TVSquad

I haven't been to San Diego in several decades but, like many cities, there are certain things you expect to see. Tall buildings, traffic jams (especially during Comic-Con), crowds of people, citizens and tourists alike, milling about on the sidewalks and in the restaurants that surround the city. But a herd of cows? Well, on the U.S.S. Midway museum, perhaps, but not in the middle of downtown.

Yet, here were a herd of cattle in a paid parking lot on 5th Avenue, right in the heart of the Gaslamp District. Was it a throwback to pioneer days? Did a cowboy and his herd get lost? Was it a protest by PETA? No, silly, it was a television show promotion. Which one it was is revealed after the jump.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Best Week Ever lists the 10 Emmy nominations you should be psyched about.
• Nikki Finke has the latest on a possible strike, here and here.
• TV stars wear glasses and try to look smart.
• Hey kids, it's the trailer for High School Musical 3!
• Could Fringe be the big new hit of the fall?
• Remember those "what would you do for a Klondike Bar" commercials? They're holding a contest!
• Jimmy Fallon answers a bunch of odd questions.
• Too Much Free Time has been redesigned.
• An interview with Smallville executive producer Darren Swimmer about season eight.

Apparently the new Trek movie, Fringe, and whatever it is he does over at Lost these days, isn't enough to fill up J.J. Abrams' day. That's a good thing. He'll be too busy to notice that you are downloading the leaked Fringe pilot. Through Bad Robot, Abrams is set to produce a new project, turning an article from the New York Times into a feature film. J.J.'s overlords at Paramount have purchased the rights to a recent article titled "Mystery On Fifth Avenue."

That article, written by Penelope Green, tells the story of a luxury apartment on Fifth Avenue that has some unique architecture. After dropping $8.5 million on the place, the new owners brought in an architectural designer to liven the place up for the kids. The remodel included hidden compartments, puzzles, poems, and messages. There is even a book and a soundtrack that goes with it. How that translates into a movie remains to be seen, but Abrams has some help from a couple television veterans as he tries to figure that out. Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) and Wally Wolodarsky (The Simpsons) are on board to write the feature. I'm thinking Panic Room meets Jumanji, with time traveling aliens.

• Alleged creator: Stuart Sims
• To access: Hover mouse over image until it turns into a six-fingered hand, then click
• Namaste: Frequently heard phrase on Lost
• Has denied any connection to Fringe
• Site registry via Concentric's Private Domain Registration service
  

Summer hasn't even started yet (though I always consider Memorial Day the start of summer), but FOX has all of the premiere dates for the new and returning shows. Some of the shows were announced as starting the week of August 25, but those dates have been pushed to September 1. In fact, all of the FOX shows bow in September this year. But that's OK. Better than waiting until October like a lot of networks, right? (Of course, the World Series starts on FOX at the end of October so there will be an interruption.)

After the jump, the rundown (except for 24 and Dollhouse, which premiere in early '09). Feel free to print out and post on your refrigerator!

It is an interesting time for television that we live in. This is not your grandfather's TV, where they had three channels ... and they liked it! And when changing the channel involved telling you to take your Toughskins covered butt over there and turn the big dial. Grandpa's version of TV is being challenged on all fronts by cable, and it's really not fairing well.

Yet another article, this time from the L.A. Times, takes a look at the damage that has been done. Some highlights: For the just concluded sweeps period, NBC was down 27% in adults 18-49. 27%! ABC lost over 20% of young adults. The other networks also posted double digit losses. The scary bit though, for the traditional networks, is that the number of people watching television is up 2%, and for the season the ad supported cable networks are up 7%.

Scifiwire has an interesting interview with Joss Whedon about the network decision to air fewer commercial breaks during the initial broadcast of both his show Dollhouse and J.J. Abram's show Fringe. This is part of Fox television's Remote-Free TV experiment. Joss explained that usually he has to do cuts anyway for the repeat airings of any show he works on. He also usually runs long, the episode he works on anyway, to give a little extra for the DVD release.

The most interesting revelation from the interview is that Eliza Dushku is getting a producer credit for Dollhouse. Apparently this was part of her initial contract deal with Fox. Whedon also said to Dushku regarding her producer's credit "I'm going to make you earn it. I'm going to want your input. I'm going to want ideas. I'm going to want you to help me work out certain problems. This is our show."