90210 is back with a vengeance. The CW.com has a sneak peek at the upcoming next generation of 90210′ers and so far it looks like One Tree Hill with less heart and bigger bank accounts.

I was surprised in this clip that we dont get to see any of the rumoured returned cast members. I am sure that each and every one of them will get their chance to show up at some point, but right now they are focusing on the current generation.

I will be checking it out, thats for sure. Time will tell.

I love The Simpsons. It has been one of my favorite shows since I was a kid. I have watched it since the beginning. At least, up until now.

I have defended the later seasons. And I still buy the dvd sets, and I loved the movie, but after the last season of the show, I have no interest in watching the new season.

I have absolutely no interest in watching it. I oculd. I certainly have the time now. But I don’t. And it’s strange, for me, because there is no hatred there. It’s just a deep void that hasn’t been filled with the actual series in a while. The movie filled that void last year, but when the new season came back, I just didn’t flip to it.

One of the things I love most about the show was it’s stories and it’s heart, and while the heart may still be there, the stories are getting shortsighted. They were spending way to long with the irrelevant first act and by the time we get to the actual advertised story, the one everyone thought they were going to see, the show is nearly over.

I mean, I laughed. I still found the jokes funny. It doesn’t take much for me to laugh. I don’t anylize the jokes, and often, I don’t even need to get them. I find a lot of things amusing, and I wish a lot more people were like that too. Although, it does get old when all the jokes are the same overused technique (which is why I slowed down on Family Guy).

Another thing is, with the commercialls getting longer and longer, the shows are getting shorter and shorter.

We open with the opening titles. Then we cut to commercials. A couple minutes later, the show actually starts (often around 8:05 or even 8:07) and then after four or five minutes, we get an almost equal time of commercials, and then we come back to the middle act and then another equal time of commercials and then the final act, which usually seems to be the shortest.

It seems to me that they should drop the opening title sequence. Sure, it’s part of the shows history, but if it helps get them more storytime, allowing more time to balance the story with the jokes, which it seems they are having trouble doing, causing the big issue I mentioned earlier. It wouldn’t be much more time, but it could be enough.

After 19 years, the show has filled up with conventions that maybe they shouldn’t follow anymore. Things aren’t fresh. It doens’t seem like they are trying to keep it fresh when almost every year they do a Simpsons vacation episode or a Sideshow Bob episode. And must we always have the celerbity cameos? Can’t we slow down on those a bit?

In the 19 years, it may seem that The Simpsons have done everything, but I bet if they wised up and tried to come up with something fresh, they might be able to squeeze out a couple more years, or fall flat, but either way, I’m sure the series only has a couple more years left.

While a part of me fears the series’ end, the other part of me thinks it may be best if they just call it quits. Then again, maybe there is a little fight left in them.  Who knows? How often does a show like this make it this long? Not very often, and with the new shows I see rolling in, I seriously doubt many of them will even last half as long Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie have.

Also, it is worth noting that the animation has been beautiful lately. So the newer seasons do have something to offer.

The ending of the Housewives season finale last night completely caught me by surprise. In a move usually reserved for ’series’ finales, “BSG” or “Lost”, the last 2 minutes of the “Desperate Housewives” finale takes us 5 years on the future (See the clip here.). A synopsis of the flash-forward is…

Among the most surprising of them all is Gabrielle Solis’ two children, Juanita and Celiam whom she is the mother of. Eva admitted that the children made her enjoy the shoot of the series instead og making her strictly come for for and work leave routine on the sets.

Bree (Marcia Cross) is is cook book author whose agent is her son. Susan (Teri Hatcher) has found a new man. But what hasn’t changed is Lynette still being after her still extremely naughty now teenage children.

I can’t seem to find confirmation. Is this a BSG-style jump? Or, a “Lost”-style flash-forward? I’m a fare-weather fan of DH as sometimes the storylines are chalkboard-scraping bad. Susan’s future husband/boyfriend has been cast as a regular next season, but that doesn’t give us a timeline. The part of the jump I enjoyed was Gabrielle’s. Her character has gotten stale and needed a reboot. Carlos’ blindness just wasn’t enough.

Was it a jump? Was it a flash-forward? Was it a good idea?

Over at The Hollywood Reporter there is an article with several casting announcements. “Nip/Tuck”, “Caprica” and 90210.

On the upcoming sixth season of “Nip/Tuck,” [Katee] Sackhoff (”Battlestar Galactica”) will play Dr. Theodora “Teddy” Lowe, a new doctor who challenges Sean (Dylan Walsh). She will appear in four episodes. Also set to appear in the FX drama is Morgan Fairchild, who will play a movie star in one episode.

She missed CSI and landed “Nip/Tuck”. This is interesting as I believe her acting style fits well with “Nip/Tuck”. She seems to thrive on playing edgy, and the FX drama will give her that chance.

“90210″ centers on the Mills, a three-generation Beverly Hills family. [Rob] Estes will play the father, Harry Mills, who takes a job as principal of West Beverly High, his alma mater, after he moves his family from Kansas.

Estes is no stranger to the 90210 universe, where he played Kyle on “Melrose Place”. It’s interesting casting, but I don’t see it as bringing in new viewers. I felt they needed to go big to bring in those who feel they’ve outgrown 90210.

On the “Galactica” prequel “Caprica,” [Polly] Walker (”Rome”) will play Sister Clarice Willow, the gracious, eloquent and duplicitous high priestess and headmistress of the Athena Academy, a private religious school.

“Caprica” casting has been moving strong. I hope that they go with a slightly different feel for the prequel and don’t simply translate BSG back in time. The quality casting is continuing with Polly; I like the trend.

On “House,” [Michael] Weston (”Scrubs”) will play P.I. Lucas, a private investigator who is as intelligent but not as abrasive as Dr. House (Hugh Laurie). After a trial in a multi-episode arc, the character could become a regular on the hit Fox medical drama or become the center of a spinoff series.

Can Weston lead an entire show? I’m familiar enough with him to know if he could helm the House-spinoff.

A lot of casting news this morning. Good news? Bad news?

Because nobody asked for it, the suck factor of the live action Scooby Doo film series is getting extended to it’s original home, television. With a prequal, noneother! According to MovieHole.

Whats up with prequels? Do we really need to see the backstories to everything? We didn’t even really need to see Darth Vader’s life story, much less Mystery, Inc. Honestly, I think audiences can accept a bunch of teens and their dog solving mysteries without seeing how they met. And besides, we already got A Pup Named Scooby Doo!

Being a cartoon fan that grew up on Hannah-Barbara reruns, I must say that Scooby Doo is completely wrong for live action. Well, at least, the direction the live action films took were completely wrong for it. It didn’t even seem like Scooby Doo, and being that this is a prequel to that film series, I doubt this television event will be anything different.

Oprah has decided to bring an end to her reality help series “Big Give” on ABC. It had mediochre ratings but the network loved her idea, but she just decided it wasn’t something she wanted to do.

TVGuide Says:

“We loved that show and absolutely would have loved to bring it back,” said ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson. “But it was something (Oprah) didn’t want to do.”The show was based on an episode on Oprah’s talk show that featured her giving each audience member $1,000 and each person had to give the money to someone or something deserving.

It turns out that a woman Sued Oprah over the episode that this series was spawned from. Apparently she approached the network with a pitch for a similar series and they declined it, then a year Later Oprah is using the idea on her show?

The case was dismissed without option so I would assume that Oprah’s people assumed that the woman had no claim, but after the series ran for one season that same woman came back with some muster and a real lawyer to sue over the show.

The sad part is that for once, this reality series focused on HELPING PEOPLE. It wasn’t a greedy effort to see who could get more money per episode. They didn’t get voted out by being MORE giving. So they had to spend the entire series being selfless until one person was rewarded. Everyone else who got voted out left with nothing but the pleasure of helping people.

Now that this woman has challenged the idea a second time and Oprah magically decides the show isn’t worth her time?

The only losers here are the people this show might have helped.

A new Heroes promo can be found here.  It’s quite short, but gives us very brief glimpses of the making of the new season, and has a couple of interviews, but it feels very forced.

Mainly, it’s the typical self-promotion we get from pre-release promotions. At one point, someone says “Reading the first two scripts, I was like holy….”, and at that point, red flags went up. Not the red flags that say “this will suck!”  but the ones that seem “full of it.”

Or maybe, it’s just that Ijust can’t get this sinking feeling like they still haven’t truly learned their lesson, and that season 3 could very well end up sucking. I’m going to need some good hard evidence before I can get that out of my mind.

Galactica fans may be excited to know that some tv movies might be coming their way, according to The Watcher.

Exciting news, huh? Although, it’s not really a “for sure” thing. As the article reminds us that it’s not exactly written in stone yet.

So while there’s a chance that it may not be, it’s exciting news to think about.

I’ve never really had a chance to comment on Galactica. I think it’s a really interesting notion that the once-considered Star Wars ripoff came back like twenty years later and just continually blew audiences away. Seriously, out of all these retro reduxes (Bionic Women, for example), how many can say the same thing?

Looks like another BBC show is getting the Americanized treatment, according to ScifiWire.

ABC has given a series order to the time-travel drama Life on Mars, the network confirmed during its upfront presentation for advertisers on May 13. An American adaptation of the popular BBC SF series of the same name, Life on Mars will be executive-produced by David E. Kelley, who owns the rights to the show. It will star Irish actor Jason O’Mara (Resident Evil: Extinction) as a modern-day cop who is transported back to the 1970s.

I haven’t seen or heard of the original Life on Mars, so I did a little search and looked at the premise, and it seemed quite interesting, but at the same time, seems like something that I would tire of after a while, especially if they just drag out the premise and it’s nothing but “Oh, I’m from 30 years in the future, I’m used to iPods ot record players” and so on and so on. Something I can see ABC doing.

But it does have an interesting premise, one that I am at least curious enough to check out at least once.

But, this leads me to another question, one that troubles me. Why must they keep pulling shows from BBC? Can’t they come up with something original? Or has all this reality tv thing brainwashed them into laziness?

JJ Abrams’ latest project is Fox’s “Fringe”. Variety has information on the series. Also, some sneak peeks have been released.

“Fringe” mixes elements of “The X-Files” and Paddy Chayefsky’s “Altered States” with what Abrams calls “a slight ‘Twilight Zone’ vibe.” It will focus on brilliant but possibly crazy research scientist Walter Bishop, his estranged son and a female FBI agent who brings them together.

Episodes will explore self-contained mysteries of the paranormal, as well as the relationships between the three leads.

“So much of the story is relatable people in extraordinary situations,” Abrams said. “The show is definitely a nod to ‘Altered States’ and ‘Scanners’ and that whole Michael Crichton/Robin Cook world of medicine and science.”

See the previews over at Brightcove. They do have an “X-Files” vibe, but I think that’ll be acceptable if it is quality.

Does the preview do anything to pique your interest?

Producers of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” have decided to only replace one of the two departed cast members. The Hollywood Reporter has the report:

Lauren Lee Smith is joining “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” as a regular.

Smith will play Bryce Adams, a smart, flirtatious and witty nonconformist who is hired as a CSI on the night-shift team led by Grissom (William Petersen).

Canadian-born Smith, who co-starred on CBS’ pilot “Can Openers” this past development season, is expected to fill the void left by the departure of “CSI” co-star Jorja Fox.
Lauren Lee Smith joins ‘CSI’

I like that they’re not in a hurry to replace cast members. They’ve waited awhile to replace Jorja Fox, and have said that they are in no hurry to replace Gary Dourdan.

TVGuide’s Michael Ausiello had this to say:

Smith is expected to play the character of Bryce Adams, a “flirtatious, witty and strong-willed non-conformist” that is recruited to join the graveyard shift — also known as the role that Katee Sackhoff inexplicably got passed over for.

I would have liked to have seen Sackhoff on the show, I think she would have fit perfectly. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to bring Katee on. She would have brought at least a noticeable following from BSG.

What do you think of this casting?

They may have waited until the last second, but the CW has picked up a second season of Reaper.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms:

“Reaper” will return for 13 episodes midseason and will likely be paired with “Supernatural” on Thursday nights after “Smallville” concludes its run.

The announcement came the day before the CW’s upfront presentation, and although the ratings nearly killed this show, Reaper has devoted fans and network executives that are “uniformly fond” of the show to thank for a second season, and not a deal with the devil.

Fox may get a lot of criticisms for some of the things they do, but this for once is a postive step.

Fox is hoping to change the face of TV Commercials with their new “Remote Free TV” model. And what better chance to try this model than with two of your most anticipated new shows?

Hollywood Reporter says:

“It’s a simple concept and potentially revolutionary,” Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said. “We’re going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We’re going to redefine the viewing experience.”Both “Fringe” and “Dollhouse” would have network commercial loads of about five minutes per hour, about half the usual. The commercial pods would also be shorter and they would have about half the promo load as well.

This is genius marketing. Not only do they promise to experiment with significantly less commercials, but they know you will want to try out this new format, so they do it during shows they want you to see!

I have to admit that with the onset of the PVR or just picking up shows in DVD box sets a little too late for the watercooler trend, I find myself making drastic efforts NOT to watch commercials. I can watch 2 one hour tv shows in about an hour and 15 minutes when viewed on my PVR. That is sad.

It seems more and more commercials are being added to tv shows and distracting me from my show. So much so, that programs typically have a 10 second overlap of events to remind you where they left off! Suspensful moment and cut to black to witness the latest effort to make you shop at Toys R Us! Then you come back and inevitably experience that “Oh yeah” moment as you recall where we last left our intrepid heroes.

This could dramatically effect the way TV is watched. I would likely not make such efforts to avoid commercials if there were only one or two breaks in a one hour program.

How about you? Would you sooner have the studios charge more for their airtime to reduce the commercials you are forced to witness?

If you’ve been missing 24 as much as I have, you’ll be thrilled to know that the 24 “Prequel” movie is set to air November 23.

Here are some details, courtesy of TV Guide:

Filmed partially on location in South Africa, the “prequel” finds Jack Bauer battling an international crisis, while back home, the United States prepares to inaugurate a new president.

Executive producer Howard Gordon says:

“We’re excited about the prequel because it explores Jack’s complex emotional state of mind and still has all the signature excitement and suspense that fans have come to expect from 24″

It’s been about a year since the last episode of 24, and it’ll be another six months until the movie. What’s your prediction? Think the prequel will be worth the wait?  Or has 24 lost its momentum?

The “Dollhouse” trailer “Who Are You”, mentioned earlier, is live. “Dollhouse” is…

DOLLHOUSE (Mondays, 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT): Joss Whedon, creator of groundbreaking cult favorites “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly,” returns to television and reunites with fellow “Buffy” alumna Eliza Dushku for a thrilling new drama, DOLLHOUSE. ECHO (Dushku) is an “Active,” a member of a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Confined to a secret facility known as the “Dollhouse,” Echo and the other Actives including SIERRA (Dichen Lachman, “Neighbours”) and VICTOR (Enver Gjokaj, “The Unit”) carry out engagements assigned by ADELLE (Olivia Williams, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Rushmore”), one of the Dollhouse leaders.

The trailer company, Storm Studios, has it posted on their website pulled it from their website, but it is now on YouTube and IO9. The trailer and sneak peeks are available on Brightcove. Go watch it and come back and leave your thoughts.

Update: IO9 has an updated, better trailer.

Over at Pink Ray Gun they got a sneak peek at the pilot script for Dollhouse, the latest series from Joss Whedon. Here are 10 facts from that script that they’ve shared.

1. People pay — a lot — to use the “dolls” (called Actives) employed by the Dollhouse.

2. The Dollhouse is very selective about its clientele and performs thorough background checks.

3. When on missions, Actives receive a “personality imprint” that provides them with regular memories as well as muscle memory.

4. These imprints mean that the Active isn’t pretending to be someone else — they are someone else. If imprinted to be a killer, they’ll kill; if imprinted to fall in love, they’ll fall deeply, truly in love.

5. On missions, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. This ensures their safety while allowing for privacy between the Active and the client. Handlers only listen in on a mission when it involves criminal activity.

6. After the Active completes the mission, he or she feels an immediate need to return to the facility, where the Active will be wiped of his or her memories.

7. The Dollhouse serves as a kind of school/dormitory when Actives are not out on missions. They live, eat, sleep, shower, learn and train together there.
8. Most of the Dolls are young, and all beautiful.

9. Supposedly, the Dolls volunteered for the work in the Dollhouse — they give up five years of their lives, and at the end they receive a ridiculously large sum of money and no memory of anything they did for the Dollhouse.

10. Missions for the Actives are only supposed to last 10 hours, or else the imprint could be strained. However, lately certain missions have taken quite a bit longer, some lasting for days…

These 10 “facts” give me great comfort and build the anticipation even more. I’m glad that the Dollhouse [it appears] is explained up front. Joss could have followed the latest trend in dramas and leave everything as a mystery. This way character development can occur without “secrets” getting in the way.

Also, according to Dollverse, there’s a two minute sneak peek of “Dollhouse” due to be released shortly. It’s entitled “Who Are You?”.

“Dollhouse” will serve as a lead-in on Monday nights starting in January for “24.”

What do you think of these latest facts?

I can’t say that I’m upset to see Autoblog’s new report:

They couldn’t even get it together on a cast, so the news doesn’t come entirely as a surprise. The newly announced fall lineup doesn’t save a seat for “Gear,” though room is made in the lineup for that clunker of a retread that is Knight Rider.

While there’s no news if the plan is entirely scrapped, at least we’re saved from the overly commercial U.S. version for a little while longer, though new episodes of the original don’t seem to be coming soon on the horizon either.

Fox has another boring reality show for us, according to Zap2it!

Hmm…sounds interesting. Not!

It actually sounds like The Simple Life, except more decieving and dramatic. I give it six episodes!

Remember Donnie Wahlberg? The “new kid on the block.” Or is it now “the old guy down the street?” Well, Marky Mark’s older brother is going to be starring in a new TNT Drama. Reuters has the story.

I was watching The Sixth Sense the other day, and I was thinking “this guy has potential.” Too bad, the biggest acting gig he has gotten lately has been the Saw films. Maybe this show will be an outlet for him to show what he just might be able to do.

The final nail may not be in the Moonlight coffin yet.

In Nikki Finke’s Deadline Daily, potential news has surfaced that Moonlight could move to Sunday nights on the CW. An insider told Finke:

Media Rights Capital, which will be programming Sunday’s two hours on the CW “may elect to take Moonlight as one of those two hours.”

If Moonlight moves to the CW, it will become the most watched show on the network, even if it only retains 60 to 70 percent of its current viewers. Just to play the numbers game a bit, Moonlight currently has twice the viewers of the CW’s number one show, Gossip Girl.

*UPDATE: MRC has decided to pass on Moonlight, according to the latest on Nikki Finke’s Deadline Daily. There’s a very, very slim chance for it to make an appearance mid-season, but at this point, MRC is only looking for “fresh material”.