TVSquad

This morning, I had a really fun interview with Amy Ryan, who's taking a little time off after a busy couple of years. During the conversation, which mostly revolved around her fantastic guest turn on The Office as Michael Scott's soulmate Holly Flax, I had to ask her the question most Office fans have been wondering about since the season finale: Is she coming back?

Your guess is as good as hers. "They keep that (the plans for Holly) under wraps, if they are indeed thinking of it. There's no plan there." When I asked her if she was under contract for any episodes next season, she said she wasn't.

What is she hoping Greg Daniels and company do with Holly in the coming years? "The viewer in me, the fan of the show, hopes that they (Michael and Holly) get together. The actor in me would love to see that there's still conflict along the way. That's where it's fun."

I'll have the complete interview with Ryan next week.

September is that magical month we TV fanatics have been waiting for, when all our favorite shows return and new shows try to find a place in our hearts and our DVRs.

However, don't spend your August reading books and spending time with loved ones, because there are a few shows popping up this month you may want to check out. Someone spent a lot of time building that TV set, so the least you can do is sit around and watch whatever is on. Here's a few things:

The CW announced its 2007-08 prime-time schedule today. Just in its second year, The CW is still looking for a home run and is sticking with a programming strategy of short-run reality shows and dramas with young adult appeal.

The big news is no news. Veronica Mars was not announced as part of the Fall line-up, but according to rumors, The CW is waiting until June 15th to decide the gal detective's fate. This is supposed to give Rob Thomas enough time to whip up a "Veronica in the FBI" script. (Update: Ausiello reports from the press conference that Veronica Mars is dead, though "something else" may be coming up.)

One Tree Hill is going to do a ctrl-alt-del. Returning mid-season, the show is going to jump four years into the future - after its characters have graduated from college. Online journal entries are going to chronicle the missing years. On Everybody Hates Chris, Chris Rock will finally appear on the show -- as the school guidance councilor!

The more interesting pick of the newbie litter - Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C., is back with Gossip Girl based on the popular book series of the same name and Kevin Smith directed the pilot episode of the new series Reaper.

The CW's good, bad and ugly after the jump:

According to Variety.com (registration required to read entire article), CBS and Panet Grande Productions are teaming to bring back the classic game show Name That Tune, with Donny Osmond returning to the TV landscape as host.

The format of the show, where contestants try to guess the names of songs after portions of them are played by the house band, will be slightly different this time around. This time, teams of two people will participate; the team members will be in different age groups. "It increases the variety of music we can do," Osmond told Variety. "We can go from Sinatra to hip-hop to everything in-between." In addition, the producers want to have surprise guests come out and sing if one of their songs is correctly identified by a contestant. Also, a final round will be added that will award the contestant $1 million if he or she can identify 15 songs in 60 seconds.

All I want to know is: who is going to be the house singer? Donny? I say they should bring Kathie Lee Gifford back (she used to be the house singer for the show in the Seventies). She's not doing anything these days.

OK, here's the latest of the thirteen kajillionth rumor we've heard about Futurama in the last six months: According to this CNN article that goes through a bunch of rumors about the 2006-07 season, the speculation ahead of Fox' upfront presentation is that they are going to begin airing new episodes of the Matt Groening cult classic. Conisdering we've been hearing things about movies and new episodes for some time, this isn't much of a surprise. But, at the very least, CNN is reporting it instead of some site like futuramaisthebestcartoonever.com, so maybe this is getting very close to reality.

(Look at the 2nd paragraph for info on Futurama.)

[Thanks to readers Mack Swift and Tim UF for the tip.]

One of my favorite TV critics is Alan Sepinwall, from the Newark Star-Ledger, which is for all intents and purposes my hometown paper. He and his "All TV" partner, Matt Zoller Seitz, put out an excellent joint column just about every day in the Ledger, examining not only particular shows but trends in TV, bad behavior by the networks, and how TV affects society at large. Kind of what we do here, but in a bit longer form. And with less jokes.

What I didn't know about Sepinwall, though is that he also has a blog. And in his blog, he gets to speculate on things going on in the TV biz that he doesn't get to write about in the paper. It's fairly private; NJ.com doesn't link to the page, and it doesn't show up in many searches for Sepinwall's work. An entry, though, has caught people's attention: Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, the original brains behind The West Wing, are on the list of panelists representing the show on the upcoming critic's press tour. Sepinwall speculates that Sorkin and Schlamme will come back to write and direct either a farewell episode for Leo, played by the late John Spencer, or do the same for the final episode. Hm. Verrrrryyy IN-teresting.

[via Pop Candy]