TVSquad

One of the most integral and interesting characters on Friday Night Lights may be out of the lineup for much of the rest of the season. And he may not be back for next season, either. Taylor Kitsch could be out of Friday Night Lights after the next few episodes. Michael Ausiello is reporting that executive producer Jason Katims confirmed that Taylor's conflicting schedule with a big screen project has mucked up the works.

Taylor's playing the title character in John Carter of Mars, a big screen adaptation of the famous Edgar Rice Burroughs' books, which isn't slated to be released until 2012, but will require extensive filming. It doesn't look like he'll be able to fit more of Friday Night Lights into the mix. And a lot of the predicament could be on the Disney side; will they free up his shooting schedule for John Carter to let him play Tim Riggins.

Entering into its fourth season (and second since the NBC/DirecTV deal), Friday Night Lights is a show in transition on numerous levels. The high school football drama returns tonight to DirecTV's 101 Network at 9 p.m. ET (NBC won't air this season until next summer) and for fans of the show, it's an episode they've long been waiting for.

Ever since the season three finale, as Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife Tami (Connie Britton) stepped on to the East Dillon Lions decrepit football field, Eric's new home, the tension has been at an all time high in Dillon, Texas. How can Coach Taylor, a man whom many consider to be a high school football wunderkind, start from scratch with a team that doesn't even exist yet?

It feels like forever since Bill Hendrickson announced that he and his family would form their own religion and live apart from Juniper Creek and LDS and the rest of the state of Utah. And we also know that Roman Grant is dead, and unless Big Love is going in the direction of resurrecting the prophet like he's the real deal, that means Alby will be taking over for his father. Then there's all the business with the casinos, Nicki's teenaged daughter and her weird former husband, not to mention Margene's new business, Sarah getting married to Scott...

This should come as no surprise to even the most casual of TV Squad readers. Mad Men has been picked up for a fourth season, assuring that Matthew Weiner's engrossing and demanding tale of Don Draper and the people at Sterling Cooper will be played out for at least another year.

When a show like Mad Men comes along, not unlike The Sopranos in quality and pop culture appeal, the question usually isn't whether the network will stand behind it for the duration, but whether or not the creative team envisions a long run.

Earlier this month, we asked you if you wanted a season four of Torchwood. Early responses seemed to say yes, and then we got deluged with people who were fed up with their favorite characters dying and who weren't entirely impressed with the Torchwood: Children of Earth mini-series that was season three.

Well, there is going to be a season four, and Torchwood Magazine got the scoop (Dammit! How'd they manage that?). According to the magazine, Torchwood creator and writer Russell T. Davies already has several storylines worked out, and knows what happens to the characters that did survive seasons two and three. He's not sure if it will be another mini-series or a 13-episode season, but he does know what he'd include.

Looks like NBC is really trying to relaunch Heroes. They have a whole new plot and series of characters (a weird carnival), and these videos seem to want us to get involved with the show again, and get to know the characters we love.

The Sylar and Claire videos give a good background/recap of the characters, but the "Heroes in Love" one doesn't really make sense (some characters aren't even on the show anymore, and the Matt/Daphne thing didn't really happen), but they're good promos. (Here's the trailer for season four.)

There's a lot of news coming out of Comic-Con already, and one piece of news for Dexter fans is the debut of the season four trailer.

But that's not the only Dexter news. Showtime also announced that they are making a prequel to the show. A cartoon prequel titled Early Cuts, It will be a 12-episode, web-only series, but Michael C. Hall will indeed do the voice.

As Bob wrote the other day, NBC has assured fans that Heroes will be back next season. Isn't that great? Well, no, not to me. I would like to assure NBC that I have had it with Heroes. I'm exhausted and fed up. Do you feel like me? Do you have Heroes fatigue?

The changes have been detrimental to the original premise, ruining what was once the most exciting new TV show on the air since Lost. Quite simply, I don't like the new "book"; I don't like the characters that have been mangled beyond recognition; I don't like all the story lines that were dropped in favor of this new paradigm that has the government hunting down Matt and Peter and the other familiar heroes and treating them like terrorists. At the end of the last episode, I just felt bad about Heroes. What have they done to my show?

You'd have thought that after 32 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (premieres on FX, next Thursday, 9/18 at 10PM) that Mac, Dennis, Dee, Charlie, and Frank would have tackled just about anything you can think of that's offensive. They've hit on underage drinking, Nazis, sex offenders, dumpster babies, religion, retardation, homosexuality, and homeless people. Well I'm here to tell you that it's far from over. There's still plenty of off-color material for these five fools to rape (considering the context... I think that is the right word) and it isn't stopping with this season, which will run for 13 episodes. FX president John Landgraf has confirmed that 39 more episodes will follow. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My thoughts on the season four premiere are after jump.

(S04E01) Hullo Guv! Welcome to the fourth series premiere of Bones. It has been a summer of anger and anticipation for most fans of the show. Anger, as many felt creator Hart Hanson bollixed the whole thing up by making Zack Addy a bit potty. Anticipation, because those same fans are curious to see how Hanson and his writers will fill the gap and how the rest of the blokes at the Jeffersonian will adjust. And, of course, there's also the unanswered question as to the state of Bones and Booth's relationship: will they shag or not this season?

None of those questions were answered in this two-hour series premiere, althouth Zack's fate was briefly mentioned. What we did get was a trip to Londontown by Temperance and Seeley (hence, the British slang), and some significant relationship changes amongst the Squints. So, grab a pint, some fish n' chips, and your favorite duck, and let's begin.

(S04E21) Nigel told the final six that while they were getting plenty of applause and adulation on the show, they would have to get used to rejection if they continue on this career path. He advised that they use the rejection to propel them forward. But, the final six shouldn't feel too bad because each one of them got over a million votes going into this results show.

And the stakes are even higher going into the finale. Adam Shankman has added a role as a featured dancer in his new movie to the winner's prize package.

So let's see who will be battling it out next Thursday on So You Think You Can Dance.

For most of my time at Comic-Con the TV show panels had a fairly diverse audience, with an equal amount of men and women. However, during the Sunday morning panels for Smallville and Supernatural I noticed a significant female shift in the audience. This was definitely prominent with Supernatural. Of course, being that the main characters of Sam and Dean (played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) are hot it's understandable. Well, at least that what I observed...I just think they're cute.

Regardless of your opinion of their looks these two stars, along with creator Eric Kripke, talked about season four of Supernatural and what's coming up for the demon hunting brothers.

It's coming. The return of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. With the season three DVD set to be released on September 9th, FX has lined up season four to premiere on Thursday, September 18th. I've gotta say - between this, The Shield, and Sons of Anarchy, FX has one helluva fall schedule. No word on whether or not the first few weeks will be double episodes as they did the past few seasons, but I would imagine they will be.

To prep for the season, FX has been airing promos like crazy (I embedded a great one featuring "Day Man" at the end of this post), but if you haven't been poking around the It's Always Sunny... website, you probably missed this: they made a music video.

Is it just me or are DVD releases getting announced earlier and earlier? Whatever the case, Lost fans can plan on getting the season four DVD as a Christmas/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present because it doesn't come out until December 9th. Which makes sense I suppose, since the show returns in early '09.

The 5-disc set (aka "The Expanded Experience") will obviously include all 14 season four eps plus a ton of goodies. As far as DVD sets go, Lost always has great extras. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, expect to see 5 featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes, and audio commentaries for some of the episodes. The one goodie that really has me excited? The "Oceanic Airlines Safety Guide." Hilarious. It immediately made me think of Airtoons -- all those funny and inappropriate airline safety cards.

As with season three, there will also be a BluRay release but I've got to be honest. I have the regular season three DVDs and they look pretty damn good on my HDTV set. So I'm not convinced that shelling out the extra $40 to $50 bucks is really worth it. Yet, anyway. You can pre-order both at Amazon for way less though - $38.99 for the normal DVDs and $66.95 for the BluRay.