[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Good news for Party Down fans! Kristen Bell and Jane Lynch will reprise their roles as Uda Bengt and Constance Carmichael respectively on Season Two of Starz comedy Party Down , which will launch next year on the pay cabler. Bell is set to appear in one episode of the comedy and Party Down star Adam Scott revealed that Henry and Uda are dating while Lizzy Caplan's Casey is seeing someone else. Uh-oh. Lynch, meanwhile, is set to appear in the second season finale, where the Party Down staffers cater... her wedding. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Angie Harmon ( Women's Murder Club ) has been cast as the titular character in TNT's mystery pilot Rizzoli , where she will play Jane Rizzoli, a detective who teams up with a medical examiner (as yet uncast) to solve crimes in Boston. Project, from Warner Horizon, is based on Tess Gerritsen's novel series and is written by Janet Tamaro. Harmon's casting lifts the c

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Jennifer Morrison will depart FOX series House this season, with her final episode airing in November. According to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello, who broke the story, Morrison did not quit but her departure was "a creative decision on the part of [the series'] producers." Ausiello is quick to point out that Morrison's character, Dr. Allison Cameron, won't be killed off and producers are leaving the door open for her to guest star later on in the season. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Looking for just how House 's producers will write Cameron out of the series? E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos and Jennifer Godwin have the scoop as sources close to the production indicate a major medical standoff between Cameron and Chase (Jesse Spencer), with House (Hugh Laurie) getting involved in the discussion as well. ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) Hollywood Reporter 's Roger

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. NBC has announced that it is delaying the second season launch of Southland by a month. The Warner Bros. Television-produced series, which premiered last spring, was slated to launch its sophomore season on Friday, September 25th but will now instead debut on Friday, October 23rd. The reason behind the late change? According to Variety 's Michael Schneider, "insiders said the Peacock hopes to use the extra month to further promote the show, which they worried was getting lost in the fall marketing shuffle." Southland was meant to launch on the same evening as Medium and Dollhouse . ( Variety ) Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz and Chuck producer Matt Miller will write an untitled multi-camera comedy pilot script for CBS about a twenty-something couple who have just gotten married and return home after their honeymoon and must learn how to navigate life together. (The premise was inspired by Schwartz and Miller's o

Welcome to your Wednesday television briefing. E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has a look at what lies ahead for FOX's Dollhouse as she catches up with the Joss Whedon-created series' stars to get some dirt on what's going on inside the Dollhouse next season. "They have a connection," said Tahmoh Penikett of Echo and Paul Ballard next season. "It's not a physical attraction, but I hope it's something that we explore a lot more this season. You're not quite sure what it is. There's a past, there's a history, there's an understanding between them that's very different. I think the audience is really going to like it and be really curious about where we're going in the first few episodes." As for that other would-be couple, Sierra and Victor, Enver Gjokah said, "Sierra and Victor are definitely still involved. They're going to explore that relationship more. They explore the Sierra-and-Victor love as dolls, but then

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Buffy and Angel 's James Marsters--who appeared last year in Season Two of Torchwood to boot--has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica . Marsters, who is slated to appear in at least three installments, will play Barnabus Greeley, a dangerous terrorist leader who is described as being "driven by desires both moralistic and carnal" and is "as lethal as he is unpredictable." Caprica premieres January 22nd on Syfy. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) ABC has given a script order to Clive Barker's Hotel , described as a "series of ghoulish incidents at a haunted hotel," from writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision, will be executive produced by Clive Barker and McG, who could direct the pilot episode if the network moves forward with the pro

Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer. Leverage will air two additional installments on Wednesday, September 2nd and Wednesday, September 9th. The latter episode, which features guest star Jeri Ryan ( Shark ) will serve as the series' so-called "summer finale." The two additional episodes are entitled "The Ice Man Job" and "The Lost Heir Job." The full press release from TNT, announcing the two additional episodes, can be found below. TNT Adds Two More Episodes of Hit Series LEVERAGE to Summer Lineup Summer Finale, Guest-Starring Jeri Ryan ( Star Trek: Voyager ), Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) TNT has added two episodes to the summer run of its hit series LEVERAGE , starring Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton ( Ordinary People ), Gina Bellman ( Coupling ), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West ), Beth Riesgraf ( Alvin and the Chipmunks ) and Aldis Hodge ( Friday Night Li

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. ABC has given a script order with a sizable penalty to a contemporary series take on 1985 feature film St. Elmo's Fire . Project, which comes from Sony Pictures Television, will be written/executive produced by Dan Bucatinsky and executive produced by Topher Grace, Jamie Tarses, and Joel Schumacher. The series would revolve around a group of six friends--three men, three women--who hang out together at a Georgetown restaurant called St. Elmo's Bar & Grill. "I feel it is time to re-create Friends in the hourlong genre and feel like this is the perfect opportunity," said Bucatinsky. ""More than anything, the movie evokes a feeling that doesn't go away, the feeling of bonding with your friends who become your surrogate family." ( Hollywood Reporter ) Could Kate Winslet be headed for the small screen? HBO is said to be in the running to pick up a mini-series adaptation of 1945 feature film Mildred

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that House 's Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer's Cameron and Chase will move back into their old jobs on the FOX medical drama following a staffing shakeup at Princeton Plainsboro during which Foreman takes over House's role. "They are both thrown back into their old jobs," Morrison told EW . "It’s been great actually. I have been working a lot and there are things that happen to House very early in the season that have a domino effect on all of the other characters... Cameron was always very close and protective of House. And to have her mentor be away in an asylum makes her contemplate life and career and him. Having him gone affects everyone he works with, personally and professionally." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Another Battlestar Galactica actor is heading to FOX's 24 next season. Callum Keith Rennie, who playe

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Elizabeth Banks ( Scrubs ) has signed on guest star on ABC's upcoming comedy series Modern Family in a potentially recurring role. TV Guide Magazine 's William Keck is reporting that Banks will play Sal, a close friend of gay couple Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), in an October episode and that she came to the project via her real-life friendship with Ferguson. "Sal is their old running buddy," executive producer Steven Levitan told Keck. "Mitchell and Cameron decide they need a night out on the town, so they call her up." Lloyd adds, "She's thrilled to be back with her old friends until they start talking about their new (adopted) baby and she doesn't want to hear about the baby, so she starts saying things like, 'I wouldn't mind killing the baby.'" ( TV Guide Magazine ) FOX has given a put pilot commitment to Shawn Ryan's one-hour drama pr

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Nip/Tuck 's Joely Richardson has been cast in the fourth and final season of Showtime's The Tudors , where she would play King Henry VIII's final wife, Katherine Parr. The Tudors is set to return in Spring 2010 and Showtime would not comment on the casting. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) In a first, British channel UKTV has sold lifestyle special Ty's Great British Adventure to ABC. Special, which will air Sunday, August 2nd at 8 pm on ABC, features Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 's Ty Pennington transforming the rundown Cornish beach down of Portreath, including commissioning a children's park, a sports shop, and walking routes, along with other improvements. ( Broadcast ) Jamie-Lynn Sigler ( The Sopranos ) has joined the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty , where she will recur as Natalie, Daniel Meade's new assistant who is des

You had the chance to read my advance review of TNT's Dark Blue yesterday, but now that the first episode has aired, I'm curious to hear what you thought about the series. Did you dig the dark blue palette and almost oppressive visual darkness of the series? Were you intrigued by Dylan McDermott's maverick undercover cop Carter Shaw? Or did you think he was upstaged by Logan Marshall-Green's surprisingly magnetic performance as Dean Bendis? Did you buy into the gritty world of undercover cops in the City of Angels? Or did you think it was a never-ending slew of cliche after cliche? And, most importantly, would you tune in again next week to watch another episode? Talk back here. Next week on Dark Blue ("Guns, Strippers and Wives"), Ty tracks down a gun trafficker and nearly blows his cover by seeing his wife on her birthday; Carter has difficulty raising $100,000 to save himself and Ty.

I was going to write an entire review for TNT's new undercover cop drama Dark Blue , which launches tonight at 10 pm ET/PT, but I just couldn't muster up any enthusiasm for what manages to be an oppressively dreary and hopelessly formulaic take on undercover cops operating in the seediest of seedy underbellies in Los Angeles. Created by Doug Jung ( Big Love ), directed by Danny Cannon ( CSI ), and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Dark Blue stars Dylan McDermott ( Big Shots ), Omari Hardwick ( Saved ), Logan Marshall-Green ( Traveler ), and Nicki Aycox ( Supernatural ) as members of a special undercover police task force committed to ridding Los Angeles of violent criminal scum. McDermott is the team's haunted linchpin Carter Shaw, a relentlessly determined cop who is prone to wearing aviator sunglasses and making pronouncements like, "This better be good; I haven’t seen 7 a.m. since 1992," just to show how doggedly put off he is by his bumbling supervisor

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Following an announcement that actress Maura Tierney would require an eight-week medical evaluation for an undisclosed condition, NBC has pushed the start of its drama Parenthood , which was slated to debut on September 23rd, to midseason. The Peacock will instead push up the launch of its midseason medical drama Mercy to the fall, although it is still unclear whether Mercy will inherit Parenthood 's Wednesdays at 8 pm timeslot. The production shutdown on Parenthood , meanwhile, will give writers additional time to complete scripts. ( Hollywood Reporter ) UPDATE : "In an effort to guard my privacy, it seems that the wording of NBC's press release has unfortunately caused some confusion and undue alarm about my health," said Maura Tierney in an official statement. "I have discovered a tumor in my breast which requires surgery. I will not know either my exact diagnosis or course of treatment until that surgery i

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan has an absolutely fantastic interview with Doctor Who star David Tennant on the eve of BBC America's airing of last Christmas' Doctor Who special "The Next Doctor." Among the topics of discussion: the end of his run on the legendary British sci-fi series, the truth behind the all-Doctors reunion rumors (false, says Tennant), and what's next for the actor (Poliakoff's Glorious 39 ), among other things. "I'm all finished," said Tenannt of his run on Doctor Who . "Three or four weeks ago, I filmed my last scene. So it's over. Still a long time to go before they're all broadcast, though, so I'm still clinging on for a bit. But yeah, it's done. It was very emotional, very exciting. We managed to go out with some of the best scripts I had in four years. So it was a real treat." ( Chicago Tribune 's The Watcher ) Jeri Ryan ( Shark

Just curious, how many of you tuned in last night to watch the launches for TNT's newest series, medical drama Hawthorne and wedding-themed reality series Wedding Day ? You read my advance review of Hawthorne , which stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Michael Vartan, but now I am curious to see what you thought of the series premiere. Did you find it as tired and predictable as I did? Did you find yourselves comparing it unfavorably to Showtime's Nurse Jackie ? Did you like the chemistry between Pinkett Smith and Vartan? Conversely, did you find Wedding Day inspirational and touching... or as absolutely cloying as I did ? And most importantly, will you be tuning in again next week to watch either of these series? Talk back here.