TVSquad

USA Network has been showing a lot of ads for the new Jeff Goldblum-infused season of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. The new episodes are supposed to start on November 7, but now it looks like the show has been delayed until some time next year.

This morning the network confirmed that the new season of the show won't start until 2009. They say it will be "early 2009," but then again they first said the show would come back on November 6, then November 7, and now there has been another delay. It's odd that a network would have all of these ads for a show so close to the premiere date and then pull the show for several months. USA hasn't said why they've done this.

This is too bad. Law and Order: CI isn't a show I watch regularly, but I was looking forward to Goldblum's debut as a detective. I liked Raines (one of the 27 people around the country, apparently), and I can't wait to see him be all Goldblum-y in the L&O franchise.

Hot off the news that NBC ordered sixteen new episodes of the show, Law and Order: CI has added Jeff Goldblum to the cast. And that means Chris Noth is out.

Goldblum will share lead duties with Vincent D'Onofrio on the USA Network show (new episodes air Sunday nights), and I'm not sure which actor is going to out-act the other. Both Goldblum and D'Onofrio are both well known for their rather quirky and/or intense acting styles. D'Onofrio does intense and explosive well, while Goldblum does strange and quiet well. No word on why Noth left.

OK, I'm not sure if this Late Show with David Letterman episode that airs on CBS tonight is the purest definition of the word "classic," but at least it's not from two weeks ago like most repeats are on late night shows nowadays.

Jay Leno has been showing episodes from the 1990s lately, and now Letterman has reached into the vault. Tonight's show is from December 17, 1998 and features Angelina Jolie, Jeff Goldblum, and Third Eye Blind. I'm trying to figure out what was going on in Jolie's life at the time. She wasn't with Brad Pitt of course. Was this the Billy Bob Thornton/blood vials era? Here's the rundown on the show. Dick Clark makes a cameo (with a sketch about his New Year's Eve special), as does Casey Kasem. I wonder who got top billing back then, Jolie or Goldblum?

I have to admit that I judged Jeff Goldblum's new show, Raines, before I even saw it. When I heard the plot description that was scattered about on the web several months ago, I think I actually sighed. Another show about an investigator who speaks to ghosts? Why had this become such a hot genre, like westerns or sitcoms many years ago? Did we really need another one, no matter what big name they had for the lead?

Well, I have to eat my words.

Jeff Goldblum talks to dead people. That's the basis for his new detective series, Raines, which will replace ER for two weeks starting on March 15th. NBC has posted the entire pilot on its First Look website. It's up in four, 11-minute chunks and you have to watch a promo each time for a terrible horror movie about killer ventriloquist dolls.

I spent 44 minutes watching the pilot this morning and I can say "eh". You really have to like Jeff Goldblum because there are a lot of Goldblum-isms in there (stuttering, awkward pauses). And, maybe I just watch too much television, but I figured out the "twist" at the end in one of the first scenes.

What I did like about Raines is that the "ghosts" Goldblum talks to aren't really ghosts. They're just crime victims in his imagination. So, they don't give him any clues or anything. There's also a subtle noir-style storytelling mechanism that makes the series seem old-timey, rather than high-tech like many of the crime series currently on television. Nicole Sullivan has a pretty minor role, but hopefully we'll see more of her in future episodes, if the series ever finds an audience.

[Via Pop Candy]

NBC has announced that they plan to stream their mid-season shows, The Black Donnellys, Andy Barker, P.I., and Raines on NBC.com. The network is also set to stream all produced episodes of Andy Barker and the pilot of Raines before their premiere dates. There will also be web exclusive content for both The Black Donnellys and Andy Barker.

In addition to all that, Medium and Identity will also begin streaming full episodes in March. That brings NBC's total of full episode streaming series to 13 when added to The Apprentice, Heroes, 30 Rock, Las Vegas, Friday Night Lights, Passions, Studio 60, and My Name Is Earl. The network also plans to make the full seasons of Heroes and Friday Night Lights available, starting with the pilots, beginning in the spring.

Raines is the new quirky detective drama starring Jeff Goldblum. It's going to premiere in the Thursday at 10pm slot that ER currently occupies (side note: why was last night's ER a repeat when the rest of NBC's lineup was brand new?). The two episodes will air on March 15th and 30th. The show then goes into its regular time slot, Friday nights at 9pm.

Goldblum plays a detective that "sees" the victims of murder and they help him solve the crime. Now, contrary to earlier reports, these aren't ghosts a la Ghost Whisperer or Medium. These are actually hallucinations that the detective is seeing, but they help him piece together the puzzle of the crime. Yes, it sounds like the guy is legally insane, but he solves crimes.

The show will co-star Matt Craven, Linda Park, Madeleine Stowe, and Remi Boyer.

It looks like the charming Illeanarama is coming to a close. The fifth and final installment of the online series, starring actress Illeana Douglas, will be posted on YouTube late this week. There is, however, word that a "special feature" edition with guest stars Sarah Silverman and Daryl Hannah will run the week after the final episode hits the internets. If you haven't caught Illeanarama yet, it's one of the best-produced and well-written little gems hiding in the YouTube morass.

It appears that NBC's experiment with Netflix last summer was a success. Back then, the network made DVDs of the pilots of Studio 60 and Kidnapped for Netflix members to preview before the shows premiered on the network in September. This winter, NBC is giving that gimmick another shot. This time the NBC DVD has a Heroes recap, a preview of the pilot for The Black Donnellys and a sneak peek at Raines. The DVD is available to rent only through Netflix from now until January 15th.

The Black Donnellys is a crime drama based in New York and it's being produced by Crash and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis. It's about a group of brothers, some of whom are wrapped up in crime, who will do anything to protect each other. Raines stars Jeff Goldblum as a cop who has visions of crime victims. Donnellys doesn't have a premiere date yet but Raines is set to take over Las Vegas' timeslot in March. Although, NBC recently reduced its episode order for Raines-- not a good sign.

I'm reminded of the great American poet Dave Mustaine who said, "Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy." You may recall that before it became Knights of Prosperity, that show was called Let's Rob Mick Jagger. And before that, it was reported to be I Want To Rob Jeff Goldblum. Unfortunately, that didn't work out because Goldblum already had a gig set up at NBC called Raines. It's about a detective that sees dead people. I like to think of it as The Ghost Whisperer minus the boobs.

Adam mentioned a couple weeks ago that Raines would be starting in March. That's still the plan, but Cynopsis is reporting that they have cut the episode order from 13 to 7, which is never a good sign. Maybe things would have been better for Goldblum had he jumped ship to get robbed over at ABC. On the other hand, given the state of the rest of the ABC midseason shows, I wouldn't bet on that one either.

What's not to love about Illeana Douglas - granddaughter of two-time Oscar winner Melvyn Douglas, Scorsese regular, indie filmmaker and brilliant-but-canceled Action co-star? Alright, I didn't love her hippy-dippy appearance on Lisa Loeb's #1 Single, but I'll give her a pass because she was so great in To Die For, which was written by one of my heroes - Buck Henry.

Illeana is making television news this week with the YouTube premiere of her show Illeanarama. The pilot episode features Douglas, Christopher Guest regular Jane Lynch and Justine Bateman as herself. The premise is cute so long as you're not offended by rich people finding humor in what it would be like for them to live among the great unwashed. Illeana dumps her Hollywood career for life as a grocery story clerk. Once word gets out that working for a living is the hottest fashion statement (like adopting a third world babies?), more celebrities appear on the scene. Future episodes will feature Gene Wilder, Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr. For the time being, you can only see them online care of Zeitbyte.

Bob already mentioned this new detective drama to y'all back in October, but we didn't know exactly when the show would air. Now we know Raines, starring Jeff Goldblum, will debut on NBC in March. The series will air on Fridays at 9 pm, booting Las Vegas out of that timeslot.

I'm a bit tired of all this supernatural nonsense like Medium and Ghost Whisperer, but Raines does have a slight twist, in that Goldblum's detective only imagines the ghosts he's seeing, and they help him solve the murder cases. Huh, a human who confabs with imaginary creatures only he can see? Isn't that essentially Calvin and Hobbes? And wouldn't that be cool if Calvin actually grew up to become a homicide detective and Hobbes helped him solve all his cases? And wouldn't it be even cooler if I could learn to stay on topic instead of digressing into talking about comic strips that have absolutely nothing to do with the show I'm writing about? Yes, in a perfect world that would be grand.

ABC gave the greenlight to two new comedies, including Let's Rob Mick Jagger, which is a single-camera comedy about a janitor and his friends who plan to rob Mick Jagger. It's executive produced by David Letterman. The original plan for the show was to rob Jeff Goldblum, but he's already busy with NBC. Jagger just recently signed on to appear in several episodes of the show that is all about robbing him.

ABC also picked up A Day in the Life, which has different views of a couple's wedding day. How are they going to get an entire season out of this premise? I dunno, either. The network also renewed What About Brian? for a second season.

And, part-improv/part-scripted comedy Sons & Daughters did not get renewed for a second season. Creator Fred Goss (interviewed earlier this year by Joel) confirms cancellation on his website.

Well, at least one of my television-related prayers has come true. NBC announced that it has picked up 20 Good Years for the 2006-2007 season. It stars Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) and John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun) as two aging men who have some sort of epiphany and decide to live it up as they age. I think those two actors will make a terrific on-screen pair.

Bob has mentioned a list of some of the shows NBC has picked up already.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger may be playing a key role in a new comedy for ABC about a group of guys in New York who decide to rob a celebrity. That celebrity may be Mick Jagger, if negotiations pan out.

Originally, the title of the sitcom was I Want to Rob Jeff Goldblum, but Jeff is working on his own pilot project for NBC and was never attached to the project (although, I totally like the idea of him in that role). The creators turned to Mick Jagger, but his name won't be in the title and he will only appear in a few scenes.

I totally dig this idea for a show. I think they could keep it going by picking different celebrities to rob. I'd like to see them try to rob Patrick Swayze, Carol Channing, and Frankie Muniz. Who would you like to see robbed?