TVSquad

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

If you blinked last year, you probably missed NBC's Crusoe. It's now on DVD, and it's one of those "season one" sets that also serves as a "complete series" sets.

If you're an October Road fan, the season two set contains a 10 minute bonus episode that acts as the series-ender. It would be great if more shows did that when they're canceled.

• The Adventures of Black Beauty - Series 1
• Bleak House - Special Edition and Blu-ray
• Boston Legal - Season 5
• Crusoe - Complete Series
• Dexter - Season 2 (Blu-ray)
• Doctor Who - E-Space Trilogy and Battlefield
• Earth: Final Conflict - Season 1

I will guess that a lot of people think that the reason why we have another cable drama set in the world of advertising is because of the success of AMC's Mad Men. And while the honors that the 60s-based show probably gave TNT execs an extra reason to look at Trust Me and put its production into overdrive, the show has actually been in the works for a while.

The comparisons are going to come though. The shows are very different. Judging from the first two episodes, they're not only different in setting (2009 Chicago vs. 1960 NYC) and tone (faster paced, with more obvious humor than Mad Men), they're not really going for anything deep or tackling any big issues.

• TBS has A Christmas Story all night.
• At 8, NBC has It's A Wonderful Life.
• The CW has The Flight Before Christmas at 8, followed by The Story of Santa Claus.
• ABC Family has the live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas at 8.
• Comedy Central has two Christmas episodes of Futurama at 8, then several Christmas episodes of South Park.
• FOX News Channel has A Fox and Friends Christmas at 8.
• Also at 8: Disney has The Santa Clause 2.
• At 8:40, BBC America has a new Catherine Tate Christmas episode, followed by an Absolutely Fabulous Christmas special.
• At 9, Lifetime has the movie The Christmas Shoes.
• TruTV has a new Most Shocking at 9, then two new episodes of World's Wildest Vacation Videos.
• Hallmark has the movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year at 9.
• Nickelodeon has two Christmas episodes of Home Improvement at 9.
• Showtime has a new Inside The NFL at 9.
• At 10, Travel Channel has a new Man vs. Food.
• At 11, Lifetime has two Christmas episodes of Will & Grace, followed by two Christmas episodes of Frasier.
• At 11:30, CBS and NBC has Christmas Eve Mass and music.
• At 1am, ABC has Christmas Eve Mass and music also.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(Most of the late night talk shows are pre-empted or repeats tonight, except Charlie Rose.)

• At 8, CBS has a new Survivor.
• ABC has A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving again at 8.
• TBS has four Friends Thanksgiving episodes starting at 8.
• Cartoon Network has a new Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends movie at 8.
• Also at 8: ESPN has College Football, Texas A&M vs. Texas.
• At 9, CNN has CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.
  
• HGTV has a new Rate My Space at 9.
  
• Nickelodeon has two Thanksgiving episodes of Home Improvement at 9.
• Spike has a new TNA Impact! at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving at 9.
• At 10, HGTV has a new House Hunters.
• MTV has a new Paris Hilton's My New BFF at 10.
• Current TV has the special Thanksgiving Countdown: 25 Pods We're Thankful For at 10.
  
• At 11, Lifetime has a two-part Will & Grace Thanksgiving episode, then a Frasier Thanksgiving episode.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

Can two cable shows about the advertising world co-exist? Of course they can. With 12 Law and Orders, 9 CSIs, and 57 reality shows where sexy people live in a house, I think we can have two shows about advertising.

Trust Me is the new name of the TNT series Truth in Advertising. It stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) as Mason and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Connor, best friends who also run an ad agency. Unlike Mad Men, it's set in the present day. Also unlike Mad Men, it's set in Chicago. See? Two big differences right there.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Lots of good stuff for TV Squad readers this week, from season one sets for Chuck, Pushing Daisies, and Private Practice to a new Seinfeld season one set and Cybill.

I have the Ozzie & Harriet disc but since it's Christmas-oriented, I'll probably wait a couple of months to review it.

• The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet - Christmas with the Nelsons
• Alvin & The Chipmunks - Alvin!!! Edition
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 3 Collection
• Chuck - Season 1
• Criminal Minds - Season 3
• Cybill - Vol. 1
• Dirty Sexy Money - Season 1
• Duckman - Season 1 and 2
• Father Knows Best - Vol. 1
• Gimme A Break! - Seasons 1 and 2 (Canada)
• Goosebumps - A Night in Terror Tower, Monster Blood, and One Day in Horrorland
• Inside The Actor's Studio - Robin Williams
• Meerkat Manor - Best of Season 3
• Private Practice - Season 1
• Pushing Daisies - Season 1
• The Red Green Show - 2000
• Seinfeld - Season 1: The Very Beginning
• Torchwood - Season Two
• Will & Grace - Complete Series and Season 8

If I didn't love this news so much, I'd be worried that 30 Rock was turning into The Love Boat or Will and Grace. After all, it seems as though there's news of a new guest star every few days. First Will Arnett signed on to reprise his role as the delightfully evil Devon Banks, then ex-Friend, Jennifer Aniston, decided to return to television in order to stalk Jack Donaghy. After that came news that Oprah was scheduled to play herself on an upcoming episode.

That's a lot of guest stars to pack into one season, but now we have news of two more. Everybody's favorite Gossip Girls, Blair and Serena, AKA Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, are coming to 30 Rock. What on earth could bring these Upper East Siders to Midtown? Are they trying to overthrow Liz Lemon as queen bee of TGS with Tracy Jordan? Are they starring in a movie with Tracy Jordan? There's more info on their storyline after the jump.

A few years ago I introduced on this blog the concept of Fanesia (sorry for the weird formatting on that page, not sure what happened), where a fan chooses to get amnesia over a plot point that happened on a TV show. Examples I used before include The Lone Gunmen dying on The X-Files, Toby being the leak on The West Wing, the entire last episode of Seinfeld, and Mark Greene dying on ER. Nope, in my mind, those things never happened.

Here are five more Fanesia moments, involving such shows as Will & Grace, Guiding Light, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Debra Messing's Emmy-award winning miniseries The Starter Wife is getting some new cast members. Joining the former Will and Grace star are David Alan Bashe of Lipstick Jungle, Danielle Nicolet of Heartland, Brielle Barbusca of Hope & Faith, and Hart Bochner of Die Hard.

The USA original series follows the post-divorce hi-jinx of Molly Kagan (Messing) as she embarks on a new chapter in her life. USA is bringing back the hit miniseries for ten episodes this fall. Messing is now executive producer as well.

Bashe will play Molly's ex-husband, Kenny Kagen. Nicolet will play Liz Marsh, Molly's new friend and wife a a pro-baseball player. Barbusca will play Jaden, Molly and Kenny's daughter. And Bochner will play Molly's new love interest and writing class teacher. Returning for guest appearances is Joe Mantegna of Criminal Minds who plays Molly's former boyfriend Lou Manahan.

The series will premiere on USA in October. What do you think? Will The Starter Wife work as a full-fledged series?

When I interviewed Susanne Daniels, the President for Entertainment at the Lifetime Network, she was high on the success of Army Wives, and anxious to bring more comedy to the network.

"Viewers tell us that they love our comedies, our movies, Army Wives. I would argue that more people identify Reba and Will and Grace with our network now than the networks that launched them. And I was at the WB when Reba launched!" she said in TV Week. Well, now she's launching a new comedy, this time for Lifetime.

Lifetime has ordered 13 episodes of a new sitcom called Rita Rocks for this fall and cast Nicole Sullivan as Rita. The show will be part of a one-hour comedy block with Reba. "We've assembled a fantastic team in front of and behind the camera," said Ms. Daniels in a statement today.

Although TV fans would know him from his role as Will's dad on Will and Grace, he was also, of course, an acclaimed film director, helming such movies as Three Days of the Condor (one of my favorite films), Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Way We Were, The Firm, Havana, Absence of Malice, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Jeremiah Johnson, and The Interpreter. He also directed several TV shows back in the 60s, including The Fugitive, Ben Casey, Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Defenders, Slattery's People, and many others.

Pollack's other acting roles included spots on The Sopranos, King of the Hill, Frasier, Mad About You, Playhouse 90, and The Twilight Zone, along with the movies Michael Clayton, Eyes Wide Shut, Husbands and Wives, A Civil Action, Death Becomes Her, and The Player. His last acting role was in this year's Made of Honor and his last directing job was 2005's Sketches of Frank Gehry.

Pollack died of cancer this afternoon in Pacific Palisades, CA. He was 73.

Funny lady Megan Mullally may be coming back to the small screen! The actress, better known for her role of neurotic Karen Walker on NBC's Will & Grace, will star as the mother in ABC's new series Bad Mother's Handbook.

This comedy is about a 32-year-old woman (portrayed by Alicia Silverstone) who takes care of her 16-year-old daughter (played by Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat) and her 48-year-old overbearing mother (Mullally).

This was actually planned long ago, before her death from respiratory failure over the weekend.

Pleshette was set to get her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 31, which is also her birthday. No word yet on whether or not the ceremony will still go ahead on that day, but I'm sure that Pleshette will get her star on the sidewalk at some point.

I was just at the supermarket and saw the headline in one of the gossip mags that Suzanne Pleshette was on her death bed, and now I hear that Pleshette has died of cancer at the age of 70.

TV fans will remember Pleshette from her role as Emily Hartley, wife of psychologist Bob Hartley on CBS' The Bob Newhart in the 70s. She reprised the role in the classic final episode of Newhart. Pleshette appeared in several other TV shows as well, including a role as Mark Feuerstein's mom on Good Morning Miami and James Garner's love interest on 8 Simple Rules, as well as guest spots on Columbo, Will & Grace, The Name of the Game, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Invaders, It Takes A Thief, The Fugitive, Wild, Wild West, and several others.

On the big screen, she appeared in The Birds, The Shaggy D.A., The Lion King II, The Power, Support Your Local Gunfighter, and many films.

• Court TV has changed to TruTV, and they celebrate with a marathon of something called Ocean Force.
• At 8, NBC has a new, two-hour Biggest Loser, followed by a new Law and Order: SVU.
• FOX has the Allstate Sugar Bowl at 8.
• PBS has a new Great Performances at 8.
• Christmas isn't over yet! Lifetime Movie Network has Comfort and Joy at 8, then All She Wants For Christmas.
• At 8:30, ABC has a new Just For Laughs, followed by two new episodes of According To Jim.
• At 9, HGTV unveils their Dream Home 2008. It's followed by the new series Sleep On It.
• At 10, Food Network has a new Iron Chef America.
• Sci-Fi has a new ECW at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Real Housewives of Orange County.
• At 11, Lifetime has a holiday ep of Will & Grace.

Check your local TV listings for more.