Here’s your entertainment news/commentary for this week.

September is premiere month for most TV series. Here is a printable calendar of notable premiere dates. Note these are premiere dates and not necessarily the data show will regularly air.

September 2013 calendar of premiere dates

Here is an actual schedule of when shows will air on a regular basis.

Fall TV schedule from TVahlic.com in PDF format

And if you want to know what has been renewed or canceled check out

TV Line primetime renewal scorecard Be sure to click other links at bottom of that page for the other networks. Each network has its own page.

Also

TV Line Cable renewal scorecard Again this is a multipage link. Several networks per page.

The CBS/Time Warner battle continues into its fourth week. Time Warner is offering free TV antennas or vouchers for antennas at Best Buy etc. for customers who want to pick up blackout CBS stations. That doesn’t do anything for the nationwide blackout of CBS owned Showtime Networks. TWC customers in the New York area will miss coverage of this upcoming weekend’s U.S. Open tennis unless they have antennas or another source. NFL coverage starts the following week. If it isn’t resolved by then it’s going to be a very long wait. CBS recently reached a new deal with Verizon for their cable systems. CBS president says Time Warner turned down the exact same deal that they made with Verizon.

While I tend not to cover gossipy entertainment news or other overhyped entertainment stories I will offer a couple of comments on the two biggest entertainment stories of the week.

While I did not see all of Miley Cyrus’s performance on the VMA awards I will say that I did see her in her guest starring role on Two and a Half Men in which he appeared in a very skimpy bikini which seem to reveal more than her outfit did at the VMA. While she didn’t have the moves, it was a lot sexier I thought. I also agree with one entertainment reporter who said that the Parents Television Council and MTV’s Video Music awards both benefited from her performance. It’s like in the comic books where the villain cannot exist without the hero and vice versa. Also it’s not like the VMA awards in its 30 year history has been known as particularly family-friendly entertainment. Anybody who got offended when their young children watch the show, got what they deserved.

The other major controversy was the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman in the upcoming Superman versus Batman film. I go back to the interview with Michael Keaton when he first played Batman and got called to the set and said to the interviewer “It’s time to go work the suit”. What he was saying was that when you’re in the Batman suit, you don’t really perform. You’re more of a puppeteer than an actor. And considering that these days much of the “working the suit” is done via computer animation, it really doesn’t matter who plays Batman. However it does matter very much who plays Bruce Wayne. I had been unfamiliar with the Iron Man comics before I saw the first movie. I couldn’t imagine why they had hired someone like Robert Downey Jr. to play a superhero. Then when I got familiar with the character Tony Stark I completely understood why he was perfect for the part. I want all the people who have been bad mouthing Ben Affleck to ask not what kind of Batman he would be but ask what kind of Bruce Wayne he would be. I think it will be great as Bruce Wayne. And of course it all depends on what kind of Batman we’re going to see. Could Adam West have played in the Dark Knight series of films? Could Christian Bale have played the 60s TV Batman? David Letterman noted that people are petitioning to remove Ben Affleck as Batman but nobody seems to care about removing the president of Syria after using chemical weapons.

In the links below read

Matt’s Inside Line Spoilers dated August 22

Michael Ausiello spoilers dated August 27

Not in the links below but also of interest

Our favorite clown Tatiana Meslany from Orphan Black will guest star on upcoming Parks and Recreation

Joshua Gomez a.k.a. Morgan Grimes from Chuck will guest star in an upcoming episode of Castle playing a man who claims he traveled back in time to avert some disaster.

Rumors are Randy Jackson will stay with American Idol not as judge but replacing Jimmy Iovine as mentor

Keith Carradine will join season 2 cast of The Following

Navid Negahban played a terrorist on Homeland will be Oliver Queen’s new nemesis on the next season of Arrow

Office alumni Brian Baumgartner will guest star on upcoming Mike and Molly as a teacher union representatives

Stephen Moyer a.k.a. True Blood vampire Bill Compton will star as Capt. von Trapp opposite Carrie Underwood in a live production of the sound of music to air on NBC December 5

Amelia Rose Blaire a.k.a. the governor’s daughter Willa on True Blood has been upgraded to a series regular for next season

TV Land has canceled Fran Drescher sitcom Happily Divorced after two seasons

SyFy Channel has ordered a pilot for a series called “12 monkeys” loosely based on the 1995 film

American horror story season 3 will premiere October 9 on FX

David Morrissey (The Walking Dead’s Governor) has been cast in a new AMC pilot Line of Sight. He will play in NTSB investigator who survives a plane crash and tries to figure out its cause. The pilot will not keep him from doing season 4 of Walking Dead however if he gets picked up to series that might interfere later.

Olympian Michael Phelps will have a cameo on Suits

A Rambo TV series may be in the works

Demi Lovato will guest star on an upcoming Glee

This week’s winner of the “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse Award” go to CBS who plans to redevelop “Love American Style” can the love boat be far behind?

Former wonder woman Lynda Carter will guest star on 2 1/2 men

There will be a web-based after show for fans of Sons of Anarchy called “After Anarchy” will air after season premiere, episode 5, and season finale.

Jon Stuart returns to The Daily Show September 3

George Eads a.k.a. criminalist Nick Stokes has been written out of several upcoming episodes of CSI after he got into a shouting match with writers and producers

NBC is developing a TV series based on the 1995 film Outbreak

Daryl Hannah will guest star on Hawaii 50

My favorite Game of Thrones hottie Natalie Dormer has joined the cast of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay parts 1 and 2”

Veteran sportscaster Vin Scully will return for his 65th season as announcer of Dodgers home games

in addition to all the other “Oz” themed shows in the works, NBC is considering its own Oz series titled Emerald City

Gilbert Taylor who was director of photography for the original Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove and The omen has died at age 99

Despite rumors, Peter Jackson is not directing an upcoming episode of Doctor Who

Veteran stage, TV and film actress Julie Harris died at age 87

Bill Murray will appear on David Letterman’s show on August 30 to celebrate the 20th anniversary on CBS

Amazon studio has ordered a pilot for a kids show titled Maker Shack Agency combining two of my favorite interests… Television and gadget makers

ER alumni Methi Phifer is joining the cast of Showtime’s House of Lies

Famous record producer Dr. Luke appears to be out of the running as an American Idol judge. Harry Connick Junior is the next room or judge. He has served as a single week mentor a couple of times and on a really good job with one exception. He badmouth Crystal Bowersox when he thought her beeper was going off during their mentoring session. It turns out it was an alarm on her insulin pump. The expression of horror on his face when he realized his mistake is one of my favorite non-performance moments all time on American Idol. He would make a great judge.

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Bones, Once, Grey’s, Castle, OITNB, Revolution, New Girl and More!

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Big Bang Theory, SOA, NCIS, Revenge, Once, Grimm, Bones and More!

Time for another what I hope will be weekly entertainment news. If I can keep the schedule up you should be seeing one of these each Wednesday or Thursday depending on what else is going on in my life.

I went to see Elysium yesterday in IMAX. It was a fairly good sci-fi action movie with a somewhat predictable plot. The special effects were also. The fight scenes however (and many other scenes) suffered way too much from handheld camera. I know that directors who use shaky handhelds during fight scenes are trying to give you the impression that you’re in the middle of the fight. But for me it just looks like they are wiggling the camera around so you can’t really see what’s going on or how think the fight is. This film was directed by the same guy who did District 9 and it had a lot of the same look and feel of that film which I liked a lot. Matt Damon was as you might expect in an action movie. Jodie Foster was however very creepy playing the villain. We don’t see her play villains very often but she was awesome in this one. If you’ve got nothing better to do on a Saturday night I would recommend it. Otherwise it’s a must-see for cable.

We mourn the passing of Elmore Leonard who died at age 87. His crime novels with the basis of TV series Justified and Karen Cisco as well as many many other films including Get Shorty.

Time Warner Cable/BrightHouse and CBS/Showtime are still at odds with one another after over two weeks. Dave Letterman has been delivering scathing criticism of TWC/BH and his nightly monologue as well as making fun of strange cable shows such as Amish Mafia and the man with the 132 lb. scrotum. I still remain pissed over the whole thing.

A couple of shows I can recommend you check out. BBC America has started a new crime drama called Broadchurch starring David Tennant of Dr. Who fame. The Americanized version of the same series is in the works for Fox network. This is your chance to check out the original. Only two or three episodes have aired so far. You should be able to catch up on demand. Also if you get Sundance Channel check out “The Writers Room” which each week interviews the writers of your favorite TV shows. Next week’s episode interviews the writers of Game of Thrones. You might be able to catch previous episodes on demand or reruns. Worth checking out. Finally if you can’t get enough of quirky introverted female detectives check out FX networks “The Bridge” about a murder that occurred on the bridge between Juarez Mexico and the US. A strange woman detective on the US side teams up with a Mexican detective to solve a serial murder. Sort of a sunny version of “The Killing”. No Seattle rain 🙂 Also AMC network has started the second season of Hell on Wheels about the building of the transcontinental railroad. It looks like this season is going to be every bit as good as the first.

In the links below read…

David Tennant talks about appearing in Doctor Who 50th anniversary special.

Postmortem interview with show runners of True Blood about season finale in upcoming season 7 including return of someone you thought might not return.

Michael Ausiello spoilers for August 20

The cast of next season of Survivor revealed. Will include returning players paired with members of their own family

Interview with Sandra Oh about leaving Grey’s anatomy at the end of the season

Video interview with Clark Gregg about Agent Colson’s revival on SHIELD

Not in the links below but also of interest…

Lee Thompson Young a.k.a. Detective Barry Frost on Rizzoli & Isles was found dead of suicide. Tuesday night’s episode was dedicated to him. Production has shut down for a few days on the next season.

Gia Allemand who was a former contestant in The Bachelor committed suicide. She was 29.

Eva La Rue a.k.a. CSI Miami’s Natalla Boa Vista will be guest starring on upcoming episodes of Criminal Minds

Covert Affairs and White Collar return October 17

TNT has renewed Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes, and Perception for new seasons

Bullet joins Arrow… If you are mourning the loss of fascinating character “Bullet” from The Killing you can get more of actress Bex Taylor-Klaus when she guest stars on next season’s Arrow playing comic book character “Sin”

Lindsay Lohan will guest star on HBO’s Eastbound & Down.

Lisa Robin Kelly who starred in “That 70s Show” died in a rehab facility while seeking treatment for alcohol abuse

Dexter’s dad James Remar will guest star on multiple episodes of Gray’s anatomy

JoAnne Garcia Swisher a.k.a. Dr. Nina Green on Royal Pains will play Ariel in upcoming season of Once upon a Time (no casting news on Times New Roman) (sorry I couldn’t resist)

Tina Fey has sold a sitcom to Fox that will go straight to series without a pilot. It’s that place in a woman’s college who admits its first mail student. Tina Fey however will not appear in the series.

Republican National Committee again has changed his mind and decided it will not allow NBC or CNN to host any Republican primary debates because the networks are planning documentaries and miniseries on Hillary Clinton

NBC is reconsidering producing the miniseries about Clinton. Fox TV Studios has withdrawn from talks to produce the miniseries for NBC.

CBS is planning a drama about a female Secretary of State that isn’t particularly about Hillary Clinton

Elmore Leonard has died at age 87. TV series Justified and Karen Cisco as well as many films such as Get Shorty were based on his crime novels

‘NSync is reportedly reuniting for Sunday nights Video Music Awards

Marg Helgenberger will return to CSI to celebrate its 300th episode

Judd Nelson is joining the cast of Nikita for its final season

From the “Oh God I Feel Really Old” file… Melanie Griffith will play Danno’s mom on Hawaii 50

TBS has renewed Sullivan & Son and Men at Work. I’ve never seen either of them.

Duck Dynasty season premiere set a record as the most-watched nonfiction cable TV episode ever

Bebe Neuwirth will guest star on upcoming episodes of Blue Bloods as an inspector general who oversees the police department. Possible previous relationship between her and the Commissioner will heat things up.

Thor: The Dark World will be released in IMAX 3-D

Sony TV will produce a TV series “El Mariachi” based on the Robert Rodriguez film

NBC has renewed Hollywood Game Night for a second season of 10 episodes. I really really like this show.

David Tennant talks filming ‘Doctor Who’ 50th anniversary show: ‘It was everything I hoped’

True Blood Scoop: Alexander Skarsgard’s Season 7 Fate Revealed! Plus — EP Talks That Nude Scene, Bill-Sookie-Alcide Triangle and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Once, Bones, Chicago Fire, True Blood, Parks and Rec, Dixie and More!

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Cast Revealed (Rupert, Again!) — Plus: Several New Twists on Tap

Sandra Oh talks ‘Grey’s’ exit, jokes about Cristina’s uncertain fate: ‘They could send her to the moon’

‘SHIELD’ video: Clark Gregg on Agent Coulson’s revival

As promised last week, we’re doing these little more often now.

Let’s kick off this installment with my famous “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse” award which this week goes to CBS. They announced that they are developing a new series called “Dorothy”. It is a current day medical drama with characters based on The Wizard Of Oz. If this was April and not August I would’ve thought that was a big April fools joke but apparently it’s serious.

By the way CBS/Showtime is still absent from Time Warner/BrightHouse cable systems over a contract dispute. Statistics on the bootlegging of CBS series Under the Dome and Showtime’s Dexter are up 34% from normal according to one sites report. Meanwhile customers of Time Warner in Wisconsin filed a class-action suit against them for dropping an NBC station over a contract dispute. Late last week the chairman of the FCC threatened to intervene in the CBS/TWC battle if they didn’t come to terms quickly. However it’s not clear what the FCC could do to intervene.

Meanwhile this Saturday Fox networks is shutting down its Speed network and replacing it with “Fox Sports 1” however it has still not reached contract agreements with DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable they used to charge 23 cents per subscriber for Speed. They now want between 80 cents and eventually $1.50 in a few years into the contract.

From the “Sorry I Missed This” department… I mentioned that I lost almost a month worth of entertainment news when Google shut down its Google reader. Among the items I missed was that both Van Pelt and Rigsby are going to be written out of the show “The Mentalist”.

In the links below you can read

Matt’s Inside Line spoilers for August 8

Michael Ausiello spoilers for August 13

Character description of Ziva’s replacement and other post Ziva NCIS news

Postmortem interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan about the series finale of Magic City and its cancellation

Not linked below but also of interest…

Singer Eydie Gorme was a Tonight Show regular with her husband Steve Lawrence has died at age 84

Karen Black starred in Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and Nashville has died of cancer at age 74. I remember her best in Hitchcock movie Family Plot.

Margaret Pellegrini one of the original Wizard of Oz munchkins has died at age 89. Only two of the original order 24 munchkins remain alive.

Sandra Oh announced this season will be her last on Grey’s Anatomy.

Amber Tamblyn has been cast as Charlie’s long-lost lesbian daughter on Two and a Half Men

Christian Camargo who played the Ice Truck Killer on Dexter has been cast as Dukes brother on Haven

Cheers reunion on CSI. John Ratzenberger will guest star opposite his old buddy Ted Danson

SyFy Channel has announced there will be a sequel to its cult hit Sharknado to be titled “Sharknado 2: The Second One”. So clever!

NBC has announced Jay Leno’s final night will be February 6, 2014 the day before Olympic coverage begins. Jimmy Fallon will presumably start immediately after the Olympics

Showtime has announced that since they are not making a wrapup movie for The Borgias they will instead release an e-book based on the script from the two-hour finale that never got produced. It will be titled “The Borgia Apocalypse”

NBC has ordered a pilot script for a futuristic show called Paradise where in the city of Las Vegas has been turned into a giant prison and a man falsely accused tries to escape.

Boy band heartthrob Nick Jonas will guest star on an episode of Hawaii 50

Alec Baldwin is in talks to host a show on MSNBC

Director Ang Lee’s next film will be a 3-D drama about the world of pro boxing in the 60s and 70s and will re-create the famous “Thrilla in Manila” Ali Frazier fight

A judge has ruled that descendents of Marvel Comic author Jack Kirby cannot revoke his rights to Marvel comics because it was work for hire. He worked on Avengers and X-Men

Game Show Network’s American Bible challenge has been renewed for third season. Jeff Foxworthy will continue as host.

Alcon Entertainment will make a TV movie based on the book “Chicken Soup for the Soul”

Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas have been added to the cast of Expendables 3

The Republican National Committee has backed down on its threat to ban NBC over proposed Hillary Clinton docudrama

World War Z has earned over $500 million worldwide to become Brad Pitt’s biggest box office ever

Veteran TV actor Henry Polic, who played Jerry Silver on ABC’s Webster and voiced Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow on Batman: The Animated Series, has died. He was 68.

The network formally known as Versus now known as “NBC Sports Network” is undergoing another minor identity overhaul. Would be known as NBCSN and will adopt a new logo.

Hunger Games 2 will premiere in the UK November 11, worldwide November 22

Frank Darabont the original show winner of The Walking Dead will premiere his new 1940s crime drama Mob City on TNT December 4 to run six episodes.

After importing Lost Girl and Continuum from Canada SyFy Channel now turns to New Zealand for “The Almighty Johnsons” The series covers 4 ordinary boys who acquire the power of Norse Gods. 23 episodes will premiere in 2014.

This year’s Discovery Channel Shark Week was the highest-rated in its 26 years of existence

The cast of Duck Dynasty gets a 900% salary boost to $200,000 per episode and a multiyear extension

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, Mentalist, New Girl, Castle, H50, Bones, Haven, Teen Wolf & More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Mentalist, SVU, Grey’s, Parenthood, NCIS: LA, Revenge and More!

NCIS Exclusive: Meet Ziva’s Successor

‘Magic City’ star Jeffrey Dean Morgan on show’s ‘depressing’ cancellation, ‘fitting’ series ender

I’m going to try to put out entertainment news on a almost weekly basis and try to aim for Wednesdays if I have the time. That’s because my favorite spoiler articles from Michael Ausiello always come out on Tuesday.

You recall in the past I have produced a fall TV schedule because I couldn’t find a good one online the combined all of the various networks together. I finally found one so I’m linking to it instead of creating my own. You can find a link on my entertainment blog here

Fall TV schedule

You can see what TV series have been renewed or canceled by clicking these links.

Prime time Renewal Scorecard

Cable Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Been Cancelled?

The biggest news and entertainment is the fight between CBS and Time Warner/Bright House cable. They are negotiating over the retransmission rights of a half-dozen or so local CBS owned affiliates. However the dispute turned nasty when TWC/BH also dropped Showtime and other pay cable channels and by CBS with the talks broke down. And not just in the affected markets but nationwide (including here on Cossell Drive). While I can still see WISH TV channel 8 including its CBS program, I can no longer get CBS on demand, Showtime, The Movie Channel or Smithsonian Network on my Bright House cable. I can always catch Dexter or Ray Donovan on demand once the dispute is settled (or from other sources nudge nudge wink wink say no more) but I had several movies queued up that I was hoping to watch that will now not get recorded. Hopefully they will still be showing once the dispute has settled. One unique counterattack, CBS is blocking online streaming of it shows through CBS.com to people who have Internet with TWC/BH. So if you happen to have bright house Internet and don’t even have cable, you cannot watch CBS shows online. This is the nastiest fight I’ve seen in a long time. One analyst says CBS loses $400,000 per day because of the blackout. Some predict this will extend all the way to the opening of football season and I don’t mean preseason. I certainly hope it’s resolved before that.

Now onto our regular news…

In the links below you can read

Matt’s Inside Line from August 1 (news and spoilers)

X factor announces new judges, new format, smaller prize

Josh Whedon answers questions about Agents of SHIELD

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 6

Postmortem season 3 interview with Falling Skies producer

Postmortem season 3 interview with Falling Skies cast

Not in the links below but still of interest

The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special episode will air simultaneously around the world Saturday, November 23 7 PM in the UK 2 PM in the US East Coast

Peter Capaldi has been cast as the 12th Dr. in Doctor Who. He will take over from Matt Smith after the Christmas special

British actor James Murray who used to be in the original Primeval TV series will join the cast of next year’s Defiance

Defiance will have its 13 episode second season in June 2014

Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe are both leaving Parks And Recreation next season

SyFy Channel has picked up Continuum for season 3.

BBC America premieres a new drama series Broadchurch tonight.

Fox is working on a American adaptation of Broadchurch for the 2014-15 season

Mary Lynn Rajskub has signed on to reprise her role as Jack Bauer’s girl Friday Chloe in the upcoming “24: Live Another Day” 12 episode miniseries for spring 2014

Keith Urban is definitely returning as American Idol judge. Jennifer Lopez may return after a year off.

Ellen DeGeneres will host the Oscars this year

Dylan Bruce played one of the clones husbands Paul on Orphan Black will guest star on Arrow

Kathy Bates star in the upcoming season of American Horror Story as a very bad one. I can’t wait!

The new show runner of Revenge promises less conspiracy theory and simpler plot lines

Dancing with the Stars will no longer have a results show. They haven’t really said how they’re going to handle that.

Yvonne Strahovski will reprise her role as Hannah on next week’s episode of Dexter. Deborah doesn’t take it too well.

Starz channel announced Magic City will not return next season.

Leslie Hope a.k.a. Jack Bauer’s late wife will guest star on an upcoming NCIS in an important role

Tahmoh Peikett who played Lieut. Hilo and Battle Star Galactica will have a recurring role in this seasons Supernatural

Bones producers promise Bones and Booth will get married this season at a time you least expect it.

Sam Underwood who is currently starring in the seasons Dexter will move to “The Following” as a regular next season.

Dexter executive producer says fans will either love or hate the series finale intensely

Major mystery resolved. Although Cote de Pablo is leaving NCIS they are not killing off her character Ziva

This week’s winner of “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse” award goes to TLC network which is producing a reality show about a man with a 132 lbs. scrotum.

The opening scene of this seasons Sons of Anarchy has started a controversy over violence in TV shows. Apparently those who seem screeners of it say it’s pretty intense.

Anna Camp a.k.a. Sarah Newlen on True Blood says her weirdest scene yet is last Sunday’s fight with Tamblyn Tomita. It sent her to the ER with minor injuries. Took three days to film.

Ryan Seacrest has been announced as the host of NBC’s “Million Second Quiz”

Republican national committee once NBC and CNN to cancel documentaries about Hillary Clinton

Michael Ansara at age 91. A veteran character actor who played many roles but is most noted as Kang the Klingon from the original Star Trek series. He was the first ever Klingon on TV.

More Bourne coming. Universal Studios is working on a sequel for the latest Bourne Legacy film with Jeremy Renner

CBS has green lit a new sci-fi series for next summer and ordered 13 episodes without shooting a pilot. “Extant”. A similar process was used for “Under the Dome”. In the show a female astronaut returns to earth after a year in space and tries to reconnect to her family. She experiences “something that will change human history”. Show will be produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.

Veteran NBC news man John Palmer passed away this week after a brief illness.

The original Technicolor 1936 Wizard of Oz is being digitally remastered in IMAX 3-D! We could not be happier!!!! Will premiere in Hollywood’s historic Chinese theater on September 15 where it originally debuted 75 years ago. It will be the biggest IMAX theater in the world. Wide release on IMAX screens is September 20. DVD release of 75th anniversary collector’s edition will be October 1.

Downton Abbey returns to PBS January 5.

Sylvester Stallone tweeted about Expendables 3 “Bruce Willis out… Harrison Ford in. Great News”. Nobody knows what he had against Willis. Others in include Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes, Nicholas Cage, Millia Jovoich.

Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill deny that there appearing on PBS news hour is the first ever female coanchor team. They remind us that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey did it first 🙂

James Cameron announced there will now be three new Avatar movies not two. First will open in December 2016. Then about one a year.

Dustin Hoffman is message to has been successfully treated for cancer.

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on NCIS, New Girl, Glee, Castle, Flash, NCIS: LA, Scandal, SVU and More

The X Factor Season 3: Smaller Prize, Passionate Mentors, No More Judges’ Houses or Boot Camp

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 7 Burning Qs (Kinda) Answered — Plus: Official Poster Unveiled!

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Grey’s, Scandal, Bones, Revenge, Sons, NCIS, Arrow, Once and More

‘Falling Skies’: Noah Wyle, more cast discuss season 3 finale on ’2nd Watch’

‘Falling Skies’ season 3 finale: Showrunner Remi Aubuchon answers your burning questions!

In the past I’ve put together a fall TV schedule that shows you what TV shows are returning, which ones have moved to new timeslots, and which ones are new series. It was because I could never find a good source of the information all in one place. I always had to go to each networks website to conflict the information. Last year I found a really good source for such a chart and so I did not make one last year or this year. Here is a link to a PDF of this year’s chart from one of my favorite TV websites.

Fall TV schedule from TVahlic.com in PDF format

Well people I messed up. It may be the end of my occasional entertainment news emails and blogs. I was using something called an RSS reader named “Feed Demon” to collect the articles from a variety of websites that I then scroll through every couple of weeks and pick out the articles of interest and post them in the email. The “Feed Demon” program was linked to a service called “Google Reader” which was discontinued on July 1. I knew it was coming and I read lots of articles about alternatives to Google Reader. Among the articles it said that even though Feed Demon was no longer going to be supported by the people who created it, it would still continue to work as a newsreader despite the death of Google Reader. I turned off the synchronization between Feed Demon and Google Reader and it looked like the program was going to continue to function.

I got tied up with working on some of my electronics projects and I spent five days writing a blog about the Paul McCartney concert (available here in case you missed it). I haven’t gotten back to entertainment news until today. When I called up Feed Demon for the first time in over a month it only downloaded two days worth of articles. Apparently the synchronization with Google Reader was more important than I thought. That means it’s been a month worth of stuff going on that I didn’t know about. For example the first link below is a set of spoilers from yesterday’s blog by Michael Ausiello and the first question from a fan was “Is there any word on who is going to replace Ziva on NCIS?” Crap! I didn’t know that she was leaving!

I think that if I continued to run Feed Demon on a daily basis it should download the articles and save them for me until I can read them. I really like the interface on this program I guess just because I’ve gotten used to it so I’m going to stick with it for now and try to remember to run it at least once a day so that when I do get around to collecting the information it should be pre-downloaded for me. If not I will have to start experimenting with one of about a dozen other Google reader replacements.

So for now here is what I know. In the links below you can read

Michael Ausiello spoilers dated July 30

Not in the links below but also of interest…

Cote de Pablo a.k.a. Ziva is leaving NCIS. The network through a ton of money at her but she won’t come back.

In the upcoming season of Arrow we’re going to meet The Flash when have his origin story. Rumors are possible spinoff.

Lisa Edelstein formally Dr. Cutter of House is joining the cast of Castle

Anna Torv of Fringe has been cast in a pilot for an HBO series

Even though this is the last season of Dexter, the show runner has been retained by Showtime and rumors are there may be a spinoff

President Obama will appear on the Tonight Show on August 6

ABC’s Celebrity Wife Swap has been renewed for a third season (yawn)

And there you have it. Two days worth of entertainment news instead of six weeks worth like you would’ve had if I hadn’t screwed up.

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on NCIS, Grey’s, Mentalist, Nashville, Castle, Good Wife, Homeland and More

One can hardly call it Entertainment News when it’s in some parts a month old but here is my next installment of Entertainment used to be news 🙂

We start off by telling you that the new installment of JJ Abrams reboot of Star Trek is awesome beyond words. If you are a general fan of action you will like it. If you are a very knowledgeable Star Trek fan (especially about the previous series of movies) you will be totally blown away. I have been critical of the first JJ Abrams Star Trek because it wasn’t what I was expecting. We were told it was Capt. Kirk, Spock, McCoy when they were young. I was looking forward to seeing what made the characters we had grown to love for so many years who they were. Unfortunately with a time travel gimmick that literally rebooted everything, these characters are no longer the same people because this timeline has developed differently. My disappointment the first time around has grown too much appreciation this time because now I can sit back and enjoy looking at the differences between the two timelines. Those differences are celebrated in this new film and add a whole other dimension to it that makes a delight for hard-core Star Trek fans like myself. I also patted myself on the back for seeing a plot twist that came. I only saw it coming about 15 seconds before it was revealed but I loved it nevertheless.

We have to pay tribute to Jean Stapleton who is most famous for playing Edith Bunker in the groundbreaking sitcom “All in the Family”. She died this past week at age 90. My favorite Edith Bunker quote was the scene where a friend of hers was asking about her love life with Archie. “Is it still fireworks like the Fourth of July?” the friend asks. Edith frowns and replies “With Archie it’s more like Thanksgiving”. That character is also famous for perfectly pronouncing the most unintelligible sentence in TV history every week. In the show’s classic opening with Edith and Archie sitting at the piano singing “Those Were the Days”, Edith sings a line that stumped viewers for years until she finally went on talk shows and explained that she was pronouncing the words exactly as they should be. Unless you knew what she was saying, it sounded like total gibberish. The sentence was (in case you never heard the explanation) was “Gee our old LaSalle ran great.” That is “Gee” as in geewhiz, “LaSalle” is a type of old car that in her experience performed beautifully (ran great). But when you run those words together quickly they make no sense whatsoever.

The other major news is that Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who at the end of 2013. He will appear in the 50th anniversary special which will air in November and in the 2013 Christmas special which will be his last episode. Of course speculation is rampant on who will replace him. Some say it is the iconic actor who appeared in the final few seconds of the most recent episode. Others are voting for a variety of factors including Rupert Gent a.k.a. Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter movies. My nomination is Ben Whishaw who played Freddy Lyons in the BBC series “The Hour” and recently appeared in James Bond SkyFall as the new “Q”. Fans are also busy arguing over the obscure line in a very old episode that said the doctor can only regenerate 12 times. They aren’t sure whether that’s the original +12 or if it’s 12 total. Matt Smith is the 11th doctor. My guess is we will see a 12 and a 13 and however many more BBC wants to create.

Be sure to check out the first two links below which is a complete listing of network and cable shows that were renewed or canceled. Here is a brief list of canceled shows to whet your appetite: 666 Park Ave., Don’t Trust the B in 23, Private Practice, Red Widow, Zero Hour, CSI:NY, Made in Jersey, Vegas, The Cleveland Show, Fringe, The Mob Dr., Touch, 1600 Penn, 30 Rock, Animal Practice, Go on, The Office, Up All Night, Whitney, 90210, Cult, Gossip Girl, Breaking Bad (final season August 11), Being Human (BBC America version) final season premieres July 13, Enlightenment, Treme (final season debuts late 2013), The Borgias, Dexter (final season premieres June 30), The Big C, Warehouse 13 (final season to debut in 2014), Southland, Burn Notice (final season premieres June 6). Okay I lied that’s the official list of canceled series. Click on the links to learn about other series extensions and debut dates.

In links below read…

2013 Network season renewal scorecard

Cable season renewal scorecard

Interview with Julie Benz on playing the mayor of Defiance

Ask Aussiello spoilers dated May 22

Postmortem interview with producers of Grimm about season finale

postmortem interview with actor Stephen Amell about season finale of Arrow

Ask Ausiello spoilers dated May 29

Postmortem interview with show runner of Spartacus about series finale

Jimmy Fallon’s Game of Thrones Parody is a must-see for fans

Also of interest but not in links below…

Fox has announced Kiefer Sutherland will return in a “24” miniseries in May 2014. It was still cover the events of a single 24 hour period however it will only be 12 hours long. They are going to cut out the boring stuff supposedly. Chloe is almost assuredly going to return as is tech wizard girl Friday but no word on the other cast members.

CW networks Nikita will have its final season of just six episodes next year.

Jennifer Ferrin who has been pursuing Kevin Bacon on The Following will become a regular in season 3 of “Hell on Wheels”

Hell on Wheels will premiere August 3 at 9 PM

May 29 CBS pulled the season finale of Mike and Molly because it was about a tornado. On the heels of the Oklahoma tornadoes they decided not show it. It will be rescheduled.

666 Park Ave. will air its final four un-aired episodes starting June 22 on ABC

X factor judges this year will be Simon Cowell, Demi Lovato, former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, and Latin popstar Paulina Rubio.

John Barrowman a.k.a. black arrow a.k.a. Capt. Jack Harkness will host an upcoming ABC singing competition called Sing Your Face Off.

Rumors are American Idol is considering and all alumni judging panel such as Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert, Clay Aiken. All four of the seasons judges are gone but no replacements are named yet.

Emma Roberts from Scream 4 will be a regular on the upcoming season 3 of American Horror Story

Diego Klattenhoffwho played army buddy uncle Mike on Homeland will not return next season

CBS has ordered a new series called Bad Teacher based on the movie of the same name

A&E has canceled Intervention. Will conclude with five installments starting June 13

American Idol alumni Matt Rogers will host Summer Camp a USA Network reality series

Shield alumni CCH Pounder will have a multi-episode arc on Sons of Anarchy

CW will air the remaining episodes of canceled series Cult starting June 28

Maresca Hargitay will return to SVU season 15

Comedy Central has renewed “Inside Amy Schumer” for season 2

Rob Lowe and Genifer Goodwin will play JFK and Jackie in National Geographic’s Killing Kennedy

Not only is Neil Patrick Harris hosting this week’s Tony awards. He will also host the 2013 Emmy awards on September 22

Producers of 2 1/2 Men are looking to add a female in her late teens to plate the late Charlie Harper’s daughter he never knew he had. She will debut next year’s season to replace Angus T Jones who is not returning. Still no plans to change the name of the show.

Sam Page of Mad Men and Molly Parker from Deadwood will join the cast of house of cards season 2

FX is moving a few episodes of Anger Management over to Fox network

NBC has officially renewed Hannibal for season 2

Jean Stapleton a.k.a. Edith Bunker has died at the age of 90

Marisa Ramirez has officially taken over as Danny’s permanent new partner on Bluebloods

JJ Abrams has acquired the rights to a never before produced script by Rod Serling

Former MSNBC/Current TV news man Keith Olbermann will host TBS MLB postseason coverage

Showtime has officially canceled The Borgias

Alfre Woodard will ever recurring role on upcoming season of BBC America’s Copper

Patricia Arquette will have a recurring role on next season’s Boardwalk Empire

HBO’s The Newsroom returns July 14

TNT and TBS will soon begin streaming programming on apps for tablets and smartphones

The Tony Awards have contracted to stay on CBS through 2018

Adam Levine “hates this country” for voting off his contestants. Then apologizes for his comment.

American Idol has canceled nine cities from its summer concert tour over a lack of interest.

Paul McCartney will perform a special one-hour episode of Colbert Report next Wednesday, June 12

Henry Cavill currently playing Superman in Man of Steel is in talks to play in an upcoming Man from UNCLE movie. Tom Cruise was going to start but backed out so he can work on Mission Impossible 5

Cable Renewal Scorecard

2013 Renewal Scorecard: What’s Cancelled? What’s Returning? What’s Still on the Bubble?

Julie Benz on Playing Defiance’s ‘Badass’ Mayor: Not Being ‘The Sexy One’ Is Definitely Fun

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Vampire Diaries, Nikita, Psych, Revenge, Covert Affairs and More!

Grimm Post Mortem: David Giuntoli on Nick in a Box (‘It’s Going to Be Bad’), Wesen Sex and More

A ‘Broken’ Arrow in Season 2? Plus: Which Finale Scene Was Deleted for Being Too Revealing?

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Sons of Anarchy, NCIS, Suits and More!

Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight breaks down who survived and who died in the ‘Spartacus’ series finale and why

Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Game of Thrones’ parody will be a ball — EXCLUSIVE CLIP

It’s been so long since I did entertainment news that several of the articles I found talking about appealing episodes had already aired weeks ago. The major items of note are that Jimmy Fallon will replace Jay Leno as host of the Tonight Show in February 2014 and the show will move to New York. We also have to bow our heads in a moment of silence for the passing of Roger Ebert and Annette Funicello.

In the links below 

Interview with Shameless star Emmy Rossum about a recent episode.

Interview with Laurie Holden about her character Andrea on The Walking Dead season finale

Interview with Robert Kirkman about season finale of The Walking Dead and 4

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated April 2

Interview with Justified show runner about season finale

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated April 9

Not in the links below but also of interest

True Blood season 6 will premiere Sunday, June 16

The Killing season 3 will begin with a two-hour episode Sunday, June 2 Peter Sarsgaard joins the cast

David Tennant and Billy Piper have agreed to appear in the Dr. Who 50th anniversary special now filming in the UK

TBS has renewed Conan O’Brien’s talkshow through 2015

The Walking Dead is looking for an actor to play a character named Roy Stark and Army medic who is haunted by his past both pre-and post zombie apocalypse

HBO has officially renewed Game of Thrones for season 4

USA announced Royal Pains returns June 12, Covert Affairs July 16, Burn Notice June 6 followed by new series Graceland

Rumor has it that “Happy Endings” they moved to USA Network if ABC cancels it

The Walking Dead has promoted Tyreese, Sasha, and Beth two series regulars for season 4

Christopher Abbott who plays Marnie’s boyfriend Charlie on HBO’s Girls is leaving in season 3

A mixup in TV schedules caused many viewers to miss recording the last seven minutes of “The Americans” in an early April episode titled “Safe House”. They’ve decided to put the episode online.

History Channel has renewed “Vikings” for season 2. We are very happy.

Dexter returns to Showtime June 30

True Blood has announced Anna Camp will return as anti-vampire evangelist Sarah Newlin for a guest shot. I think she’s hot.

Bravo has canceled the Kathy Griffin talkshow “Kathy” after two seasons.

A&E has renewed “Bates Hotel” for season 2. I’m surprised.

“So You Think You Can Dance” returns May 14/15

Michael Imperioli will have a recurring character in season 7 of Californication

The season finale of Chicago Fire on May 15 will launch a potential spinoff series focused on Chicago police.

John Barrowman a.k.a. Torchwood’s Capt. Jack will have a guest spot on upcoming episodes of Scandal

The entire 15 episode season 4 of Arrested Development will premiere May 26 on Netflix only

Syfy Channel has renewed the American version of Being Human for a 13 episode season 4

Yvonne Strahovski will return to Dexter as Hannah for its final season

Despite rumors of a change, NBC has renewed Last Call with Carson Daly for a 13 season.

ABC has announced “Once upon a Time” may get an “Alice in Wonderland” spinoff

Drea de Matteo will guest star in several episodes of Sons of Anarchy as Jack’s ex-wife Wendy

CBS has announced 18 of its shows that are returning including Elementary. Notable omissions from the list are Vegas, Golden Boy, CSI NY. Also missing 2 1/2 Men and Criminal Minds which are likely to be renewed but are still under negotiation.

FX has renewed Justified, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, legit, and The League.

FX is going to spin off a new network tentatively titled FXX in September aimed at young adults and comedy focused

FX has green lit 10 episode limited series title Fargo based on the movie

Stan Lee will guest star on an upcoming episode Of The Simpsons

Lifetime has canceled America’s Most Wanted

MythBusters returns to Discovery May 1

Sara Barelles is leaving as a judge on NBC’s “Sing Off”. The show was thought to be canceled but will return sometime during the holidays this year.

Syndicated Judge Judy has been renewed through 2017

The DVD of History Channel’s “The Bible” sets record for fastest selling miniseries ever met 525,000 units in the first week

Natalie Dormer famous for playing Anne Bolin in Showtime’s The Tudors and currently starring in Game of Thrones will play Sherlock’s former girlfriend Irene Adler in a three episode arc. She is majorly hot!

Syfy Channel is developing to miniseries based on Larry Niven’s classic Ringworld and Arthur C Clarke’s Childhoods End

History Channel is developing a miniseries about Houdini starring Adrien Brody

CW network has pulled “Cult” from its schedule after only 7 of 13 episodes. No word yet on if we get to see the others. I kind of like the show but I won’t miss it much.

Queen Elizabeth II was given an honorary BAFTA award for playing a memorable “Bond Girl” in the opening ceremony of the Olympics

A prop phaser rifle from original Star Trek sold for $231,000 at auction over the weekend.

Robert Redford has joined the cast for the next Capt. America film scheduled for April 2014 release

Alfre Woodard has joined the cast of BBC America’s “Copper”

Patricia Arquette is joining Boardwalk Empire

Animated Kung fu panda 3 will be released December 2015

A&E announced Longmire and The Glades will return May 27

TNT announced Franklin and Bash returns June 19, Rizzoli & Isles and Perception June 25

Starz network’s Magic City returns June 14

Richard Griffiths who played Harry Potter’s Uncle Vernon has died at age 65.

Pixar is making a sequel to Finding Nemo titled Finding Dorie scheduled November 2015

Shameless’ Emmy Rossum: Fiona and Jimmy’s Relationship Plummets to a ‘Pretty Bad Place’

Walking Dead Exclusive: The Actor at the Center of the Season Finale’s Tragic Death Speaks Out — ‘It Was a Shock to Everyone’

Walking Dead Post Mortem: Robert Kirkman Talks Andrea Backlash (Including the Pliers!), Defends Rick’s Decision, Previews [Spoiler]’s Return

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Grey’s, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Glee, Shameless and More!

Justified Boss on [Spoiler]’s Shocking Fate, Boyd’s Dark(er) Path – Plus: Season 5 Scoop!

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Glee, Once, Nikita, SVU, Scandal, Grimm, Good Wife, Bones and More!

I want to kick off this installment of entertainment news with comments on series finale of Fringe and season finale of Parenthood both of which I enjoyed immensely. If you’ve not seen these episodes then skip a couple of paragraphs. By the way I was on a Doctor Who discussion form the other day and someone said “When you say the word ‘Spoilers!’ when talking about a TV show don’t you hear the word in your brain in the voice of River Song?”. So if I was capable of doing a River Song impersonation… Spoilers included below.

I really don’t have a lot to say about Fringe except that I thought the whole final season was really great. I like the fact that it had more of a continuing story rather than just the typical “weird fringe event of the week”. It was a little bit disappointing that they spent the entire season trying to figure out a method for getting rid of the Observers and in the end a lot of what they did they really didn’t use. They just sort of piggybacked on the wormhole generator that the Observers use themselves. I thought there was a tremendous acting jobs between the bad guy head Observer (I forget his name) as he sort of did his Inspector Javier hunt for the fringe team and how he was after them because they were imperfect emotional beings yet he was struggling with his own emerging emotions. I thought the humanized Observer September was a really interesting character both as an observer and as a human. And even though the child observer didn’t have any lines and just had to sit there in his makeup and look ominous in creepy I really think he did a pretty good job. I don’t know who that kid was but I will be watching for him in other movies and shows. I think the happily ever after ending for Olivia and family was a bit of a surprise to me. I was a little bit too sweet but given how much they had all suffered I understand why they did it. And I really liked what happened to Walter in the end. With all of his struggles over the unintended evils he unleashed on the world, his opportunity to redeem himself by saving the world was really appropriate. I will miss the show. I really liked it. But it’s not up on the level of say Battle Star Galactica where it’s the type of thing I want to go back and watch rerun episodes on Science Channel or marathons of episodes should they occur. It was just a fun show that I’ll miss.

Although we only got 13 episodes of Parenthood this season I thought they were pretty amazing and it wasn’t just the cancer storyline. I was definitely rooting for Jason Ritter over Ray Romano’s own a little bit disappointed there. In the final episode I was really pissed that after she gave up on Jason Ritter and picked Ray that he would up and leave for Minnesota. I forgave them however when in the end she went with him. I thought the whole adoption storyline was pretty cool. Although the final scene of all of the Braverman’s invading the judges chamber was a little bit cliché for the show as a typical Braverman thing to do I still liked it. I’m glad that Amber got hooked up again with her PTSD soldier guy and that apparently he’s getting his act together. I think the story arc that moved me the most throughout the year was Max and his struggle with Asperger syndrome as he gets into middle school age. His victory scene when they finally got the vending machine was very cool. In the season finale of all of the many tearjerker moments the only ones that really got me were related to Max. When Max said to the adopted boy “Now that you’re officially in the family you can touch my lizards” I thought that was the coolest thing she had ever done. For a moment I thought maybe it was a little bit out of character for him but I think it really illustrates how far he’s come in his attempt to learn what empathy really means. But the Max related seen that really choked me up most was when Ray Romano gives the girl the camera for Max. “This is for your nephew that doesn’t like to look at people. You look down in the top of the camera to see out. He can take people’s picture without having to look at them.” After that I would have run off to Minnesota with him myself 🙂 I guess I just thought it was amazingly clever, thoughtful, and I can’t think of what other adjectives. I suppose I empathize with Max because of his “disability” and the fact that someone wanted to find a way for him to do something fun despite his problems really got to me. I’ve not yet heard of Parenthood has been renewed. The way the episode went it could’ve been an appropriate series finale. All I’ve heard so far is that NBC executives are pleased that the ratings were way up this season. It’s definitely one of the best shows on television.

Moving on to entertainment news… This is the time of season when new pilots are being ordered and people are being cast in those pilots. I’m probably not going to cover a lot of that information because in the past I’ve gotten very excited about various pilots and who was going to be in them only to discover that the series never got ordered (for example Wonder Woman, Mockingbird Lane just to name a few.) For example NBC is currently casting a Dracula series pilot. CBS has announced a new comedy series starring Robin Williams. I’m ignoring the news because I’m afraid I’m going to be disappointed.

In the links below read about

Calendar of premiere dates and finale dates for midseason shows in February. Must see. Includes link to series renewal scorecard.

BBC America is making a film about the people who created Dr. Who back in 1963. David Bradley a.k.a. Prof. Filch from Harry Potter will play William Hartnell.

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated January 29

Interview with Spartacus Star Liam McIntyre

Interview with Valorie Curry a star of new Fox series “The Following” (I like this new series)

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated February 5

Not in the links below but also of interest…

CBS announced it is renewing How I Met Your Mother for its final season 2013/2014 in which we will finally find out who the mother is.

Annie Wersching, who played 24 FBI agent Renee Walker to guest star on revolution

Despite ABC’s cancellation of several soaps CBS renews The Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless also renewed The Talk, the Price Is Right, Let’s Make a Deal

Cinemax renews Banshee for season 2

Showtime renews House of Lies, Californication, and Shameless for another season each

HBO TV series Entourage is moving to the big screen. There’s going to be an Entourage movie.

Christopher Waltz (Django Unchained, Inglorious Bastards) will host SNL February 16

Katie Couric’s syndicated talkshow has been renewed for season 2

The modern day Jekyll/Hide NBC series “Do No Harm” did no good. Got lowest rated midseason premiere of any scripted TV show ever!

Former bionic man Lee Majors will have a multi-episode arc on Dallas

CBS has renewed NCIS for its 11th season

ABC is announced Castle will have 24 episodes this season rather than the previously announced 23

From the “I don’t remember if I ordered this last time or not” department… HBO has renewed Girls for season 3

Dr. Phil has been renewed for three more years

Former half governor Sarah Palin has been fired by Fox news

In the February 11 episode of Bones, she is shot

Al Pacino will play murderous record producer Phil Spector in an upcoming HBO movie

Al Pacino will play coach Joe Paterno in a film directed by Brian de Palma

British network ITV has green lit a reboot of Thunderbirds Are Go to air in 2015. It will be a mixture of live-action and CGI

Ricki Lake syndicated talkshow has been canceled after one season

James Cameron has won a lawsuit claiming he stole the idea for Avatar.

Aimee Garcia, Dexter’s nanny, has been updated to series regular for next season

Marvel Studios will make a movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” based on their comic.

Disney announced that in addition to making Star Wars VII, VIII and IX the first of which to be directed by JJ Abrams, they have also hired Larry Kasdan and Simon Kimberg to write two additional Star Wars related films not part of the original series.

Commentator Dick Morris who predicted a Romney landslide has been fired from Fox news

DreamWorks Animation announced “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” has been pushed to March 2014 from its original plan to release November 2013

Additionally DreamWorks Animation has pulled “Me and My Shadow” from its release schedule and now list it back in “in development”. Also reported layoffs are occurring.

Bravo has renewed Top Chef for season 11

Feel the need for speed? Top Gun coming to IMAX 3-D for one week run.

AMC has announced that “The Killing” will return for a third season despite previous cancellation

The Batmobile from the 60s TV series recently sold at auction for $4.6 million

ABC has pulled “Don’t trust the B…” From its schedule.

Rumors are that Raj is finally going to get a girlfriend on Big Bang Theory

Hot for Winter: Your February Premieres Calendar

BBC America to Chronicle Doctor Who‘s Debut in TV-Movie Starring Brian Cox, Harry Potter Actor

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Walking Dead, Grey’s, Scandal, Big Bang, Nashville, Bones and More!

Spartacus Star Liam McIntyre Talks Codpieces, Full-Frontal Nudity and a ‘Devastating’ Finale

The Following’s Breakout Star Valorie Curry Dissects Emma’s ‘Misplaced’ Love of Joe Carroll

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Scandal, Bones, Big Bang, Grimm, Once, Spartacus and More!

We start off this installment of my entertainment news with my observations on seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at High Frame Rate 3-D. First some background… Computer animated movies in 3-D are genuine 3-D creations because they simply re-render the movie with the virtual camera at a different location and angle. Most of the live-action 3-D movies you see these days were actually shot in 2-D although some were shot in anticipation that they would be converted to 3-D and postprocessing. Prime example of that is the most recent Narnia movie. You will notice lots of side to side camera movement in that film. That allows the computer postprocessing process to use information from successive frames to more easily re-create a 3-D effect. But a small number of movies these days are actually shot in 3-D and the new hobbit trilogy is one of them. Not only was it shot in 3-D it was shot entirely digitally and shot at a high frame rate. The standard for shooting filmed movies has long been 24 frames per second. By comparison standard TV is 30 frames per second or up to 60 frames per second for HDTV. My first introduction to a higher frame rate was when I bought my most recent HDTV’s which have refresh rates of either 120 or 240 Hz. The way that digital video is compressed the TV can actually take 30 frames percent and interpolate the motion to fill in next to frames in between. The result is a sort of hyperrealistic movement as the camera pans or as objects move across the screen. Unfortunately the conversion inside the typical HDTV isn’t perfect and you can actually get artifacts distortions around the edges of objects. Some people don’t like the higher frame rates on HDTV’s and actually turn off the feature. On the other hand I like it a lot so I was anxious to see what a 48 frame per second film looks like that wasn’t something that had been postprocess but had actually been shot at the higher frame rates.

It takes the latest digital projectors to be able to show these higher frame rates so films like the hobbit are only being shown at HFR in a limited number of theaters. The only theater in Indiana is at a 16 theater multiplex in Noblesville at the big mall up there near the Deer Creek Music Center. With this new HFR format was previewed to critics, it was widely panned. I never did hear what the critics didn’t like about HFR. It could be that they had a batch of people who like some don’t like the postprocess HFR that HDTV’s have. Or it may just a been that they didn’t think that the effect was dramatic enough to be worth the hype. I never did figure that out.

The bottom line is I did like the HFR experience on The Hobbit very much. As various creatures are being chased through the woods with fast camera movements and during many of the action sequences I think the high frame rate definitely makes for a better experience. It was easier to see what was going on. Sometimes in action scenes everything is just a blur but not so much in this film.

I think the high frame rate is especially important on very large screens and this one was near IMAX size even though it wasn’t IMAX. Let’s do the math for a minute. Suppose you got a movie screen that is 30 feet wide and you have an object quickly moving across the screen that takes for example three seconds. That means that the object is moving at 10 ft./s measured on the screen itself. At 24 frames per second that means the object moves 6 inches every frame. If you are sitting close enough to the screen to get an IMAX like experience (that is the screen fills your normal field of vision while looking at the screen center) you can actually get a strobe effect as an object moves across the screen. Your brain can no longer merge the individual static images into a fluid motion. By doubling the frame rate you get that six-inch jump down to 3 inches which when viewed from the middle of a theater is not nearly as noticeable.

As much as I liked the HFR experience and not 100% sure that I would repeatedly drive across town to see it. As far as I know the only films made this way are the hobbit trilogy. The second part will be released sometime this year and the third part not until 2014 so I suppose the crosstown trip once a year would be a nice treat. But if more and more films are shot at higher frame rate, I’m probably not going to go chasing all over the place to see it that way. An ordinary 3-D or an ordinary IMAX 3-D experience a little bit closer to home (like Traders Point) should be enough to satisfy my eye candy obsession. On the other hand the more films they get shot at HFR the more theaters will convert to that technology. It’s the classic chicken and egg problem that has slowed the move to digital and the wider promulgation of 3-D capabilities.

Now we move on to our regular news items. In the links below read about

Postmortem interviews with producers of Homeland after the season finale (which was awesome by the way)

Postmortem interviews with producers of Dexter after the season finale (which was awesome by the way)

Interviews with producers of How I Met Your Mother about midseason break finale episode

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated December 18

Interview with Prince Charming actor about his role in Once upon a Time

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated January 3

Renewal scorecard from Michael Ausiello predicts which shows will be renewed/canceled

Not in the links below but also of interest

RIP Jack Klugman age 90

RIP Charles Durning age 89

RIP Harry Carey Jr. Western movie star age 91

RIP Gary Anderson puppeteer/producer of Space 1999, Supercar & Thunderbirds TV series

Producers of Dallas JR Ewing will get a funeral in the TV series after the death of Larry Hagman at age 81

Martin Scorsese will produce and direct a documentary about Bill Clinton for HBO

Discovery Channel cancels American Guns

Season finales of Homeland and Dexter set records for viewership for Showtime

Season 2 premiere of Smash on NBC will be Tuesday, February 5

Episodes of Scandal, Haven, Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show were delayed for violent content because of the Sandy Hook tragedy

The Haven episode which included a shooting at a high school will air with the season finale back to back on January 17

Producers say episodes of Game of Thrones season 3 will be 57-58 minutes long compared to the typical 54 minutes. Some may go past 60.

Julianne Moore will return to guest star on 30 Rock to the series finale

HeroesandCovert Affairsalum Sendhil Ramamurthy will have a recurring role in Beauty and the Beast on CW

James Callas a.k.a. Gaius Baltar from BSG will guest star in an upcoming episode of Arrow

USA announced Psych has been renewed for a eighth and possibly final season. Season seven premieres February 27

The Walking Dead has been renewed for a fourth season however show runner Glen Mazzara who helmed seasons 2 and 3 is leaving over creative differences. Season 3 returns February 10

How I Met Your Mother has been renewed for a 9th season after Jason Segel makes last-minute decision to stay with the show.

TNT has canceled Leverage. December 25 episode was series finale.

NBC has officially decided not to pick up Mockingbird Lane the Munsters reboot to series. Pilot had poor ratings.

The Christmas episode of Dr. Who sent a ratings record for BBC America up 60% from last year’s Christmas special

Adam Levine will host SNL January 26

January 14 episode of Hawaii 50 will allow viewers to vote on the ending.

Jennifer Esposito’s “medical leave” from Blue Bloods is now permanent. She’s off the show.

USA has renewed Necessary Roughness for season 3 of 10 episodes

Canceled soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children will return as online shows.

Syfy Channel announced new series Defiance premieres April 15

Fox announced that Bones has been renewed for season 8 possibly its last

LA Reid will not return to The X Factor. Rumors are Britney Spears is out as well.

CBS is in the early stages of developing a new Twilight Zone series

Middle East cable company Al Jazeera purchases Current TV. Several carriers drop the channel including Bright House

National Geographic is making a documentary based on Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Lincoln”. And will do documentary on “Killing Kennedy” as well.

HBO is being sued over alleged mistreatment of horses in its canceled series Luck

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will guest when the series finale of 30 Rock

A&E series Bates Motel (prequel to Psycho) will start March 18

David Tennant and Arthur Darvill returns to BBC America in eight episode series from ITV titled Broadchurch

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte will get a reality series on E! Network

Commemorative postage stamps featuring all 11 doctors of Dr. Who will be issued in the UK.

This week’s winner of the Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Apocalypse award goes to Justin Bieber who will host and perform on SNL February 9

Homeland Burning Questions: Will [Spoiler] Sit Out Season 3? Did SNL’s Spoof Sting? And More

Dexter Boss Discusses the Impact of Deb’s Deadly Choice, Plus: Who’ll Be Back in Season 8?

HIMYM Boss on Robin and Barney’s (Happy?) Future, Ted’s ‘Regrets,’ Season 9 and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Bones, Castle, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, HIMYM, Grey’s and More!

Once Upon a Time: Josh Dallas on the Charmings’ Future, Regina’s Regret and Hook’s Welcome

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Once Upon a Time, Bones, Office, Supernatural, HIMYM and More!

2013 Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Getting Cancelled? What’s on the Bubble?