[Televisionary]

Ending several months of speculation, The Paley Center for Media has today announced the full lineup for PaleyFest09 , the 26th Annual William S. Paley Television Festival. Among the honorees this year are the casts and creators of 90210 , Battlestar Galactica and Caprica , The Big Bang Theory, Big Love, Desperate Housewives, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Fringe, The Hills, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Mentalist, Swingtown, and True Blood . PaleyFest09 will be held from April 10th to April 23rd at the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood; the Paley Center will also present a special closing night presentation honoring Swingtown at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on April 24. Other festival firsts this year? PaleyFest09 will be the festival event to honor a new media property, in this case Joss Whedon's celebrated web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog , and will be the first to premiere the last three unseen episodes of A

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. My mind is still buzzing after last night's double-bill of Lost and Damages . Pay cabler HBO has renewed drama Big Love , about the polygamist Henrickson clan, for a fourth season. Production will begin later this year for a 2010 launch. "The stellar reviews and solid viewership this season confirm that this is a signature series for HBO," said Michael Lombardo, president of programming at HBO. "The series keeps getting better and better." (I have to agree with him: this season has been absolutely amazing!) Once DVR, encores, and VOD ratings are added in to Big Love 's initial airing, viewing figures soar to about 5 million, on par with HBO's True Blood . ( Variety , Hollywood Reporter ) Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J are said to be in final talks to star in CBS' untitled NCIS spin-off. Chris O'Donnell would play Callen, a man capable of changing into various different personas with ease,

Fans of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone shouldn't hold their collective breath waiting for ABC to run the remaining episodes of their favorite series, all of which the Alphabet cancelled last year. Speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson was maddeningly vague when questioned several times about when viewers could anticipate seeing the leftover episodes of Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone . "I wish that we had been able to give the producers really series-ending notice to some extent so they could really get that done and really have kind of a finale, if you will," said McPherson. "Because of the way the timing worked out, we didn't, and we weren't able to. But I'd love to find a way to get those out, because Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money for me -- most of the time when shows don't work, you can really, in hindsight, look back and kick you

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. By the hammer of Thor! Good news for fans of 30 Rock and The Office : NBC has renewed both series for the 2009-10 season, which means that we're guaranteed a fourth and sixth respective season of each. Given 30 Rock 's comedy win at this week's Golden Globes (and well-deserved statuettes for stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin) , I would have been gobsmacked if NBC hadn't ordered an additional season of the critically beloved series. (press release) Unfortunately, there's no news of the fate of ratings-challenged but critically loved NBC series Chuck and Life , which weren't mentioned in NBC's renewal announcement (which also included another season of The Biggest Loser ). And there's even worse news for fans of ABC's Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone . According to Kristin dos Santos' sources, the Alphabet won't be airing the remaining episodes of either series until June at t

As it's nearly the end of the calendar year (only a few more days to go, in fact), I figured now was as good a time as any to look back at some of the shows that that have entertained and inspired me over the past year. It's been a crazy year, between the WGA strike affecting everything from truncated freshman seasons for Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Chuck , delayed seasons for FX's Damages and HBO's Big Love (and a host of others), and a generally frantic development season that only saw two relative hits emerge this fall. So, what were the favorite series in the Televisionary household? Which left me wanting more... and which ones made me eager to change the channel? Find out after the jump. Best Reality Series: Top Chef The Amazing Race Flipping Out Top Chef remains my number one reality obsession. Bravo and Magical Elves have done themselves proud with this sleek, slick production that makes the art of cooking into a nail-biting competition in which eg

Oh, hell no. Not since the days of Twin Peaks have the Norwegians been so front and center and so quick to rush to judgment. I'm speaking of course of last night's episode of Pushing Daisies ("The Norwegians") which featured Papen County's other team of crack sleuths, overseen by Emerson Cod's nemesis Magnus Olsdatter (Orlando Jones), who in investigating the mysterious disappearance of one Dwight Dixon (Stephen Root), one-time paramour to Aunt Vivian, stumble onto a secret that could finally expose Ned and Chuck. That is, if it hadn't been for the help of Itty Bitty herself. Written by Scott Nimerfro (who previously scripted Season One's "Smell of Success"), last night's episode was another fantastic addition to the Daisies oeuvre, further complicating an already deliciously taut plot involving Chuck's alive again (and on the run) father, Charles Charles, a cover-up (Emerson and Chuck's disposal of Dwight's corpse), and t

I have to say that after last week's utterly perfect episode of Pushing Daisies , written by Douglas Petrie, last night's installment ("The Legend of Merle McQuoddy") felt a little subpar in comparison. Sure, there were elements about it that I liked and I found myself squealing with joy at Olive and Emerson's newfound camaraderie but the episode, scripted by Dara Resnik Creasey and Chad Gomez Creasey, just felt... lacking in some respects. Last week's episode ramped up the tension, romance, and possible breakup of star-crossed lovers Ned and Chuck but this week's episode sort of swept it all under the rug as the duo was forced to deal with the alive-again status of Chuck's father Charles Charles. As much as I love Ned and Chuck as a couple, I did think he did forgive her a little too quickly for deceiving him and allowing her father to remain resurrected. After all, someone is now dead because of Ned (even if was the insufferable and slightly creepy D

I've always been a huge fan of Pushing Daisies , ever since I read the pilot script way back in the fall of 2006, but last night's aptly-named episode ("Comfort Food")--written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Douglas Petrie--was perhaps one of the very best installments of our quirky and beloved series to date, as comforting as a warm apple pie and a cup of milky tea. (That's saying a lot when you have a series as consistently great and rewarding week-to-week as Pushing Daisies .) From the opening sequence, in which Young Ned first discovers that his homemade pies make other homesick students as comforted as they do him, to the end of the episode where Ned discovers that Chuck has dealt him a most cutting betrayal, "Comfort Food" elevates Pushing Daisies ' bag of tricks to new levels. Yes, there's the usual adorable lovey-doveyness between Chuck and Ned (loved the plastic partition--with an arm for snuggling--separating their beds) and the witt

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still behind on telly so I haven't seen the latest episode of Dirty Sexy Money yet... That sound you hear? It would be the final nail in the coffin for Pushing Daisies ... Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has signed a two-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, under which he will rejoin the staff of NBC's Heroes and develop new series projects for the studio. Fuller, who is completing post-production on WBTV's Daisies , will rejoin Heroes starting with episode 320 though it is unknown what his official position will be, other than that he will be working closely alongside showrunner/executive producer Tim Kring. ( Hollywood Reporter ) In other Pushing Daisies news, Kristin Chenoweth has joined the cast of FOX's animated midseason comedy Sit Down, Shut Up , where she will replace Maria Bamford as Florida high school science teacher Miracle Grohe, opposite Arrested Development 's Jason Bateman,

It's a shame that Pushing Daisies has died in the vase because week to week the cast and crew continue to produce a top-notch series that's unlike anything on television. This week's episode ("Robbing Hood"), written by Jim D. Gray, offered up yet another delicious repast in the form of a murder mystery involving a millionaire (guest star Shelley Berman), his gold-digging widow (Jennifer Elise Cox), his lovelorn lawyer (Ethan Phillips) and a modern-day Robin Hood named Rob Wright (Danny Comden) who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. It also served up another installment in the ongoing storyline of Dwight Dixon (guest star Stephen Root) who is on the hunt for an old pocket watch owned by Chuck's father Charles Charles. Just what Dwight needs this watch for (in addition to those originally owned by himself and Ned's father) remains to be seen, but it is clearly connected to something that happened when the three men were comperes together as UN pe

The axe has fallen at ABC. It's time for the terrible, terrible news that we've all been dreading for weeks now: ABC has decided not to renew Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Eli Stone past their initial 13-episode orders for this season. While the word cancellation hasn't been officially given, it's basically equal to just that. None of the three series will continue past their initial second season orders. Many of us have been on death watch for Pushing Daisies for some time now and it absolutely breaks my heart to think that Chuck and Ned's days are now numbered. ABC has yet to release an official statement about the, er, non-cancellation cancellations, but word started to reach me mid-day that the network would not be ordering any additional episodes of the troika. UPDATE: James Hibberd at The Live Feed has gotten a statement from Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who was playing phone tag with ABC's president, about the decision: "I assumed that&

It seems like it's been months since we've gotten a new episode of Pushing Daisies , though it's really only been three weeks. (In the rarefied world of Daisies , that's like a lifetime for those of us craving a piece of narrative pie from The Pie Hole.) Suffice it to say, I found myself positively salivating for the series' quirky sweetness during the "previously on" montage at the start of this week's episode of Pushing Daisies ("Oh Oh Oh... It's Magic"), a delightful confection that had Ned and the gang investigating the murders of the animal assistants of The Great Herrmann, a.k.a. Herman Gunt (guest star Fred Willard), a stage magician who had become the surrogate father for Ned's own half-brothers Ralston and Maurice. (Where do the writers come up with these delightful names?) Written by Kath Lingenfelter (who was hired on Daisies , according to creator Bryan Fuller, on the strength of a sample piece about a man with pork chop h

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still a little tired after staying up to watch Fringe last night after attending the Los Angeles premiere of Doubt , starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. (Verdict? A good film but not a great one.) NBC has confirmed a long-standing rumor and announced that Rashida Jones ( The Office ) has been cast in the untitled Amy Poehler workplace comedy project from Greg Daniels and Michael Schur that isn't a spin-off to The Office . Jones will play Ann Logan, a nurse whose boyfriend has suffered a strange injury that leads her to the characters played by Poehler and Aziz Ansari. Do they work in a specialized medical clinic? A psychiatrist's office? Witch doctor's emporium? That remains to be seen but I am happy that Jones and Poehler will appear together in this project. I've missed Jones, especially since her last Office visit. The series is expected to be ready by late spring but may not