TVSquad

(S03E06) "What are friends for?" - Vanessa to Dan

Thanks to Gossip Girl, Firefly's Gina Torres is back on TV! It was about time that this fantastic actress returned to the small screen. Torres plays Vanessa's mother, Gabriela, and is set to appear in a few episodes. This new character finally allowed the viewers to know more about Vanessa, who's been a background character/sidekick for the past seasons.

As it was posted here before, I wasn't able to watch the episode live but allowed you to post your comments in a temp post. Here we go with my review, which includes some of the comments you left.

When I first started exploring this project, there were a few shows that I knew were going to be important to hit. This is the first of those. Firefly was Joss Whedon's sci-fi western series. The show mustered disappointing ratings in its short eleven-episode run on FOX.

Since then it's gone on to near mythic cult status. There was such an outcry of support from its loyalists, the Browncoats, over its cancellation that the producers made a feature film sequel. That movie, Serenity, answered a lot of questions about the future fate of the cast. Unfortunately, like the television series, it couldn't find quite enough people to show up and tune in to warrant a sequel. Nevertheless, the few morsels of Firefly we did get are enough to prove that this is one of the most innovative and enjoyable series ever to hit the airwaves.

Unlike our own Jane Boursaw, I've yet to dive head first into the trashy teen world of The CW's Gossip Girl. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to no one, since my favorite shows tend to take place on spaceships or feature brooding vampires. But a recent addition to the cast might get me to start watching the saucy soap for the first time when it returns in September; one of my favorite sci-fi actors, Firefly alum Gina Torres, has signed on to play the recurring role of Gabriela Abrams, Vanessa's mother.

Gabriela is described as a warm and outgoing free spirit from Brooklyn who has been hiding out in Vermont. The show's privileged teens are in for one hell of a season if Gabriela is anything like Jasmine, Torres' duplicitous character from the fourth season of Angel. It's probably not crazy to think that Gabriela will have some kind of edge to her. I've heard some of the parents on Gossip Girl make Lucille Bluth look like Mrs. Cunningham.

Torres is set to appear in two episodes and expected to recur throughout the series. Gossip Girl's season premiere airs Sept. 14.

[Via TV Guide]

I'm almost to the end of Firefly, my Jane After Dark readers' choice for this week. I really love this series, from the quirky characters to the general theme of a band of renegades burgling their way through the universe.

But even though it's set 500 years in the future, Firefly isn't your typical sci-fi space series that includes all manner of aliens and weird creatures. They're on a spaceship, and yet they rob trains. How cool is that?! It's like Alias Smith and Jones meets Babylon 5.

As with the other Whedon shows I've watched – Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel – the stories are fun and deep and fanciful (yes, I said fanciful), but it's the characters and their interactions that make the shows.

(S04E19) It wasn't until I saw George Segal that I realized how much I missed seeing him on TV. It made me long for the days when he and Finch made me laugh out loud and lament the fact that David Spade hasn't done anything funny since.

While the thought of Denny Crane being President of the United States is certainly funny, the idea that he would be chosen for his electability is ludicrous. Aside from the more obvious problems, the Republicans would never nominate a single man with multiple divorces and an embarrassing arrest record. Let's be honest.

Hey! Do you guys remember Standoff? It had great actors like Ron Livingston and Gina Torres... it just got kind-of stale after, oh, two episodes. Fox is burning off the remaining 9 episodes of the procedural drama starting this Friday. The show was officially canceled on May 17th when Fox announced its Upfronts schedule for next fall.

The actors from the series have already moved on to other projects. Gina Torres, for example, is preparing for motherhood. She and husband Laurence Fishburne are expecting their first child any day now. And Ron Livingston is currently on stage in the off-Broadway play, In A Dark Dark House, and is still the spokesperson for Sprint Nextel.

Standoff resumes Friday, June 8 at 9 pm on Fox.

Fans of Standoff, the FOX hostage negotiator drama starring Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt, were worried when it was announced that the show was moving to Fridays. Now here's more to be concerned about: the show isn't returning at all until the summer.

It was supposed to return in April, but FOX has decided the show won't be back until after the network announces its fall schedule in May. I wonder how this will affect their decision, since the show has been on hiatus for a while and they're not going to know what the summer numbers are until, well, the show airs in the summer. They insist the show isn't canceled, but this can't be seen as a "good" sign, that's for sure. It got pretty good numbers when it was on.

For the record, I thought the show was so-so.

Gina Torres and her husband, Laurence Fishburne, are going to have a baby. Torres currently plays a supporting role in Fox's Standoff, but she's known to many television fans as the unbelievably tough and beautiful Zoe on Firefly. Torres and Fishburne have been married since 2002. People magazine reports she is due in the summer with the couple's first child. That's going to be one gorgeous baby.

In other celebrity gossip, two costars on House are engaged. Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer got engaged over the holidays while in Paris. Morrison plays Dr. Allison Cameron and Spencer plays Dr. Robert Chase. Would Dr. House approve of this on-the-job romance?

Fox has picked up the back nine episodes of the new comedy, 'Til Death, starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. Even though the show hasn't done much in its Thursday night timeslot, Fox thinks there is an audience out there for this sitcom. Fox thinks that 24 and American Idol will draw in more viewers to the network when they begin in January.

The network has also ordered six more episodes of Standoff, starring Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt (and Gina Torres for all you Firefly fans). A rep for the network says it didn't order the full back nine (considered a full season) because there isn't going to be any room for a full season once 24 and American Idol begin.

With Helen Mirren's Detective Tennison bowing out on Sunday's Prime Suspect finale, television is losing one of its finest tough broads.

Tough broads have feelings and faults, but they're nobody's baby. They also don't give a crap what you think of them. They dress for utility not for style, and they work -- usually in domains stereotypically belonging to men.

We'll miss you, Detective Tennison. You are the inspiration for this list of tough TV broads - the ones little girls and little boys can look up to.

I tend to have very little patience with new television programs. I usually give them two or three episodes and then I tune out. I did that for Desperate Housewives during season one and I still don't regret canceling my Season Pass to that show. And now, this fall, I am doing it once again. I get all giddy over new shows that I think have a great premise, and then I get bored quickly. Apparently I can't handle more than 5 seconds of bad television. Here are The Five: New shows that are already getting old:

(S01E01) I'm one of those people that truly believes that any TV show or movie premise could be great. Because it's not the premise of a show that's most important. Really, what does the premise of a show have to do with anything? A "great" premise could have horrible writing, acting, direction, while a show that seems to have a "typical" or "boring" premise can be great if it has good writing, acting, and direction. Seinfeld was a show about "nothing" but it was the writing and the cast that made that show great. Heck, what was the movie My Dinner With Andre but two guys eating dinner and talking for two hours?

So it's not the premise of Standoff (hostage negotiators are also lovers!) that is disappointing, it's that there's nothing really special about it. Not yet anyway. But it's a show that has promise, and here's why.

Press kits usually come in one of two ways: they're either a very basic press kit, just a folder with the show's logo on it, and some print press materials inside, maybe a few photos. And then there are the other ones, the press kits with really cool collectibles inside and/or an innovative packaging. The one for FOX's Standoff seems to be in the middle. It comes with the basic paperwork stapled together (no folder??), but also includes two neat collectibles.