Welcome to another week of TV based shenanigans!

Ok, so we’re still being mentally battered over the head with stories about Michael Jackson – be it his ‘ghost’ being seen on TV, rumors that he was actually murdered, what’s happening with his kids now etc. – it’s quite literally ‘Blanket’ coverage. If only I could get away with picking it up and sticking it out of the window for five minutes.

The continuing scare surrounding Swine Flu is also back in the news; even one of the stars of the Harry Potter Films has caught it now. At first he probably just thought it was Hog-warts.

Right, enough nonsense….

Alan Ball - Has nothing to do with True Blood...

This Friday (17th) at 10pm sees the UK debut, predictably on FX, of America’s hit Vampire series ‘True Blood’. The HBO product, is executively produced by Alan Ball, not the squeaky voiced soccer manager, but the creator of the excellently smart ‘Six Feet Under’, and stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. I’m not going to spoil the series for those who haven’t already seen any of it, but I will say that it involves Vampires being all cool and stuff, is smart as you would expect from Ball, and is also a bit raunchy too…oo-er! It also doesn’t feature Robert Pattinson doing strange broody poses for no reason in a school canteen; which is always a plus.

Series two is currently on in the US at the moment and is doing really well in the ratings, so catch up with one of the biggest shows the US has to offer this Friday you blood sucking-loving minx’s!

A few shows ended recently in the UK which are due a mention. ‘Dexter’ ended its run on FX last Friday and was exceptional to its symbolic, blood-tainted wedding dress ending. C Michael Hall continues to keep the character’s intensity, and no less humour simmering while Jimmy Smits coming out of the acting wilderness to shine in his role of chief agitator Miguel Prado was also a highlight. I just hope John Lithgow takes his chance as well next time around.

Also ending this Wednesday was the second season of ‘Flight of the Conchords’. For me, not a patch on the first season, especially in terms of the songs, but still an excellent musical cringe fest for the post Spinal Tap brigade. Let’s hope deportation doesn’t stop the rock!

Back to upcoming series’, and ‘The Inbetweeners’ star James Buckley will appear in a new BBC comedy later this year, it has been announced.

The seven-part series, titled ‘Fresh’, is set on a fictional UK university campus and follows a group of students as they embark on a new life away from home. Pretty much seems like a no-brainer from the BBC – ‘The Inbetweeners’ did well, lets just do an add-on series’. I’m not complaining, I loved ‘The Inbetweeners’ – a bit scarily similar to my school life though.

Buckley, who played the character Jay in the E4 teen comedy, is joined in the cast by Jonathan Bailey, Danny Morgan and Joanna Cassidy.

The show originally launched online last year in five-minute episodes. The television version will continue where the internet series left off in a new half-hour slot. I assume the online episodes will be made available once more in the build up to the show taking to our screens later in the year.

Fresh is scheduled to begin on BBC Two and BBC Three in September.

Also Buckley’s ‘ Inbetweeners’ co-star Simon Bird is to host ‘The King Is Dead’, in which he will “kill off” a well-known person and choose their replacement from three competing celebrities. Strange sounding show?

It is expected to air on E4 in the near future.

The ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ actor Jon Heder has agreed a deal to star in a sitcom for Comedy Central in the US.

The ‘all of a sudden in every comedy being made’ actor will headline a “groundbreaking” vehicle for the US network, which will be written and produced by none other than ‘Blades of Glory’ co-star Will Ferrell, TV Guide reports.

The as-yet-unnamed project will feature Heder as an unemployed IT specialist who moves back home with his parents and younger brother. So more geek action for Heder then.

Comedy Central has ordered 10 initial episodes with the option of picking up a further 90. The series will debut next year, but I’m just giving you the knowledge now to impress your friends with how showbiz savvy you are!

No, it’s not Christian Slater. This handsome fella was unveiled by the BBC this week as the new monster that will feature in the forthcoming ‘Doctor Who’ special this autumn, ‘The Waters of Mars’. “The Flood” is actually the water flowing on Mars, which when it enters humans turns them into zombies. Pretty cool premise, and the picture shows character Andy Stone, played by Alan Ruscoe, who is a crew worker on the Mars base which the Time Lord visits. Similarly to the Daleks, there is not just one The Flood, but as many as the water enters. Pretty cool

ABC is reportedly being sued by a producer who claims that the network ripped off his ideas and storyline for ‘Lost’.

Anthony Spinner, who has been writing and producing television episodes since the 1960s said that he offered ABC a pilot based on an aeroplane crash-landing in the jungle.

According to Spinner, he presented the network with the format on three different occasions – in 1977, 1991 and 1994 – only to be knocked back each time. Or did he? Was he involved in some sort of time travel necessitated by the moving of the island?

In the suit filed in Los Angeles on July 10, the producer insisted that his idea was plagiarized and is seeking damages and a cut of the royalties from the series. Good luck proving you wrote anything that surreal I say.

The Stephen King novel ‘Cell’ will be developed into a miniseries for US television, it has been reported.

The tale, about an artist’s mission to find his son after a mysterious cell phone signal turns humans into hordes of zombies, was to be adapted into a movie for Dimension Films. However, director Eli Roth admitted earlier that he would no longer be helming the horror film.

The thriller will now be made into a four-hour television series to be written by John Harrison under The Weinstein Company’s guidance, reports state. He is also reported as saying that he envisions the plot along the lines of a ‘Village Of The Damned’-style chiller.

The proposed project is currently being shopped around to US networks. Watch this space!

Finally, the nominees for this September’s Emmy Awards in LA are out – have a look below at a selection of categories and post your choices up!

Outstanding Comedy Series – Family Guy, 30 Rock, Weeds, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Flight of the Conchords, Entourage

Outstanding Drama Series – Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Lost, Damages, Dexter, Big Love, House

Lead Actor in a Drama – Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad, Hugh Laurie – House, Gabriel Byrne – In Treatment, Michael C. Hall – Dexter, Jon Hamm – Mad Men Simon Baker – The Mentalist

Lead Actress in a Drama – Elisabeth Moss – Mad Men, Glenn Close – Damages, Sally Field – Brothers and Sisters, Mariska Hargitay – Law and Order: SVU, Kyra Sedgwick – The Closer, Holly Hunter – Saving Grace

Lead Actor in a Comedy – Jim Parsons – The Big Bang Theory, Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock, Steve Carell – The Office, Charlie Sheen – Two and a Half Men, Tony Shalhoub – Monk, Jemaine Clement – Flight of the Conchords

Lead Actress in a Comedy – Toni Collette – United States of Tara, Tina Fey – 30 Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus – The New Adventures of Old Christine, Sarah Silverman – The Sarah Silverman Program, Mary-Louise Parker – Weeds, Christina Applegate – Samantha Who?

Enjoy!

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