Fans of New Girl heroine Jess can't give Zooey Deschanel all the credit to bringing this character to life -- after all, Liz Meriwether wrote and created our unlikely protagonist, as well as the entire series. In anticipation of tonight's Thanksgiving episode (aptly titled "Thanksgiving"), which guest stars Justin Long, Meriwether took a media call to talk about the current states of New Girl affairs, and what it's like to write for someone so adorable... and polarizing. Below are the highlights.

Since it premiered on October 5, FX's American Horror Story has steadily grown into one of the network's most popular shows, hovering around the 3 million viewer mark weekly. Last week's episode, the first of a two-part Halloween-themed frightfest, proved particularly popular and so FX wasted little time announcing a second season filled with more thrills, chills, chuckles and dudes in rubber suits. ("Halloween Part 2" airs tonight at 10 PM.) Stars Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott -- who play estranged husband-and-wife Vivien and Ben Harmon who are forced to deal with the bizarre goings-on in their new home, the so-called "Murder House" -- recently spoke with the press about the show's complex mythology, how they balance the humor and horror and the paranormal activity they've encountered in real life.

Now that Jonah Hill is no longer strictly "the chubby kid from all the Judd Apatow movies" (as my parents describe him), he's ready to make his debut as a TV executive producer and writer in the animated series Allen Gregory. Premiering Sunday at 8:30 PM on Fox, the show is about seven-year-old Allen Gregory De Longpre, a pretentious little tyke who is forced to attend public school for the first time after his parents face financial troubles. Earlier this week, Hill took a media call to hype up his new gig, but it was a little more like pulling teeth than talking to a person who was really excited that their series was about to air. Below are the highlights I was able to extract.

When the Beatles first burst onto the pop culture landscape in the early '60s, the group's fans and the press had little trouble slotting three out of the four mop-topped rockers -- John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr -- into clearly defined identities. Specifically, they were the "Smart One," the "Cute One" and the "Funny One," respectively. But lead guitarist George Harrison's personality proved more difficult to sum up in a pithy two-word phrase. As a result, he was saddled with the vague moniker of the "Quiet One," which seemed to imply, quite unfairly, that he was somehow less interesting and vibrant than his bandmates. In the group's early years, it's true that Harrison took a backseat to the dynamic duo of Lennon and McCartney. But by the time the group disbanded in 1970, he had emerged as a strong artist and individual in his own right; in fact, his first post-Beatles record All Things Must Pass, outsold his former bandmates' initial solo albums, McCartney and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

When talking to Ed Helms (Andy Bernard) and Paul Lieberstein (Toby Flenderson, as well as Office writer and producer) on a media call earlier this week, everyone wanted to know how Andy of all people got the gig, if Andy could ever really be as good as Michael, if the writers are just using Helms' budding movie career to boost Office viewership... all fair(ish) questions, but pretty damn brutal. True professionals, Helms and Lieberstein just wanted to be clear that they're excited for the future of the show, but they managed to throw in a few fun lines about writing in a post-Steve Carell series. They were the highlights of the phoner, along with a few of the choice quotes below.

ABC's new '60s-era airline drama Pan Am takes its maiden flight on Sunday night, fueled by strong word of mouth (it made our list of must-see fall shows) and a cast that includes Kelli Garner, Mike Vogel and Christina Ricci, star of such films as The Opposite of Sex, Sleepy Hollow and, perhaps most memorably, both of the Addams Family movies, where she played the quintessential Goth daughter, Wednesday. In advance of the show's premiere, Ricci and the Pan Am creator Jack Orman spoke with the press about the show's direction, the mod fashions and a very special Beatles episode.

The fact that Community has gotten a third season at all is baffling. Yeah, it's an amazing series, a multi-Tubey winner and one of our favorite comedies in recent history, but the ratings have been so miniscule, we've been shocked for two years running that TPTB continue to let it bloom. More shocked then us is the Joel McHale himself, who -- along with new cast member John Goodman, who plays Vice Dean Laybourne, dean of the highly regarded Air Conditioning Repair Annex at Greendale -- took a media call to tell us about the hopes vs. realities of life at Greendale Community. Below are the highlights.

Have you heard of The X Factor? It's kinda supposed to be like the old American Idol, but better and with more Pepsi commercials in the middle of each episode? In the off-chance the media blitz hasn't found you in your cave, judge Simon Cowell took a press call to answer the burning questions that we lowly Americans have about his new series (debuting tonight on Fox) and even took the time to trash a few of his competitors.

I didn't really care one way or the other about James Durbin's tenure on American Idol. Aside from a passion for Dio that we happen to share, he just seemed like a weaker-voiced Glambert with a dreadfully contrived taste in music. And besides, hating Scotty McCreery has taken up all my energy this season -- there's no time left to like anyone. But in listening to his refreshingly silly all-media exit interview, I actually found him kind of likable, and a lot more down to earth than Jacob Lusk and Stefano. Don't get me wrong -- he thinks he's hot shit, but least he has the decency to be sort of amusing about it. Read on for highlights.

There's a new sheriff in town over at NBC, and a whole new slew of shows to replace all the shows that failed last season (pretty much all of them, basically). It's an entirely new programming slate over there, so I attended the red carpet portion of the network's Upfront presentation this morning to get some interviews with the new and returning talent. They were all so lovely that I hope none of their shows get canceled too soon.