[Televisionary]

Missed last weekend's Chuck panel at Comic-Con, either because you were smart enough to stay far away from San Diego this year (unlike yours truly) or because you couldn't bear to wait in line? Fret not, true believers, as the Peacock was there to capture the event and you can watch the entire panel, which gives an inside look at Season Two and well as what to expect for everyone's favorite Buy More employee/reluctant spy and his fearless friends below: And, yes, I've still got to transcribe the interviews I got with Chuck's Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin, once I get my act together... Season Two of Chuck premieres Monday, September 29th at 8 pm on NBC. Watch the promo for Chuck's sophomore season below: What's On Tonight 8 pm: The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); American Gladiators (NBC; 8-10 pm); Gossip Girl (CW); High School Musical: Get in the Picture (ABC); Teen Choice 2008 (FOX; 8-10 pm) 9 pm: Two and a Half Men/New...

First of all, true confession time: I was so exhausted from the last few days at Comic-Con that I drifted off to sleep on the couch last night before the start of Mad Men 's second season opener, so we'll sadly have to wait until tomorrow to talk about that. (Trust me, I was bummed when I woke up with a crick in my neck and realized that I could barely keep my eyelids open enough to catch up with the gang at Sterling-Cooper.) Comic-Con 2008 was certainly a convention to remember. One fellow press attendee remarked to me that it was a year in which everyone seemed to be unhappy. I can certainly understand the frustration, from the six and a half hour car ride down from Los Angeles on Thursday (thanks to that overturned Vons semi that flipped over, spilled food all over the I-5, and caught on fire) that tested my patience and sanity (though did allow me to send some emails while I remained motionless for several hours), to the technical glitch at the Fringe press room that all b...

If there's one constant about Comic-Con from year to year, it's that the panel for Battlestar Galactica is always a huge draw. This year was no different, though I did enjoy last year's "Women of Battlestar " panel a hell of a lot more, though this year's panel--moderated by potty-mouthed Kevin Smith, at least afforded a sizable number of laughs. Much of the panel was devoted to the cast, including Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer, Michael Trucco, and James Callis, remembering their favorite moments over the past few seasons as creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick teased the audience with a few morsels about what's to come in the final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica , slated to air early next year. Of course, there almost wasn't going to be a final ten episodes. Production on the second half of BSG 's final season was interrupted last winter by the writers strike, which shut down production and left the cast wondering whether ...

One of the most hotly anticipated new series this fall is FOX’s Fringe , from the very fertile minds of Lost co-creator JJ Abrams and Transformers & Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Those lucky enough to attend the screening of the feature-length pilot on Wednesday night got a first-hand look at the jaw-dropping first episode of Fringe , which stars Joshua Jackson ( Dawson’s Creek ), Aussie actress Anna Torv, and John Noble ( Lord of the Rings ), who gathered with producers Bryan Burk and Jeff Pinker to talk about all things Fringe . (You can read my advance review of the Fringe pilot from May here .) Abrams admitted that there are “no rules” to the world of Fringe , comparing it to the series Smallville , which—unlike Fringe —was developed with some very specific rules in mind concerning its superheroic lead (“no flights, no tights”). Here the only rule is to expect the unexpected. The idea behind corporate goliath Massive Dynamics, which plays a large role i...

As always, the Lost panel at Comic-Con does not disappoint and this year's panel was no exception to that rule. Presented by the indefatigable duo that is Team Darlton (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse), this year's must-attend event was a mammoth beast of a presentation, taking place inside the 6,500-seat Hall H. And I don't need to say that the room was filled to the rafters with Lost fanatics, who were treated to a look at the upcoming DVD of Season Four, which contains a documentary about a conspiracy surrounding the Oceanic Six, a linear look at the flashforwards, and a hilarious explanation by Lindelof and Cuse about the flashforwards, via their very own flashforwards... which featured an eye patch-clad Lindelof and Cuse sporting an Obama: Four More Years t-shirt. (Oh, and a special "surprise" appearance by a soul patch-sporting Matthew Fox.) The Lost panel this year was sponsored by the Dharma Initiative itself which, apart from the branded oversized soda...

It was absolutely remarkable to see Chuck 's Josh Schwartz, Lost 's Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, Pushing Daisies ' Bryan Fuller, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ' Josh Friedman together on one panel. I thought the stage might collapse under the weight of their collective genius. The panel, part of Entertainment Weekly 's Visionaries series, was moderated by the magazine's in-house Lost guru Jeff Jensen, who did an absolutely brilliant job of asking insightful, intelligent questions and keeping the action moving. I go to a lot of these industry panels and typically the moderators are loathsomely awful, so it was a refreshing change of pace to have Jensen take the reins on this discussion and steer it in the right direction. This being a panel consisting of showrunners on some of my favorite series on the air today, I was glad to see that Jensen didn't let them off the hook with questions designed to help promote their respective series. Inste...

It seems like it's been about five years since we last caught up with 24 's Jack Bauer. When last we saw him, he was staring off into the distance at the very edge of a cliff... and has remained doing so since last winter's writers strike delayed the start of 24 's Day Seven by a year. However, fans of 24 will get a glimpse into the life of Jack Bauer this fall when FOX airs the two-hour 24 prequel telefilm, 24: Exile , which follows Jack in Africa as he takes on the ripped-from-the-headlines issue of child soldiers. Fans at the 24 panel at Comic-Con were treated not only to 24: Exile 's trailer--which features lots of familiar faces including Kiefer Sutherland, Peter MacNicol, and Powers Boothe, but also first female president Cherry Jones, Jon Voight, Robert Carlisle, and Gil Bellows--but also to a look at a full scene from the prequel movie, in which Jack shepherds a group of African children to the US embassy but finds himself caught in a full-blown gunfight ...

Sara lives! Lucky attendees of the Prison Break panel at Comic-Con were treated to two very exciting sights, even though series lead Wentworth Miller was a no-show. The first was a look at the first act of Prison Break 's fourth season, launching this fall, and the second was seeing Sarah Wayne Callies herself, last seen on the series tied to a chair as the captive of the sadistic Gretchen... before her head was mailed to Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). What a difference a year makes. Last year, Callies was on her way out of Prison Break , killed off-screen, but now she's making her triumphant return to the series in a story arc that will give the actress an extremely meaty, emotionally complex role to sink her teeth into. As for the story behind Sara's, er, resurrection, we learn in the opening act of Prison Break 's first episode this fall that Gretchen didn't actually kill Michael's love Sara, who managed to escape Gretchen's clutches. With no leverag...

If you're a fan of the geektastic UK series Spaced , then this was a holy week for you, between the release of the Region 1 DVD (finally!), events around the country, and the trinity itself--creators Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson), and Edgar Wright--appearing at Comic-Con. After a kick-ass clip package that tied into today's Star Wars -themed day at the convention (which featured many of the series' trademark sci-fi/action/pop culture homages and allusions), the trio appeared to rapturous applause and dove right into a discussion about the US release of Spaced on DVD. While there wasn't a lot of new information given away at this Spaced panel, part of BBC America's big push at the convention, it was bloody fantastic to see Pegg, Hynes, and Wright on stage together. This being a Spaced event, it was only a matter of time before the dreaded question--about a third season--reared its head. Pegg, speaking frankly about the future of Spaced , said simply, ...

Comic-Con kicked off with a bang this year, courtesy of a little British Invasion in the form of panels for UK series Doctor Who and Torchwood . Just don't ask writer/producer Steven Moffat if he enjoyed traveling over for the annual geek fest. The Coupling and Jekyll creator was apparently detained and questioned for about twenty minutes when he arrived in the States. Ouch. Moffat and producer Julie Gardner took to the stage during the first ever Doctor Who event at Comic-Con, though sadly executive producer Russell T. Davies was a no-show as he never actually boarded his flight; Davies is in Cardiff working on Torchwood . While Moffat--the inbound head writer of some of my very personal favorite Doctor Who episodes including "Blink," "The Empty Child," "Girl in the Fireplace," and "Silence in the Library"--was exceptionally discrete about revealing future plot points ("I’m not telling you" seemed to be a recurring answer), we...

Will Captain Jack Harkness hang up his trademark trench coat and suspenders for a certain star-spangled shield? The rumor mills are all abuzz that Torchwood 's leading man John Barrowman seems to be in the running to play iconic comic book hero Captain America in an upcoming Hollywood feature film scheduled to be released in 2011. At the Torchwood panel at Comic-Con, Barrowman--between bursting into song with Torchwood co-star Naoko Mori (poor, departed Tosh!) for a duet of "Sun and Moon" from Miss Saigon (the two starred in a stage production of the musical a LONG time ago) and offering some sexual innuendo-laced dialogue about his, er, "boys" and the physical dimensions of one of cast mate Gareth David-Lloyd's body parts--teased the audience about the possibility that he might be up for the role of Steve Rogers when questioned by a fan if he would be up for "rocking the blonde hair" of Marvel superhero Captain America. "I would love to pl...

Don't expect any blue light, contact lenses, or opera music in the upcoming HBO vampire drama series True Blood . So says creator Alan Ball ( Six Feet Under ) who won't be using any of the familiar vampire cliches in his new series, based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. (For my advance look at the first two episodes of True Blood , click here .) What Ball does want is to appropriate Charlaine Harris' use of the supernatural as utterly mundane and accepted by the general population, now that vampires have "come out of the coffin," as it were. While he'll be hewing closely to the plotline of Harris first novel, "Dead Until Dark," which introduced telepathic waitress Sookie Sackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her vampire paramour Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), Ball plans to open up the novel's focus to include the world of the other characters while still remaining true to the spirit of Harris' original creation. (Ball himself stumbled ...

As we near the kick-off of the 2008 San Diego International Comic-Con (or just Comic-Con to its loyal attendees), I'm curious to know who among us is planning on attending this year. I'll be attending once again this year, frantically running from panel to panel and trying to keep a burgeoning schedule of television-related events straight in my head. It will especially difficult this year, with a jam-packed schedule of events that seems to include nearly every single television series remotely connected to the genre ( Dollhouse, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Doctor Who, Torchwood ), a few dramas that have used the con to reach out to fans in the past ( 24 ), and many, many series that are making their first stop at the convention ( Bones, The Office , etc.) Yes, it's officially television overload at Comic-Con this year, with many TV panels scheduled at the same time, leading to all sorts of scheduling conflicts for the TV-centric among us. I am curious: which pane...