TVSquad

Some quickie news from Showtime, presented by entertainment president Bob Greenblatt:

• Ilene Chaiken is developing a spin-off for The L Word, which will feature a yet unspecified character from the original show, whose upcoming season will be its last. There will be an open-ended plot in the season finale that Chaiken will continue online, then pick up if the spin-off comes to pass.
• Two more 13-episode seasons of Weeds have been ordered.
• A seventh season of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! has been ordered, making it Showtime's longest-running show.
• A reality/documentary show called Lock 'N Load has been ordered; it's filmed in a gun shop, and it shows the various people who purchase guns and "exploit their right to bear arms," according to the press release.
• Two new pilots have been ordered and filmed. The United States of Tara, produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Diablo Cody, stars Toni Collette as a suburban mother with multiple-personality disorder. John Corbett stars as her husband (yes... it's a comedy). The other pilot is tentatively-titled Nurse Jackie. It stars Edie Falco as a New York City nurse with a painkiller addiction who sometimes crosses moral lines to help her patients (no... it's not a comedy). Tara will begin airing in winter 2009, and Jackie will begin airing in late spring or early summer.
  

Remember back in February when we told you that Edie Falco was signed for a new dark situation comedy from Showtime about a harried nurse?

Well, they've started filming the show in New York and given it a tentative title, Nurse Jackie. What's more, the cast surrounding Edie includes some familiar faces.

Nurse Jackie will have a boyfriend and he will be played by Paul Schulze. The name may not be familiar, but the face sure is. Paul was Father Phil on The Sopranos, the priest who spent a lot of time with Carmella and had her thinking they were going to replay The Thornebirds.

On this Showtime series, he's Eddie and he works in the hospital in the pharmacy. That's important because reportedly Edie's character has a problem with drugs.

What's this, she's a female House? Could she be popping Vicodin as prodigiously as he does? Could anyone?

Do you love Tracey Ullman? Yeah, who doesn't? The lady's a riot. Showtime is so enamored of the Brit-com-queen that they've ordered a second season -- seven fresh episodes -- of Tracey Ullman's State of the Union. The network has also lined up another English artist for 2009. Comedy star Marc Wootton is locked in for six episodes.

"I won't hold it against them that both are from the U.K.," laughed Showtime prez Robert Greenblatt. "Tracey Ullman is the veteran genius who continues to impress us with her versatility, while Marc Wootton is the up-and-comer who will surprise our audience with his own unique voice. This is an embarrassment of riches for us in the comedy department."

If you've watched 30 Rock this past season, you've seen how funny actress Edie Falco can be. As C.C. (Celeste Cunningham), she's been a hoot opposite Alec Baldwin. Well, Showtime noticed, and they announced today that the three-time Emmy-winner, best known as Carmela on The Sopranos, will star in a new show for their network. She'll be playing a "strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life" is the 30-minute, single camera, dark comedy.

EW.com put up the The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations and we've got the nominees in the television categories for you. Not surprisingly, The Sopranos swan song continues to get awards show nods, with bids in all three categories it qualifies for. 30 Rock accomplished the same feat in the comedy categories. No other show was represented in all three drama or comedy categories.

Newcomers include Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Michael C. Hall (Dexter) in male dramatic actor. Holly Hunter (Saving Grace) was a new face in female dramatic actor, while Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?) and Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty) represented comedic actresses. Only Mad Men was able to creep in as a new show in the ensemble drama category. The complete list is after the jump.

Here are the Golden Globes Award nominations (TV division), announced this morning. Some predictable choices, but lots of surprises too.

Best Drama Series

House
Mad Men
Big Love
Grey's Anatomy
The Tudors
Damages

Best Comedy Series

30 Rock
Californication
Entourage
Pushing Daisies
Extras

(S02E08) "I got a squeezer from an Indian girl on a bunk bed, so I think I got the whole Harvard experience." - Frank

This episode has two plots we haven't seen much of this season: a solid plot involving the writing staff and a return to the whole Tracy/Jenna battle that was a main part of the first season. And that's good to see, since it was tilting to all Liz/Jack stuff or guest star plots. Not that this episode didn't have a lot of Liz and Jack and guest stars (the return of Edie Falco and a really bizarre cameo from political strategist James Carville), but 30 Rock has always shown a knack for balancing all of the plots really nicely. And for once I was glad to see Kenneth for the most part take a little breather.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I'm doing this review Cajun Style.

(S02E06) "We Parcells are neither wealthy nor circumcised, but we are proud!" - Kenneth, trying to find money to replace Jack's missing pants

This show is less than a half hour long but I have a harder time reviewing it than I do two-hour season finales. How do you review a show that has 25 awesome one liners and a bunch of great comedy bits and scenes without simply repeating everything that just happened to people who have already seen the episode? How do you even pick one funny quote from those 25 lines and put it at the top of the review? The one above might be the funniest, it might not be, who knows. It just stands out to me.

Edie Falco has been tapped to guest star on three episodes of NBC's 30 Rock. With the success of the new sitcom reaching epic proportions, NBC is doing everything they can to increase the ratings in the second season. Falco is one of many celebrities who are making appearances on 30 Rock including Jerry Seinfeld.

Last season Nathan Lane, Will Arnett, Molly Shannon and Hollywood legend Elaine Stritch all made guest appearances on the sitcom. Arnett will return this season along with Rip Torn and Sherri Shepherd.

David Chase (The Sopranos) won two TCA/TV Critics awards on Saturday night in a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

The first, for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, was presented by TCA member Molly Willow of The Columbus Dispatch.

"After eight years of some of the best writing and performances ever on television...we didn't want to see it end -- and as it turns out, we didn't have to," Willow deadpanned, referring to the much debated finale in which Tony Soprano cut to black.

(S06E21) It's finally here, folks. The week that we've all been waiting for. Well, perhaps not that anxiously awaiting, as we know that something we've all been into for so many years is going away. That said, it's still something that has the potential of being very, very cool culturally and will definitely dominate the watercooler talk for the next few days or so.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we're going to have a chatroom live for all of you to join in on as the show goes on and share your theories, reactions, and opinions in real-time. Shortly after the finale, you'll be able to read our review of the show here. The review is after the jump. And, our chatroom is still open for any of you to share your thoughts and comments on how The Sopranos went down.

Click here to enter the chatroom.

(S06E19) After last week's big development with Christopher being offed by Tony Soprano, we were probably due for a letdown as far as developments go, but that was definitely not the case. Meadow decided that she felt like being part of the storyline for the first time in awhile, and we all knew that A.J.'s situation was bound to go one way or another, but how quickly might have come as a surprise.

When it comes to the drama classification, this show always makes the cut. But this week, for some reason, I felt like it meshed even more than usual with that genre with all that went on throughout the episode. When it all boils though, the family ties were what made this show so successful, and they're what keeps the drama flowing. Except for the fact that we've all got to wait two weeks to see how our Sopranos is going to get ready to close up shop, I think we're in for a quality run that everyone can get behind.

(S06E17) Looking for a completion to a season and a series? Well, looks like the folks behind The Sopranos have got something in store for all of us. Christopher has seen a lot more face time this season that I thought he would when the premiere was running, and the previews have been more than pot-stirring so far, but I'm definitely just as hooked as I've been in a while, and am psyched to see what comes next.

(S06E16) First off, I've gotta say that this was the weakest episode in this short half-season so far, in my opinion. A lot of commenters on this site were a little ticked off at the fact that Tony was now well in debt as far as his gambling problem went, even if he did have cash elsewhere, and how that just cropped up out of nowhere. While I wouldn't say it was out of nowhere, the heaviness of his losses piling up were definitely a big surprise.

On top of that, there were a few random bits of dialogue that didn't seem to go anywhere, kind of like how Bobby didn't really have much to say one way or another about the horse race. Some part of me wants to say that the boys are just becoming glorified yes-men to Tony, but I'm not sure that it's, and I think I might be trying too hard to get to that point. Out of everything that did happen this week, though, what might be most important - and maybe a huge plot point - was Tony's spotting of the guy that used to hang out at the Bada Bing, in front of what looked like a Muslim gathering place. Of course, Chase & Co. will catch hell from some group for that particular portrayal, but if you're going to take a page out of anyone's playbook, it might as well be 24's.

(S06E15) Last week's promos showed Paulie in what looked like a rough situation or two, most of which featured Tony's glare right on him. That all started after Paulie made a snide remark, or more specifically was talking about himself, when the guys were toasting to Johnny Sack's life after he had passed away from cancer. As it turned out, he was absolutely in the sights of Tony when it came to life and death. And in an episode when someone is having loose lips and putting the boss in a tough situation as the body of the person that he killed to "make his bones" more than two decades earlier was apparently being dug up by the feds, the focus on Paulie being a chatterbox about his entire life story was more than appropriate.

One of the cooler things we got to see this week was Vincent Pastore's mug, as he was hanging out in the kitchen in Paulie's dream, a dream that made him want to step up to the plate, and realize that he was on his boss' bad side. Whether or not Tony just couldn't do it when it came to whacking his friend and onetime mentor or that he realized he was making a rash decision wasn't quite clear. What did happen was that we got the do-si-do from Chase & Company, who had us flat-out staring at the Jersey Crew while the New York team was about to head in another direction.