We've had the pleasure of speaking to Community creator Dan Harmon and star Joel McHale (and Danny Pudi) before, but in these dark post-hiatus times, there's something specifically more ominous about talking to Harmon and McHale after a three-month break. Don't take our word for it -- check out the highlights of a press call we participated in with them last week, where they talked about life after the hiatus and the remainder of the season.

Yesterday I watched the Battlestar Galactica trailer and started counting down the days until this show returns on January 16th. Today NBC unveiled their winter schedule, and while there was some other information in there that I'm sure I'll examine more closely later on, one bit stuck out like a bright beacon of hope. Friday Night Lights is returning to network TV on that very same evening. My cup and DVR runneth over.

If you watch Sunday's new Brothers and Sisters, you're probably going to be a little confused. You see, the episode is centered on Kevin and Scotty rallying to defeat California's Proposition 8, which we now know passed yesterday. Why would they air this episode days after the vote for it would have been tallied? Well, because back in the summertime, ABC decided to move the show's season premiere date back one week for whatever reason, and no one thought hey, but won't that mess up our election episode, not to mention our Thanksgiving episode, both of which we've already filmed? So yeah, that's what why you'll be confused this Sunday, and in a few weeks, when the Walkers celebrate Thanksgiving a week after the rest of America does.

If I had read the news that CBS' relationship drama The Ex List had been suddenly yanked from the schedule (presumably for good... but people are afraid to use the word "canceled" lately) right after the premiere, I would have been bummed. However, that was before I watched the last few episodes and weecaped them. All of the charm of the pilot seemed to be slowly getting sucked out. It's no wonder the showrunner left. The optimism I felt about the show when I talked to star Elisabeth Reaser had slowly dissipated. Though that wouldn't have stopped me from watching it completely... I watch way crappier shows than this one for much longer than I should. Most normal people did stop though, so CBS opted to sub in NCIS reruns. Not a good sign.

This poor show. It got shuffled all over the schedule this fall, and then wound up on Saturday nights where only the die hard fans (or fan, since it is possible that I was the only one who saw this one all the way through) were able to watch it. As I mentioned when this show premiered, it probably would have fared better on Discovery Channel or TLC or Spike, instead of NBC. But I'm not a TV programmer so what do I know? Not much since my early favorite Sandy came in third. She was the final girl though, and she did it with a smashed leg and a broken finger, which is pretty awesome. And I never expected Steven to make it to the final two, but after the first couple challenges, I did think that goofy dreadlocked Ben had what it took to win. So it is nice to be rightish about something... for a change.

So I was able to obtain a screener copy of FNL's smashing season premiere and now I think I've got to go get a DirecTV subscription. I'm sure this was their master plan. If only I didn't pay an unspeakable amount for cable already, it would actually be doable. Anyway, our fantastic recapper Drunken Bee will be summarizing this season when it arrives on NBC early next year. But in the meantime, after the jump find some SPOILERS from the first episode if you just can't wait. God, I miss this show and it is my sincere wish that more people would watch it. I know that's a lot to ask.

CBS has been making some smart decisions this week. That person should get a raise. First, they decided to move the not-skeezy-enough-but-still-kind-of-icky Swingtown off to Friday nights, while giving the higher rated Flashpoint a plum spot on Thursday nights. This makes sense, as Flashpoint is a much better fit for the crowded used to watching a procedural like Without a Trace in the post-CSI berth on Thursdays. But then presumably the same scheduling genius decided to movie Big Brother's live evictions back to their rightful home on Thursdays at 8. I'm so happy about this I could do a little dance in my office... but for the sake of those around me I won't. Now if they could just move the Sunday night show back to Saturday, all would be right with the world.

I've been staring at this story for a couple days and thinking about writing up the info in case you are a Big Brother fan who lives in the Los Angeles area and likes to get dressed in business casual style. (If you are, you can go see the evictions in person...) But the reason that I haven't gotten around to posting about it before is because I've just been irritated by the fact that the show is sticking to the ridiculous schedule it first employed during the lame "winter" season just a few short months ago. As I ranted in my gallery of the 10 Most Annoying Things About Season 9, the Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday airings basically just suck, and make the show irritating for anyone who cares about what is actually happening in the house and bothers to purchase either the live feeds or watch Showtime After Dark. If I get the live feeds (or read the blogs of those who do), which is presumably something that CBS wants you to do since they offer them, then by the time the Sunday episode airs all those days later, I've already figured out who was nominated and usually who has won the power of Veto, and Veto isn't even dealt with until the Tuesday show. By the time the Tuesday CBS airing plays out, the houseguests have already been back and forth like 400 times on who they are going to evict. This basically makes the Sunday and Tuesday airings pretty much useless to me, especially since they don't even have the added bonus of having the Chenbot making odd wardrobe choices. I'm already kind of dreading the next Big Brother since I've barely had time to recuperate from the aforementioned winter edition, and this news doesn't make me any happier. It's gonna be a long summer.

According to TV Guide, a scheduling shuffle at ABC is going to result in a lineup, starting in about April (I assume), of Ugly Betty at 8 PM, Grey's Anatomy at 9 PM, and Lost at 10 PM. While Ausiello sees this as an enormously powerful 1-2-3 combination, I think it's more of a 1-2 punch, given that I don't think, unfortunately, that it will do much for Ugly Betty, which will still be against Survivor, which, by hook or by crook, is ratings-formidable. With Lost being an awfully difficult show to pick up in the middle, I'm not sure how much moving it is going to help, but it will be interesting to see whether, as Ausiello expects, it shifts the power on Thursdays more towards ABC. I realize it's endlessly naive, but I continue to be one of those people who's really irritated by the insistence of scheduling everything watchable at the same time, because...do we really need to put all this stuff and 30 Rock and The Office on the same night? Save some love for stupid, neglected Tuesday.

I'm not a Dexter viewer myself; maybe someone else knows better than I do, but I find it hard to understand how they're going to edit it to be appropriate for broadcast on CBS. It has always appeared to me that the entire show was, in tone, simply not suited for network broadcast. I guess we'll find out how badly it has to be butchered. I will admit that if there is one teeny, tiny, minuscule silver lining in the wretched strike situation, it might be that a network desperate for something to air might give something a chance to find an audience that otherwise wouldn't. Not with scab writers (because: gross), but with things like this that have already been aired but not seen very much. What if NBC decided, once the strike was in full swing, to run the first season of Friday Night Lights as a week-long miniseries? I don't know that The Wire can be made to fit, but you never know what's possible.

It's better than another season of Big Brother, which I can't even bring myself to discuss, it's so gross.