slipped into third place this year. As for McPherson's next move? "I'll be announcing my future plans shortly which will include a new entrepreneurial venture in the spirits business. While I will continue with my ongoing wine business, I'll also reveal plans for my involvement in a new media company." (Deadline, Variety)

Looks like the show will go on, after all. NBC Primetime Entertainment President Angela Bromstad has said that Steve Carell will be leaving NBC's The Office when his contract expires next year but that the comedy will continue on without him... and will remain in its Thursday night at 9 pm timeslot. "We've been lucky to have had him as long as we've had. These things happen when you have such a major movie star in a show," said Bromstad. "Not to diminish the departure of Steve, because that will impact the show, but we have tremendous faith in the writers and actors to keep it alive." [Editor: my own feelings about what NBC should do have already been discussed in this feature over at The Daily Beast.] (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Billy Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) is close to a deal to appear in multiple episodes of NBC's Parenthood this fall, where he will play a new love interest for Lauren Graham's Sarah, one who just happens to be the boss to Peter Krause's Adam. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

30 Rock's Cheyenne Jackson is joining the cast of FOX's Glee, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Jackson will play the coach of McKinney High's rivals, Vocal Adrenaline, replacing Idina Menzel's Shelby, who will still turn up in Season Two. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Drusilla Moorhouse has a great recap for Comic-Con's Sons of Anarchy panel over the weekend and creator Kurt Sutter's plans for the third season, which will include a clash with the IRA in Ireland. "Our pursuit of Abel really breaks open the world," said star Charlie Hunnam. "John Teller had a lot to do with Ireland and the origin of gun running and the Sons of Anarchy. So, it's through us going to Ireland, inevitably, we learn a little bit more." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Anson Mount (Conviction) and Dominique McElligott (The Guard) will star in AMC period drama pilot Hell on Wheels opposite Common. Mount will play Cullen, described as "a former slave owner and a Confederate soldier determined to avenge the rape/murder of his beloved wife by tracking and killing the Union soldiers who killed her" who ends up working on the Transcontinental Railroad. McElligott will play Lily Bell, described as "an intelligent woman taking care of her ill husband who is part of the team of surveyors mapping the railroad's course." (Deadline)

The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Community creator/executive producer Dan Harmon in which he admits that is "terrified and humbled" that his NBC comedy will compete with CBS' The Big Bang Theory this fall. "I hope I don't get destroyed," Harmon told Hollywood Reporter. "I think there's room for both. I think we're like little containers of peas in that frozen dinner, but we're not quite the Salisbury steak." (Hollywood Reporter)

Robert and Michelle King, the creators of CBS' The Good Wife, have signed a two-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios, which will cover their services as showrunners on the CBS drama, returning for its second season this fall, as well as a development component. (Variety)

TVGuide.com's Denise Martin is reporting that Noah Munck has been promoted to series regular on Nickelodeon's iCarly. (TVGuide.com)

CBS' legal drama The Defenders is hopping across the pond, following a deal between the UK's FX and CBS Studios International. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Damages Season Four Details, Susan Sarandon Gets Miraculous, RTD Teases Torchwood, Fringe, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Now that the ink has dried on Damages's DirecTV deal, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to executive producers Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman about whether the format for the serpentine legal drama will be altered for its fourth and fifth seasons, whether the budget will be affected, why Ellen has gotten past the fact that Patty tried to have her killed, who will be returning, and a host of other issues. "DirecTV wants us to do the show that we’ve been doing," said Zelman. "If anything, they want us to push what we’ve been doing even further. They’re encouraging us to be as bold as possible, which is something we strive for anyway. There have been no discussions about altering the show in any fundamental way." Except for the fact that the episodes will be longer, that is. "What’s exciting for us as creators is that on the 101 Network there are no commercials, so it’ll be an uninterrupted hour," said Todd A. Kessler. "And that lends itself to the type of storytelling we do." Production on Season Four begins in January. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The cast of HBO's drama The Miraculous Year--from writer John Logan and director Kathryn Bigelow--just keeps getting better and better. Susan Sarandon (The Lovely Bones) will join Norbert Leo Butz, Frank Langella, Hope Davis, Lee Pace, Patti LuPone, Eddie Redmayne, and Linus Roach, among others in the cast of the drama pilot, which follows the lives of a wealthy Manhattan family. Sarandon, who will guest star in the pilot, will play Patty Atwood, the director and choreographer for the new show that Norbert Leo Butz's Terry is mounting. (Deadline)

Russell T Davies has teased information about the upcoming fourth season of Torchwood that will air in the US on Starz next year, telling a journalist from SFX that it will be very dark indeed, if not darker than Torchwood: Children of Earth. "Actually, this story is also very dark," said Davies. "I think with that, Torchwood found its feet. People found something very compelling and very chilling about it. I love the way people got on their high horse saying, 'Oh, he killed his grandson!' Hello! He saved every single child in the world! If you would fail to do that then you're the monster, frankly. It's this extraordinary treatment that only science fiction heroes get You find that. If ever a word is said out of place by the Doctor or Captain Jack, or even by Sarah Jane sometimes, people throw their hands up in horror, whereas in any other drama any character is capable of any thing at any time. That's the only way to write, and it's the same for these people as well. I thought it was fascinating and challenging what he did there, but hard—it was so hard. I do think with the whole of Children Of Earth we found a new heartland for Torchwood." (via Blastr)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a video interview with the stars of FOX's Fringe, in which Anna Torv, Josh Jackson, and John Noble discuss Season Three, the romance between Olivia and Peter, and familial bonds. Well worth a look if you don't mind vague spoilers. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan talks to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, the producers of Syfy's Eureka about Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton's upcoming turns on the dramedy series as well as about James Callis' Dr. Grant. According to Paglia, Day will play a "very eccentric scientist, someone who was invited to be at Eureka but turned it down," when the series returns for the back half of its season in 2011. According to Ryan, Day's character will be "brought in to consult on a problem and Day's character and the character played by Wheaton, who will appear in several episodes, will be involved in a love triangle with a Eureka regular. The producers wouldn't say who it is, but I'd bet money that it's Fargo." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Glee fans, say goodbye to Coach Tanaka. TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Patrick Gallagher--who plays the surly high school coach/gym teacher, is not expected to return for the second season of Glee this fall and the producers will be introducing a new character--Dot Jones' Shannon Beiste--as the new football coach at William McKinnley High. "As he has not been written into the show's first few episodes," writes Keck, "it appears that Tanaka ran his course after failing in his attempt to marry Emma." (TV Guide Magazine)

Liam Neeson is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of Showtime's Laura Linney-led dark comedy The Big C, where he will play Bee Man, an eccentric man whom Cathy consults for a possible cancer treatment. (via press release)

Nigel Lythgoe is said to be thisclose to finalizing a deal that will see him return to FOX's American Idol as an executive producer for the tenth season. Lythgoe is widely expected to close the deal and serve alongside Ken Warwick, Simon Fuller, and Cecile Frot-Coutaz. "Fox is seeking to bring back Lythgoe to work on the hit series as part of a master plan to reboot the show following the exit of top judge Simon Cowell," writes The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. "In addition, Idol fans can add pop star Justin Timberlake to the list of potential Cowell replacements. Timberlake, along with legendary singer Elton John, is on Idol producer 19 Entertainment chief Simon Fuller's wish list." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Common (Date Night) has been cast in AMC period drama pilot Hell on Wheels, the first talent attachment to the drama, which depicts the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Common will play Elam, described as "a freed slave who comes west seeking work on the railroad and his place in the world" and who, "as a half black, half white man... does not completely belong to either world." (Deadline)

G4 has purchased four anime-inspired series based on Marvel characters from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The cabler has ordered twelve episodes each of X-Men, Wolverine, Iron Man and Blade, which it will launch in 2011. Marvel Entertainment will produce with Madhouse and each of the anime series will have some thread connecting it to Asia in some way. [Editor: the inclusion of Wolverine here then makes sense, given his history in Japan, but X-Men? Interesting.] (Variety)

It's thought quite elementary that BBC One's new mystery series Sherlock--a modern-day version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sleuth from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss--will be recommissioned for a second season after 7.5 million viewers tuned in on Sunday to watch the first episode. (Broadcast)

In other UK news, British viewers will be able to watch the CW's Nikita and NBC's Chase, following a deal between studio Warner Bros. Television and The Living TV Group (a division of BSkyB) that will bring the series to Living. Nikita will air this fall on the channel, while Chase will jump across the pond in 2011. (Hollywood Reporter)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jeff and Jackie Filgo have left ABC's comedy pilot Awkward Situations For Men, which is being reworked and will be reshot. The cast of the original pilot--Danny Wallace, Tony Hale, and Laura Prepon--will return for the redone pilot though studio Warner Bros. Television will have to find a replacement for the Filgos, who wrote the pilot with Wallace and served as executive producers on the project. (Deadline)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that an earthquake will rock Los Angeles in the September 13th season premiere of 90210. "We wanted to open the season with an event that has both physical and emotional ramifications for several people," co-executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman told Keck and added that the incident will seriously affect one character. "One of them has a very serious injury that takes time to resolve and sort of changes the direction of his or her life." (TV Guide Magazine)

Epix has acquired rights to stand-up comedy film Louis C.K.: Hilarious, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The pay cabler will air the film on September 18th on Epix, its website, and its on demand service before Comedy Central gets a second window in 2011. (Variety)

CBS and CBS Studios have signed a talent holding deal with former King of Queens star Leah Remini, who will also serve as one of the hosts of CBS' new mom-centric daytime talk show. Under the terms of the deal, Remini will star in a new half-hour comedy pilot for the network. (Deadline)

Former ITV managing director Lee Bartlett has returned Stateside, where he has moved into the business affairs EVP position at Discovery Communications. He'll be based in Los Angeles and will report to Peter Ligouri. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Daily Beast: "Mad Men's Slap-Happy Return"

Looking to process last night's sensational season premiere of Mad Men?

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my interview with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner about the fourth season premiere ("Public Relations"), entitled "Mad Men's Slap-Happy Return," in which we discuss Sunday’s Season Four opener, Don and Betty Draper, the return of Joan (Christina Hendricks), and, yes, that slap.

Be sure to head over to the comments section as well to share your thoughts on Weiner's answers, your reactions to the fourth season premiere, and just where you think this season will lead.

The Unseen Second Floor: Mad Men's Fourth Season Premiere

"Who is Don Draper?"

It's those very words that are asked at the start of Season Four of AMC's slick and stylish period drama Mad Men but the question isn't just asked of Don Draper himself but posed to the audience as well. Just who is Don Draper? Is he a man so desperate to create a life for himself that he borrowed an identity from someone else? Is he an adulterous family man and distant father? Is he a divorced man attempting to navigate the uncertain waters of dating once more? Is he a modest Midwesterner or is he the public face of the fledgling Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency?

In the fourth season opener ("Public Relations"), written by Matthew Weiner and directed by Phil Abraham, Don wonders the answers to those questions as well, finding no solace in the quest of self-discovery. Throughout the series, Don Draper has been an enigma, a man whose purpose in life is to sell products, to craft deliciously beautiful creative work, but he's largely been hiding behind his own image, unable to answer that question.

He's not a lion-tamer but he's also not a family man, not anymore. His efforts to reverse his fortunes following the disastrous interview with Advertising Age at the episode's start are beautifully mirrored at the end of the episode as we see a different journalist, a different interview, and a different Don Draper. One who is prepared to put aside modesty in order to promote himself as a valuable commodity, one who isn't afraid to turn a climactic moment--walking into Lane Pryce's office and asking to be fired--into a story to dine out on, another advertising campaign, one with himself as the central product, a story that's spun until it becomes clear it's a commercial.

It's only fitting that Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce doesn't have a second floor (nor do they have a conference table at the moment) but they've engaged the public with tales of expansion, of booming business, even as they struggle to hold on to the clients they have. That second floor is a metaphor for the unseen, for what might be, rather than what is. It's also gorgeously tied together with the ad campaign for Jantzen's two-piece swimsuit: "So well built, we can't show you the second floor."

Is the woman wearing the top to her two-piece? Does the agency have a second floor? But the question we should be asking is: Does it matter?

Donald Draper has been a man long prone to using illusion, to distract the eye with what it wants to see rather than with what's actually there. A year after the end of the third season, Don Draper is a single man once more, locked in a messy divorce battle with his ex-wife Betty, who continues to live with her new husband in the house she once shared with Don. Don, meanwhile, lives in a tiny one-bedroom in Greenwich Village, seeing his two older children when he's able and carving out a niche for a bunkbed to house them behind saloon doors.

The dream he once had--that house in the suburbs, the perfect wife, those beautiful children--now seems like nothing more than a fairy tale. The reality is that he's now alone, polishing his shoes in front of a television, watching his own ads in the dark. That he looks upon Sally and Bobby as they climb into that narrow alcove bunkbed with such sadness says more than any words could. This might be "temporary" as he nastily tells Betty's new husband Henry but this could also be permanent: his family reduced to a small part of his life, isolated away in a tiny alcove.

When he was married, Don could have gone after any woman. There was safety in the fact that his wedding band meant their relationship would be strictly sexual, a short-term affair that could lead nowhere. But a now divorced Don finds that the codes are different among singles. His date with Bethany Van Nuys (True Blood's Anna Camp) ends in the cab because she won't sleep with him. She won't let him walk her to the door; she's been down this road before and she knows all of his tricks. She's looking for something long-term, something meaningful, something Don hasn't had since he courted Betty years ago. He's going to have to work at something for change.

But it's clear that Don wants to feel something. His Thanksgiving isn't spent with family but with a call girl he frequents, one whom he likes to slap him around. It's a toe in the shallow end of sadomasochism but it's meant to illicit a response. He wants to be not only punished but to be made to feel something, anything, even if it's painful.

That slap also connects to his mistreatment of the potential clients from Jantzen at the end of the episode. The old Don would have taken Roger's tack and told the clients that creative would come up with some new pitches; he would have been forced to create the campaign he derides to them--one in which women play volleyball on the beach as a little girl builds a sandcastle--in order to meet their vision of modesty. But Don's done building sandcastles, really. He swiftly boots them from his office, demanding they get out and then slams his door after agreeing to another interview, this time in the Wall Street Journal. He's done selling two-piece bathing suits to fleeing customers. If he's going to sell anything, he's got to sell himself first.

"I walked into Lane Pryce's office and I said, 'Fire us.' Within a year, we'd taken over two floors of the Time-Life Building," said Don.

Two floors, of course.

It's ironic because Don claims that he hates stunts, such as the one that Peggy, Pete, and Joey (Matt Long) pull involving two grabby actresses and a Sugarberry Ham. While it does result in the company increasing their media buy, Don's furious that Peggy did this without consulting him, asking her if she wants them all to look like idiots. But Peggy's changed over the years; she doesn't back down and instead reminds Don that no one found out about the stunt--despite the arrest of one of the actresses--and the firm's reputation is right where Don left it, thanks to his vapid interview.

She also goes to lengths to remind Don that each of them is there because of him. "All we want to do is please you," Peggy chides him. It's as much a slap across the face as the hooker performs. And it's true: Don Draper is this agency and those who followed him from Sterling Cooper and set up shop at a room in the Pierre Hotel did so because they believed in him. Who is Don Draper then? He's Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, really, a fact that Pete Campbell attempts in his own way to remind him at the beginning of the polished and engaging season opener.

The true answer to that question, of course, will come over the course of Mad Men's fourth season as Don looks to build a new life for himself, even as Betty and the kids adapt to their own new reality. If "Public Relations" represents just where this season is going, I'd say we are in for a thrilling and taut exploration of the dark recesses of Don's psyche, even as we push into the future, one filled with uncertainty, conflict, and war on several levels. I'll see you on the second floor.

Next week on Mad Men ("Christmas Comes But Once a Year"), a last minute visitor threatens to spoil the agency's Christmas Party.

Dogs at the Feast: Imprisonment and Escape on True Blood

This season of True Blood has continued to kick into overdrive, delivering yet another taut and disturbing installment that not only advanced the overarching plot of the fourth season but also pushed several characters past their breaking point, revealing the skull beneath the skin quite literally in some cases.

Last night's episode ("I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"), written by Alan Ball and directed by Michael Lehmann, should serve as a prime example of the sort of dizzying storytelling that True Blood excels at, juggling multiple subplots and weaving together several story strands as the direction that Season Four is taking becomes all the more clear.

But the main narrative throughline would appear to be the characters' individual quests for their humanity, between the desires of the flesh and the fulfillment of the spirit, the insubstantial, and the ethereal. For the supernatural creatures that populate the shadowy world of True Blood, humanity is a vestment that can be cast off at will but several of them find that they can't quite leave behind--or let go of--their mortal lives. Those preoccupations are the crucible by which they are judged and by which they judge themselves.

Can Eric make good on centuries of blood vengeance? Can he sublimate his desire and need for Sookie Stackhouse to enact a bitter revenge against his mortal family? Can Tara find the strength to choose life over death even at her darkest hour? Can Bill welcome death as a release from eternal torment? Is Lorena so far gone that she's lost any shred of love or decency? If Sookie's not human, than what is she? Is it our actions that make us human or our condition?

It's these questions that are at the heart of this week's episode, which sees Tara hatch a plan to free herself and Sookie from Russell's clutches, Eric makes good on a long-term plan, and Lorena torments both Bill and herself as she prepares to destroy her progeny and one-time lover.

It's also an episode of parallels and inversions. Just as Tara turns the tables on her captor Franklin Mott--biting into his flesh as he did to her and using a mace to smash open his head just as he got inside her mind--Bill attempts to rationalize with Lorena as she cuts him open, prolonging the agony he is experiencing, attempting to punish him with physical violence and send him into the afterlife with her violent impulses racing through him. But Bill's torment isn't what she had intended. He doesn't fight back but in a Christ-like move, turns the other cheek and attempts to reawaken her dormant humanity, telling her that he wished he could have seen her when she was human, when she could still smile and had light in her eyes, rather than nothing but a dark and vacant emptiness that threatens to swallow them both.

Likewise, the beauty of the scene between Lafayette and Jesus in the car as they finally kiss--a gorgeously shot scene that depicts both a sweetness and an innate passion between the two--is inverted later on in the episode. Their brief moment of happiness--one in which we actually see a smiling and beatific Lafayette--is interrupted by violence as the car--itself a gift from Eric Northman--is brutally vandalized by some homophobic rednecks. When Jesus learns of Lafayette's true nature--he's a drug dealer who traffics in vampire blood--the spell is broken and he demands to be taken back to his car. He gets back into the vehicle and the two resume their positions from earlier, but now the glass--like the moment between them--has been shattered.

Is there any hope for these two? One can only hope, particularly as Lafayette is doing what he does to attempt to support his mentally ill mother. One could argue that he doesn't have a choice, that he needs the money and would do anything to get it. But one might also say that there is always a choice: we're more than our parents, more than our race. Jesus, a product of rape, isn't a violent thug but rather a healer. His decision proves that each of the characters can get past the circumstances of their birth or death.

That applies to the imperiled Sookie and Tara as well. Asked by Russell what she is, Sookie replies that she's a waitress. It's clear that's how she still defines herself, telepathy and microwave fingers and all. She knows she is her parents' child but she doesn't know what she is. However, she still views herself as human, despite Russell's claims that she is anything but that. Tara regains the strength that she had lost following Eggs' death and the nihilism she embraced. Her imprisonment at the hands of Franklin reawaken her desire not to die but to live, to continue to fight. For a character who has been victimized for the last two seasons, it's a major turning point as she realizes she needs to do whatever she can, cross whatever moral boundary she needs to, in order to escape her captor and free herself. If Bill won't help her, she's on her own. And she quickly proves--via a gruesome series of scenes in which she rips open Franklin's neck and then his skull--that she's more than capable of looking after herself.

Even after learning that Bill had a secret dossier on her, Sookie still can't let go of the love she had for Bill. Rather than just flee with Tara, she attempts to save her would-be fiance from Lorena, even while knowing that he's been lying to her from the start. He's concealed things from her--the existence of Queen Sophie-Anne (and the fact that her cousin Hadley is in her court) and the fact that he's been investigating her family free--but it doesn't change the fact that Sookie has love in her heart. Unfortunately, she also has blood in her veins, which makes her easy prey for Lorena, who sinks her fangs into Sookie's neck at the very end of the episode, paying good on her promise to rip Sookie open.

As for Eric, he's putting aside everything--his fealty to Sophie-Anne, his love for Sookie--in pursuit of Russell Edgington, the vampire who orchestrated the massacre of his human family. Even with Pam's life on the line, Eric is willing to take his long con as far as he can, threatening to rip off Sophie-Anne's head and kick it in the pool if that's what his new master wants.

And then there's Jessica, who's trying to walk a fine line between giving into her primal urges and attempting to go vegetarian. After glamoring every customer and ordering them to stiff Arlene, she softens towards her co-worker after learning that she's pregnant... and she feeds on the shrilly irritating Peach after getting her to give all of her cash to Arlene. It's a nice payoff after Jessica accidentally bares her fangs when she sees Arlene cut her finger. But Jessica's playing a dangerous game. Sam won't be too happy to learn that she's feeding on his customers in the ladies' room and she's going to find that her tricks will catch up with her eventually... if Russell doesn't first. After all, she's still a baby vamp with no supervision and no guidance and her isolation pits her in a very dangerous position.

What else did I love about this remarkable episode? Seeing Jason Stackhouse fail to win the love of a pretty girl. In this case, it's the very much engaged Crystal Norris, who tries to warn Jason that it's too dangerous to be together. He'd also be advised to pay attention to when a would-be conquest sniffs the air and then says that they have to leave. Crystal is, after all, definitely not what she appears to be and her sweet facade conceals all manner of secrets, it would seem. Jason then takes out his frustrations on the Bon Temps High School QB 1, roughing him up after catching him in flagrante delicto in the parking lot.

And then there's the Mickens subplot as we learn that Melinda used to use her shifting abilities to win dogfights in order to keep the family financially viable until she hurt her back. Now she and Joe Lee have forced Tommy into this line of work, putting him in illegal dogfights and rigging the system for cash. Tommy's trapped, though: he can't walk away from his family but he's putting his life at risk in order to support them. It's going to end badly and painfully. But not if Sam Merlotte can get to Tommy before he goes back into the ring. If he doesn't, it's more than likely that he'll walk away with a lot more than some scars this time.

What did you think of this week's episode? Just what will happen to Sookie? Can Alcide help Tara and everyone escape from Russell's mansion before night falls? How far is Eric willing to take his revenge quest against Russell? And will we see Russell make a play for control of the vampire power structure? Find out on Sunday.

Next week on True Blood ("Hitting the Ground"), imperiled by Lorena, Sookie goes to extremes in her attempt to save Bill (Stephen Moyer) – with unforeseen consequences; Sam infiltrates a dogfighting ring to extricate Tommy from his parentsʼ greedy influence; Jason heads to jail to uncover the truth about Crystal; Summer makes a home-cooked play for Hoytʼs affections; Debbie vows revenge on Alcide; Eric uses Hadley as bait to get information from Sophie-Anne; Russell turns his back on the Authority, and on the Magister.

Ep. 31: Hitting the Ground - Preview

Bad Romance: Chuck Takes Comic-Con By Storm

One of the most indelible--and therefore indescribable--moments of this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con was the Chuck panel, which debuted a brand-new music video from the international smash hit Jeffster!

Performing a hysterical rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," the music video (entitled "Jeffster Dance Video Take 73") served not only as a truly memorable introduction to the panel itself but also segued into the appearance of the cast en masse to the tune as Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky led the cast in a bit of impromptu dancing as they made their way onto the massive stage of Ballroom 20 on Saturday. (A clip of the Chuck crew dancing their way to massive cheers--seriously, turn down your volume if you watch--can be found below.)

The big news of course coming out of the Chuck panel was that Linda Hamilton--yes, she of the rippling physique from T2: Judgment Day has been cast as the mysterious and missing Mary Bartowski, mother to Chuck and Ellie, who ran out on the family years ago and was glimpsed in the season finale as some sort of, well, we're not entirely sure what's going on with Mary other than she has a pretty major role in the spy game herself.

The casting of Hamilton--itself suggested by fans--was met with huge fanfare among the 2000-plus attendees of the Chuck panel, though I do wish that Hamilton had been able to join the cast on stage in person. (Though the clip package's use of T2 footage was hilarious and apt in and of itself.)

What else did we learn during the sadly truncated panel? Let's discuss.



Nicole Richie, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Olivia Munn, Dolph Lundgren, Isaiah Mustafa--yes, the Old Spice Guy himself--will be guest starring on Season Four of Chuck. The Buy More will now be owned and operated by the CIA and function as a convenient cover for Chuck after the explosion and seeming destruction of the Burbank Buy More.

Olivia Munn's character, Greta, will be first Buy More employee, a trained CIA agent who is set to appear in the first episode. Each episode will feature a new "Greta" and, yes, all of them will be called Greta. (Seriously.)

"He was a great villain," said Josh Schwartz of Brandon Routh's Daniel Shaw. "Chuck and Sarah have amazing chemistry and it was hard to replicate that."

But that's not all: "Chuck and Sarah are a couple this year. We've learned about putting people between them."

"The search for Chuck's mom... will inform a lot of the season," said Schwartz. Additionally, the search for Mama Bartowski will affect Chuck's relationship with Sarah and the Buy More as well. (But don't worry: they're still a couple. See above.)

Chuck and Morgan will be the best worst best worst spy team ever.

"It was more than awesome," said Ryan McPartlin about the Season Four renewal.

Season Four of Chuck begins this fall on NBC.

Trailer Park: HBO Releases New Promo for Period Drama Boardwalk Empire

I came home from San Diego Comic-Con to discover the first six episodes of HBO's new period drama Boardwalk Empire, from Terence Winter and Martin Scorsese, waiting for me in a glittering stack of DVD screeners.

While I haven't been able to sink my teeth into them yet (that will come later today), I can share with you the latest promo for the series--which stars Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar comin'!), Michael Shannon, and a host of others, which HBO released last night.

The promo can be viewed in full below and I'm curious to know what you think, as Boardwalk Empire is one of the series I'm most eagerly awaiting. (Okay, that's an understatement of the highest order: I'm positively salivating over it already!)

Preview Trailer #4

Boardwalk Empire premieres Sunday, September 19th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

San Diego Comic-Con: Head to Greendale with Community Panel

There's no possible way to be everywhere at once at San Diego Comic-Con, which is why I'm always chuffed when the studios and networks release video for the panels that I missed.

One panel that I would have loved to have seen was that for NBC's gleefully absurd comedy Community, but I was actually moderating the panel for ABC's V over in Ballroom 20 at the same exact time that creator Dan Harmon and the Greendale kids were discussing Season Two of the Sony Pictures Television-produced comedy.

But, alas, it was not meant to be. Many thanks then to NBC for releasing the video for the panel itself, which can be viewed in full below, even if I didn't see any Human Beings roaming the halls of the convention center. Which would have been far more scary than any Cloverfield monster, really.



Season Two of Community begins this fall on NBC.

San Diego Comic-Con: AMC's Panel for Zombie Drama The Walking Dead

Missed the hordes of zombies at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con International? Or the actual walking dead themselves?

Worry not, zombie fiends, as AMC has released highlights from its panel for its upcoming zombie drama The Walking Dead--based, of course, on the comic book series by the one and only Robert Kirkman--so you can get a look at the cast and crew of the horror-filled series even if you didn't make it to San Diego.

The eleven minute video--which picks out the best bits from the Walking Dead panel on Friday--can be viewed below in its entirety.



The Walking Dead launches in October on AMC.