[Televisionary]

There are some guilty pleasures that are just that... truly sinful television encounters that you watch alone in the dark, with the curtains drawn, afraid to ever dare mention to anyone the following day that you tune in to this show, much less have a TiVo Season Pass. And then there are guilty pleasures that you can't help but blab about endlessly to any and all who will hear, in the hopes that you can persuade them too to tune in and watch the show. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about the CW's reality series/"social experiment" Beauty & the Geek , currently airing at 8 pm on Wednesdays. I'll admit that when the series first launched three seasons ago, I was a little wary and thought that Reality TV Svengali Ashton Kutcher would present a geek-spoitation and social punking that the world had never seen. And, yet, after three seasons of challenges, unrequited crushes , and lame introductions from charisma-short host Mike Richards, I am still just as

Looks like Kanye West will be the latest star with a reality TV vehicle. According to The Hollywood Reporter , pay cabler HBO is developing an unscripted series revolving around rapper Kanye West. The series would focus on a day in the life in the Grammy Award-winning singer and his "crazy, hectic life." The untitled Kanye West project, which HBO has declined to comment on, comes from the fertile mind of Larry Charles of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Borat fame), who will executive produce and direct. Record label exec Rick Rubin and West's manager G Roberson will also executive produce. News comes a few months after Kanye West signed a deal with New Line to produce a feature film "inspired" by his music; West will also star in the film. As for Larry Charles, he's no stranger to large entourages; he was, after all, the executive producer of HBO's fictional Entourage during its first two seasons.

Things look to be gearing up for a busy pilot season again this year, as yesterday brought a whole slew of pilot orders from most of the broadcast networks. First up is CBS drama pilot Skip Tracer , about an altruistic man who searches for people who have made themselves disappear as a skip tracer in the underbelly of Los Angeles. The script is written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess ( The Sopranos ), who will executive produce with Tucker Tooley. Stephen Dorff, last seen in World Trade Center (though to me, he'll always be the kid from The Power of One ), will star in the CBS Paramount pilot as the aforementioned skip tracer and also exec produce. CBS also ordered a plot for the US adaptation of UK limited series Viva Blackpool (called Blackpool across the pond), which will now be called.... wait for it... Viva Laughlin . (That doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?) I've been wondering when CBS would get around to releasing an official working title, as the Bla

Every once in a while, there's a recurring star that comes onto a show that feels so deliriously right that you just hope they'll end up sticking around long-term. CBS's hit comedy Old Christine has done remarkably well at finding actors who manage to mesh seamlessly with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the rest of the cast... so well that you hope that they'll turn up again and again every week. Like Wanda Sykes, who recurs as Christine's best friend and business partner. Or Scott Bakula, who turned up earlier (with a terrifying wig/Shirley Jones haircut) this season as a love interest for Christine (and ended up being New Christine's beloved daddy). Yes, readers, I am talking about Blair Underwood, currently recurring on Old Christine as Ritchie's teacher, the dashing Mr. Daniel Harris, who has so far made a melty puddle out of Christine Campbell. (Hell, they hid out together in the restroom of an ice cream parlor to avoid the merciless glare of Meanie Moms Marl

One of the joys of my Sunday evenings (a dreaded time which means the return to work the following day after a far-too-short weekend) the past few months has been sitting down in front of the telly to tune into BBC America's culinary series Gordon Ramsay's F Word. So I was happy then to discover that the network was launching Season Two of Gordon Ramsay's F Word right on the heels of the Christmas-themed first season , which wrapped up just in time for the holidays. Hosted by Gordon Ramsay, that foul-mouthed, prickly chef who has built his reputation on the precision, perfection, and elegance of his food as much as he has by the demanding, draconian tactics he uses on sister show Hell's Kitchen , The F Word is meant to be a more, er, personable look into Ramsay's life, bringing us a kinder, softer Gordon in his kitchen and home. The F Word is not a reality show per se, not in the traditional sense of the word, anyway. Yes, sometimes people are sent home and at

Pam Beesly the Vampire Slayer? Well, not exactly. Rumor has it that Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator and TV ubergod Joss Whedon will return to television to direct an upcoming episode of NBC's hit sitcom (and Televisionary obsession) The Office . The move marks Whedon's first return to the small screen since the release of Firefly feature film spinoff Serenity . Before that, the prolific creator wrote and directed a number of episodes on Buffy , Angel , and Firely (and wrote his fair share of Roseanne scripts as well). But what really gets my geek blood going is that Whedon's Office episode will be followed by J.J. Abrams' Office installment. Whedon and Abrams on The Office ? The creators of Buffy and Lost and Steve Carell??? Somewhere the stars collided... or I'm dreaming. Pinch me. Look for Whedon's take on Michael Scott and the gang at Dunder-Mifflin to air sometime in the spring. And, in the meantime, let's just hope there isn't a Hellmouth

Coming back to work after a long vacation (particularly a Hawaiian-set one) is never an easy thing, so it’s usually made a bit easier by the fact that at least everyone around you is in the same boat. Especially when that person is one Michael Scott. So, not unsurprisingly, I couldn’t wait to tune in last night for a brand-new episode (thank you, NBC, for once!) of The Office (“Back from Vacation”) to see what effect Michael’s trip to Sandals Jamaica with a certain, um, mystery woman would have on the employees of Dunder Mifflin. First off, a big congratulations for the writer of this episode, Justin Spitzer, for doing such an incredible job with his very first Office script. The writing was tight and the characterizations spot on. It’s extremely rare for a newbie writer to jump in and have their initial episode be so pithy and comfortable at the same time and manage to precisely capture the tone of the series (especially on The Office where it’s so specific). So kudos to Spitzer fo