[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. WARNING: If you haven't yet seen last night's simply amazing 100th episode of Bones , look away. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Bones executive producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan (and series lead Emily Deschanel) in which they talk about the big twist at the end of the episode. You know, the one that has to do with Booth and Brennan? "I think it opens it up in a whole new way," Nathan told Ausiello about the twist. "It gives us some history, which allows us to see all the additional possibilities that could occur between the two of them." Hanson went a step further. "We aren’t nervous about making them a couple, but we want it to play out in a way that is realistic for these two and that will make fans happy," said Hanson. "Everybody always mentions Moonlighting , but that honestly never comes up in our discussions on how to deal with them. The Moonl

The push and pull of sexual tension has been a hallmark of FOX's procedural drama Bones since the series' very beginning. Fans have grasped on to any and all indications about whether the will-they-or-won't-they couple Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) will finally give into temptation. So do they in tonight's 99th episode or next week's landmark 100th episode of Bones ? Well, that would be telling, now wouldn't it? What I will say is that these two superlative episodes of Bones --particularly when viewed back-to-back--offer two very nice bookends about the complexities of relationships, both professional and personal. For a group of people whose main focus is discovering crime and unearthing bones, they're not exactly that well-equipped to deal with matters of the (still-beating) heart. I had the opportunity to watch these next two episodes of Bones a few weeks back and was completely sucked in by their charm, grit, and nuance. And, if

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Dustin Hoffman ( Last Chance Harvey ) will star in HBO's David Milch and Michael Mann-executive produced drama pilot Luck , which is set in the world of horseracing. Hoffman, will play the lead, Chester "Ace" Bernstein, described as "a man in his late 60s just released from four years in prison who's autodidactic, intelligent, and deeply involved in gambling." Hoffman is the latest cast addition to the high-profile drama pilot, following the attachments of Dennis Farina and John Ortiz last week. Project, being eyed for a potential January launch on the pay cabler, is written by David Milch and will be directed by Michael Mann, both of whom executive produce alongside Carolyn Strauss. ( Variety ) Dexter 's Julie Benz has signed on to star opposite Michael Chiklis in ABC superhero drama pilot No Ordinary Family , about a family that find themselves developing new abilities. In the project, written by Gre

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Production on CBS comedy Two and a Half Men has been temporarily shut down after series lead Charlie Sheen checked himself into a rehab clinic. His decision comes on the heels of some serious legal troubles for the star of the Warner Bros. Television-produced series after his arrest in December and a domestic violence charge against his wife Brooke Mueller. ( Variety , New York Times ) CBS' Nina Tassler, Warner Bros. Television's Peter Roth, and executive producer Chuck Lorre issued the following joint statement: "CBS, Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre support Charlie Sheen in his decision today to begin voluntary in-patient care at a treatment center. We wish him nothing but the best as he deals with this personal matter. Production on Two and a Half Men will be temporarily suspended." [Editor: it's a bit of an about-face for Lorre, who had cracked a joke at the TCA Winter Press Tour when asked about

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Syfy's latest original series Caprica isn't going anywhere any time soon, according to the cabler's EVP of original programming Mark Stern in an interview with Airlock Alpha's Michael Hinman. "We're definitely with Caprica for the long haul," said Stern. "There's no question about it. We knew exactly what it was not going to be, that is an easily adopted show. It's not Battlestar Galactica , it's its own animal. And we definitely recognize that it's going to find its audience and it's going to grow its audience... We're certainly not sharpening the axe by any stretch of the imagination. We all really believe in the show, and it has a lot of potential." Set to air its fourth episode tonight, Caprica will air the first half of its freshman season (10 episodes) before taking a breather and returning in late summer, where it will be paired with another original series as a

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Variety 's Michael Schneider is reporting that 20th Century Fox Television and the studio's feature film division are working on adapting FOX's long-running drama series 24 for the big screen. The studio has hired Billy Ray ( State of Play ) to write a screenplay for the feature version of 24 , which would see Jack Bauer jump across the pond to thwart a plot in Europe. Film would be executive produced by Kiefer Sutherland, Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer, Robert Cochran, and Joel Surnow. "Insiders cautioned that a 24 feature is still very much in the preliminary stages," writes Schneider. "There are a number of factors influencing how quickly it moves ahead, including the fate of the TV show." That fate is still to be determined, though it's thought very likely that Day Eight will be the final season of 24 . ( Variety , Entertainment Weekly 's Hollywood Insider ) Entertainment Weekly 's Micha

Welcome to your (delayed) Thursday morning television briefing. Charlize Theron ( The Road ) has teamed up with auteur David Fincher ( Zodiac ) to develop HBO drama series, Mind Hunter , based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's nonfiction book "Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit," about the profiling of serial killers and rapists. Scott Buck ( Dexter ) will write the pilot, which will be produced by Theron, Fincher, Erwin and Buck and is set up at Fox21. ( Variety ) Jennifer Lopez is set to guest star on CBS' How I Met Your Mother in an episode slated to air in March. Lopez will play Anita Appleby, described as "a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach women how to train men into relationship machines through the power of denial," who makes it her mission to train Barney. ( Hollywood Reporter ) ABC has officially cancelled Ugly Betty after four seasons. The dramedy, which stars America Ferrera, will wrap up its run this Ma

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Bones ' 100th episode will in fact be a flashback episode to reveal the first time that Emily Deschanel's Temperance Brennan and David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth worked together. "We’ll be there for the first time those two personalities clashed, Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan told Ausiello. "Events will conspire to make them come out of the case hating each other and vowing that they will never work together again... We’ll also see the introduction of Angela and the genesis of her friendship with Brennan." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Maggie Grace is confirmed to be returning for Lost 's sixth and final season, according to TV Guide Magazine . She'll return to Oahu next month to reprise her role as Shannon Rutherford, who was last seen on the series in 2005. "Producers had invited Maggie back earlier, but t

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. British actor and former footballer Vinnie Jones ( Loaded ) will guest star on an upcoming installment of NBC's action-comedy series Chuck , which returns with its third season next year. Jones will play Karl Stromberg, "an expert hit man with a soft side," on the Warner Bros. Television-produced series. Jones has also been attached to an untitled new series based on a comic book by Howard Chaykin about an "international spy who teams with his long-lost daughters he never knew existed." That project hails from Elevate Entertainment and Prodigy Pictures, the Canadian production company behind NBC mini-series XIII . ( Hollywood Reporter ) TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams has the scoop behind "that kiss" in the second season premiere of FOX's Fringe last night. According to Abrams, the lip-lock didn't come as a surprise to the two stars of the FOX drama, as they claim that a romantic past betwee

Just a quick reminder that there's a ton of new television launching tonight, between series premieres, season premieres, and a secret advance peek at a new FX comedy series kicking off next year. So what should you be sure to set your DVR for tonight? Here goes? Season Five of Bones kicks off tonight at 8 pm ET/PT with a premiere ("Harbingers in a Fountain"), in which Brennan returns from a dig in Guatemala; Angela's psychic, Avalon Harmonia (Cyndi Lauper) reveals while reading Angela's tarot cards that there are multiple bodies buried under a Washington, DC fountain; Sweets certifies Booth mentally fit to return to duty after his brain surgery, but Booth is still experiencing some side effects from his coma. (You can read my advance review of the season premiere here .) At 8:30 pm, it's the start of Season Two of comedy Parks and Recreation on NBC. (You can read my advance review of the first two episodes of the season here .) Fringe returns to FOX at 9 p

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. ABC is developing a US adaptation of British hit comedy series Gavin and Stacey , about the romance between two very different lovers from two very different places (in the original it was Essex and Wales) who fall in love over the phone and begin a relationship, against the advice of their eccentric friends and families. US version, from BBC Worldwide, will be written by Stacy Traub ( Notes from the Underbelly ) and Hayes Jackson ( According to Jim ). Elsewhere at the Alphabet, the network has given a pilot order to 18 Years , about a young couple who become parents and must "adjust to their new life as parents -- trading their fast-paced existence for a more domesticated lifestyle," from Sony Pictures Television and writer/executive producers Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith ( The King of Queens ). ABC is also developing an untitled comedy, from Samantha Who? executive producer Don Todd, ABC Studios, and Brillstein Entertai