[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Amy Ryan ( The Office, The Wire ) has landed a role on Season Three of HBO's psychiatric drama In Treatment , where she will play the new therapist for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. That role was formerly supplied by Dianne Wiest's Gina, who was Paul's mentor/psychotherapist for the first two seasons. (Wiest has departed the series.) [Editor: it's about high time that Ryan had a regular gig on a series. She's been a favorite since her turn on The Wire as Beadie, so it's only fitting that she returns to HBO for In Treatnment .] ( Deadline ) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Glee 's Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Will's scheming ex-wife Terri. So will Terri be returning for Season Two of Glee ? And just what was up with her potentially inappropriate interest in Finn (Cory Monteith)? While Gilsig admits that she hasn't yet received her ...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Good news for Chuck fans: Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Chuck has been renewed for a fourth season of thirteen episodes, though NBC declined to comment on the report. While I had hoped for a full-season order, any Chuck is better than no Chuck , right? ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Good news as well for fans of the Visitors: ABC has reportedly given a thirteen-episode renewal to freshman sci-fi drama V . " V was likely a no-brainer, as ABC wants to bring back at least one frosh drama, and the alien thriller is showing signs of life," writes Variety 's Michael Schneider. "Its fellow frosh sci-fi drama, FlashForward , is not." ( Variety ) Yep, it's not looking good for FlashForward , which Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting has already been cancelled, along with Better Off Ted, Scrubs, and Romantically Challenged . ( Entertainment W...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. It's official: FOX has canceled Joss Whedon's metaphysical drama series Dollhouse . The series, which is currently in production on this season's eleventh episode, will finish production and the network is currently expected to air all thirteen installments of the low-rated Friday night drama beginning December 4th. Whedon himself posted on Whedonesque about the cancellation news (which didn't come as a surprise to anyone tracking the ratings) and said, ""I don't have a lot to say. I'm extremely proud of the people I've worked with: my star, my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you'll agree in the coming months. I'm grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again. I'm off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking," he wrote. "Possibly that relaxation thing I've read so much about. By...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Following an announcement that actress Maura Tierney would require an eight-week medical evaluation for an undisclosed condition, NBC has pushed the start of its drama Parenthood , which was slated to debut on September 23rd, to midseason. The Peacock will instead push up the launch of its midseason medical drama Mercy to the fall, although it is still unclear whether Mercy will inherit Parenthood 's Wednesdays at 8 pm timeslot. The production shutdown on Parenthood , meanwhile, will give writers additional time to complete scripts. ( Hollywood Reporter ) UPDATE : "In an effort to guard my privacy, it seems that the wording of NBC's press release has unfortunately caused some confusion and undue alarm about my health," said Maura Tierney in an official statement. "I have discovered a tumor in my breast which requires surgery. I will not know either my exact diagnosis or course of treatment until that surgery i...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Jared Harris ( Fringe 's David Robert Jones) has been cast in a ten-episode story arc on Season Three of AMC's period drama Mad Men , which is expected to launch in August. Harris will play Lane Pryce, the financial officer of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, in the series, which stars Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, and "guest star" John Slattery. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Should CBS opt not to renew comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine for a fifth season, ABC is willing to give the Warner Bros. Television-produced series, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a bailout, guaranteeing it a full 22-episode season on ABC. Move marks the second time ABC has organized a deal like this on behalf of Old Christine (network head Steve McPherson is said to be a huge fan), but it's thought rather likely that CBS will renew it in the end. ( Hollywood Reporter ) FOX has of...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I was absolutely riveted by last night's episode of Fringe (more on that in a bit) and not so riveted by another dull installment of 90210 . Meh. The CW's buzz-worthy Gossip Girl scored the highest numbers ever in the life of the series, drawing in 3.7 million viewers on Monday, an increase of nearly 500,000 from the week prior and 300,000 above Gossip Girl's second season premiere on September 1st. Those numbers are even more palatable for the netlet when you realize that it's a full one million viewers more than tuned in to the third episode of the first season. Not doing quite as well? FOX's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles , which lost 800,000 viewers from last week's season premiere to sink to a low of 5.5 million, off 36 percent from its Season One average. Ouch. ( Entertainment Weekly ) More talk from NBC chiefs about the quality work co-chairman Ben Silverman is doing (in between "[party...

If I rarely talk about Old Christine , it's not because I've stopped watching. In fact, I haven't given up on the series, which this season has been a little hit or miss in the quality department. Some episodes have been a little too sitcom-y (as in the comedy derives from the situation, rather than the characters themselves, like in the rock-climbing episode), rather than the witty and acerbic comedy that fans of the series have come to know and love. However, this week's episode of Old Christine ("House") was a return to the strengths of the series, focusing on the relationships between the core characters and on the tempest in a teacup herself, Christine Campbell, who--after watching a tearful episode of Oprah --decides to be more like Ms. Winfrey and send back happiness into the world, rather than her typically selfish responses of wishing heart disease on happy people. It's a character transformation that is tested when Richard and New Christine buy ...

It's official: the WGA strike, which began November 5th, has finally come to a close, following a member vote overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike (92.5% to be precise) and getting back to work during the official ten-day ratification process. You can literally hear the sound of relief echoing through Hollywood today as writers return to their keyboards to try to pound out as many scripts as possible in time to salvage the 2007-08 season. "Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work," said WGA West President Patric Verrone in a statement. "This was not a strike we wanted, but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet. Those advances now give us a foothold in the digital age. Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed." So w...

I'm always a little surprised by how much I end up enjoying most episodes of CBS's Old Christine . I usually have an ingrained abhorrence of traditional multi-cam sitcoms (laugh tracks make me itch) but, when it comes to the misadventures of the supremely self-absorbed Christine Campbell, I just can't help myself. Last night's episode ("Friends") was no exception, as Christine, ex-hubby Richard, brother Matthew, and BFF Barb (played with delight by the incandescent Wanda Sykes) head off on a road trip to stay close to weird little moppet Ritchie, away on a camping trip, his first night away from home, under the watchful (if terrified) eye of Jane Lynch (I can't help but love anything with Lynch in it). Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wanda Sykes, and Jane Lynch in one place? Consider it comedic karma for Old Christine consistently managing to stay above the multi-cam comedy ilk. It might not be on the same level of Arrested Development , The Office , or 30 Rock , but...

Every once in a while, there's a recurring star that comes onto a show that feels so deliriously right that you just hope they'll end up sticking around long-term. CBS's hit comedy Old Christine has done remarkably well at finding actors who manage to mesh seamlessly with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the rest of the cast... so well that you hope that they'll turn up again and again every week. Like Wanda Sykes, who recurs as Christine's best friend and business partner. Or Scott Bakula, who turned up earlier (with a terrifying wig/Shirley Jones haircut) this season as a love interest for Christine (and ended up being New Christine's beloved daddy). Yes, readers, I am talking about Blair Underwood, currently recurring on Old Christine as Ritchie's teacher, the dashing Mr. Daniel Harris, who has so far made a melty puddle out of Christine Campbell. (Hell, they hid out together in the restroom of an ice cream parlor to avoid the merciless glare of Meanie Moms Marl...

There are some combinations that are just plain great together, like chocolate and peanut butter, and some that don't sound so appetizing on paper but are just satisfying none the less (like, say, lamb and mint jelly). Of the latter, there's Monday night's odd-couple pairing of Everybody Hates Chris and Old Christine . Before I start getting emails from people "reminding" me that they're not exactly paired together on the same network ( Chris is on the CW, while Christine lives happily on CBS), I'm talking more about the general neighborhood than them actually being next-door neighbors. And now that both have taken up residence on Monday evenings, the similarities between them become all the more apparent. Both of these series couldn't be more different in terms of tone or visual style, but both Everybody Hates Chris and Old Christine have become indicative of a new breed of modern family comedies, comprising a direct reaction to all the Friends ...

I can't believe I am saying this, but I have a little bit of a crush on Old Christine. Okay, first of all I refuse to call the show by its complete title. The New Adventures of Old Christine? Way too much of a mouthful. I'll call the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle by what I am sure will become its abbreviated moniker, Old Christine . Is the show anything entirely new or fresh? Certainly not. But there is something comforting and rewarding about seeing Louis-Dreyfus take on a new role in a show that is comedically far ahead of fellow new coms Free Ride , Courting Alex , or The Loop . Even if there is still a laugh-track. The premise is simple: the Christine of the title is a divorced mother of an adorable eight-year-old boy Ritchie ( Trevor Gagnon ) who has managed to remain friends with her charming ex-husband Richard ( Clark Gregg ), who two years after their divorce still drops by and acts like her best friend. She lives with her slacker younger brother Matthew ( Hamish Link...