[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Timothy Olyphant ( Damages ) has been cast in FX's untitled Elmore Leonard project, which is based on a short story by Leonard entitled "Fire in the Hole." Olyphant will play U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who returns to his hometown in Kentucky. "He has a certain jaggedness, but he also loves his job," said creator/executive producer Graham Yost. "He is like an anachronism: He wears a hat, cowboy boots and a holster on his hip. It's a little bit like he was born 100 years too late." Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Timberman/Beverly Prods., will be directed by Michael Dinner and will start shooting at the end of May. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan has a sneak peek at three scenes from Wednesday evening's 100th episode of ABC's Lost , entitled "The Variable." (Gee, does that title remind you of another famous installment?) All I can say is th

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. FOX has handed out a pilot order to a US remake of BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous , which follows the boozy exploits of PR magnate Edina Monsoon, her magazine editrix best friend Patsy, and Edina's uptight daughter Saffy. US version will be set in LA and the script written by Christine Zander ( Less Than Perfect ), who will executive produce with Jennifer Saunders, Ian Moffit, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum, and Kim Tannenbaum. Project will be produced by Sony Pictures Television, Tantamount, and BBC Worldwide Americas. ( Variety ) Battlestar Galactica 's Jane Espenson will serve as an executive producer on BSG prequel series Caprica and will eventually become the showrunner on the series, slated to air on Sci Fi in 2010. Espenson, whom many fans will know from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls , will take over the reins of Caprica 's writers' room from co-creator Ron Moore later this year. Productio

Is it just me or was it positively inspirational to see 30 Rock rack up so many statuettes last night at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards? The NBC comedy, which many predicted would be canceled as soon as it launched, racked up three awards including Best TV Comedy, Best Actress in TV Comedy (Tina Fey), and Best Actor in a TV Comedy (Alec Baldwin), all three of the categories in which it was nominated. Likewise, HBO's miniseries John Adams cliched all seven awards in all of its nominated categories (go Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, and Tom Wikinson!) and Mad Men took home the top spot for TV Drama... even though series leads Jon Hamm and January Jones were cruelly overlooked for their superlative performances this season. What did I think of the awards and what burning questions do I still have? Let's discuss. I'm not quite sure why Jeff Zucker looked quite so displeased when 30 Rock took home the award for Best TV Comedy but the man could barely muster a smile for th

Another December, another batch of Golden Globe nominations. This year, however, there's at least hope that the show will go on. (If you remember, last year's telecast was plagued by, uh, issues even greater than force majeure : namely the 100-day WGA strike in which everyone boycotted NBC's Golden Globe telecast, resulting in a 3-hour press conference to announce the winners.) The Hollywood Foreign Press Association this morning announced its nominees for the 2009 Golden Globes, which will be handed out at a live telecast on NBC on January 11th. While I am beyond thrilled that Mad Men and 30 Rock got some much needed love, with 30 Rock justly landing nominations for Best Comedy, Best Actress in a Comedy (Tina Fey), and Best Actor in a Comedy (Alec Baldwin), I'm pleased as punch that an awards committee has finally given recognition to Mad Men 's January Jones, who landed her first nomination as the embattled Betty Draper on AMC's period drama. The women of

You do not cut off Patty Hewes in the middle of an acceptance speech. Come to think of it, you probably shouldn't be cutting off Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, Tina Fey, Bryan Cranston, and the aforementioned Glenn Close, period. But that's just what they did on last night's tedious Emmy telecast, focusing instead on the inane chatter among the five nominated reality series hosts and a plethora of pointless and unfunny filler material. Sure, the 60th Annual Emmy Awards wasn't as big a fiasco as last year's circular stage debacle , though this year came close with the ridiculous time-waste that was the show's opening twelve minutes or so, cheap-looking on-screen graphics for each category, fruitless use of familiar sets, and awkward "repartee" between presenters and our so-called "hosts." The few high points for me? Ricky Gervais, for one, whose painfully funny (not to mention cringe-worthy) reminiscing of his in absentia win last year for

After weeks of leaked semi-finalist nominee lists, it's good to finally get a glimpse of which series and actors actually made it onto the ballots, instead of seeing yet another list that showed who could make it to the nomination stage. The Emmy nominees were announced this morning and I have to commend them for showering such love onto diverse and unique series such as Mad Men, 30 Rock (17 nominations, no less!), and Damages ... while also locking some repeat offenders--like Ugly Betty in the comedy category--out in the cold. (Yes, I watch Ugly Betty but should it be competing with such comedy series as 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, or The Office ? Hells no, especially when HBO's hysterical Flight of the Conchords didn't even get a mention.) So which series and actors did land Emmy noms? Let's talk about the major categories. Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men (AMC) Boston Legal (ABC) House (FOX) Lost (ABC) Damages (FX) Dexter (Showtime) I'm actually qui

The shortlist for the 2008 Emmy Award nominees been announced and I am utterly confounded by the fact that Terry O'Quinn's name is nowhere to be found on the list of eleven supporting actor shortlist nominees. Sure, Lost is represented with the inclusion of both Michael Emerson and Naveen Andrews, but I thought for sure that, after his brilliant performance this season on Lost as John Locke/Jeremy Bentham, O'Quinn would end up on that shortlist, if not walking off with a full-blown nomination, especially after a storyline that not only gave O'Quinn a chance to shine but also reasserted his character at the forefront of the series' labyrinthine storyline. Hell, it was his bravura performance at the end of the series' fourth season as alternately fragile/strong Locke that made me fall in love with the character all over again and the man did win the 2007 supporting actor award with good reason. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Andrews and Emerson make it

It's that time of year again as the Television Critics Association has announced their nominations for the TCA Awards, which will be handed out on July 19th in Beverly Hills. Making headlines: AMC's Mad Men has tied HBO's The Wire with the top number of nominations. (For those of you looking for a sign that critics are clearly behind the itty-bitty cabler and the recent Golden Globe winner for Best Drama, there you go.) This year's group of nominees are quite exciting choices (as seen from the full list below), with some of Televisionary's favorite programs represented, including multiple nominations for Damages, 30 Rock, Lost, Pushing Daisies, and Flight of the Conchords , to name but a few. The full list of nominees for the TCA Awards is as follows: Program of the Year: John Adams Lost Mad Men Ken Burns' The War The Wire Comedy: 30 Rock The Colbert Report The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Flight of the Conchords The Office Drama: Damages Friday Nigh

Wow, talk about a boring Emmy Awards. I mean I had my doubts when it was announced that Ryan "I'm about as deep as my spray tan" Seacrest would be hosting, but it's FOX, so who else were they going to get to MC this bloated thing, anyway? Paula Abdul? Hardly. (Please bring Ellen DeGeneres back. Please?) Whose misguided idea was it to hold the Emmys in a circular stadium? I felt like I was watching a basketball game rather than a TV awards ceremony. Badly, badly done. It looked cheap, tacky, and possibly very fitting with the Emmys' new home on FOX. Plus, that Death Star-designed black disco ball freaked me out. Did you notice how FOX seemed to make it out of the opening Family Guy song and dance relatively unscathed? Hmm, coincidence? In any event, there were a few bright spots, like the writing award for The Office 's Greg Daniels, Helen Mirren winning for the superlative Prime Suspect: The Final Act , and Lost 's Terry O'Quinn finally receiving some

Can you believe it's that time again? I can. But then again, I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:35 am to see Jon Cryer and Kyra Sedgwick unveil the nominees for the 2007 Emmy Awards this morning. So who made the cut in some of the top categories? Let's grab a cup of coffee and find out. Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series Extras • HBO • BBC and HBO Entertainment Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman Monk • USA • NBC Universal Television Studio in association with Mandeville Films and Touchstone Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk The Office • NBC • Deedle-Dee Productions, Reveille, LLC, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio Steve Carell as Michael Scott 30 Rock • NBC • Broadway Video, Little Stranger, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy Two And A Half Men • CBS • Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc., The Tannenbaum Company in association with Warner Bros. Television Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper This is a seriously tough category

Get our your Dunder-Mifflin snowglobes and Dwight bobbleheads and prepare to celebrate. Congrats to the cast of The Office , which took home the top prize tonight at the SAG Awards. The gang from Scranton scored Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, beating out the Wisteria Lane ladies of Desperate Housewives , those spoiled Hollywood players on Entourage , the fashionistas at Mode on Ugly Betty , and those suburban potheads on Weeds . It was also especially a good night for Steve Carell, who also managed to snag a win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for his work in Little Miss Sunshine , along with Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, and Toni Collette. Congratulations, Steve. (I hope it makes up a little for getting passed over in favor of 30 Rock 's Alec Baldwin AGAIN.) TV winners included America Ferrera for Ugly Betty (take that, Felicity Huffman), the aforementioned Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock , Chandra Wilson for

I can't say that I'm really all that excited about the Emmy awards this year, especially after getting all worked up about the mere possibility that traditionally undervalued shows like B attlestar Galactica , Everybody Hates Chris , Gilmore Girls , and Veronica Mars might actually be represented next to 24 , The Sopranos , and Grey's Anatomy . Instead, we all know too well how the latest voting overhaul scheme went (love that Ellen Burstyn still walked away with a nom for a 9-second performance) and it still smarts that Lost was virtually quarantined from the high-profile nominations. (I blame Dharma Foundation nomination-fixing.) Sure, I'm rooting for The Office to take home the top comedy prize, and according to those mysterious " TV pundits ," the gang at Dunder-Mifflin is the "heavy favorite" to do just that, along with Steve Carell for actor in a comedic performance. And wouldn't it would be just desserts if Lisa Kudrow walked away with