[Televisionary]

With the threat of a potential strike looming over Hollywood, the networks have all ramped up their development efforts for next season, with many projects--like FOX's The Oaks and others--already garnering series commitments from broadcasters. While these scripts have been trickling in, the one pilot script that I've been desperate to get my hands on has got to be Fringe , the new supernatural drama from executive producer J.J. Abrams and written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ( Alias ), who co-wrote recent box office behemoths Mission: Impossible 3 and Transformers and penned the script for J.J. Abrams' upcoming relaunch of Star Trek . So imagine my zeal when the script for Fringe , which has a thirteen-episode commitment from FOX, literally fell right into my lap. After all, this is a pilot script that reportedly has a $10 million budget and is already one of the highest anticipated entries for the 2008-09 season. With Fringe , from Warner Bros. Television and Abr

At least the one-hour episodes are over (for now, anyway). I do feel as though my original misgivings about the extended- length (that's what she said) installments of The Office did come to pass as these past four episodes have positively ached from the stretch marks. For the first three weeks of Season Four, I liked the first half-hour of each episode and then loathed the second half. But with last night's episode ("Money"), written by Paul Lieberstein, I can honestly say that I didn't care at all for the first half and only slightly less disliked the second half . I should preface my comments by saying that I'm not usually a fan of Lieberstein's episodes; "Dwight's Speech," "The Coup," and "Cocktails" are some of my least favorite episodes to date on the series. Specifically, his episodes typically have a thread that involves Dwight being crazy: climbing the roof at a stranger's house, knowing that Jan likes Liz C

Looks like sometimes spin-offs do work, after all. Private Practice , from Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, has scored a full-season order from ABC, garnering a full 22 episodes this season. (That it, unless that writers' strike actually does materialize after all.) Drama revolves around Dr. Addison Montgomery, who left Seattle Grace for the sunnier climes of Santa Monica and finds herself working at a medical cooperative clinic run by her now divorced medical school friends. Series, which airs in the ultra-competitive Wednesday nights at 9 pm timeslot, is the highest rated new series this season. Over the course of its first four airing, Private Practice has managed to hold onto rough 12.8 million viewers. Also getting full season orders today: CBS' freshman comedy The Big Bang Theory and returning series The Unit , which had previously only received a 13-episode order this season.

Talk about a casting coup. Showtime has cast Toni Collette ( Little Miss Sunshine ) in comedy pilot The United States of Tara , from executive producer Steven Spielberg and writer Diablo Cody ( Juno ). Collete will play the titular character, a wife and mother who suffers from severe dissociative identity disorder, in the dark comedy. Series would revolve around Tara and her working class husband and children as she attempts to deal with her multiple personalities, which include a teenage girl and an adult male biker, that emerge during times of stress. "When you're casting a show that requires an actress to not only play one complex character but in this case several, the road begins and ends with Toni Collette," said Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt of the casting. To me, this project just got a hell of a lot more interesting now that my favorite girl from Porpoise Spit got involved with it. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Deal or No

Wednesday nights have become sheer Televisionary bliss, in every sense of the word now that ABC's deliriously delicious Pushing Daisies has come along. The only thing that would make it even better? A piece of the Pie Maker's sinfully sweet pies. Last night's installment of Pushing Daisies ("The Fun in Funeral")--written by series creator Bryan Fuller--recaptured the magic of the original pilot episode. Personally, I'm not bothered by Jim Dale's tongue-in-cheek narration like some other reviewers. To me, it adds another dimension to the story and places it in a sort of meta-context, as though the action of the story is being further distanced from reality and additionally heightened by dint of the fact that the story is, well, self-aware that it's being told as a narrative. Plus, I just love Dale's velvety voice. Ned. I'm glad that the writers have continued to place Ned in a moral quandary about his revival of Chuck and, specifically, its un

Kristen Bell might just be the coolest girl in the whole wide world. She uses words like "wowzers," "jammies," and "dreamy" and she loves to watch BBC series like The Office and Little Britain . In other words, she's a woman after my own heart. I caught up with the former Veronica Mars star between breakfast with Ryan Hanson (that's Dick Casablancas for you Mars fans out there) and a wardrobe fitting for her new series, Heroes . Bell's premiere episode is Monday and she's currently signed on to do at least 13 episodes on the second season of NBC's superhero drama as the enigmatic Elle. What can she tell us about Elle? Bell was cautious not to give away any major spoilers. "I can’t reveal her secret powers," she said. "You’ll have to watch next Monday. But it’s a very cool power. [Elle] has ties to HRG and to Claire. And there’s going to be a very interesting dynamic I think, between her and Claire as far as what is and

Hmmm, so maybe Patty isn't evil incarnate after all. I rushed home last night to savor every minute of the penultimate episode of FX's deliriously twisted legal drama Damages . After all, I've been obsessed with the series since I first saw the pilot back in May and we're nearing the finish line now, where all of the disparate plot lines (not to mention timelines) seem to be coming together neatly. I take special joy in the fact that I was absolutely right about the circumstances of David's murder, theorized last week on this very site . Which isn't to say that there weren't a few surprises last night, because there most definitely were, but we'll get to those in a minute. What I do want to say is how shockingly mundane David's murder was... in a good way, though. It wasn't a psycho stalker with romantic notions for the good doctor nor was it a clean hit from a trained killer. No, it was messy, brutal, and chillingly sadistic. It was the elimina