2009 Summer TCA

Courteney Cox took the stage today at the TCAs in Pasadena to promote Cougar Town as we twittered the highlights. Courteney looked fantastic in her leather skirt while she, her costars, and executive producer Bill Lawrence kept the crowd laughing with tons of jokes. Of course, Courteney was asked about Jennifer Aniston.

First Court joked about Jennifer Aniston's similar-sounding Pumas joking, "Yeah, she totally ripped it off! I did know about her movie, but I'm not sure exactly what the story is. I guess Pumas are in their 30s. Jaguars are 50s, and sabertooths go right into the '60s?"

Then it was Lawrence himself who chimed in, "Is Jennifer going to be on the show?" to which Courtney responded, "She's a good friend and I know she loves the show. If Bill writes her a character, I'm sure she'll do it."

The stars of Fox partied the night away after a successful day of TCA presentations in Pasadena yesterday. Joshua Jackson had Diane Kruger with him all day and at the party, though she stayed out of the spotlight. Diane almost blended in with the crowd as she sipped a beer while Josh fielded questions about Fringe. He also talked about how much he loved going to Comic-Con and interacting with all the fans. The cast of Glee took it all in as everyone wanted to congratulate them on their upcoming show, though Lea Michele said she was mostly looking forward to everyone finally seeing more than just the pilot. Meanwhile, Buzz was off at the So You Think You Can Dance finale, where she chatted with the winner Jeanine — check it out here!

Lots more from the party so read more

Remember when Fringe was going to be the less-complicated, easy-to-follow JJ Abrams series? The show's season finale, in which we learned of an alternate universe where characters we already know — or possibly their doubles — frequently appear would seem to have changed all that. But at TCA on Thursday, the producers stressed that they weren't going to give the audience more than they can handle.

For one thing, there won't be an additional universe that we discover later. They're only dealing with the two we've seen (basically, "over here" and "over there," over there being the home of William Bell). And producer Jeff Pinkner stressed that through visual cues and other things, it will be easy to tell what universe you're in at any given time. "We have no desire to be cute or confusing," Pinkner said. "We always want and take great pains . . . to take the audience with us."

The alternate universe twist was always planned, producer Alex Kurtzman said, but it wasn't supposed to be until the end of season three. But the feedback they got signaled that fans were ready — so they decided to jump ahead with it. For more on what's to come, read more

So You Think You Can Dance kicked off Fox's TCA panels this morning with some Paula Abdul talk and — naturally — some dancing. Precious Cat Deeley introduced the popular routines from the season though the top four weren't able to come as they were busy getting ready for tonight's finale! Nigel Lythgoe continued to express how much he would love to have Paula Abdul on Dance, but also said he's not convinced she won't be back on American Idol. The Fox execs were up next and that was all about Paula, Paula, Paula — check out the big news from that here. After lunch the highly-anticipated Glee cast took the stage and Buzz has all the details of the panel. Joshua Jackson looked hot and brought out his sarcastic sense of humor promoting Fringe. He joked that Vancouver has "become Acapulco" weather-wise but that he "never expected to get the gift to be back home for work." He may always be Pacey to me, but he's clearly already gathered a new following for his popular sci-fi show.

To see more from the day just read more

It didn't take more than one episode to make me a hardcore Glee fan, and I'm even more excited about the show's first season after a TCA panel this afternoon. The smiley cast took the stage to dish about long days, extensive dance routines, and why America is going to love their show. Here are some highlights and a few fun spoilers (after the jump):

• The cast just wrapped filming the first 13 episodes of the show, which covers a whopping 60 songs. I can't decide if I'm more impressed or psyched to see them all performed on-screen.
• Shooting the show hasn't been all fun and games for the kids. They've got a grueling schedule, which includes recording the music and learning the choreography, and it takes about eight days to film a single episode.
• The kids chatted a bit about their own high school experiences. Kevin McHale revealed he's got a few things in common with his character Artie, saying, "I'm really nerdy and Art is obviously really nerdy. But I do walk."
• Speaking of Artie, we can expect to see an upcoming performance with the entire cast dancing in wheelchairs. So sweet/awesome.
• Meanwhile, Jane Lynch cited "Roses Turn" from Gypsy as the song she'd most like to perform if she ever gets the chance to sing.
• The kids are gearing up for a 10-city tour, where they will travel in one plane and perform at Hot Topic stores across America. I'm already bummed that they aren't coming to SF.

To see more highlights and read a few spoilers from upcoming episodes, just read more

Mindy Kaling's Twitter feed does not lie. In less than 140 characters, The Office writer/actress dribbled out some key info this week regarding a certain potential wedding on the upcoming season of the show. Luckily, she had more than 140 characters worth of info to share when I ran into her at NBC's party at the TCA press tour on Wednesday night. She and fellow writer/actor BJ Novak also offered a few tidbits about the season premiere and the direction of this season as a whole. Ready for some spoilers? Just read more

Today it was NBC's turn to show off its new programming at the TCAs in Pasadena. One of the first panels was for Joel McHale's new sitcom where he talked about juggling The Soup and Community saying, "I take a lot of uppers and downers," but also that he won't be able to watch as many clips and will probably miss out on his usual Brett Michaels reality TV fix. Chevy Chase talked about deciding to take the job saying, "I honestly think that films lately aren't as good as most of the stuff on TV." During the Top Chef themed lunch Gail talked about the new Top Chef wine and she and Padma fielded questions during a quickfire challenge on stage with old and new contestants. Michelle Trachtenberg was on one of the day's final panels for Mercy where she said she loves getting to play a nurse "for fakesies" and that Georgina would take the characters shopping to replace their "nurse clogs." Check out more from the panels over on Buzz and all our TCA coverage here.

To see more photos of Joel, Chevy, Michelle and more, just read more

With Ben Silverman leaving NBC earlier this Summer, reporters were bound to be a little chippy at NBC's executive session today at the TCA press tour. There were plenty of questions about how NBC's entertainment president, Angela Bromstad, would define NBC's brand (apparently it includes Heroes, The Office, and The Apprentice equally?), but we also got some concrete info about shows like Southland and Friday Night Lights. Some details:

• Bromstad said Southland "tried to do too much" in its first six episodes and became too serialized. When it returns, it will focus more on Ben McKenzie and Regina King's characters.
• With regard to the rumor that Chuck could return sooner than March, Bromstad said March is still the plan. But she said the show is in a good place production-wise (several scripts are already done), and "it is something we can move around." One other possibility is having the show be part of the Summer schedule.
• Speaking of Summer, that's when Friday Night Lights will be back on NBC. (It will air on DirecTV before that — an Oct. 28 premiere date was just announced.) Bromstad said the show just doesn't have the ratings to justify a place on the Fall schedule, but it can be a "premier" show in the Summer.

For thoughts on Medium, Day One, and Heroes, just read more

The last thing I was expecting from Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes when a bunch of reporters descended on the Private Practice set on Tuesday was a spoiler. But she must have been feeling generous toward the TCA crowd, because we didn't even have to work for our news: Dr. Miranda Bailey of Seattle Grace (the Emmy-nominated Chandra Wilson) will be guest-starring on the third episode of Private Practice's third season.

I suppose it would be too much to ask, though, for Rhimes to reveal exactly why the crossover takes place. The most we could get was that she'll be "performing a very interesting medical procedure" and "will have her own comments about what's going on" over at Oceanside Wellness. I like the sound of that second idea: I think the Southern California doctors could use a patented Bailey smackdown every now and then.

The Bailey visit wasn't the only thing I learned on the set. What follows is spoilery, but if you want to hear details of Violet's fate after that freaky season finale and what's up next for Addison's romantic life, just read more