TVSquad

Recently, I spent a couple of hours watching Gilmore Girls on SoapNet. The experience put a smile on my face and reminded me that I miss the kind of dramedy that Amy Sherman-Palladino created on that show.

The show remains a near perfect blend of character, comedy, drama and emotion to me. So, when I read this morning that Amy Sherman-Palladino is doing aproject at HBO about a mother-daughter relationship, I let out a "yeah."

True, true, true, Amy's last show was the disappointing sitcom -- hell, call it like it was, dreadful -- The Return of Jezebel James at Fox. No excuses. It was a mess. Still, I'm more than willing to give this writer another chance to soar again.

Las Vegas magicians and Bullshit! hosts Penn & Teller have inked a deal with ABC for an hour dramedy based on their real lives. To make it a little more interesting, they've added a fictional crime-solving element. Playing essentially themselves, Penn & Teller in the show will have a Las Vegas magician act at night. But during the day, they're "reluctant" detectives, solving crimes and saving lives.

One of the big questions I have is if Teller will talk. I suspect that he won't, even though we all know he can. He doesn't during their work together because it creates more humor that way with Penn blabbing on and on. If this is supposed to be loosely based on their real lives, though, wouldn't he talk once the stage show ends?

However, since this is still a Penn & Teller "show," I'm sure he'll stay silent. There's a lot of sight gags they can do with a silent Teller and a chatty Penn. I've enjoyed the guest stints they've had on other shows, and think they're one of the most entertaining acts in the world, so I'm intrigued.

I'll give NBC credit for trying. The fourth place network just keeps throwing what they can at the wall hoping they can get something ... anything ... to stick. Everybody knows that legal dramas work, but thankfully, this isn't yet another Law & Order spin-off. Unless it's Law & Order: Do It Yourself.

Rex Is Not Your Lawyer is a dramedy about an anxiety-filled lawyer who pushes his clients to represent themselves in court because he just can't handle it. NBC has given a pilot order to Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, which could just as easily be them wanting to know how the hell the creators are going to make this work.

Rex is a project from the winners of Bravo's 2005 competition series Situation: Comedy: actor Andrew Leeds and novelist David Lampson. The fact that it's an hour-long series means it's probably going to take its legal side at least somewhat seriously, marrying comedy and legality much the same as Boston Legal and Ally McBeal have done.

The star of CBS's drama Joan of Arcadia is coming back to television.
Amber Tamblyn, pictured right with Ugly Betty's America Ferrara, has just signed to star in ABC's pilot The Unusuals. The show, a one-hour dramedy, is set in a Manhattan and will feature Tamblyn as a police officer whose choice of profession has made her the black sheep of her wealthy family. Tamblyn will play Casey Shraeger, a newly transferred homicide detective who learns that her fellow officers have quirks and secrets.

TV Squad reported last week that Lost's Harold Perrineau will be joining The Unusuals as well. The former castaway plays a detective who never takes off his bullet proof vest because he's terrified of being shot. Perrineau and Tamblyn are joined by Monique Curnen whose credits include The Dark Knight and Adam Goldberg from HBO's Entourage.

You can see Amber Tamblyn in theatres soon; she's back for a second installment of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

There's a new guy running the show for ABC's drama Dirty Sexy Money and his name is Daniel Cerone. Cerone replaces Josh Reims. As executive producer, Cerone will be working with creator Craig Wright (Lost), as well as Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters), Matthew Gross and Bryan Singer (House) -- so the show's got lots of first-class pedigree. Now they have to put it all together for the show.

As some of you may have noticed, some of the categories to the left have changed. There's a new one there: Dramedy Shows. We put this in place because there really are shows that don't fit in just the drama or comedy categories alone. There are some shows, however, where we are in a bit of a dispute over classifying them as dramedies.

In particular, House is a show that has definite, purposefully comedic elements, yet the drama portions of the show are quite heavy-handed and serious. But are Hugh Laurie's House antics enough to slide the category meter over to make this show a dramedy?

You know how it is when you're visiting your parents and one of them suddenly tells you that on the day of your birth they sold your soul to Satan? I tell you, that's something you never forget, and it's also the premise of a new series for the CW called Reaper. The pilot will be directed by indie filmmaker Kevin Smith and will begin shooting in Vancouver next month.

The series was created by Michele Fazeka and Tara Butters, former writers and story editors for shows such as Ed, Law and Order: SVU and The X Files. The new series, in which twenty-one year old Sam Oliver must pay his debt to Satan by hunting down souls escaped from Hell, is being described as a dramatic comedy.

This new show could actually be really cool, though I must say that if you're the most powerful evil force in the universe you should be able to create a domain from which no soul can escape. What kind of contractors does Satan have working for him, anyway?

[via TV Filter]

And let me predict what you're going to say in the comments section:

"Studio 60 isn't funny!"
"Studio 60 should be canceled!"
"Studio 60 sucks!"

Only that last one will probably be spelled SUX, in hip web/AOL lingo.

The Emmys are thinking about making a "dramedy" category, for shows that fall in between comedies and dramas. Shows like the above two I mentioned plus Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, and Ugly Betty.

(S01E09) Tonight, we got a "very special episode" of Ugly Betty. Heavy on the holiday sentiment, the hour kicked off with Daniel's question to Betty, "What is a family?" One day in Queens later, and he just may have figured it out. Fortunately, Marc's last minute blackmailing of Wilhelmina and Ignacio's arrest kept things from getting too sticky sweet.

I know a few writers who think creating parallels between characters or storylines is a cheap, sorta lazy tactic, but I love it. Juxtaposing characters and letting them play out similar themes in separate storylines is always satisfying to me. The show has contrasted Wilhelmina and Betty effectively in the past, but the series' real core involves the parallel arcs of Daniel and Betty. They're both young, in new positions at Mode, have trying family situations and are romantically-challenged. They have the greatest potential to learn from one another - Daniel about family and Betty about her capacity as an independent, professional woman.