TVSquad

The X-Files creator Chris Carter has been hospitalized for exhaustion. This was brought on by "physical exhaustion and an acute sleeping disorder."

The pressure on the man must be enormous. He's working on a new movie Fencewalker and just finished The X-Files: I Want to Believe movie. While reviews of the movie weren't great, it did make $60 million in the worldwide box office (from a $30 million budget). That's not including the inevitable DVD sales (which will probably be strong due to the number of X-Files enthusiasts out there). How much does a movie have to make in order to be considered a success by Hollywood standards?

I admit that I know nothing about Chris Carter, so the skeptic in me can't help but wonder if "exhaustion" is a euphemism for some other addiction. Perhaps he and David Duchovny will run into each other while hospitalized and chat about old times.

Either this is the most bizarre viral marketing idea ever, or some of the craziest irony in the history of television. In the show Californication, Duchovny plays Hank Moody, a sex-obsessed character. Now comes word that Duchovny has entered a rehab facility for sex addiction. For real. And this is an Associated Press story, which means it's pretty solid. I wonder if it was rekindling all that sexual tension with Gillian Anderson during filming of that X-Files movie.

Or maybe he was just having too much fun filming the upcoming second season of Californication in preparation for its September 28 premiere. Here's how I think it went down.

Director: "Uh, David, I think we got the sex scene. It was great. Just perfect."

Duchovny: "No! No, we need to do it again. I wasn't .. I mean, she was ... It just didn't feel--"

"We got it, David. It's fine."

"No! I want to do it again! I have to go again." (to actress) "Can we just practice then without the camera ... for the craft."

I didn't think going into the weekend that the new X-Files movie (see Cinematical's review) had much of a shot at opening at number one. After the opening that the new Batman enjoyed the previous weekend, it was going to be a tough mountain to climb. That being said, I didn't think number two was an overly ambitious goal. And number three would have been a bit surprising. But number four and $10.2 million? Yikes.

As expected, The Dark Knight once again topped the box office with the biggest second weekend on record. Surprisingly though, Mulder and Scully also trailed Step Brothers and the second week of Mama Mia. The B word is already being tossed around, understandably so. Despite that, studio executives are standing by to assure everyone that with foreign box office and DVD the movie will still turn a profit. That's all well and good, but I don't think anyone should be getting their hopes up for round three any time soon.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

(S01E03 & S01E21) We almost take it for granted these days that a DVD set of our favorite shows will be forthcoming. We might not always agree with the scheduling, but it's a pretty safe bet that most everything we watch in the coming season will be arriving on DVD eventually. It wasn't like that back in the wilds of 1993. But things were about to change.

I'm not sure if The X-Files was the first show to embrace the home video market, but it was the first one that I took notice of. And it was the first one that I actually bought ... on VHS. That gorgeous three tape box set in the picture is one of three that I have, and each of them carry a whopping six episodes on their oh so delicate tapes. For X-Files week, I dusted this one off and fed my VCR the tape containing "Squeeze" and "Tooms," two of my favorite early episodes.

Oh, I'll be there, probably on opening weekend, but something about the new X-Files flick makes me nervous as hell.

Maybe it's the fact that it has been ten years since the last movie, and I wonder if people are still interested in it enough to make it a hit (and push another movie into production). I also worry about the plot, since nothing much has been leaked about what the film is about, other than it involves snow, mysterious happenings, and Billy Connolly bleeding from the eyes.

No, the real reason I'm worried is that the movie has a "standalone" plot and is not part of the mythology arc from the show and the first movie. I think this could be a mistake.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

(S05E11) When I heard that we were going to be doing an X-Files week for Retro Squad the first thing that came to mind was "Killswitch." It has long been my favorite episode of the series. Aside from being a great story, it also serves as a marker for where my interest in the series changed.

By the time they made it to "Killswitch," X-Files had started to lose me with the mythology episodes. In the beginning it was almost annoying when there would be a standalone episode. I was so engrossed in the bigger picture story that it was like being forced to take a week off from that which I was really interested in. By season five, though, that interest had waned. Not that the show had gotten bad, just that it was pretty clear that those big answers weren't coming any time soon, so I started looking forward to these episodes more and more. And for me, "Killswitch" is the pinnacle of The X-Files in that form.

When I posted the news items that came out of Showtime's portion of the CBS tour, the one question I got was "When will Dexter be back?" Well, network president Robert Greenblatt mentioned that the third season would debut in September. No word beyond that. Didn't seem like news to me. But there you are, Dexter fans; that's all I've got on that.

The executive session was introduced by a semi-funny clip from one of the network's stars, Tracey Ullman. Really, it wasn't that good, so I won't talk much about it here. Greenblatt also showed clips of The United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie during his opening remarks. Other than that? Well, isn't that enough?

The Emmy Award nominations will be announced a week from this Thursday, and The Hollywood Reporter got a bunch of TV stars (both Emmy winners and nominees) together at a roundtable* to discuss the awards, and it's pretty lively.

While Ted Danson talks about it taking nine times before he won the Emmy for Cheers in 1990, David Spade explains that he was more bummed about not winning a Golden Globe for his role on Just Shoot Me more than not winning the Emmy, because he was beaten by Gregory Peck, who won for a really short cameo. Bryan Cranston reveals how his guest stint on The X-Files many years ago led to his role on Breaking Bad, and Alec Baldwin explains that it's actually OK that he doesn't get to swear on 30 Rock like his friends who have pay cable shows can.

Neil Patrick Harris makes some comments that reality show-haters will love.

* For the sake of journalistic accuracy, I actually have no idea if the table was round or not. It could have been a long rectangle.

This latest trailer for The X-Files movie, coming out July 25th, actually has some meat to it. The past teaser-trailers haven't shown much except some snow and a lot of flashes of black. In this trailer, we actually get to see some of Mulder and Scully's co-stars -- namely, Amanda Peet and Billy Connolly. Peet appears to be an FBI agent who is a bit of an outsider because she's a believer in the paranormal, which is why Mulder is brought on to the case. Connolly plays an unusual man, a psychic, who may or may not be nuts.

If you ever want to get a good idea about how a TV series comes into being, see the movie The TV Set, which stars David Duchovny as a schlumpy writer whose autobiographical series gets picked up by a network. One of the most telling scenes is where Duchovny presents an over-the-top ham that he thinks is so bad that he knows the network will reject him in favor of the more subtle actor he wants to play the lead. Unfortunately, the ham makes the network execs laugh and the subtle guy comes off as weird. Guess who the network picked to star in the show?

The reason why I mention this is that is but one of many reasons why even starring roles in television series get severely miscast. The most widely-cited case this year was Michelle Ryan on Bionic Woman; she was so busy trying to squelch her British accent that she came off as charmless and boring. But there have been other casting boners during the 2007-08 season, such as the otherwise-great Parker Posey choking on Amy Sherman-Palladino's words in Jezebel James. Also remember that not a lot of people liked the appearance of Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother. And, heck, the Law & Order family must have a casting mistake in there somewhere, after all, they did unleash the horrible Elizabeth Rhöm on an unsuspecting public.

What are your choices for the season's most severe miscasting? Let me know in the comments.

We told you last week about the new X-Files DVD set and how the episodes on the set might give a clue as to what the new big screen movie will be about. Now we have another clue, sorta: the movie has a title.

Creator and producer Chris Carter has announced that the title of the movie is The X-Files: I Want To Believe. That's a perfect title! As fans of the show know, this was pretty much Agent Mulder's mantra and the caption on a famous poster that he kept on the wall in his office (on the right is a scene from the new movie). The first X-Files movie was titled The X-Files: Fight The Future.

So Isabelle posted a story recently about the new X-Files sequel that is supposed to hit theaters this July 25. The movie has been pretty much under wraps, except for a snippet of film here and some behind the scenes photos there. And the cast and crew certainly aren't saying anything about the movie's plot. The only hint we've received is that this movie has more to do with a standalone mystery than the alien mythology storyline from the show (and the first film).

But now I'm slightly confused, as this press release for a new X-Files DVD set says that the set gives a hint as to what we can expect in the movie.

From March 14th to March 27th, The Paley Center for Media is presenting the twenty-fifth annual William S. Paley Television Festival. The Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, says that the festival celebrates "television's rich and diverse programming and the creative process behind the medium." This year the festival included Chuck, Pushing Daisies, The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion, Dirty Sexy Money among others.

I've already attended the Buffy Reunion and Dirty Sexy Money (click above for those reports). Last night I went to The X-Files panel. For what happened during the event, read on past the jump.

X-Files fans rejoice: the sequel really is going to happen. In fact, they've already started filming!

On the right is one of the first pics from the set. David Duchovny has his Fox Mulder hair back, while Gillian Anderson seems to be sporting a new do. But I'll stop talking about hair right now because it's weird.

Creator/director Chris Carter says that they're completely dumping the whole alien mythology storyline from the show, since they already "wrapped up a lot of threads" from the show (really?). Instead, the new flick will settle on a standalone plot, which will not only please old fans but also the new fans that Carter is trying to hook into the movie.

Tonight, in a lavish press conference, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the winners of the 2008 Golden Globes. Here are the winners in the major TV categories:

Best TV series, comedy: Extras, HBO

Best TV series, Drama: Mad Men, AMC

Best actor, TV series, comedy: David Duchovny, Californication

Best actress, TV series, comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock