TVSquad

Just five episodes into Entourage's long-awaited fifth season, and HBO has already pulled the trigger on a sixth. This morning the pay cable network announced that a sixth season of the popular comedy is in the works with a summer 2009 premiere planned.

So far, season five has seen Vince and the gang head into a downward spiral as he tries to rejuvenate his career in the wake of his last poorly received film, Medellin.

Even though I've seen plenty of positive reviews of the new season (I even gave it one), I still have a bit of an issue with HBO renewing the show. It's not that I disagree with a renewal, but I'm not so sure the timing is right.

On KryptonSite, the producers of Smallville have written an open letter to all the fans of their show. This letter is about the potential upcoming spin-off or complementary series of Smallville called The Graysons, about the life of Dick Grayson and family before he put on the tights and became Batman's partner.

What disturbs me most about this letter is the fact that they mention a season nine of Smallville. Can't they let this series die already? They lost Lana and Lex. Clark is currently working with Lois Lane at the Daily Planet (despite his lack of college education) and rather than a reference to the town he grew up in, Smallville is now a reference to Clark himself. What more can he do without actually becoming Superman?

I admit to a curiosity regarding what sort of storylines they could run in the show to accomplish this goal. I suppose that alone would keep me watching, even though I believe it should end this season.

On this Monday morning, we've got three copies of How I Met Your Mother - Season Three on DVD for three lucky, random commenters. The DVD is available in stores starting tomorrow.

To enter, leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, October 10 simply telling us why you'd like to own this DVD set. As always, we'll randomly choose three winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

It looks like more period dramas (such as The Tudors) are headed to pay cable. And this time, "Booth" will not refer to a character on the TV show Bones.

Kevin Bacon will be executive-producing The Booths, a period drama about the Booth brothers, the most infamous of which, John Wilkes Booth, went on to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

It sounds like an interesting project. I do like historical dramas, but I'm always disappointed at their tendency to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of drama. Of course, when it's good drama, nobody seems to notice.

The nicest thing about being Kevin Bacon, other than being a famous actor, must be that it takes the fewest amount of steps to be in a Kevin Bacon movie for that Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game (the total number of steps would be, I believe, zero). One can say with surefire honesty that Kevin Bacon has been in all of Kevin Bacon's movies.

(S02E10) This seemed an oddly structured episode, with the emphasis more on Betty than Don, with a splash of Pete and Kinsey thrown in. The idea that life was simpler in the old days, should anyone still think that adage applies, is disproved with every hour of Mad Men that unfolds.

For Betty, the impending death of her father has shaken her to the core. A series of strokes has led to dementia and when Don accompanies Betty to visit him in her childhood home, she has to come to grips with not only the fact that he's slipping away, but also be reminded that nearly every vestige of her mother has also gone.

(S05E02) "I think I just heard the milk go bad." - Andrew to Bree and Orson

That line Andrew said to escape an uncomfortable situation was funny but not that important in the overall episode. However, many Desperate Housewives characters could have said it this week as all of them found themselves in situations they would have preferred not to be in.

Susan had to face the fact that the men in her life met one another. Gaby tried to maintain her social status but ended up being the laugh of the party (well, Carlos was). An overworked and stressed Bree had to cook for a neglected and fed up Orson. McCluskey had to apologize the Edie in order to get her cat back. While Lynette signed a breaking up email with the words "Love, Mom." Ouch!

(S03E02) Maybe the tone of this season seems slightly less sinister, but I am liking it all the same. Then again, with Dexter creeping around in the dark rain, murdering another victim, how can we claim less sinister?

What do you think about the way that they addressed Maria and the whole Bay Harbor Butcher issue? I was really wondering how she still could retain her position of power at the force when she was clearly impaired by her feelings for Doakes at the end of last season. They really left this hanging at the end of last season, and although they weakly tied it up in this episode, I still feel like Maria may not be quite done with the issue.

• At 7, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
  
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and The Unit.
  
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Steelers/Jaguars game.
• The CW has the series premieres of In Harm's Way, Valentine, and Easy Money starting at 7.
• At 8, FOX has a new Simpsons, then new episodes of King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, then a new Iron Chef America.
• Disney has a new Studio DC: Almost Live at 8, followed by a new Wizards of Waverly Place.
• At 9, PBS has a new Masterpiece Contemporary.
• There's a new True Blood on HBO at 9, then new episodes of Entourage and Little Britain.
• Also at 9: Showtime has a new Dexter, followed by a new Californication.
• At 10, AMC has a new Mad Men.
• Lifetime has a new Army Wives at 10.
• BBC America has a new Skins at 10.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Robot Chicken, then a new Superjail.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S34E04) This season so far has been more than a little iffy, but Anne Hathaway managed to make things slightly less painful. Even though the writing still wasn't quite spot-on, Hathaway's enthusiasm brought a light to the show that made even the most irritating sketches a bit more bearable. Honestly, I had my doubts about her hosting abilities, mainly because her good girl giddiness clashes heavily with my black-hearted bitchiness, but I didn't mind her. I'm sure she could even easily make the jump from "pretty good" to "absolutely spectacular," given the right material. Also, she managed to read the cue cards without looking like a complete idiot, which most other hosts have somehow turned into a massive ordeal lately. Mmm, literacy plus natural reading: a combination so deliciously rare, the writers don't even know what to do with it.

AMC has done pretty well for itself of late with the critically acclaimed series Broken Trail, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. I'm also hopefully optimistic that they will do a good job with their mini-series remake of The Prisoner. Because of this established pedigree, I am incredibly excited to hear that AMC is developing a series based on Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars novel. With Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series already coming to television, it looks like someone in TV land has been raiding my library. Oh there are so many more good sci-fi and fantasy series to develop. Feel free to stop by any time!

The article indicates the series is based on Robinson's 1992 novel of the same name, but I hope they take it a step further and look to his expanded Mars trilogy. That way they can have several seasons of stories to tell. I guess, though, with the bigger story covering a couple of centuries there could be some casting problems. Hell, overhaul the entire cast every few seasons. ER does it and it's been on the air for almost fifteen years.

You know the one I'm talking about. After the writers strike ended last year in February, most of the networks made the interesting decision to just go ahead and shelve most of their freshmen series for the season, even if they'd picked up their "back nine" orders. Instead, they thought they'd launch the shows to big fanfare this fall, almost as if they were new again. Unfortunately, it looks like this plan backfired on them tremendously.

Across the board, those sophomore series that went on hiatus for more than six months are way down in the ratings. Apparently, absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder when it comes to the television landscape. It makes the instant gratification generation forget you existed. And stop caring.

• At 6:30, TBS has the Brewers/Phillies game, followed by the Cubs/Dodgers game.
• At 8, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery, then a new EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.
• ABC has College Football at 8, Ohio State vs. Wisconsin.
• FOX has a new Cops at 8.
• CNBC has the premiere of The Entrepreneurs at 8, followed by a new Suze Orman Show.
• Also at 8: Nickelodeon has a new iCarly, then a new H20.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• There's a new Primeval on BBC America at 9.
• Food Network has a marathon of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives starting at 9.
• At 10, TLC has a new Trading Spaces.
• At 10:30, Cartoon Network has a new Naruto, followed by a new Bleach.
• At 11, FOX has a new Mad TV, then a new Talk Show with Spike Feresten.
  
• At 11:30, NBC has a new Saturday Night Live, with Anne Hathaway and The Killers.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Wow, is this right? Jesse L. Martin was on Law and Order for nine seasons? How could that be? Where has the last decade gone? I feel really old.

Martin was indeed on the hit NBC drama for that long. He left last season, in a storyline involving a gambling addiction, a murder, and a court trial. But now he might actually be coming back to the same network. Martin is in negotiations to play the James Purefoy's sidekick on the midseason replacement series The Philanthropist, about a rich man who helps people with his dough. The character's name is Philip Maidstone.

Martin must really like NBC. He's also going to be in a new Muppets movie this Christmas season on the network.

It will be interesting to see how big this sidekick role will be, because you would think at this point that Martin would be getting or going for the lead roles, not the buddy ones.

Last time on 'Saturday Morning' we took at look at the ambitious NBC schedule of the 1973-74 television season. This time we will examine the lineups for ABC and CBS during that time period.

At a quick glance, both networks maintained the 'primetime' look that was established by ABC the season before by adding a number of shows that featured animated versions of nighttime television characters. This was in addition to the shows that already existed, which made this one of the first seasons where real-life characters nearly outnumbered imaginary ones. This was also the first year for the 'all-star' genre of cartoons. ABC featured two of these types of programs, both featuring characters well-known to a previous generation of Saturday morning viewers.

Conventional wisdom says that vice presidents don't matter much when it comes time to vote, that people ultimately make their choice based on who's running for president. However, when it comes to debates, VEEPs are the main event.

The Nielsen numbers are in for last night's debate between Vice Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin and they're huge -- 69.9 million viewers watched the VEEP debate. That's a whopping 17.5 million more viewers than Barack Obama and John McCain drew for their first debate last Friday night.

Why were so many more people tuned in for Biden-Palin? There are a few reasons, starting with the curiosity about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.