TV Squad

MONDAY, JULY 26
'The Closer' (9PM, TNT)
She is once again a contender for the Best Actress in a Drama Emmy, and tonight's episode is yet another excellent example of why Kyra Sedgwick keeps racking up those nominations. First up, Brenda (Sedgwick) and the squad are investigating an alleged suicide, which leads them into a particularly nasty child custody fight: a dying man is battling his ex-wife, who's a meth addict. Meanwhile, back at police headquarters, Pope officially applies for the police chief job, but is surprised to find out who's going to have some influence on whether or not he lands the job: Brenda.

'The Bachelorette: Men Tell All' – It's the last ep before next week's finale, and it's a pretty safe bet that Frank and R-Rated will be big topics of conversation (8PM, ABC)

'Kid in a Candy Store' – Back-to-back new episodes find Adam travelling the country to get a peek at art made out of Peeps marshmallows, tattoo cakes and architecturally-inspired ice cream sammiches (8 and 8:30PM, Food Network)

'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' – Michael "Cristufuh" Imperioli pops in as Adrian's girlie parts doctor. Hey, sounds prettier than "gyn" (8PM, ABC Family)

'Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County' – 'Journeys with George' filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi is also behind this documentary, which follows a group of homeless kids who live in motels year-round, while attending school (9PM, HBO)

'Huge' – It's movie night at camp, which, of course, leads to drama when Ian decides to sit with Amber, which does not make Will a happy -- wait for it -- camper. Ha! (9PM, ABC Family)

'You're Cut Off' – It's graduation day, but the women have to prove to their families that they've matured before they're invited to return home ... uh oh (9PM, VH1) season 1 finale

'Rizzoli & Isles' – And here's 'Sopranos' guest star number two tonight, as Lorraine 'Dr. Melfi" Bracco guest stars as Jane's mom, who tries to play Cupid for her daughter. Meanwhile, Jane and Maura investigate the death of a young boy, whose death may have occurred during an exorcism (and no, his name is not Damian) (10PM, TNT)

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'Human Target' is back for a second season. It has a new executive producer Matthew Miller ('Chuck'), who told thousands of fans at Comic Con on Saturday that he's bringing some ladies into Christopher Chance's life.

Indira Varma ('Rome') becomes not only Chance's new client but also his new boss. "She plays a woman who's married to a 'Paul Allen' type, who dies under mysterious circumstances," previews Miller. "She decides that the team has some value and she takes it over. She becomes a female Charlie [Townsend], giving the guys access to a billionaire's toys -- her jets, cars. It'll give the show an international feel."

Miller says the team will also get a new female member, who hasn't been cast yet. "She's a little younger [than Varma's character], 22 years old. She's a thief with a background more similar to Chance and Guerrero's.

"Guys just love to have a woman tell them what to do," chuckles series regular Chi McBride (Winston.) "It'll set up great tension and comedy. Indira isn't bad to look at [either]!"

Fans asked if Mark Valley's real-life military training helps him play Chance. "We had some training when I was a freshman at West Point," he recalls. "We fought with these sticks. I really hit a guy [with mine] and he got angry and beat me up."

Comic Con devoted three huge rooms for a screening and Q&A session on Saturday for 'Nikita.' The TV series extends the legacy of the famous spy that's been played in previous incarnations by Anne Parillaud, Bridget Fonda and Peta Wilson.

Maggie Q takes on the role in this version, which debuts Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 9PM ET on The CW. The cast also includes Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca and Melinda Clarke.

The pilot sets up some of Nikita's backstory, her relationships with her former bosses/co-workers in the spy biz and how Fonesca's Alex is recruited to become the next Nikita.

While viewers will learn that Nikita had a relationship with West's Michael, a new dude will enter her life as the series continues.

"It was important for us to come up with a fresh take [on Nikita] that isn't just a rehash," explained Craig Silverstein to Con attendees. "There's now two of them [Nikita and Alex.] You don't know how it's going to end. We're going to be telling the story of how Alex and Nikita got together."

Here's tonight's lineup of new shows and events (all times Eastern). Check your local TV listings for additional information.

* = Series/Season Premiere
** = Series/Season Finale

7:00 to 8:00
CBS: '60 Minutes'
FOX: 'Sons of Tucson'
NBC: 'Dateline'


8:00 to 9:00
CBS: 'Big Brother'
Disney: 'Hannah Montana Forever' and 'Jonas L.A.'
Food Network: 'Food Network Challenge'

The rest of the primetime lineup after the jump.

As Gary told you the other day, Rich Fields has been let go from his position as the announcer on 'The Price is Right.' This is too bad. Fields has done a fine job since taking over the role in 2004, having a good rapport with both Bob Barker and now Drew Carey.

There's a lot of talk about what they're going to do. Fields himself said in a statement on his site that they're going to be auditioning stand-up comics. Alex at BuzzerBlog says that besides former 'Shop 'Til You Drop' host J.D. Roberto announcing an episode this week (the show has started taping new episodes for the fall this week), comics Jeff Davis and Brad Sherwood will try out too.

'The Event' deals with a young man -- Jason Ritter -- who's thrust into the middle of mystical game of espionage as he tries to find his missing girlfriend.

Most of the panel for the NBC series that's best described as part 'Lost' and part '24' was taken up by the screening of the show's pilot. Fans had only about 15 minutes for a moderator-conducted Q&A with the ensemble show's cast, which is headlined by Jason Ritter, Blair Underwood and Laura Innes.

But the good news is that If the crowd reaction was any indication, THIS is the must-see series of the fall. If you're still going through Jack Bauer and Jack Shephard withdrawal, trust us -- Ritter's Sean Walker is your new hero.

Each act break ended on a compelling cliffhanger, the biggest one was saved for the end of the show. Kudos to producers for informing viewers as to when a scene was set by starting each one off with "eight days ago" or "13 hours ago." It would be nice if 'Lost' had done that all shows with big casts and lots of flashbacks would do that.

Creator Nick Wauters explained that there are definitely elements of "mystery, sci-fi, thrillers, and a love story" to 'The Event.' "We wanted to create something that' has a little bit of something for everyone."

With the latest season of 'Doctor Who' ending, you'll have the rest of the summer to catch up on your 'Who' history. If you're a purist, the best way to do that is to go back to the vaults and watch the show.

BBC America just released four more volumes, covering the First Doctor (William Hartnell, 1963-1966), the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee, 1970-1974), and the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker, 1974-1981).

More than two thirds of the episodes are available on DVD, and the BBC plans to eventually release everything it has. Mind you, some of the earliest episodes from the '60s and '70s were erased to make way for newer programs, but bits of those turn up here and there.

(S01E07) Oooooooooo, now this conspiracy is a lot bigger than we thought. We're talking 'X-Files' territory here.

I think we all guessed that it was some sort of secret experiment/test/plan/whatever, but I don't think we could have guessed that it has been going on for 50 years. So our kidnappees aren't just stuck in a small town for ransom, or because they were chosen at random for an experiment, they were chosen because each one of them could have great influence in the world.

Again: Oooooooooooooooooo.

Being "one of the guys" can be hard work -- all that ping-pong playing, beer drinking, ESPN watching ... it's tiring even just typing that.

But Jordana Spiro easily traverses Guy Land in her fourth season as the star of TBS' comedy, 'My Boys.' Her character, sportswriter PJ, goes toe to toe (and beer for beer) with boyfriend Bobby (Kyle Howard) and a cadre of male friends (Michael Bunin, Jamie Kaler, Reid Scott). For some female companionship, she's got BFF Stephanie -- who recently started dating one of those guys, Kenny (Bunin).

Spiro talked to TV Squad recently about the changes to the group in season 4 (premieres Sun., July 25 at 10PM ET), getting her ping-pong on, the sport she obsessed over this year and Conan O'Brien's move to TBS.

Full disclosure, spoilerhounds -- I don't watch 'V,' 'Fringe' or 'The Vampire Diaries' (two of them are on my DVR, I swear!) so you'll have to forgive my ignorance in the following bullet-point recap of all three panels; I have no idea of character dynamics (or even names, without the help of IMDB) but I'll attempt to make the round-up as coherent as possible, and you can correct my ignorance in the comments if you so desire.

Though, after the panels and meeting some of the pretty cast members at the Warner Bros. party last night, they've all moved up on my must-watch list!

Needless to say: SPOILER ALERT.

Let's jump in with 'V' ...

In terms of red-hot scoop from all your favorite animated miscreants on the ground in San Diego, the 'Family Guy' and 'The Simpsons' panels were ahead of the pack, choosing to devote most of their panel time to Q&As, while 'Cleveland Show' and 'Futurama' amused audiences with a live table-read of scenes from upcoming episodes, as well as sneak peeks of what's already been produced.

But what 'Futurama' and 'Cleveland' lacked in spoilers, they made up for in pure Comic Con geekiness; both shows have upcoming episodes that feature their eclectic casts paying a visit to Comic Con!

(S05E13) Only in a show like 'Doctor Who' can you end the universe and then have an episode afterwards.

Showrunner Steven Moffat proved his writing chops in this one as he tied together the nagging issues of the season's arc fairly well. Of course, he did leave a plot thread dangling, but somehow I suspect he left it to deal with next season or quite possibly as a story arc for his entire run on the program. 2013, which would be 50 years of 'Doctor Who,' isn't that far away.

Had Russell T. Davies written this season, he would have had the Doctor fighting all of the enemy aliens we saw in the last episode and outsmarting them in the end with a deus ex machina. Moffat's way is better even though he used a completely different deus ex machina.

(S01E03) The "troubles" are back. Maybe they'll leave if Syfy does everyone a favor and cancels 'Haven.'

Emily Rose and crew sleepwalked through another dull mystery plot in the third episode of Syfy's new supernatural series, which attempts to blend the small town strangeness of 'Twin Peaks' with the paranormal procedural plotting of 'Fringe' and the sleep-inducing effects of Lunesta.

Let's recap ... Audrey and Wournos were called to Haven's mental hospital where the crazy people were acting extra crazy. The hospital's chief doctor apparently lost his marbles too and started tossing orderlies out the window. Turns out that crazy is contagious as a few of the patients escaped and the regular townspeople started acting violent and using each other as dartboards.

Here are some quick newsflashes from the day at Comic-Con.

-- The pilot to 'The Event' was screened earlier today, to enthusiastic response from the crowd. According to our Michael Maloney, the reaction was that the show was like "'24' meets 'Lost.'" The producers said that a lot of questions will be answered in the second episode, and that "we know where we're going" with the show (perhaps a dig at the early seasons of 'Lost?'). You can win a walk-on role for the show on NBC.com

-- Most of the cast of 'True Blood' was present at a Friday afternoon panel and Q&A -- with the notable exception of Alexander Skarsgard, according to The Hollywood Reporter. To remedy that situation, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer went offstage and returned with a life-size cardboard cutout of Skarsgard, which was too bad, because some of the later discussion on the panel had to do with sex on the set --- well, actually what kind of socks the male actors could choose to wear based on the shooting angle of their nude scenes.

As for next year's Season 4, creator Alan Ball hinted, "Everybody goes to therapy. Everybody goes on medication and everyone's very happy." When prodded on how the series might end, he said, "I'd love to see the show run as long as it possibly can. I don't want it to get to the point where we have to explain why vampires are aging."

-- Meanwhile, over at the sneak peek for 'The Other Guys,' the action-comedy that stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, director Adam McKay confirmed he will helm an adaptation of the Garth Ennis' anti-superhero comic series 'The Boys,' which follows a superpowered CIA squad, known informally as "The Boys," whose job it is to watch superheroes and keep them in their place. "As of today, I'm directing," McKay said. [THR]

More updates as they come in...

Last season's 'Dexter' ended with one of the saddest, most emotional conclusions ever for a television show.

Dexter Morgan's hunt for the Trinity Killer, played by John Lithgow in a ultra-creepy performance that earned him an Emmy nomination, may have scored him another blood slide for his trophy case. But it cost him something worth more than all the world's serial killers' DNA combined.

After the shocking ending of last season, Showtime released a teaser trailer for season 5 at Comic-Con on Thursday night. They released the trailer to the greater public earlier today. Video after the jump.