[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. ABC is set to bring back Better Off Ted earlier than expected as the network has announced that it will air six unaired episodes from Ted 's first season this summer before kicking off a second season of thirteen episodes in early 2010. Better Off Ted will return to ABC's schedule on June 23rd at 9 pm ET/PT, airing behind new reality competition series The Superstars . [Editor: that gleeful squealing sound you're hearing? It's me.] Meanwhile, ABC also announced that it had pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia from its lineup, instead airing back-to-back episodes of The Goode Family this week. ( Variety ) Mykelti Williamson ( Kidnapped ) has joined the cast of Day Eight of FOX drama 24 , where he will play the head of CTU New York, Brian Hastings, described as having "a razor-sharp intellect." Williamson, who will be a series regular next season, joins the recently announced Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Westfe...

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. While the fate of NBC's on the bubble action comedy series Chuck is still unknown, executive producer McG--who helmed the pilot episode--is feeling positive about an eleventh hour renewal. "We're optimistic," he told SCI FI Wire. "We're going to find out in a week. But the fans have spoken. People really rallied and articulated their love of the show, but it's a cold-hearted numbers business. And I'm happy to report that the people at NBC like the show." ( SCI FI Wire ) ABC has given an early series order of thirteen episodes to single-camera comedy Modern Family , from writer/executive producers Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. The 20th Century Fox Television-producted project, formerly known as My American Family , will track the lives of three American families--one a traditional nuclear family, one a gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese baby, and the last an older man with a young Lat...

I've always loved Cynthia Stevenson. Her Joy Lass on Showtime's short-lived Dead Like Me remains an enduring example of a suburban mother in the throes of a perpetual crisis: snarky, unsympathetic at times, and filled with a terrible sense of loss after the death of her daughter. So what is the fantastic actor doing in the Bob Saget comedy vehicle Surviving Suburbia , premiering tonight on ABC? I'm not entirely sure but her considerable charm and comedic flair are wasted on this recycled family sitcom format. The premise: Stevenson plays Anne Patterson, a likable wife and mother of two who's a fixture in the neighborhood, always willing to perform little errands for her neighbors, like taking in their mail or feeding their goldfish. She's married to Steve (Bob Saget), a grumpy misanthrope of a man who hates his neighbors, is selfish to a fault, and is, well, pretty damn dull. They have two kids: precocious sprite Courtney (G. Hannelius) and sullen teenager Henry (J...