[Televisionary]

OMG! Maxxie's dad is Bill Bailey? How frakking cool was it that we learned on last night's episode of Skins ("Tony and Maxxie")--which kicked off Season Two of the British import on BBC America--that Maxxie's dad was none other than famed British comedian Bill Bailey ( Black Books, Hot Fuzz )? While those reveals weren't the focus of the episode (though pretty bloody awesome nonetheless), Bailey's Walter and Maxxie had a fantastic storyline in which he put his foot down about Maxxie dropping out of college to focus on his dancing. While most series would have made the arc about Walter reacting to his son's homosexuality, Skins deftly reinvigorated a father/son storyline with shades of regret, not about his son's sexual orientation, but about the fact that Walter wanted Maxxie to become a builder so he wouldn't lose him as he loves him so much. All that, seeing Bill Bailey do a country line dance with a dog, and Keeping Up Appearances ' Ge

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Last night was quite the busy telly viewing night, with new episodes of Skins, Mad Men , and The Amazing Race on tap, not to mention the latest installment of Masterpiece Contemporary 's five-part The Last Enemy on PBS. Whew. The New York Times ' Bill Carter wonders just where 30 Rock is, amid all of the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin fascination that has gripped America. NBC, of course, had plans to launch the third season of 30 Rock on October 30th, allowing plenty of time to promote the series' return behind new episodes of The Office . However, Ben Silverman admits, "If we knew then what we know today about how hot Tina was going to be, would we do it differently? Maybe." (I'll take that as a resounding yes.) Look for Fey to likely pop up in the two remaining editions of the election-focused Thursday editions of Saturday Night Live as the network heavily promotes 30 Rock but I can't help but agree with C

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation. This week, I took an in-depth look at Season Two of 30 Rock on DVD and felt much better about the merits of that series than NBC's latest comedy effort, Kath & Kim . I also gave up my thoughts about this week's episode of The Office and the final four contestants on Project Runway . I was also deeply disturbed by FOX's announcement that they would be developing yet another US adaptation of Absolutely Fabulous . All this, plus discussions on Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items... Buzz spent some phone time with Lee Pace, whose delightful show you should really all be watching. ( BuzzSugar ) Daemon's TV shared an interview with Chris Diamontopoulos from The

Yet another guest star for 30 Rock . Salma Hayek ( Ugly Betty ) has signed on to guest on the upcoming season of NBC's 30 Rock , where she will recur in several episodes as Elisa, a new love interest for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). "Salma is truly a gifted talent and an incredible force in our industry," said Teri Weinberg, Executive Vice President, NBC Entertainment in a statement. "I've had the privilege of working with her and I can't wait to see what comedic sparks fly with our brilliant 30 Rock cast." "I have been a fan of Tina's talent, both as an actress and a writer, since working with her years ago on SNL ," said Hayek in a statement. "I am so excited to be part of such an intelligent, funny show, as well as working with the brilliant Alec Baldwin and the rest of the cast of 30 Rock ," said Hayek. 30 Rock kicks off its third season on October 30th at 9:30 pm on NBC. In other NBC-related news, the Peacock has ordered f

I'm completely in love with Amy Ryan. There, I said it. Whether she's all grungy and fierce as in Gone Baby Gone , low-key and aching for excitement (as in Season Two of HBO's The Wire ), or all awkwardness and longing as Holly Flax in The Office , I'm always entranced by her subtle and amazing performance. Which brings us to this week's episode of The Office ("Business Ethics"), which was written by first-time Office scribe Ryan Koh who previously worked on this summer's Kevin-centric webisode series. It certainly wasn't the best Office episode we've ever seen and it wasn't the worst, but I did feel like it could have used a hell of a lot of tightening and another polish or so. The basic premise this week found Holly (the aforementioned Amy Ryan) attempting to oversee a branch meeting to discuss business ethics ("Let's get ethical!"), which Michael quickly turns into a situation where everyone is spilling their guts about

How many of you tuned in to watch the launch of ABC's Life on Mars last night? Likely by now you've already read my original review of the pilot episode (back when David E. Kelley was the showrunner) from back in May as well as my review of the reshot pilot (under the direction of executive producers/showrunners Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg) but now you've had a chance to watch the premiere episode, with Jason O'Mara ( Men in Trees ) filling in for the original's John Simm as Detective Sam Tyler, who finds himself inexplicably stuck in 1973. Is he in a coma? Has he traveled through time? Or is something else altogether going on here? It looks like the producers aren't revealing though they do say that Sam isn't necessarily in a coma, which was a given fact of the original BBC series. But I am curious to see what everyone thought of Life on Mars ' premiere episode ("Out Here in the Fields"), both those of you who are fans

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Details are slowly emerging about the next season of British import Torchwood . Producers have cast four actors for the series' condensed third season, entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth . Lucy Cohu ( Meadowlands ) will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past," according to producer Peter Bennett. Susan Brown ( The Riff Raff Element ) will play Bridget Spears, "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story." Cush Jumbo will play Lois Habiba, a secretary who "hacks into some vital information," and Rik Makarem will play Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen's hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood's investigations." I can't wait! ( Digital Spy ) ABC is developing an adaptation of classic 1980s mini-series V , about reptilian aliens who enslave Earth, with The 4400 co-creator/executive producer Scott