Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I suffered through some sweltering heat here in Los Angeles last night and watched the latest lackluster episode of 90210 and a fantastically taut episode of Fringe (more on that in a bit).
CW has given a put pilot commitment to drama The Graysons, based on the pre-Boy Wonder life of Batman sidekick Robin before he dons the mask and cape (a la Smallville). Drama, from Smallville executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson and Chuck/Supernatural executive producer McG, will follow Dick "DJ" Grayson in a new take on the iconic character. (In the original comics, Robin was the orphaned son of a high-flying trapeze artist family who was taken in by Bruce Wayne and trained to be Batman's sidekick.) Series is viewed as a potential replacement for Smallville, should this be final season, or as a companion piece if Smallville is renewed. Studio Warner Bros. Television also hopes to use this development to prove that the netlet isn't in any serious jeopardy. But they're really going to call Robin "DJ"? Ick. (Variety)
Could Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles be canceled in an effort to save the ratings of FOX's Prison Break? That's what one network source has said as the axe could come swinging down on ratings-starved Terminator as early as this week. "All I can say is that production will likely stop," said the unnamed source, "and I would think that Fox might try to air some of the episodes already in the can. But I don't know. They don't want to lose Prison Break, so there could be some schedule shuffling in the future."(SyFy Portal)
Television icon Norman Lear is developing Everybody Hurts, a drama series following a pro-wrestling business in 1970s New York, at HBO. Project is written by Aaron Blitzstein (The Riches) and will be executive produced by Lear and Lara Bergthold. (Hollywood Reporter)
The revamped single-camera comedy pilot The Partridge Family has landed at NBC. This version, from Reveille, Geffen Records, and Sony Pictures Television, will have a struggling single mom "pimping her kids in order to create a wholesome-slash-sexy cash cow." Pilot will be written by Jeff Rake, who also serves as executive producer. (Hollywood Reporter)
Rake has also teamed with Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz on an untitled action dramedy pilot about ""a Pentagon-based inventor who decided he couldn't live another day standing on the sidelines while Rome burns and accordingly set out [to] put his inventions to very real use, behind the back of friends, family and the entire U.S. government," according to Rake. Arrested Development pilot helmers Anthony and Joe Russo are attached to direct the project, which has been set up at FOX. (Hollywood Reporter)
CBS and CBS Paramount Network Television have signed a talent deal with Cole Hauser (K-Ville), who recently starred in drama pilot The Tower for the network and studio. (I actually quite liked the journalism drama pilot, which also starred Rosamund Pike, Marcia Gay Harden, Denis O'Hare, and CCH Pounder.) (Variety)
Fred Willard will guest star in two episodes of CBS' comedy series Worst Week. The former Back to You star and Connie Ray (Thank You for Smoking) will play the parents of hapless Sam (Kyle Bornheimer) in two installments set to air later this fall. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
Cory Monteith (Kaya) has joined the cast of FOX's Ryan Murphy pilot Glee, opposite Jayma Mays and Matthew Morrison. He'll play Finn, a football player who is coerced into joining the high school glee club by its new advisor. (Hollywood Reporter)
Valerie Bertinelli just got some company on her untitled TBS comedy: Nadia Dajani (Emily's Reasons Why Not), Kevin G. Schmidt (Cheaper by the Dozen), and Dean Collins (The War at Home) have joined the cast of Dave Caplan's comedy pilot about a woman whose husband leaves her to deal with their kids, his struggling lumber business, and life in general on her own. Already cast: Juliette Goglia and Anjelah Johnson. (Hollywood Reporter)
Vanessa Marcil (Las Vegas) will serve as the host for Lifetime's upcoming reality competition series Blush: The Search for the Next Makeup Artist alongside judges Hal Rubenstein and Joanna Schlip and mentor Charlie Green. (Variety)
Stay tuned.
Channel Surfing: Robin Takes Flight at CW, "Partridge" Lands at NBC, Norman Lear, "Sarah Connor" Woes, and More
Sara lives!
Lucky attendees of the Prison Break panel at Comic-Con were treated to two very exciting sights, even though series lead Wentworth Miller was a no-show. The first was a look at the first act of Prison Break's fourth season, launching this fall, and the second was seeing Sarah Wayne Callies herself, last seen on the series tied to a chair as the captive of the sadistic Gretchen... before her head was mailed to Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell).
What a difference a year makes. Last year, Callies was on her way out of Prison Break, killed off-screen, but now she's making her triumphant return to the series in a story arc that will give the actress an extremely meaty, emotionally complex role to sink her teeth into.
As for the story behind Sara's, er, resurrection, we learn in the opening act of Prison Break's first episode this fall that Gretchen didn't actually kill Michael's love Sara, who managed to escape Gretchen's clutches. With no leverage over Michael, she used the head of a cadaver to take Sara's place as a warning. Meanwhile, Michael appears to be out to avenge Sara's death and he's starting with Gretchen, whom he catches in the midst of a high-stakes robbery at Los Angeles' Roosevelt Hotel, with Whistler pulling quite a James Bond move in killing the seller of a disk containing data that The Company wants to get their hands on... and duplicating the disk itself for a third party. Catching them with the police en route, Michael pulls a gun on Gretchen, who tells him the truth about Sara's "death."
So where is Sara Tancredi then? The mystery of where she's been and what happened to her will be a major element to Prison Break's fourth season. Ten months have passed since the events of Season Three and Sara will be a very changed person when we next see her. "Sara is coming back a very different person," said Callies. Whatever happened to her over the last few months "makes the Kellerman-bathtub stuff," as Callies dubbed her character's attempted murder at the hands of Agent Kellerman, look like child's play.
What we will see is an exploration of what happens when someone "experiences trauma and then tries to come back and love someone," said Callies.
It's an interesting approach but I have to say that I was more intrigued by what Dominic Purcell was doing on his phone the entire panel than by these announcements. Maybe he was texting Wentworth to tell him what he was missing out on? Hmmm.
Prison Break's fourth season kicks off this fall on FOX.
FOX giveth and it taketh away.
Thus was the moral yesterday when FOX announced that it had officially ordered a fourth season for crime drama Prison Break, with 22 episodes expected for the 2008-09 season. The news of an official pickup came after Prison Break writer Nick Santora spilled the beans on the renewal on his MySpace blog.
While this past season's 13 episodes had Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) trapped inside Panama's bleak Sona prison, Season Four will find him and brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) on the run once again, with Michael out for revenge against the people who brutally murdered his lover, Sarah Tancredi.
Production will relocate for Season Four from Dallas to Los Angeles; the series had been based in Chicago during its first season as well.
Meanwhile, it was the end of the road for Amy Sherman-Palladino's struggling comedy The Return of Jezebel James, which starred Parker Posey, Lauren Ambrose, and Scott Cohen.
After two weeks of disastrous ratings, FOX announced that it had pulled Jezebel James off the schedule, effective immediately, and would fill its Friday night timeslot with repeats of drama Bones.
I can't say that I am surprised by the news. I love Sherman-Palladino, but I was not a fan of the pilot episode and the sub-par ratings predicted that FOX would not take a dim view of yanking the series off before it had burned through the truncated seven-episode run.
Better luck next time, Amy.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Biggest Loser (NBC; 8-10 pm); Beauty and the Geek (CW); Dancing With the Stars Recap (ABC); American Idol (FOX; 8-9:30 pm)
9 pm: Big Brother 9 (CBS); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
10 pm: Jericho (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Primetime: What Would You Do? (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
8 pm: Beauty and the Geek.
Sigh. After the latest disastrous "game-changing twist," I don't know why I am still watching this disastrously botched series. On tonight's episode ("It's Game Time"), the beauties and the geeks play a game of flag football that turns ultra-competitive and one player winds up injured.
9 pm: Last Restaurant Standing on BBC America.
On the eighth episode of this addictive British import, three teams are forced to enter Raymond's latest challenge: to cater a three-course meal for 50 guests at Blenheim Palace. They won't have the opportunity to meet their clients ahead of time and they'll be cooking (and serving) side-by-side in a reception tent. Oh, is that rain I see on the horizon?
10 pm: The Riches on FX.
On tonight's installment ("Friday Night Lights"), Dahlia, the kids, and Nina are taken hostage in Texas and are forced to use their Traveler skills in order to escape the clutches of their captor; back in Eden Falls, Wayne tries to deal with Hugh, Dale, and the dead Pete and the family must make a decision about their next move.
New prison. New break.
For those of you anxiously awaiting next week's season premiere of Prison Break, I may have quite the little video treat for you.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Prison Break over the past two seasons but watching the absolutely brilliant promo from British network Sky One for the launch of the action drama's third season may have just made me a jail house convert.
Seriously, though, have you ever seen such a beautifully atmospheric promo for a series like this one? (Just look at that fire.) Robert Knepper's T-Bag may have managed to creep me out in the past but I honestly think that the combination of his venomous drawl and Massive Attack's haunting "Angel" might just keep me awake tonight.
For those of us on this side of the pond, Prison Break launches in the US on September 17th at 8 pm on FOX.
Casting on Season Three of FOX's crime drama Prison Break has kicked into high gear.
Just a few days after announcing the casting of Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (who will play a shadowy government agent named, yes, "Betty Crocker") and Robert Wisdom, FOX has added two more actors to the mix, both of whom will play integral roles in the drama's third season, set in Panama.
British actor Chris Vance (All Saints) will play an enigmatic character named Whistler, a fellow prisoner at SONA Prison, where Michael has just been incarcerated. (No blueprint-heavy tattoos for him.) Meanwhile, Danay Garcia (CSI: Miami) will play Whistler's Panamanian girlfriend, Sofia. With Michael and Whistler being held captive at a prison, and Sofia and Linc on the outside, expect each pair to team up to launch an escape or, uh, prison break.
Both actors have been hired as series regulars on Prison Break's third season, which kicks off this fall.
