Though the show takes place here, Ugly Betty isn't actually filmed in New York; the first two seasons were filmed in Los Angeles. However, with Gov. Paterson's new tax credit program, the show may uproot and make a move east. Variety reports that the city may be cast in its own role as early as next season. But just as New York was unhappy about losing movie money to Connecticut, LA doesn't want to bid......

Is Park Slope ready for its close up? The Post is reporting that the 'nabe may be getting the Star treatment, that is...the Darren Star treatment. He's "teamed with Sony and NBC for a proposed series about a group of affluent characters who live in the upscale Brooklyn neighborhood." The same execs of the yet-to-be-titled show also brought Sex and the City to the small screen, a series that Brooklyn-bashed throughout its lifespan. Post-Carrie Bradshaw,......

It may be hard to believe, but tonight’s episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (10:00 p.m., WNBC 4) is the 200th episode for the first of the Law & Order spin-offs. One big difference between SVU and the mother ship is how the show over nine seasons has gone though only minimal cast changes, with the four regulars - Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, Richard Belzer as John......

In the past year there have been murmurings of Jimmy Fallon taking over Conan's "Late Night" seat, when the latter moves over to the Tonight Show. Variety reports that NBC will officially announce the former SNL star's new position within the next few weeks, reuniting the actor/comedian with the Peacock network as well as Lorne Michaels (who executive produces the show). The announcement was to be timed around an NBC presentation at 30 Rock "that's......

In the Law and Order universe there are two separate yet equally important constants: the format of the show and the revolving door of the actors who star in it. So it is not a surprise that Jessie L. Martin who plays Detective Green is leaving the show in the latest cast change. Series guru Dick Wolf says the parting is amicable, with Martin being burned out after playing the same character for nine years.......

Finally, our wait is over! A new 30 Rock airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. followed by a new installment of The Office. Since creator and star Tina Fey was a fixture on writers strike picket lines, there may be strike-inspired lines or scenes on the show in the coming weeks, in addition to the normal skewering of NBC’s less than stellar programming. In tonight's episode, Jack (Alec Baldwin) is reveling over the success of NBC’s......

April 30th marks the date when cable viewers in Queens and Brooklyn can see NY1 in glorious high definition joining those in Staten Island who got it first. Fans of Pat Kiernan who live in Manhattan (along with New Jersey and the Hudson Valley) will have to wait a bit longer, with Time Warner promising to roll it out for them by the end of the year. Since cable TV is not like broadcast TV,......

Don’t adjust your television sets, because since Monday WNBC has been using "News 4 New York" in on-air mentions and on-screen graphics, switching gears from "Newschannel 4" (and "Newschannel 4 HD"). If you are from the Tri-State Area, you may remember the station used "News 4 New York" from 1980 until 1995. The old CGI opening included a bolt of lightning and a giant 4 heading towards the viewer (out of the Statue of Liberty's......

Television is coming back to life, with several shows (mainly on CBS) returning to the air this week with post-writers strike episodes. Amongst them, the comically inaccurate CSI: NY returns (Wednesday, 10:00 p.m., WCBS 2), with an investigation of a dead assassin found in a warehouse, no doubt filmed in someplace like Culver City. While it does shoot some scenes here, CSI:NY mostly films on a studio back lot or in downtown LA. Since......

WNBC’s Sue Simmons is known as a big Mets fan, so it's no surprise she was tapped to host a look back at Shea Stadium in its final year. So expect Sue being Sue along with some amazing Mets moments, concerts and some Jets (and we aren’t just talking about those coming into LaGuardia). The Amazin' Shea (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., WNBC 4) also will feature some interviews with some of the Mets greats. It is......

NYC TV's New York Noise just returned with a slew of new episodes for their 8th season. The show has been on the air for 4 years, having quickly become an institution for music fans and a place for bands (local and otherwise) to showcase their videos. This season promises a mix of new and old, with everyone from Yeasayer to Les Savy Fav popping up throughout in unique sonic-driven segments. We recently got some......

Like it or not The Real Housewives of New York are getting air time every Tuesday, and each week they invite the rest of New York (and the world) into a little bubble they call home. Touring private schools for their French-speaking children, toting their kids off to auditions, getting away to the Hamptons and presumbably being "fabulous" at whatever else fills their social schedule. Last night one of the "housewives," The Countess LuAnn, broke......

After spending a few weeks this month as Mr. Hyde groveling for money with unwatchable schmaltz, PBS is back to its normal self doing the kind of meaningful important programming it does well like long form current affairs documentaries. True, the interchangeable Celtic singers and self help yackers may keep the stations on air, but having in depth looks at the issues of the day is more important, especially with an ongoing war and presidential......

WNET is launching a new weekly local arts series called SundayArts this Sunday (12 noon). The debut episode’s main focus is the New York City Opera from its current production of Madama Butterfly to its incoming director. There will also be some arts news and highlights of current shows and events as part of the show which is structured around a rebroadcast of the Great Performances presentation of Madama Butterfly. This isn’t the first time......

In a televised address Monday night, Polish President Lech Kaczynski showed a clip depicting a gay couple (pictured) from Queens getting married in Toronto five years ago. Kaczynski’s anti-gay speech was meant to warn Polish conservatives about what lies ahead if Poland ratifies the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Here's TV news coverage of the gay marriage storm gathering at Poland's borders. The two men in the video, Brian Fay, a documentary producer, and......

Appearing on Letterman this week, Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) served as a warning bell for the long-awaited, post-strike return of The Office. What did he discuss with Dave? Not Scranton, but his old stomping grounds in Williamsburg."At the time I lived with my friend out in an abandoned beer brewery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And this wasn't the cute little Williamsburg with all the little hipsters and cafes. This was like packs of stray wild......

Food Network fans are no stranger to Anne Burrell, whom they know as the spiky-haired blonde sous-chef to Mario Batali's Iron Chef. Now they will get to know her more intimately as the star of her own upcoming show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, where she'll take her years of restaurant experience and culinary expertise and distill them into practical techniques for home cooks to work with in their own kitchens. It's unclear how Burrell......

The British motoring series Top Gear (Monday, 8:00 p.m., BBC America) has a world wide following and happens to be one of the funniest shows on television. It's sort of a combination of Monty Python, Mythbusters, Motorweek, and a talk show all rolled into one crazy hour of British madness with three crazy British hosts. This week, they add beautifully filmed travelogue and a bit of road movie to the mix as they journey to......

A seven-part miniseries about John Adams based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian David McCullough seems like something you used to find on PBS done in cooperation with the BBC, but you’ll find it on HBO, with parts 1 & 2 airing Sunday at 8:00 p.m. The miniseries tells the story of the first vice-president and later the second president of the United States. The big bankroll of HBO means this production......

Television coverage of Governor Spitzer's scandal has been relentless. From extra newscasts from most of the stations and WNET/ Thirteen's special Monday night report (the only one that seemed to gauge statewide reaction) to leading all the local newscasts, but the networks, local stations throughout the country and even the BBC World News. When the BBC leads with an American governor’s prostitution scandal on its international news channel, it shows how big the story......

Infamous prostitute of the hour Ashley Alexandra Dupre, whose other life as high class hooker "Kristen," forced Governor Eliot Spitzer to resign, is cashing in on her . . . uh, notoriety. From revenue from downloaded music tracks to book, magazine, clothing, and film deals, Dupre could stand to make millions of dollars in coming months. Silicon Alley Insider listed some potential deals that could pay off for the pro from New Jersey. $200,000+ from......

Canterbury's Law (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) From the creators of Rescue Me, Julianna Margulies stars as a defense attorney (she's also a producer). Her character is one of those win-at-all cost lawyers - in the premiere episode she is defending someone accused of killing a prominent Rhode Island family's child. Despite being set in Providence, Rhode Island, the show is filmed here and in Westchester, so you can have fun spotting the local locations.......

The Staten Island Advance has been following the turmoil brewing between a Wiccan family and their neighbors. The South Shore home at the center of the controversy is a duplex, half belonging to the Wiccan devotees, Ivy Colmer Vanderborgh, her husband and mother (the husband isn't Wiccan). Not hiding their practices, their property is decorated with a "witchy weather vane and cauldron out front," along with a massive stained-glass pentacle. Before the front yard cauldron......

Earlier this year Bravo announced their "Real Housewives" series would be moving from Orange County to The Big Apple. The show premieres tonight, and critics have already gone sour on it. The NY Post describes the five women chosen to represent NYC as "status-hungry, money-mad matrons" (a real life Cashmere Mafia living in a Lipstick Jungle?). Appalled that out of "8 million residents representing every known corner of the globe" the network picked five who......

Fox’s New Amsterdam (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) sounds like a mashup of Pocahontas and Forever Knight, but with out the animation or the vampires. The story for this new series starts in 1642 when a Dutch soldier (Danish import Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) saves a Native American girl and is given the gift/curse of immortality and not ageing until he finds his true love. Fast forward to today and that soldier is now NYPD homicide detective......

And the winner is. . .Despite having ancient looking graphics that can be seen from across the street, a set that looks like it is from a station in Iowa, and a love of sprinkling kicker stories throughout the newscast, WABC’s Eyewitness News and the station overall is yet again at the top of the ratings among the big three for February. Most notably, WNBC has lost almost half of its viewership in the early......

America's Next Top Model is back in New York and in its second episode, which airs tonight, things are getting a little bit real. The episode brings the fourteen newest model wannabes to the not always fashionable streets. After the troupe mingles with the tourists at their fashion show in Times Square, it's off to their first photo shoot. For regular watchers of the show you'll know there's always a theme to the shoots, well......

Part of the NBC 2.0 philosophy has been to put cheap programming on air as a measure to cut corners and save money. Even before the writers' strike this has meant a string of programs that are “unscripted,” such as cheesy game shows and of course the requisite fakeality nonsense. So taking quarterlife, a Web 2.0 based online show/online community from the creators of thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again, and sticking it......

Saturday Night Live is back! Wasting no time digging into primary season, the opening skit was a debate between Hillary and Barack, immediately answering the big question posed this week: who will be our Fauxbama? The answer: Fred Armisen! The Huffington Post raises the controversial points of this decision, given the previously-noted lack of minority players on the show (Armisen is not black - he's Venezuelan and Japanese - but has played Prince on......

CBS and NBC Boldly Go On Line With Classic TV CBS has started streaming some of its back catalog of programs on its website, or to me more accurate the back catalog of programs the companies that now comprise CBS. The biggest highlight is that all three seasons of Star Trek in original form are available. Also offered are two seasons of The Twilight Zone, and the first seasons of Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, and Melrose......