CBS's drama The Unit, about the lives of the highly trained members of a top-secret military division, was canceled last year, but a memo to its writing staff from its executive producer David Mamet has just surfaced online. (The source appears to be the online writing collective Ink Canada.) If you think you know where this is heading, you might be wrong:
Almost a year after the Kris Allen coronation ceremony that shattered devoted Glamberts and Lamb Skanks across our sparkly nation, we've reached the point where seven American Idol contestants from season nine's Top 10 have released singles. We're still waiting for entries from Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud (of the popular Twitter hashtag #SignMattGiraud) and Megan Joy Corkrey (whose Myspace singles don't seem finalized yet) to follow suit. In the meantime, let's rank what we've heard and figure out the whole "Who was the real winner?" thing.
Showtime has debuted the trailer of its upcoming "Weeds but with cancer" dramedy, The C Word, and it afford us our first look at 2009 breakout Gabourey Sidibe in a non-Precious context. Might even arch-nemesis Howard Stern find something to like in this clip?
The seventh season of Top Chef takes place in a brand new location, and the view from the balcony looks nothing like the Fontainebleau resort from Miami or the hot-dog-cart paradise of New York. Instead, Top Chef is taking our palette-slathering Padma Lakshmi obsession and bringing it to a different kind of cityscape, one that may remind you of a more dubious Bravo franchise.
When actress Sheila Kelley was introduced last week on Lost wearing a pair of sympathetic spectacles and exhibiting a desperate need to know just what the hell is happening on this island, she could have been a stand-in for any number of audience members -- so what were we to make of her after she turned a gun on Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and revealed that she actually knows way more than we do? Kelley herself caused quite the online stir yesterday when she told Us that she'd seen the finale and that her name was on every page of it, leading many blogs to believe that her character, Zoe, had somehow come from nowhere to end up in every single scene of Lost's final episode. As she told Movieline, not quite.
Ten seasons in, Dancing with the Stars is still event television because producers have the nerve to pit, say, Cloris Leachman against Brooke Burke. Or Steve Wozniak against Lil Kim. We're watching foregone conclusions manifest themselves with the help of the judges' goading critiques, and for some reason, that's titillating. Last night's premiere showcased another infeasible range of talents, from Pam Anderson to Kate Gosselin to Chad Ochocinco, but the top and bottom scorers exhibited the most disparate set of skills to date.
The Emmy-winning actress has been tapped to play a Pittsburgh veterinarian in CBS's untitled pilot from How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. The project centers on an unmarried couple, Tommy (Kyle Bornheimer) and Gina, and their friends -- Pressly's vet will be Tommy's best friend. Unfortunately, this casting decision throws a wrench into Rules of Engagement star Patrick Warburton's plan for Pressly to become a regular on his CBS series if it is picked up for a fifth season. [THR]
If you're anything like me, you've spent the last few sleepless nights wondering, "What ever happened to Jay Leno's Green Car Challenge Course?" You know, that multi-million dollar track constructed for NBC's primetime experiment so that stars like Tim Allen and Rush Limbaugh could race eco-friendly cars in figure-eights for a segment that no one in America cared about? Jay Leno finally addressed that concern last night by revisiting the immaculately-maintained course for a pre-taped sketch in which the Tonight Show host abused cowboy and Indian stereotypes. That gem, as well as the other moments you missed last night while tweeting your unwanted opinions on health care reform, after the jump.
· Yesterday, Sissy Spacek became the second Oscar-winning actress to be cast in a drama pilot this season as a lead character who was originally conceived as a man. Spacek has agreed to make the Untitled John Wells Medical Drama at CBS her first regular series gig. The project, written by Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy) and to be directed by Christopher Chulack (Southland), will focus on a mobile team of volunteer doctors led by a driven visionary (Spacek) that travels the world and the U.S. helping those in need. Earlier this month, Kathy Bates was cast as the lead of David E. Kelley's Kindreds, a legal drama that was created with a male lead in mind. [THR]
The Gossip Girl creators build their own Fake Empire, Nikki Blonsky signs up for fat camp, and more TV Bites after the jump.
If you've ever longed to watch an overweight Cheers alum and her pudgy handyman sweat it out on a Wii Fit and then cuddle lemurs, Kirstie Alley has designed (and stars in!) a reality show for your cultivated taste. Kirstie Alley's Big Life premiered last night on A&E and proved to be more than anyone here at Movieline expected -- in other words, there were issues explored last night that did not involve carbonara cravings, pesky paparazzi and delusions born out of an early '90s Emmy. After the jump, join me as I cull the most thought-provoking moments from last night's plus-sized Kirstie Alley's Big Life premiere.
Adding another reality competition in your life is an undertaking -- especially with Idol, Runway, The Biggest Loser, and Celebrity Apprentice overbooking your head space. But thanks to the Logo network, you will consider dumping a few of those middling productions and venturing beyond basic cable. Rupaul's Drag Race, Logo's runaway (or is it strut-away?) reality hit, features 10 drag queens vying to win an ad contract with Absolut Vodka, a feature in Paper, and the title of America's next drag superstar. In broad strokes, it sounds campy, maybe fun. Believe me, it is both. But upon closer inspection, RuPaul's Drag Race offers five anomalies to the reality-competition format, and all five shake up the genre in its staggering stilettos. It's a revolution, girls.
Celebrity Apprentice's two-hour run time is chock full of... well, lots of things, since it's two ridiculous hours long. But its most awe-worthy attribute is former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's unrelenting narcissism, and his ability to speechify like a South Park politico caricature. In between claiming his innocence (to no one in particular) and breaking from confessionals to shake hands with people on the street, Rod enjoyed one spectacular moment of self-aggrandizement that you may not have noticed -- unless you read into his sudden interest in balloons.
Larry David will follow in Jerry Seinfeld's footsteps by creating a panel show. Only instead of examining married couples who fight over whether or not they should stuff their pet beagle, Curb Your Enthusiam: The Discussion will feature "high profile guest-stars, pundits and prominent social figures" who debate the moral implications of the behavior in each HBO episode. The seven-minute extras will be hosted by Curb star Susie Essman and will run on the TV Guide Network this summer in conjunction with the series. [TV Guide]
Pop Quiz: You paid Conan O'Brien $44 million in peacock bills so that he'd stop badmouthing your network's good name on-air until September. Coco Nation resents you for ousting their fearless red-headed leader from his 11:35 time slot and beginning April 12, Conan's fans will mobilize for a 30-city comedy tour that will only strengthen anti-NBC sentiment. But another network swoops in and offers you the chance to polish off your image. All you have to do is allow Conan to take part in a live broadcast that will raise millions of dollars for the impoverished. What do you do?
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· A few more details have emerged about Rosie O'Donnell's return to the daytime talk-o-sphere. Instead of letting a studio produce the project, O'Donnell will form an independent production company with syndication vets Dick Robertson and Scott Carlin for the venture. And contrary to reports that Rosie might succeed Oprah, entertainment insiders maintain that many ABC stations have already planned to replace Oprah with local programming. Even if they hadn't, the Disney-owned network is reportedly not eager to welcome back O'Donnell, who stirred up The View's pot and veered into controversial political territory during her last few seasons on ABC's Rosie O'Donnell Show. [THR]
Christian Slater finds humor in security systems, Starz revisits Arthurian mythology, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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