Series de TV

La huelga de los escritos ya tiene rato que terminó, pero la intriga de cuando regresarán las series continúa. Aquí está un artículo de varios regresos:



How TV's hottest shows are getting back on track
Cleaning off the cobwebs, shaking off the rust, cranking up the machinery: USA TODAY examines how a handful of television's top shows are heading back at full speed toward a strike-shortened spring season:

Lost (ABC)


•Next new episode:Three to air Thursdays at 9 ET/PT, then returns April 24 and moves to 10 p.m.
•New episodes to come: 8

Writers realized how long they had been away with a scene right out of the movies.

"We didn't anticipate there were going to be cobwebs on the couches in the writers' room. These were literally spider webs," executive producer Carlton Cuse says.

They had to shake a few cobwebs from their minds as well, returning to the complex serialized drama about a plane crash on a mysterious island. "The first couple of days we had to go through a lot of notes, trying to remember where the characters were at geographically and emotionally," he says.

With three fewer episodes, writers will postpone some stories, but a shorter season doesn't diminish their ambition. "The ground forces are already in Hawaii," executive producer Damon Lindelof says. We're downloading them (the) craziness that we want to do in the last five episodes."


Desperate Housewives (ABC)
•Next new episode: April 13
•New episodes to come: 6, including a two-hour finale

Housewives wrapped up before the strike with high drama, as a tornado wreaked havoc on Wisteria Lane. Lives, as well as homes, need rebuilding: Gabrielle (Eva Longoria Parker) doesn't know Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has lost his sight; Mike (James Denton) is in rehab; and house damages have forced Bree (Marcia Cross) and Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) to take temporary residence in Susan's (Teri Hatcher) home.

To help viewers catch up, Housewives will recap its stories with two enhanced episodes with text explanations, similar to one that played before the season premiere of Lost.

The time away "was a lot easier on my nerves," executive producer Marc Cherry says. Coming back with so much writing to do, "I had that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach again." But he's not complaining. "I'm thrilled to be back to work."

NCIS (CBS)
•Next new episode: April 8
•New episodes to come: 7

When the strike started, executive producer Shane Brennan didn't just leave his office — he had to leave the country. Brennan, an Australian, is employed under a work visa and can only be in the USA when he's working. He left when the strike started, came back once as a tourist, then waited in Australia for the strike to end before flying back.

"I got off the plane, had a shower and went straight to the office" with ideas on how to resume the series, Brennan says. "A 15-hour flight means there's nothing to do but think about the upcoming mini-season."

Brennan senses a stronger bond among his writers because of the strike and their time together on the picket lines. That paid off when they returned to work with the task of trying to squeeze 13 episodes into seven shows, including a two-hour finale. "The first day we were astonished. The next day I phoned CBS and Paramount and said we've got all the story arcs ready."

House (Fox)
•Next new episode: April 28 (moves to Mondays)
•New episodes to come: 4

House didn't have to wait for its return to have its episodes shuffled. A two-parter originally scheduled to run on Super Bowl Sunday and the following Tuesday now will close the season, creator David Shore says. In that finale, House (Hugh Laurie) will be in an accident and lose memory of the preceding hours, Shore says.

"He'll be finding out what he's forgotten and its significance. Bringing his memory back is crucial," he says. "It's going to be big."

Stories about doctors Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and their relationship to House will have to be put off until next season, Shore says.

He hasn't encountered any big problems resuming the show, though schedules will have to be adjusted because some actors took movie roles during the strike. Are he and the writers rusty after the long break? "The audience will let me know," he says.

Bones (Fox)
•Next new episode: April 14 (moves to Mondays)
•New episodes to come: 6

Executive producer Hart Hanson realized how much he missed work when he arrived to restart Bones, which has an odd couple of crime-solvers, bone expert Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). "The moment I drove on the lot for the first time in three months, I got a little choked up."

Staff and crew are excited to be be back. Hanson heard about one show employee who had, but didn't wear, a T shirt that said: "Don't apologize. Just pay my mortgage." Hanson says he would have laughed if he had seen it.

The writers talked about the strike "for three minutes" before figuring out how to approach the shortened season. "We've adjusted our storytelling several times," he says. "Booth's family story is just gone. It will go into Season 4. … We don't want to give it short shrift."

Smallville (CW)
•Next new episode: 3 beginning March 13, then returning April 17
•New episodes to come: 8

When the strike began, executive producers and writers Al Gough and Miles Millar had to leave the final production of some episodes to others who work on the show, which follows the life of the young Clark Kent. They were confident the episodes would come out well.

"You have to remember we're a seventh year show. We have a very experienced non-writing staff. They had to carry the load while we were away. My joke was that I felt like an Ayatollah in France," Gough says. "If we were a first-year show, it would have been nerve-wracking."

With the revised schedule and three-months away from the show, writers are making adjustments, Gough says. "We have some ideas about how we want to end this season that we didn't necessarily have in November. Any time you're able to step back is ultimately beneficial on the creative level."

Two and a Half Men (CBS)
•Next new episode: March 17
•New episodes to come: 9

Executive producer Chuck Lorre faces a double challenge, producing Men and The Big Bang Theory. He had to get the sitcoms, each taped before a studio audience, ready quickly, too. Men shot the first new episode last Friday, and Bang, also making nine more, taped Tuesday.

Fortunately, the Men writers were able to pick up where they left things, dusting off a script that was scheduled to go into production on Nov. 5, the day the strike started.

Lorre described Friday's Men taping as both wonderful and surreal. "I think our first original to air will be as strong as anything we've done in a long time. It's like no time had passed. The level of work on the stage and as we were doing the rewrites was everything you could hope for.

"But at the same time, the three months (away) felt like a melon scooper took a piece of my heart out," Lorre continues. "It was a traumatic experience, that strike."

Criminal Minds (CBS)
•Next new episode: April 2
•New episodes to come: 7

With little time to prepare for shooting, executive producer Ed Bernero wrote a script that had more scenes that take place on set, which can be filmed faster than location work. He decided to direct, too, which allowed him to save time by thinking about production matters as he wrote. Such a short preparation period wouldn't have been fair to another director, he says.

While he shoots the first show, episodes plotted before the strike can get into a normal production schedule, he says.

Shooting on the series, which follows an elite FBI behavorial unit, began last week. Bernero credits cast and crew for making the operation work smoothly. There was a fear some crewmembers might have taken new jobs that would make them unavailable, but Minds' only issue was a cameraman who couldn't return until Monday.

"It was great, like a family coming back together. This is an amazing crew," he says.

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