[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Just a day after the record-breaking season finale of Showtime's Dexter , executive producer/showrunner Clyde Phillips announced yesterday that he is leaving the series. He'll be replaced at the helm by Chip Johannessen ( 24 ). According to the Hollywood Reporter , Phillips made the "hugely difficult decision" to leave in order "to spend more time with his family in Connecticut." "Clyde Phillips has made an enormous contribution to the phenomenal success of Dexter for the past four years, but we know he needs to spend more time with his family on the East Coast than he spends with the Dexter family in L.A.," said Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt. "We reluctantly say good-bye to him at a turning point in the series, but fellow Dexter executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn have chosen a great successor -- Chip Johannessen, who has been a key producer of '24

NBC today unveiled its midseason plans, announcing launch dates for drama series Parenthood and reality series The Marriage Ref , as well as return dates for The Celebrity Apprentice and The Biggest Loser . Drama series Parenthood will launch on Monday, March 1st at 9 pm ET/PT while the Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality series The Marriage Ref will join the schedule on Sunday, March 14th at 8 pm ET/PT. Returning reality series The Celebrity Apprentice and The Biggest Loser kick off respectively on Sunday, March 14th at 9 pm ET/PT and Tuesday, January 5th from 8-10 pm ET/PT. And Chuck , of course returns with a two-hour third season premiere on January 10th at 9 pm ET/PT, before moving into its regular timeslot the following evening (January 11th) at 8 pm ET/PT. Interestingly, no mention was made of sci-fi "miniseries" Day One , which saw its commitment reduced from an initial thirteen episodes to a head-scratching four hours (which NBC indicated would be aired as two two-

Wondering what can you expect when Chuck returns for its third season next month? You're in the right place. Chuck creators/executive producers Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak and series lead Zachary Levi held a press call on Friday (which I live-tweeted ) to discuss the third season of the NBC action-comedy, which beat the odds earlier this year (thanks to a massive effort from critics and fans) and is back for another season of brawls, flashes, romance, and comedy-tinged espionage and soul-killing retail employment. Last season saw Chuck Bartowski assume the mantle of hero as he downloaded the Intersect 2.0 into his skull and was rewarded with some kick-ass kung fu moves. Not bad for someone whose previous involvement in some hand-to-hand combat involved locking the doors of the car while Sarah and Casey took down the bad guys. "He was much better running away or screaming like a little girl... [but now] he's able to lend a hand in the kick-butt-ery," said Levi. &qu

While Emmy nominations are a long way off, I'd like to draw attention to the stunning performance of Fringe 's John Noble. (Yes, it's a long way off but keep it under your hats, Emmy voters.) FOX thriller Fringe is a series that I always watch on Thursday nights (so as not to be spoiled) but, as I was out on Thursday evening, I've only now caught up. Last week's absolutely sensational installment of Fringe ("Grey Matters") offered up not only an advancement of the series' overarching mythology plot but also placed the focus squarely on John Noble's Walter Bishop. Throughout my coverage of Fringe 's outstanding second season, I've often drawn attention to Noble's nuanced and compelling portrayal of Walter Bishop in his chief roles as mad scientist, drug-addled theorist, culinary devotee, father, and, well, father substitute and it pains me that he's gone overlooked for an award nomination as long as he has. Over the course of the l

Yesterday, American Film Institute announced their official selections for the programs of the year for 2009. I'm happy that the esteemed board--which included The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan, TV Guide Magazine 's Matt Roush, Variety 's Brian Lowry, actor CCH Pounder ( The Shield ), and writer/producer David Milch ( Deadwood )--chose to recognize several series that don't get nearly as much love from critics and audiences as they should. Along with noteworthy freshman series like Modern Family and Glee (both of which I expected would end up on the list) and the always sterling Mad Men , the panel selected such unexpected entries like HBO's lyrical mystery series No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency , Starz's breakout ensemble comedy Party Down , HBO's groundbreaking (and sadly often overlooked) drama series Big Love (which had its best season yet earlier this year), saved-from-cancellation drama Friday Night Lights , and Showtime's sensational m

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Dexter executive producer Clyde Phillips about last night's season finale of the Showtime serial killer drama. One very interesting tidbit: when asked about when the decision was made about pulling the trigger on the episode's final scene, Phillips said, "I would say we made the decision pretty late in the season. We didn’t quite know what we were going to do [in the finale]." As for when Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) will find out about Dexter's true nature, don't hold your breath. "We’ve bounced that around the [writers] room," Phillips told Ausiello. "But once we do that... want to talk about game-changers? Once we do that, the game is changed in a way that we just don’t know how to anticipate just yet." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Syfy has given series renewals to Stargate Universe and Sanctuary , pickin

I had both the good fortune and the unluckiness to go out for drinks last night (with a group of fellow TV critics and reporters) and am still way behind on catching up on my Thursday night programming. (Which feels a bit like a Sisyphean effort every week with so many fantastic series shoehorned onto Thursday nights.) I did, however, manage to catch last night's fantastic episodes of NBC's Community and Parks and Recreation , which offered a much-needed holiday-themed one-two punch after my night of absinthe-based socializing. I thought that both series were firing on all cylinders last night. Community may have pulled off its best episode to date with "Comparative Religion" (written by Liz Cackowski), juggling plots involving Jeff (Joel McHale) standing up to bully (guest star Anthony Michael Hall), the holidays, the end of the semester, and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) coming to terms that her friends might not share her religious views. While I enjoy seeing the