[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Could Lost 's Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson be headed back your televisions? If J.J. Abrams gets his way, they'll be reuniting for a drama project--tentatively entitled Odd Jobs --that Abrams, along with Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, are pitching to the networks. Vulture's Josef Adalain is reporting that the drama, which will also contain a large amount of humor, revolves around "former black-ops agents." It's unknown whether the project is based on any part on the idea that Emerson and O'Quinn had floated a while back in which they'd play suburban hit men. But the fact that Abrams' Bad Robot--and possibly by association Warner Bros. Television--is behind Odd Jobs (or whatever it might eventually be called), is a good sign that the project will at least be picked up to pilot. ( Vulture ) AOL Television's Maureen Ryan talks to Linda Hamilton about her role as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski...

FX has today announced its midseason schedule, including return dates for Damages and Nip/Tuck and series launches for Timothy Olyphant-led drama Justified (formerly known as Lawman ) and comedies Archer and Louie . Season Three of Damages will kick off on Monday, January 25th at 10 pm ET/PT. (The series previously aired on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings during its first two seasons.) Series regulars Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, and Ted Danson are all set to return for the third season, which will also feature new regulars Campbell Scott (Joe Tobin) and Martin Short (Leonard Winstone) and guest stars Lily Tomlin (Marilyn Tobin), Keith Carradine (Julian Decker), and Len Cariou (Louis Tobin). Elsewhere at the cabler, Nip/Tuck will launch its final season on Wednesday, January 6th at 10 pm ET/PT and animated comedy Archer begins on Thursday, January 14th. Looking further afield, Justified will premiere in March and comedy Louie will debut later in the spring. The full p...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Former Dirty Sexy Money star Natalie Zea, who most recently recurred on HBO's Hung , has signed on a series regular on FX's drama Lawman , starring Timothy Olyphant. Zea, who appeared in Lawman 's pilot, will reprise her role as the ex-wife of Olyphant's US Marshall Givens in the series. Project hails from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Emmy winner Armand Assante has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck , where he will play "a Castro-esque dictator who Casey has unsuccessfully tried to assassinate multiple times." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) The CW has given a full season order to veteran drama series One Tree Hill , which is currently in its seventh season. Initially, the netlet had only ordered 13 installments for this season but the order bumps the episode total to a full 22. El...

One of the more memorable series teased at the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena was FX's Lawman , which stars Timothy Olyphant ( Damages ) and is based on an Elmore Leonard novel. (More information about the project, announced last month, can be found here .) The Sony Pictures Television-produced series, from writer/executive producer Graham Yost, is expected to launch in the spring of next year. Lawman was among the projects touted at FX's executive session and we were treated to an extraordinary clip from the pilot episode of the twice-yearly critics' gathering. I had been hoping to share with you this clip from Lawman but was unable to do so until now. Thanks to the generosity of FX, I've now been given the go-ahead to share this sneak peek at the staggeringly great Lawman with you. So what are you waiting for? Check out Timothy Olyphant in this clip from FX's gripping Lawman below. Lawman will debut in Spring 2010 on FX.

A little over a week before its TCA Summer Press Tour session, cabler FX has announced that it has ordered thirteen episodes of drama series Lawman , based on the Elmore Leonard short story "Fire in the Hole." The project, from Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions, is written and executive produced by Graham Yost ( Boomtown ). Lawman stars Timothy Olyphant ( Damages ) as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, described in press materials as "a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service." Givens is reassigned to the district where he grew up in rural Kentucky with an outlaw father. "FX has been fortunate to employ some of the finest writers working in television and we’re lucky to add an outstanding talent like Graham Yost to that growing list," said FX President/General Manager John Landgraf in a statement. "Graha...