[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Rand Ravich's ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats , which recently received an order for six additional scripts, will be completely reconceived, with nearly all of the original cast--including series leads Tom Cavanagh and Alicia Witt and supporting players Derek Webster, Alex Solowitz, and Raoul Trujillo--getting the axe. (Only Robert Patrick will remain.) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, meanwhile, has some further insight into the decision made by ABC. "People have been divided on Cavanagh's performance, while Patrick has been almost universally hailed as the pilot's scene stealer," she writes. "I hear ABC brass like the idea of Edgar Floats and the central character but the project is being re-conceived, with the six additional scripts still being written." [Editor: seeing as Edgar Floats was my favorite broadcast pilot of the development cyc

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that AMC and Sony Pictures Television have reached a deal to order a fourth season of drama series Breaking Bad , which would air on the cabler next year. A formal announcement from the network is expected to come later today and the deal was reached after both sides were able to compromise on the production budget after there was an impasse over $.2 million. ( Deadline ) Ricky Gervais has signed on to appear on the next season of HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm , in which he'll play himself in the eighth episode of the season. No other details were immediately available. Production is set to get underway later this summer. Elsewhere, HBO would seem to be the frontrunner to become the US home of Gervais and Stephen Merchant's latest BBC comedy pilot, Life's Too Short , which stars Warwick Davis ( Harry Potter ). ( Variety ) It's official! Entertainment Weekly 's Michael A

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. SPOILER! E! Online's Megan Masters and Kristin Dos Santos talk to Dexter 's Julie Benz and Jennifer Carpenter about what's coming up on the Showtime serial killer drama. "Rita is not going to be a ghost!" Benz revealed about her planned appearance on Season Five of Dexter . "The writers would never do something so cheesy. I am not going to confirm or deny anything, but if she does come back, it would be to move things along." Meanwhile, viewers shouldn't expect that Dexter will lose its humor, even in the face of unspeakable horror. "What's funny is that even in the face of tragedy [of Rita's death], there's still room to laugh with our show," Carpenter told E! Online. "That's why people can stomach it, because as bloody as it gets, they make you laugh two seconds later." ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is repo

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos caught up with Glee 's Jane Lynch, co-creator Brad Falchuk, and executive producer Dante Di Loreto to discuss five secrets from the Glee season finale, including the fact that the smooch between Will (Matthew Morrison) and Emma (Jayma Mays) wasn't scripted ("Her reaction is totally real," he said), no tear enhancers were used, Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel may return next season, the writers deserve an Emmy (according to Lynch), and Sue Sylvester won't be turning all mushy next season. [Editor: personally, I thought the Glee season finale was pretty weak, coasting by on sentimentality rather than genuine--or earned--emotion. But I've found that to be true throughout the first season.] ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) USA has given a cast-contingent pilot order to buddy/cop comedy Common Law , which revolves around two LAPD officers--Wes and Travis--whose once-str

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television update. It's official: Julia Stiles ( The Bourne Ultimatum ) has signed on to appear in ten episodes of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter next season. Stiles will play "a mysterious young woman who forms a unique relationship with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) in the wake of the death of his wife," according to Showtime. Production on Season Five of Dexter gets underway this month and is expected to premiere this fall. [Editor: any guesses on just who Stiles will be playing and just what her relationship is to Dexter? Let the speculation begin.] (via press release) Could pop superstar Lady Gaga be heading to Doctor Who ? If writer Gareth Roberts has his way, she would be. While Gaga hasn't signed on to appear in an episode of Who , Gareth maintains in an interview with OK! Magazine that he has already thought out a plotline for the "Bad Romance" singer to appear in. "She is no stranger to dressing up and

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. There is major recasting underway at CBS' comedy Mad Love , which is allegedly thisclose to scoring a thirteen-episode midseason order from the network. According to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, Sarah Chalke ( Scrubs ) is said to be in talks to come aboard the comedy, where she would replace Minka Kelly ( Friday Night Lights ) as Kate on the Sony Pictures Television and CBS Studios-produced project. Meanwhile, Lizzy Caplan ( Party Down ) has backed out of the project after she couldn't commit to the series and her role, Connie, will also be recast. (It's the second wave of recastings on the pilot as Dan Fogler and Ashley Austin Morris were previously replaced by Tyler Labine and Lizzy Caplan respectively.) ( Deadline ) Hollywood Reporter 's Carita Rizzo offers an insightful behind-the-scenes look at NBC's critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation , which recently wrapped its second season, by spending the

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABC's upcoming superhero drama No Ordinary Family is undergoing some casting changes as Tate Donovan ( Damages ) and Christina Chang ( CSI: Miami ). The actors respectively played the family's doomed pilot and a detective at the precinct where Michael Chiklis' character worked as a police sketch artist. An unnamed source close to the production told Ausiello that the decision was storyline-based and that producers hoped to bring both actors back in a guest starring capacity if their schedules allowed for it. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Bones star Emily Deschanel, in which she asks the actress about the will-they-or-won't-they romance between Brennan and David Boreanaz's Booth. So will the star-crossed duo ever come together? "[In] the 100th episode we came very close,&quo

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Amy Ryan ( The Office, The Wire ) has landed a role on Season Three of HBO's psychiatric drama In Treatment , where she will play the new therapist for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. That role was formerly supplied by Dianne Wiest's Gina, who was Paul's mentor/psychotherapist for the first two seasons. (Wiest has departed the series.) [Editor: it's about high time that Ryan had a regular gig on a series. She's been a favorite since her turn on The Wire as Beadie, so it's only fitting that she returns to HBO for In Treatnment .] ( Deadline ) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Glee 's Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Will's scheming ex-wife Terri. So will Terri be returning for Season Two of Glee ? And just what was up with her potentially inappropriate interest in Finn (Cory Monteith)? While Gilsig admits that she hasn't yet received her

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Hugh Laurie's contract on FOX's medical drama House will expire at the end of next season, according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello, who talks to Laurie about the crossroads coming up. He claims that he's "open" to working past Season Seven but also feels that there's an ideal time to end a series and he hopes that moment becomes clear ahead of time. "I only hope we’ll know when the time is right [to close up shop]," said Laurie. "When people blunder on for five years after [they should have called it quits]… it gets taken out of your hands. Someone will say, 'That’s it.' But for now, I’m immensely proud of the things we did this season." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Loads of casting on HBO's upcoming comedy pilot Tilda , which may or may not be based on the life of infamous Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke. (Ahem.) Jason Patric ( The Losers

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. (Is it just me or does it feel like this week will never end?) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that there's still more Lost to come, including an epilogue that depicts the time that Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Ben (Michael Emerson) spent on the island after the events of the series finale. Emerson spilled the dirt on the sequence on G4's Attack of the Show , where told Kevin Pereira about the bonus footage on the complete series DVD. "For those people that want to pony up and buy the complete Lost series, there is a bonus feature," said Emerson. "Which is um, you could call it an epilogue. A lost scene. It's a lot; it's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley (Jorge Garcia) becoming number one and the end of the series... It's self-contained. Although, it's a rich period in the show's mythology that‘s never been explored, so who know

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. The Los Angeles Times 's Maria Elena Fernandez is reporting that the final shots of the Oceanic Flight 815 wreckage that accompanied the closing credits of the series finale of Lost were not placed there by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but rather by ABC executives who wanted to "soften the transition from the moving ending of the series to the 11 p.m. news and never considered that it would confuse viewers about the actual ending of the show," according to Fernandez. ABC went on to release a statement to confirm this fact. "The images shown during the end credits of the Lost finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news," said an ABC spokesperson in a statement. [Editor: I am hoping this finally puts an end to the misread of the series' ending, as some have taken

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Fancast's Matt Mitovich is reporting that former One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton has signed on to appear in a six-episode story arc on Season Two of USA's White Collar , where she'll play Sarah Ellis, a new love interest for Matthew Bomer's Neal Caffrey, who is described as "an insurance investigator-slash-white collar bounty hunter who has a bit of a score to settle with Neal." Bomer's Neal will quickly find himself enmeshed in a game of cat and mouse with Sarah. Season Two of White Collar is set to launch Tuesday, July 13th at 9 pm ET/PT. ( Fancast ) Former Eli Stone star Natasha Henstridge is heading back to the courtroom, according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello, who reports that Henstridge has signed on to a multiple-episode story arc on Season Two of Lifetime's legal dramedy Drop Dead Diva , which returns June 6th. She'll play the "heretofore-unseen partner at Har

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. FOX has given a major vote of confidence to musical-comedy Glee , which it renewed for a third season... before the first season has even wrapped. News of the pickup was broken by Entertainment Weekly 's Lynette Rice. "Everything about Glee – from the concept to the characters to the marketing – has been innovative and risky, but with [series creator] Ryan Murphy tapping into the zeitgeist, the risk has paid off with this truly remarkable series," said Kevin Reilly, FOX Entertainment President. " Glee has one of the most active, devoted fan bases I’ve ever seen, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to give Gleeks a third season of their favorite show." The upside for FOX and studio 20th Century Fox Television are obvious: "Not only does it help cut production costs over the long haul, it allows Murphy and his writers a chance to plan ahead (if not breathe a much-needed sigh of relief)," writes Rice. &qu