[Televisionary]

Get out your Prada shoes and Marc Jacobs handbags. Gossip Girl is launching a little earlier than expected. Realizing that schools and colleges would already be back in session (duh!) during the series' original launch (September 24th), the CW has bumped the premiere date for Gossip Girl up a week, to September 19th at 9 pm, directly behind the season premiere of America's Next Top Model . Which, well, should have dawned on the programming execs in the first place. Considering the scads of buzz and promotion that the netlet has been rolling out for Gossip Girl , one would think that they'd, you know, want to launch the series ahead of the pack. Therefore, the planned two-hour launch for ANTM will be cut down to an hour and Gossip Girl's launch won't have to go directly up against the premieres of Bionic Woman on NBC or Private Practice on ABC. Probably a smart move on the part of CW, which hasn't proven itself to be the most savvy programmer. For once, the

With the sudden, if saddening, removal of crime drama Smith (we hardly knew ye!) from the schedule, CBS is mulling launching a midseason drama a little earlier than expected. According to the Hollywood Reporter, CBS has ordered four additional scripts for medical drama 3 Lbs. , which stars Stanley Tucci as an brilliant but unorthodox surgeon (he obviously graduated from the House School of Medicine) who clashes with an ambitious younger surgeon (series kiss of death star Mark Feuerstein). Series was created by Peter Ocko ( Boston Legal , Dead Like Me ) and also stars Rome 's Indira Varma. With Smith 's, er, arrest from the lineup, CBS could sub in 3 Lbs. to the Tuesdays at 10 pm timeslot as the series, which had previously received a midseason order from the Eye, is already in production. CBS is said to be pleased with what they've seen so far but hasn't yet officially announced the new November launch date. In the meantime, CBS will air repeats of police procedurals

Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica is back and I couldn't be happier. I've missed my one-two punch lineup of Doctor Who and BSG on Friday evenings and as the nights are becoming longer and colder, it's the perfect time for this hauntingly brilliant drama to return to the airwaves. Especially given how much darker this season of Battlestar is than its predecessors (which, granted, could get pretty dark itself). A quick recap: the colonists have landed on a barren rock that they have named New Caprica, thinking that they are safe from the Cylons, but wouldn't you know it, the toasters show up looking to live side-by-side with their human brethren. Comprised of all of the Cylon models we've seen to date, they're led by Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer), the same Number Six that saved Gaius Baltar (James Callis) back on Caprica, and the same Boomer (Grace Park) who shot Adama (Edward James Olmos) and who was herself shot and killed by Cally (Nicki Cline) aboard the Gal

Is it just me or has Lost consistently presented us with a brilliant opening sequence that contradicts everything we thought we knew about the show every season so far? Starting again with that focusing eye (previously it belonged to Jack, then Desmond, and now Juliet), Lost 's season premiere ("A Tale of Two Cities") takes us on tour of a seemingly innocuous suburban town, where an unknown woman (Juliet, played by newest cast addition Elizabeth Mitchell) seems on the verge of tears before putting on, not a record, but a CD of the song "Downtown" and then realizing that she's burnt the muffins for her book club, there to discuss the merits (or trashiness) of Lost fan Stephen King's work. (That is except for someone named Ben, who is conspicuously absent.) Enter the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 following what can only be described as an electromagnetic disruption masquerading as an earthquake. Everyone runs outside into this tranquil tropical village--lo

Can I just say how very much I heart Veronica Mars ? It needs to be said, especially coming on the heels of a dismally dull Gilmore Girls outing written by now co-exec producer Rebecca Rand Kirshner. (Why is it you can instantly tell it's one of her episodes from the way all the air is let out of each and every scene?) But enough of that sidenote, back to the issue at hand. Namely, the fact that while some shows lose their footing in moving the cast from high school to college, Veronica Mars has made the leap from Neptune High to Hearst College with full sparkage intact. No mean feat, in this age of network jerry-rigging and focus grouping and, well, netlet mergers. Last night's third season premiere episode ("Welcome Wagon") picked up a few months after the end of last season, solving a few mysteries that were lingering. Did Keith (Enrico Colantoni) stand up Veronica (Kristen Bell) at the airport, as she waited to board a plane for their post-graduation trip to New

I couldn't help but sneak a break at work today to take a little peek at the third season premiere of perennial Televisionary fave, Veronica Mars , courtesy of MSN and Veronica 's new home on the CW. While I'll wait to discuss the actual episode until after its broadcast on Tuesday night, you can preview the episode ("Welcome Wagon") in its entirety here . (But don't forget that we want to keep Veronica Mars ' broadcast numbers up, especially in the first week, so if you do watch it online, be sure to tune in to the actual broadcast as well.) But as we're not talking about the episode itself, can I just share with you how completely fixated on the series' new opening credit sequence I am? How very out with the old and in with the new. It's only fitting that our girl, now off to university, should get a makeover as dynamic and funky as she is. Because, let's be honest, the old sequence's notebook paper motif wouldn't work as well out

Was it just me or did the preview for next week's third season premiere of Lost ("A Tale of Two Cities") give you goosebumps? I wasn't going to watch the umpteenth recap special for Lost last night ("A Tale of Survival"), I really wasn't. TiVo knew to record it and I had a feeling it would sit there, taunting me from the hard drive, for the next week. But I ended up coming home from work after a way too long (and far too stressful) day, popped on America's Next Top Model for some mindless comfort, and the next thing I knew I had been sucked into yet another recap episode. First, can I just say that Michael Emerson--whether or not he appears on screen is immaterial--scares the bejesus out of me? His narration last night was haunting and melodic and completely in fitting with the series. But was anyone else surprised that Boone and Shannon (hell, and Libby) failed to make the cut and appear in the linear-style retelling of the past two seasons of Lo

It was with some trepidation that I sat down last night to watch the season premiere of Gilmore Girls . After all, creator Amy Sherman Palladino and hubby Daniel Palladino are gone now and their departure cast a rather large pall over this once mighty series and I hadn't exactly had a lot of confidence in their replacement, David Rosenthal, whose two episodes to date had left me cold. Could this be a fresh start for the Gilmore Girls that I knew and loved? Perhaps. I'll admit that I was a little concerned during beginning of the Girls ' seventh season premiere ("The Long Morrow") last night. The opening scenes seemed weak, ineffectual, and clunky and, even worse, they seemed vaguely similar to the frustrating, hot mess that was Season Six. (Look, it's Amy and Daniel... and they're running out the door and taking any narrative sense with them!) We've seen Lorelai sleep with the wrong guy and then sulk and pout before, we've seen Sookie babble on en

Deja Tube. It's that feeling that you've already experienced a show on television before. Back in May, I reviewed the original pilot of NBC's new superhero drama Heroes ... and I was rather lambasted as a result of my negative review. While everyone I know who saw the pilot in Hollywood absolutely loathed it, fans of the show (how can a show have virulent fans before it's even premiered?) lashed out and members of the production staff assured me that what I saw was drastically different than what was scheduled to air in September. So I thought: I've got an hour. I'll take another look at the series and tune in for the "new" version of the pilot episode ("Genesis"). I went in with an open mind, cleared out an hour of my schedule (and my TiVo) and sat down, fully prepared not to let my earlier feelings cloud my judgment. Guess what: the version NBC aired last night was only minutely different than the version I saw. (Still no sign of Leonard Ro

While I reviewed the original pilot of ABC's new drama Six Degrees here , what did you think of last night's premiere? Have we seen too many of those random strangers bound by a web of chance or fate series? Do you prefer Campbell Scott with silver hair? What in the name of J.J. Abrams is in Mae's box? (Please don't let it be a pocket-sized Scotsman with a numbers-fixation.) Share your back talk in this thread and tell me what you *really* think. (Come on, don't be shy.)

While I reviewed the original pilot of NBC's new drama Kidnapped here , what did you think of last night's premiere? Given the series' shared themes and overall conceit with FOX's similar (if less successful) drama Vanished , which do you think will emerge the clear winner in audience's minds? Or is there room in the American marketplace for two kidnapped rich people dramas? Share your back talk in this thread and tell me what you *really* think. (Come on, don't be shy.)

Fans of Weeds are in for a few surprises when the series launches its second season on Showtime next month. I attended the Weeds Season Two premiere last night at the Egyptian in Hollywood and the audience -- a mix of celebrities, cast members, and execs from Showtime and studio Lionsgate Television -- was able to catch a sneak peek at the first two episodes of next season. And let me just say, if you thought that season finale cliffhanger ending with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) discovering that her newest beau Peter (Martin Donovan) was a DEA agent after sleeping with him was a doozy, you're in for a real treat. Before the main event, Showtime president Bob Greenblatt screened the trailer for Showtime's upcoming series The Tudors , a revisionist take on the Tudor dynasty starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill, and Jeremy Northam, among others. It's sort of a soap operatic version of history but without any of the flair or panache of HBO's Rome . The first half of th