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Channel Surfing: "Arrested Development" Feature Moves Closer to Reality, "Life on Mars" Gets Four More, CW Takes Back Sundays, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm still depressed from yesterday's news about Pushing Daisies but another fantastic episode of 30 Rock (and the hilarious Nightman-laden season finale of It's Always Sunny) helped remove some of the sting.

One piece of good news: it seems like that Arrested Development feature film might actually be happening. After a host of rumors, there's finally some solid intelligence on the big screen adaptation moving forward. Series creator Mitch Hurwitz and executive producer Ron Howard have signed deals for the project, which would be released by Imagine and Fox Searchlight. Hurwitz will write the script and co-direct the feature with Howard. Me, I'm pleased as punch about this news. If there's one series that I feel could work on the big screen, it's Arrested Development. Hell, just think of the DVD sales alone. (Hollywood Reporter)

Looking for a fix of Lost? ABC has released a new promo for Season Five that features a new single from The Fray. (Televisionary)

The CW has decided to pull the plug on its Sunday night programming experiment, under which it gave control of the lineup to Media Rights Capital, which filled it with such memorable series as Valentine, In Harm's Way, and Easy Money, among others. Instead, the netlet will use the Sunday night real estate to air repeats of Everybody Hates Chris and The Game in the 5 pm slot, followed by double-pumped repeats of The Drew Carey Show at 6 pm, repeats of CBS' Jericho at 7 pm, and a movie slot at 8 pm. (Meanwhile, MRC is said to be shopping its midseason comedy Surviving Suburbia to other buyers but no deal is in place.) Is the new lineup better... or just oddly different? You decide. (Variety)

ABC has opted not to order any additional episodes of sophomore series Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, or Eli Stone. (Televisionary)

In other programming news, ABC has ordered four additional episodes of freshman drama Life on Mars and has now confirmed, in a bit of a reversal from an earlier leaked schedule, that it will air Wednesdays at 10 pm ET/PT after Lost, beginning January 28th. (TV Week)

AMC is developing period police drama Sugar Hill, which will follow the lives of two police detectives--one white, the other black--in 1960s Harlem. Project, from Fox TV Studios, was created by Alex Winter (Ben 10: Race Against Time), Steven Pearl (The Beast), and Allan Loeb (New Amsterdam). Winter and Pearl will write the pilot script and executive produce with Loeb. (Hollywood Reporter)

Gossip Girls' Connor Paolo, who plays Eric van der Woodsen, has turned down an offer to become a series regular on the CW drama. But lest you think that Serena's baby bro is going anywhere, think again. It actually makes more sense for Paolo to remain a recurring actor than a regular as he would still appear in the same number of episodes (rather than ASP or all episodes produced) but have less opportunity to pursue feature or side projects while continuing on Gossip Girl. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TV Guide talks to Kath & Kim creator Michelle Nader and stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair about the NBC comedy. One the terrifying tidbit: "There's talk of Britney Spears coming on for a story about Kath and Kim going to Las Vegas to see the Cher show." (TV Guide)

Paterson Joseph speaks out about the constant rumors that he will replace David Tennant as the Doctor on Doctor Who. "His [the Doctor's] parameters are so vast," said Joseph. "I don't see why he can't have more regenerations than the 13 that those who know think a Time Lord can have." (BBC News)

Horatio Sanz has been cast in ABC's single-camera comedy series In the Motherhood, opposite Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines. He'll play Horatio, a man who had a child with the daughter of Megan Mullally's character Megan and is now a stay-at-home dad trying to raise his daughter after his wife leaves him. In other casting news, Jason London has joined the cast of Showtime drama pilot Possible Side Effects from writer/director/executive producer Tim Robbins; London will play Silas Hunt, the middle son of an eccentric family in the pharmaceutical business. (Hollywood Reporter)

Smallville fans will get to see the Legion of Super-Heroes in the January 15th episode written by Geoff Johns... well, at least three Legionnaires, anyway. Alexz Johnson (Instant Star), Calum Worthy (Psych), and Ryan Kennedy (Whistler) have been cast respectively as Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy. Their arrival in the 21st century is linked to the recent appearance of Doomsday in the series. (TV Guide)

Bravo has signed a new one-year deal with Kathy Griffin that includes a fifth season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, hosting duties in next year's A-List Awards, and two hour-long comedy speicals for the network. (Variety)

Stay tuned.
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Anonymous said…
I'm very conflicted about an Arrested Development feature. I desperately miss the show and would love to see the brilliant Bluth Family resurrected but only if it made sense for the big screen and didn't equal another "huge mistake" for the Bluths.
11/21/2008
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