Every TV fan has showrunners and/or writers they just can't stand for one reason or another. Star Trek fans by and large don't adore Brannon Braga, for example. Heroes creator Tim Kring has also become quite frustrating, and Ronald D. Moore divides as many Battlestar fans as the show's finale did. But me? I don't pay much attention to those three (well, Kring I pick on, but who doesn't?), because all my frustration and ire is focused on two people: Monica Breen and Alison Schapker. Haven't heard of them? Let me tell you what they've put me through, and what they'll likely do to Fringe, since they've just joined as co-executive producers.

Tags: Alias, Brothers & Sisters, Charmed, Fringe

USA gets into the she-spy game tonight with Covert Affairs, a show about a lady ass-kicker for the government played by Piper Perabo. The less said about that casting the better, so let's move on to more exciting things, like the fact that Peter Gallagher plays her boss on the show. To promote the premiere, The Eyebrowed One got on the horn with a whole bunch of blogger types to address the Alias comparisons, what Sandy Cohen would think of the show, and why USA is less of a clusterfrak than the broadcast networks. Read on for highlights.

Tags: Alias, Covert Affairs, Doug Liman, Peter Gallagher, Piper Perabo, USA

We've seen every program created or produced by J.J. Abrams (yes, even Six Degrees), so in retrospect, we're kicking ourselves for not seeing some of the biggest Lost twists coming head of time. Sure, some elements were obvious from the get-go, but most of these just snuck up on us. You'd better believe we're keeping this in mind when his new spy show Undercovers debuts this fall.

Tags: alias, felicity, jj abrams, lost, six degrees, what about brian

Hope you like J.J. Abrams and Project Runway, because you're getting a whole lot of them in today's TWoP news.

Tags: Alias, Dexter, Driven, JJ Abrams, Julia Styles, Lost, Maura Tierney, Project Runway, SoapNet

Stop laughing, I'm serious! I'm a big fan of spy capers in general (ask anyone who's ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes -- Alias and Ian Fleming come up pretty frequently), so maybe I'm biased, but I swear to you, USA's Burn Notice is worth watching. It's full of fun factoids (did you know Nigeria is the gun-running capital of Africa? How about how to make a bug out of two cell phones? Or how about the fact that money launderers are "like the Yellow Pages of criminals"? I didn't either!), useful combat tips (actual quote: "When you fight, you have to be careful not to break the little bones in your hands on someone's face." - oh, if only I'd known that in my youth...), and a fabulous supporting cast (Bruce Campbell as a skirt-chasing alcoholic and former spy, and Cagney from Cagney & Lacey as a pill-popping hypochondriac and communications specialist, among others). Combine all that with a few expensive-looking car chases and a heartwarming fight for the underdog B-story, and you've got an entertaining damn show! Check out the pilot for after the jump. .

Tags: alias, bruce campbell, burn notice, cagney & lacey, usa

When it comes to TV, there are way more fabulous and high-profile roles for moms and the poor dads get the short shrift. However, we spent minutes weeks hunting through Wikipedia and our collective minds the annals of television for the best and worst TV dads that we could remember. Well, at least these are the ones that left an indelible mark on us, and not with wire hangers or anything (though we may not put that past some of the dastardly daddies on our naughty list). So in honor of Father's Day, here's our slapped together long-awaited list in alphabetical order (because we just couldn't decide if Jack Bristow or Keith Mars would be the No. 1 perfect patriarch).

Tags: alias, all in the family, Arrested Development, brady bunch, dexter, friday night lights, gossip girl, grey's anatomy, how i met your mother, lost, malcolm in the middle, married with children, the cosby show, the o.c., the sopranos, The x-files, tv dads

In the consumer culture we inhabit, company spokesmen have long been elevated to the equal status alongside their legitimate cartoon and comic-book brethren. Captain Crunch, Ronald McDonald and the football-playing Fox Sports Robot are among the corporate shills who have been immortalized as action figures, hanging on racks alongside G.I. Joe and Spongebob for nostalgic reasons, kitsch factor or sheer coolness of design alone. And I think that's awesome. But we are about to enter a new age: the age of the TV production company mascot toy.

Tags: Alias, Bad Robot, Buffy, Burn Notice, Dollhouse, Firefly, Fringe, House, J.J. Abrams, Lost, Serenity

I'll admit that I have been enjoying the check-your-brain-at-the-door fun that is My Own Worst Enemy for its spy capers and my '90s Christian Slater fangirl nostalgia, but last night's episode had a few too many things in it that I guess were supposed to be Alias references, but just came off as plain old theft to me. First of all, when Janus calls Henry at home, they identify themselves as "Sal's Pizza." Sound familiar? When the CIA called Sydney in Season 1 they identified themselves as "Joey's Pizza." Would it have killed them to pick another cover? Maybe a Chinese place? A dry cleaner maybe? Oh, and that's not all.

Tags: Alias, Christian Slater, My own Worst Enemy