All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Weeds premieres its fifth season tonight (10PM ET, Showtime). Check out my interview with Emmy nominee Elizabeth Perkins (also a star of one of my all-time fave movies, About Last Night) at AOL TV.

– Here’s hoping Jimmy Fallon really can pull off a Saved by the Bell reunion tonight. And PS – So happy Zach Morris clipped the ‘do.

– Is Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) alive on Lost? Okay, so then why’s he playing foosball in that new ABC promo? EW.com’s Michael Ausiello has the surprising answer. PS – IGN TV thinks the secret show is Flash Forward.

– More from Ausiello: There may be a Cagney & Lacey reunion on Burn Notice next year.

– Think you’ve got advertising skills? Put ’em to use pimping – ha – HBO’s new series Hung, about a middle-aged guy (Thomas Jane) who becomes a gigolo, and you might win $10,000.

– Cougars are all the rage on network TV, especially now that Erica Kane‘s become one.

– Go and Prison Break star William Fichtner will guest star on the upcoming sixth season of Entourage, which premieres on HBO on July 12.

– Kathy Bates, Tim Curry and Colm Meaney will star in Sci Fi’s Alice in Wonderland miniseries.

– Uncle Jesse – the Full House one, not the Dukes of Hazzard one – is itching to make a big-screen version of his cheesy, but endearing sitcom, sans Olsen twins and with, oddly, James Franco taking over his role.

– Once and Again and My So-Called Life producer Marshall Herskovitz has a plan to radically change up the way TV pilots are sold. He ain’t tellin’ what it is, though.

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• Filed in Boob Tube to Big Screen, TV News
• Tags: About Last Night, Alice in Wonderland, Burn Notice, Cagney & Lacey, Cagney & Lacey reunion, Colm Meaney, Cougars, Dominic Monaghan, Dukes of Hazzard, Elizabeth Perkins, Entourage, Erica Kane, Flash Forward, Full House, HBO, Hung, James Franco, Jimmy Fallon, John Stamos, Kathy Bates, Lost, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Marshall Herskovitz, miniseries, My So-Called Life, Olsen twins, Once and Again, Prison Break, Saved by the Bell, Saved by the Bell reunion, Sci Fi, Thomas Jane, Tim Curry, Uncle Jesse, Weeds, William Fichtner, Zach Morris

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– R.I.P. Kung Fu star David Carradine. Check out some of his Emmy-nominated days as Caine at the YouTube Kung Fu page.

– Hey, yeah! TheWrap.com asks the question, If Kal Penn left House to work for the Obama White House, why isn’t he there yet?

– And don’t miss the two-part TheWrap.com investigation into just how dire post-reality TV life is for some of its stars. Not everyone turns reality TV stardom into a thriving career like Elizabeth Hasselbeck has, of course. But some of the cast-offs have been so haunted by their short-lived fame, or infamy, that they’ve committed suicide.

– Whoa: The Big O has been dethroned as the most powerful celeb in the world, says Forbes mag.

– Oprah has responded, meanwhile, to that Newsweek story on the iffy-ness of the advice from the health segments of Oprah’s talk show.

– A&E has reportedly decided to cancel The Beast, the Patrick Swayze drama that failed to pull in big ratings.

– After being bounced from the Iron Man movie series, Terrence Howard is bringing his considerable talents to the tube for an upcoming cop drama.

– The people have spoken, and they’ve declared in Ted Casablanca‘s The Awful Truth column that Spencer Pratt is The Most Awful Celeb in Hollywood. But somehow, I think the arrogant one will just see it not as an insult, but as confirmation that he is considered a celeb.

– Prison Break alum Robert “T-Bag” Knepper will be the newest Heroes villain next season. May have to actually start watching again.

– Kris Allen, you just won American Idol, what are you going to do next? Um, play a Wal-Mart shareholders meeting.

– Once and for all: Eminem was in on the Bruno joke at the MTV Movie Awards.

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• Filed in American Idol, Celebreality, Reality, TV News
• Tags: Bruno, David Carradine, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Eminem, Heroes, Heroes villain, House, Iron Man, Kal Penn, Kris Allen, Kung Fu, MTV Movie Awards, Newsweek Oprah, Obama, Oprah, Patrick Swayze, Prison Break, R.I.P., reality stars, Reality TV, reality TV stars suicide, reality TV suicide, Robert "T-Bag" Knepper, Spencer Pratt, Ted Casablanca, Terrence Howard, The Awful Truth, The Beast

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Did Izzie and George really die in the Grey’s Anatomy season finale? Meh. I find it more interesting that series creator Shonda Rhimes is living in denial about how ridiculous much of the show has become, including this season’s “ghost sex.”

– Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik makes an excellent point about how the best comedy on TV is not necessarily always the funniest comedy on TV, using last night’s Alan Alda gem on 30 Rock as a jumping off point. Alda’s quip that referred to the classic M*A*S*H series finale is, hands down, the best, most clever quote of the whole TV season.

– Saturday Night Live airs its 34th season finale – with host Will Ferrell and musical guest Green Day – this weekend, while Fox sketch comedy counterpart MadTV airs its series finale.

– More from SNL: Sunday night’s SNL: Just Shorts special (9PM ET, NBC), a round-up of the show’s most memorable short films, including, of course, “Dick in a Box,” and one of my early favorites, the classic synchronized swimming clip with Martin Short and Harry Shearer.

– And another series finale: tonight’s Prison Break send-off (8PM ET, Fox).

– It makes me love Jonah Hill even more that he riffed on gruesome twosome Heidi and Spencer in a new Harper’s Bazaar interview and photo spread.

– “I want to go to there” is not the only 30 Rock catchphrase that originated with Tina Fey‘s daughter Alice, apparently.

– Thanks, Neal McDonough, for spoiling the Desperate Housewives season finale. Oh, okay, the fate of his Dave character wasn’t really a surprise, though he did also confirm in his appearance on The View Thursday that the rumor of a DH spin-off with Mrs. McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten) is true.

– Farrah Fawcett‘s documentary on her battle with cancer, Farrah’s Story, is set to air tonight on NBC (9PM ET), but as the Charlie’s Angels star is reportedly on her deathbed, a producer and her on-again, off-again love Ryan O’Neal are fighting over the video.

– USA Today has a good rundown of where the networks stand as they head into Upfront Week next week. Among the shows likely to be on the air next season: The Melrose Place remake, an NCIS spin-off and the return of Scrubs, while the fates of My Name Is Earl, Chuck, Medium, The Unit, Cold Case and Without a Trace are still up in the air.

– And somehow, I doubt Jon Stewart is really worried about Jim Cramer, through Cramer seems to suggest in a new Time magazine interview that he should be.

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• Filed in 30 Rock, Celebreality, Comedy, Drama, TV News
• Tags: 30 Rock, Alan Alda, Chuck, Cold Case, Desperate Housewives, Farrah Fawcett, Green Day, Grey's Anatomy, Harry Shearer, Heidi, James Poniewozik, Jim Cramer, Jon Stewart, Jonah Hill, Kathryn Joosten, M*A*S*H, MadTV, Martin Short, Medium, Melrose Place, My Name Is Earl, NCIS, Neal McDonough, Prison Break, Ryan O'Neal, Saturday Night Live, season finale, series finale, Shonda Rhimes, SNL, Spencer, spin-off, The Unit, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Without a Trace