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In the last Pit column we talked about some movie news, including Ghostbusters 3, the next Muppets adventure, and FOX’s upcoming reboot of Marvel Comic’s Fantastic Four. Today lets look at some television news bits.

Lets start with a show that has been breaking Cable ratings records left and right, the AMC zombie horror series The Walking Dead. The show had it’s Mid-Season finale and left us with a reunion and a cliffhanger to keep us on our toes until it is back on the air come February 10th. The network will also be giving us something pretty cool to chew on starting on February 14th; an encore presentation of the first and second season of the show broadcast is beautiful black and white- just like the comic the show is based on. AMC previously did this with just the pilot, but it will be pretty awesome to see more episodes in a style that is close to the comic book. Speaking about the comic (spoilers), this past week issue #105 hit stands and sees Carl across enemy lines after confronting Neegan last issue. The official description for the issue is short and to the point, “Sing me a song.” Will Carl live through this?

Cult fan favorite Gillian Anderson will be returning to television after a ten year break. The X-Files star will be joining NBC’s upcoming prequel to the Hannibal series of books for an undetermined amount of episodes. She joins Mads Mikkelsen, who portrays the title character made famous by Anthony Hopkins, and Hugh Dancy who steps in as FBI agent Will Graham, who was expertly portrayed by William Petersen in  Michael Mann’s Manhunter and later by Edward Norton in Brett Ratner’s sub-par Red Dragon. Anderson’s character will get to look into just what makes Hannibal tick as she is described as “Dr. Lecter’s personal psychiatrist” by Bryan Fuller, the creator of the new series. Fuller is the man behind Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies. Most recently he tried to revive/reboot the Munsters with Mockingbird Lane.

After failing hard last year with H8R and more recently having mediocre results with the musical chairs inspired game show Oh Sit! (which was renewed for a second season), The CW is getting back into the reality game with two new shows; The Hunt and Perfect Score. The Hunt is the CW’s attempt at building their own version of Survivor meets The Hunger Games. They describe the show as an “intense wilderness competition” that sees twelve teams of two players facing off in games to test their survival skills and endurance.  The second new show, Perfect Score,is a dating game show that gives players the chance to win cash prizes if they are able to identify their “perfect match”. Neither show has a premiere date. On the narrative side, The CW also has a young Wonder Woman series tentatively titled Amazon in the works as a complement to Arrow. In the very least you need to give props to the Network for keeping their slate fresh and with a lot of variety.

NBC is calling this a TV Special, but it is actually a pilot. From Bryan Fuller, the mastermind behind the visually spectacular Pushing Daises, the ever quirky Dead Like Me, and the co-creator of Wonderfalls. If there was ever a remake that could use his touch it would be the Munsters — and man does this look like it has potential. Directed by Bryan Singer and starring Eddie Izzard, Jerry O’Connell, and Portia de Rossi amongst others, the show looks to be filled with spectacular effects (did anyone else see the dragon in the TV spots?!?) and a quirky storyline. I’m hoping that the ratings justify a potential series pickup — since I dig the creative team behind and in front of the camera, but my gut is saying that’s not going to be the case. In which case I have to wonder, is this (rumored) 10 million dollar **pilot** erhm “TV Special” that much of a disaster?!?

Regardless of the outcome, I’m intrigued enough to check out, since it legitimately looks like nothing else on TV and that’s exactly the type of TV I scout out when looking at potential new shows. What’s the point of watching the same old slosh week in and week out when stuff like this is actually being produced. Especially with Bryan Fuller hamming it up in interviews that if this show goes to series, he plans on doing to the Universal Pictures monster catalog what Once Upon a Time is doing with fairy tales and Disney’s catalog and updating them for the modern age — and for the more mature viewer. However, I cannot say if the given special will be good or not, nor can I say if NBC is making a good call on doing what it is doing by “airing” this special all I can say is that whether it turns out good or not, I’m still going to be, at the very least, recording this for a weekend viewing.

Official Episode Description, “Pilot”: A revamping of the 1964-66 TV series “The Munsters” tracks the lives of a ghoulish family. Here, young Eddie discovers he grows hair all over his body during a full moon, and funeral director Herman Munster suffers from a heart condition.

8PM

SYFY: WWE SmackDown (wrestling)
ABC: Shark Tank (reality)
FOX: Kitchen Nightmares (docu)
CW: America’s Next top Model (reality competition)
ANIMAL: Monsters Inside Me (docu)
DISNEY: A.N.T. Farm/Jessie (teen)
DIS: Gold Rush (reality)

9PM

NBC: Grimm (supernatural drama)
ABC: 20/20 All Access Nashville w/ Katie Couric (showcase)
CBS: CSI: NY (crime drama)
CW: Nikita (action drama)
TBS: For Better or Worse (comedy)
HGTV: Home Strange Home (docu)
TRAVEL: Ghost Adventures (docu)

10PM

ABC: 20/20 (news showcase)
CBS: Blue Bloods (crime drama)
NBC: Dateline NBC (news showcase)
ANIMAL: Monsters in My Head (docu)
E!: Fashion Police (entertainment news)
FX: The Ultimate Fighter Fridays (fighting)
SYFY: Haven (supernatural drama)

First NBC announced a Munsters reboot, Mockingbird Lane, and a Hannibal Lecter prequel named Hannibal, both of which are from Bryan Fuller. Well, now NBC has revealed that they have ordered 10 episodes of a Dracula reboot starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the title role. Official description: “…series introduces Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There’s only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife.

DC Comics is getting ready to reveal more of their “New 52” universe’s history in September’s The Phantom Stranger #0. The book promises to reveal new parts of the elaborate backstory of our favorite heroes and villains. The Stranger has appeared already in the “New 52”, in a story in the Free Comic Book Day special. The new series will be written by Dan DiDio with art by Brent Anderson.

Over in Marvel Comics, this week sees the long awaited (at least for me) meeting between Kitty Prde and Colossus. It has been a year since these two ex-love birds have been together since the “Schism” between Cyclops and Wolverine that broke the X-Men in two over a year ago. Be apart of their date today in Wolverine and the X-Men #14.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit is very close to changing from two films into a trilogy of films. Jackson toyed with the idea at Comic Con, maybe getting people ready for the official announcement? It should be interesting how much of the movies will follow JRR Tolkien’s actual book, which was much shorter than the Lord of the Rings books and aimed at kids. The report says that Jackson worked from more than 125 notes that Tolkien was using to rewrite The Hobbit after the success of Lord of the Rings. The whole project is very interesting and I’m sure the success of the first movie will help determine the future of the series.

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Article by PJ Flip with contributions from The Pit.

The CW Network has updated their Smallville photo gallery with pictures of Laura Vandervoort as Supergirl and James Marsters as Brainiac. Also intriguing is a picture with witht he caption “Lex Luthor “. Another clone? Or could it be the real Luthor?  Start here for the picture’s with Marsters, and over here for the pics of Vandervoort’s return.

David E. Kelly (Boston Legal, The Practice, Ally McBeal) is bringing DC Comic’s hero Wonder Woman back to TV. The superhero was famously portrayed by Lynda Carter in the 70’s series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.  It would have been cool to have this on the air at the same time as Smallville with possible crossovers, but who knows what kind of world Kelly is planing to craft. Ultra-realistic? Will it have more of a legal feel like his other shows? Over in the comics, Wonder Woman’s costume and history was recently redesigned/updated to look more modern and realistic.

Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) is remaking The Munsters. This is cool on many levels.

Summer Glau to guest star as Greta on Chuck, and tonight, Stacy Keibler will guest star as Greta on.  This gag with the different agents taking over the Greta role in the buy more is fun, but I couldn’t help but think that they could have used Glau in a bigger role. Keibler is guest starring and will throw fists with another ex-professional wrestler, Stone Cold Steve Austin, who makes a return appearance.

FOX’s Lone Star is the first show to get canceled, after only two episodes, while ABC’s My Generation is the second show to get canceled, also after only two episodes. What will be next? Likely Undercovers, which is at the bottom of the NBC ratings pool.

Snooki is starring in her own dating show and writing a book? It’s not April Fools Day yet, is it?

Eliza Dushku will guest star on The Big Bang Theory. She will play an FBI agent named Angela.

Pushing Daisies

Sadly, it is time to say goodbye to Pushing Daisies from television. The final episode airs tonight at 10pm on ABC. In the episode, the gang must go undercover to solve the murder of a member of a synchronized-swimming duo.  Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll get a stright to DVD movie just like creator Bryan Fuller’s Dead Like Me.  In the very least, Fuller is going to continue Ned and Chuck’s story in comic book form.

Also on tonight? Not much…

8PM

  • NBC: Kings (Drama)

9PM

  • CBS: Harper’s Island (Mystery)
  • FOX: America’s Most Wanted

10PM

  • CBS: 48 Hours Mystery (News)

Heroes, Angela Petrelli

Tonight at 9pm on NBC is an all new Heroes. The show was injected with a renewed life and energy by the return of season 1 writer, Bryan Fuller. In the all new episode, Angela Petrelli must confront her past and try to bring her family back together to face the looming threat to their kind. I am really happy to say that I am excited about the new episode and the future for the show. I just hope that they don’t let Bryan Fuller go anywhere.

Also on tonight…

8PM

  • ABC: Dancing With the Stars (Reality)
  • ABCFAM: Greek (Teen Drama)
  • FOX: House (Medical Drama)
  • NBC: Chuck (Action Drama)

9PM

  • ABC: (9:30PM) Surviving Suburbia (Comedy)
  • ABCFAM: Roommates (Comedy)
  • FOX: 24 (Action Drama)
  • USA: WWE Monday Night Raw (Wrestling)

10PM

  • ABC: Castle (Crime Drama)
  • NBC: Medium (Sci-Fi Drama)
  • MTV: The Hills (“Reality Drama”)
  • TNT: Saving Grace (Crime Drama)