[Televisionary]

I didn't get any sleep last night. After racing home from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion at the Paley Festival , I was on the edge of my seat during last night's episode of Lost ("Meet Kevin Johnson"), the final episode before the series takes a month-long break until April 24th. And the pressure of watching Lost with the euphoria at seeing the cast reunion of one of my all-time favorite series was too much for my stressed brain to cope with and I spent the next few hours tossing and turning, imagining Sayid, Michael, and Desmond breaking into an amalgam of "Where Do We Go From Here?" and that Mama Cass song ("It's Getting Better") from the opening. But enough of that. Last night's episode of Lost did feel like a good place to take a breather before the series returns with new installments next month, giving the audience a few bits of information, revealing just what Michael was up to these last few months (more on that in a bit),...

Rachel Dratch lookalike, 32-year-old Chicago native Valerie, was foiled on last night's episode of Top Chef ("Zoo Food"), thanks to her flavorless blinis during an Elimination Challenge that saw the chefs split up into five teams, each charged with catering a cocktail party for 200 guests at the Chicago Zoo... and serving food that their particular team "mascot" would have eaten. But before that the cheftestants were sent to the Green City Market, where they had a half an hour to shop for five ingredients with which to make a dish. (The typical ingredients such as salt, pepper, sugar, and oil wouldn't count towards this total but anything used from the Top Chef pantry would.) It was definitely interesting to see the chefs race around the market trying to grab whatever struck their fancy (except for Spike who seemed more interested in mellowing out to the musical stylings of that guitarist). I was absolutely convinced that Mark would lose this challenge, if ...

It's always a happy day when Misha Barton isn't cast in something I'm watching. The waifish former OC star won't be appearing in a multiple-episode arc this season on the CW's guiltiest pleasure, Gossip Girl . Instead filling the role of Georgina Sparks, a new nemesis for Serena (Blake Lively): former Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Michelle Trachtenberg . Yes, the Buffy's lil' sis--a.k.a. The Key, a rather animated ball of light--herself will be joining the cast of Gossip Girl this May. Trachtenberg will bring, I am sure a delicious cattiness to the role of Georgina, who shows up on the Upper East Side after a stint in rehab to make life even more hellish (though still luxuriously stylish) for poor Serena. As for Misha, let's just hope she doesn't throw any more lawn furniture into the pool now that the news has broken. 'Cause that would be a travesty. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Deal or No Deal (NBC); Smallville (CW); Miss/Guided / Miss/Gui...

While last night's latest Paley Festival panel, for NBC's delightfully funny and action-packed series Chuck , was definitely a hoot (courtesy of the series' hyperactive stars and creators who riffed off of one another and moderator Damon Lindelof for nearly two hours), there wasn't a whole lot revealed that I didn't already learn from Chuck stars Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin when I spent the day with them in December . Nearly the entire cast was in attendance except for Sarah Lancaster who was ill and unfortunately could not attend the panel. (Damn!) In a rare switcheroo, Levi was sporting a Jesus-style beard and longish hair that still did make me want to give him all of my pudding (thanks to EW writer Gillian Flynn for that bon mot), while Josh Gomez was nearly clean-shaven with a spiky hairstyle but still sporting "chin pubes," according to Ryan McPartlin, anyway. Adam Baldwin was, as ever, sleekly attired in a stylish suit, Yvonn...

Oh, Malloys, how I have missed you. I raced home last night after Chuck 's Paley Festival panel to catch the second season premiere of FX's pitch black dramedy series, The Riches ("The Last Temptation of Wayne"), last night. When we last saw the Malloys--who had assumed the identity of the dead Riches--they were about to flee Eden Falls after being discovered by so honest-you-want-him-dead Pete and dangerous-as-fox-on-acid Dale, who wasn't about to let them escape from their fate. Eeek! The second season finds them trying to escape their precarious situation by running into the night. Dahlia quickly packs up the kids and Cherien's senile mother as they hit the road--joined by jilted neighbor Nina who wants to leave behind her life of suffering for adventure on the open road--and Wayne stays behind to deal with Pete... who winds up bludgeoned to death in the back of Wayne's car, courtesy of sociopath Dale. I was a little confused as to whether Dale intende...

Patience is, after all, a virtue. Lucky then that fans of Battlestar Galactica have patiently waited for the next (or is it previous?) chapter in the story of the Twelve Colonies. Sci Fi yesterday announced that it has finally greenlit production on the two-hour backdoor pilot Caprica , a prequel of Battlestar Galactica , set before the Cylon War. "We couldn't be more excited to see this long-anticipated project get off the ground," said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, in a statement. "It's an amazing script, and, though clearly inspired by the Battlestar mythology, it is not just a pale spin-off. This is a smart, thought-provoking, emotional, and compelling character drama in its own right." The news comes as Sci Fi prepares to launch the final twenty-episode season of Battlestar Galactica on April 4th; the cabler has been developing the spin-off prequel since 2006. Just don't expect Apollo, Starbuck, Six, or Laura Rosli...

Mere words cannot describe just how surreal last night's Paley Festival panel, celebrating the career of comedy genius Judd Apatow , ended up being. Perhaps it was the unexpected assemblage of boldfaced names like Garry Shandling, Paul Rudd, Paul Feig, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, Jonah Hill, Tom Arnold, and Andy Dick (?!?!?), all of whom came together to express their shared love for Apatow. The first half of the evening was Apatow chatting with former mentor Shandling about the good old days, when he wrote material for Shandling's emcee speeches (like at the Grammy Awards) and on series like The Larry Sanders Show . (Huzzah!) It was truly thrilling--not to mention hilarious--to see these two neurotic comedians on stage together, ribbing one another and trading embarrassing and pointed stories about days long gone by and Apatow's belief that a decade-old botched joke (involving Hank and a baby leash) would have worked on Sanders . For many (like the former stars...