[Televisionary]

There are some series that manage to wrap their arms around you and never let go, making you laugh and cry in equal measure. British comedy Gavin & Stacey , which returns to BBC America for its third and final season after way too long of a break, is just one of those series, the sort that makes you laugh and cry in equal measure, filled with characters that you can't get enough of and whom it will be very hard to say goodbye to forever in just a few weeks' time. Revolving around the titular star-crossed lovers, the series--created and written by co-stars James Corden and Ruth Jones--has charted their courtship and marriage over the course of three bittersweet seasons and the reactions of their friends and family to such an unexpected match: Gavin (Mathew Horne) is, after all, an Essex lad while Stacey (Joanna Page) hails from Barry, Wales, making their marriage a union of two nations, cultures, and life philosophies. Season Three finds the pair struggling to adapt once mor...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Mark your calendars, Mad Men fans: Season Four of the period drama is set to launch on Sunday, July 25th at 10 pm ET/PT while new drama Rubicon will launch with two back-to-back episodes on Sunday, August 1st at 8 pm before it moves into its regular 9 pm timeslot the following week. "Sunday nights are where you find the best of premium television so it should be no surprise that AMC -- the home of premium television on basic cable -- is stacking our original dramas there as well," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, in a statement. "We welcome back Mad Men and look forward to introducing Rubicon all on Sunday nights this summer." Rubicon stars James Badge Dale ( The Pacific ), Dallas Roberts ( Walk the Line ), Jessica Collins ( The Nine ), Christopher Evan Welch ( Vicky Cristina Barcelona ), Lauren Hodges ( Law & Order ) with Arliss Howard ( The Sandlot ) and Miranda Richardson ( Sleepy Hollow ). (via...

Just in time for the holidays, BBC America has announced that it has acquired the US rights to the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special (which aired in the UK last year) and Season Three of Gavin & Stacey . (Yes, this news makes me as giddy as a small child opening presents on Christmas Day.) BBC America will air the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, written by series creators James Corden and Ruth Jones, on Thursday, December 24th at 10 pm ET/PT. (You can read my review of the Christmas special, written earlier this year, here .) Meanwhile, the digital cabler has also announced that Season Three of Gavin & Stacey will be crossing the pond. BBC America will launch the comedy's third and final season in second quarter 2010. Exact airdate will be announced at a later date. The full press release from BBC America can be found below. BBC AMERICA ACQUIRES U.S. PREMIERES OF GAVIN & STACEY’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL AND THIRD SEASON BBC AMERICA today announced the acquisition ...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Former Battlestar Galactica star Michael Trucco has been cast in USA drama pilot Facing Kate , where he will play the charismatic ex-husband to Kate, a former lawyer (Sarah Shahi) who leaves her job to become a mediator after the death of her father. Also cast: Virginia Williams ( Lie to Me ), who will play Kate's younger stepmother, a domineering woman who is desperate to hold onto her late husband's law firm. Bronwen Hughes will direct the pilot, which hails from Universal Cable Prods. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Desperate Housewives will offer a flashforward of sorts in their first episode after the December 6th cliffhanger that will explore several "what if" scenarios. "Two Wisterians featured prominently in the alternate reality sequences will be Gaby and Carlos’ youngest daughter, Celia, and Mike and Susan’s son, MJ," writes Ausiello. "I...

BBC One announced their fall line up of programs today, which includes the third (and likely final season) of the award-winning comedy series Gavin & Stacey and the latest Doctor Who special starring David Tennant (entitled "The Waters of Mars"). Also on tap for UK viewers this autumn: a slew of other programming that includes a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma , starring Romola Garai ( Atonement ), Jonny Lee Miller ( Endgame, Melinda And Melinda ), Michael Gambon ( Harry Potter, Cranford ), Tamsin Greig ( Black Books , Green Wing ), Robert Bathurst ( Cold Feet ), and Jodhi May ( Einstein And Eddington, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard ); the return of Peter Moffat's BAFTA-award winning thriller Criminal Justice , starring Maxine Peake, Matthew Macfadyen, Denis Lawson, Steven Mackintosh, Eddie Marsan, and Sophia Okonedo. Also announced: family drama Framed starring Waking the Dead 's Trevor Eve and Torchwood 's Eve Myles; period legal drama Garrow's La...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. E! Online's Watch with Kristin caught up with True Blood star Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton on the HBO supernatural drama, to talk about Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th. "There's no getting away from the fact that Bill is a vampire. He can't wish to be anything else, because he's a vampire, but he's a vampire who wants to live a human life," said Moyer about his character. "Actually, in fact, he wishes not for a human life, but for a moral life. It's not that he doesn't want to feed on blood, it's that he doesn't want it to involve killing—but in his first season he kills as many people as the murderer. That was something that was very present in our minds. He has that blood lust, he has that very strong sense of right and wrong. If somebody f--s him off, he's going to take them out. He's torn. He's not going to do it just for the sake of it. B...

Oh, what's occurrin '? If there's one word that comes to mind when thinking of British comedy series Gavin & Stacey it's bittersweet. Created by James Corden and Ruth Jones, Gavin & Stacey is a comedy series that's just as likely to make you laugh as it is to make you cry. It's a romantic comedy that never turns maudlin or melodramatic and finds humor in the awkwardness and beauty of young love, overbearing families, and national differences. The first season of Gavin & Stacey , now available on DVD after a run last year on BBC America, tells the story of the romance between Essex lad Gavin (Matthew Horne) and Welsh lass Stacey (Joanna Page), the most adorable duo to hit the small screen since... well, ever. These two lovebirds instantly hit it off over the phone and finally agree to meet face to face in London and bring along their respective best friends Smithy (James Corden ) and Nessa (Ruth Jones). Falling head over heels in love, Gavin and St...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing on a glorious day that sees the premiere of an all-new episode of ABC's Lost tonight. (I can't wait!) Former Moonlight star Alex O'Loughlin is said to be in talks to topline CBS medical drama pilot Three Rivers , told from the multiple POVs of transplant doctors, organ donors, and organ recipients. Project, from CBS Paramount Network Television, is written/executive produced by Carol Barbee ( Jericho ) and executive produced by Curtis Hanson and Carol Fenelon. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Co-creator/star James Corden has said that Gavin & Stacey 's upcoming third season, set to air in the UK later this year, will be the series' last. "This is it. This will definitely be the last series," said Corden of the series' third season, set to film this summer. "We have a point to which we are working to and that will be the end. It will be sad but it has been a great time for ev...

Oh, oh, oh, what's occurrin'? The holidays might be over and the New Year already begun, but there's one thing that's always dependable: that James Corden and Ruth Jones' Gavin & Stacey will make you laugh and tear up in equal measure. I had a chance last week to watch the recent Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, which aired on Christmas Eve on BBC One and I have to say that I haven't enjoyed an hour-long comedy that much in a very, very long time. (I won't lie to you, I've now watched it--like Bryn and the Sex and the City movie--no less than three times.) Packing more heart and humor into a single hour, the Christmas Special advances the plot of the first two seasons of Gavin & Stacey while effortlessly setting up the plot for the third season. Plus, it gives us a long overdue glimpse into the most realistically zany characters at the holidays. As Stacey herself would say: it's so lush! When we last saw the gang, Gavin and Stacey had...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. While everyone seems to be returning to work today (darn the end of holidays!), I'm still drowning in a pile of screeners and scripts, but c'est la vie. The big news this weekend, of course, was the announcement that 26-year-old Matt Smith ( Ruby in the Smoke ) would assume the mantle of the Eleventh Doctor in BBC's Doctor Who , replacing outbound series lead David Tennant, who will depart the series after appearing in four specials in 2009. ( Televisionary ) Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph has profiled Smith in an in-depth piece which ran today. Among the more interesting points: "Smith comes to the role without Tennant's in-depth knowledge of the series and describes the next six months as a "time to build this Time Lord…to learn the history of the show", which should give his interpretation freshness. His Doctor may also be boyishly mischievous – he spoke with relish of "the sense of mischief...

As it's nearly the end of the calendar year (only a few more days to go, in fact), I figured now was as good a time as any to look back at some of the shows that that have entertained and inspired me over the past year. It's been a crazy year, between the WGA strike affecting everything from truncated freshman seasons for Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money , and Chuck , delayed seasons for FX's Damages and HBO's Big Love (and a host of others), and a generally frantic development season that only saw two relative hits emerge this fall. So, what were the favorite series in the Televisionary household? Which left me wanting more... and which ones made me eager to change the channel? Find out after the jump. Best Reality Series: Top Chef The Amazing Race Flipping Out Top Chef remains my number one reality obsession. Bravo and Magical Elves have done themselves proud with this sleek, slick production that makes the art of cooking into a nail-biting competition in which eg...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. This being a scant two days before Christmas, there aren't many television-related headlines to discuss but rest assured there are still quite a few. Oh, what's occurrin'? The big news is, of course, that Ruth Jones and James Corden have announced-- from Barry Island , no less--that they will write a third season of their hit comedy Gavin & Stacey . The third season, which had been commissioned by the BBC earlier this year, had been in doubt when Jones and Corden said that their schedules were a bit too full at the moment to write the next season of the romantic comedy, which airs in the States on BBC America. While pesky details like actor availability still have to be worked out, it's fantastic news that we'll get to see more of Nessa and the gang from Barry and Essex before long. The Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, meanwhile, will air tomorrow night on BBC1. ( BBC News ) Doctor Who executive produce...