Channel Surfing: "Gavin and Stacey" Heads to ABC, Nelsan Ellis Talks "True Blood" FInale, "Bones" Flashback Possible for 100th Episode, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

ABC is developing a US adaptation of British hit comedy series Gavin and Stacey, about the romance between two very different lovers from two very different places (in the original it was Essex and Wales) who fall in love over the phone and begin a relationship, against the advice of their eccentric friends and families. US version, from BBC Worldwide, will be written by Stacy Traub (Notes from the Underbelly) and Hayes Jackson (According to Jim). Elsewhere at the Alphabet, the network has given a pilot order to 18 Years, about a young couple who become parents and must "adjust to their new life as parents -- trading their fast-paced existence for a more domesticated lifestyle," from Sony Pictures Television and writer/executive producers Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith (The King of Queens). ABC is also developing an untitled comedy, from Samantha Who? executive producer Don Todd, ABC Studios, and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, about a thirty-something woman who learns that her new job as boss to a group of twenty-somethings puts her in the role of mother, therapist, and friend. (Variety)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a great interview with True Blood star Nelsan Ellis about the second season finale, which aired on HBO last night. And Ryan recounts that Ellis has one suggestion for executive producer Alan Ball about Season Three of the vampire drama: he wants a Lafayette flashback to see the short order cook with his mother. "There are so many lines about how his mother treated [Lafayette]," Ellis told Ryan. "It would be nice if we found out in the flashbacks that she was a vampire." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Bones creator Hart Hanson is considering using the 100th episode as a flashback to the first assignment that Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) worked togther, before the events of the pilot episode. "We alluded in the pilot that the first time they worked together — the time before the pilot — that it went very badly," Hanson told Ausiello. "They had a terrible time. So it would be really fun to do a flashback episode.... It’s in the bin of ideas for the 100th episode, but it’s a big bin!" (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

CBS has given a pilot order to multi-camera comedy True Love, from Sony Pictures Television and writer/executive producer Matt Tarses and executive producer Jamie Tarses, about four friends in their twenties who are looking for love in Manhattan. The studio also has comedy script Nathan vs. Nurture, written by David Guarascio and Moses Port, in contention at NBC. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Julian Sands (24) has been cast as a guest star on the CW's Smallville, where he will play a young Jor-El. Sands is slated to appear in a November episode entitled "Kandor," where "it’s revealed that he arrived with Zod and the other Kandorians." Sands is so far only contracted for one episode but that could change as well. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin is reporting that ABC Family has ordered the back ten episodes of its freshman comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You. The ten additional episodes are thought to be likely to launch in January 2010. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

However, ABC Family opted not to pick up any additional episodes of fellow frosh series Ruby and the Rockits, which will wrap its run after its initial order of ten episodes. (Hollywood Reporter)

TBS has ordered a fourth season of comedy My Boys. The Sony Pictures Television-produced series has received an order for nine episodes, which will launch in 2010. (Variety)

Showtime has given a six-episode order to half-hour reality series Lock 'N Load, which offers a hidden-camera behind-the-scenes look at a gun store in Englewood, Colorado as its gun expert Josh T. Ryan interacts with clients. Project, from Authentic Entertainment, will launch on Wednesday, October 21st at 8 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) has been cast in an untitled single-camera comedy pilot about a recent widower who tries to get his life back on track with some help from his eccentric friends and family. Project, which hails from Sony Pictures Television, was written on spec by Alex Barnow and Marc Firek and will be taken out to the networks in the coming weeks. He will star in a Lifetime telepic about con artist Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller, a high society scammer who ran "the longest con in FBI history." Project, from Sony Pictures Television, is written by Edithe Swensen and will be directed by Mikael Salomon. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fox21 has signed a first-look deal with Stuart Krasnow (Hole in the Wall), under which the reality producer will develop unscripted series projects for the boutique division for both broadcast and cable. He had previously had a co-venture deal with FremantleMedia North America. (Variety)

Stay tuned.