Those pesky green scaled aliens with the funky glasses will finally get another shot at a major audience 20 years after their first appearance, except it won’t be in the “Second Generation” project that the story’s original writer, Kenneth Johnson, had envisioned. Instead, ABC will be remaking the TV series (spawned from the two original mini-series, “V: The Original Mini-Series” and “V: The Final Battle”) that lasted only a year before being canceled. The new V will be written and produced by The 4400 veteran Scott Peters, who has no plans to stick to what Johnson did in the original, but will instead be diverting the reasons for the aliens’ arrival, as well as introducing new characters in his version.
On the surface, CBS’ new medical tech/crime show Eleventh Hour doesn’t really appeal to me, in the same way that FOX’s Fringe doesn’t appeal to me. But I have to admit, my curiosity about Eleventh Hour was substantially piqued when they cast the gorgeous Marley Shelton as not just the female lead, but as an ass-kicking FBI agent who is the bodyguard to brooding, brilliant scientist Rufus Sewell. That’s right; the hot chick is the bad ass in this show, and not the other way around as is often the case in these types of shows. That little tweak in what is a pretty formulaic premise was more than enough to get me sufficiently intrigued.
It looks like The Sci Fi Channel is pretty pleased with itself this week, especially since the premiere of the Amanda Tapping series Sanctuary delivered (what I’m gathering) great ratings for the cable network. I liked what I saw of the show’s 2-hour premiere, but I have to admit, I kind of tuned out and back in every now and then throughout the episode. The show seemed to lag for me at times, and although it had a nice premise, and it’s great to see Tapping weekly again, I don’t know, I think Sanctuary could stand some retooling. For one, make it move faster, pick up the pace. In short: less talk, more action.
Well this is certainly good news for TV sci-fi fans — the FOX network, notorious for yanking shows before they’ve even been given the proper time to gestate in the public consciousness and pick up steam, has given J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe a full first season order, which means no matter what happens, fans of Fringe will get a full season’s worth of their TV show. Of course, FOX could always end up screwing the pooch later on, as they did with Firefly by destroying the show’s cohesion by broadcasting episodes out of order, or the way they did with the underrated Space: Above and Beyond, which FOX shuffled across the schedule so much that it was nearly impossible to figure out when the episodes would even air.
Even more promos from Joss Whedon’s upcoming Fox show Dollhouse (starring Eliza Dushku as a kick-ass heroine) for you to take a gander at. As far as I can tell, J.J. Abrams’ Fringe is doing pretty well on the network, which bodes well for Whedon’s Dollhouse. What’s not doing so well? Fox’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles seems to be heading toward cancellation. Hopefully Dollhouse will be more Fringe than The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but knowing Fox, the network will have a very short leash when it comes to their more expensive shows, and Dollhouse should be pretty expensive to produce, I would imagine.
Yikes. As if dragging Superman’s origins out for the last eight years wasn’t bad enough, the WB is now prepping a TV series based on the early life and times of Robin The Boy Wonder, aka Batman’s sidekick. But wait, it won’t be like any Robin you’ve seen before (which goes without saying, right? This thing is on the WB, after all), and the first hint that this Robin will be a barely recognizable shell of his comic book self is the name: yes, they’ve given Dick Grayson a nickname. DJ. Dick Grayon will now be known as “DJ” to his buddies. I shit you not. But then again, from the network that gave us a reboot of Beverly Hills 90210, Gossip Girl, and a relentless army of crappy teen melodramas as envisioned by 40-year old men, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprise. 
In Episode 3 of Supernatural’s fourth season, we finally get to see where Dean Winchester gets his coolness, when arch angel Castiel (Misha Collins) gives him the opportunity to go back in time to meet his parents (Matt Cohen and Amy Gumenick) just as they’re falling in love. So will Dean use the opportunity to save his mother, who is destined to die at the hands of the Yellow Eye Demon? And would doing so change everything — for the worst? 
Oooh, now this is an intriguing little concept for a TV show: everyone in the world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and during that black out, they all get a mysterious vision of the future that changes their lives, and the world, forever. Now I guess the only thing to do is try to figure out what it all means? Or something like that. The project comes from two very notable genre names — former Star Trek head honcho Brannon Braga and movie screenwriter David S. Goyer, who recently penned the ginormous hit “The Dark Knight” for Christopher Nolan. Maybe you’ve heard of it? The two also previously worked together on the short-lived CBS show Threshold, another show I liked, that never got much of a chance by the network.
Okay, so I’ve been hearing about this new show Warehouse 13 for a while now, and I’ve been writing about it, but I have yet to actually see an episode of this thing. From what I’m hearing (they’re calling it a “dramedy” now), it sounds very much like a new, 2008 version of the short-lived UPN X-Files clone Special Unit 2. If that is indeed true, then yeah, I’m going to like this, as I was a fan (maybe the only one?) of SU2’s unique brand of wacky humor, barely credible storylines, and just general hijinx that requires, first and foremost, a major suspension in disbelief to enjoy. Warehouse 13 seems to be something like that. Maybe.
It looks like NBC isn’t pulling any punches, or skimping on the goodies, as they approach their relaunch of the new Knight Rider TV show. They’ve put the entire first episode of the regular series online ahead of the show’s September 24th debut, and you can watch it right now, right here (scroll down to the video below). See? Who says there’s nothing good on TV. Or, er, online right now.