[Televisionary]

Welcome back to another installment of Dancing with the Upfronts, where I try to make sense of the sometimes bewildering (and often conflicting) information coming out of the networks regarding series renewals, cancellations, and orders, before the upfronts next week. Whew. (Updated as of 11:30 pm PST) NBC As previously reported yesterday, NBC officially gave series orders to pilots 20 Good Years and The Singles Table , which join fellow ordered series Raines , Heroes , and Friday Night Lights . With pick ups already in for those three dramas plus Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip , The Black Donnellys , and Kidnapped , it means that NBC has now ordered all but one of its seven drama pilots for the fall. The only drama not to get the nod from the Peacock is the Cary Elwes-led political dramedy Haskett's Chance about a corrupt politician. Untitled Tina Fey is still widely expected to get an order for the fall. However, there appears to be a rather significant spanner in the works, ac

I don't even know where to begin after seeing this week's episode of Lost ("?"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. After seeing the season finale of Veronica Mars on Tuesday night and then this, my nerves are completely jangled. With that said, let's dive right in. Eko has a dream in which Ana-Lucia appears to him and asks him what he's building (yes, we know, it's a church) and then before his eyes begins to bleed from her wounds she received at the hands of Michael last episode. Then a number of images: a cross on the ground, Eko's brother, the hatch. Eko's dead brother Yemi sits at the computer in the hatch, the counter showing only question marks (above), the keyboard the same. Yemi says, "This work is important," and insists that Eko must help John and make Locke take him to the question mark. Oh, and he should take the axe. Eko wakes up with a start. (Was it just me or did it appear that there was some sort of white, tr

You can almost smell the excitement here in Hollywood as the as the network upfronts rapidly approach. In an unusually exciting development season, some networks have announced pre-upfront series orders while others (ahem, CW) are keeping their cards closer to their vests. Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter and Variety , below are the current batch of rumors on renewals, cancellations, and orders before the networks' fall schedules are made official next week. Remember, most of the below has yet to be confirmed by the networks, so all info is subject to change. ABC ABC has picked up dramas The Nine , Six Degrees (from J.J. Abrams), and Day Break , along with comedies In Case of Emergency , Help Me Help You , and Notes from the Underbelly . The following dramas will duke it out for a place among the remaining slots: Traveler , Secrets of a Small Town , Ugly Betty , Drift , Men in Trees , and Brothers & Sisters . If Grey's Anatomy does make the move to Mondays at 9 pm, as ma

Amy and Daniel have officially left the building. I have to say that I was completely underwhelmed by last night's season finale of Gilmore Girls ("Partings"). Perhaps part of it was my own fault for having built up the 62-minute episode, which served as the last to be written and directed under the guidance of Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband writer/producer Daniel Palladino, into some monumental occasion. I have been dreading this moment since I heard the news that they wouldn't be returning with the show next season when Gilmore Girls moves over to the new CW network. On the other hand, Gilmore Girls season finales tend to be emotional, heart-breaking affairs... and this wasn't really either of those things, especially compared to last season's cliffhanger finale (with Rory dropping out of Yale and moving in with Richard and Emily). What it seemed like instead was an excuse for Amy and Daniel to invite all of their friends over to par

According to a report at The Futon Critic , NBC is rumored to be close to giving drama pilots Heroes and Friday Night Lights series orders, as reports indicate that both series have begun staffing. Heroes is a supernatural serialized drama in the vein of Lost about a group of everyday people who suddenly find themselves imbued with extraordinary powers. The project, from NBC Universal Television, was created by Tim Kring ( Crossing Jordan ), who wrote the two-hour pilot, which was directed by David Semel ( House ), who also exec produces along with Dennis Hammer. Alias ' Jesse Alexander was also recently named a co-executive producer. The show's sprawling ensemble includes Greg Grunberg ( Alias ), Milo Ventimiglia ( Gilmore Girls ), Ali Larter ( Final Destination ), Hayden Panettiere ( The Book of Daniel ), Leonard Roberts ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ), and Adrian Pasdar ( Desperate Housewives ), among others. Jason Katims ( Pepper Dennis) has been hired to serve as the show

Wow. That's really my first, second, and third reaction upon seeing last night's simply fantastic season finale of Veronica Mars ("Not Pictured"). After a season of dizzying plot twists and surprises, Veronica pulled out all of the stops to deliver a mind-bending finale that shocked and amazed, especially coming as it did on the heels of the amusing yet underwhelming finale of Gilmore Girls . Just... wow. Where to begin? So it turns out that I will eat my hat after all (good thing I don't wear one): Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas ended up being not the sensitive, earnest youth we thought he was, but was in fact a cold-blooded killer. In this season alone, Cassidy has been responsible for the deaths of everyone aboard the school bus when it crashed, stunt man Curly Moran, Mayor Woody Goodman, and several police officers who had the bad luck of being aboard Woody's plane when Cass detonated it to smithereens above Neptune. Oh, and did I mention that it

Veronica Mars fans waiting to solve the mystery about the fate of their favorite show may have received a clue today when creator Rob Thomas answered some fan questions over at TVGuide.com . I've been (repeatedly) asking Rob Thomas to make Mac (Tina Majorino) a full-time cast member for a while now and it seems one of the TV showrunner gods was listening to my (constant) prayers. Among other tidbits, Thomas revealed to TV Guide that the show is in negotiations with Majorino to bring her back next season as part of the regular cast, but that the producers haven't decided whether Majorino's character Mac will be Veronica's roomie next season when they attend Neptune's (fictional) Hearst College. Read below for an excerpt from the Rob Thomas interview on TVGuide.com: Question: Is Mac going to be a regular for Season 3? Is she going to Hearst? Will she and Veronica be roommates there? - Lisa Thomas: We hope that Tina Majorino will be back with us next year. We're t