TVSquad

The writing partners behind Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, and The House Bunny, opening in theaters tomorrow, have inked a deal with ABC Studios for a series about something they're familiar with -- them.

Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith have sold a script about their crazy creative process, which, apparently, involves plenty of champagne and therapy, according to an L.A. Times column about the pair. ABC Studios took notice of the column and approached the duo about spinning a show out of it.

Now ABC Studios has the script and is developing a series about what it calls "their friendship, partnership, and (mis)adventures in Hollywood," reports The Hollywood Reporter. If it's a go, Lutz and Smith will pen the pilot and stay on as consulting producers.

It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.

While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the "news" from Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl's statements, and b) I wanted to think about why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?

We'll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC's schedule). As you'd expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.

Including gay characters on your TV show is good, unless it's two lesbians who fall in love with a straight man, as they do in a storyline on New Amsterdam. FOX learned that the hard way when they received a failing grade from GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) on their second annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index. The index measures the "quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television."

Even though GLAAD gave FOX a failing grade, the network's cable counterpart, FX, received top honors for cable channels. The advocacy group praised them for including the most original programming that featured members LGBT community. Special notice was given to Nip/Tuck, which had a gay, lesbian, or bisexual character in every episode. Rescue Me's commitment ceremony storyline was also viewed favorably by the group.

Sally Field is a two-time Oscar winner, a three-time Emmy winner -- including last year at Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Brothers and Sisters -- and she's bound to be in the running again this year when the nominations are announced on July 17.

Now she's taking on a new role; she'll be guest programmer at Turner Classic Movies in July, and having gotten a look at her choices, I have to say to Sally, "I like you, I really like you" -- at least your taste in movies.

Sally will be joined by TCM host Robert Osborne introducing and discussing her four films. The Field four are Love With a Proper Stranger, The Awful Truth, All About Eve and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and every one of them features great performances by women.

To those of you who aren't movie buffs, here's a bit more information about these films -- why I like them, and I mean, I really like them.

(S02E16) Rebecca: "I don't know what to do next."
Justin: "Me neither."

I cried twice during this episode. Maybe more. I cried when Nora told Kevin he deserved to have a beautiful wedding just as much as anybody else. And I also cried at two more points, but I'll talk about them below the jump. This was a beautiful episode of television. Even though I don't know that I have written about the music used in episodes, I thought the use of "Can't Find My Way Home" for the last two scenes was profoundly moving. Last year, I thought the season finale was a disaster because it ended with grand hijinks and everybody jumping into a pool. This year's season ended quietly on a beautiful sunny hillside, and it just about broke my heart. I am going to go out on a limb here and hope that this show wins an Emmy, because when they do it well, they really nail it.

ABC offered a set of fun Valentine's Day e-cards earlier this year, and they're at it again with a more extensive set of Mother's Day e-cards. More of my favorite ABC shows were let in on the fun this time, including Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Samantha Who?. Show Mom your love with a clever message from Lost's Claire, Susan from Desperate Housewives, or Hilda from Ugly Betty.

The cards are one part of a "Guide to Motherhood" page on ABC's website. You can watch clips from ABC's hit shows based on four motherhood themes: New Moms, Nesting, Words of Wisdom, and Letting Go. It's an amusing way to look back at some of the unconventional approaches to parenting taken in the last season.

Holy frik! We've only just started to embrace the return of our shows after a shortened strike season. Now, they are almost over. In the next few weeks all of our network favorites will say good-bye for the summer to be replaced with reality shows, reality game shows, reality soap operas, and Regis on primetime (again).

Needless to say, I'm a bit depressed. As I am sure you are as well. But, we will do our duty and press on. Thusly, we here at the sprawling lakefront offices of TV Squad (you choose the lakefront) have compiled list of when your favorite, and not so favorite, shows will be saying good-bye for their summer vacation. As usual, taking the fickleness of the networks, these times and days can change at a moment's notices. We will try to update you of those changes as quickly as our little fingers can type it out.

So, with a leaden heart, here are your season and series finales.

(S02E15) "We should ask ourselves: 'What's the right thing to do?'" Holly Harper to Tommy Walker

So, what are we to think of Holly? Is she a pathological liar and a scheming manipulator? A greedy opportunist? Or is she genuinely trying to do the right thing as she sees it, affair with William Walker not withstanding? Honestly, I can't make up my mind, but I am leaning toward seeing her as a flawed person who is doing her best. Lord knows, she could have taken her inheritance from William Walker and kissed the entire clan goodbye. Perhaps some see her as unable to let go, unable to stop until she has revenge on the Walkers for having William in ways she couldn't. But that seems a rather extreme pathology. It's much more interesting to view her as a complicated human being, which has certainly been supported on the show.

Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List all received GLAAD Media awards in a ceremony held over the weekend. The award honors fair media portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. This is the second GLAAD award for both ABC shows, which won for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series. Kathy Griffin's show is a first-time winner in the Outstanding Reality Series category.

The event was attended by many TV personalities, including T.R. Knight, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, and Sally Field. Bravo will air the ceremony at an undetermined date and time. It will be the first time the GLAAD awards have aired on a national cable network.

[S02E136 "That was weird, wasn't it?" Justin Walker

I am starting to feel like Siskel and Ebert every week. Oh, that was a great episode! Oh, that episode sucked! It doesn't seem like there is any in between with me. Does that mean I'm too picky?

You know, it's funny because sometimes I don't even know how I feel about an episode, really, until I start writing about it, so my actual experience with watching it isn't necessarily negative, even if I write up a critical review. But tonight, I am pretty sure I know how I feel about it: That was a great episode.

Lots of things going on this week: Things are definitely heating up and charging down the runway toward May Sweeps and the end of the season, but they are things that have been set up for so long and so well that their very inevitability feels natural, unhurried, unforced, like a cart careening down a hill, picking up momentum, and heading into rush-hour traffic. And I'm not going to talk about it before the jump, so let's get going, shall we?

Dear Nora,

I know it must be hard looking after all those brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers. And while I truly do appreciate how you welcomed your dead husband's lover and their child into the Walker fold, I really think it's time you grew up and started making some decisions for yourself.

Ok, so maybe moving to Washington, D.C. with Isaac wasn't the right decision, but it seemed like the one thing that kept you in California were those four words uttered forlornly by Kitty: "I need you, Mom."

Kitty's a grown woman with a career and a husband. She can take care of herself, as can the rest of the Walker clan. OK, so I'm a little undecided as to whether I'd want my entire family there to watch me puke and get the shakes, as was the case when Justin was de-toxing. Then again, drug addiction isn't pretty any way you look at it, so ... go Walkers.

ABC's Brothers & Sisters is a show about family -- the close but somewhat dysfunctional Walker clan, to be exact.

But things could get really interesting in the coming weeks, especially for Justin and Rebecca, whom I've always thought were just a little too close for half-siblings. Sure, she helped him through his detox/rehab after he came home from the war, and his half-brotherly love has known no bounds. But I've always suspected these two had an undercurrent of romance rippling through their psyches.

Up until now, they've always thought they shared the same father, with Justin being the son of William and wife Nora, and Rebecca the daughter of William and his lover, Holly.

(S02E15) "I'm leaving to get away from all of you!" - Nora Walker to her darling children, about moving to Washington D.C. with Isaac.

Sometimes what I actually want to review is the scenes for next week's show, because it seems more interesting than the one I just watched. However, I know that many of you deliberately do not watch those clips, so we shall say no more on the subject. I am glad the Walkers are back, and I like how they have handled the time off due to the strike: they simply said, "Three months later," and picked up with events then.

Before that jump, though, we learned some important things: That Graham and Sarah are still dating, that Tommy and Julia are still happily together, and that Senator Robert McCallister loses the Republican Party's nomination for the Presidency, so Robert returns to the Senate.

Last week, Rob Lowe filed a lawsuit against three former employees. The star of Brothers and Sisters says that one of these former employees, former nanny Jessica Gibson, wanted $1.5 million to remain silent about allegations of abuse.

Gibson, who worked for Rob and Sheryl Lowe on and off for seven years, filed a claim in Santa Barbara yesterday. She claims that the actor sexually abused her on numerous occasions from September 2005 to January 2008. Why did she stay for so long? "I always thought it would be different when I went back, but it was not. I stayed as long as I did because of the children and because I needed a job," Gibson explained. Her lawyer added that if the Lowes think that sueing Gibson as a pre-emptive strike will intimidate her, "I can assure them it will not." Gibson's countersuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.