TVSquad

Today was the very last day of the press tour here in Beverly Hills. It was "TCA Day," with members of the association (including me) going to the Warner Brothers lot to visit the sets of ER, Pushing Daisies, and Chuck, where we spoke to cast members and producers (Oh, we went to the set of America's Best Dance Crew, but let's just forget I mentioned that one). Then we bused it over to the Fox lot, where Joss Whedon showed us around the set of Dollhouse, and the entire cast of King of the Hill gave a table read of their 250th episode. All this fun will be in upcoming posts later this summer.

Despite some of the griping you may have seen from me, it's been lots of fun. It's just a very tiring experience. Case in point: On Monday, NBC decided to close out the press conference portion of the tour by having us sit through ten panels, five of them after lunch. Here's a wrap-up post that goes over some of what went on yesterday that I haven't already covered.

Just to be complete, I wanted to go over a few more tidbits from the NBC executive session with entertainment co-chiefs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff. We already know about Leno copying Kimmel, and the late night news that came out of it, and we already know about the non-spin-off and the actual spin-off for The Office. But what else did they talk about?

• Life will get two Monday night showings, starting on September 29 at 10 PM ET, which will allow them to premiere Christian Slater's My Own Worst Enemy on October 13, and run it straight through December. Silverman called having that show after Chuck and Heroes a kind of a "male Heroes sandwich."
  

Or Chuck, or Pushing Daisies, or Private Practice for that matter. With the announcement that FOX was going to offer a marathon of The Sarah Connor Chronicles starting on August 10th I got to wondering about the other freshman shows that made an impression on viewers before the Writers Strike abruptly ended their seasons. Many of these shows haven't been seen since the end of last year.

For Life, the last original episode to air was December 5th. With the second season premiere slated to air during the first week of October, it will be nearly a year since viewers had a chance to bond with Detectives Charlie Crews and Dani Reese. That's a bit of a concern when it comes to this show. On the surface Life is a criminal procedural. However, underneath there has been an second story about Charlie's quest to clear his good name for a murder he didn't commit. While the first arc of this story was completed in its "season finale," there is plenty of story to tell.

Everybody wants Donal Logue. Just one month after NBC added him to the cast of NBC's Life, as Charlie's new boss, now comes news that HBO has booked Donal Logue as a biker in 1%. The new pilot casts Donal as a character named Misfit, a Silicon Valley member who's sent to Carefree, Arizona, to get one of the toughest biker clubs in the west in line. Also joining Logue in the show are W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), Timm Sharp (Undeclared), Lucy Punch (hilarious in The Class as Holly Ellenbogen), Marisa Ryan (New York Undercover) and Sonny Barger. Barger is an actual biker and has been enlisted to no doubt add realism to the project.

So, NBC introduced their earth-shattering year-round schedule this week to a lot of 'ho-hums' from critics and advertisers alike. Nothing really changed from the way they were programming the network for the last few years -- shows like 30 Rock, The Office and Heroes will air in September while others, like the coveted Office spin-off, will begin airing mid-season. Also, many shows will remain in the same time slots as they did in previous years.

Oh, there will be some changes. Lipstick Jungle, which most recently aired in ER's slot, will be moved to Wednesdays. In addition, Life, the surprise fan favorite of the first half of the season, will be moving out of its coveted 10:00 pm slot on Wednesdays to Friday night at the same time. The relocation of Life to the end of the week begs one question that needs to be asked to the programmers over at NBC....

What the FRAK are you thinking?

Starz, the cable network, is getting into original production and their first project will be based on the 2005 Best Picture Oscar-winning film Crash. Glen Mazzara, whose credits include Life, The Shield, Stand-Off and Nash Bridges, has been named executive producer/showrunner for the drama series. Lionsgate TV will co-produce with Starz, and they've greenlighted 13 episodes.

The controversial film, which dealt with the intersecting lives of a myriad of people living in Los Angeles in just 48 hours, centers on the character of Detective Graham Waters. Waters, a police detective, is struggling with his career, his drug addict mother and a criminal brother. The role was played by Don Cheadle (Picket Fences), who was also one of the film's producers. He is expected to reprise the part in the Starz production and may even direct a few episodes. In addition, director/co-writer/producer Paul Haggis and others from the film are also on board for Starz.

When I posted about CBS's post strike announcement, I said it would be great if the other networks followed the Eye's lead. Well, almost as soon as I hit "Publish" on that post, NBC came out with two press releases discussing some of their post-strike plans.

The first release confirms what we had been guessing at since we got the news of the settlement: Chuck, Life and Heroes have all been picked up for 2008-09, but none of the shows will return until the fall. The second release discusses the return dates of several shows (list after the jump). It's not as helpful as CBS's release because it doesn't tell us how many episodes are left (so, for all we know, we'll see the Scrubs conclusion on DVD, as Bill Lawrence told Mike Ausiello). But at least we know when all of these shows are coming back -- April 10 seems to be the big day for fans of 30 Rock and The Office, for example.

Now we have FOX, CW, and ABC left. Think they're going to step up to the plate soon?

Here we are again. Another year has passed us by and what do we have to show for it? A little more gray hair, a little less money in our pockets (have you noticed how the price of, um, everything has gone up?), and a little more fear that the world in slowly unraveling. Normally, television is there to soothe our brows in these times. Alas, the current pissing match between the Studios and the Writers is stifling that ability to the point that we may all be having Chaucer parties by mid-year because there's nothing to watch on the tube.

Not sounding too bitter, am I?

Well, you're not here to read about doom and gloom (unless it's a review of 24). You're here to see what I, and many of my TV Squad colleagues, thought television's best and worst were for 2007. So, without further interruptions on how much I paid for my daughter's karate lessons (you DON'T want to know), here is my list of best and worst for the previous year.

This is my third Festivus wish list, and, I've got to be honest with you: I think they're completely useless. Oh, sure, some of the more sincere items, like wishes for shows to end well, etc., came true. But my cell phone still does not contain the numbers of Sarah Chalke or America Ferrera. So, like I said: useless.

(Full disclosure: I met both of them when I was out in LA last January. But asking for phone numbers would have been unprofessional of me. At least that's what I keep telling myself late at night.)

But, since I'm in a festive mood, here's my list of Festivus wishings for the rest of 2007 and beyond:

...Four TV shows you should be watching

Let's not beat around the bush -- television is a humongous, bloated wasteland. Granted, it's a humongous, bloated wasteland that I adore and worship any chance I get, but it is a humongous, bloated wasteland nonetheless. Due to the copious amount of crap that is placed on the airwaves many good shows are pushed aside, waiting for an unknowing viewer to tune into them and get hooked. Sometimes, these shows grab a few people, develop a following, and become a hit. Other times, they disappear down the television toilet, never to be seen again.

So, in order to save them from the Great Flush, here are four (plus a few more) shows that you should be watching.

(S01E11) Where to begin.

If Life was not picked up for a full season this episode would have probably been a fairly decent series finale. So much information was given to us, so many evidence holes were filled, that there was a feeling of closure. Not satisfaction, mind you, but closure. The information given out was so powerful this episode that I am only going to reveal it after the jump. So, if you have yet to watch Wednesday's installment of Life DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS POINT. If you do, don't be pissed off at me.

(S01E10) Ladies and gentleman, what happened at the very end of Monday's episode of Life is what we call in the television world a "major plot development." I'm sure the producers of Lost are jealous.

Seriously, for those of you who thought that we would never get to the bottom of the Conspiracy, the revelation (which I won't be revealing until after the jump) probably came as a bit of a relief. I feet the same way. And I'm not too worried that this plot point will end the entire Conspiracy back story. Just because Charlie discovered this one thing doesn't mean that the entire mystery of his murder conviction is solved.

(S01E09) "I investigate things." -- Charlie Crews to the IAD investigator.

Let's get the good news out of the way first. It was reported earlier this week that Life was being picked up for a full season. Huzzah! The show is finally getting the recognition it deserves and it is pretty much thanks to you, viewers. If you didn't tune in week after week and support the poopie out of the show then it could have had a more iffy future like the other NBC freshman shows Journeyman and Bionic Woman. Now all you have to do is keep it up. You can start doing that by watching the show two times next week. More on that at the end of the post.

Geeks and fruit lovers rejoice, NBC just announced that it is ordering an extra nine episodes of two of its new series: Chuck and Life. What that means is that both series will have a complete first season of 22 episodes each!

About 8 million viewers tune in weekly to watch geek-turned-secret-agent Chuck Bartowski solve crimes with his two handlers and to witness Detective Crews solve cases after sering time in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Not too long ago, our corporate buddies at AOL Television posted a fall TV scorecard featuring their grades for new and returning shows. While the list featured such shows as House, Reaper, Desperate Housewives, Pushing Daises and Ugly Betty, it missed a number of fan favorites (and non-favorites) that we talk about constantly over here at TV Squad.

How to rectify this? Well, we could all go over to the AOL Television offices and beat the staff until they agree to add the missing shows. Or, in order to keep our jobs and avoid prison time, we could just list the missing shows over here, grade them, and give you a chance to rate them as well. Since I wouldn't last more than five minutes in jail I think we'll just list the missing shows over here.

You can find the list of eleven shows, graded by myself, Joel, Keith, Brett and Brad, after the jump.