The Gold Standard: "Entourage" Returns to Its Roots

There's a new talent agency player in this town, as Miller-Gold (no, it's not a beer) opened its doors last night. Well, on Entourage anyway, which last night seemed to return to the pleasurably scathing Hollywood satire it once was.

The fictional agency, formed out of a partnership between Ari Gold and Barbara Miller (the silky-voiced Beverly D'Angelo), announced its intent to go independent, following a meeting of talent agency toppers that Ari likened to a "meeting of the five families." (I was rolling on the floor with laughter at the very bitter slap in the face afforded to, um, small fry agency APA, Agency for the Performing Arts.) With Ari's drive and ambition and Barbara's financing, it seems like Miller-Gold is poised to give ICM, CAA, William Morris et al a run for their money.

Fitting too then that things seem to be falling into place for the other members of this Hollywood entourage. Turtle's music managing career is ready to take off, with rapper Saigon about to break big. Following a threesome, Eric was tempted by the beautiful best friend (The Comeback's Baby Girl, Malin Akerman) of his girlfriend Sloane (Emmanuel Chriqui), but remained the good Catholic boy we know and love by refusing to give into temptation (yet, anyway). But the biggest news is that struggling actor Drama may have finally landed his big break, landing a role in a pilot directed by (guest star) Ed Burns. Johnny and Ed have a history together -- Johnny turned down the lead in The Brothers McMullen for a three-episode stint on 90210 as Tori Spelling's sexual harasser -- and things have finally come full circle for the lovable scamp.

But this wouldn't be Entourage if there weren't some drama and with everything going SO well for the gang, someone had to come along and knock down the house of cards they were building. I'm happy to say that the someone is Vince, who in recent weeks has become little too much of the golden boy, breaking box office records and cruising through his career with nary so much as a speedbump. (Even getting fired off of Aquaman 2 hasn't exactly fazed him.)

On last night's episode ("The Release"), Entourage finally answered a long burning question of mine by picking up the story threads revolving around Vince's arthouse pic, Queens Boulevard. (I couldn't for the life of me remember a few weeks ago whether or not Queens had ever been released.) In the hands of the studio, the gritty black and white arthouse film has become a hypersaturated, bubble gummy mess of a film, set to be released on 1200 screens nationally. (The Sundance favorite originally supposed to play on 4 screens.) The pristine monochromatic images have been infused with the paintbrush of Batman & Robin-era Joel Schumacher and the effect is all overblown reds and greens ("Aquaman-ized"); the film's one-sheet poster is all purple; and is that My Name Is Earl's Randy (Ethan Suplee) in that shot?

Leave it to Vince to get his head turned by Queens Boulevard's eccentric director Billy Walsh (Rhys Coiro), who wants Vince to sign an injunction preventing the film from being released. And Vince chooses the worst possible moment to announce his intentions: at a press conference for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, where he belittles and castigates the studio for butchering the brilliance of Boulevard.

Like I said, things were going far too well for this gang and someone had to bring it down. My only hope is that Vince has pissed off yet another studio (after the Aquaman fiasco) and his career goes into an entirely unexpected direction (more art films, less fluff) while it's up to Turtle and Drama to bring home the bacon for a change. Will Vince bring down Eric and Ari just when things have started to fall into place? Will Vince drown his sorrows by going on a coke-fueled hooker binge? Will Drama actually become, you know, successful? And will Turtle ever stop wearing those damn track suits?

All I know is that Entourage finally feels like it's back to the basics again (that pitch perfect blend of satire and struggle) and it's about bloody time.

"Entourage" airs Sunday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT on HBO.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: The King of Queens/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Star Tomorrow (NBC); 7th Heaven (WB); Wife Swap (ABC); Hell's Kitchen (FOX); One on One/All of Us (UPN)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Treasure Hunters (NBC); 7th Heaven (WB); Supernanny (ABC); Hell's Kitchen (FOX); Girlfriends/Half and Half (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC); One Ocean View (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Spaced on BBC America.

If you missed Friday's Stateside airing of the hilarious and surreal 1999 sitcom Spaced (starring Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg), here's your chance to catch the season finale. On tonight's episode ("Ends"), Tim's ex-girlfriend Sarah (Monarch of the Glen's Anna Wilson-Jones) wants to give their failed relationship a second chance, but Daisy and Mike are less thrilled by the news than Tim is. Meanwhile, Mike is re-evaluated for the territorial army.

8:30- 9:30 pm: Peep Show on BBC America.

On tonight's special hour-long season finale of this deliciously twisted Britcom, Jeremy and his girlfriend Nancy (Rachel Blanchard) are planning on getting married so Nancy can get a visa, but Mark will do anything to prevent them from walking down the aisle.

9 pm: Hell's Kitchen.

On tonight's installment of the FOX culinary competition show ("4 Chefs"), it's down to the final four chefs, one of whom will actually win their very own restaurant at the Red Rocks Resort in Las Vegas (yes, one of these, er, impressive people will have their own eatery). While the final four manage to impress Gordon at the beginning of dinner service, things take a nasty turn. Well, it wouldn't be Hell's Kitchen if they didn't...

10 pm: Life on Mars on BBC America.

It's the second episode of this brilliant (and British) mind-bending mystery series that stars State of Play's John Simm as Detective Sam Tyler, a modern-day copper who wakes up in 1973. On tonight's episode, the series' second, Tyler decides that, even if he doesn't completely believe that what he's experiencing is real, he decides to accept that this is 1973 and commits himself to the job at hand, only to find that he disagrees with one of his colleague's crime-solving techniques.

From Across the Pond: "Peep Show"

Every once in a while a show comes along that makes you feel vaguely uncomfortable to be a human being. In a good way, that is. That is the joy of watching this series, from the twisted minds of The Thick of It's Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain.

Peep Show is a deliriously sordid Britcom where you can't help but squirm as you watch sad sacks Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (The Smoking Room's Robert Webb) go about their pathetic ways. While the delightfully creepy theme song may have become a little more upbeat in the series' second season, Mark and Jeremy's outlook hasn't; they're just as messed up as they were last season. Mark and Jeremy are the "El Dude Brothers," two completely dysfunctional roommates who have lived together since university and who are destined to spend their lives together in a state of fitful co-dependence. Mark, a loan manager, is the more "grounded" of the two, though by grounded I mean less likely to engage in a drunken orgy or sleep with their insane married neighbor Toni (Coupling's Elizabeth Marmur), but more likely to urinate in a co-worker's desk drawer in a fit of revenge. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Jeremy is a wannabe musician who all too often falls for the wrong woman... Or druggie friend Super Hans (Matt King), if they're completely wasted. Well, just that once, anyway.

Peep Show's genius is that it presents the audience with Mark and Jeremy's point-of-view, directly capturing the action as though we were looking out from their respective eyes, whilst listening to their every perverse, pathetic, poignant thought, whether it be about Mark's fixation on his deformed genitalia or Jeremy's misguided beliefs that he will one day be a rock god. The effect could have been overbearing or unbearable altogether, but it's a credit to both Mitchell and Webb's acting, as well as Armstrong and Bain's writing, that it works. You might be tempted to look away from the filth and squalor of what's in these manboys' heads... if it weren't so damn funny.

Together, Mark and Jeremy form a warped, funhouse mirror version of The Odd Couple, with Mark playing the uptight, slightly sinister one and Jeremy the fun-loving and lazy guy stuck in a state of arrested adolescence. In last week's episode, Jeremy was caught stealing a candy bar in the convenience store where he and Mark used to shop in their university days together; locked in the storeroom while the police are being summoned, this less-than-dynamic duo discover a way to escape, but Mark decided to leave a note and a ten-pound note. (That's just the sort of guy he is.) And then he goes back to stalking a beautiful and young college student named April, whom he met while buying shoes and then followed back to Dartmouth. All this while trying to put his love for co-worker Sophie (The Office's Olivia Coleman) behind him, a somewhat noble endeavor if it weren't Mark who kept screwing things up for himself by being so damn... creepy.

But that's the beauty of Peep Show, that we're able to exist within these characters' heads for half an hour and then we're able to return to our relatively normal lives. It's a glimpse of the madness and dysfunction inside every thirty-something single guy, a quick and terrifying peep that reminds us how lucky we are not to be as messed up as Mark and Jeremy are.

While the second season of Peep Show is coming to an end tonight with a one-hour special, BBC America will begin re-airing the entire series from the beginning, starting on Saturday, 5 August (5 am ET/2 am PT) with the first two episodes of the series. (Subsequent episodes will air in the same timeslot in the following days.) While it's an odd hour to be catching some televised comedy, set your TiVo's to Season Pass and feast on one of the most twisted Britcoms ever to hit our shores. You'll thank me in the morning.

Casting Couch: "Office" Overflow; Mitchell Latest "Lost" Girl

The Office is getting a few new workers.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that three actors have joined the expansive cast of NBC's The Office next season. Charles Esten (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) will reprise his role of Josh Porter, last seen in the "Valentine's Day" episode last season; his character is the regional manager of Dunder-Mifflin's Stamford branch. Meanwhile, Rashida Jones (Boston Public) and Steve Carell's former Daily Show compatriot Ed Helms have joined the cast. Both will play employees of Dunder-Mifflin, with Jones landing a "potential recurring role" on the series.

While Helms and Jones (coincidentally Office co-star John Krasinski's girlfriend) were said to be playing workers in the Scranton office in The Hollywood Reporter, it seems more than likely that they will instead be corporate drones of the paper manufacturer's Stamford branch. (In fact, it seems a dead certainty, given the appearance of Josh Porter, the Stamford branch's regional manager, in the announcement.

All of which lends credence to my thoughts last May that poor, lovelorn Jim Halpert (John Krasinksi) would accept the transfer from Scranton that Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) offered him in the season finale ("Casino Night"), following his kiss with Pam (Jenna Fischer).

So is it curtains for these two lovebirds? Tune in to the third season of The Office to find out...

In other casting news, yet another castaway has joined the cast of ABC's Lost, following the recent announcement that Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro had been cast in the series as well. Elizabeth Mitchell (ER) will join the drama series next season.

No information was immediately released about her character Juliet, said to be a possible love interest for Matthew Fox's character.

I'm all for more romance on Lost and, just as long as that mysterious smoky "monster" doesn't end up named Romeo, we should be fine.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); What I Like About You/Twins (WB); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); That '70s Show /That '70s Show (FOX); WWE Friday Night Smackdown (UPN)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Las Vegas (NBC); Reba/Living with Fran (WB); Kyle XY (ABC); 24 (FOX)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Spaced on BBC America. (11 pm ET)

It's the season finale of my new favorite British comedy, Spaced, a wacky 1999 Britcom starring Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson. On tonight's episode ("Ends"), Tim's ex-girlfriend Sarah (Monarch of the Glen's Anna Wilson-Jones) wants to give their failed relationship a second chance, but Daisy and Mike are less thrilled by the news than Tim is. Meanwhile, Mike is re-evaluated for the territorial army. Hmmm, maybe he knows Gareth...

8:30-9:30 pm: Peep Show on BBC America. (11:30 pm ET)

One of my favorite single-camera British comedies returns Stateside for a second season of twisted and bizarre episodes. On tonight's special hour-long season finale, Jeremy and his girlfriend Nancy (Rachel Blanchard) are planning on getting married so Nancy can get a visa, but Mark will do anything to prevent them from walking down the aisle. (That Mark, such a plonker.)

11:20 pm: The Catherine Tate Show on BBC America. (10:20 pm ET)

Later on BBC America, it's another episode of the new season of The Catherine Tate Show. Who's Catherine Tate? Why, she might just be the heir to Tracy Ullman's sketch comedy throne.

Rodrigo Santoro to Get "Lost"

Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro is set to join the cast of ABC's not-so-deserted island drama Lost when the series returns this fall for its third season, according to a press release filed by network ABC.

Best known to U.S. audiences for his role in Richard Curtis' feature film Love Actually, Santoro also appeared in the feature film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and appeared opposite Nicole Kidman in the Baz Luhrmann-directed commercials for Channel.

No information was immediately released about Santoro's character, though I would imagine he will be playing one of the mysterious Others, whom the show will focus on next season. (Either that or one of Penelope Widmore's employees.)

Stayed tuned for more information.

Televisionary Scoop: First Images From Bravo's "Top Chef 2"

Unpack your knifes, it's time for another season of backstabbing culinary challenge series Top Chef, Well, almost time, anyway.

I don't know about you, but I've been jonesing for another Top Chef fix ever since the first season of Bravo's culinary challenge wrapped a few weeks back. Sure, we've been following the behind-the-scenes shenanigans with the show (android Katie Lee Joel out, Padma Lakshmi in) and we know that the sophomore season will take place in Los Angeles this time around, but what's in store for Top Chef 2?

Fret not, fearless foodies! (I saw Stan Lee down at Comic Con, so forgive the exclamatory address.) Televisionary knows how much you love your Bravo reality shows and we've got a sneak peek at some images from the second season of Top Chef, courtesy of top secret Televisionary operative "Ted Kord," including the first photo of new host Padma Lakshmi in action (above, looking rather, um, model-esque).

The scene: California Science Center.

The date: Saturday, 22 July.

The event: Fourth Annual Project by Project Southern California Food and Wine Tasting Benefit.

Top Chef was on hand filming an episode of the series, set to debut in October on Bravo, and as usual contestants -- grouped here into two teams -- were competing in the elimination challenge. This is it, ladies and gents. Feast your eyes on the newest competitors for the (dubious) title of Top Chef:

And here are our erstwhile Top Chef competitors in action. Seen here, it's "Team Vietnam":

The judges for this episode include restaurateur and author Tom Colicchio, Food & Wine's Gail Simmons, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, and this week's guest judge: chef Ming Tsai (of Food Network fame and the owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts).

While Bravo reality junkies might have Project Runway to tide us over (how the bloody hell does Angela keep managing to escape the chopping block?), October seems like a long ways off to have to wait for more Top Chef.

So who are our newest Top Chef wannabes? Bravo's keeping mum for now but I can't help but wonder: Will there be another overbearing Stephen in the bunch? Or a humble Lee Anne? Or a modest Harold? Or, better yet, another, um, Tiffani? Only time will tell...

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother 7: All-Stars (CBS); My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC); Smallville (WB); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); That '70s Show/That '70s Show (FOX); Everybody Hates Chris/Love, Inc. (UPN)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC); Supernatural (WB); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); Eve/Cuts (UPN)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Windfall (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: My Name is Earl.

On tonight's repeat episode ("Monkeys in Space"), Earl must make up for telling an inappropriate story at a birthday part for his old friend Hank (Carnivale's Tim DeKay) by giving Hank one perfect day before he is sent to prison. Karma's a funny thing.

8:30 pm: The Office.

On a repeat of The Office ("Boys and Girls"), Michael orders his male employees to have some bonding time in the warehouse after Jan schedules a "women in the workplace" seminar. Features Dwight's memorable analogy to the Others on Lost and, less amusingly, an emotional breakdown from Pam when she realizes that she'll never escape Scranton.

10-11 pm: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace/Amazing Screw-On Head on Sci-Fi.

Catch the premiere episode of this 2004 British import tonight on Sci-Fi. In the premiere ("Once Upon a Beginning"), a new doctor at Darkplace Hospital receives a psychic warning from a cat. (Yes, you read that correctly.) A half an hour later, it's the pilot episode of Sci-Fi's new animated series Amazing Screw-On Head from the brilliant mind of Mike Mignola (Hellboy). David Hyde Pierce voices Screw-On Head, a robotic secret agent robot in the employ of Abraham Lincoln. (Um, again, you did read that correctly.) Paul Giamatti, Patton Oswalt, Molly Shannon, and Mindy Sterling also provide voices.

BBC Three Ignites "Torchwood"

BBC Three has announced that it will make Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood the "centerpiece" of its fall schedule, launching the "sci fi crime thriller" series in October. No plans are currently in place to import the series Stateside, though our neighbors to the north will be able to catch Torchwood on CBC.

Spinning off of one of Doctor Who's most memorable characters, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Torchwood will be set in present day Cardiff (that's Wales to you lot) and will surround a group of covert criminal investigators called the Torchwood Institute, an organization commissioned by Queen Victoria and tasked with investigating alien technology. The team will be headquartered at The Hub, located beneath Cardiff Bay, the site of the TARDIS' landing in "Boom Town" and the location of the rift discussed in "The Unquiet Dead."

Created by current Doctor Who writer/producer Russell T. Davies, Torchwood stars John Barrowman as bisexual time traveller/con man Jack Harkness and Eve Myles as former police officer Gwen Cooper. Astute Doctor Who fans may remember Myles from the Who episode "The Unquiet Dead," where she played the role of the similarly named Gwyneth. (Whether Gwen and Gwyneth are the same character has yet to be confirmed, but the fact that Myles' previous Who episode dealt with the rift adds credence to that theory.)

Joining Barrowman and Myles are Bleak House's Burn Gorman, who will play Torchwood Institute medic Owen Harper, and Absolutely Fabulous' Naoko Mori, who will reprise the role of Toshiko Sato from the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London."

Doctor Who writer/producer Russell T. Davies has written the first of thirteen episodes. He'll be joined on the series by writers Chris Chibnall, co-creator of Life on Mars, and P.J. Hammond, creator of 1980s cult classic Sapphire & Steel (which starred Mori's Absolutely Fabulous castmate Joanna Lumley), among others.

Torchwood is, of course, a clever anagram of Doctor Who and was originally used as a codename for the current incarnation of Doctor Who, before taking on a life of its own during the series.

I can only hope that we here in the States will eventually be lucky enough to watch Torchwood, though I'm still waiting for an official announcement about when Sci-Fi will air the second (sadly, Eccleston-free) season of Doctor Who.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8-10 pm); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); The One: Making a Music Star (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); One Tree Hill (WB); Lost (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); Eve/Half and Half (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

Is it just me or is anyone else still upset that aristocratic vampire Malan was auf wiedersehen'd last week? It just didn't seem fair, though that dress did look like a withered old log. Tune in tonight for another new episode of my new reality fix.

From Across the Pond: "Life on Mars"

No, this isn't another declaration of my love for Veronica Mars. (Though there's nothing wrong with spreading the love of Mars.) Rather, I'm referring to the Stateside premiere of the trippy crime drama Life on Mars, which launched its first season last night on BBC America.

While it's nominally a mystery series, Life on Mars is far from being your standard crime procedural. Instead, it's a deft blend of police procedural, pitch black humor, and crime drama, with a sci-fi twist. In 2006, Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler (State of Play's John Simm) is on the hunt for a man he believes is a serial killer targeting young women, keeping them alive for 24 hours, and then strangling them. Tyler thinks he's caught his man when he brings in ginger-haired Colin Raimes (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's Sam Hazeldine), a troubled schizophrenic, but when his social worker has an airtight alibi for him, Tyler's back at square one. However, Tyler's police colleague and girlfriend Maya (The Constant Gardener's Archie Panjabi) has a hunch of her own but when she goes to investigate, she too is abducted by the killer. Tyler is distraught and drives aimlessly, listening to David Bowie's 1973 classic "Life on Mars." When he is nearly in a crash, he pulls his car under the freeway and is himself struck by a passing automobile. Tyler drifts into unconsciousness...

But when he awakens, he's not in 2006 and everything around him has changed. Instead, Sam Tyler finds himself transported back in time to Manchester in the year 1973. But here's the strange part: he's still Sam Tyler, but he's now dressed in the height of 1973 vintage style: wide collar, awesome black leather jacket. He's still a copper, but his ID card shows that somehow he's been demoted from DCI to Detective Inspector. His car, formerly a Jeep, is now a typical 70s jalopy and contains transfer papers to the very precinct where Tyler worked in the present day. All rather odd, no?

Needless to say, Tyler is baffled. And more than a little freaked out about what's happening to him and to Maya. Strange aural and visual hallucinations seem to indicate that Tyler is in a coma in the present day as physicians attempt to revive him. But the level of detail in this 1973 world is too uncanny for Tyler to accept that it's all in his mind. Something else is at work here, something powerful and profound.

When Tyler is assigned to solve the crime of a missing local woman, he discovers another link to the present day. This killer is abducting women, keeping them alive for 24 hours, and then strangling them. If Tyler's going to save Maya, he has to stop this killer in 1973. The only problem is that crime-solving methods have grown a hell of a lot more sophisticated by 2006 and these police offers, led by DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), have no idea what they're up against. Fortunately, they have one thing that their predecessors didn't have: the time-traveling cop Sam Tyler. If Tyler is able to catch the serial killer now, will he be able to save Maya in the present day?

While Sam feels completely alone in this alien world (he was only four years old in 1973, after all), there is someone here who does reach out to him: adorable WPC Annie Cartwright (Liz White), a former psychology student turned officer who doesn't quite believe Sam's story about time travel. But Sam is determined to get back to the present day, no matter what the cost. That is, if all of this isn't just one big coma dream, after all...

Creators Chris Chibnall, Matthew Graham, and Ashley Pharoah have crafted an entire universe of possiblity for poor, tortured Detective Tyler and have given us a new twist on the familiar trope of time travel. Additionally, Life on Mars' sets and costumes are flawless and easily transport the viewer to a gritty 70s Manchester. I can only imagine how much fun it must have been to design this entire world and that dedication and level of perfection shines through on the screen.

Simm is a fantastic lead for this brilliant series, which sucks the viewer in from its opening minutes and never lets go. Life on Mars is a psychedelic roller coaster ride through the heart of 70s-era England, in the days before Maggie Thatcher, when The Who, Uriah Heep, and Bowie blared from record players and police officers represented The Law, but didn't mind bending it either. Simms turns in a fantastic and ultimately sympathetic performance of a detective solving the mystery of his own madness/time travel/fantasy. Glenister is riveting to watch as the gruff Gene Hunt, stuck in his ways, cracking jokes at Annie's expense, but somehow managing to keep these rowdy officers in line. White is the perfect blend of innocence and wisdom as attentive WPC Annie Cartwright. (Something tells me that if Tyler is stuck in 1973 for a while, romance will undoubtedly blossom between these two.) But what's the deal exactly with Annie's ex-boyfriend, psychologist Neil (Christopher Harper)? There's another connection to Tyler's "future" that hopefully will be fully investigated.

Ultimately, Life on Mars is unlike anything else currently on television: a gripping, trippy, and surreal mind-bender of a mystery. So while David E. Kelley is developing an adaptation of this series for American television, stick to the brilliant original UK version instead. After all, this is one Life that speaks for itself.

"Life on Mars" airs Monday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT on BBC America. Repeats air Sunday evenings at 9 pm ET/PT.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother: All-Stars (CBS); Fear Factor (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); According to Jim/George Lopez (ABC); House (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

9 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); The One: Making a Music Star (9-11 pm; ABC); House (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

10 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Eureka on Sci-Fi.

The whimsical new sci-fi drama that's more Northern Exposure than Stargate. On tonight's episode ("Many Happy Returns"), Carter attends a funeral while a dark figure begins to materalize in the town of Eureka. Connection? I'd say so.

TV (Not) on DVD Update: MTV's "The State"

Yet another television program thus far criminally not available on DVD might just be coming to DVD or iTunes: MTV's cult classic The State.

The news coming out of San Diego's Comic Con this past weekend pegs a release for The State later this year, either on DVD, on iTunes, or both. Created by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garrant, best known for Comedy Central's Reno 911!, sketch comedy series The State ran on MTV between 1993 and 1995 and quickly garnered a cult following.

ComingSoon.Net met up with Lennon and Garrant at Comic Con and they had the following to say about the possibility of a DVD release of the show:

"The State at long last actually is coming out either on DVD or iTunes," Lennon told [ComingSoon.Net].

"They just rescored and we're all doing ADR," Garrant continued.

"The thing that was preventing it was the music clearances," Lennon explained, "because at the time, MTV had a deal that anything with a video you could just use. No longer the deal."

"All our sketches that were built around a Breeders or a Lenny Kravitz song, which was a lot of them," said Garrant, "so we had to rescore everything, but finally, MTV put up the money to rescore it, and I guess it's coming out."

"It's coming out sometime this year, I bet," Lennon concluded.

There you have it. The State on DVD. "Sometime this year."

Stay tuned for more as this story develops and special thanks to Televisionary reader Lindsay for the tip.

"Mars" Attacks at Comic Con

One of the highlights of my trip to Comic Con had to be the Veronica Mars panel on Saturday afternoon. It's no secret that Veronica Mars is easily one of my favorite series on television and that the day the execs decided to grant the noir drama a reprieve was one of the happiest of my life. (Now if we could only get them to commit to 22 episodes.)

In attendance: Kristen Bell, creator Rob Thomas, a tardy Francis Capra (he was stuck in traffic), Jason Dohring, Michael Muhney, Enrico Colantoni, and Ryan Hansen. The crowd went wild as a clip package -- the same one presented to the CW programming execs -- was played that brilliantly summed up the show as a cross between a stylish noir drama and a snarky well-written drama. But the surprises were yet to come...

Who knew that Rob Thomas always had Cassidy Casablancas in mind as the killer, way back when he brought him onto the show for the last three episodes of the first season? Or that he felt he "sold out a little bit" by bowing to fans' "vitriolic" response to Jackie by making her too nice too quickly? Or that Kristen Bell's agent still sends her mail at her old address? (Some VM fans that live there now brought the delighted Kristen Bell a box that had been sent there in error. Some assistant somewhere is getting fired this morning.) Or that Ryan Hansen can not only do a mean Michael Jackson imitation, but can also perform an impromptu backflip with wild abandon?

So what can fans look forward to in Season Three? Veronica and bad boyfriend Logan are "still going strong." Well, Veronica's off to Hearst College, but she'll still be living in her old bedroom in the Mars family home. ("And that's where she'll die," joked Enrico Colantoni.) One reason for the living arrangement was that Thomas didn't want Veronica to have to drive home (or Keith to drive to Hearst) every time they wanted the father and daughter to have a conversation. (Hmm, was that a dig at timeslot companion Gilmore Girls, who did just that during its first Yale-era season?)

Joining the cast in on a full-time basis is Michael Muhney, whose Sheriff Lamb will continue to be a thorn in Veronica's side. "He's the guy you love Veronica to butt heads with," said Thomas. There will continue to be crimes in the sunny berg of Neptune and Veronica will investigate and undoubtedly run into Lamb. (As for his much-younger girlfriend Madison? "Um, she's gone to USC," joked Thomas.)

As previously reported, Tina Majorino has also joined the cast of Veronica Mars on a full-time basis as well. (Can I just say, WAHOO!) Mac will be attending Hearst College with Veronica, Wallace, Dick, and Logan. New characters include Mac's roommate Parker (Dodgeball's Julie Gonzalo) and Wallace's roomie Piz (Life as We Know It's Chris Lowell).

Season Three won't have a single overall mystery like in previous seasons, but will instead be comprised of three shorter story arcs that will air "unbroken by repeats or pre-emptions," said Thomas to a cheering crowd, and each mystery will have a different feel. However, the show will also emphasize the mystery-of-the-week element, in an attempt to bring in new viewers, a network mandate. (Let's just hope that it's handled better than when Alias tried to do the same and ended up alienating much of its core audience.)

Veronica Mars' third season will kick off on Tuesday, October 3rd, with a nine-episode arc that will pick up the mystery from episode 16 of the second season (the serial rapist on the Hearst College campus). On Friday, producers had locked Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat to return to the series (look for her to pop up in episode four) and had wanted to bring back her AD kissin' cousin Michael Cera, but Cera had recently booked a movie and is currently unavailable. However, Rob Thomas has said that they are working on figuring out a way to get Cera to make another appearance. Additionally, guest star Charisma Carpenter (Kendall Casablancas) will be showing up in episode one.

Also in episode one: Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) dancing in a Speedo.

Expect life in Neptune to be a little less stratified at Hearst College than it was in high school, where instead of the '09ers, there will be little pocket communities of frat boys, student publication people, etc. Says Rob Thomas, it's more about "fiefdoms rather than us and them." While Veronica might feel like less of an outcast as she did at Neptune High, don't expect her to exactly become Miss Popular either. Episode Two features Veronica going undercover at during sorority rush week. (I think that speaks for itself.)

As for Kristen Bell, she's hoping that Veronica will become a little more vulnerable through her own decisions at college. She's been hurt by so many people, including her no-good mother, and Bell wants Veronica to remain "feisty, but dropping her guard a little."

Has the move to the CW affected the storylines on the series? According to Thomas, the netlet has stressed that they want Veronica "to be a good companion piece to Gilmore Girls," which elicited more than a few boos from the crowd. Scarily, the network did have thoughts on storylines that they thought to be "too dark," which made them especially nervous as the show airs after the more cheerful Gilmore Girls. The best line of the panel goes to Francis Capra who uttered, "Don't ask me where you'd see a guy like me on Gilmore Girls." Ah, Weevil, one of the reasons we love you is that you're always willing to speak your mind.

Rob Thomas is currently negotiating a deal to stay on Veronica Mars for the foreseeable future but one sticking point that hasn't been worked out yet is that Thomas wants to retain the book rights for Veronica Mars. Thomas, who got his start as a novelist, doesn't want "cheesy Veronica Mars books out there." I couldn't agree more but I'd love to see a Veronica novel -- written by Thomas himself -- sometime in the future.

One tidbit not revealed at the Comic Con panel: Joan of Arcadia's Patrick Fabian has been cast as a college professor on the show.

How I know that is a mystery for another day...

What's On Tonight

8 pm: The King of Queens/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Project Runway (NBC); 7th Heaven (WB); Wife Swap (ABC); Hell's Kitchen (FOX); One on One/All of Us(UPN)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Treasure Hunters (NBC); 7th Heaven (WB); CMA Music Festival (ABC; 9-11 pm); Hell's Kitchen (FOX); Girlfriends/Half and Half (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Medium (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Spaced on BBC America.

If you missed Friday's Stateside airing of the hilarious and surreal 1999 sitcom Spaced (starring Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg), here's your chance to catch the sixth episode before another episode airs Friday. On tonight's episode ("Epiphanies"), Tim's friend drops by to invite Tim and Daisy out for a night of clubbing and they invite Mike, Brian, and Twist to join them. Something tells me it's not as simple as that.

8:30 pm: Peep Show on BBC America.

Another chance to catch the fourth episode before a new episode on Friday. On tonight's episode, Mark attempts to forget about Sophie by dating April, but manages, in typical fashion, to become her stalker rather than her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Jeremy joins a band but has a hard time convincing everyone that he's not a roadie.

9 pm: Hell's Kitchen.

See above. On tonight's installment of the FOX culinary competition show ("5 Chefs"), some of the chefs get jealous when Gordon takes a few of them with him to Las Vegas to see how the new restaurant is looking. Gee, do you think that the show's producers wanted to, you know, create more tension between the remaining contestants?

10 pm: Life on Mars on BBC America.

It's the series premiere of this twisty new detective drama that's unlike anything else on television. After the disappearance of his girlfriend and colleague, Detective Sam Tyler (State of Play's John Simms) goes after the serial killer he believes has kidnapped her. But when he's involved in a near-fatal car accident, Sam Tyler wakes up and discovers that he's been transported back in time to the year 1973. Can he save his girlfriend in the present from more than thirty years in the past? It's trippy, it's British; do yourself a favor and tune in.

Watch "Nobody's Watching" on... NBC?!?

I guess someone was watching after all.

In a stunning move, Variety is reporting today that botched WB pilot and You Tube favorite Nobody's Watching has been picked up by NBC. Kevin Reilly is expected to announce today that the Peacock network has ordered six scripts, following a meeting with series creators Bill Lawrence, Neil Goldman, and Garrett Donovan.

Additionally, NBC will also produce a series of viral videos for Nobody's Watching, which could hit the web as early as September. The news comes a month after a video of the 2005 pilot for Nobody's Watching showed up on You Tube.com, launching a storm of media coverage. (It also doesn't hurt that NBC recently signed a "programming alliance" deal with You Tube.)

The network is negotiating with most of the pilot's stars to return, including series leads Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica) and Tarran Killiam. Should the show be ordered to series, it would carry a very insubstantial price tag per episode (less than $1 million), far lower than that of most traditional sitcoms.

"Part of our pitch for bringing back the show is that, for it to succeed, it needs to become more edgy and blur the lines between reality and fiction," said Nobody's Watching co-creator Bill Lawrence.

Further blurring that line is the decision taken by the show's producers to launch an interactive fan website for Nobody's Watching where fans can give notes on the original pilot and make suggestions about how to improve the show.

It's extremely rare for a failed pilot to get picked up at a competing network, let alone generate the sort of publicity that this little pilot has. Let's just hope that this time, somebody's watching.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Dateline (NBC); What I Like About You/Twins (WB); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); 24 (FOX; 8-10 pm); WWE Friday Night Smackdown (UPN)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Las Vegas (NBC); Reba/Living with Fran (WB); Kyle XY (ABC)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Spaced on BBC America. (11 pm ET)

It's another episode of my new favorite British comedy, Spaced, a wacky 1999 Britcom starring Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson. On tonight's episode ("Epiphanies"), Tim's friend drops by to invite Tim and Daisy out for a night of clubbing and theyinvite Mike, Brian, and Twist to join them. Something tells me it's not as simple as that.

8:30 pm: Peep Show on BBC America. (11:30 pm ET)

One of my favorite single-camera British comedies returns Stateside for a second season of twisted and bizarre episodes. On tonight's episode, Mark attempts to forget about Sophie by dating April, but manages, in typical fashion, to become her stalker rather than her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Jeremy joins a band but has a hard time convincing everyone that he's not a roadie.

9 pm: Black Books on BBC America. (Midnight ET)

BBC America continues its reairing of the second season of the brilliant Britcom Black Books, which stars Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey. In tonight's episode ("Hello Sun"), Fran begins spending time with a New Age friend (Spaced's Jessica Stevenson) in an attempt to calm down; following another fight, Bernard sends Manny to a therapist.

11:20 pm: The Catherine Tate Show on BBC America. (10:20 pm ET)

Later on BBC America, it's another episode of the new season of The Catherine Tate Show. Who's Catherine Tate? Why, she might just be the heir to Tracy Ullman's sketch comedy throne.

Spark It Up: "Weeds" Premiere Party Offers Clues to Life in Agrestic

Fans of Weeds are in for a few surprises when the series launches its second season on Showtime next month.

I attended the Weeds Season Two premiere last night at the Egyptian in Hollywood and the audience -- a mix of celebrities, cast members, and execs from Showtime and studio Lionsgate Television -- was able to catch a sneak peek at the first two episodes of next season. And let me just say, if you thought that season finale cliffhanger ending with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) discovering that her newest beau Peter (Martin Donovan) was a DEA agent after sleeping with him was a doozy, you're in for a real treat.

Before the main event, Showtime president Bob Greenblatt screened the trailer for Showtime's upcoming series The Tudors, a revisionist take on the Tudor dynasty starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill, and Jeremy Northam, among others. It's sort of a soap operatic version of history but without any of the flair or panache of HBO's Rome. The first half of the trailer, with its red background, ominous music, and on-screen text talking about how Henry VIII took six wives and forever changed church and state began to make my eyelids flutter. (It had been a long day.) Rhys Meyers looks to turn in another virtuoso performance, but isn't he a little, um, thin to tackle the notoriously overweight and murderous king? (Even Weeds' Celia couldn't make a fat comment about the lean Rhys Meyers.) The Tudors will premiere on Showtime in 2007.

But back to Weeds. In the second season, life in Agrestic is still the messed-up farce it's always been. Look for Nancy and Peter's "relationship" to take a rather intriguing turn at the end of episode two; say buh-bye to the bakery, a convenient front for Nancy's ever-expanding pot business, when Sanjay (Maulik Pancholy) lights up; Nancy's brother-in-law Andy (the hilariously roguish Justin Kirk) inches closer to becoming a rabbi in order to escape military service in Iraq (his Torah-like admission essay to a rabbinical school is a treat); Nancy and Conrad (Romany Malco) split up as business partners after he finds out about Nancy sleeping with DEA agent Peter; a wigging-out Celia (Emmy nominee Elizabeth Perkins) runs for city council just to spite pothead Doug (Kevin Nealon), who refuses to install a traffic light after Celia and daughter Isabelle (Allie Grant) are involved in a hit-and-run accident; and the relationship between Silas (Hunter Parrish) and his deaf girlfriend hits a speed bump when she's admitted to Princeton. (I have an especially bad feeling about that last one; Silas is bound to do something completely idiotic to get her back.)

No sign, though, of Zooey Deschanel in the first two episodes. She joins the cast of Weeds this season and was name-checked by Bob Greenblatt when he introduced the show.

After the screening, attendees gathered on Weeds' Hollywood set for a fantastically fun party, sponsored by Showtime, Lionsgate, Lexus, and Advanced Nutrients. And let me just tell you, if you've never been served food by caterers from a fake kitchen on a television set, you haven't lived. Afterwards, I went out onto the (fake) verandah and had one too many Tanqueray-and- tonics and checked out the celebs, who included Weeds cast members Mary Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Romany Malco, Justin Kirk, Alexander Gould, Hunter Parrish, and "special guest star" Martin Donovan. Also spotted: Luke Perry, Victor Webster, Touching Evil's Jeffrey Donovan, and the ubiquitous Andy Dick. And I believe, Daveigh Chase, who plays Harry Dean Stanton's child bride Rhonda on HBO's Big Love. I think.

It was, in the words of one Clueless character, "a pretty random party." And considering the wacky tobacky show that it was feting, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Weeds returns to Showtime with its second season premiere on August 14th at 10 pm ET/PT.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother 7: All-Stars (CBS); My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC); Smallville (WB); Master of Champions (ABC); That '70s Show/That '70s Show (FOX); Everybody Hates Chris/Love, Inc. (UPN)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC); Supernatural (WB); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); Eve/Cuts (UPN)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Windfall (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: My Name is Earl.

On tonight's repeat episode ("White Lie Christmas"), Earl tries to make up for all of the awful presents he gave Joy when they were married by winning her a car in a radio contest, but Randy and Catalina have designs of their own on the auto.

8:30 pm: The Office.

On a repeat of The Office ("The Carpet"), Michael begins to question his popularity at Dunder-Mifflin when someone, um, "stains" the carpet in his office. Is an office prank or a karmic sign? (Earl would probably know.)

Channel Surfing: 7.19.06

Covering "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season Eight

Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch column managed to score a first look at an image that many Buffy fans have been waiting an eternity for.

Dark Horse Comics has released the cover image of the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book, which will envision what might have been had there been an eighth season of the supernatural drama.

Like the series, which slayed its last vampire in 2003, the comic book will be written by Buffy mastermind Joss Whedon. Joss currently writes a little comic you may have heard of -- Astonishing X-Men -- and previously wrote a fantastic (if terminally delayed) Buffy comic spin-off called Fray and a three-issue mini-series that bridged the gap between his Firefly series and the Serenity feature. Pencils will be provided by Georges Jeanty, though I have to agree with Blog@Newsarama and say that the cover art looks suspiciously like the work of the talented Jo Chen (just check out the covers of Runaways).

Where did things leave off when Buffy left the airwaves? PopWatch offered the following precis:

"Well, you may recall the show ended with the creation of an army of Slayers. Now they're organized, and the tide has turned in favor of the good guys. Ah, but you know how much Whedon hates winners: Soon an 'old enemy' surfaces (Dark Horse is cagey on Big Bad's identity), and Dawn starts 'experiencing serious growing pains.'"

While the new Buffy series isn't slated for release until October, attendees at this weekend's Comic Con in San Diego (myself included) can pick up a copy of the first issue now.

Netflix Subscribers to Catch Sneak Peeks of NBC's "Kidnapped" and "Studio 60"

NBC announced today that it would offer a preview of the pilots of two of its fall drama pilots, Kidnapped (reviewed here) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to Netflix's 5 million subscribers.

The Peacock hopes to fan the flames of, er, fandom by getting a leap on their competitors and allowing the general public to catch a sneak peek of their series, in advance of the scheduled fall premiere dates.

Netflix subscribers will be able to view the pilot episodes to Kidnapped and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as well as sample trailers from some of other NBC's fall offerings, on August 5th.

"Aquaman" to Sleep with the Fishes; Its Star to Take Aim at Green Arrow

The CW has confirmed once and for all that it will not be ordering its Aquaman pilot to series, either for the fall or midseason or... ever. The failed pilot (reviewed here), produced by the creators of Smallville, starred Justin Hartley and Ving Rhames. (What's most surprising to me is that I learned about two weeks ago that the network actually paid for the entire project to be completed in the last few weeks, including instrumental score, even though it had no intentions of ordering the series.)

But this isn't the last that Aquaman's Justin Harley has seen of the televised DC Universe, as Dark Horizons is reporting that the actor has been cast as Oliver Queen (a.k.a. Green Arrow) for a multiple-episode arc on Smallville. Hartley is expected to appear in more than seven episodes next season and joins new cast addition Aaron Ashmore (Veronica Mars) as The Daily Planet's Jimmy Olsen.

In an interview with the July 24th issue of TV Guide, Smallville and Aquaman co-creator Alfred Gough discusses the next season of Smallville and the character of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow:

"He will start to form the nascent Justice League. He's trying to find like-minded people with special powers and put a more formal structure in place. Ultimately Clark will see the value of what he is trying to do but as he's gotten older, Clark has become more cautious. He will always be there to help out, but he doesn't want to be part of a formalized organization."

Smallville will premiere on the new CW network on September 28th at 8 pm ET/PT.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS; 8-9:30 pm); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8-10 pm); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); The One: Making a Music Star (ABC; 8-10 pm); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX; 8-10 pm); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); One Tree Hill (WB); Eve/Cuts (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); The One: Making a Music Star (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America (9 pm ET).

If you missed your Monday night fix of Gordon Ramsay, here's your chance to catch him again before this British import departs the U.S. airwaves (for now, anyway). On the season finale of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares ("La Gondola"), Gordon finds himself at the dreadful La Gondola restaurant, an Italian eatery trapped in the 1970s where the chef is one of the worst that Gordon has ever encountered. Seriously, after Hell's Kitchen, that's saying a lot.

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

It might only be the second episode, but I am already obsessed with this reality show, hosted by Heidi Klum, the former object of desire of inbound Gilmore Girls showrunner David Rosenthal. I'm a little perturbed from what I heard about alleged fraud committed by one of the contestants but I'm dying to see what happens on tonight's episode.

Boston Rob to Tackle... Bigfoot

Will Boston Rob try to pull one over on Bigfoot?

Sci-Fi has issued a press release today for its new documentary series Sci Fi Investigates, which will explore mysteries of the paranormal. The six-hour weekly series is being produced in a partnership between Sci-Fi and NBC News Productions and will feature experts and, um, Rob Mariano, a.k.a. "Boston Rob" of Survivor and Amazing Race fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view).

Um, I don't really know what to say in response to this news. To that end, I've included the salient points from the series' official press release below:

"SCI FI CHANNEL ANNOUNCES SLATE OF CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS TO BE EXPLORED ON SCI FI INVESTIGATES

Experts Join "Boston Rob" Mariano on 'SCI FI Investigates' Team

PASADENA, Calif. -- July 13, 2006 -- SCI FI Investigates is a new SCI FI Channel series that explores the sweeping and eclectic mysteries and legends that pervade our world. Produced in a partnership with NBC News Productions, this six-part, one-hour weekly series is a real-life X-Files, aggressively exploring the unexplained. Investigations are led by an array of subject-specific authorities including, as was previously announced, Survivor and Amazing Race alumnus and resident cynic Rob Mariano.

Mariano's fellow SCI FI Investigates teammates include, forensic expert Deborah Dobrydney, scientist Dr. Bill Doleman and author/historian Richard Dolan. Mariano is the resident "jack of all trades," offering pragmatic, resourceful input on a variety of investigations.

Capitalizing on the experience and resources of NBC News Productions, the series and its team of investigators will seek out new evidence by using the latest forensic technology to reveal fresh perspectives on world-renowned mysteries. Today, Thomas Vitale, SCI FI Channel Senior Vice President of Programming and Original Movies, has announced the first group of topics the SCI FI Investigates team will be examining when the series premieres in the fall. They are:

Bigfoot
New sightings are making news and SCI FI Investigates does whatever it takes to secure legitimate evidence of the legendary creature's existence.

Mothman
A real-life nightmare that made headlines around the world, recent sightings of a terrifying winged apparition, known as the Mothman, takes SCI FI Investigates deep into the mountains of West Virginia.

Paranormal Hotspots
As hubs for such uncommon occurrences as UFO sightings, cattle mutilations and unexplained paranormal activity, Dulce, New Mexico and Sedona, Arizona are quite unique. SCI FI Investigates gets to the root of the disturbances that have put these cities on the paranormal map.

Roswell Revisited
2006 marks the 60th anniversary of the alleged crash of an alien spacecraft in Roswell, New Mexico. SCI FI Investigates revisits this controversial location as startling new evidence has recently surfaced.

The Afterlife
What happens at the moment of death? Evidence has suggested that the human consciousness can function independent of the body. Our team members explore altered states (sensory deprivation, past life regression, etc.) in an effort to find the ultimate truth.

Voodoo
There is more to Voodoo than tales of dolls and pins. To learn the truth about this religion, the SCI FI Investigates team heads to New Orleans to experience its practices first hand."

Wow. Mariano's name is hardly the first one that comes to mind when one thinks about the paranormal. Unless of course, you're thinking about how he managed to get that bus driver to not open the bus doors for the other Race contestants.

No word on whether Amber, Boston Rob's fellow Survivor and Amazing Race contestant and wife, will be appearing on Sci Fi Investigates (you can catch her and Mariano on their new show on the Fox Reality Channel). As for how this couple suddenly seem to have become ubiquitous? Now, that's a paranormal mystery for another day...

My Name is Earl: The Comic Book?

With Comic Con just around the corner, expect a lot of announcements surrounding some familiar television, feature, and comic book properties. (I'll be there on Saturday, so if you see someone wandering around aimlessly, with a press pass, that's me.)

One such announcement is that the adventures of Earl Hickey and the entire Camden County gang will be translated from the small screen to a new licensed comic book property, to be published this winter by Oni Press. Like the NBC series, My Name is Earl (the comic) will follow the story of Earl Hickey, a reformed criminal who sets out to right the wrongs he committed in his life of petty crime in order to gain karmic redemption, after hearing Carlson Daly mention the term. Along for the ride is My Name is Earl staffer Hunter Covington.

According to Oni publisher Joe Nozemack, “When we first started talking to Fox about doing EARL comics, Hunter is one of the first names that came up. Hunter is the script coordinator for the show, a big comics fan, and the writer of one of my favorite EARL episodes, ‘The Bounty Hunter.’ With a resume like that, I knew we had to get him involved in our new adventures of Earl and the gang.”

Apparently, Covington won't be the only writer working on the new Earl comic series and will "be joined by a bevy of comic creators in making the full color adventures of Earl to the comic page."

Further details are scheduled to be revealed at the Oni Press panel at Comic Con in San Diego on Saturday morning. Stay tuned.

Sci-Fi's Latest Drama Offers All the "Eureka" of a New Discovery

A bucolic Pacific Northwest town, hidden away from the world. Scientists tampering with the space-time continuum. And a gleefully dysfunctional father/daughter relationship. Mix those disparate plots together, add a dash of madcap science fiction and you've sort of got a handle on Eureka, which premieres tonight.

If you were to imagine more Northern Exposure than Stargate Atlantis, you might approximate the feel of this new sci-fi drama series, on, well Sci-Fi. I was very pleasantly surprised by Eureka, and the fact that this series is a departure for the cable network, given that the sci-fi elements are much more toned down here than in their other series. Eureka is first and foremost a drama and a rather wacky one at that.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Eureka is both that scientist's beloved cry of discovery as well as the name of a small town hidden in the Pacific Northwest. A town created by the United States government to house the most brilliant brains of the country, an isolated place where they can conduct experiments away from the prying eyes of the general public. At its heart lies a gazillion dollar facility where everything from household products to advanced weapon systems are being theorized, tested, and perfected. And, in the pilot episode, one scientist has tapped into something far beyond his control, creating a tear in that pesky space-time continuum that threatens not only the little berg of Eureka, but the entire world.

Enter U.S. Marshall Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson of the short-lived US version of Coupling). Carter is transporting a prisoner -- a young girl, in fact -- when his car breaks down just outside of Eureka. That this happens shortly after the prisoner, Zoe (Jordan Hinson) claims to have seen a ghostly version of themselves driving the other way should begin to tell you (and Carter) that not everything is as it appears to be. Finding a sign for a town called Eureka, which neither Carter nor Zoe have ever heard of, they wander into town in search of help. But Eureka has problems of its own and that tear in the fabric is manifesting itself in the form of a portal that consumes everything around it, from part of a mobile home to an entire restaurant to, er, part of the local sheriff (Maury Chaykin).

When a young boy goes missing during one of these incidents, Carter offers his assistance and expertise to find the boy. And the town's wary leaders reluctantly accept his help. These rather quirky individuals include scientist-turned-auto mechanic Henry Deacon (Joe Morton), shady research head Warren King (Greg Germann) who seems to know a little too much about the portal, tough-as-nails deputy sheriff Jo Lupo (Battlestar Galactica's Erica Cerra), psychotic Aussie wrangler Taggart (Matt Frewer), seductive psychologist Beverly Barlow (Debra Farentino), and sensible government liaison Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), whose autistic son may hold the key to saving Eureka. (Just don't get too attached to Germann and Chaykin, who appear in the two-hour pilot but sadly don't stick around for the series.)

Luckily the missing boy is quickly located but Carter has his own child issues to be concerned about as well, as the prisoner he was transporting, Zoe, is none other than his own wayward daughter. Carter and Zoe have a zippy antagonistic relationship with one another and it's great fun to see Carter put in his place by everyone, including his precocious teenage daughter. In Eureka, apparently Daddy doesn't always know best.

And remember that poor sheriff who lost, well, part of his body during one of the incidents? Well, Eureka is, after all, a functioning town and it needs a lawman to keep the peace. So it's only natural that Carter, who already knows some of Eureka's secrets, would get the gig. While it's a bit of a conceit, it's one that works and keeps the Marshall in the town for the foreseeable future. Let's just hope that foil Zoe makes it back to this idyllic berg as well.

Ultimately, Eureka is a fun romp with a winning blend of interpersonal relationships (look for sparks to fly between Carter and Allison), dynamic characters, sci-fi plots, and enough mysteries to keep the audience engaged in what's going on in this town. It's a smart set-up and a really different sort of show for Sci-Fi that can hopefully find a crossover audience outside of the cable net's usual audience. Eureka might not be Cicely, Alaska, but all the same, it's one place I'm happy to keep visiting.

Catch the two-hour premiere of "Eureka" tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on Sci-Fi; subsequent episodes air each Tuesday night at 9 pm ET/PT.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Big Brother: All-Stars (CBS); Fear Factor (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); According to Jim/George Lopez (ABC); House (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

9 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); House (FOX); The One: Making a Music Star (9-11 pm; ABC); Veronica Mars (UPN)

10 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List on Bravo.

Sure we've learned the sordid little secrets behind the D-List marriage, but let's pretend we're blissfully ignorant of what's really going on here. In tonight's episode (the season finale, in fact), Kathy and her poor, beleaguered assistant head to Sin City.

9-11 pm: Eureka on Sci-Fi.

See above. It's the two-hour pilot (entitled, effectively enough, "Pilot"), that shows the arrival of U.S. Marshall Jack Carter to the little town of Eureka. Come on, do yourself a favor and watch it.

Television Critics Question the "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars"

Yesterday's Television Critics Association event in Pasadena featured the first press session with the newly minted netlet, The CW (a phoenix rising from the ashes of the WB and UPN). And, while the network and president Dawn Ostroff trotted out all of the network's returning and new series, most critics' attention was sharply drawn to two of the network's returning series, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.

Let's talk about Veronica Mars first as the news shared there excited me far more than anything teased at the Gilmore Girls panel.

The most important announcement: Mac is back.

Actress Tina Majorino, who plays Veronica's computer geek gal pal, has been locked as a series regular for next season. But don't expect the duo to be roomies. Among other characters making an appearance next season will be Stosh Piznarski, a roommate for Wallace (Percy Daggs III), and an as-yet-unnamed roomie for Mac. Creator Rob Thomas said of Mac's roommate, "She will be bubbly and effervescence and listen to a lot of Nellie Furtado in the room. And they won't hit it off right away, but she'll have a heart of gold." (Veronica will be still living at home with dad Keith.)

But no worries, Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) will also be attending Hearst College next year, as will Wallace and Logan (Jason Dohring). (Whew.) Kendall Casablancas (Charisma Carpenter) will make "at least [one]" appearance on the show, but don't hold your breath for Duncan to make a cameo. According to series creator Rob Thomas: "We had two romantic possibilities for Veronica, and one sort of dominated the fans' interest. And it became clear that one suitor won out." (One guess who.)

The mystery surrounding the briefcase that Kendall brought to Keith will be resolved in the first two episodes of the season.

However, expect a much more streamlined third season of VM as Rob Thomas realized that this past season's mysteries were way too convoluted. The season's first mystery will consist of nine episodes, which will run straight through without pre-emptions or repeats, followed by a seven-episode mystery arc, and a final six-episode mystery. Um, doesn't that add up to 22 episodes? "That's spoken with the confidence of a man who thinks he's going 22 episodes," said Thomas.

Speaking of which, Veronica Mars is only currently picked up for 13 episodes this fall and has yet to receive an order on the back nine episodes.

What does that mean? If you're a fan of Veronica Mars, make sure that everyone you know is watching the series this fall, buy DVDs of the first two seasons for your friends, and speak loudly and articulately about how brilliant and well-written this series is whenever you get the chance. Veronica will only make it through the full season if it reaches the ratings requirements that Ostroff and the CW anticipate for it.

So get out there and spread the gospel of Veronica...

Over at the panel for Gilmore Girls, there was a lot of controversy and more than a little tension.

The behind-the-scenes drama was more interesting than the actual series announcements. Or that's the opinion of several entertainment journos who attended the event, including the San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman (he of The Bastard Machine column). So says Goodman with typical acerbic wit in his post, "The Gilmore Girls Are Dead, Long Live Veronica Mars":

"Gilmore Girls is on this planet for one thing only - to drive viewers to the better show, Veronica Mars. More people watch Gilmore Girls than Veronica Mars so this is sound programming sense. But the cold hard facts are that Gilmore Girls hasn't been very good for - being generous here - two seasons, the stars desperately want off the show (which they will be granted after the season) and the only reason Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel came YET AGAIN to another press tour is because the people who created the show in the first place and then ruined it are now gone, and the stars want to give new executive producer David Rosenthal a chance, despite his somewhat kooky and worrisome past. [Editor's note: that link will just drive you right back here, where I broke the Rosenthal history piece several months ago.]

Their session here was dismal. Graham couldn't hide her distaste for twists and turns her character has taken recently, though she fiercely defended Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator and writer whose artistic control of the series faltered so badly late in the game and who led Graham's character down a crooked path of false behavior. Bledel's disinterested approach to the proceedings reaffirmed long-held critical beliefs that her best personality trait is one someone else writes for her. Rosenthal? He did little to disprove the notion that he's been hired to steer the series away from the cliff it's approaching and into one of those freeway dividers filled with sand, which will contain as much damage as possible so that the show will finish the season and continue to funnel viewers to Veronica Mars.

Honestly, it was that bad. In summation: Two actresses who looked like they were trapped, one producer hired to put a tourniquet on a hors