TV with MeeVee

Back To "The Office": NBC Unveils Post-Strike Plans

NBC has announced the post-writers-strike fate of its shows. One press release unveiled premiere dates for series returning this spring. The other revealed that "Heroes," "Chuck" and "Life" will all return - but not till next fall, when they'll be beneficiaries of "major re-launch campaigns."

Unlike CBS, the network wasn't telling how many post-strike episodes of the spring series will be produced - with "Scrubs," in its final season, the big question mark there. Sez NBC:

"My Name Is Earl" (Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m. ET), will return with a one-hour episode on Thursday, April 3; the Emmy Award-winning "30 Rock" (Thursdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET) will begin on Thursday, April 10; likewise, the Emmy-winning "The Office" (Thursdays, 9-9:30 p.m. ET) also resumes with new episodes on Thursday, April 10; and "Scrubs" (Thursdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET) will come back with original episodes beginning Thursday, April 10.

"ER" (Thursdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) also will come back on Thursday, April 10 with new episodes following the complete run of "Lipstick Jungle," which concludes on March 20.

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (Tuesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) will return with fresh episodes on Tuesday, April 15. "Law & Order" (Wednesdays, 10-11 p.m. ET) resumes with original episodes on Wednesday, April 23. Meanwhile, "Medium" (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) continues in originals.

And a postscript: Specific plans for other NBC scripted series are currently being determined and will be announced later.

Morning Links

• The debut of "Breaking Bad" got almost-"Mad Men" sized numbers in its debut on Sunday night. Wonder how people will feel when the meth head starts melting in the tub of acid... (Hollywood Reporter)
• Sneak peeks (with spoilers) at both of tonight's "Chuck" episodes on NBC. (GMMR and GMMR)
• Getting down to some nitty gritty in assessing the DGA deal. (Scribe Vibe)
• Some loose talk on the WGA side about how strong their hand is. (TV Decoder)
• Casting announced for Fox's sci fi drama "Fringe." (Hollywood Reporter)
• "Idol" still kicks ass in the ratings, but not quite as much as it did last year. Hmmm. (TV Decoder)
• Informal WGA/AMPTP talks resume. (AP)

Family Friendly Programming Awards - Not Bad, Actually

Too often "family-friendly" is a TV code word for "lame crap for the kids." But nearly a decade ago a group of major advertisers put their money where their mouthes were and funded the Family Friendly Programming Forum, which provides seed money for the development of family friendly TV scripts. The show gets on the air, the fund gets reimbursed. Simple as that. And the results have been pretty good, including "Gilmore Girls," "Friday Night Lights" and "Everybody Hates Chris." Separately, the group promotes the annual Family Television Awards, which were handed out Wednesday night in Hollywood, with the ceremony to be televised Dec. 27 on CW.

Now, you're not going to find "The Wire" or "Weeds" here (and ironically you won't find any CW shows either). But the winners mostly demonstrate that the Forum has been true to its word, making inclusive, family-friendly shows that regularly defy the "lame crap for kids" stereotype by being at least halfway decent and often very good. (This year, not surprisingly, it's Fox that brings the average down.) This year's winners are:

Comedy - "Ugly Betty," ABC
Drama - "Heroes," NBC
Actor - Zac Efron ("High School Musical 2," ABC Family)
Actor - Kyle Chandler ("Friday Night Lights," NBC)
Actress - America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty," ABC, pictured)
Miniseries or Special - "Planet Earth" BBC/Discovery
Movie Musical - "High School Musical 2," ABC Family
New Series - "Pushing Daisies," ABC
Cable Series - "Kyle XY," ABC Family
Reality - "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" Fox
Favorite Newcomer - Zachary Levi ("Chuck," NBC)

NBC Re-Ups "Chuck" and "Life" - Whither "Journeyman?"

NBC announced late yesterday that it's giving full-season commitments to ratings-challenged freshman dramas "Chuck" (right) and "Life," offering their oddball heroes 22 full episodes to win over our hearts. It's difficult to parse whether this would have happened without a writers strike, which has complicated every such decision. "Life" never seems to have caught on, while "Chuck" was a critics' favorite initially but has underwhelmed since. Just yesterday, the NY Times TV Decoder blog was wondering if "Life" was dead.

One show not mentioned is the peacock's "Journeyman," which has only a couple of new episodes left in the can, and is unlikely to produce more. Reportedly the final ep would unravel at least some of the mystery behind the show's time-traveling plot.

Read NBC's press release after the jump...

Bonus Afternoon Links Festival

• An interview with Michaela Conlin (right), who plays Angela on "Bones." (Buddy TV)
• Love "Mad Men" on AMC. Brilliant. Deep. My favorite new show of the year, so far. Only two eps left this season. But at least we'll be getting the max out of the Oct. 18 season finale. (TV Squad)
• The three funniest words ever written about Victoria Beckham. (Glitterati)
• Spoilers for tonight's "House." (BuzzSugar)
• Proof that us reviewers know what we're talking about: "Journeyman" ratings are down. Proof that we don't: "Chuck" and "Heroes" are also sagging. (Televisionista)
• Proof that the jury's still out: "Cavemen's" fate will likely be revealed tonight, when its second episode airs. last week's big numbers reflected poorly on all of us critics, who HATED the show. But they may also have reflected a big curiosity tune-in. (Buddy TV)

Stars Liveblogging For NBC Premieres (CORRECTED)

If you're checking out the premieres of "Chuck" and "Journeyman" on NBC tonight, you might want to power up the laptop at the same time for liveblogging and chat with the stars and creators of the two shows as they air. "Chuck" star Zach Levi and creator Josh Schwartz will be online at http://blog.nbc.com/chuck/ beginning at 8 ET. "Journeyman" Star Kevin McKidd will be online during at show at http://blog.nbc.com/journeyman/ beginning at 10 ET. And perhaps most important, "Heroes" creator Tim Kring and star Jack Coleman (aka H.R.G. - pictured ) will be at http://blog.nbc.com/heroes/ beginning at 10 ET, after the season premiere. NBC sez the "Heroes" site has been redesigned and now includes the final piece of the Yamagata Fellowship doc.

CORRECTION: NBC's folks emailed again to say they told us wrong before - each liveblog starts after the show, so online fun for "Chuck" begins at 9, "Heroes" at 10 and "Journeyman" at 11 ET. Also, McKidd is out and "Journeyman" creator Kevin Falls is in.

Review: "Chuck" Turns Nerd Herd Into Mod Squad

Zach Levi, a supporting player on “Less Than Perfect,” gets a chance to shine in “Chuck,” one of the new shows that critics really seem to like this fall. I’m not sure I can make up my mind about it until I see a couple more episodes. The pilot is pretty entertaining, even though the plot’s ridiculous. One of the reasons I prefer CW’s similar “Reaper” is that it makes a story about the Devil and Hell seem entirely believable in the middle of the suburbs, while “Chuck” has a hard time doing the same with its CIA and NSA spooks. Go figure.

Levi plays the titular Chuck, a Nerd Herd worker at the Buy More store – think Geek Squad and Best Buy. He’s a pathetic loser, still living with his sister and mooning over the girl he lost to his dashing college roommate, Bryce, five years ago. Then one day he gets an email from Bryce that bursts into a psychedelic video montage. Chuck is hypnotized by the images, not realizing that he is downloading all of the government’s secrets directly into his brain. Unbeknownst to Chuck, Bryce is a government superspy involved in some sort of interagency conspiracy – but not so super that he doesn’t get dead shortly after emailing Chuck. Now there’s only one set of files, and it’s in Chuck’s head.

Morning Links!

The Times says "Kid Nation" is like "The Real World" only with younger stars. They are neither vehemently negative nor really interested in watching more.

Slate covers blogs by TV characters, like the "Big Love" character Margene, and also posts a  review of "Gossip Girl" which is not as harsh as we've been on the show, as well as a backstage note about TV show budgets getting out of hand.

Televisionary has an interview with that dude from "Chuck."

Variety says that AMC's "Mad Men" is going to get renewed.

Ducky has a bit about "ANTM," and FourFour notes that they'll have their carefully-crafted nastiness posted every Monday.

And here's a video clip of Dick and Daniele from "Big Brother 8:"

Morning Links Madness!

First, one more look at the only really funny moment during Sunday night's Oscarcast:

• Talkin' 'bout Fox bleeping the Emmys. (New York Times)
• "Match Game" wiseacre Brett Somers has died at 83. (Associated Press.)
• Tim Goodman has some last thoughts on the Emmycast: "All this controversy about Sally Field's stupid speech. The woman should be banned from accepting anything, except advice. Like this: Shut it. Take the trophy, go home." (SFGate.com)
• A sweet sentiment from The TV Addict: "This summer will be forever remembered as quite possibly the best summer of television ever." (TVAddict.com)
• Josh Schwartz talks about "Gossip Girl" (boo) and "Chuck" (yay): "It's really hard to do a show about people in their 20s. It becomes a lot of navel-gazing, people complaining about their lives. But if a guy in his 20s is complaining about his life because he was almost killed by a ninja the night before, now you've got something." (BuzzSugar)
• Pix of Neil Patrick Harris of "How I Met Your Mother" and his boyfriend at the Oscars. (Televisionista)
• Recapping "Prison Break" at GMMR: "I felt like I needed a shower after watching tonight’s episode just to get the stink and the grime off of me." (GMMR)
• Pictures of the "Smallville" action figures and pictures of the stars at Emmy afterparties - which is more lifelike? (Televisionista)

"Chuck" Gets A Girlfriend From "The O.C."

Turns out maybe Chuck on NBC's "Chuck" won't be getting romantic with the hottie superspy like I thought. In fact, a blue collar gal played by Rachel Bilson - aka Summer Roberts of "The O.C." - may be Chuck's love interest, at least for a few episodes beginning in October. And it's not because Bilson just really likes schlubby Jewish boys with a taste for pop culture trivia. This has everything to do with the fact that producer Josh Schwartz is behind both shows. (From our friend The TV Addict.)

Fall TV Night-By-Night: Monday

A big night for all the networks, with a couple of tough head-to-head matchups.

ABC will find out if "Dancing With The Stars" remains strong. The new "Samantha Who?" got much buzz for Christina Applegate (left) as an amnesiac trying to change her screwed-up life, with Jean Smart and Kevin Dunn as her parents and Barry Watson as her boyfriend. It's not clear if repeated title changes and an Oct. 15 premiere date reflect backstage problems or just the usual Hollywood mishigas. "dancing" and "The Bachelor" bow on Sept. 24.

CBS has a lot riding on the success of its Monday-night comedies, notably the growing popularity of "How I Met Your Mother." But "Big Bang Theory" looks like a loser, with two nerds getting all hot and bothered over their new neighbor Kaley Cuoco, in a lame Internet-era version of leering "Three's Company" comedy. And no one understands why the underwhelming "Rules of Engagement" is back while "New Adventures of Old Christine" waits in the wings. Still, with "Two And A Half Men" and "CSI: Miami," CBS will likely continue to rule Mondays. All its shows roll out Sept. 24.

CW, Fox, NBC and a schedule after the jump.

MeeVee Exclusive: An Interview with "Chuck" star Zachary Levi

"What do I have to complain about? I get to be Chuck in a show called 'Chuck.' That's ridiculous!" said Zachary Levi. 

Levi played the scheming Kip on ABC's "Less Than Perfect" and co-starred in "Big Momma's House 2" as an FBI neophyte. But on NBC's "Chuck," debuting Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8 ET, he's the main attraction. What's that like?

"Oh, man, I don't know," he moaned happily on the phone with MeeVee. "It's definitely different, and there are definitely things that are much more of a challenge, but I look at this as the biggest blessing I've received."

Levi stars as Chuck Bartkowski, a twentysomething underachiever in the giant Buy More store's Nerd Herd (think Best Buy and the Geek Squad). He's depressed and still mooning over a college girlfriend. But then he gets a mystery email from his old college roommate with a mind-expanding attachment - a psychedelic photomontage that downloads a database of CIA and NSA secrets into Chuck's brain.

"Reaper" vs. "Chuck"

Imitation is the sincerest form of television, as we all know. This certainly isn't the first time that two heavily promoted fall shows have seemed oddly alike. But there's no suggestion that NBC's "Chuck" (starring Zach Levi, left) and CW's "Reaper" (starring Bret Harrison, right) and were cribbed from each other. What's really odd is that they're both action-comedies and both good. And the people from the two shows say only nice things about each other. How un-Hollywood is that? Very.

In other words, it appears to be an actual coincidence that two of the fall's critical faves are both about a slacker who works at a big-box store and ends up battling evil way out of his league. You'll be reading a lot more about these two before "Chuck's" Sept. 24 debut, followed by "Reaper" on the 25th. But we thought we'd make them go head-to-head and see how it comes out, after the jump.

Monday Morning Reads

Our friend The TV Addict has done an awesome thing for those of you who wish you were at ComicCon but weren't. He's collected links to videos of all the panels like "Heroes," "The Simpsons" and "Lost." ...... Kathie at Give Me My Remote apologizes for being remiss in recapping the "Chuck" panel at ComicCon (featuring Zach Levi, right) and links to a video by way of amends. ... Televisionista has some excellent pix from the "Heroes" beach location, as Hayden Panettiere films a smooch with her new TV boyfriend, Nick D'Agosto, then hits the waves with her real boyfriend, Stephen Coletti. ... TV Squad reports on some "Big Brother 8" foolishness and makes an excellent point: "How pathetic do you have to be to go through the trouble of hiring a biplane to try and influence the results of a reality show?" ... Variety sez New York magazine is calling out Bravo over conditions for contestants on shows like "Top Chef" and "Project Runway." ... Variety also sez CW's "Gossip Girl" is coming out a week early. ...