[Televisionary]

I'm of two minds about last night's crossover cold open on NBC's The Office ("The Seminar"), which, if you missed it, can be viewed in full below. Let's be upfront about this: I'm an obsessive fan of the original UK Office , so the chance to see Ricky Gervais don David Brent's goatee was absolutely priceless, but I've also given up watching the US version for a while now as, in the last few seasons, it's descended into a bit of a tired and humorless mess. Having said that, I thought that the chance encounter between Steve Carell's Michael Scott and Gervais' David Brent was a bit of a hoot at first, and easily the funniest cold open The Office has pulled off in quite some time (from what I remember of the last few seasons I watched). Seeing the simpatico spirit that exists between the two men, each versions of each other, was unexpectedly touching, even as the two joked around and David asked if there were any jobs going around at Dund...

Karl Pilkington traipsing around the world and checking out the Seven Wonders? Sign me up please! That's exactly the premise of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new docuseries An Idiot Abroad , which will air this month on Sky1 in the UK and which will follow the notoriously round-headed Pilkington--the breakout star of HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show --as he makes his way around the globe to step outside his comfort zone and, well, maybe challenge himself. Here's how Sky1 is positioning the series: "Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are outraged that Karl has written off the Seven Wonders claiming they’re all “a bit s**t” having never seen any of them with his own eyes. They’ve thrown down the gauntlet to send him around the globe to force him out of his comfort zone. Stephen wants the experience to broaden Karl’s mind and change his outlook on the world. Ricky wants Karl to hate every minute of it for his own amusement. Dispatched on what many would term a jour...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Bones ' 100th episode will in fact be a flashback episode to reveal the first time that Emily Deschanel's Temperance Brennan and David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth worked together. "We’ll be there for the first time those two personalities clashed, Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan told Ausiello. "Events will conspire to make them come out of the case hating each other and vowing that they will never work together again... We’ll also see the introduction of Angela and the genesis of her friendship with Brennan." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Maggie Grace is confirmed to be returning for Lost 's sixth and final season, according to TV Guide Magazine . She'll return to Oahu next month to reprise her role as Shannon Rutherford, who was last seen on the series in 2005. "Producers had invited Maggie back earlier, but t...

HBO's Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo took to the stage yesterday at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Pasadena that HBO had locked in its entire current Sunday night lineup for additional seasons next summer. The pay cabler has officially renewed True Blood for a third season, Hung for a second season, and Entourage for a staggering seventh season. All will return to the lineup next summer rather than premiering earlier. " True Blood , Hung , and Entourage will all be coming back next summer and we're very excited about it." Lombardo told the press. "So stay tuned for next June." The duo, in an executive session at the aforementioned TCA panel, also relayed information about HBO's other crop of series and whether we could expect to see them return or not, with the fate of several series still very much up in the air. Curb Your Enthusiasm returns September 20th with a new series and will be slotted together with new comedy...

Is it just me or was it positively inspirational to see 30 Rock rack up so many statuettes last night at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards? The NBC comedy, which many predicted would be canceled as soon as it launched, racked up three awards including Best TV Comedy, Best Actress in TV Comedy (Tina Fey), and Best Actor in a TV Comedy (Alec Baldwin), all three of the categories in which it was nominated. Likewise, HBO's miniseries John Adams cliched all seven awards in all of its nominated categories (go Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, and Tom Wikinson!) and Mad Men took home the top spot for TV Drama... even though series leads Jon Hamm and January Jones were cruelly overlooked for their superlative performances this season. What did I think of the awards and what burning questions do I still have? Let's discuss. I'm not quite sure why Jeff Zucker looked quite so displeased when 30 Rock took home the award for Best TV Comedy but the man could barely muster a smile for th...

It had to happen sooner or later. Despite the fact that I've enjoyed every single second of Extras , Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's follow up to The Office , I've always known that like its predecessor, this would not be a long running show. The Office lasted 12 episodes and was wrapped up with a two-part special that tied up all of its loose ends, particularly the romance between Tim and Dawn. So I was curious to see what would happen if Gervais and Merchant actually created a third season of a show. But at the same time I knew the likelihood of Extras coming back for a third season (and outliving, as it were, The Office ) was slim to none. Sadly, we'll never know what a long-running Gervais and Merchant comedy would look like. The writing/producing/starring twosome have opted not to continue Extras , after all. Like The Office , the series will end with a special. That special, unfortunately, doesn't have a date or casting in place. A spokesperson for the...

I always get depressed when there's a series that I love watching that no one seems to talk about (or, hell, watch at all). In this case, I'm talking about the second season of Ricky Gervais' follow-up to The Office , the mordantly hilarious comedy Extras , which recently launched on HBO. Quick recap time: Gervais plays Andy Millman, a hapless extra, er, background artist who has been slaving away in obscurity for years and years with little hope of escaping a mindless life of drudgery and anonymity. (Hmmm, sounds like David Brent.) He's got a useless, boorish agent (played to great comic effect by co-creator Stephen Merchant, reunited here with his Office mate), no love life to speak of, and constant companion in his friend, the cute but clueless Maggie (played by Ashley Jensen, who has cleaned up and gone all glam as Christina on Ugly Betty .) The second season has brought Andy a modicum of success in the form of a BBC workplace sitcom called When the Whistle Blows ....

It's pretty rare that I am actually speechless. I don't know what to say after watching this clip of The Office 's Ricky Gervais' appearance on UK talk show Room 101. Let me put it this way: our very own David Brent (that would be Gervais, natch) was in a band called Seona Dancing and filmed this 1984 music video for their song "Bitter Heart." Watch it and you'll catch a seriously baby-faced Gervais and a rare glimpse of genius. Or at least of 1980s- inspired madness. It's no "Free Love on the Freelove Highway" but just... wow. Seriously, wow. (Special thanks to Televisionary reader Whitney for bringing this rare gem to my attention.)

I was more than a little impressed by how much I enjoyed last night's episode of The Simpsons . But then again, considering it was written by (and guest starred) comedy legend Ricky Gervais, I shouldn't have been all that surprised. He is, after all, the man who brought us David Brent, HBO's Extras , and a certain Guinness Record-holding weekly podcast. (First off, I have to take a moment and just gush about the live-action opening that Fox used last night for The Simpsons . In an episode featuring one of Britain's top comedians, it's only fitting that producers used the live-action opening sequence created by a bunch of Brits for a promo that aired on the UK's Sky network. From the opening images of the nuclear plant's smoke stacks to baby Maggie getting scanned at the grocery check-out and little Lisa whailing away on her saxophone, it was sheer genius. Every moment tracked beautifully and in three-dimensional brilliant color. Having seen it online, I had ...