TVSquad

Former Six Feet Under actor Peter Krause just agreed to play the lead role in a SciFi Channel original mini-series, or as SciFi calls it, "limited series". Whatever. The series is called The Lost Room, about a motel room that contains mysterious power and all the objects in the room are charmed. Krause will play the detective who stumbles upon a key to the room, opens it up, and heaps a world of trouble on himself. His daughter, who disappears in the room, will be played by Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota. Filming for the series begins next Wednesday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but no air date has been announced.

Bravo has the exclusive rights to air all 63 episodes of the HBO hit series, Six Feet Under. Bravo says it'll start airing the entire series sometime this year, possibly this fall, although the announcement doesn't give an exact date. HBO refuses to say exactly how much the syndication deal is worth but this report puts it at $15 million, or $250,000 an episode. HBO originally pimped out Six Feet Under for $450,000 but that was a little too rich for other networks' blood. As with Sex and the City, HBO has given Bravo the go-ahead to clean up the language and video.

The nominees for the 12th Annual SAG Awards were announced this morning. Check out the full list for television after the jump below.

Writers for My Name is Earl, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy are getting some accolades for their good work on their successful new shows. The writing teams for those programs were nominated for Writers Guild of America awards. Earl writers received three different nominations, while Office and Anatomy writers were both nominated for two awards including best new series. Don't worry, shows like Lost and Arrested Development also were nominated. The awards will be handed out February 4 in LA and NY.

More categories and nominations are listed after the jump:

...four killed-off characters.

• Shannon, Lost  Shannon was the biggest bitch on the island until Ana Lucia came along and shot her. We will all miss Shannon and her sunbathing, her sneer, her clear, make-up free complexion, and her hallucinations. Shannon was preceded in death by her father and her step-brother, Boone, with whom she had a one-night stand before getting in a plane crash. She leaves behind a wicked stepmother and a really hot Iraqi.
• Nick Stokes, CSI  One can only hope...
  
• Michael Vaughn, Alias  He was hot. Really, really hot. And sexy. There was more to Vaughn than meets the eye. Just as everything was looking happy for him and Syd, he revealed that he was a double agent and his name was not Michael Vaughn. Then he got T-Boned in a car crash. And shot. He leaves behind a shocked fiance and the fruit of his loins.
  
• Caleb Nichol, The O.C. Who will everyone love to hate now? Sure, his widow is a manipulative bitch, but she has some redeeming qualities, like the way she booted Jeri Ryan out of The O.C. before that storyline got even dumber. We will miss Caleb for the way that he drove his daughters to drugs and alcohol and his knack for ruining every family get-together. Caleb leaves behind a wife, two daughters, one of whom will no doubt be back soon since FOX cancelled her other show, and a goofball of a grandson.
  
• Everyone, Six Feet Under  I fudged this one. Nate was the only one we saw die. The poor fella had only recently returned home, when his father died, to help his brother, David, manage the family funeral home. Over six years, he and his family managed to make a royal mess of their lives. The series ended with Nate dying of a brain hemorrhage. We also learned the fate of the rest of the family who die in the following order: Ruth, Keith, David, Rico, Brenda and Claire.

Twelve commenters commenting
Eleven instrumental themes a playing
Ten best one-liners
Nine stupid storylines
Eight trends a-setting
Seven silly sweeps stunts
Six biggest bitches
Five cancelled shows!

Trust me, I know of the kind of rabid following that good producers get from fans, which is why I think you Six Feet Under folks will love this news. Producer Alan Ball, who also created Six Feet Under, has just signed a two year development deal with HBO to create a new project based on Southern Vampire, a series of novels from Charlaine Harris. The novels take place in a time when vampires and regular people live together, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood. It's not clear yet as to whether the project will be a single movie or a series.

[via Cynopsis]

While writing up my review for Grey's Anatomy this morning, and thinking about all the euphemisms I've heard for abortions on recent TV shows, I started wondering about the political fallout of having an abortion on TV. The characters never seem to say the word (it's almost like Lucy and her never-voiced "pregnancy"), it's "going to the clinic" or "the procedure" or "not keeping the baby" or "they say someone has to drive me home afterward..." Someone even commented that all women who have abortions on TV end up dying. Heck, they couldn't even do an abortion on Sex and the City, and that's on cable!

I found this piece on abortions on TV, which brought up some history (in the 70s and 80s, abortions happened frequently in adult dramas) talked about the "convenient miscarriage" plot device (there was one recently on Over There). Evidently, only one modern TV character has undergone an abortion without suffering any long-lasting psychological problems: Claire on Six Feet Under. So, do you think abortions are possible - without fallout - on modern primetime TV? Will Cristina have one? If she does, what will happen to her - and the show?

I haven't seen one minute of Six Feet Under, so I have no idea what the hell it means. But if you're a fan you do, and now you can get this cool shirt (on the right) and show that you're proud to be a fan of the show and you're sad to see it go.

[via USA Today's Hip Clicks]

On Tuesday, Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball did an interview with Terry Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air.

During the interview (link to the audio archive launch page below this post) Ball mentions eight plot and character-destiny details that didn't come up during the course of the series - or even in the final obits posted on the Six Feet Under website.

 

Have you read Everything Bad Is Good For You, the book by Steven Berlin Johnson that gives a persuasive argument that everything that the so-called experts say is bad for you - especially video games and television - is actually good for you? It's a great book, the kind that gets you thinking about things in a different way. I was on MSNBC earlier this year during TV Turnoff Week (debating a rep from TV Turnoff Week), and Johnson's book was brought up. I said that Johnson's theory about how the different structure of modern television can actually help people think in a better way was a fine argument for why TV can be a good thing.

Now at his site, Johnson has a nice little summary of what made Six Feet Under so good over the past five years. It's a must-read for SFU fans. 

If you've watched last night's series-ending episode of Six Feet Under, you'll already know that the story line did not end with Claire Fisher driving to New York in pursuit of an art career. But even if you did watch the last ten minutes of "Everyone's Waiting" to see how each character is to die, I'll bet you missed some details that were not available until today. Read on for the scoop.

Yes, it is over, as it was and is meant to be.

And what a worthy send off it was. Pure art, a thing of beauty.

The final episode of Six Feet Under started out with an arc of thwarted change...

OK everyone, take a deep breath and just relax--it's a TV show, not the end of world. OMG it's about to start!

Post your thoughts during and after the show in the comments below.

Some Six Feet Under links:
Photos of the house on Flickr, plus the SIXFEETUNDER tags: Flickr | Technorati | IceRocket

HBO.com is running a poll asking fans for their favorite episode of Six Feet Under. There are only five to choose from so if you don't see your favorite listed there, why don't you tell us what it was. Remember, we here at TVSquad are here to listen to you. 

[Via AdFreak]

With some sort of grand character-arc closure possible in next week's 75-minute series-ender, "Static" represented one final opportunity for Six Feet Under to episodically explore how Nate's death evokes even new dimensions of character angst among his grieving survivors.

To me, the beauty of "Static" hangs on two almost incaluably tense and stunning moments involving two of these survivors.