[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Timothy Olyphant ( Damages ) has been cast in FX's untitled Elmore Leonard project, which is based on a short story by Leonard entitled "Fire in the Hole." Olyphant will play U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who returns to his hometown in Kentucky. "He has a certain jaggedness, but he also loves his job," said creator/executive producer Graham Yost. "He is like an anachronism: He wears a hat, cowboy boots and a holster on his hip. It's a little bit like he was born 100 years too late." Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Timberman/Beverly Prods., will be directed by Michael Dinner and will start shooting at the end of May. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The Chicago Tribune 's Maureen Ryan has a sneak peek at three scenes from Wednesday evening's 100th episode of ABC's Lost , entitled "The Variable." (Gee, does that title remind you of another famous installment?) All I can say is th

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation. This week, I reviewed the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies , recapped the Paley Festival panel for HBO's Big Love , had exclusive interviews with showrunner Jane Espenson about next year's Caprica series and former Veronica Mars writer/executive producer John Enbom about the hilarious Starz comedy Party Down . I shared news about Gillian Anderson being in talks to guest star on Doctor Who , BBC America postponing Season Two of Ashes to Ashes , ABC renewing twelve series , Evan Rachel Wood getting cast in HBO's True Blood , NBC dethroning Kings until June , and I took an early look at a scene from Season Two of True Blood . I also discussed the latest episodes of NBC's Chuck , NBC's 30 Rock , FOX's Fringe , BBC America's Ashes to Ashes , and BBC America's Last Restaurant Sta

If you're at all like me, chances are you've fallen under the quirky and hilarious charms of Starz's biting comedy Party Down , created by Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge, John Enbom, and Paul Rudd. Party Down , which stars Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ryan Hansen, Lizzy Caplan, and Martin Starr, follows the misadventures of the employees of a hapless catering team, each of whom dreams of a better life doing... anything but catering. I caught up with Party Down writer/executive producer John Enbom ( Veronica Mars ) to talk about the genesis of the series, why he believes viewers have latched onto this comedy as quickly as they have, the likelihood of a sophomore season, and whether we'll get to see executive producer Paul Rudd turn up in a guest role. Televisionary: Where did the idea for Party Down originate? How did you, Rob, Dan, and Paul come up with the concept? John Enbom: The cater-waiter idea was originally Rob [Thomas]'s and, since the rest of us had all

Call me a complete and utter geek but I was totally over the moon when Salma Hayek's Elisa stormed into Jack's office wearing a Battlestar Galactica "What the Frak?" t-shirt. Sure, it was a blatant case of cross-promotional product placement (The Sheinhardt Wig Company--excuse me, NBC Universal--also owns Sci Fi and produces BSG via its Universal Media Studios unit) but it was so absurd, so completely random within the fictional universe of 30 Rock that it caused both me and Elisa's would-be fiance Jack Donaghy to pause. It was in a word: awesome. On this week's episode of 30 Rock ("The Ones"), written by Jack Burditt, Jack contemplated marriage to his Puerto Rican girlfriend Elisa (Hayek), even as he learned that she harbored a dark secret from her past; Jenna fell for an attractive EMT who leaves before she can get his number, leading her to attempt to send Kenneth into "acute strawberry shock" by repeatedly poisoning him; Liz discov

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Former X-Files star Gillian Anderson is said to be in talks to guest star in an episode of Doctor Who , set to air on BBC One next year, opposite the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Anderson would play "the renegade Time Lady, The Rani, a glamorous but evil scientific genius previously played in the series by Kate O'Mara in the 80s," who is an archenemy of the Doctor. "Gillian obviously has a massive sci-fi following following and it's felt it would be a major coup to have her appear in Doctor Who ," an anonymous source told The Daily Express . "The team behind the show are keen for the next Doctor to have lots of new enemies and Gillian would be a glamorous and impressive addition to the list. The Rani would be a perfect role for her as the character used to be regarded as one of the Doctor's most deadly opponents." ( Daily Telegraph ) USA has ordered drama White Collar , starring Mat

Those of you anxious to see Season Two of the Life on Mars sequel series Ashes to Ashes had better hold on to your hats... and sit tight. BBC America, which was slated to launch Season Two of Ashes to Ashes on Saturday, May 2nd, has indicated that it will be delaying the launch date for the second season, instead opting to launch Season Three of sci-fi series Primeval in the Saturdays at 9 pm timeslot. The news comes as a bit of a surprise and was discovered only when BBC America sent out a press release for the launch of Primeval announcing that the series, which stars Douglas Henshall, Jason Flemyng, Lucy Brown, Hannah Spearritt, Andrew Lee Potts, Ben Miller, Laila Rouass, Juliet Aubrey, and Ben Mansfield, would be launching on Saturday, May 16th at 9 pm ET/PT. What it failed to share was that Primeval would be taking over Ashes to Ashes ' current timeslot. Listings services, including TiVo's on-screen guide, Yahoo! TV, and Zap2it, had Ashes to Ashes ' sophomore sea

The crowd may have been noticeably older but they were certainly no less rabid at last night's Paley Festival panel for HBO's Big Love . After a gorgeous clip package that encapsulated all of the serpentine story threads from Season Three of Big Love into one breathtaking montage that displayed the depth and breadth of the plotting this past season, the cast took the stage along with moderator Mary McNamara of The Los Angeles Times , whose enthusiasm for the event and the series matched our own in the audience. On the stage to celebrate HBO's Big Love : Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie, Matt Ross, and creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer. (Sadly, unavailable to attend were Mary Kay Place, Amanda Seyfried, and Ginnifer Goodwin, all of whom were very much missed.) Before saying anything else, I just want to say what an absolute hoot Harry Dean Stanton was. Clearly upset about the fact that Olsen and Scheffer killed off h