TVSquad

The Saturn Award nominations are in, and many popular sci-fi and fantasy shows made the cut. Returning favorites like Lost, Heroes, and Dexter were recognized by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, as were newcomers Pushing Daisies and Journeyman.

With seven nominations, Lost is ahead of Dexter and Heroes, which received five and four nominations, respectively. Heroes was the big winner last year, taking home awards for Best Network Series as well as acting awards for Masi Oka and Hayden Panettiere. Both actors received nominations this year, along with co-star Greg Grunberg.

It's so nice now that the WGA strike is over and all the shows are coming back, isn't it? It's like we're suddenly inundated with presents galore. Just the idea of new shows puts a smile on my face; let's hope it's still there once the shows air!

ABC has announced that Samantha Who?, their most promising new sitcom of the season, will be returning with six new episodes on Monday, April 7 (at 9:30). But maybe the network's biggest news is a time shift. Starting April 24, Lost will commence five new episodes at 10:00, rather than 9:00. Also on April 24, Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy both return with five new episodes each.

The buzz about ABC's Oscar broadcast is starting in earnest, and yesterday it was announced that Kristin Chenoweth, the adorable Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies, has been tapped to sing one of the Academy Award nominated songs, "That's How You Know" from the film Enchanted, according to the Baltimore Sun. Kristin will be joined by Marlon Saunders, who played the Central Park Calypso singer in the movie. By the by, Enchanted's star, Amy Adams, will also be singing on the show. She's doing, "Happy Working Song," another nominated song from the Disney hit. FYI, that's the sing-along tune she did in the film with cockroaches, rats and other happy vermin. You can just imagine Walt Disney spinning in his grave, can't you?

ABC decided to use the expected end of the writers' strike to announce the renewal of nine shows for the 2008-09 season. The list of returning series are mostly those you'd expect to see: Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, and Lost are the veteran shows on the list, joined by rookie shows Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who?, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money. Unchanged is the speculation that most of the newer shows won't have a spring return, as ABC will hold them for a more publicized fall re-launch.

There are very few times that I wish I lived in Los Angeles (I'm a cold weather guy). This is one of them.

The annual William S. Paley Television Festival kicks off on March 14 (at its new home at Hollywood's Cinerama Dome) and runs through the 27th, and it looks like a lot of great shows are going to be celebrated during those two weeks. Already announced are panels that will reunite the cast from Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, as well as nights devoted to Chuck, Mad Men, Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money, Elvis Presley, and Judd Apatow. And there are still more events to be announced next week.

Finally someone shows some love for Lost, which got itself back on track last season. The Directors Guild announced their nominees for this year's awards. Lost nabbed two nominations in the Dramatic Series category, for "The Looking Glass" and "The Brig." The Sopranos picked up two of the three remaining nominations, saving the last one for AMC's excellent freshmen drama, Mad Men.

On the comedy side, 30 Rock nabbed two nominations, with Desperate Housewives and Entourage picking up one each. And the critical love for ABC's incredibly charming Pushing Daisies continues as it snatches the final spot. But one category in which the Directors think very differently than anyone else is in Reality Programs. Not only is the kitschy Who Wants to be a Superhero? nominated, but is joined by Shooting Sizemore and Pros vs. Joes. The full list, including commercials, documentaries and mini-series after the jump.

It's a shame that the Golden Globes ceremony was cancelled in a year when so many talented comedic actresses received nominations. For the first time since 2004, the category of Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy includes none of the Desperate Housewives cast. The housewives have dominated the category over the past few years, and their absence has made room for some fresh faces in 2008.

I couldn't be happier that this category looks more competitive than ever. The fact that I had so much trouble predicting a winner is a very good sign. I'm also pleased that each nominee represents a different style of comedy--and there's not a cranky suburban wife or over-the-top diva to be found. The five characters that these ladies play are likeable, genuine, and hilarious.

The media can spin the death of the sitcom all they want. I'll even give them that the traditional multi-camera format that Lucy and Desi founded does seem to be dying a slow death, but comedy itself is alive and well on television. Ever since Ally McBeal stretched the definition of television comedy by daring to be nominated in comedic categories despite being an hour long "drama" (don't you know that dramas are one hour and comedies 30 minutes; it's the only way to tell the difference), the "sitcom" has morphed into the "comedy."

Almost gone is that multi-camera stage set and the live/canned studio audience. Instead we have shows that are filmed just like their dramatic counterparts that happen to be funny. And all of this year's Globe nominees for best musical or comedy TV series fit into this category (sorry According to Jim, maybe next year). Check 'em out after the jump, along with our picks for who should win!

This is my third Festivus wish list, and, I've got to be honest with you: I think they're completely useless. Oh, sure, some of the more sincere items, like wishes for shows to end well, etc., came true. But my cell phone still does not contain the numbers of Sarah Chalke or America Ferrera. So, like I said: useless.

(Full disclosure: I met both of them when I was out in LA last January. But asking for phone numbers would have been unprofessional of me. At least that's what I keep telling myself late at night.)

But, since I'm in a festive mood, here's my list of Festivus wishings for the rest of 2007 and beyond:

(S01E09) "There is an unpleasant chill in the air." - The Narrator

And we have arrived: this week's episode was the last completed-before-the-strike episode of ABC's Pushing Daisies. The quote I put under the picture may not have been the most important one said in the episode (the bombshell quote is a tad too shocking to put up front) but it does highlight the mood and tone of the episode: chilly. "Corpsicle" is not my favorite Pushing Daisies episode but it offered good reveals, some fantastic lines from Emerson and Olive, and it finally gave the aunts (at least one of them) a real purpose in the series.

Welcome to Subtle Subtitles. For those of you who are uninitiated to the purpose of this feature, we're asking you to come up with your funniest quote or description for what's going on in the screen grab we choose for the week. Winners are announced in the following Friday's contest.

1st place to Elinor:

2nd place to clgbutterfly: "Ummm...Addison I know your the Oby/GYN, but um...last time I checked ultrasounds work better on flesh not fabric."
3rd place to ac: Addison: "ok lets see how your baby is doing..." Patient: "I'm not pregnant." (awkward silence follows)

This week, a scene from the latest episode of Pushing Daisies ...

(S01E08) "Am I your boyfriend?" - Ned
"Yes." - Chuck

It was announced about two months ago that Molly Shannon would guest star on ABC's Pushing Daisies and the day, err... evening, has come. I've read a lot of comments from fans saying that they were somewhat scared after hearing she would guest star mostly because they thought her acting wasn't good enough for the show. In retrospect, her acting wasn't that great but it wasn't that bad either since Daisies is over the top at times.

(S01E07) "The mere smell of it made him feel, if only for an hour, exactly like he wanted to feel: safe and warm and loved, which is why he became the pie maker." - Narrator

ABC lost a good and fun opportunity to offer Pushing Daisies viewers a chance to get up close and really personal with the show and maybe attract new people who would have been interested in a scratch 'n' sniff event! Yes, it would have been pretty much a copy of what NBC did last year with My Name Is Earl, but having a scratch 'n' sniff card to use throughout this olfactory episode would have been just as magical as the episode itself! Okay, maybe the smell of the sock and the sewer would have been terrible but it would have been interesting to smell Ned, Emerson, and "honey and death" (aka Chuck). Okay, maybe that would have been a bad idea. Let's move on to the episode instead.

(S01E06) Up until now, we've only seen Emerson as a gruff P.I. whose role was to throw a sprinkle of cynicism on the decidedly sprightly environment around the Pie Hole. But you knew that eventually we were going to either find out more about his past or see him get involved with one of the people he was investigating. Tonight we got the latter. And his dalliance did a nice job of throwing some needed darkness into what was an overly-sweet episode.

I'm about to have a lot of free time on my hands when my favorite shows go into reruns due to this writers strike. Besides the late night talk shows, the first scripted series to go into reruns is The Office, which has only one new episode left and it airs this Thursday.

Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide has a long list of television shows and how many new episodes are left. I'll give you a quick list of the most popular shows, and you can click on over to see the others (not everything is listed):