Skip to main content

Channel Surfing: Bones Dish, ABC Super-Sizes Lost Finale, Mandy Moore Heads to Grey's, Jersey Shore, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

WARNING: If you haven't yet seen last night's simply amazing 100th episode of Bones, look away. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Bones executive producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan (and series lead Emily Deschanel) in which they talk about the big twist at the end of the episode. You know, the one that has to do with Booth and Brennan? "I think it opens it up in a whole new way," Nathan told Ausiello about the twist. "It gives us some history, which allows us to see all the additional possibilities that could occur between the two of them." Hanson went a step further. "We aren’t nervous about making them a couple, but we want it to play out in a way that is realistic for these two and that will make fans happy," said Hanson. "Everybody always mentions Moonlighting, but that honestly never comes up in our discussions on how to deal with them. The Moonlighting curse? Don’t believe in it. I think that was all about [Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd] hating each other’s guts. [David and Emily] do not hate each other." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Elsewhere, Fancast's Matt Webb Mitovich also talks to Stephen Nathan about the landmark 100th episode of Bones. "The agenda was to try to answer a lot of the questions the audience has had for so long – like, 'How did this start?' 'What was the genesis of the relationship between Booth and Brennan?' – because obviously something occurred prior to the pilot episode," Nathan told Mitovich. "What was it at that time that drove them apart? And at the same time, what was it about their [initial] relationship that made them come together again? We wanted to get a real glimpse into that relationship that we haven’t been able to in five years. We had a lot more leeway here where we could have them open themselves up. Because for them to be so careful around each other, that had to happen after they had been so vulnerable with each other." (Fancast)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that ABC has opted to make its farewell to Lost five hours now, expanding its pre-show recap show from one hour to two. That special will air from 7-9 pm ET/PT on May 23rd, just prior to the two-hour series finale of Lost. Later that night, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, along with the cast, will gather together for Jimmy Kimmel Live--Lost: After the Final Rose. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks with Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey about Katherine Heigl's departure from the ABC medical series, as well as impending heartbreak. "I think it's very sad, we had a great time working with her, we always had a great time, always prepared," said Dempsey of his former co-star. "And it's a real loss to the show. I think she had a great character and great energy, absolutely beautiful and talented actress, and it's a shame she's moving on." As for Mer-Der, Dempsey told Dos Santos: "There will be some relationships that end and go away, and some new ones that begin. Typical Grey's, there's always drama in the relationships, can't seem to get a healthy relationship! So far Meredith and Derek have been good this year, but something will happen I'm sure before the end of the season." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

In other Grey's-related news, TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams is reporting that Mandy Moore (A Walk to Remember) is checking into the two-hour season finale of Grey's Anatomy, which is slated to air May 20th. Moore will play Mary, a patient at Seattle Grace who is under the care of Chandra Wilson's Bailey. S"ources said Moore is just one part of the kind of finale that executive producer Shonda Rhimes loves keeping under wraps," writes Abrams, "so no further details on her role were released." (TVGuide.com)

MTV has announced that Season Two of Jersey Shore will launch on Thursday, July 29th at 10 pm ET/PT. "It's official," said an MTV spokesperson. "The Jersey Shore cast began filming Season Two in Miami. Once the boardwalk heats back up, the series will return to the Jersey Shore to complete the season." Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Paul "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Vinny Guadagninom and Angelina Pivarnick will all return for the second season of the reality series. (MTV)

Casting update: Mare Winningham (Grey's Anatomy) has been cast in HBO's upcoming mini-series Mildred Pierce, where she will star opposite Kate Winslet, Brian F. O'Byrne, and Evan Rachel Wood. Elsewhere, Lizzy Caplan (Party Down) has been cast as one of the leads in CBS comedy pilot True Love, where she replaces Ashley A. Morris, and Sharon Leal has joined the cast of CW drama pilot Hellcats. (Hollywood Reporter)

Details have emerged about the slate of programming expected to air on the nascent cabler OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network when it launches January 1st. Those programs will include Gayle King Live, a talk show hosted by Gayle King; reality competition series Your Own Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star, executive produced with Mark Burnett; Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind; Oprah's Next Chapter, Why Not? With Shania Twain; and Behind the Scenes: The Oprah Show Final Season. (Variety)

Diane Lane has been cast in HBO telepic Cinema Verite, the behind-the-scenes look of the filming of seminal 1970s American reality series An American Family, where she will play Pat Loud, described as "the mother and main character of the documentary, which chronicled an intimate look at a Santa Barbara family." (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has unveiled its finale schedule, which includes the season ender of Castle on Monday, May 17th, the season finale of V on Tuesday, May 18th, Wednesday comedies on May 19th, Grey's on May 20th (and Private Practice the week before), and FlashForward on Thursday, May 27th. (Variety)

Hookers for Jesus? Apparently, they're coming to Investigation Discovery with upcoming series Saved on the Strip, about former prostitute Annie Lobert's outreach ministry Hookers for Jesus. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

ITV Studios has alleged that BBC Worldwide's upcoming ice-skating version of Dancing with the Stars for ABC is in fact a rip-off of its format Dancing on Ice. BBC Worldwide, however, has stated that its series is based on a format that predates Dancing on Ice and aired two years before ITV broadcast its celebrities-on-ice concept. (Variety)

Jeremy Podeswa (The Pacific) has come aboard Showtime's upcoming period drama series The Borgias as a director. He'll share duties with Neil Jordan, who is writing and directing the first two installments, while The Tudors creator Michael Hirst is writing the rest of the season's scripts. (Hollywood Reporter)

Discovery Channel has pacted with Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks TV, and DreamWorks Animation for animated mini-sieres Future Earth, which explores just what the planet will look like in 25, 50, and 100 years, using futurists and scholars to predict how events and institutions will evolve over the next century. (Variety)

Reid Ewing (Modern Family) has been cast as one of the leads in MTV's upcoming telepic The Truth Below. Elsewhere, Jill Hennessey (Crossing Jordan) has signed on as a guest star in HBO's horseracing drama pilot Luck, where she will play a veterinarian. (Hollywood Reporter)

Comedy Central has given a third season order to Tosh.0, ordering 29 installments that will launch on January 12nd. Move comes just four months after the cabler ordered 25 episodes for a second season. (Variety)

CBS alternative programming VP Chris Carlson will leave the network to become the new executive producer of Undercover Boss, which is produced by Studio Lambert. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns