[Televisionary]

After all of the verboten red carpets, will-they-or-won't-they picketing, and anti-climactic decisions about televised press conferences, I wasn't even going to write about the winners of this year's Golden Globe awards. Of course, being the complete and utter television junkie that I am, I couldn't help but go online to find out who the winners were. At least there were a few pleasant surprises, though there was, sadly, no love for Televisionary obsession Pushing Daisies , which depressed me a bit, but I can't fault Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's sublimely brilliant Extras for walking away with the top comedy prize, especially after its heartbreaking series finale, an astute meditation on the price of fame . While Mad Men has its devoted adherents, I was hoping that somehow Damages would be crowned the winner in the television drama race... or, through some strange stroke of luck, that Big Love would find itself the prettiest girl at the prom. No such

While a new season of the Travel Channel's No Reservations may have begun last week (shame on you for not watching!), I can't get enough of the series' host, Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain, an accomplished chef (Les Halles, anyone?), novelist, and memorist ("Kitchen Confidential" and "The Nasty Bits"), and all around enfant terrible , is the kind of guy you want watching your back in a knife fight (literal or figurative). If you've ever read any of his books, you're aware of his biting wit, astute observations, and love of well-turned phrases, as well as his, er, excessive behaviors. So I was overjoyed on Friday to learn from Televisionary reader Whitney about an in-depth Q&A with Bourdain in The Onion A/V Club about his writing, his discovery of food, his love for punk bands, and his disdain for Food Network TV personality Sandra Lee. Well worth a read. What's On Tonight 8 pm: How I Met Your Mother /The Big Bang Theory (CBS); American Gl

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation. This week, I was disappointed in the latest (and last) installment of 30 Rock , which greatly suffered from the absence of writers from the set, was overjoyed to learn about the return of Chuck to the airwaves (even if the final two eps will be split up around The Celebrity Apprentice ), and was enthralled by this week's prom-themed Project Runway challenge (poor Christian!). Oh, and I stepped aside to let my fiancee, the future Mrs. Televisionary, share with the world her love for Gossip Girl . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items... Buzz celebrated pop culture prom week. ( BuzzSugar ) Sandie interviewed April Matson, who plays Lori Trager on ABC Family's KYLE XY. ( Daemon's TV ) Liz finally got aro

For anyone looking to see just what television would look like, minus the writers, one need only take a peek at last night's episode of 30 Rock (the woefully untitled "Episode 210"), which proved that there's a reason why comedy scripts go through multiple revisions and polishing, as well as on-set rewriting. For a series that zings with enough pop culture references, tongue-in-cheek throwaway lines, and rewind-that moments to fill a week's worth of network programming, last night's 30 Rock was leaden, dull, and--most criminally--just unfunny. It's sad too because the script had the bare bones of three enticing plots--Jack tries to make a deal with the Germans to buy a television network but blows it by spending time with his Democratic Congresswoman lover; Liz, acting on Jack's advice, tries to buy real estate; and Kenneth becomes addicted to caffeine, throwing the carefully ordered world of TGS into chaos--which, if polished, could have been hyste

For a fictional glimpse into a world without writers, you can't do much better than the " Murder Unscripted " sketch which pits Dean Winters and Kathryn Erbe (as an "impossibly hot detective team") against a crime they can't solve... without the help of a writer, anyway. Chris Noth, Zeljko Ivanek ( Damages ' own Ray Fiske!), and Eric Bogosian show up to offer their own possible solutions to his baffling crime in a library. My favorite moment? Erbe's thoughts that the crime echoes that in another episode, in which the mom did it as Winters tries to puzzle out if she meant that mom also committed this crime. Also rather telling: Ivanek's gruff DA at a literal loss for words when presented by Winters with a tangle of rope as a possible murder weapon.

FX has found its leads for multi-generational biker drama Sons of Anarchy . Charlie Hunnam ( Undeclared ), Scott Glenn ( The Bourne Ultimatum ), and Katey Sagal ( Lost ) have come board the drama pilot , which will be directed by Allen Coulter (who, not so coincidentally, directed fellow FX drama pilot Damages , in addition to The Sopranos ). Sons of Anarchy , formerly known as Forever Sam Crow , revolves around Jack (Hunnam), a man in his twenties who tries to balance his duties as a first-time father against his involvement in a motorcycle club--the titular Sons of Anarchy--founded by his step-father (Glenn). Sagal will play Jack's mother, the matriarch of the club. Project comes from writer/executive producer Kurt Sutter ( The Shield ). Fox21 has attached themselves to co-produce the pilot, along with FX Prods. Shooting is slated to begin February 14th. * * * In other pilot news, FOX has begun casting on the one-hour project Inseparable from creat

While I am still shaking from last night's private screening of Paramount's new feature Cloverfield (run, don't walk to see this movie when it comes out), I am thrilled to have some news for Chuck fans. After wondering endlessly what fate would befall the final two produced episodes of NBC's action-comedy Chuck , I was a little bit surprised to learn just what the Peacock would do with those two installments. NBC issued a press release yesterday alerting the media that it would air Chuck 's final two original episodes on January 24th, at 8 pm and 10 pm ET/PT. Cause for celebration, no? While I'm thrilled we'll finally get to catch up with Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and the rest of the Buy More crew (including Casey's intriguing romantic backstory, as promised to me by Adam Baldwin ), I am a little confused as to why NBC would burn off the episodes during January rather than wait until February sweeps. Furthermore, I'm not too pleased that the Peacock isn&