ABC Greenlights New CUPID

It must be Rob Thomas week in Hollywood.

ABC has greenlighted Thomas’ update of his brilliant-but-canceled dramedy Cupid, just as news hit that he was in talks with the CW and CBS Paramount to write their contemporary spinoff of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Thomas has described Cupid as a “reinvention” of his short-lived 1998 ABC comedy series about a man who thinks he’s a god sent to Earth by Zeus to unite 100 romantically challenged couples. The original series, which starred Jeremy Piven (back when he was still likable) and Paula Marshall (who once more displayed her superpowers as a show-killer), earned high praise and a dedicated fan following, but lasted only fifteen episodes (most of which can be found on YouTube, but not on DVD).

The resurrection of Cupid has been in development at ABC since the fall, and will take precedence over the CW’s 90210 spinoff. However, Thomas should still be able to pen the script for the 90210 update, which has been put on fast-track development by CW. The situation is similar to the one Josh Schwartz found himself in last year, when both of his projects, NBC’s Chuck and CW’s Gossip Girl, were picked up to pilot.

ALWAYS SUNNY Creators Plan Space Comedy for Fox

Twentieth Century Fox TV has inked a two-year overall deal with Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton–the trio behind the FX cult favorite It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. As part of the deal, Fox has ordered a pilot and five additional scripts of their new comedy, Boldly Going Nowhere.

The single-camera half-hour, focused on day-to-day life aboard an intergalactic spaceship helmed by a rogue captain, is based on an idea by Sunny writers’ assistant Adam Stein. “All of us grew up watching Star Trek and other sci-fi series, and they’re always about these adventures,” McElhenney said. “We thought a great area to explore is what happens between the adventures, how the crew members take care of daily routine stuff on the spaceship.”

Unlike Sunny, the trio won’t be starring in Boldly Going Nowhere. They plan to begin prepping the pilot and writing the extra five scripts in October, after they wrap postproduction on the upcoming season of Sunny.

ER Courting Clooney and Margulies for Final Season

NBC and Warner Bros. TV are reportedly close to an agreement to reduce ER‘s exorbitant license fees and bring the show back for yet another season. The series was expected to end its run this year, but the writers’ strike has thrown a wrench into plans for proper farewell. Rather than end the long-running series abruptly, NBC wants to pull out all the stops and bring the hospital drama back for a fifteenth and final season.

And according to Entertainment Weekly, executive producers John Wells and David Zabel have been making some ambitious plans for the show’s farewell season. “We want to revisit characters that have existed on the show over the years and say where they are now,” says Zabel of stars like George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. “We’d love to get them all back in some way, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to. But we’re gonna try.”

Two alumni are already on board: Noah Wyle and Goran Visnjic are both expected to pop in next season for a return engagement. “The toughest will be getting Tony Edwards because his character is dead,” says Zabel, laughing. “That’s a little tricky, but there are ways to do it that we’ve thought about. Even if it were like a lost episode from 1996 featuring him and Wyle.”

CW Plans 90210 Spinoff

The CW has fast-tracked a spinoff of Aaron Spellling’s seminal ’90s teen soap, Beverly Hills, 90210, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But the really interesting part of the story is that Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas is in talks to write the pilot.

Thomas has had a rough time of it since the CW passed on his Veronica Mars FBI spinoff last spring. He was briefly on board the ABC comedy Miss/Guided (which is finally set to premiere next Tuesday), then jumped over to try (unsuccessfully) to improve the net’s execrable Big Shots.

Details surrounding the 90210 project are still hazy, and it’s unknown whether any characters from the original series will make the transition to the new show. The CW is expected to make a decision on whether to order a pilot by the end of the month.

TOP GEAR Joins the Mile High Club. Sorta.

Drag racing an airplane. Really. Wouldn’t you, if you could? Do you really need to know anything more about tonight’s episode of Top Gear? Didn’t think so.

Fine. Apparently they also test-drive some fancy-schmancy car. Ferrari something something blah fancy. There may also be a Rolling Stone as the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”. But really–drag racing an airplane! Let’s hope The Hamster’s run-ins with jet fuel work out better this time.

The TORCHWOOD Crew: Apparently Huffing Glue Since 1879

Sigh. A Kif Kroker-sized sigh. After a promising start to the season, the Torchwood crew is back to their old, pretty stupid ways. It’s not just the cruelty of giving me my fondest Torchwood dream and then snatching it away with a second, convenient Resurrection Glove. It’s not just the mind-numbing boredom of bringing the awesome Martha Jones onto the show only to tie her up and torture her every episode. No, the real backbreaker is the colossal stupidity it requires to set up a bunch of syringes with which to accomplish a hard thing and then putting said convenient and evil Resurrection Glove on top of the syringes on a sterile tray so it can thwart their ambitions. Really?

Seriously, when I think of Captain Jack musing that during his time away he had a lot of opportunity to think about his “little team,” I’m forced to wonder if his next sentence was meant to be, “…and how many different ways they can destroy the planet with their incompetence if I’m not there to ride herd on them.” The show makes a lot more sense when viewed through that lens.

THE WIRE: Guess Beadie Was Wrong After All

What a delightful and uplifting end to The Wire! Bad guys were taken down by good police, families were reunited, liars were uncovered–but only the yucky ones we don’t like–and kids who would have been destroyed on the streets were seen winning school prizes. Hooray for happy endings!

Oh, wait–this is The Wire. That was last week’s penultimate episode. Perhaps looking for a happy ending was expecting a little too much from this particular show.

Still we had the happiest endings we could have hoped for with these characters–heck, there were even more people at a wake than we were lead to believe could ever have been possible. I’m loathe to say too much for fear of spoiling things for those of you who are discovering the show via DVD, but the finale was a great capper for the thematic strength of the show–while we saw happy(ish) endings for specific characters, we also saw that the big wheel keeps on turning. Perhaps the most interesting thing to come from the series-ending montage (other than Simon and Co.’s valentine to Baltimore and, by extension, America) was the clear way each player from the last five years was replaced by version 2.0. Wonder who the next Omar will be, or the next McNulty, or the next Gus, or the next Burrell? The answers are all here, because the one thing The Wire never compromised on was that, regardless of the best intentions of flawed but noble individuals, nothing will ever change for the better until the entire system is cleansed.

Thanks for five great seasons of howling at the dirty system, folks.

DirecTV Deal Saves FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Hang onto your hats, Panther fans, because Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke is reporting that Friday Night Lights will indeed be back for a third season! The show’s return is the result of a deal with DirecTV, which will share costs and exhibition windows with NBC.

According to Finke’s source, NBC bigwigs Jeff Zucker, Marc Graboff and Ben Silverman have been searching for a way to renew the critically acclaimed but low-rated series, and found their solution in the form of this partnership.

Finke also claims that NBC suits “knew that since the network is airing crap like that remake of Knight Rider (and shame on TV viewers for giving it good ratings), then they needed quality like FNL.”

Well, I’ll be. I take back a few of the nasty things I said about Ben Silverman. But just a few.

No word on whether the fan campaign to save the show by sending mini- footballs to NBC played a hand, although she does report that the execs received them.

24 Movie Set for Fall

It turns out that 24 fans disappointed by the strike-related postponement of their favorite show will get Jack Bauer back a little sooner than they thought. Fox has announced plans for a a two-hour prequel to the upcoming seventh season.

The 24 movie, which will bridge the two-year gap between seasons, is set to air this fall, priming audiences for the show’s January return. According to The Hollywood Reporter, producers began securing the show’s core cast members for the film on Wednesday.

NEW AMSTERDAM: Just Another Immortal Lookin’ for Love

Feature films are largely considered a director’s medium, while television tends to be all about the writer. With a few notable exceptions (James Burrows, Tommy Schlamme), television directors are mostly interchangeable, and tend to come and go from series to series without having any lasting effect on the quality or tone of the show.

Which is why, when you get a gifted feature film director like Lasse Hallström (Chocolat, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) behind the camera of a television series, as in the pilot of the new Fox drama New Amsterdam, the difference is truly striking. Unfortunately, without an equivalently smart script, it’s still not a particularly great show.

This is not to say New Amsterdam is bad. It’s just… extremely familiar. It’s a police procedural about an eccentric cop, sort of like NBC’s far superior Life. Or TBS’s The Closer and Saving Grace. It’s also a supernatural drama about an immortal man searching for meaning in his preternaturally long life, sort of like Joss Whedon’s Angel. Or CBS’s inferior Moonlight. Or Highlander, the franchise that’s pretty much synonymous with the word immortal. In other words, this is all territory that’s been covered before.

And, at least in the pilot–penned by Christian Taylor (Lost, Six Feet Under)–the script does little elevate the material. The murder of the week is predictable and the clues that allow our immortal homicide detective to nail the culprit are downright preposterous. Worse, the dialogue tends to the uninspired, relying heavily on wry quips that aren’t quite as clever as they’re meant to be.

The good news is that the series has a strong cast that will probably continue to shine even without Hallström’s artfully guiding hand behind the camera. Danish thespian Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is likable, appropriately handsome, and infuses John Amsterdam (the immortal in question) with exactly the kind of quiet yearning that’s bound to send some female viewers into a tizzy. Which is, ultimately, what New Amsterdam is aiming for.

At its heart, the series is simply a romantic thriller in the tradition of Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown novels. You see, John Amsterdam has been gifted (or cursed–you decide) with immortality until he finds his soul mate. That’s right, this guy has lived for hundred of years and never found “the one.” And the crimes he solves every week serve as a thematic reminder of the passion he has yet to find in his own life.

Right now, some of you are probably rolling your eyes, while others are sighing dreamily. Those in the former group should feel free to skip New Amsterdam, content in the knowledge that you’re not missing anything you’d want to see. But those in the latter group might just find that it’s not a bad way to spend an hour.

I’ll let ya’ll guess which group I’m in.