[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. It's official: TBS has cancelled comedy My Boys after four seasons. News comes after series stars Jordana Spiro and Kyle Howard had to withdraw from pilots that had been ordered to series due to their first position on the TBS comedy, whose days many suspected were already numbered. According to Variety 's Jon Weisman, roughly 14 months passed between the end of the third season and the beginning of the fourth season, which kicked off in July. One cast member--Jim Gaffigan--left between the seasons. Spiro's role on Love Bites was eliminated when she was unavailable as the show under went some retooling. ( Variety ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that John Schneider ( Smallville ) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Desperate Housewives this season, where he will play the father to Brian Austin Green's Keith, the new handyman/contractor overseeing the remodeling of...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. To those of you who celebrated the Fourth of July, welcome back to work after a long weekend. (Sigh.) Javier Bardem ( Vicky Cristina Barcelona ) will guest star next season on FOX's Glee , according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello (and Dave Karger), who reports that the Academy Award-winning actor will appear as "a rock star who befriends Artie (Kevin McHale)." In fact, it was Bardem who approached Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy about dropping by the 20th Century Fox Television-produced musical-comedy when they worked together on Eat Pray Love . “We’re going to rock the house,” Bardem told Entertainment Weekly . “We’re going to do some heavy metal — Spanish heavy metal, which is the worst." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) TV Guide Magazine 's Will Keck writes that Brian Austin Green ( Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ) is weighing a potential role on ABC's Desperate House...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Showtime's Dexter is on a casting role. Variety 's Stuart Levine is reporting that Jonny Lee Miller ( Eli Stone ) is the latest to board the serial killer drama, signing on to appear in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Five of Dexter . Miller will play "a mysterious man who ends up tangled in a storyline with Julia Stiles, who is beginning her first season on the skein." ( Variety ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jordana Spiro has exited NBC's midseason romantic anthology series Love Bites . Spiro's participation in the series was always in second position to her role on TBS comedy My Boys , which returns for its fourth season next month. "Although the odds appear slim that TBS will renew the show for a fifth season (season 4 premieres July 25), it was a risk NBC apparently wasn’t willing to take," writes Ausiello. "It’s unclear if her role will be recast....

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Former White Collar co-star (and The Middleman star) Natalie Morales has landed a recurring role on NBC's Parks and Recreation , according to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello. Morales has signed on to Parks for a multiple-episode story arc in which she will play Lucy, described as "a smart and funny busgirl at a local Pawnee bar." [Editor: Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva, meanwhile, indicates that Morales will be appearing "in at least two episodes," the same ones that are set to feature guest stars Rob Lowe and Adam Scott.] ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files , Hollywood Reporter ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan is reporting that Caprica executive producer Jane Espenson--who previously wrote for Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer --will write a script for HBO's upcoming fantasy drama series Game of Thrones , based on the George R.R. Martin nove...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. While everyone is buzzing about last night's presidential debate, there are more than a few television-related news tidbits to discuss as well. Following several months of discussions, FX has confirmed that it will not be renewing drama series The Riches for a third season, due to falling ratings for the drama. In its second season, which was shortened to seven episodes due to the writers strike, viewers dropped 44 percent in the key 18-49 demo. The move is hardly a surprise: showrunner Dmitry Lipkin is currently working on his HBO pilot project Hung and I had assumed for a while now that The Riches would sadly not be returning to the cabler. ( Variety ) TV Guide talks to Pushing Daisies star Lee Pace about what to expect for Season Two, a certain game of "slap jack" between Ned and Chuck that never made it to the screen, and the Pie Maker's family. ( TV Guide ) Sadly, there might not have been a new episode ...

Looks like PJ will be hanging with her boys for some time to come. Basic cabler TBS has ordered nine additional episodes of its freshman comedy My Boys , the network's first original series. Series, from Sony Pictures Television and creator Betsy Thomas, will resume production after the New Year and the newly ordered episodes will air sometime during summer 2007. The back nine order bumps My Boys ' episode count to 22 episodes. News comes as the original 13-episode order for My Boys wraps next week, with TBS scheduling no less than five original episodes just after Christmas Day. The series' ninth and tenth episodes will air back-to-back on Tuesday, December 26th at 10 pm ET/PT, with episodes 11 and 12 popping up on December 27th from 10-11 pm ET/PT, and the final episode will air the following night (that would be December 28th) at 10 pm. For the uninitiated, My Boys follows the travails on tomboy PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro), a sportswriter looking for romance, but she di...