[Televisionary]

FOX has had a rather auspicious day, securing three actors as leads for its new supernatural drama The Oaks , from writer David Schulner ( Tell Me You Love Me ) and director Michael Cuesta ( Dexter ). The Oaks revolves around the intertwined stories of three couples in three different decades--1968, 1988, and 2008--who live in the same house; their stories are connected by the house's possible haunting. It's a fascinating and compelling conceit that mines both the supernatural and the quotidian, in the form of each of the couples' relationship issues. (For my exclusive review of the pilot script for The Oaks , click here .) In the first casting notice for the drama pilot, which goes into production in November, FOX has locked the acting services of Shannon Lucio, Matt Lanter, and Bahar Soomekh. Shannon Lucio ( The OC ) and Matt Lanter ( Commander in Chief ) will play Sarah and Mike, a young married couple in 1968 who grieving after the death of their young daughter, Ameli

Just got off the phone with the dynamic duo of Josh Schwartz and Zach Levi, the co-creator and star (respectively) of NBC's new dramedy Chuck , which is already a favorite in the Televisionary household. While the full details of the conference call will be posted later, here are a few tantalizing morsels gleaned from Schwartz and Levi: Stop the presses! Former OC star Rachel Bilson will join the cast of Chuck in a multiple-episode arc playing a new potential love interest for Levi's Chuck, a sandwich maker who likes magic and seems to be a sweet girl. But, given Chuck's current situation, is Bilson's character really who she appears to be? There will be an overarching mythology to the series, layered on top of the self-contained villains/mysteries of the week, including the backstory on Bryce ( Traveler 's Matthew Bomer) and the Intersect. Schwartz said that they are now shooting an episode in which Chuck returns to Stanford for his "origin story" and w

Was I the only one depressed by this week's episode of Top Chef ("Snacks on a Plane")? Talk about a downer... The chefs' challenges last night were perhaps some of the more, well, challenging this season and the series' producers seem hell-bent on making these contestants jump through ever increasingly difficult hoops. The male chefs didn't particularly seem to mind being awakened by Padma but they did blanch a little when they learned that they'd have to prepare breakfast for her. In twenty minutes. Using a blender and a little butane stove. Still, I have to say that I was impressed by some of the dishes, which seemed highly complex for the amount of time they had, along with the limitations. CJ's dish--a combination of a blueberry, date, and mascarpone shake and crepes with berries and almond cream--looked divine. Also appetizing: Sara's rustic egg-in-the-hole with prosciutto, eggs, and maple syrup; Hung's banana and Grand Marnier shake and

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.

Color me concerned. Longtime readers to this blog know that I've been extremely effusive about my love for the comedy division over at the Peacock. After all, NBC has had an amazing track record of late with their comedies like My Name is Earl , The Office , and 30 Rock even while foisting a certain suitcase-opening reality series on the American public. Under Kevin Reilly's leadership, they single-handedly saved the single-camera comedy from virtual extinction after the death of Arrested Development and redefined the boundaries of American comedy programming with thoughtful, well-crafted, quirky series that have entertained this jaded writer endlessly. So I was a little wary when, back in May, NBC only ordered one single comedy for the 2008-09 season following a development season that wasn't really anything to write home about (ahem, Area 57 , ahem) save for a few precious gems like Zip and Lipshitz Saves the World . For the first time in thirty years (yes, thirty) NBC

Veteran drama ER , returning this fall for what is possibly its very last outing, has landed yet another doctor . Kari Matchett, late of 24 (in a role termed by one Televisionary reader as "Slutty Blonde Girl"), Invasion , Shark , and TNT's short-lived medical drama Heartland , has been cast on NBC's ER. It's hardly surprising that Matchett will play a doctor, a role a role not unfamiliar to this actress, who has played a member of the medical profession twice in the last two seasons. (She also played a nurse a few years back on Canadian series Plague City .) On ER , she'll play Skye Wexler, the new attending in the County General Hospital emergency room. Matchett, who played the traitorous Lisa Miller last season on 24 , will have some company from that real-time thriller as Reiko Aylesworth (a.k.a. Michelle Dessler) joins the cast of the long-running medical drama on October 25th. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Big Brother 8 (CBS); 30 Rock (NBC; 8:30-9 pm); Sm

I don't know about you but I was absolutely riveted to my television set while watching last night's episode of FX's legal drama Damages . The promos for last night's episode ("We Are Not Animals") had promised that the separate storylines would start to come together this week and I do believe that that's just what we got, as we near the final stretch to this gripping, serpentine drama. And maybe I'm wrong but I do believe it was the first time we didn't get a visual notification of how far in the future the Ellen storyline was. Perhaps these two disparate timelines are finally going to be merged, perhaps even before the finale? Patty. If there's one thing that's surprised me last night, it was the focus on the storyline between Patty and her irascible son Michael, whom Patty had kidnapped and sent to a rehabilitation center in the country. Michael does give Patty a certain sense of humanity, even if it is of the decidedly tough love varie