Caffeine – February 13th Edition

Happy Sunday! We’ve got a heaping helping of TV news for you this week, so grab a big mug of coffee and settle in …

Premiere dates! MTV’s Teen Wolf starts June 5 (after the MTV Music Awards); AMC’s The Killing gets a two-hour premiere on April 3. And the Burn Notice prequel movie, The Fall of Sam Axe, will air on USA on April 17.

Smallville and Supernatural are both getting two-hour finales, on May 13 and May 20, respectively. (That’s the series finale for Smallville; Supernatural is expected to be back but nothing’s official yet.) Michael Rosenbaum will return for the Smallville finale.

SyFy is developing Among the Spirits, a series about Houdini and Conan Doyle solving mysteries together. Sometimes I think they get the ideas from these shows from my dreams.

CW has officially picked up The Secret Circle to pilot. Yay for another Kevin Williamson drama inspired by L.J. Smith books!

We don’t cover much non-scripted TV here, but this is big enough news it’s worth noting: Keith Olbermann is headed to Current TV.

Some guest casting of note: Nia Vardalos to Cougar Town (to join real-life husband Ian Gomez); Rose McGowan to SVU; the original 90210‘s Gabrielle Carteris to The Event; My Name is Earl‘s Jaime Pressley and Ethan Suplee to Raising Hope; Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin will be on Hellcats, having already worked her way through Gossip Girl and Make It or Break It. Castle gets a bunch of people including soap stars and Dr. Quinn! I mean, Jane Seymour.

Good news for White Collar fans! Hilarie Burton (Sara) will be a regular in season three. (Well, that’s good news assuming White Collar fans like Sara. I do.)

Renewed: The League. More or less cancelled: Chase and The Cape. NBC, um, isn’t exactly doing well.

J.J. Abrams has yet another pilot: Person of Interest: “An ex-CIA hitman and a scientist team up to prevent crimes before they happen.”

Zooey Deschanel will star in an untitled FOX comedy about a teacher, because there’s nothing FOX loves more than a Deschanel.

Sorry to be the bearer of unpopular tidings, but Jessica Szhor (Vanessa) is coming back to Gossip Girl.

Kerry Washington and Columbus Short are headed to Shonda Rhimes’s crisis management show. Oh, and Henry Ian Cusick, too.

In other Studio 60 alum casting Amanda Peet will star on Bent, and I am beside myself, because I ADORE her. Perry has Mr. Sunshine, so let’s just cast Sarah Paulson, Bradley Whitford, and Steven Weber on Sorkin’s new show, and then all my Studio 60 faves will be back on my TV.

Fox, perhaps looking for the next House, has ordered a pilot about the weekend shift at a psychiatric hospital. And also a comedy about father/son coroners (really?) starring Gary Cole.

HBO is developing a “big-canvas Texas political drama” from Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, and … Morgan Spurlock? Really? One of these things is not like the others …

Pilot updates:
17th Precinct: Stockard Channing will star.
Charlie’s Angels: Ramon Rodriguez has been cast as Bosley.
Dallas: Jesse Metcalfe and Julie Gonzalo cast.

Hallelujah: There’s a bunch of information here, and I’m just linking you because this sounds so bizarre I kind of don’t know what to say.
Home Game: Now starring Rob Riggle and Constance Zimmer.
Identity: Wentworth Miller and Orlando Jones are in talks.
Over/Under: USA Network continues their yummy casting streak with Anthony Carrigan.
Pan Am: Margot Robbie will be one of the stewardesses.
Poe gets a director.
Ringer: This is the Sarah Michelle Gellar one, and Nestor Carbonell will co-star as what sounds like her Watcher. (Sorry. I had to.)
Smash: Debra Messing cast, and apparently the show-within-a-show is about Marilyn Monroe? Huh. Also cast: Megan Hilty. Oh, and Jack Davenport.

NBC orders another comedy. I think it’s another. There are so many similar-sounding comedy pilots out there that I’m losing track. See also: TV Land cast a bunch of people in a bunch of sitcoms. One of these soundalikes, ABC’s Smothered, has gotten my attention by casting Kyle Howard.

For fellow completists out there, EW.com has roundups of all the ABC and NBC pilots.

Audra McDonald is leaving Private Practice. Someone cast her on one of the many musical shows, okay? Or she could go back to Broadway. That would be good too.

I consistently forget that Lifetime shows series as well as tearjerker movies, but apparently they do! They’ve given series orders to two procedurals, and they sound interesting enough to try provided I can remember that Lifetime exists. (They probably get that a lot.)

Law and Order: Criminal Intent has cast Jay O. Sanders in its final season. (This is the only USA show I don’t watch, so I’ll be kind of relieved when it’s over, because I’ll stop feeling like I need to catch up on all of it. I know, I know, I’m insane.)